Across a Broken Shore by Amy Trueblood is a historical fiction about Willa; a young Irish Catholic girl on the brink of the rest of her life. Does she accede to her parents wishes to go with a family tradition and expectation of her dedicating her life to God by becoming a nun or does she bravely break tradition and listen to her heart? Set in 1936 during the Depression and the building of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the book describes the age old struggle of a young woman who wants to follow a career in a man’s world. Ms Trueblood dilligently develops the main characters and paints a realistic vision of San Francisco in 1936. Desiring to become a doctor, Willa is fortunate to meet her new friend and mentor, Dr Kathryn Winston, who shows her that a woman can break through the bonds of working in a man’s profession. Torn between living her dream while lying to her family, Willa struggles against a looming deadline of going to the convent. The book was well written and kept me very interested. Thank you for allowing me to read and review this enjoyable book.

I adored this book set in San Francisco in the 1930’s and centers around the building of the Golden Gate Bridg.
Totally enjoy the characters.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book

I received an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. "Across a Broken Shore" releases to the general public November 5th, 2019. 

SUMMARY

The last thing eighteen-year-old Wilhelmina “Willa” MacCarthy wants is to be a nun. It’s 1936, and as the only daughter amongst four sons, her Irish–Catholic family is counting on her to take her vows—but Willa’s found another calling. Each day she sneaks away to help Doctor Katherine Winston in her medical clinic in San Francisco’s Richmond District.

Keeping secrets from her family only becomes more complicated when Willa agrees to help the doctor at a field hospital near the new bridge being built over the Golden Gate. Willa thinks she can handle her new chaotic life, but as she draws closer to a dashing young ironworker and risks grow at the bridge, she discovers that hiding from what she truly wants may be her biggest lie of all.
REVIEW

This was another example of the classic "I requested this from NetGalley, not expecting anything, only to end up loving it" scenario. Across a Broken Shore was at times dark, depressing, and bleak, but it was undercut with hope and progress and familial bonds that no amount of suffering broke. 

The book's selling point for me, at first glance, was Willa's interest in medicine. As a teenage girl interested in science, I love reading about girls my age who are also passionate about STEM fields, regardless of what they are. That works especially well for me in settings where the character has to face down and defeat prejudice to practice her profession of choice. There aren't many stories more empowering for me, a girl who loves science and deeply values education, than those of young women who overcome societal barriers to their education/ability to practice a profession. Thus, Willa's journey towards becoming a doctor in a world where female doctors were extremely rare was very inspiring for me. And the medical parts of the book were realistic and well-handled;  they were realistically gory at times, but never gratuitous. Any aspect of the book related to medicine got no complaints from me. 

Nor did the characterization. Willa was a deeply-realized character, even if she had a rather irritating tendency towards indecision and her brain repeated itself a lot. And the supporting cast was equally strong - Willa's brother Paddy was an equally fleshed-out character, the MacCarthy siblings' relationships were explored in depth and quite touching, and SAM. I read some reviews saying the romance was cheesy - perhaps, but I do NOT care. I'm a sucker for cheesy romance, and Sam was a smol bean. It was adorable  and that's final. :)

But perhaps my favorite part of this entire novel was its exploration of religion in Willa's life. Though she doesn't want to be a nun (and I can't blame her - I wouldn't either), Catholicism is a HUGE part of her life. As a religious person, I get what it's like to simultaneously rely on your faith and feel incredibly pressured by it/the expectations of fellow practitioners; I related to that part a lot, even though I've never exactly promised to be a nun. Thus, I was a bit apprehensive that this book's treatment of Willa's faith was going to be sort of toss-aside-y. I was pretty sure it was going to present Willa with a "something's got to give" scenario where she either had to become a nun or completely abandon her faith to become a doctor, but it didn't. Rather, Willa simply realizes that God is calling her to something other than the path her parents think she is on. I loved that, and was very pleasantly surprised that her continual adherence to her faith wasn't ridiculed as "blindly obeying her parents" or something (as a Christian teenager who has chosen to remain in the faith I was raised in after my parents stopped making me do so, I get "you need to think for yourself" a LOT, and expected Willa's experience to be the same). That was really well-done. 

The main problem with this book was that Willa's internal conflict was hashed out so many times, and in such similar words, that it just felt tired. There were commas missing, and the dialogue was quite awkward. Those were about the only defects of this fantastic book.  

