This book was absolutely stunning. If I taught a higher grade level, I’d definitely consider using it. Historically accurate and compelling, Rebecca Connolly has crafted a story that lingers.

Many heroes are lost to history. The life of Edith Cavell is beautifully told and celebrated in this story. She did so much good as a nurse and as a human being. She taught future nurses how to give care and aid to those around her, regardless of race. She brought calm in a time of war and chaos. A truly amazing woman.

History is full of ordinary people who made extraordinary differences that the world forgot. Under the Cover of Mercy shines a light on one of them, Edith Cavell. A nurse who dedicated her life to taking care of everyone, who put herself at immense risk when she hid and treated allied soldiers from the German army during WW1. Showcasing Edith’s life’s work not just as a nurse but as a teacher who ensured her love of healing was passed on. This book leans a bit into Christian fiction which is not really my thing but I still enjoyed the historical aspects and it would have been hard to write this book without it to some degree. Thank you to @netgalley and @shadowmountainpub for a copy of this book for review. #bookstagram #readforjoy #readersoffiction #readersofinstagram #read #bookreview #book #booklife #historical

Under thr Cover of Mercy by Rebecca Connolly
4.5/5

This is one of those books that made me feel very deeply. I cried through the last half and finished it in a day and a half. Being based on a real woman during WW1 in Belguim, this is lovely and well written. You can tell the author really felt love and respect for Edith Cavel. I have not read as much history as I would like on WW1 but now I want to.

Synopsis: “Lizzie could only nod at the suggestion. She had never met anyone who was so filled with faith and devotion as Edith Cavell, so wholly dedicated to her Christianity that it was impossible to separate it from her person. It was not a trait of her character; it was the center of her existence.” Under the German occupation of Belgium in WW1, Edith Cavell runs a Redcross clinic where she continues her commitment in educating nurses and helping the sick and wounded, no matter their country of origin. Edith finds herself not only nursing enemy soldiers back to health but also helping them escape the hands of the Germans. Soon trouble finds the nurses as suspect patients enter the hospital and inspections increase. Will Edith and her nurses be able to keep their operation under cover or will all be found out?

Analysis: I so badly wanted to enjoy this read, but the writing, plot, and characters fell flat to me. It’s difficult to write a poor review for this book because Edith’s story is noble and needs to be told. I think with a true story like this it has to be difficult to take the liberty to add extra information to Edith’s life. But it lacked excitement and drama. I feel this would have been better as a biography instead of historical fiction.

This book is a very interesting look at a time and place of war that I was unfamiliar with in Belgium. It centers around the life and service of Edith Cavell a nurse and instructor from England that was helping in Belgium. This book encapsulates the highs and lows, and the horrors and triumphs of the human spirit in a time of war. After reading this book I looked up the people mentioned in the book to learn more about them.
I would highly recommend.

I really enjoyed learning the history of Red Cross nurse Edith Cavell, what a truly remarkable woman willing to stand up for her personal and religious convictions regardless of the circumstances that were forced on her. I did find that the book read a bit more like a biography than historical fiction. The story line moved along quite slowly, but it kept my interest. I had trouble in the beginning confusing Edith and Lizzie and none of the side characters really caught my attention until reading the end notes that many were real people. Not a “wow” book for me but I’m glad I read it.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read for my honest review.

I’d like to start by saying I did not read this book in a foul mood or go in with poor or high expectations. I thought about being nice and giving it 3 stars but I’m not a saint. You want one of those, read your bible.

PRAISES:
-The cover is beautiful
-The authors note, and epilogue were well done.
-I liked learning about Edith Cavell

CRITIQUES:
-Not one character had a decent background and or memorable personality. Yes, even the main lady Edith was somewhat flat until the authors note at the end. This resulted in me having no emotion and not giving a sh** about any of them. I also have no clue what anyone looked like. Wait, there was a guy with a mustache. Perfect.

-There were too many characters and some that didn’t show up later in the book. Also, WHY was there always a nurse crying?

-The setting and place were poorly done. I still don’t know what kind of clothes they wore, how they did their hair, what the villages and hospital looked like. No clue. The descriptions of only came into the book in the very end, when I no longer cared.

-I had no idea this was set in WW I until I went back and read the synopsis.

- The tense scenes in the first half of the book were a letdown. All of them were resolved too easily. “That was that, then.”

-The entire book was dialogue and inner monologue HEAVY.

- While this is labeled as a novel, there’s not a stitch of romance in it. I found this sad because I think the author does well with her romances. It would have improved the story.

