Healer: A Novel (The Brides of Alba Series)

Linda Windsor
David C. Cook (2010)
ISBN 9781434764782
Reviewed by Tracey Rock for Reader Views (07/10)


The prophecy Joanna of Gowrys foretold of the future of her clan just before her death has left her daughter Brenna, now, twenty years later, alone and secluded along the mountainside.   Neighboring chieftain, Tarlach O’Byrnes knows Brenna is alive and has no plans to see Joanna’s prophecy come to fruition as it would lead to the end of everything he has built.  Each year, he leads a hunt to try to find Brenna.  Brenna, who is also gifted and a healer like her mother, knows she is the hope for her people and she also knows that she is being hunted by the O’Byrnes because of the prophecy.  Whether it was her training as a healer or her faith in humanity, Brenna wasn’t for sure, but she knew that once she saw a lone rider being attacked nearby, that she had to help him. 

She spends months healing this lone stranger and knows nothing about his past, but sees a vision of him and her together in her future.  Although Ronan O’Byrne was only six-years-old when he witnessed both Joanna of Gowrys’ death and her prophecy, it wasn’t until he began to heal from the attack he endured along the mountainside that he realized that his nurturer was Joanna’s daughter. Knowing that she was not the witch his father sent him to find, he now knew he would fight to live so he could see Brenna and be with her.  Now, as they unite in love and marriage, they both must struggle with their past and their faith in each other and their people. 

Author Linda Windsor combines both history and religion to tell this tale of romance and deception.  Each character had some strength and flaw that allowed me to understand them as human beings.  This understanding that comes about while reading the book, explains why this is also a faith-based book.  For anyone that would be easily offended by a book with a religious base, I would not recommend reading this book.  I don’t necessarily seek out faith-based books for casual reading, but I don’t think I would have enjoyed this book as much without this as an underlying presence.  It was a part of the story and a very real fact of life in 6th century A.D.  If this isn’t an issue, then I would highly recommend reading.  I thoroughly enjoyed “Healer” by Linda Windsor.

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