Jeanette leaves her fiancé behind in Kansas and starts a six-month term of nursing school in 1870s New York. She'll find out if she truly has what it takes to be a nurse in Sea of Strangers by author Amelia C. Adams.

I picked this novella up for a quick helping of historical fiction, and I enjoyed the story, appreciating how it depicts some of the harsh realities of the medical field. I found the heroine to be on the mousy side, but her fascination with medicine is clear.

I don't think the book's blurb most accurately represents the story, as the blurb seems to suggest more of a romance than this story is. I didn't get the best sense of a central, building conflict in the plot, so the climax felt much like an add-on to Jeanette's inward journey instead of a key place she'd been trying to reach all along. I also think some vague areas of the backstory kept the connected climax from being as powerful as it might have been.

Still, the book succeeds in whetting the appetite for the series, and as this HistFic fan found the read interesting overall, I wouldn't at all mind reading more from this author. ( )