- This is about Edith Cavell but we had two pov’s. Her and another nurse who is unremarkable. She cried a lot. The dual pov was unnecessary and left me confused for most of the book.

-The only good parts were the hard historical facts. This book didn’t just lean on the history to carry it. It was on life support and wouldn’t have survived without it. Cheers to history.

-Claiming that this is about a real woman and then not giving us an in depth look into her life was a serious disappointment. All I know is that Edith was spiritual, dignified, a nurse, loved dogs and was 49 years old. You can find out more from Wikipedia.

-This is set during a war, but it was too gentle. If I'm reading about a nurse in a war, I want real damn it. I’m expecting tragedy, trauma and intense heartache. Instead, I got a sad story that didn't make me feel anything.

OVERALL:
I suppose this would be entertaining for someone who doesn’t care for character depth or setting, loves scripture and wants to waste time. To each their own.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Characters/Depth/Growth – 3
Atmosphere/World building - 3
Writing Style/flow - 4
Plot/creativity - 3
Intrigue/ -2
Love/Relationships - 2
Enjoyment – 1
Total: 18

Divided by 7 = 2.5 (2 stars)
1.1-2.2 *
2.3-4.5 **
4.6-6.9 ***
7.0-8.9 ****
9.0-10 *****

This was such a heartbreaking read. It's so well done but it was fairly slow and I kind of kept waiting for something big to happen - but it didn't. I respect that it probably follows the history and the real world life of Cavell closely, but it's still not quite the gripping read that I might have expected or liked.

It is though lovely to read something set in Belgium rather than in France or the UK, it's great to see a new setting, hear/see the lived experience of what was happening in different theatres of war.

Wonderful! This novel is filled with amazing historical fiction based on a true story! I love this kind of story-telling! Now, I am not a sad story lover, but Ms Connolly's writing is wonderful and clear! I followed right along and did not want to put it down! I enjoyed all the beautiful camaraderie between the nurses. They showed true friendship and adoration got a valiant leader! But I was terrorized when the soldiers arrived every time - I would not have been good at that. Heaven bless Nurse Edith Cavell! What an agonizingly brave woman! I know you will love this story!

I didn't read the synopsis before picking this book up and wasn't sure what to expect, but I've come to love and respect Connolly's writing and knew it was sure to be good. I wasn't wrong.

This historical and Christian fiction book was based on an actual person and actual events, which I didn't realize, but was immensely grateful to discover. Edith was the matron (head nurse) at a Red Cross affiliated hospital in Belgium during WWI and through her faith and extremely meek and charitable personality, found herself called to helping soldiers escape the German rule.

I was a little confused at first, trying to separate Edith and Lizzie (a nurse and friend), but found them each to be such wonderful and stable characters, and I respected them each greatly. I had some long and deep discussions with a friend about the events that these nurses went through and the strength they had to endure the horrors and anxieties of war. I became so emotionally invested in this story and found myself in deep introspection.

This is a story that will stick to my heart and soul for a long while.

Content: moderate Christian themes; moderate war-type violence/death, but tastefully done (not overly graphic)

*I received a complimentary book from the publisher through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own and were voluntarily given.*

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Rebecca Connolly's historcal, Under the Cover of Mercy. I loved the history, characters, plot and setting. Five stars.

#UndertheCoverofMercy #NetGalley

Under the Cover of Mercy, a book set in Belgium in WWI. It is based on the true story of Edith Cavell, a woman who courageously served as a nurse and who helped about 200 allies escape. She had a big heart for healing and for teaching other nurses about being compassionate. Edith didn't want to be known as a hero, only as a nurse who helped others along the way. A very well researched book.

My heart is full! So many emotions were felt while reading this incredible story about the efforts of Edith Cavell. As the synopsis states, she was the head nurse at Berkendael Medical Institute and the matron of a designated Red Cross hospital, helping soldiers. She didn't discriminate against the soldiers allegiance or origin, she treated them all fairly and helped heal them. But unfortunately the German governor who was placed in charge of the area in Brussels when the German army occupied there during WWI, was not as good and kind. Demanding Edith and her hospital and nurses guard any non-German soldiers and let him know, only so that they could be executed after they were healed. Not willing to stand beside this practice, Edith took matters into her own hands.

Such an incredible and heartbreaking story. And I'm sure that there are over the years many others similar to this, of good people not willing to stand by and let wrong and the injustices of war prevail. I was drawn into this story and invested in these characters, many of them real historical figures, and their desire to rescue and help as many people as they could.

