by Beverly Jenkins

t's 1876 and Dr. Viveca Lancaster is frustrated by the limits placed upon female physicians of color. When she is offered the chance to set up a practice in the small all Black community of Grayson Grove, Michigan she leaves her California home and heads east. The very determined Viveca is one of the few nineteenth century Black women to graduate from the prestigious Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, so she knows all about fighting for her rights. But she may need more than determination to face down the distractingly handsome Nate Grayson, the Grove's bull-headed mayor. Nate Grayson goes to the train station expecting Dr. V. Lancaster to be a man. Of course he does. But when the lovely dark-skinned Viveca introduces herself, he is at first speechless...then full of some very loud and very choice words, ordering her back on the train and out of his town! It's 1876 and women aren't supposed to be doctors, men are. Nate Grayson is prepared to fight for that belief. However, he isn't prepared for this extraordinary beauty’s stubbornness and fire, nor for the vivid way she heals, then steals his heart.