The Woman with a Purple Heart is a beautifully crafted, no put downable historical fiction from Diane Hanks. Set in WW2 at Hickham Field in Hawaii at the time of the Pearl Harbour attacks it not only touches on the immediate challenges of those based there through the eyes of Chief Nurse Annie Fox it deals with the challenges she and those in her community are facing. Ageism, sexism, racism, anguish.

A very very enjoyable, eye opening read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark Publishing for the ARC.

I read this extraordinary book in one sitting. I hadn't planned to but I simply couldn't put it down. I expected to read about the bravery & courage of the nurses on December 7, 1941, and this book certainly delivered on that account. Chief Nurse Annie Fox joined the U.S. Army as a frontline nurse in 1918, so the patients & the medical staff were in experienced hands when the Japanese attacked that fateful Sunday morning. As I marveled at her presence of mind in solving desperate shortages of blood, medicine, and nurses, I kept wondering why I had never heard of this woman?!

But, there is much more to this story after the attack at Pearl Harbor and that is what kept me turning the pages. The suspicion and consequent internment of Japanese-Americans following the attack was heart-rending as it happened to fellow nurse, Kay and her children. Her anguish dripped off the pages. I felt Annie's pain as she tried to reconcile this injustice enacted in the name of freedom. This book will be published in November 2023 and I will be buying copies to give as gifts, especially for my daughters & granddaughter. No doubt one copy will be for myself because I will be reading this one again. I highly recommend it!

I am very grateful to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark Publishing for the opportunity to read the ARC. The review is my own of this exceptional book.