It has been 10 years since May left Chicago to live in London with her husband George. Even though she has always dreamed of traveling she wonders now after so many years did she make the right choice. It's 1914 and war has been declared. George has been banned from conscription so he is drowning himself in alcohol and she believes he has also been with other women. With their children in boarding school May is feeling like her life has no fulfillment. When Elise persuades May to become a war nurse May is willing and wants to help in any way she can. But what she doesn’t know is that one decision will change her whole life!
This is a wonderful historical fiction novel based on the life of Mary Borden. It is truly inspiring to read what these women went through. The determination that May has is incredible! To go from knowing nothing and seeing some truly awful events but still willing to do whatever it takes that is truly inspiring! Lizzie Pagie is an amazing writer! You can see and feel the deduction that she puts into all of her books! I can't wait to see who she brings to life for us in the next book! ( )

Trapped in an unhappy marriage, May leaves her husband and two children to volunteer as a nurse in France during WWI. She is able to travel home during holidays, but her husband has decided to keep the children from her. Determined to fulfill her duty at the front, May is unsure how to maintain a relationship with her daughters.

I had a hard time with this book. May didn't feel particularly realistic, her emotions felt one dimensional. Her romance at the front was also a bit predictable. Her nursing felt mechanical and her relationships seemed shallow. Overall, 2 out of 5 stars. ( )

I really enjoyed Lizzie Page's first book, The War Nurses, but I have to say that I simply adored Daughters of War.

The protagonist and narrator is May Turner, an American living in London with her husband, George. She married young and regrets it bitterly but at the turn of the 20th century a woman just has to put up with it. The outbreak of war represents freedom for May as she travels to France to work in a field hospital, but it means leaving behind her precious daughters, Joy and Leona. They are at boarding school so it's not as bad as it sounds - she's not abandoning them, but making her own life more fulfilling. George is not a pleasant or easy man and being away from him is good for May.

Page uses Mary Borden, real life war nurse, poet and novelist, as her inspiration but, as she admits herself, she has embellished or changed the facts to suit the story. Whatever she has done, what she has produced is, in my opinion, something special. I read a fair amount of books, many of which I love, but every once in a while a book comes along that just burrows its way into the heart of me, that stirs my soul. This is one such book.

May tells her story in a quite matter of fact way and yet the emotion and the heartbreak she feels is put across so well. Her experiences as a war nurse are so moving, so intense. Her feelings about what happens with her daughters and being parted from them are hard to read and then there's her love for another man, which is so beautifully written. I spent quite a bit of this book trying to swallow the lump in my throat or wiping my eyes.

At the end of the book, Page says that she believes May to be a Marmite character - you either love her or hate her. Well, I loved her. I found her self-deprecating, gutsy, funny, strong and quite hard on herself. I wish I knew a woman like May. I also loved Louis, the handsome man she meets in France, and all the other staff at the hospital, each of whom had their own place in my heart.

God, I could gush and gush about Daughters of War but I'll spare you that. What I will say is that I found it compelling from start to finish and incredibly moving, especially reading it around the time of the commemoration of 100 years since the end of the war that was supposed to end all wars. I can't help wondering what May would have thought of the fact that we did it all again within her lifetime (or Mary Borden's lifetime).

This is book two in Lizzie Page's trilogy (don't worry, they're standalone, although I was so pleased to see the return of a certain character from The War Nurses) and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next. Her writing is sublime, her plotting is perfection and her characters are fantastic. This is one special book. ( )