She had her entire life planned until the Great War began and everything changed.April 1914. Barrie, Ontario. Hettie Steward is feisty, educated, ambitious and stubborn. Her fiancé, Geoffrey Bartlette, the love of her life since childhood, has been a patient man. He waited while she attended nursing school and worked a year, but now it is time to wed. While Hettie is thrilled to be starting her … thrilled to be starting her life with Geoffrey, she laments that marriage means sacrificing her beloved nursing career, and domestic life brings her nothing but drudgery and boredom.
When the Great War begins a few months into their marriage, Geoffrey enlists and persuades Hettie to join the Canadian Army Nursing Service and follow him overseas. After all, everyone says the war will be short, and it will be their opportunity to have a proper honeymoon. Returning to work is exactly what Hettie was craving, and she eager accepts.
The war, however, does not end quickly. Soon tragedy strikes, proving true the old adage “be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” Geoffrey is killed at the Second Battle of Ypres, and Hettie is faced with a choice. Return home or stay in Europe and continue nursing? Moreover, will she discover the person she is meant to be now that her life has been steered onto a new path?
Angel of Mercy is the first in a trilogy following Hettie and her family as they navigate the challenges and heartbreak World War 1 brings.
Praise for Angel of Mercy:
“In Angel Of Mercy, we step off the battlefield to the place that those injured men go to either be healed or to die. We see the horrors of war through the eyes of the young nurses who also thought that their stay would be short with a chance for adventure or to meet the loves of their lives. It’s a side of war that we often fail to see or look into. I think it’s definitely a book that history and romance fiction lovers will enjoy.” – Tiffany Ferrell for Readers’ Favorite
“Melina creates a very fast moving plot which keeps us riveted throughout the book. I enjoyed the tight pace of Melina’s book, the conversations of the people in the book and the picturesque descriptions of those bygone times and places.” – Orla Connors for Zavesti
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This was my first book by Melina Druga and I truly enjoyed it!!! This book takes place in the World War 1 era. The struggles of heart break and challenges that war brings with it are real!!! Hettie truly is an angel of mercy!!! Read and enjoy!!!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
A wonderful historical novel of WWI Canadian nurses at the front.
This is an excellent book that is historically accurate as well as entertaining. The story is well written with fantastic well developed characters and a historical plot that won’t let the reader put the book down. It is by far one of the best fiction works about the Great War I have read. I look forward to the nest two books in the WWI trilogy. I highly recommend the book.
In early 1915, the heroine, Henrietta (Hettie) Steward volunteers for the Canadian Nursing Corps and works in a Casualty Clearing Station near the front for the duration of the war. Her husband of a few months volunteers in the Canadian Army and is killed as she watches. Hettie still believes that she is needed and continues to work. Her emotional adventure is chronicled as she handles her sorrows and finds love. It is a very fulfilling and entertaining read. Don’t miss it.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Interesting historical story
Druga pens a good story in Angel of Mercy. I haven’t read anything from this author before, and I really enjoyed this story. Taking place during WWI, the characters seem to fit that era, not only with deportment but also dialogue. Hettie is an interesting character in herself, as she is a nurse and has to deal with the perils and tragedy of war. A very well-written story, and I enjoyed it. Hettie is a character that seems to keep a lot of her emotions inside, and that’s how she deals with her situation, and journey that gets her through this tumultuous time. It’s a great story to follow and try to figure out what will happen next. This author’s characters develop and interacts well with the other characters. I look forward to reading more by this author. This book is a definite recommendation by Amy’s Bookshelf Reviews.
More Telling than Showing; Some History Off
As a registered nurse in the United States, I was curious about this book that features a Canadian nurse who worked at the front during World War 1. The author did her research well about the training she says her character had at a Toronto school. What she described, though, of her character’s experience on the warfront didn’t come across as fully accurate to me. The functions of these early nurses, as well as battlefield expectations for the nursing sisters, were very different from how we see it all today. The writing itself felt stiff and awkward, and she certainly gave modern-day thoughts and sensibilities to her heroine. I really dislike it when contemporary authors ascribe such modernisms to people from history. I also thought the story was told more often than it was shown, and I’m a firm believer in the writing adage that stories should be shown and not told. So, on several fronts, this story disappointed me.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.