KATIE'S TOMORROW'S
By Eileen Dunn Bertanzetti
Inspirational historical romance
Hard Shell Word Factory
108 pages
ISBN: 0-7599-0610-6 trade paperback
ISBN: 0-7599-4331-1 ebook
2 ½ medical bags
Katie Shelton is saved from a burning fire by Dr. Denver Holt, and when doing so, both he and Katie shared love words. Katie's home was set fire by a man called Fitch who wanted Katie for himself. Dr. Holt is a young widower of twenty-six with a seven-year-old daughter, Ivy. Katie had worked as a teacher for several months and Ivy was one of her students. Katie's father suffers from melancholia because his wife died, and Dr. Holt has taken the man into his home to care for him.
Katie does marry Dr. Denver Holt, but she does not intend to keep all of her vows, despite the fact that Denver is kind, handsome, and an all-around-good-guy. He has saved a teenage, pregnant prostitute from Fitch, he takes in a family who just lost the abusive head-of-the-family, who died, he cares for his deadbeat brother, and is patient and kind to Katie. Not only that, he plays the piano and attends church. Katie refuses to see his good points because she believes he makes fun of her Granny Doctoring, that she learned from her mother.
Katie's Tomorrow might have been a good book if Eileen Dunn Bertanzetti had just written a nice love story that follows Christian principles, but she has thrown in a stupid conflict that is really not a conflict so that this work could be called a romance. The heroine, Katie, seems like a spoiled brat of today and not a young woman of yesterday. Also, I doubt if Dr. Holt could be a Diploma Doctor as she called him, husband, and father to a child when he was nineteen, even in pioneer days. To have been a doctor of several years' standing at twenty-six would have been some feat, especially considering he was a family man at nineteen.
If you like a story with a lot of praises to God you may enjoy this book. The heroine doesn't really have deep beliefs; she certainly didn't take her marriage vows seriously. Her father is portrayed as disturbed and appears to be quite aged, but then we find he is forty-five when he begins flirting with the new school teacher. If you like a simile in every second paragraph, you'll probably enjoy this book. Katie's Tomorrow does have some good moments, but it moves too fast. There are too many inconsistencies. Too much happens in a very short period of time, and the reader has a feeling that she missed something along the way. But if the reader is like me, when they go back and try to find the missing pieces they'll find the pieces aren't there. If all you are looking for is a nice, clean read to pass the time, Katie's Tomorrow will fill the bill.
Jaye Dee Tyrack, Reviewer, Gotta Write Network
January 2005
Copyright Jaye Dee Tyrack and GWN
