The Healing Place by Leigh Bale
Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Steeple Hill (December 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0373874626
ISBN-13: 978-0373874620

From Amazon.com:
Book Description
A Father Desperate To Save His Daughter
Dr. Emma Shields had to help him. Mark Williams had come to the gifted physician to heal his sick little girl. But Emma had suffered her own loss….

Driven by the death of her son, Emma was determined to make Mark’s daughter well. The devoted single father had come to her in his time of need and she couldn’t let him down. Nor could she forget what they’d once shared…. Now they faced new challenges. Together could they create a new place of faith, hope and love?

This book dealt with a very emotional subject: cancer in children. Dr. Emma Shields is still grieving over the death of her young son, Brian, and she lives a cold, somewhat emotionless life. Her employees call her the “ogre” since she is a stern and unfair boss. She bans her practice to pediatric cancer patients because she doesn’t want to relive the horror of losing a young child again.
Mark Williams was Emma’s old boyfriend in high school. Mark dumped Emma for the popular and beautiful cheerleader, Denise, and he married Denise and they had Angie. Mark used to be a conceited high school jock who just wanted to get ahead financially and socially, which is why he married Denise: because of her business connections. However, after Mark has Angie, he changes, and after he gets saved, he changes even more and discovers how empty and meaningless his ambitions were before he accepted Christ.
Emma has forsaken Christ since Brian’s death. Her ex-husband blames her for Brian’s death, and Emma accepts the blame, wondering if she could have used other treatment methods to save her son from the deadly cancer. Her son’s death finally ends her failing marriage and Emma is left alone to deal with her grief.
Mark now breezes back into Emma’s life because he needs her help. His daughter is dying of an inoperable brain tumor, and Emma is recommended as the best doctor to save Mark’s child. Emma is torn. She is drawn to the child, but has decided not to care for children since the death of her son. She finally decides to provide treatment to the child, and as she grows closer to Mark and Angie, she manages to find the faith she’s forsaken.

I thought this book was a good emotional read. However, you might need a box of tissues as you enjoy this story!

Cecelia Dowdy