RATING 

Plot: 4.5/5 - compelling, and a storyline (both the girl-in-STEM aspect and the religious one) that is very close to my heart. No complaints there. The only issue I took with the plot, and the reason for the 4.5 and not a 5, was that, like, 65% of the conflict could have been avoided with proper communication, and some parts of it were unnecessarily repetitive. 

Characters: 5/5 - I fell in love with nearly all of them. IDK, I just really love these crazy Irish kids. 

Pacing: 4/5 - like I said, tends to repeat itself. A LOT. But not awful. 

Content/Messages: 5/5 - great messages about overcoming obstacles and pursuing your true passions rather than letting others tell you what path to follow. The content is never vulgar or gratuitous, but as the story revolves around physicians who mostly serve the impoverished, it gets dark at times. The harshness of the circumstances might make it too much for younger readers, but given its contemplative nature, those too young to handle the content probably wouldn't like it much anyway. I'd peg this one for the older end of YA (16+) not because it's wildly inappropriate but because I can't see many 13/14-year-olds enjoying this. 

Handling of Subject Matter: 4.5/5 - medicine, sexism in STEM fields, and Catholicism were all handled very appropriately, but for a Great Depression-era novel, there wasn't much of the setting evident in the story. The economic realities of the Depression could have been addressed more; there are no more than four impoverished characters in a novel set during a time when there was a ~30% employment rate. That was a little implausible in my mind. 

Writing Style: 3/5. This was the weakest aspect of the book. There were a lot of commas missing (this is an ARC, I know, so that'll get fixed, but still) and the dialogue was really unrealistic at points. Not egregiously bad, though. 

Overall: 4.33/5

I LOVED THIS BOOK!

Willa's story is set in 1930's San Francisco during the building of the golden gate bridge. The cast of characters was absolutely wonderful. Willa, being the only girl in her family (besides Mam) with a bunch of over protective brothers, has made promises to her family. Unfortunately, promises made when you are 12 years old in the midst of grief are hard to hold as our hands and hearts grow. On this journey, we follow Willa as she toils with her promise, her passion, and her family.

I adored the historical details woven seamlessly into the novel and I highly respect any novel that can teach me something without me realizing it. Watching the bridge being built by the boys in this book, made me feel as though as I saw it. I loved getting to see all the injuries and personalities from the guys on the bridge. And Sam (excuse me while I swoon) was the perfect romantic interest. He grounded the book with his common sense and maturity, which was a nice balance to Willa and her emotional journey

The story moved with a steady pace and around 60% of the way through, I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen and how. I WAS WRONG and I loved being wrong. Trueblood turned the story on its head and I was there for it. I flew through the last pages and felt utterly satisfied with the end.

The characters Willa, Dr. Winston, Sam, and Paddy were my favorites. I loved their interactions and the dynamic between everyone was full of tension, though I did occasionally want to beam a few of them on the head. Usually Willa. I liked that most of the conflict in the story arose from the characters instead of events. It made for a great read with room for all the historical details.

I would absolutely recommend picking up this book if you like YA historicals with interesting background and fun stubborn female characters.

Across a Broken Shore is a wonderful historical fiction novel set in San Francisco in 1936. The building of the Golden Gate Bridge is a key event in this book. The main character Wilhelmina “Willa” MacCarthy loves all things medicine, however due to family obligations she is destined to become a nun. Over the course of the book, we watch Willa struggle with her choice to be a nun and her strong desire to learn about medicine. The book does feel repetitive at time due to this struggle.
I enjoyed reading this book. It is very evident the amount of research the author did on the time period. I feel that this book will appeal more to adults than teen readers. I do think it is worth purchasing for our high school collection. However, it will need to be promoted and book talked strongly for the typical teen reader to want to choose this book.

What was it like to be a young woman who wanted to study medicine during the 1930s?

In her novel, Across a Broken Shore, Amy Trueblood, examines the constraints put on young woman by both her family and society. Set against the building of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, Trueblood delves into both working conditions for the common labourer and the chauvinistic attitudes of the medical community. Determined to become a medical doctor, not a Catholic nun, Willa proves herself to be one of the strong females who fought to allow women to have the rights we often take for granted today.

