The Healer's Apprentice

Summary (from the publisher): Two Hearts. One Hope. Rose has been appointed as a healer's apprentice at Hagenheim Castle, a rare opportunity for a woodcutter's daughter like her. While she often feels uneasy at the sight of blood, Rose is determined to prove herself capable. Failure will mean returning home to marry the aging bachelor her mother has chosen for her---a bloated, disgusting merchant who makes Rose feel ill.When Lord Hamlin, the future duke, is injured, it is Rose who must tend to him. As she works to heal his wound, she begins to understand emotions she's never felt before and wonders if he feels the same. But falling in love is forbidden, as Lord Hamlin is betrothed to a mysterious young woman in hiding. As Rose's life spins toward confusion, she must take the first steps on a journey to discover her own destiny.

Review: I won this book as a giveaway on Goodreads.  This novel is a sweet, clean romance novel about a young girl in the 1300s who falls in love with someone far about her social station. While this is technically Young Adult fiction, I think any romance fans will appreciate the sweet story of Rose and Lord Hamlin. There is something very fairy tale-like about this novel, which I think will be appealing to the romantics among us. While it's largely a standard romance novel, I appreciated that Dickerson includes heavy topics like abuse, the corruption of the clergy, and seduction of young, innocent girls.

After reading some of the other reviews of this novel, I feel that it has unfairly been labeled a "Christian" novel and many of the reviews focus on the Christian content. Without a doubt, the novel refers to religion and the characters do attend church and pray, however, I don't think that label, with its loaded stereotypes, are altogether fair. This is largely because, based on the time period (1300s) and location (Europe), the author would have been committing a vast historical innacuracy in her very historical fiction novel to not include religion. In the time and place that Rose is living, religion was a very large part of everyday life and would have been so for just about everyone in the community. To not include their faith would have been a gross omission on the part of the author. I would hate to see a potential reader shy away from this novel simply because of the religious content because its more than a religious novel.

My one large complaint with this novel is the title, however, that's probably more to do with the publisher and less the author. I don't agree that Rose's story is best summed up by the tagline "The Healer's Apprentice." From the beginning of the novel, Rose makes it clear that she does not like her apprenticeship and is easily made queasy by the sight of blood. Rose's role as apprentice to the healer is a very small part of the novel. Additionally, the novel is a tad melodramatic at times, like Rose's excessive sobbing after being propositioned by Lord Rupert. Just a tad much. Otherwise a very sweet romance suitable for Young Adult and older.

Stars: 3