Jodi Daynard Books In Order

Publication Order of Midwife Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Jodi Daynard
Jodi Daynard writes essays, fiction, and criticism. Her work has appeared in many periodicals, including The Village Voice, The New York Times Book Review, Agni, The Paris Review, and the New England Review, as well as several anthologies.

Jodi penned her first book while in the first grade, when she was home sick for an entire week. It sounded much like “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”. She remembers she even had a foreword (which she ripped off) from there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere.

She recalls starting her first real novel during her early twenties, making a strict vow with herself that if she was unable to get published by the time she turned thirty, she would quit. Thirty came and went. Before becoming a published novelist, she did write and publish a whole bunch of essays, book reviews, and stories. Jodi also penned three novels that are still on obsolescent floppy disks, where she is hoping they are going to stay. They are very flawed, yet she learned her craft as she wrote them.

After finishing “The Midwife’s Revolt”, many editors and agents told her there wasn’t a market for American historical fiction, so she decided to self-publish the novel. It is the first of a trilogy and wound up selling more than a quarter of a million copies.

The moral of her story is to just persevere. All the agents and editors that reject you could very well be wrong. Even if they aren’t, write until you get better.

When Jodi is not writing, she pursues activities that have nothing to do with words. She is a passionate swing dancer, going to Balboa and Lindy Hop events across the country. Like the rest of her “crazy yet gifted” family, she is able to play a lot of musical instruments, and she enjoys DJ’ing dance events.

She also likes spending time with her family. It includes her two English Springer spaniels (named Bailey and Rory), and she enjoys spending time with them either in the Yorkshire Dales and in their cabin in Maine.

Her and her husband go and stay on a sheep farm she has dubbed “Sheeplandia”, and it is one of her favorite places in the entire world to be.

Jodi’s essays have gotten nominated for many prizes and were mentioned in Best American Essays.

Jodi has taught writing at M.I.T., Harvard University, and in the MFA program at Emerson College, and also served for seven years at Boston Review as the Fiction Editor.

Her debut novel, “The Midwife’s Revolt”, was released in the year 2012. She writes the “Midwife” series.

“The Midwife’s Revolt” is the first novel in the “Midwife” series and was released in the year 2015. Lizzie Boylston is awakened due to the sound of cannons on a dark night in the year 1775. From some hill south of Boston, she sees the fires burn in Charlestown, in a battle that she quickly finds has claimed the life of her husband.

Lizzie, who is all alone in a new town, grieves privately but still takes comfort in the deepening friendship she has with Abigail Adams. Quickly, the word spreads about Lizzie’s extraordinary healing and midwifery abilities, and she starts channeling her grief into caring for the ones that need her the most.

Two traveling patriots get poisoned, and Lizzie finds that she has much more political things on her hands. She suspects a political plot that is intended to harm both Abigail and her family. Lizzie, now determined to find the truth, gets entangled in a conspiracy that may not only destroy her livelihood, as well as her opportunity to find love again, but also could lead to the downfall of this new nation.

Lizzie is quite the unique character in the novel, as her courage, strength, and plain spoken manner, as well as the ‘take charge’ attitude she has feels entirely modern. With great prose, historical details, and well portrayed fictional characters, this is a joy to read and tough to set aside.

“Our Own Country” is the second novel in the “Midwife” series and was released in the year 2016. One love affair that tests a new nation’s revolutionary ideals.

In Boston during the 1770s, Eliza Boylston (a prosperous merchant’s daughter) lives her charmed life. Until war breaks down the walls of her family’s estate and then makes her live in a world where wealth is unable to protect her.

While the chaos of the Revolutionary War destroys her family, Eliza finds that she is drawn to John Watkins, her uncle’s slave. Their love leads to her being exiled in Braintree, Massachusetts, which is the home to radicals Abigail and John Adams and Lizzie Boylston (Eliza’s midwife sister). Even while the uprising takes hold, Eliza is unable to keep herself from wondering if a rebel victory is going to grant both her and John the most basic of American rights.

“A More Perfect Union” is the third novel in the “Midwife” series and was released in the year 2017. In the year 1794, Johnny Watkins goes back to America from Barbados, with intentions of becoming a great statesman. Even John Adams, Johnny’s hero, is sure the gifted boy is going to go far. Only catch is, Johnny will have to learn to pass for a white man.

He finds a lovely and a spirited confidante in Kate, one of the few that knows Johnny’s dad was born a slave. While he gets closer to the new city of Washington, Johnny leaves behind Kate and falls instead for a prominent Maryland heiress who might not have his best interests at heart. Getting embroiled in the vicious politics of the approaching election, Johnny spends every minute at risk of becoming unmasked.

Then, there is a discovery about Thomas Jefferson, one that could be able to sway the election, and it imperils not just Johnny’s future but his life too. By the end of it, Johnny learns who his actual friends are, as well as the truth behind the great promise of liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness.