On my bookshelf I have seven books by Cathy Marie Hake but this isn't one of them. All the ones I have were published by Bethany House and are set in a 'western' scene. All good books, funny and fun to read. I recommend them all. Fancy Pants is my favorite.
However, Mixed Blessings is not on my shelf. Nor is it a western; nor even particularly funny. Nor was it published by Bethany House. So, how did I find it. On my Kindle. I did a search for Cathy Marie Hake on Kindle and came up with this book which was published in 2004 and I had never heard of before. I'm so glad I found it.
Mixed Blessings is about two families and their struggles as they try to integrate for the sake of the children. Marie Cadant is a widow with a 3 year old son, Ricky. During a routine medical procedure a discovery was made that would change their lives forever. Peter Hallock, a widower with a 3 year old son named Luke, is not impressed when Marie shows up at his house saying she has his son. It seems that Marie and Peter's wife gave birth at the same hospital on the same night and, due to extenuating circumstances around both births, the babies were switched.
Both parents want every minute they can get with their newly discovered biological child, but neither is willing to give up any time with the child of the heart that he/she has been loving for 3 years. They live in the same state but more than a two hour drive away from each other, making visiting a challenge. Furthermore, both parents are somewhat wounded emotionally, making it difficult for either of them to trust the motives of others. This is especially true of Marie who has suffered several emotional bumps over the past couple of years. Both parents would like to have full access to both boys, but neither of them ever entertains the idea of trying to take a son from the other parent. The question is how to allow both parents to love and care for both boys and how to do it with the minimal disruption to the lives and schedules of both families.
I found this book to be fun, interesting, different, yet serious and thought provoking. It was well written and interesting enough that I finished it in just a couple of days -- working days, that is. :-) It varied from the typical "romance" story in that the "problem" to be solved was believable and a bit more true to life than a female doctor in the 1800s who fights to "prove" herself equal to a male doctor all the while she is falling crazy in love with the first cowboy who walks into her office. I admit the conflicts were smoothed considerably by the fact that neither parent had a living spouse and one of them had enough money to make any workable solution seem affordable. :-) In spite of these little contrivances, I enjoyed the book very much and wish I could find more stories as well written with plots that don't make me laugh at the thought of them.
Happy Reading. :-)
The book sounds very emotional and heart wrenching. Your last paragraph is a little confusing, maybe because I have not read the other books by this author so I don't get the part about the female doctor in the 1800s. But you do make the book sound very intriguing.
ReplyDeleteGlo, my comment wasn't about Cathy Marie Hake's books in particular. I've read books and seen movies where a 19th century woman worked to enter a profession usually dominated by men only to marry the first man who asked her after she accomplished her professional goal. A woman would work for years against all odds to become a doctor and then marry a man less than a year after finishing school? I don't think that is the way it usually happened. During that time some women did become doctors but if they married they usually gave up their practice in order to stay home and be a wife and mother and run the household. It is unrealistic to think that female doctors married and continued to practice medicine full time. To me, such plots are so unrealistic as to be silly.
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