The Drifter

By: Susan Wiggs

Narrated by: Joyce Bean

Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

She seeks a home. He seeks redemption. What they find is each other.

Leah Mundy has spent her life dashing from town to town, one step ahead of her father’s dreadful reputation. Now, she wants to create a home for herself and build a medical practice in Coupeville, a cozy village nestled amid the majestic isles and mountains of Washington Territory. But her neighbors are loath to trust a newcomer, especially a woman doing a man’s work.

On the run for a crime he didn’t commit but can’t deny, Jackson Underhill is desperate when he holds Leah at gunpoint. He needs her doctoring to mend his wounds, but he soon realizes that she is also capable of healing his soul. But Jackson has been hardened by life as an outlaw, and Leah knows that a future together is impossible…unless they confront his past and learn to trust the redeeming power of love.

©1998 Susan Wiggs (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Light weight but with a good narration

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The heroine was a very unappealing young woman, deliberately isolating herself from society because she would not deal with her past constructively in spite of her intelligence.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

The conflict between the heroine and the anti-hero's ward was just too much over the top -- the heroine was locked into her misery and the ward had too many psychological issues of her own with which to deal.

Which scene was your favorite?

Did not have a favorite scene.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Maybe, as I do like stories set in the 19th century American west.

Any additional comments?

The narration was by far the best part of this book, with Joyce Bean doing a masterful job on both male and female voices. She is very talented!

STOP THINKING. JUST DO IT!

Narration is solid, but the story could have been better. Good premise, reminiscent of Linda Howard's Touch of Fire, where a female doctor strives for professional acceptance in gender-biased America, and an innocent outlaw eludes a US Marshall. The book is set in about 1895 on Whidbey Island off the coast of Washington, near Seattle. The story is told in 3rd person POV, hopping from heroine to hero to the US Marshall.

I liked the "drifter" hero despite his blind (idiotic) devotion to a psychotic friend from the orphanage they both endured in childhood. His white-knight complex was extreme. Overdone. But I liked everything else about him, including his interactions with the boy in the wheelchair, and his ability to interact with the townspeople, helping Dr. Leah Mundy gain professional acceptance and esteem.

My primary complaint is that the heroine thinks too much: worrying, guarding her heart, remembering her coldhearted father, etc. In the middle of action scenes -- even in the midst of lovemaking -- we would veer off into Leah's mental meanderings. Her thought life is repetitive. It pulls me out of the scene, making the narrative go gray, not vivid. It slows the pace. I wish writers would avoid the temptation to stuff a book with mental dialogue.

Contents: Several sex scenes, some swearing, too much profanity, some violence, arson, etc.

Good overall story

Any additional comments?

I really like the story, the writing and the characters. I always love Susan Wiggs way of telling a story. The only complaint I have is the explicit sex scenes in it.
Warning: There are three sexually explicit situations.