Sawbones

This book is about Dr. Catherine Bennett in 1781 who is framed for a murder she did not commit. Forced to flee her home and set out for a new life in the untamed land of Colorado Catherine will see unspeakable things that will leave their mark on her. Catherine will endure loss and witness acts of violence she never imagined. This book is very gritty. I loved that it reminds of some of my favorite movies like Dances with Wolves and Last of the Mohicans.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Catherine is a very likable strong-willed and minded character. I liked that she was passionate about her job as doctor and wanted to help everyone she could. She’s very smart and she sometimes gets herself in trouble. Another thing I liked is that Melissa tackles things like blacks in the war and segregation, the lack of knowledge of medicine in that time, and how women were treated and expected to act in those times. It helped make this book very believable and real. There is definitely violence. Nothing sugarcoated. The romance between Catherine and Captain William Kindle is sweet. Catherine grows close to Kindle as she cares for him after he gets injured. They have many conversations and spend a lot of time together. While the relationship between them progresses quickly, in historical books such as this one I have no problems with it because that’s how relationships worked in those days. People fell in love fast and it didn’t long to court a women till you married them.

I definitely enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read more about Catherine and Kindle because that ending was insane.

This book has been sitting on my shelves for almost 2 years now. I think I found it thanks to a recommendation based on Outlander. Still I didn’t read it until now for 2 reasons, one back then it had a pretty low average rating and also I’m not the biggest fan of westerns. However lately it came to mind more and more so I decided to give it a try. I loved this book.
Sawbones has a pretty intriguing premise but the gripping and fluid writing style was the first thing that really amazed me about it. It was such a phenomenal experience to read it, to follow the adventures of Catherine/Laura.
This book presents a beautiful and eye opening story, a pretty raw representation of not just the life on the frontier but also of the place of a woman in this male dominated era. It was amazing to follow the main character groundbreaking journey and life in the shadow of her society expectations. I really enjoyed this book and loved how open and blunt about the prejudice of that time not just against woman, but the whole conflict between soldiers and Native American . Yes, I know that a lot of the things mentioned in the story aren’t actually accurate, at least with modern eyes but back then it was what people believed. The plot is mostly focused on the path Catherine/Laura takes in order to escape her wrongful arrest and the events surrounding this but there is a small thread of romance as well. The whole romantic element comes into play quite late in the story and while in the end it plays a pretty big role, it is pretty subtle and low key.
In all honesty the plot ended up being a bit more bloody and violent than I expected it to be that I enjoyed that the author didn’t over romanticize the book in the way most of the westerns I read before were.
Catherine/Laura is a remarkable main character. Personally I liked her most of the time but she had a couple of flaws that caused some annoyance in me. She is a smart, persistent and dedicated young woman who pledge her life to a profession in which a woman need to work extra hard to prevail. But she did it, worked her butt for it and it shows. Unfortunately, she is also overly stubborn and proud. Her pride causes a lot of problems for her in the long run, I see why she is like that, she worked for it. Still for being a smart woman she doesn’t think for the future. It was important for her to boast her profession but the same time this advertises her presence. She should have acted with a bit of a patience and humility, just for a couple of years until the dust settles. Anyway as the story progresses and as things happen to her, she starts to change and quite down an bit.
I adored this story from start to the beginning it was action-packed, unexpected, and exciting. One thing thou, I would have loved to see more of the medical procedures and such because they are either nonexistent or glossed over. That was a shame really especially since the profession of the main character played such a prominent role in the plot.
The books ends kind of on a cliff-hanger, not on a huge one and if you really want to you can look at it as a finished story with a bit of an imagination but overall Catherine’s story and her run from the law continues in the next book of the series.