More Than a Dream: Angels of Mercy

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book is told largely in flashbacks, which makes it very disjointed. We are given little indication why the characters love each other and shown little of their early interactions. Especially disappointing is the fact that it all takes place in the usual setting, London -- we only get to see the heroine's nursing experiences in the flashbacks. And too much of the story is spent setting up her friends' romances for future books.

The book is full of anachronisms and romance-novel cliches. If you want a story about real Victorian life and attitudes, don't look here. However, I am giving the book two stars because there are flashes of potential. This could be a good writer if she did more research and was more original.

Rating:
Summary: Love in the midst of war -- very highly recommended
Review: When she arrives at her father's home following her nursing service with Florence Nightingale in Turkey, Catherine Stanhope feels like a ghost walking in an unreal world. Rather than the opera, social calls and other pleasures of civilization that her father wishes her to engage in, Catherine can only retire to her room and remember. Yet her father and everyone else would have her forget, and certainly never speak of, the time she spent nursing in Turkey.

Her father arranges her marriage to her friend Julian, despite her protestations that she will never marry because she is determined to be a nurse. To keep her father happy, she and Julian agree to an engagement in name only, since they are both off to the war, and plan to break their engagement upon their return to England. But their war torn spirits may dictate a different course. When she left Turkey, Julian lay severely injured, with the same distant chilly look in his eyes that she sees every day in the mirror. And now she must marry him, she thinks, because she could not jilt a man who had been so seriously injured, nor could she abandon such a dear friend. However, Julian would have nothing of it.

Only a few of her fellow nurses and Dr. Michael Soames understand her need to be a nurse. Although Michael had come to appreciate her talents he also believed the worst about her character. The Army had not wanted female nurses, and their behavior had to be absolutely circumspect. Unfortunately, Catherine had inadvertently given them ammunition to use against female nurses, and was promptly sent home by Florence Nightingale herself. Just when Catherine finally creates the opportunity to truly nurse and feels successful. Crushed, she boarded the next ship bound for Malta and then England.

When Catherine returns to England, she thinks she'll never see Michael again. She misses nursing desperately, eventually applying at a hospital for the poor. She's shocked to find Michael there applying for work as well. They've only shared a single kiss but that memory has been seared into her. Even as she throws herself into anguishing work, Catherine can't forget her feelings for the doctor. She finds herself longing for the very thing she's rejected -- love.

Martha Schroeder creates an amazingly complex and beautifully composed story about love in the midst of human anguish. With a deep understanding of the restrictions that women faced as well as those emotions common to us all, MORE THAN A DREAM is a richly satisfying read. A powerful story, MORE THAN A DREAM is a keeper. Very highly recommended.