Unfortunately not every person involved in these rescue attempts came out unscathed and unhurt. I so wish they all could have been protected just like the individuals they were protecting were. But as I said previously, war is not just and fair. It is not a respecter of persons. So be warned, there are moments of sorrow that you will feel deeply. But there are moments of triumph that will have you reverently cheering for those involved.

Deeply touching and stirring. This was a wonderfully inspiring story showing us just how one person can step up and do incredible and hard things for the good of others.

Content: The book is what I would consider a clean read. Yes, it deals with war and death and afflictions and wounds and healing. But the author wrote it all in a very respectful and not overly graphic way that I think even my teenagers would enjoy this book and I wouldn't be opposed to sharing it with them.

I received a copy from the publisher, Shadow Mountain Publishing, via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions in the review are my own.

Happy Reading!!!

3.5 ⭐️

The cover immediately drew me in, and anything WW1 related makes me excited! 😍

I was first introduced to Edith Cavell as a 12-year-old & I never forgot her. Her courage & bravery inspired me. Her work as a nurse & “spy” forged my interest in both medicine & espionage.

This book wasn’t “gripping” per se with its introspection & gentle pacing, and often read more like a biography than a novel. The passage of time was rather unclear to me, and several times I wished for a cast list as I mixed several characters up.

But for all that, I appreciated the story & the touching tribute to the legacy Edith left behind!


*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary copy of this book. I was not required to write a positive review. These are my honest thoughts and opinions.

Under the Cover of Mercy, by Rebecca Connally, is the story of Edith Cavell, a Red Cross nurse who worked in Belgium during WWI. While the writing is not lyrical prose, the story is one of "faith, devotion, fortitude, sacrifice, humility" as demonstrated by the life of this English woman. Edith was a nurse and a teacher who revolutionized the nursing profession in Belgium when it was not a popular profession for women. She devoted her life to serving others.

You will be moved by the story of this woman who has been relatively lost to history.

This engrossing novel describes the life of Edith Cavel, British nurse in charge of the Red Cross hospital in Brussels during the German Occupation in World War I. We are given few glimpses into Edith’s life before the day in 1915 when the Germans march into her beloved city. With her deep faith and uncompromising honesty, she continues her life’s work: training and encouraging her staff and caring for every wounded patient in need, regardless of nationality. She is soon approached by figures in the Belgian underground asking that first, she treat their members who’ve been injured, later that she treat wounded Allied soldiers who’ve fallen behind enemy lines, and eventually that she allow her hospital to be part of a network that smuggles recovered Allied soldiers back to British lines. Although she knows the dangers and worries about the safety of her hospital and her nurses, she cannot turn away from what she feels is her God-appointed duty to care for those in need, whatever the cost. When the network is eventually betrayed, that cost will be her life. Her execution shocked the world and brought lasting fame to a woman who would be forever remembered as the symbol of uncompromising compassion in the face of danger and loss.

The difficult situation of the Belgians under occupation, the constant threat that the occupiers could at any moment arrest anyone they chose, and the bravery of those who opposed the occupation at the risk of their lives is well described. There are few “light” moments in the novel, which is probably a realistic depiction of the times, but my only quibble is that the unrelenting and oppressive sense of danger does become somewhat numbing. But this faithful imagining of Cavel’s courage and sacrifice is both moving and inspiring.

This book was so interesting. It was informative without feeling like a history lesson.
I’ve never heard of Edith Cavell but I was fascinated by her story. She is an inspiration and a true hero. I was glad this author wrote her story so that I could get to know her.
This was well researched and well written.
This is not my usual genre - I read fluff and romance, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I’d never heard of Edith Cavell before reading this book. This is a work of historical fiction based on the true story of a devoutly religious head nurse at Belgian hospital during German occupation of WWI. The story chronicles her dedication to heal the wounded regardless of their nationality, and most importantly, her participation in the resistance in order to save as many soldiers as possible, and the price she paid for her efforts.

Certainly Edith Cavell is an admirable woman who helped countless soldiers in the war at a great sacrifice. However, I had a hard time connecting with the writing style of this novel. I prefer a more immersive writing style that includes vivid descriptions of the settings and intimate, nuanced views of the characters’ emotions and inner worlds. These are things that pull me into a story, allow me to get lost in it and count the seconds until I can get back to reading when I’m periodically forced to put it down. Conversely, this story felt a little flat as it was told in more of a simplified, matter-of-fact manner: “Here’s what happened, here’s what she was thinking.” I left with an understanding of the events that took place, but was never able to fully lose myself in the telling of them.

