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Countless perils menaced the early settlers of the Wild West - and not the least of them was the lack of medical care. Dr. Dane Logan, a former street waif who has been adopted by a doctor's family in Cheyenne, puts his lifelong dream to work filling this need. His renown as a surgeon spreads throughout the frontier, even while his love grows for the beautiful Tharyn, an orphan he lost contact with when he left New York City as a child. Will happiness in love ever come to Dane - or will the roving Tag Moran gang bring his hopes to a dark end?

Showdown in Cheyenne

1880. The frontier is uneasy. Tag Moran and his vicious gang are roving the West, robbing banks and stagecoaches. Dr. Dane Logan, a former street waif adopted by a doctor’s family in Cheyenne, is gaining renown for his delicate surgical skill. Dane’s situation becomes precarious when an unfortunate death turns Tag into his bitter enemy. If outlaws come between the tall young surgeon and his childhood love, who’ll be left to see another sunrise?

Story Behind the Book

Always planning ahead for what we will write for Multnomah Publishers, JoAnna and I decided to follow the ORPHAN TRAIN trilogy with one about a medical doctor in the Old West, so we came up with the idea of a trilogy called FRONTIER DOCTOR. We introduced a teenage boy in the final ORPHAN TRAIN book who has a burning desire to one day become a physician and surgeon. This first book in this trilogy keys in on this young prospective doctor. Seeing history through this young doctor’s eyes will deeply touch your heart and make these books impossible to set down. We also think you’ll find this new trilogy filled with our faith—gained from so many years of serving the Lord and trusting His written Word.

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 8, 2004

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About the author

Al & Joanna Lacy

16 books1 follower

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5 stars
67 (37%)
4 stars
47 (26%)
3 stars
45 (25%)
2 stars
15 (8%)
1 star
6 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for Allan67.
375 reviews10 followers
August 17, 2016
Another book that I read to Diana. We can't do much anymore after her stroke, so I read to her to spend time together. Diana has always loved to have someone to read to her - and I like to do just that.
April 21, 2022
⚠️ SOME spoilers ahead

Okay, I just have to write down how I found out about this series!! So here we go ➡️
I found the second book in the series, “beloved physician“, at a free library! I took it home, realized it was #2 of 3, and decided to give the whole series a try!
And let me tell you, I’m NOT disappointed!!!!!!

This story was pretty epic. I love the main guy, love the girl, and oh em gee I love the western setting. I lived in the areas in Colorado the book mentioned, so it felt so cool+personal to me!!

⚠️ ➡️ The reason I deducted a ⭐️:
This book was SO. DAMN. Repetitive!!!
They’d tell you something, and then reiterate it two or three times because some other character in the book didn’t know yet.

And at times this book sounded like a captains log; “Dane rode his horse to the hospital. Dane did a surgery on a woman. Tharyn and Kitty washed the dishes after dinner and then joined David in the parlor.”
It was so annoying; bad writing. A LOT of the book sounds just like this.
➡️if you’ve read this book, you already know EXACTLY what I mean 😂

When John’s son Paul mentioned mr. and Mrs. Tabor & Tharyn at 26% of the way in the book, I was SO EXCITED!! My mind was racing trying to figure out how Thayrn & Dane might meet up again!

Also, why were Dane’s parents trying to tell Dane to forget about Tharyn altogether, and why was Thayrn’s mom trying to tell her to forget about Dane just because she was engaged to Scott?
Dane can think of her all he wants, and Tharyn wasn’t being lustful towards Dane, she simply still wondered about how he fared and ended up! She wasn’t being unfaithful to Scott. Parents are weird.
⬇️
“I’m sure that’s true, honey, but you can’t let your memories of Dane interfere with what you have with Scott. Dane’s out of your life. He has been for nine years. He wrote to him several times, but he didn’t care enough to answer you. Honey, you’ve got to let him go and concentrate on your future with Scott.” -Kitty Tabor
⬇️
Kitty was just too rude with the “didn’t care enough to answer you” bit! 😂

Tharyn and Dane didn’t meet each other again until 56% of the way through the book!!! The suspense was perfect and it was so worth the wait when they finally met at the hospital by accident!
I like that they met so far into the book, because so often now in books the authors will have the 2 love interests meet in chapter 1, 2, or 3, (VERY early on) and then the whole book is them beating around the bush until the final chapter and they get married or some crap.
So in this book, Dane and Tharyn don’t interact until the midway point, and their love story isn’t rushed OR dragged out! Very nice.

I loved how Dane and Tharyn referred to each other as “big brother” and “little sis”.. just melted my heart. Their story of how they met, how Dane saved her life from the wagon, and how he helped her turn to Jesus, was pretty special. Loved it.

