Longtime Elmhurst resident Christine Blevins has written a book, “Midwife of the Blue Ridge.”

Publishers Weekly said of the Elmhurst author’s work: “Blevins doesn't soft-peddle the brutal realities of women's lot in the colonies, but she gives strong, skilled Maggie pluck and hope
From the villages of 18th-century Scotland to the new colonies of America, debut novelist Christine Blevins takes readers on an adventure with the Berkley Trade Paperback original, which was printed Aug. 5 and costs $14.

Excerpts from Blevins’ book include:

“They called her Dark Maggie for her thick black hair, but the name also had a more sinister connotation.  As the lone survivor of an attack on her village, she was thought to be cursed-and unfit for marriage.

“But Maggie is not cursed.  She's gifted with a quick wit, skilled in medicine and trained as a midwife. Venturing to the colonies as an indentured servant, she hopes to escape the superstitions of the old country, help women bring new life into the world even in the most primitive and isolated corners of an unsettled land, and find a home of her own.

“What she discovers is a New World fraught with new dangers-and, having given up her own freedom, she must rely only on her talents for survival. 

Fans of Sara Donati's “Into the Wilderness” series can will  discover the talent.

Romantic Times magazine’s Bertrice Small praises Midwife of the Blue Ridge as “A splendid novel of passion and danger in the early Virginias by a talented new author. I highly recommend it!”