“I forget that you’re a fella sometimes.”“Gee, thanks.”I never forgot that she was a girl. Not for one second… in a small-town doctor’s office before he begins medical school in the fall. Handsome, principled, and keenly observant, he will lodge with the Millers, the local doctor’s family. But he never bargained for Lizzie Quinlan—a complex, kindred spirit who is beautiful and compassionate, yet scorned by the townsfolk. With her quirky wisdom and a spine of steel hidden beneath an effortless sensuality, Lizzie is about to change Billy Ray’s life—and his heart—forever.
Winner of the 2019 Kentucky Indie Author Project for adult fiction.
For readers of romance, 20th century Southern Fiction, Coming-of-Age stories, family sagas, inspirational and women’s fiction.
more
THIS is your next must-read for the summer! SON of a PREACHER MAN by Karen M Cox.
Generic chick lit? This is anything but! Everyone knows Lizzie’s bad reputation and won’t let her forget it. But in the summer of 1959, when Billy Ray Davenport, son of preacher, arrives in her small Southern town, they become friends—better than friends—before he heads off to medical school. Told from Billy Ray’s POV, with the primary story from 1959-1961, we see how each recognizes the value of the person–and not what society demands. Smart, Poignant, Timeless, and Heart-pounding love story. It’s not obvious by the cover but I recognized about 25% in that it might have been inspired by ‘Pride & Prejudice.’ Though not blatant—different names and scenarios–the male & female protagonists, Lizzie & Billy Ray, do seem to have a little too much pride as well as prejudice…and through out the novel, there are little nods to that timeless masterpiece.
I thoroughly enjoyed this off canon, modern variation of Pride and Prejudice. Some of the framework was still intact but not as much as to make it predictable. Most of the time, I had no idea what would happen next and I like that in a book.
Set in the South in the late fifties and sixties, Billy Ray Davenport (Darcy), the son of the preacher man, enters the confined society of Orchard Hill as an assistant to the local doc.
Lizzie Quinlan (Elizabeth), “town slut” bewitched him from the first moment they met. Fighting his infatuation, unsuccessfully, he soon discovered that there was more to Lizzie than what first meet the eye.
The story evolved around their road to an understanding, small town gossip and prejudices with a Christian theme.
Told from Billy Ray’s POV.
I struggled a bit with Lizzie and I have noticed that it is not uncommon in modern variations to make her tougher but she came off as a bit too hard and bawdy for my personal taste.
Recommend!
“He was the only son of a Preacher Man… the only one who could ever move me…”
Yep, it is connected to the old song written by John Hurley and Ronnie Walkins and sung by Dusty Springfield among others. And, its also equally influenced by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I love that the author set this one in the late fifties in a rural community area and then moved things to the city as a pair of young star-crossed lovers head out into the big wide world.
Billy Ray Davenport was indeed the son of a traveling preacher who ministered to the churches who had no permanent pastor in their small, rural communities. At the start of Son of a Preacher Man, Billy Ray has just finished his last year of regular college and will start medical school in the fall. In the meantime, he’s going to work for a country doctor friend of their family living along his dad’s preaching route. It is there in that small town that this relatively innocent young guy encounters two different types of girls- the upstanding doctor’s over-revved and under-sexed spoiled daughter who has already made claims on him and the daughter of a dirt poor farmer who has a really bad reputation and struts around like she owns it. One guess who he gravitates to.
Billy Ray’s not fooled by the gossip after his first blunder that gets him in Lizzy’s crosshairs. She tries to throw him off at first when she thinks he believes the town gossip, but he sees beyond the attitude to a hurting, lonely young woman who doesn’t deserve the rep as the town tramp. It’s a summer of discoveries for both of them, but things get complicated as the summer comes to a close. Billy Ray is coming into his own and making decisions on his own, but will the wounded bird that is Lizzy be able to get past her pain and give him a chance?
So, yes, this was a tender story of first love, but so much more. There is a coming of age story all told through Billy Ray’s eyes. He’s had to grow up quickly and be responsible because of his mom’s death and knocking about with his dad, but because he’s preacher’s son, he’s also somewhat sheltered and innocent. Lizzy has been limited in her education and knowledge of the world outside her town, but she is wise to worldliness and hard-living with her family on the grub farm. My heart went out for this girl and I teared up at one point as her past was fully revealed. I got quite angry at a few people just like Billy Ray.
This story has one of my favorite settings- small town. But, instead of the romantic nostalgia that can paint a picture of the best side, this shows the uglier side, too. We have a small community set on believing the worst in one of their own even without evidence, what trouble a malice-filled girl can stir up, and Lizzy’s pain and strength needed to make it even years under a bad reputation before getting out to make good on her dreams.
The historical era was there and gave a nice layer of verisimilitude without taking over the engaging, gently-paced story.
The book has a strong faith element because of Billy Ray’s Christian outlook and he leans on his faith to try to help Lizzy through her pain and as his own guidepost, but it isn’t an inspirational fiction and there are no attempts to push his faith on others or on the reader, for that matter. Not that he needs to because it was still an era when the average person in rural America made nominal claims to Christianity. I respect that he lived out what he believed and that part of his struggle was how to reconcile his attraction for Lizzy with his dad’s concerns about falling for ‘that kind of girl’, respecting her need to pursue her own career when he’d been taught that women were to be the homemakers, and his acceptance that Lizzy is his equal not lesser because she is female.
All in all, this was a heartwarming story that had a strong flavor of nostalgia that was tempered with bittersweet reality. The pains and joys of coming of age and first love along with figuring out life while pursuing education. It was a well-written, well-developed story with engaging characters and elements. It had me smiling, laughing, crying, and swooning. Those who enjoy slightly sweet with a little spice, modern historical, and influences from an old song and an even older story should give it a look-see.