Still, I do think this style of writing has an audience, as it was not dry and it was easy to follow.

There is today much popular interchange about the nature of ‘history’, of what constitutes it and who authors it, of how it is disseminated and what is omitted through ignorance or deliberate arrangements of power. The vital project of narrating history - or histories - is entering, it seems, a critical period, where a legitimate distrust of ‘official’ history is imperilling the very ethos of the recording of human events as a shared narrative. To fictionalize actual places, an author is at one more remove from the event and thus the duty of an author presenting the life of important historical figures, is a crucial one. Fiction aims to supply what is typically outside the purview of non-fiction: a palpable sense of the social, emotive and psychological sensibility of a time. There is much involved in the presentation of the details of that person’s life, with a need to establish the context for actions and decisions, and to accurately recreate the setting in which the person lived, moved, and breathed. Little wonder that it often takes many authors years of research to fully establish their figure confidently against its background.

Long passionate about military history and that of WWI in particular, I was piqued by the imminent release of Rebecca Connolly’s, “Under the Cover of Mercy,” a novel about feminist heroine Edith Cavell, which unfortunately, fell far short of my expectations, so much so that I had a very difficult time finishing it though I did persevere in order to give an objective, thorough review. 

Connolly is the author of numerous period romance novels so it can be presumed that she understands the importance of research. While reading the book it was immediately clear that although Connolly has researched Cavell’s life in Belgium, the people with whom she was connected, and the specifics of the Anglican faith, the physical and social environment through which Cavell moved is lacking in development and density sufficient to imbue the reading experience with the intrinsic idiosyncrasies of time and place, resulting in a rudimentary animation of Cavell’s personal timeline placed against a hazy backdrop.

Doggedly linear, heavy on dialogue, and relying on predictable plot points revealed with the subtlety of a sledgehammer on a xylophone, “Under the Cover of Mercy” often felt more like a novelization of a teleplay than a novel. Connolly’s superficial prose, as efficient and officious as a military command, the spoken language often seemed more suited to a more current piece than 1914-15, as it lacked the subtleties of class and gender, formal and informal speech, even with the attempts to incorporate German, French, and Flemish vocabulary. The lack of attention to cadence and expressive texture of language also made this a difficult read, Connolly’s fictive voice is consistently poorly developed, with most paragraphs being one to three sentences long and relying heavily on dialogue where longer narrative descriptions would have been more effective and enabled the author to more greatly evoke the improbable situation of English nurses in the surrounding world of WWI Belgium.

The plot instances often lacked development and many an opportunity was missed to advance the story through intrigue and situational drama; there’s really no great emotional investment demanded of the reader until the trial scene. With traitorous spies in place, impromptu searches by German soldiers, interactions between collaborators, interactions between young nurses and soldiers, there were just so many ways that intrigue could have been further developed and generally, these moments were not exploited and fell flat. What could have been a high point, in the rising action of the interrogation of Cavell when she is finally arrested is equally boring, the German interrogators seemingly unqualified and inept. Finally, the high point of the novel was the court scene when Cavell and other collaborators are put on trial, ultimately leading to Cavell’s execution, and I was even disappointed there because it was over before it could truly build to an emotional climax. I wanted to care about these characters, but ultimately, Connolly’s writing made the end feel inevitable and even justified.

Had this been a romance novel, I may have been more generous in my appraisal as the tropes and written qualities of the genre generally veer towards the use of more simplistic language and predictable story telling, however, this novel is being marketed as historical fiction and I feel it is the ethical duty of the author to respect the time, place, and people who experienced it. Connolly’s Cavell comes off as a well-intentioned but somewhat bumbling figure, and her band of nurses often sophomoric. One of my biggest criticisms is the lack of attention to the details of life in a WWI hospital treating the wounded, whatever their nationality. The nature and quality of injuries and illness in WWI were often horrific and overwhelming. Connolly’s hospital setting seems busy but vaguely so, the nurses seem to have far too much time to be running around engaging in idle intrigue. The lack of blood, suppurating wounds, burns, and missing body parts paint a rather sanitised history of an outspoken woman of integrity, whose contributions to the allies, both in life, and in death as a galvanising figure widely used in propaganda, were profound. To sum it up, if you really want to know about the life of Edith Cavell, you'd do better to read the Wiki page or a fully researched biography, and skip this novel.