This reviewer does not think the title fits the book.

I received a free copy of this ebook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I got super bored super fast. Nothing kept my attention and I didn’t care about anyone or what they did. Loved the California setting though. Ten points for gryffindor!

Thanks NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC of Across a Broken Shore. A heart warming feel good story about a girl finding her right path in the world. Willa, a young adult from a strict Catholic family with four older brothers, has a deep interest in helping people. Her parents want her to join the convent and become a nun, however her true passion is to be a doctor. She meets Dr Winston and starts to mentor under her, all the while lying to her parents who think she is doing volunteer work. Willa also meets Simon who helps her through her journey and onto the right path.
i enjoyed reading this book, it was an easy read, easy to keep track of the characters, they were well introduced and easy to remember,

One of the prime characters is described as wanting to be a bridge across a broken shore. In this way the title of Amy Trueblood’s work of historical fiction becomes a metaphor for the entire novel. As the Golden Gate Bridge is erected, those in its shadow play out their lives trying to maneuver the devastating effects of the Depression. Willa, bound by a guilt-ridden promise to become a nun, fears this is not what she wants. Katherine faces daily prejudice for being a woman in the medical field. Sam, an itinerant worker, has never been able to stop in one place and find happiness. The McCarthy family is unsure how to conquer their grief. The Hooverville occupants want to survive. At times solutions seem unreachable. I engaged with these characters from the start. I shall watch for this author in the future.

San Francisco1936, the middle of the Great Depression. Families were struggling to make ends meet and this was no different for the MacCarthy family, with 4 boys and 1 daughter, they were working hard to keep their pub alive and food on the table. For 18 year old Willa MacCarthy the only girl amongst 4 brothers, she had been told by her parents that she was to become a nun. Yet this was not the ambition she had set her mind to... she wanted to become a doctor, a secret she had to keep from her family. One fateful date opportunity knocked on her, when her brother suffered from a severe accident and Willa took him to see the neighborhood doctor. It was Katherine Winston, the young female physician who came to their aid. Yet, more than that she fueled Willa's ambition to go into the medical field, becoming her mentor. Conventions at that time period were quite strict, it wasn't easy for women to become independent, to go into the medical field was almost impossible. With her over-protective brothers as well as her parents, it was difficult for Willa to ever think she would become her dream of being a doctor. And while this conflict was taking place in her life, the Golden Gate Bridge was being built in San Francisco. There were many risks to be taken for those working on the bridge, but to be sure times were tough, the Depression had a strong hold on the population and just having a job, albeit the dangers involved, was better than nothing.

This was a strong story, with the lead character having the strength to go after her dream in spite of her family's wishes. The guilt implied was emotional, especially in a family where a child would have difficulty challenging the rules set by their elders. I dare say that was the way of it in 1936. Well written, even though for me getting through some of the medical chapters was not so easy.

My thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There was certainly a lot to like about this book but it become repetitive at times with Willa and her reasons why becoming a nun was so important to her. This seemingly strong willed girl could be challenging at times when it came to her family and Sam. The female doctor ... Katherine was by far the hero of this book. She was a pioneer not only championing woman doctors , but also the strengths of a modern woman in a male world. She did not let adversities stop her. The book depicts the building of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco which was interesting. Mixed with this we have the struggles of an Irish family who hold secrets . The overall read is good but at times becomes bogged down with repeated or insignificant events.

What a wonderful book! Set in the thirties, it focuses on Willa, the main character who is an 18 year old girl wanting to learn medicine. It also focuses on her family, who is Irish. Told while the Golden Gate Bridge was being constructed, we learn about breaking barriers as women of that time period. The writing was great and the story line was interesting!

LOVED this book! Trueblood wrote beautifully about a young woman struggling to make a difficult life decision: follow her heart and her passion or do what is expected of her by her parents. Willa, is such an interesting main character. She’s strong, open-minded, intelligent, and loyal even when she lacks self-confidence, she’s always working towards bettering herself.
Willa longs to work in the medical field, but in the 1930s, women do not make up a large percentage of doctors in the field. Despite this, she sneaks reading anatomy texts and ends up apprenticing with a female doctor, who is another inspiring and beautiful character in this story.
Set in San Francisco while the Golden Gate Bridge is being constructed, Willa finds herself able to help others who need medical attention due to accidents working on the bridge. She also finds herself falling for a certain light-eyed, kind young man, Sam. Her and Sam’s relationship blooms despite her promise to her parents to join the convent and become a nun.
Willa is conflicted many times throughout the story, either study medicine or become a nun. I enjoyed reading her struggles to make this difficult decision and the relationships she forms along the way.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Flux, for the ARC for an honest review. 5 stars!

