Sawbones Book Review

Sawbones by Melissa Lenhardt

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Blurb:

When Dr. Catherine Bennett is wrongly accused of murder, she knows her fate likely lies with a noose unless she can disappear. Fleeing with a bounty on her head, she escapes with her maid to the uncharted territories of Colorado to build a new life with a new name. Although the story of the murderess in New York is common gossip, Catherine's false identity serves her well as she fills in as a temporary army doctor. But in a land unknown, so large and yet so small, a female doctor can only hide for so long.

Review by Brittany:

My first interest in this book came from the gorgeous cover and, of course, the blurb.

The book takes place primarily after the Civil War, so late 1800s. There is something about female doctors in this time period that intrigues me. I recently read another book that centered on a female doctor in the early 1900s, and this one had the same sort of grungy feel to it. There are a lot of medical procedural references that made me cringe in their gruesomeness because of the way medicine was at that time, but I found it all extremely fascinating.

As the blurb indicates, Laura (Catherine) is not a character who has a life of ease. From the beginning of the book, she is struggling to overcome the adversity that comes with being a female physician, along with the trials and tribulations that come from being a fugitive, guilt or not. On her travels, she also deals with Indian attacks, some of which are described in brutal detail.

This book has a lot of witty dialogue between characters, an aspect I love. The relationship between Laura and William is one built on dialogue, and Lenhardt did a fantastic job of building that relationship. And as far as heroes go, it's hard not to love William. He is amusing and dashing, often clever and funny, and the relationship that builds between them is one that I loved reading about. So many books today base relationships on the physical aspects, so it was lovely to read about a relationship that develops because of dialogue and a true building of the relationship.

It does end on a bit of a cliffhanger, basically guaranteeing that I'm going to be reading the next one - although that wasn't much of a question anyway. This book is not a happy, lovely tale that wraps up nicely. It is gritty and brutal sometimes, so if you're looking for a happy ending, this may not be the one for you. However, the reading experience was fantastic, and the development of the characters made me a huge fan. I'm looking forward to the next one!