"Spirit of Love is a wonderful story. Filled with romance, reality and warmth.
Sue Crawford brings all this together beautifully. I highly recommend this book and I look forward to reading more from Ms. Crawford."
Glenda D. Tudor, Author of Colorado Spitfire in paperback.
Katie works in a nursing home where nothing is handled efficiently. Everything is wrong that could be wrong, and she hates her job and her life.
In this novel by Sue Crawford, the reader is treated to an in-depth look at how nursing homes are run, as Katie attracts the attention of one of the major stockholders of six such homes in Arkansas. Once married to a doctor who emotionally abused her, Katie isn't prepared for the attraction she feels toward Stephen. All she knows is that he allows the nursing home to be run shoddily and deprives the patients of proper care, and the employees of decent working conditions.
Stephen's grandmother was one of Katie's favorite patients and when she passes away Katie is astounded to learn her ghost remains, and the lively spirit seems especially interested in getting Katie and Stephen together.
Mrs. Cargile's ghost hangs around through most of the book, urging Katie to take a good look at herself and her judgments of others. While this is going on, Stephen, who claims not to have been aware of the conditions in the nursing home, promotes Katie to manager to straighten out the mess. He is so impressed with her improvements, he eventually asks her to take over the position of general manager of the six nursing homes, which all seem on the verge of bankruptcy because of poor management and illegal activities.
The author, obviously well acquainted with the inner workings of such homes, spends a good deal of time writing about situations that arise between patients and workers, while romance takes a back seat throughout the book. One particularly humorous account concerns a resident who believes she is married to Bill Clinton.
By the time Christmas rolls around, Katie has revamped all the nursing homes, but she still cannot reconcile herself to loving Stephen, fearing he will disappoint her in the same way her first husband did.
All is well when Katie faces her own shortcomings and puts her past behind her. She accepts a ring that once belonged to Mrs. Cargile and promises to love and cherish Stephen, who has courted her faithfully, even though Katie offered him little encouragement. This is a sweet book about an ordinary woman who overcomes extraordinary adversity to find love and success.
Reviewed by Velda Brotherton who writes as Elizabeth Gregg and Samantha Lee.
Rating: 4 Stars
Katie Weathers is an AIDE for the Pinewood Nursing Home in Arkansas. Her job is the same every night, not enough staff, not enough supplies, too much work on the AIDES. She been doing this for a year now and she knows her job by heart. She cares about the patients here, and her job.
Sure, she's got a college education, so what's she doing working in a nursing home. She's home from a spoiled marriage in Hawaii and she needs to bury herself in work and forget about that life.
Katie's rough around the edges, but there are reasons for this, Mrs. Cargile knows this. She keeps wanting Katie to meet her grandson, but Katie is usually too busy to meet anyone, and men are not her number one priority.
Still Katie's life begins to change dramatically when Mrs. Cargile dies. When she is selected to talk to the committee about improvements at the home, Katie studies her case and goes armed. She lays it on the line, never dreaming that the owner of the Nursing home is none other than Stephen Love, Mrs. Cargile's grandson.
Immediately she's atttracted to Stephen, and even more so when he pulls her into the Adminstration job. If she knows what's wrong here, then she can help fix those problems.
Katie throws herself into her work of turning Pinewood around. Put totally in charge she hires and fires the problem makers, she works with her employees until they have a nursing home and staff to be proud of.
Stephen is so taken with her ambitious leap that he's decided to make her General Manager over all six of his Nursing facilities. Katie gears up for the job. She gets down on the ground level with the employees, spots all the dirty money moving around, and makes the homes a super place to work by raising employees benefits and salaries.
All the while Katie is smitten with Stephen, and Mrs. Cargile visits her in a ghostly manner and leads her down the path of love to her grandson. Katie's self cofidence and trust has been marred by her father, her brother and her ex-husband. She is too afraid of another committment and resists Stephen all the way.
Sue Crawford brings us a Cinderella story in modern day life that is almost believable. The fairy god-mother is the ghost of Mrs. Cargile and The Prince Charming is Stephen who gives Katie the chance to turn a wrong around.
There is a strong undlying story here that we all need to pay attention to the nursing homes of this country and because of this the book is totally worth the read. It explores and exploits the problems and makes us realize that there are answers out there if someone is willing to gamble their money on it.
A fun read, the romance gets off a little slow, and tends to be just a little idyllic, but it's a beautiful read and well worth your afternoon to read this book.
I highly recommend this one!
Reviewed by Rita Hestand, Author of Pretend Mom
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since January 23, 2001.