The Runaway Midwife

A Novel

By: Patricia Harman

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

From the USA Today best-selling author of the Hope River series comes a new contemporary midwife novel.

Say good-bye to your old life and hello to the life you've been waiting for.

Midwife Clara Perry is accustomed to comforting her pregnant patients, calming fathers-to-be as they anxiously await the births of their children and ensuring the babies she delivers come safely into the world.

But when Clara's life takes a nosedive, she realizes she hasn't been tending to her own needs and does something drastic. She runs away and starts over again in a place where no one knows her or the mess she's left behind in West Virginia. Heading to Sea Gull Island - a tiny, remote Canadian island - Clara is ready for anything. Well, almost. She left her passport back home, and the only way she can enter Canada is by hitching a ride on a snowmobile and illegally crossing the border.

Deciding to reinvent herself, Clara takes a new identity: Sara Livingston, a writer seeking solitude. But there's no avoiding the outside world. The residents are friendly and draw Sara into their lives and confidences. She volunteers at the local medical clinic, using her midwifery skills, and forms a tentative relationship with a local police officer.

But what will happen if she lets down her guard and reveals the real reason why she left her old life? One lesson soon becomes clear: no matter how far you run, you can never really hide from your past.

©2017 Patricia Harman (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Give it time!

Almost every woman i know has thought, at least once, of running away to a new, solitary life. I lived vicariously through Clara/Sarah’s journey. I adore this book, especially because of Ms Gilbert’s narration. At first, the bird sounds and information seemed a little crazy, but as I listened I fell for Ms Gilbert’s narration of even those.

Great story, Interesting character.

This was a great story with very interesting characters. But I really didn't understand why it was Book 3. Yes, it started in the same area in WV as the other 2 books. But they were set in the Depression. This one was set in modern day and seemed to have no connection to any of the other characters in the other books. The main character was in WV for about 5 minutes with the story being set in Canada. I'm guessing it was called Book 3 for marketing purposes.

It was an interesting story and it was about a midwife. But it was quite a different story for sure. However, it was an interesting story with another intriguing love story that I enjoyed. There was just a little more illegal behavior in this one. Of course, there were justifications for it. There always seem to be. But just the same...

In the end, I walked away from this book very happy.

Again, there were similar down sides with the performance as with the other two. It was distracting at times.

Slow start, but sweet story

Took me awhile to get into story. it is a sweet story and glad a read it.

Confused

I never really got into the book. It was weird and had no compelling story line.
Also, I kept waiting for it to tie into the first two books. It’s a series and literally has no tie into the first two books other than apparently she’s a midwife. Sadly, there is hardly any midwifery in this story.
I’m very hesitant to want to listen to the next books in the series because i don’t want another random story that doesn’t tie in and has no compelling storyline

Great Listen

Story of survival, longing and courage, learning to seek friendship and not judge base on the opinions of others.

The Narrator saves the day!

I very rarely write a bad review, because I know that writers do pour their hearts into their stories. But this story was just plain weird. The main character Sarah has absolutely no common sense. It's hard to have respect for a character when she makes such insane decisions. I realize the author loves nature, I get that. I love it too...but really? She's got Sarah standing outside on a friend's porch in dangerous weather... and Sarah starts howling in the wind. I almost stopped listening at that point, but I had already listened to almost 11 hours, so, hey, why not finish? If I would see a real person in Canada in a dangerous storm, standing there howling in the wind, I would call the authorities, because obviously, she's not stable. Maybe our worldviews clash and this woman, who is probably pushing 50 goes from wife and mother to hopping in the sack with one guy she barely knows and another man, who I won't mention as I don't want to give away the story. If you hold to a liberal and pagan world view, then you will probably love this book.... for me, it's just dumb. Sarah is a loon, and Canada is probably the best place for her, as the country is full of loons (I don't mean the people, I mean the bird) I've got lots of Canadian people I love, so no slam on Canada.

I will say I was rooting for Sarah in the beginning of the story, but about half way through, she takes a hard left turn into a world I cannot understand. It's very pagan and if you're into that, well, you might like it. As a Christian...I was quite offended at the way she presented what Christmas is all about. It's about Jesus Christ, not about singing "This little light of mine"

Very much a humanist.

Tavia Gilbert, as always, is wonderfully stunning. She is the only reason I finished the book, she can make a nutty book worth listening to. I'll have to pass on Harman's other books. That's a shame because I love stories about midwives.

The Runway Midwife is more of a mystery .

It is more of a mystery than a book about midwifery. But after I got into it , it was good. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone that likes mysteries.

Disappointing

Unless you’re a bird enthusiast skip this one.
Very thin plot with constant descriptions of different bird species. And I mean constant.
What they look like, eat wing span and territory they travel.
Again and again. The imitation of bird sounds are hideous.

Disappointing, I liked the first two in this series.

If I Wanted a Nature Book I Would’ve Bought One

I have read two other books by Patricia Harmon and I thought they were great. Both were about midwives and had stories of births. I thought this was another, oh nooo. I wish the description of this book had said that it was FULL of descriptions of birds, I mean every few minutes there is a highly annoying interruption of a bird description. The crazy thing about it is they come at the most inopportune times. The author will draw you in during a love scene or a time of high drama and all the sudden there is an interruption of a description of a bird, it’s wing span, what it eats and worst of all the the startling, disturbing sounds of the narrator trying to squeak and squawk like birds. It’s like watching a movie with the same annoying commercials on over and over again, commercials you hate.
This book was a big disappointment.

No about midwifery, annoying characters

Not a fan of this book. If it wasnt part of this midwifery series I might have enjoyed this a little bit. If you want to know about birds, then this book is for you. Not only does she describe birds, and the birds life she makes the sounds of them as well. Annoying. She even talks in conversation to other characters about birds.
The main character (sarah/Clara) wants to lay low because she is running from the cops for something she doesn't do, but yes Runaway. Weak minded person. Steals an identaty, doesn't want the cop to come around but volunteers to help RN the locals with him. Its absurd.
I loved the first two books. This one not so much.