Excerpt from The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"That's it. Have just a little more, Cussy. It'll help some." When I finished, Pa set down the mug, folded me carefully in his arms, and stroked my hair.

"Mama," I whimpered and slipped my hand between his shoulder and my ear, pressing, trying to stop the stabbing pains. "I want my mama."

"Shh, I've got you, Daughter." He rocked. "Doc's here now, and we're gonna get you home and rested."

I squinted at the man standing beside the bedpost. "Doc?"

"You'll be fine, but his ticker done broke, Bluet," the mountain doc said over the sagging marriage bed, covering Frazier with a thin flannel sheet before tending to my broken bones.

Pa buried him out in the yard under a tall pine along with my courting candle.

Excerpted from The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Cheryl Richardson. Copyright © 2019 by Cheryl Richardson. Excerpted by permission of Sourcebooks. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.