ER nurse Macy Wynn learned essential, gritty lessons in the California foster care system: land on your feet and trust no one. She’s finally located the fellow foster child she loves like a sister, but the girl’s in deep trouble. Macy’s determined to help, no matter what it takes. Her motto is to “make it happen” in any situation life throws at her—even when she butts heads with an idealistic cop.

Deputy Fletcher Holt believes in a higher plan, the fair outcome—and his ability to handle that by himself if necessary. Now he’s been yanked from Houston, his mother is battling cancer, and he’s attracted to a strong-willed nurse who could be the target of a brutal sniper.

When everything goes wrong, where do they put their trust?

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My Thoughts

Candace Calvert is a new-to-me author. The fact that she is a trained and experienced nurse made this medical drama even more enticing. Deputy Fletcher Holt is a born and bred Texan temporarily living and working in Sacramento. He has a very close relationship with his parents and is determined to do everything in his power to help them. Fletcher’s mama is one tough lady with a compassionate heart and I love the authentic relationships she has with her husband and son.

ER nurse Macy Wynn has dedicated herself to her career and reconnecting with her foster sister. Because of her painful childhood in the foster care system, she tends to hold people at an arms length in her personal life but she has an immense compassion for her patients and co-workers. Seems to me, Macy is still that lost little girl on the inside and she’s just managing the pain through an intense, high-adrenaline lifestyle.

Fletcher and Macy initially clash like a couple of wet cats. Over time, they develop a special connection while evading danger at every turn and continually crossing paths. By Your Side has it all, suspense, mystery, and romance. This book grabbed my attention from the first page and kept my attention through the end. Both characters develop a deeper understanding of themselves and their relationship with God.

I’m already itching to know what is going to happen in the next book of the series and I will definitely be seeking out more titles from Candace Calvert.

I requested the opportunity to read and review this book through The Book Club Network. The opinions expressed are my own.

About the Author

Former ER nurse, wife, Mom and proud grandmother, Candace Calvert believes that love, laughter, and faith are the best medicines. Her popular medical fiction offers charismatic characters, pulse-pounding drama, romance, humor, suspense–and a prescription for hope. Think, “Grey’s Anatomy finds its soul.”

She is a Northern California native who spent several years in Hill Country Texas–where she learned to check her shoes for scorpions and plucked an armadillo from her swimming pool. Thinks cruising is the best way to travel: honeymooned in Venice, swam with stingrays, rode a camel at the pyramids, and sang (badly) with a Newfoundland country band. She’s passionate about cooking, loves bird watching, gardening, and gets goosebumps when her handsome husband hits the low notes at karaoke.

She writes inspirational fiction because God blessed her with a quirky wit, buoyant optimism, and a contagious sense of fun–but she didn’t come to know him until after the Triple Whammy that turned her life into a bad country song. A painful and unexpected divorce, the Northern California floods of 1997, and (just when she was coping like a champ, no problem) an equestrian accident that left her with fractured ribs, a bleeding lung, broken back, neck fractures and a spinal cord injury. She’ll tell you that God took drastic measures to get her attention.

In the months of rehabilitation, Candace healed in body and spirit. And came to fully understand the difference between being a strong woman and a woman of strength. The difference is faith, and that lesson has been her biggest blessing. Her story, “By Accident,” appears in Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul, and launched her writing career. Now she is honored to bring readers medical fiction that offers exciting entertainment and a healthy dose of hope.