Title: The Nightingale Girls (Book 1)
Author: Donna Douglas
Author: Donna Douglas
Publication Information: Arrow, 2012, available in paperback or digital edition
Genre: Historical
Fiction/Nursing
Plot: Three very different young women attend
nursing school at Florence Nightingale Hospital in London’s East End in 1934
and become friends. Dora Doyle is an inarticulate
young woman from the slums whose enthusiasm and work ethic impresses the new
matron sufficiently to gain her a place in the training class. Dora wants to be a nurse but she also
desperately wants to escape her vicious stepfather so is grateful that training
includes accommodation at the hospital. Dora
is assigned to room with two young women from more privileged backgrounds. Millie Benedict is the only daughter of an
earl and could lead a life of luxury and fun but after one official Season she
refused to stay home and allow her grandmother to find an eligible husband,
determined to find something worthwhile to do.
Despite good intentions, Millie had a hard time with her first three
months of training and is on probation – she will be dropped from the program
for any transgression. Helen Tremayne is
the third roommate, brilliant but shy and lacking in confidence, overshadowed
by her carefree brother, a young doctor at the hospital. Her unpleasant mother, Constance Tremayne, is on the
Board of Trustees and insists on controlling every aspect of Helen’s life. Constance is appalled by the slack standards
of young people and is on a one-woman crusade to keep the Nightingale trainees
focused on their nursing responsibilities.
However, all three young women have admirers and cannot work 24 hours a
day, which adds dimension to the story.
This book is set about five
years before the outbreak of WWII – I hope the series continues until then. You know I love women and war work!
Audience: Fans of historical
fiction and of Call the Midwife; women who enjoyed reading about Sue Barton and
Cherry Ames in their youth. Click here
for my other recommendations for fans of Call the Midwife.
What I liked: I have always been a fan of books about nurses, as well as of books about young women from different backgrounds who become friends. While some of the plot was predictable (Dora’s stepfather’s behavior), I enjoyed the description of hospital life, from the lowly porters (don’t overlook how helpful they can be if you are a trainee nurse slipping in after curfew) to the new matron, Kathleen Fox. Chosen by the Board of Trustees to modernize the hospital, the new Matron faces challenges from the colleague overlooked for the job and from the sanctimonious Mrs. Tremayne (why is the villainess always named Constance?) as she tries to run the busy hospital. I hope she gets her own book!
Paperback editions are not available in the US but Ms. Douglas sent me this helpful link to Great British Reads which US readers can use to buy her ebooks.
Source: This is the first
book I read from NetGalley. Thank you to
Random House UK for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest
review. This is the first in a series
and I am eager to read more. Several years ago I read two
of Donna Douglas’ books written as Donna Hay, which I also liked.
1 comment:
Sounds like my kind of book! Too bad they are not available here...
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