The Irish Midwife by Seana Tinley - #bookreview #blogtour

The day Peggy Cassidy's life changed forever began with the birth of a baby. At the ripe old age of sixteen - nearly seventeen - she had seen almost a hundred babies born, and every single birth had been unique.

The Blurb

Can she finally put herself first, in order to find love?

Peggy Cassidy is a milly, working in the Belfast linen mills to just about get by. But Peggy also has another job - a secret one. She works as a handywoman - an illegal midwife, tending to the women of her community in their time of need.

When Peggy is offered the chance to leave Belfast to receive formal midwifery training in Dublin, it sets off a chain of events that will change her life forever.

But amongst her middle-class colleagues, Peggy must keep the truth about her past secret at all times. If the realities of her life in Belfast are revealed, she could lose everything she has worked for.

And when she meets a well-to-do doctor down in Dublin, she must make a decision: should she protect her family and her history? Or can she let herself fall in love?

My Review

I enjoyed this novel, which is set in Belfast, very much.

Peggy is the main character, and she was delightful. She is a fantastic creation who is an honest, intelligent and loyal young woman. Having worked as a handywoman (a form of midwifery that preceded trained midwives in Ireland), when she has the opportunity to train as a registered midwife, she must keep her previous work a secret. Being such an honest person, she struggles with this. Added to this, when she falls in love with a medical student who she knows her family will disapprove of, her loyalty to them is also put to the test.

It was difficult for Peggy to fit into the midwifery course, which is usually only open to middle-class young women from respectable backgrounds. However, Peggy comes from a poor, working-class background. It is testament to her that she is able to fit into this environment, form friendships, and earn respect.

The book has much to say about prejudice on both sides of the class structure. Both have preconceived ideas of the other, and Peggy was a vehicle for breaking down those prejudices to a certain point.

It was a lovely book to read. It was an easy, entertaining and informative novel, which I recommend.  It will appeal to fans of the television series, Call the Midwife, as well as to all lovers of historical fiction.

I understand that it is the first in a planned series, and I'm already very keen to read the next one.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1399747684

Publisher:  Hodder

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages:  416 (paperback)

Series: First book in a new series

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Seána Tinley is an Irish author of saga historical romance. She also writes regency romance as Catherine Tinley.

After a career encompassing speech and language therapy, Sure Start, being president of a charity, and managing a maternity service, she now works as NI Country Director for a leading UK charity.

Seána was appointed as chair of the Romantic Novelists’Association in August 2024.

You can also find Seana at:

Author Website

Instagram

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Bluesky

(ARC and media courtesy of Rachel's Random Resources)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

The Tudor Queens' Midwife by Brigitte Barnard - #blogtour #bookreview

The Blurb

In the glamorous, glittering and dangerous court of king Henry VIII and his queen Katherine of Aragon, the desperate desire for a healthy male heir overshadows all. Plagued by a series of miscarriages the queen is left grappling with the weight of her singular duty to provide a son for the Crown. Amidst this turmoil the queen turns to Sarah Menendez, the most highly skilled midwife in England. Sarah, exiled from her homeland and concealing her true identity must serve the queen and battle her deepest fears. As Sarah strives to save the queen from the perils of childbirth, the specter of her own past threatens to unravel the carefully crafted identity Sarah has created for herself and her young daughter.

 In a world where power, politics and religion collide, Sarah finds herself entangled in a web of intrigue and deadly danger. The fate of the queen’s unborn child, the survival of the midwife and her daughter, and the stability of the kingdom hang in the balance. Sarah Menendez must employ all of her skills, cunning and courage to protect those she holds dear as well as the life of the queen and her unborn child.

The Tudor Queens’ Midwife is a gripping tale of secrecy, sacrifice and religious turmoil amongst the most opulent court the world has ever seen.

My Review

This was an enjoyable read about midwifery during the Tudor period.

At the beginning of the book, Sarah is midwife to Queen Katherine of Aragon, as well as to the women of the village alike. Working alongside her is her daughter, known to her family as Emunah. However, they are Jewish, chased from Spain by the Inquisitors. They must keep their faith hidden and outside of the family, Emunah is known as Faith.

This was a fascinating insight into not only the persecution of the Jews during this period but of the place that women such as Sarah and Emunah held in society. We see them move in two very different worlds; from the riches of the royal court to the poor women of the village. I loved the way the author demonstrated that in childbirth, all women are equal. It is the same process for rich and poor. Indeed, in the case of Queen Katherine we see many of the poor women fare better in their reproductive abilities.

The book is split into two distinct parts with the second being devoted to Emunah who has now replaced her mother as the Royal Midwife. Now a wife and mother herself, she attends the queen whilst still keeping her faith a secret.

The author, herself a midwife, has clearly done extensive research into the midwifery customs of the Tudor period.  I frequently felt as though I were in the birthing rooms alongside these women. The knowledge of the herbs and plants used to aid women was extremely interesting. However, I did have a slight issue with some of the terminology in the book as it seemed very modern. Would a Tudor midwife has used the term 'exam' when examining the women? Perhaps? It just felt a little out of place to me. However, it didn't affect my enjoyment of this book and was only a small niggle in an otherwise excellent novel.

Whilst this is the first in a planned series, the book finished on a very abrupt note and I would have liked just a little more rounding off. That said, I can't wait to read the next one in the series when it is published.

Book Details

ISBN:  979 8305559118 

Publisher:  Independent

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  299 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Brigitte Barnard is an amateur historian of Renaissance English history and an author of the trilogy The Tudor Queens' Midwife, of which the first book in the series is available. She is currently writing a non-fiction book about Tudor midwifery for Pen and Sword publishing house. 

Brigitte is a former homebirth midwife, and she lives at home with her husband and four children. She also raises Cavalier King Charles spaniels. 

(ARC and media courtesy of The Coffee Pot Book Club)

(all opinions are my own)