Frontline Nurses On Duty
This novel follows the first book in the trilogy, Frontline Nurses, and begins just before the outbreak of the First World War. Leonora and Victoria volunteer at a field hospital in Calais. Meanwhile, Leo’s brother Ralph and his best friend Tom are embroiled in the first battles of the Western Front. After a few months, Leo returns to Serbia in the hopes of being reunited with Colonel Sasha Malkovic. Inexplicably, upon her arrival, she does not pursue the opportunity and they are only reunited by chance when Sasha rescues Leo. Meanwhile, as the war drags on, Victoria, Ralph, and Tom are caught up in a rather confusing and unsatisfying love triangle.
Disappointingly, this novel does not live up to the promise of its prequel. The intertwining stories made the narrative feel crammed and rushed, detracting from Leo’s story and setting. Entire sections of plot (for instance, almost all of Leo’s time in Serbia) are summarised rather than described. It is also essential to have recently read the previous volume, as characters appear with no reintroduction in the middle of the story.