Amy Trueblood’s Across A Broken Shore brings us young Willa, living in depression-era San Francisco, who has the skill and desire to become a doctor while her parents dream she will enter the convent. A female doctor (inspired by Dr. Lucy Wanzer, the first woman west of the Rockies to be recognized as a physician) notes her interest and invites Willa to be her assistant as they treat the desperately poor people who are willing to see a woman health-care provider. Many of the injuries that the doctor sees result from work on the Golden Gate Bridge, which is being constructed during this time.
In the 1950’s and 60’s, most TV shows had one storyline because television writers and producers thought their audiences could only pay attention to one situation at a time. Across A Broken Shore conforms to this model, as every scene, plot, and dialogue comes back to Willa’s desire to become a doctor. Her love interest is, of course, supportive, her brothers willing to lie for her when she snuck away, and convenient coincidences throughout helped Willa conceal from her parents her continued work with the doctor.
I enjoyed reading about the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, and I rooted for Willa to accomplish her goal.The story, however, was far too predictable and wrapped up too neatly in the end for my taste. Perhaps it might fare better in the Young Adult category.

This was a wonderful book. Set in 1936, it mainly focuses on WILLA, an 18 year old female girl aspiring to learn medicine when she is expected to enter the convent. It also focuses on her Irish family, expectations and regrets. Told during the building of the Golden Gate Bridge, we learn about breaking barriers as women of that time period. The writing was great and the story was interesting. I truly enjoyed it and thank netgalley for the ARC.

The history of San Francisco is interestingly and skillfully set as the background for an engaging story of love, hardship, growth, grief, and redemption. The building of the Golden Gate bridge, the first female graduate of the University of California Medical Department at San Francisco, the Sutro Baths, the Richmond District, communities of poverty still in the shadows of the Depression, all are threaded as integral pieces of a well written story.
Willa MacCarthy is a young woman who has been promised to the church by her parents. She is to become a nun, ostensibly because it is a family tradition. However, when Willa was a child, her mother lost a baby girl in an accident for which Willa blames herself. The commitment to the church is her mother's way of placing Willa somewhere safe, some place where nothing harmful can happen to her. Just months before time to begin the first steps to entering the convent, important events in Willa's life cause this foregone conclusion about her life to come into question.
First, she is offered a job in a doctor's office; in a female doctor's office, unheard of in 1936. It becomes clear that Willa is a natural for the medical field and she accepts the job, hiding it from her parents. How will this affect the commitment to the church?
At about the same time, Willa meets Sam, a young man who adores her and makes her heart sing. How will this affect the commitment to the church?
Her parents and the priests discover that Willa has been deceiving them about where she has been going and with whom she has been keeping company when she was to have been working in a soup kitchen. Again, how will this affect the commitment to the church?
Across a Broken Shore is a very good story, well-wnritten, with well-developed characters whose relationships with each other are also well formed and meaningful.
The constant references to Willa's commitment to the church and her constant rejection of the many obvious reasons for her to reconsider that commitment become tiresome. Those particular references are redundant and actually reach the point where the reader wants to shake her by the shoulders and tell her to get a grip. Otherwise, it's a very good story with a plot that's outside the box of familiar patterns. It handles parental relationships, sibling relationships, friendships, a love story, sadness and redemption, all in interesting historical context - and handles them very well.
I really enjoyed this book and am grateful to Netgalley and Flux for the opportunity to read and review it.

This book was very eye opening and shows how different culture collide and form a new future. I loved the main character and her determination to follow her dreams even though her parents wanted a different path for her.

Immediately, I was enthralled with Across a Broken Shore's synopsis: 1930s, Irish-Catholic family, construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and a female character, who wants to be a doctor in a time that was unheard of? Sign me up, I'd like to receive this ARC! And I was not disappointed, however, officially my rating is 3 1/2 stars. The story follows Wilhelmina "Willa" McCarthy, one of five children and the only girl, as a result, her parents have their heart set on her joining the nunnery but Willa has a different aspiration. She wants to be a doctor and her chance comes when her brother, Paddy, accidentally chops off his fingers at their family pub and she encounters the female doctor, Katherine Winston, who desperately needs a nurse. With five months to spare until she's consecrated to God, Willa decides to take the opportunity.

