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.

Daughters of War is the second book in a planned trilogy written by Lizzie Page focusing on remarkable, brave and selfless women during World War One. Women who put everyone else and their needs and suffering before their own needs and desires. Earlier this year I read the first book in the series, TheWar Nurses, which was Lizzie's début and I was simply blown away by both her writing and the story following Elsie and Mairi as they worked on the front line of the war saving as many lives as possible in a time fraught with tension and danger at every turn. It's timely that these books have been published this year given it is the century of the conclusion of the war but Lizzie Page has written such wonderful stories that bring the realities of the time right to the forefront of our minds at a time when we should remember all those who lost their lives and sacrificed so much for our futures.

Daughters of War sees our attention turn to May Turner who in turn has her own story to tell of her experiences during the four years of hell and anguish inflicted upon Europe between 1914-1918. It was a delight to see Elsie feature in the story for very brief periods every now and again as it established a connection between the two books and as Elsie and Mairi both had such an impact on me it was just brilliant to have mention of one them in relation to a new setting and character. May and her life are completely different to that of Mairi and Elsie, and I was thankful for this because before I began reading the book I questioned would it just be a rehash of the same story although set in a different part of the war zone? The book needed something different to set it apart from The War Nurses and Lizzie Page managed to achieve this and provide her readers with an interesting, heartbreaking and absorbing read.

Honestly May was a character whom my opinion of swayed back and forth over endless times through out this book. But I think that's what the author wanted us to feel as she wasn't a clear cut person and right from the outset she has a lot of change to bring into her life and despite her being a mother to two young girls she herself I felt was quite immature and needed to stand up for herself more. The war was a horrific event for all involved and it changed the course of world history but if in the case of this story it had not occurred I don't think May would have undergone the journey and transformation that she went through. She is a vastly different person by the end of the book and a character one could identify with and a more likeable character than when we first meet her.

In May 1914 we met May originally from America but now married to George and living in London. Her two young girls are away at boarding school and she rarely sees them except for holidays, May is prone to melancholy and feels trapped and ensnared in her marriage. She is miserable and knows she needs social interaction and to make friends if she is ever to break free and to start to feel what she terms normal. May was a person who was crying out for love, support, affection and friendship. She believed her marriage would have offered that but leaving America and now living in London, giving up so much she is disappointed to discover that is not the case. She experiences waste and isolation but a glimmer of a new May begins to emerge when she responds to a request for a companion to an artist Percy whilst he works. A friendship is formed but it is not the dominant plot of the novel in any sense of the word.

Venturing out to try and find new experiences May takes up outdoor swimming at a local pond and it is here she meets Elizabeth. Elizabeth is a spinster who lives with her mother and cats and really she was the most quirky character who in my mind had her head in the clouds a lot of the time. But you couldn't knock her for her ambition in wanting to swim across the channel from France to England. Elizabeth gave May the impetuous to get out there away from George and her loneliness and as war breaks out May feels she must do something to help those in need. A chance meeting with Elsie Knocker who has just signed up for Dr. Hector Munro's flying ambulances sets in motion a train of thought for May, she enlists with the red cross as a volunteer in France. Talk about stepping out of one's comfort zone, from a mousy women dominated by her husband and not willing to voice her suspicions regarding his activities to a woman who travels abroad to do her bit. She is away from the wealth and comforts she is accustomed to and given her state of mind I wondered would she be able for all that she would witness.

For the author spares no detail in descriptions in what befalls the troops fighting on the front. Nor is there any shying away from the conditions volunteers, nurses and doctors endured as they battled to save those who were maimed and affected by the fighting. May seemed to me like a fish out of water. She had a vision of what to expect when she arrived in France but the realities were far harsher and it was evident she had a lot of growing up to do and her needs had to come second or even further down the line. This book wasn't as action based as I felt book one had been, there was a lull in the middle part of the book where I did think there was repetition in terms of describing the way casualties were treated and the daily routine of May and the people she works with. But I suppose on reflection this was what happened at the field hospitals. There were days and days of the same thing, treating people and periods where not much happened and then boom all of a sudden there was an onslaught of such horror and awful scenes when a move was made at the front. The Battle of the Somme and its affect on May and her co workers was an example of this.

