Type of bind: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: March 01, 2005
Sale Popularity Level: 530165
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Product Description:
Clara Raymond is the kind of obstetrician any woman would want-caring, skilled, dedicated. But she is caught off guard when a pregnant woman is wheeled onto the labor and delivery floor with what seem to be minor complaints. The patient turns out to be Lydia Benson, a childhood friend who once saved Clara's life after a terrible horseback-riding accident. And at Lydia's side is her husband Gordon Robinson, a man whom Clara once loved passionately and then left-although she has never forgotten him.
That night in the labor and delivery rooms the brief reunion goes tragically wrong. For Clara, the consequences will include a journey to California and to her own past-and a rediscovery of hope in a place she never expected.
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Rated by buyers -
Amazing very first novel, very engaging and loaded with personality. Letts expertly manipulates the phenomenon of coincidence into a fantastic story.
The horse content is spot-on; no one who hasn't mucked out a stall or galloped over the landscape on the back of a horse can write about equines like this. The horses sparkle right off the page right along with the people. And only a person who grew up around the rugged coastline of southern California can bring the Pacific, the Santa Ana winds, the wildflowers and the wildfires right into your head the way Elizabeth Letts has. Of course, being a nurse/midwife herself also helps with the accurate medical descriptions, and Letts makes the excitement and trauma of birth as real as it can be on the written page.
The only thing I stubbed a toe on was a character that vacillates from downright mean to nurturing, and it seemed a stretch to call it tough love, but maybe that's just me. All in all a very enjoyable read.
Rated by buyers -
I noticed this title in one of my library newsletters and the word "horse" jumped out at me, so naturally, I had to get the book.
Elizabeth Letts has a soft and stirring way with words; the story grabbed me, moved me to tears, and kept me glued to the pages until well past the witching hour.
I loved this book!
Rated by buyers -
This is a wonderful book. As with almost all the NAL Accent books you can depend on an amazing story. We dive into Clara's life, we hear her story of an accident in childhood and we also hear of her current situation. Both dealing with the "care" of others and the "care" of ourselves. Clara deals with caring for people everyday as a doctor. She was also taken care of as a child in her accident. When things change and life continues we meet her childhood friend Lydia, who cared for Clara during an accident as a child, which then turns around and Clara cares for Lydia during labor. We are introduced to a handful of other key characters during the book that also care for one another and tell us some of their stories. In the end, we learn the connection and we really understand the title of the book a little bit more.
This is one of those books you read and realize you've been sucked in. A book that makes you feel and see exactly what's going on. From the smells of the horses, the scent of the barn, and smell of the ocean. Since I rode horses growing up, I was whisked back to a time and place I loved so much. Not to many books take you somewhere...literally. And, when they do, you know you found an amazing book.
I look forward to reading Letts new book "Family Planning."
Rated by buyers -
It's hard to believe that this amazing effort is the author's very first novel! Quality of Care is a tremendously well-written book, with realistic and natural-sounding dialogue and likeable characters who pull the reader into an emotional connection. It's an awesome medical drama that could be an episode of the television show ER. I love the way it starts in the present, and then uses flashbacks to fill in the details. At about 280 pages, it was a surprisingly fast read for such an intense storyline.
Clara is a methodical, professional and highly conscientious ob/gyn on duty the fateful night her childhood friend, with whom she lost touch years earlier, is wheeled into the ER. What seems like a routine case goes terribly wrong. The patient dies, and the baby is severely injured. Conflict of interest, intrigue and feelings of guilt ensue because the patient is married to Clara's former boyfriend, whom she still loves. The hospital suspends her pending an investigation, and although most of her colleagues rally behind her, a few try to discredit her. She retreats to a beautifully described dude ranch in the Southern California coastal town where she grew up, for some introspection, to settle fascinating 'ghosts' from her past, and to come to terms with her feelings for her former boyfriend (the patient's husband), her medical partner, and the ranch people whom she has reluctantly grown to care about.
Rated by buyers 
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I'm an acquaintance of the author's parents so I read this book largely out of curiosity. Well, much to my delight, this is a wonderful read. It's much more satisfying than most "women's fiction" I've read recently. Elizabeth Letts is a talented writer and I look forward to her subsequent novel!
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