Mei Ling Chen is a woman disguised as a man working in a mining camp in 1859 California. Her brother is ill, so she escapes to try and find him some medicine. She arrives at the doctor’s house in Green Hill Creek, but is discovered by the doctor and his sister.
Noah is suspicious, but his sister, Lucy, persuades him to help the girl Noah assumes is a boy, and persuades Mei Ling to trust them. As Noah gets to know Mei Ling, he realises he is developing romantic feelings towards her … but how will a relationship between them ever work?
There were some insightful comments about racism.
Mei Ling isn’t immediately accepted in Green Hill Creek, and some of the residents think all Chinese women are prostitutes and attempt to treat her accordingly. Others merely want her out of town because she doesn’t fit in.
She is accepted once the people discover she is a trained midwife and that’s great, but wouldn’t it be better if we accepted people who are different to us based on who they are rather than based on what they can do? After all, God accepts us based on who we are … grace, not works.
Mei Ling also challenges the assumption that all Chinese are godless heathens. The reason she and her brother are in California at all is because her family is Christian and her parents were martyred for their faith.
As such, The Doctor’s Honor has all the strengths of Nerys Leigh’s previous books—excellent characters, solid plot, and plenty of humour to dispel the tension. But this goes a little deeper and challenges the reader’s beliefs about race and stereotypes.
Recommended for fans of Christian historical fiction.
About Nerys Leigh
Nerys Leigh writes thoroughly romantic Christian historical love stories. She loves heroes who are strong but sweet and heroines who are willing to fight for the life they want.
She’s from the UK, which you would think puts her in a unique position to not write about mail order brides in the American west, but the old adage of writing what you know has never appealed to her. She has an actual American read each book before publishing to make sure she hasn’t gone all English on it.
You can find Nerys Leigh online relaxing and generally enjoying the view at:
About The Doctor’s Honor
As the only doctor in the tiny frontier town of Green Hill Creek, Noah Wilson lives a quiet life with his sister, and he’s fine with that. Until a Chinese woman breaks into his home and changes everything.
Before he knows it, his sister is promising Mei Ling their help and he’s mounting daring rescues and fighting to save her brother’s life and…
…and falling for a woman who can’t ever be his.
Overnight, life goes from simple to very complicated indeed.
But perhaps complicated is just what Noah needs.