The book did pick up again just after the midway point and it became very character driven as May battles with her emotions and duties. She feels loyalty to the friends she has made in France and to perhaps a man who has shown some affection towards her. But given she is still married to George nothing can happen. But also it is her two daughters who are at the forefront of her mind and I thoroughly enjoyed the way this strand of the story developed as it showed the conflict in May's heart and mind. That things weren't clear cut. She was a woman on a mission who wanted to help those in their most desperate hour of need yet women didn't abandon their families and just up and leave the country. May showed great spirit and tenacity the further the story developed and I was heartbroken, and in fact angry, at the way George treated her and the lengths she had to go to to show her daughters that she did love them and hadn't abandoned them. She was a mother with divided loyalties and a time of conflict she found them even harder to deal with.

May despite all she witnesses in France feels liberated that she has escaped from George. Now she has a purpose and a goal but as the war further encroaches on her entire life and her day to day experiences she wrestles with her conscious that those around her even friends she made back in London before she left will be impacted by the decisions she has made. May was a raw recruit who really didn't know what she had let herself in for when she volunteered to go to France but in fact this was the making of her and the starting point for her transformation. She goes from what I viewed her as a weak person and someone whose decisions were made by others for her to someone with great character and spirit. A woman whose experiences of the war make her and she earns respect from her colleagues and in a way the reader too. She placed herself in the eye of the storm and as the author writes of everything May goes through I could feel and visualise the sights, sounds and smells of the war and the deprivation everyone experienced and the sacrifices everyone made became all the more real for me as seen and told through the eyes of May.

I enjoyed how the story developed at the conclusion of the war. It didn't feel far fetched, strung out or just tacked on for the sake of it. Instead it brought this beautiful story of courage and bravery full circle and the little twist at the end certainly brought a smile to my eye and I would say it was very well played. Through this trilogy Lizzie Page is helping shine a light on the sacrifices and contributions made my countless women and men during the Great War and she is doing so with sensitivity and tact whilst providing her readers with an excellent story that is gripping, informative and interesting. Conflict, struggles, heartbreak and smiles all form part of this read and the balance of these is perfect throughout the story. Daughters of War is a worthy successor to The War Nurses - although Elsie and Mairi will always hold a special pace in my heart. I am now more than interested than ever to see who will form the focal point to book three but I'll have to wait to discover the answer to that question until 2019.

Enjoyable WW1 saga.. This book is filled with details of the sacrifices that were faced during this torrid time but also how friendships, comrades and love won through.
I would recommend this to my book loving friends.

Reading this book during the lead up to the one hundred year anniversary of the end of the first World War felt like an extremely poignant yet perfect time. The main character May joins the war effort in 1914 and is sent to France as a nurse. Just like The War Nurses, this book is based around a true story which makes it so much more fascinating. Lizzie Page has the talent of a born storyteller and when combined with methodical research and true to life characters the book is almost impossible to put down.

The characters are flawed and believable, especially May's husband George who turns out to be a vile man. I almost cheered when May met a previous character, Elsie Knocker, a remarkably strong nurse herself. Elsie persuades May to join a Voluntary Aid Detachment, helping the injured troops in a hospital in France. Leaving her daughters at boarding school, a devoted housekeeper and absent husband, she sets sail across the Channel, not knowing what to expect. I loved hearing the medical stories, the hardships of war and how strong and resilient these women turned out to be.

Daughters of War is informative, inspirational and most of all a very emotional read. Any fans of British history, especially around the time of WWI will love this book.

Another great book from the pen of Lizzie Page i love a book that pulls me in and makes me feel as if i am with the charactors.Well Done to Lizzie deffo a 5*

Amazing book. Loved it from beginning to end.
Well written which kept me captivated throughout.
I will definitely be reading other books by this author

This isn’t my usual kind of read, but I thought I would give it a try based on the number of positive reviews from other Netgalley readers.

It was a decent enough story, but I felt it took rather a long time to get going and I must admit I nearly gave up half way through.

I also found the story rather lacking in atmosphere to say it was written during such an awful time and the characters seemed rather simply drawn. The story needed more grit and realism.

If you like wartime romance stories, give it a go. Otherwise I can’t recommend it.

Thank you to the author, Bookouture and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

"...fear, horror, guilt and grief stay with you..."

