February 9, 2012 – Book Review – Jericho by Ann McMan

Jericho by Ann McMan

Romance

Product Description from Amazon.com

“Librarian Syd Murphy flees the carnage of a failed marriage by accepting an eighteen-month position in Jericho–a small town in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. Her plans to hide out and heal her wounds fall by the wayside as she gets drawn into the daily lives of the quirky locals. She becomes fast friends with Maddie Stevenson, the enigmatic physician who has returned to the backcountry community to take over her late father’s medical practice. Together they learn that life and love can have as many twists and turns as a country road.”

Review

4 out of 5 Stars

I really enjoyed this book, and a good bit of that was because both Syd and Maddie came across as being three dimensional characters.  Syd is dealing with a failed marriage and trying to figure out what happens next in her life.  As a result, she takes a temporary (18 month) job setting up a library in the rural town of Jericho.  In her opinion this is the perfect opportunity to reevaluate her life.  While there meets and becomes friends with the local Doctor, Maddie.

The reader gets to go along for the ride as these two develop and a strong supportive friendship.  From my perspective the friendship felt “real” as if it could happen in real life. 

This was a very good read; I was engaged the entire time and had a difficult time putting the book down.  However, I will say near the end of the book I started to feel like the author may have gotten stuck and just started throwing things at the wall to see what would stick and progress the story forward: family issues, an outside threat, death, destruction, and foster kids.  I mention it because it was enough that I actually noticed all these significant life events happening at the end when even one or two would have been more than enough.  It didn’t detract from the story but the thought did provide a bit of amusement for me. 

The book is certainly worth reading I’ll be starting her second story “Dust” next.

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