Dr. WInston takes Willa under her wing and forces her to step outside of her comfort zone. Not only does she teach Willa basic skills, but she also takes her on field excursions, where Willa begins to see how the depression has affected the world. She works with Dr. Winston at the Golden Gate Bridge construction site, seeing how these men put their lives on the line to complete the work and encountering a young thief named Simon, who's family moved to Ireland and fell on hard times. She ventures into Hoovervilles, where homeless individuals/ families gather together in a makeshift community. Here, Willa experiences the true horrors of the depression as she cares for the Cleery family, which includes a very pregnant Mrs. Cleery, Simon, who steals to feed his family while his father is gone, and Maeve, who grows sicker as the story progresses. Through these little trips,

As Willa grows as a physician, she grows out her shell and it is truly rewarding to read. At the start of the novel, she is a dutiful daughter and good Catholic, who wants to do right by her parents and earn the MacCarthy family respect but as the story unfolds this changes as she experiences the world. Of course, there's Sam (the romantic interest), a wanderer, orphaned at a young age, who has lived all the United States and encourages her to pursue her desires, which is a terrible temptation for Willa. However, I absolutely loved how Trueblood dealt with this relationship and showed Willa's internal conflict with her Catholic upbringing and sense of right/wrong, which is challenged by herself finally growing into herself. I thought that was realistic and how Catholicism can be restricting and confusing to someone growing up in the religion in a changing time.

It’s 1936 and Willa MacCarthy is certain she has no options. She’s known since she was 12 that she would become a postulate at the Convent of the Sisters of the Sacred Spirit and take her vows. The only girl in this Irish Catholic family, her Mam & Da and four protective brothers expect her to become a nun.
San Francisco is coming back to life as the building of the Golden Gate Bridge is bringing the citizens hope with so many construction jobs. Even though dangerous, the lure of steady paychecks is worth the risks involved. The MacCarthy boys are willing to wait to be chosen to work on the bridge, while Willa, now 18, secretly reads Grey’s Anatomy in her bedroom and attends parties with her somehow wealthy high school friend, Cara Reilly. Willa and her brothers face the same decisions as youth do today: respect parental expectations or follow your calling? Willa’s chance meeting of Dr. Katherine Winston certainly seems to acknowledge the peace she finds when “doctoring,’ as opposed to the deep fear that envelops her in the pew at church. Finding her voice, coping with guilt, confession & forgiveness and allowing for failures to become achievement, are just some of the issues dealt with by Willa and her family.
Mam & Da’s life long dream of having her enter the Convent of the Sisters of the Sacred Spirit has a profound impact on Willa. Dr. Katherine Winston, who mentors and encourages Willa, Sam Butler, whose transient life Willa changes, and the struggling Cleery family at the Hooverville camp, all play important roles in Wilhelmina MacCarthy’s decision to take her vows and enter the convent or follow her heart to become a doctor.
Willa’s dilemma of choosing between honoring her parents and the women of her past by entering the convent or following her call to be a doctor, the “hand of God in the world,” will keep you “praying and hoping” until the final page.

Willa is the granddaughter of Irish immigrants who settled in San Francisco. During the Depression, her dad tries to make ends meet by running a small pub. Willa was told when she was six that she would become a nun, as family tradition stated, but Willa discovered a Gray's Anatomy book in the trash and wants to pursue medicine. When her brother Paddy cuts off two of his fingers, it's Willa's quick thinking and knowledge that keeps Paddy from bleeding to death. The doctor he's taken to is a woman who offers to let Willa work with her. From then on, Willa fights a inner battle between lying to and disappointing her parents or living the life she chooses. She and Dr. Winston work with the poor and the men building the Golden Gate Bridge. The more she works with Dr. Winston, the more she struggles with her decision.

Amy Trueblood weaves a compelling story, in Across a Broken Shore, that combines the building of the bridge with the first women physicians in the area. I could not put it down! It will be November before this released. You'll want to read it. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN!