About the Book
Book: The Reluctant Healer of Halifax
Author: Terrie Todd
Genre: Christian Historical Fiction
Release Date: August, 2026
Her Family, Her Home, Her Future—All Leveled in One Thunderous Explosion
When life seems weighed down by challenges, there are always pillars of enduring hope and love to be discovered.
Three days ago, Pearline Campbell’s family was whole, and Oliver Hamilton still loved her. But upon returning to Halifax disfigured and shellshocked, Oliver ended their relationship. Then came Thursday, December 6, 1917, when the Halifax harbor was leveled by a tremendous explosion. . .and Pearline fears nothing will ever be whole again. Her parents are dead, her brother is missing, and her sister refuses to speak. Pearline must fortify herself to open her home to needy orphans, including an unidentified baby. Where can she find the strength for each new day as misery grips the city?
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About the Author
Terrie Todd is a Canadian author of nine historical and split-time novels and one nonfiction book. Her work has earned numerous Word Awards from The Word Guild, the 2018 Janette Oke Award from Inscribe Christian Writers Fellowship, and the 2022 Braun Book Award. She is also a Carol Award Finalist. From 2010-2024, she wrote a weekly “Faith and Humor” column for her hometown newspaper, and since 2021, a monthly column for the Heroes, Heroines, and History blog. Terrie lives with her husband, Jon, in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, where they raised their three children. They are grandparents to five boys.
More from Terrie
It wasn’t until I was interviewing a friend for a newspaper column that the Halifax Explosion of 1917 began to interest me. My friend, Gene, had gone blind from macular degeneration, and I wanted to write a series of columns about what it was like for him to lose his sight and now live with blindness. One of the books Gene mentioned as having inspired him was the true story of Eric Davidson. At the time of the explosion, Eric was a toddler, playing with his toy car on a windowsill in his Halifax home. The glass exploded, permanently blinding Eric. The north end of Halifax was destroyed, and roughly two thousand residents died. Nine thousand more were wounded, including hundreds blinded or partially blinded by flying glass. The mass blinding helped birth the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). Eric’s daughter, Marilyn Davidson Elliott, wrote the book The Blind Mechanic about her father.
I found Eric’s story fascinating. When given the opportunity to try for a spot in Barbour’s series of books about historical disasters, I decided to write one about the Halifax explosion. The more I researched, the more I wondered why we didn’t learn about this in school, and the harder it was to imagine the devastation that the city and its people survived. This was during a world war and only five years after being highly involved in the recovery of the Titanic’s victims and survivors, a disaster that helped prepare them for this one. Story after story, many revealing the incredible determination of the stalwart people of Nova Scotia and the Bostonians who came to their aid, moved me to tears. It was difficult to choose which experiences to borrow for my characters. I was thrilled to visit Halifax in 2025, a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
Naturally, the book includes some blind and partially blind characters. I so appreciate the input from my two blind beta readers, Alexandra Banwell and Leanne Merren. One of my favorite things to do with each book I launch is to choose a charity to which I give a portion of the proceeds from my local book launch. For this book, I’ve chosen the CNIB’s Guide Dog program.
Although my book never became a part of that series, Barbour decided it would be a good fit for their “Enduring Hope” series. The rest is, literally, history. I’m thrilled to be part of this series and have enjoyed the first five immensely. I hope you read them all!
My Impressions
“Fires erupted every few minutes, and the air was filled with racking, bubbling coughs, cries of devastation, alarm bells, and sirens. Surely she was in hell.”
And so we are given in vivid clarity a recounting of the horrible harbor ship explosion of 1917 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I am enjoying this series, Enduring Hope, by Barbour very much. Each stand-alone book tells the story of an American ( including Canadian) disaster that many have never learned from history class. Terrie Todd brings the WWI setting and Halifax tragedy to unforgettable life in her novel, The Reluctant Healer of Halifax.
One of the main characters is an injured soldier, Oliver Hamilton, who returns from the European front minus an eye and with internal emotional scars. Certain his bright future is over, he breaks things off with his almost-fiancée, deciding he will not saddle her with a lifetime married to a freak. Heartbroken, Pearline shares with her wise parents. Her mother thoughtfully responds,“Sounds like whatever’s hiding under Oliver’s bandages is not nearly as bad as what’s deep inside him right now.”
But, will Pearline ever get a chance to show Oliver that she loves him for his character, not his face? Or has his character been marred as badly as his face?
Soon, Pearline, the female main character, must put aside her broken heart to deal with the incredible shock and tragedy of the harbor explosion. What starts as a ship collision turns into a disaster of epic proportions as a ship with wartime cargo explodes, raining death, destruction, blindness, and literal Hell down upon the town. Search for family and friends becomes her consuming passion. What will Pearline and her hired hand, Daisy find in their quest for answers? How will their lives change from normal to “normal isn’t coming back,” how do we deal with our new reality?
I loved how there was great cooperation between American (particularly Bostonian)people and the people of Nova Scotia. We can be good neighbors!!
Emotional, heart-rending, with God-incidences, great character growth arcs and historical fact all presented so compellingly. I couldn’t close this book, once opened, until I’d devoured the final word!
I received a copy of the book from Celebrate Lit via NetGalley. I also bought my own copy. No positive review was required, and all opinions are my own.
Notable Quotables:
“No one could ever love me. I can never ask Pearline to marry me now; it would be cruel. I can never teach again. God’s punishing me for not wanting to follow Pop’s career. I deserve this. Like machine-gun fire, nefarious notions had pounded his brain.”
“God had already given her the strength to survive the unthinkable. He’d provide for this too, if she leaned into Him and followed His purposes for her.”
“He’d grown much through the challenges, the losses, the trauma. Why had it not occurred to him that Pearline would have matured, too?”
“Bringing buried things to the surface can feel painful.” “Like digging up a dead dog. Why would I want to do that?”
“I’ve been doing extra studies in the areas of plastic surgery and the psychology of shell shock. The more patients can tell me, the more honestly they share, the more we learn how to help.”
“God, make me more aware of others. Open my eyes—or my eye, I suppose—to the significance of the lives around me before they’re gone and it’s too late.”
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Magnificent! Another book I highly recommend!
Blog Stops
Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, August 26
Devoted Steps, August 26
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, August 27
Texas Book-aholic, August 28
Pause for Tales, August 29
For Him and My Family, August 29
Life on Chickadee Lane, August 30
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, August 31
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, September 1
Books You Can Feel Good About, September 2
Connie’s History Classroom, September 3
Cover Lover Book Review, September 4
Sydney Schmied Books, September 5
Mary Hake, September 5
Blossoms and Blessings , September 6
The Bookish Pilgrim, September 7
Devoted to Hope, September 7
Holly’s Book Corner, September 8
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Terrie is giving away the grand prize of a $25 Amazon e-Gift Card and a print copy of the book!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
https://gleam.io/9yOdf/the-reluctant-healer-of-halifax-celebration-tour-giveaway
Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions 