The Healer's Touch, by Lori Copeland, is a western historical romance involving Lyric Bolton, the aforementioned healer in the title of the book, and Ian Cawley, a U.S. Marshal who becomes a wounded amnesiac after his horse crashes into a barn on the Bolton farm while he is trying to apprehend a criminal. Ian has no identification on his person since he lost his wallet during an earlier scuffle in pursuing his quarry. Unfortunately for him, Lyric and her sister, Lark, suspect that he is a criminal himself, belonging to the Younger Gang and are determined to turn him over to their local sheriff in order to claim the reward for capturing a Younger. Because of the abysmal weather conditions, the sisters must ironically shelter and care for Ian, whom Lyric has renamed as Joseph, until the sheriff can make it to their farm in order arrest Ian and hang him for his supposed crimes. As Lyric and Ian spend more time together while she tends to his wounds, they fall in love. Will Ian regain his memory before he faces the hangman's noose?
Ian is a likeable character. I had to smirk at his thoughts as his body meets up with the barn: "I'm going to sell that miserable horse if it's the last thing I do." I don't mean to be laughing at the injuries that he is about to suffer, but I thought that it was a humourous thing that he was thinking of instead. If I were him, I would have probably been fearful that I was going to be taking my last breath instead and my thoughts would have reflected that. Anyways, throughout the story, his thoughts, words, and actions reveal that he is a believing man who is more likely to be a good citizen rather than a hardened criminal.
Lyric is a young woman who had to assume adult responsibilities too early in her youth. She doesn't recall any knowledge of her father, and had to care for both her mother and sister since she was about seven years old. On top of that, because her mother's illness is of the mental kind, the family has been treated as social pariahs. Now that Mrs. Bolton's health is starting to fail, Lyric is waiting for their mother to pass on, and then the two sisters will leave the area and move away to a new place. Lyric hopes to make a new start where they will be accepted instead of shunned.
There is also another significant character in the novel, and that is the Spooklight, which, according to Lori Copeland, is based upon a real phenomenon in Missouri. I haven't done a lot of research into the Spooklight, so I don't want to comment much about the real phenomenon beyond the idea that this seems to touch on a sort of supernatural spiritism that gives me the creeps and heebee jeebies. In the book, many of the characters feel in a similar way, and this Spooklight, which seems to act as an impish and mischievious will o'wisp, appears quite frequently near the Bolton Farm. This has added more social stigma to the sisters who are already shouldering public ostracization in response to their mother's mental health. The Spooklight plays an important part in bringing Lyric and Ian together, because it is the thing that frightens Ian's horse into its mad dash into the barn door. Ms. Copeland doesn't directly confirm what the Spooklight is in this story, but she strongly hints that it could be an angel for this book. Regardless of what it actually is, it seems to be a sentient being in the novel, frightening some, acting as a nuisance to others, and giving comfort to one of the major characters. Because it hasn't been overtly identified as an angel of God, I must confess that the character of the Spooklight is not a comfortable idea for me.
If you are interested in a western historical romance with a touch of the supernatural in it, this might be a book to look into.
Disclaimer: I was provided with an e-copy of The Healer's Touch from Netgalley in exchange for a review. All opinions stated in this review are mine.
