Sister of the Great War

“Sisters of the Great War” by Suzanne Feldman 400 pages

Fans of the Civil War medical novel, “My Name is Mary Sutter” by Robin Olivia will love this World War I medical novel.

It’s 1914. America has yet to enter the Great War, but two American sisters, Ruth and Elise Duncan, are watching Europe implode in the Baltimore daily newspapers. They are desperate to unshackle the chains of conventional roles which society bounds them.

Ruth has grown up studying with her doctor father; she can make a diagnosis better then he…and most other doctors. However, society dictates that women cannot be doctors, so she is studying to be a nurse. She feels her talents are being wasted.

Elise is much like Ruth, but her talents lay in mechanics. She can take anything apart and put it back together. Elise is the household mechanic and keeps the family car her father needs for house calls in running shape. Her only prophecy for her future is to marry well and become a mother. 

As the war escalates, the girls want to volunteer to help. On his way to the front, Dr. John Doweling, the son of their father’s friends, stops to stay with the Duncan’s a few days before shipping out for Belgium. He gets to know the girls and encourages them to volunteer as American has yet to enter the conflict. 

Ruth goes as a nurse and Elisa as an ambulance driver. They are assigned to the front at Ypres. The conditions---living and working---are appalling. Author Feldman does an outstanding job in re-creating the Front. Be prepared to see, smell and hear the war as it unfolds around the sister. 

Each sister does have a love interest. For Ruth, it is the Englishman, Dr. John Doweling, who encouraged her to pursue her dreams. For Elise, it is Heda, another ambulance driver.

By the time I had reached the conclusion of “Sisters of the Great War,” I felt as if I had time-traveled back to this period and had participated in the war. Therefore, “Sisters of the Great War” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

 

The Animals at Lockwood Manor

The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey  352 pages

 It’s 1939 and London is bracing for war. Londoners are expecting the German Luftwaffe bombs at any minute, but this is not a World War II story; it’s the reason for it.

Most of the London museums are sending their collections to be housed in British country estates throughout the English countryside.  While author Healey was researching the history of London’s Natural History Museum, she came across an article referring to the “wartime eviction of its collections.” And the people who agreed to house them for the duration. Already fascinated by the “eeriness of of taxidermied animals,” sparked her imagination and this novel was born.

Thirty-year-old Hetty Carwright is sent to oversee a large portion of the mammal collection, including a polar bear, hummingbirds, an elephant, a jaguar, butterflies and beetles, a black panther, a lion, a lynx, an infested owl and many, many more. While she is grateful to Lord Lockwood for so generously opening his home, she isn’t prepared for the amount of work that will be involved to keep her charges safe.

And she isn’t prepared for the hauntingly beautiful, and rather disturbed, daughter of the Manor, Lucy.

The story is told from two points of view: Hetty’s and Lucy’s. Healey used italics for all of Lucy’s chapters, which only served to both annoy me and up the creepiness factor.

Hetty has her hands full with protecting the animals from guests and servants, and even from Lord Lockwood himself.  Plus, there are secrets in the manor. Secrets I never saw coming until it was too late. Oh I had my suspicions, but they weren’t nearly as unsettling as the truth. And the end was magnificent; I will be thinking about it for weeks to come.

 

 “The Animals at Lockwood Manor” receives  4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world, mostly due to the italics for Lucy’s voice.