by Suzanne Feldman
Publisher: MIRA
Pages: 400
Format: eARC
Buy the Book: Amazon
Goodreads: August 1914. While Europe enters a brutal conflict unlike any waged before, the Duncan household in Baltimore, Maryland, is the setting for a different struggle. Ruth and Elise Duncan long to escape the roles that society, and their controlling father, demand they play. Together, the sisters volunteer for the war effort--Ruth as a nurse, Elise as a driver.
Stationed at a makeshift hospital in Ypres, Belgium, Ruth soon confronts war's harshest lesson: not everyone can be saved. Rising above the appalling conditions, she seizes an opportunity to realize her dream to practice medicine as a doctor. Elise, an accomplished mechanic, finds purpose and an unexpected kinship within the all-female Ambulance Corps. Through bombings, heartache and loss, Ruth and Elise cherish an independence rarely granted to women, unaware that their greatest challenges are still to come.
Kritters Thoughts: Two sisters head to Belgium to give what they can to the efforts of World War I. One has an unfinished nursing degree with the hopes of becoming a doctor at a time where female doctors were few and far between. The younger sister has always tinkered with things from clocks to cars and after looking into the Ambulance Corps, Elise may have found just the right place for herself.
Switching back and forth between each sister's points of view, this book gave such a perspective on this war that is unlike anything else I have read. It was easy to know who was narrating the story and I loved that while they were stationed close they had their own lives and the reader received a full perspective from the battlefield to the hospitals near the front lines what life during the Great War would look like.
Beware there is definitely some romance in this book and while it worked within the context of the story, I know some historical fiction readers like their books to omit most of the romance and sexy times! I think it worked in this one and fit within the story, but I could see how some readers could be put off by it.
With only one other book in her backlist, I want to read that one soon and will hope for more to come in the future.
Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row
Ebook 2021 Challenge: 131 out of 100
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of this book free of charge from HarperCollins. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
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