Dane is the perfect gentleman and I absolutely MELTED each time he asked permission from Thayrn to hug her and the first time he wanted to kiss her!!

“Before I go find Dr. Fraser, could-could I hug you?“
“You sure can!”
They were immediately in each other‘s arms.
🥺🌸❤️
“Little sis, may I hug you?”

Some of my favorite parts:

“ Little sis, where did you end up? I never received a letter from you. There may have been some good reason why you didn’t write me like you promised, but I sure wish I knew where you are.”
(Dane thinking about Thayrn)

“ dr. Logan, I’ll tell you right now-this girl hasn’t lived a day since we adopted her without bringing up your name.“🥺💗

“Tharyn, you do something to my heart that no girl has ever done.“🥺❤️❤️❤️

“I was just lonesome for you..” 🥺💗

“ and speaking of waking up in the morning, just think, darling – one more sunrise and I’ll be Mrs. Dane Logan!“
💗LITERALLY EVERYTHING SNAPS INTO PLACE WHEN THE AUTHORS MENTION THE BOOK’S TITLE IN A SENTENCE💗
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

https://www.google.com/search?q=liter...

Overall, a bit too “preachy” for me.. and I wonder why Bart’s wife Lucinda never got a punishment 😂
The story’s bad guys were good and the robberies and such were good. Nice plot twists in general.

So excited to read the next book in this series!!
Profile Image for carlene ☼.
611 reviews1 follower
Did Not Finish
July 5, 2023
*DNFed at 37%

I tried for almost a full month to not dnf this book and I’ve finally given up. I actually liked the character of Dane, which is why I wanted to not give up, but the way that the book is written, prose-wise, added to the incredible slowness of the pacing has made me finally cave amidst feeling overwhelmed with other current books. I honestly would pick up the second book in the series because I think Dane and Tharyn would have been sweet to read about, I just can’t see it through with this book because it’s taking forever to get to an end that I already know exactly what will happen during.
4 reviews
September 27, 2020
Confusing and Contrived

I thought this book was about Frontier Doctors and their role in the Wild Wild West, but it wasn't. 1st all there were too many characters, places, and situations without any depth or strategy. Depth is not achieved by repetitive minutiae. The story. IMHO had potential for development but was instead a vehicle for, and I'm guessing here, the author's version of a religious fairytale where everyone is 'saved' and lives happily ever after.
As a copious reader of historical novels and young adult fiction I was disappointed
108 reviews3 followers
August 28, 2018
Its the 1st book in the Frontier Doctor trilogy that continues from Whispers in the Wind (The Orphan Train Trilogy book #3.) It's good but I'm sure people back then weren't saving everyone they met. The rest of the story is good.
Profile Image for Nancy McPherson.
473 reviews2 followers
November 21, 2018
After finishing the Orphan Train Series, I had to get the Frontier Doctor trilogy to read the rest of the story.
Profile Image for Katie Roberts.
13 reviews
March 17, 2019
The saddest parts were when Dane and Tharyn lived soo close to one another but didn’t know and when Tharyn was captured by bad guys when Dane and Tharyn were about to get married.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Morning Glory.
601 reviews7 followers
Read
May 25, 2021
Lorna Doone wedding!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
126 reviews
Read
February 28, 2026
No. Awkward conversations. Odd backstory telling. quit
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Barbara.
1,991 reviews
June 18, 2014
This is a heartwarming story about two of the orphans from the Orphan Train trilogy, written by the same author, and how their hopes and dreams turned out.Probably closer to 3.5 stars, I enjoyed the book, but the authors writing style seemed a little bit dry to me in some sections, and the plot seemed a little bit uneven. It started very slowly, and then eventually there were some very fast moving parts that were exciting to read. The writing in those parts was very good; I wish more of the novel had been that way. There are sometimes very hard moral choices that have to be made between loyalty to someone and staying true to what we know is the right thing to do, and that is present in different ways during the course of this plot. Dane and Tharyn are characters I really enjoyed, and I will read the other two books in this series to follow what happens in their lives.
Profile Image for Denise Bucklew.
97 reviews3 followers
July 12, 2016
I enjoyed reading this novel!!! It's good to read of people believing & being saved!!! I wish they could know the full truth-repent your sins, baptism in Jesus name & receiving gift of the Holy Ghost!!! Looking forward to the next book!!!
57 reviews
August 26, 2010
The orphan boy who grew up & followed his dream to become a Doctor/Surgeon
Profile Image for Cherrie.
19 reviews1 follower
September 24, 2012
eh....read it...lol that's about all I can say about it. It wasn't that good or anything it was just ok...
Profile Image for Joshua.
343 reviews
May 5, 2014
Though somewhat predictable and not quite as good as the Orphan Train Trilogy, the story still kept my interest with the memorable characters that the Lacy's created.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews