The Midnight Midwife

A novel of 17th century family life (Seventeenth Century Midwives Book 3)

Fiction - LGBTQ
204 Pages
Reviewed on 06/13/2019
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Author Biography

One day several years ago I won some pages of a seventeenth century trial in an auction, merely to hold a piece of a 300-year-old book. That purchase changed my life.

The defendant in the trial, Elizabeth Cellier, captivated me enough to drop all other writing I was involved in and research everything I could about her. Her exciting and inspirational story set during the Popish Plot demanded to be told and my debut novel, The Popish Midwife, closely based on the story, won Bronze Award in the Readers' Favorite International Book Awards 2017.

Captured by the period, I'm now bringing to life other wonderful midwife stories in my Seventeenth Century Midwives series:
The Ghost Midwife (novella about a murder at Rotten Row) [2018]
The Midnight Midwife (a tale of a mother's dilemma) [2019]
The French Midwife (a tale of love, cruelty and revenge). [work in progress]

    Book Review

Reviewed by Maria Beltran for Readers' Favorite

The Midnight Midwife is the third book in the Seventeenth Century Midwives series by Annelisa Christensen. It is set in the 17th-century busy market town of St. Albans, where Abigale Harris works as a midwife, trying to make a living for her three adopted daughters - Mary, Elin, and Judith. Hers is an unusual family living in a world of superstition, prejudice, and ignorance, but they manage to be happy and content with what they have. Things start to change, however, when Mary matures and keeping her secret becomes a painful struggle. Together with her mother, Mary has been keeping her true identity from the community. She proves to be a kind and caring daughter and sister but how long can Abigale and Mary hide their well-kept secret from a curious community?

The Midnight Midwife by Annelisa Christensen is like taking an interesting trip back to 17th-century St. Albans and it is a roller coaster ride. With purely good intentions, Abigale Harris guards her adopted daughter Mary's secret but how long will it last? The novel unravels in a busy market place and we are initially introduced to a town midwife and her three precocious daughters. The plot, however, takes a completely different turn when we get to know Mary a little bit more, and the truth is shocking even at the present time, and this is 1670 St. Albans. Author Annelisa Christensen has a vivid and delightfully descriptive writing style, so much so that reading The Midnight Midwife practically feels like living Abigale Harris's unorthodox life. This novel is an eye-opener and I highly recommend it to all kinds of readers!