Many thanks to #NetGalley and the author for allowing me to read this book. Opinions are completely my own.

I was intrigued with the idea of this book, I think in part because I'm a retired nurse and in part because my uncle was captured in Italy during the war and spent time as a POW. As well my father served overseas as a doctor during the war. Given all that, I have to say that I struggled with this novel and didn't find it as enjoyable as the author's first book. I think a major part of that was because I didn't particularly "like" the various characters and wasn't familiar with the category of "intern nurse". The story did have elements that intrigued me - especially the nurse -patient interactions and I was pleased with the ending, but overall I didn't love it.

Intern nurse, Grace, is sent to Italy in 1944 to assist in a frontline hospital. After 8 days non-stop reception of injured service personnel she is exhausted but determined to continue. The hospital is bombed and she's injured. The rest of the book is told from her point of view during her recovery, from the disbelief that she's lost a leg, to alternate anger and despair as one can only imagine. She helps and befriends a blinded airman but gains the wrath of the "real" nurses (as an intern they don't consider her a nurse), other patients at times, a cleaner who's a widow and from the local devastated village and some of the local airmen who simply want a good time when they're on the ground. She hides to avoid being sent back home and causes a lot of problems between her alternative wants to continue nursing to utter despair and hitting out at anyone who tries to helps. She is not a sympathetic character but is probably showing all the emotions of one so badly inured whilst learning to cope and modify her life's ambitions. It is a compelling read however and I'm very glad that the author's daughter insisted on another couple of pages at the end in order to provide an end. Thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I love WW2 historical fiction but this book had a peculiar style of writing and the characters felt flat and undeveloped. Thanks for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

It’s definitely an unforgettable story and it just gets more beautiful and moving as it goes on until it reaches its conclusion which is a perfect ending. I absolutely loved it.

A triumph of two people learning to deal with their disabilities after tragic circumstances. If anyone wants to learn what it’s like trying to cope with a new disability or trying to see through the eyes of a disabled person, this is the book to read.

“You’re no longer a nurse, you’re a cripple who should have been sitting on the deck of a U.S. Army hospital ship on your way to New York Harbour, drinking hot American Army milk and being excited to see the Statue of Liberty appear on the horizon.”

Israeli author Alex Amit has presented a unique look at frontline medicine in WW2 as he shines a spotlight on women’s bravery during the dark days of war.

His protagonist, twenty-three-year-old Grace, is an American Medical Corps nurse from Chicago whose internship takes her to a field hospital in the south of Rome where she’s injured in a German aerial attack. Imagine, just eight days into your training and you’re wounded. It’s one thing, I imagine, to be caring for injured soldiers, but quite another to be on the opposite side of healing. The war may have begun already, but for Grace, a bigger, more personal war is waging.

Losing her leg has a profound effect on Grace and she struggles to accept it and allow others to still see her as a nurse. Amit explores the devastation of being wounded in the line of duty and the process involved in learning to love oneself again. Paralleling Grace’s struggle, is the struggle on the Italian front, one of the lesser-known European conflicts in WW2. Amit introduces his readers to a variety of people, casualties of the attack on the German line, and shows us the difficulty of maintaining their humanity while attempting to heal. You’ll read about a blinded soldier named John who is the recipient of Grace’s kindness, a nurse at the military hospital named Audrey, a bitter and angry Italian villager named Francesca and a B17 bomber pilot named Henry.

Amit’s success is in his unique plot and his ability to share the experiences of a cross-section of people affected while defending the Italian front. Amit has a wonderful ability to place the reader midst the action and to tap into the characters’ emotions. I truly felt like it was my finger in the soldier’s wound attempting to stop the bleeding!