Emotional Turmoil in The Nurses’ War | Book Review

【 THE NURSES’ WAR 】

This book has firmly lodged itself in my heart and does great justice in capturing such a traumatic time in history.

Genre: Historical Fiction
Author: Victoria Purman
Published: March 2022
Publisher: Harlequin
Pages: 608 (paperback)

Many thanks to Harlequin for a review copy of this.

I am emotionally exhausted at the end of this book and quite stunned by how much I loved it.

The story focuses on Cora and Jessie, both involved in aiding the recovery of Australian soldiers in England. And the book sweeps from the beginning of WWI in 1914 right through to the end and then some.

I don’t think I’ve ever read historical fiction that so beautifully ties together such key themes – the agonies of war, the plight of feminism, the torments of love.

The book is perfectly poignant in the way it captures these things and presents ideas and emotions to the reader in a way that resonates and really has you feeling it all.

This brought me to tears more than any book has in a long time – I thought the characters were wonderful and so well developed. I found them likeable and painfully relatable and realistic. It’s the kind of book that makes it easy for you to imagine yourself in their shoes. I so hope this is adapted for screen one day, it would be marvellous.

And most of all, there’s a raw realness to this story where it doesn’t just feel like a sugar coated romance encased in the convenient action of war. No, this feels like an honest imagining of serving as a nurse through both WWI and the Spanish Flu. The lows are just as proudly there as a highs.

A must-read for historical fiction lovers.