May is a 28-year-old mother of two, married to George, and she is drowning in melancholy. The year is 1914 and her daughters are away at boarding school. George has really taken to drink and other women leaving May untethered and fractious. An American by birth, she has come to live in London and is finding her life completely meaningless over the last 12 years. When she meets Elsie Knocker at the studio of a local artist, May is encouraged to volunteer as a war nurse on the continent just as World War I is gearing up. Despite her initial misgivings due to her lack of training and fortitude, May interviews with the French Red Cross and is appointed to the Voluntary Aid Detachment to perform some nursing duties and is assigned to Field Hospital 19 in Bray-Sur-Somme. Leave taking was a disaster but May is determined to do her part in the war effort and naively heads out for duty without a clue that her life will never be the same.

The war years are dreadful and May experiences the full range of emotions in the tents that make up their "hospital" and living quarters. Her immaturity yields to personal growth through the reality of caring for the sick and wounded men and from her camaraderie with the doctors, nurses and others she works with. It's the worst of times but May thrives despite the daily horrors and the overwhelming sense of loss. She misses her two daughters desperately and her husband makes May pay for leaving him. But even in the midst of war, hearts still long for belonging and understanding and May meets a man who softens her hardened attitude about love. NO SPOILERS.

This was a lovely historical fiction inspired by the life and times of Mary Borden, a well known nurse, novelist and poet who did spend part of the Great War in the Somme. It was easy to read this over a couple of hours as I found myself immersed in the story and invested in all the characters. I found May to be a bit of a contradiction but her fortitude impressed me and I reveled in her personal growth throughout her struggles and triumphs. The descriptions of the activities in the hospital were, of course, fascinating to me as I'm an RN and always love the medical details. I can't imagine how hard that work would have been in such primitive conditions with the horrible injuries and the never ending presence of death as the maimed and traumatized soldiers kept coming. I was reminded again of how far women have come despite the constraints of society, the difficulty of balancing motherhood and work, and the need for self-actualization and personal fulfillment. I did not feel that May was a neglectful mother despite attempts to paint her as such. I'm not certain that, even now, women can have it all though I do think that it's a precarious balancing act done well by many. I enjoyed this book as well as the first in the series, THE WAR NURSES, and I look forward to the next by Lizzie Page.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the e-book ARC to read and review.

I was lucky enough to get approved access to a galley of this book through Netgalley, and I’m just so glad I did! While the writing isn’t necessarily the most literary, the story itself is compelling, and May Turner makes for an interesting protagonist. I usually don’t like novels narrated in first person, but I didn’t mind it for this one, which is saying something.

There were a few moments that didn’t quite bowl me over like the romance bits. They weren’t bad, but I wasn’t that overly invested in the love story because Louis just seems too damn good to be true. On the flip side, George is almost cartoonishly villainous, and that made it a little hard to take him seriously at times. Not the worst villain I’ve come across, but sometimes his dialogue just seemed cartoonish more than something truly lingeringly cruel.

As a professional historian who finds WWI particularly interesting, I’m not at all disappointed by the book and am looking forward to checking out some of the others in this series! I’ll be curious to learn if May continues to remain my favorite one since it seems each book focuses on a different character, and May is the first one I was introduced to. Overall, I’d recommend this book as it kept me entertained and reminded me why I love WWI-centric historical fiction so much!

Nicely done historical fiction with a sympathetic character in May. Her husband George is a creep but she rises above that- or more accurately , breaks free. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This isn't in depth on WWI but that's not really the point. This is part of a series but each book does stand on its own.

This is book #2 in the War Nurses series. Whilst part of a series, it can be read as a standalone novel.

Young May is from Chicago and after marrying Londoner George, they return to London just before the outbreak of World War One in 1914. Whilst all the other men are signing up, George isn’t allowed. He turns to drink and women, and after her children have been sent to boarding school, May volunteers to become a War Nurse and gets given a post in France.

This is the perfect book to read for the 100 year anniversary of the end of World War One. A lot of wartime sagas focus on the Second World War, but how appropriate for this book to be available now given the significance of the year. May is a lovely character, and you do have to feel for her with her choice of husband. Only young when she married George, moving to a different country and then war being declared, you can certainly empathise how difficult life must have been for her. I didn’t like George at all, and when May decided to leave him I jumped for joy! Given the fact that May would rather serve in a battlefield than be with her husband gives you some clue how awful that man was to her.

The story, for me, takes off when May becomes a War Nurse and is posted to France. The descriptions and writing by this author is spot on and it made me feel so emotional reading these parts of the story. This was completely different to some of the other wartime books that I have read where they have been set during World War Two, as May was out in the thick of it all, dealing with injuries you could only imagine.

This was such a wonderful read, which certainly tugged at my heart-strings. I loved this author’s writing and it was so realistic that I felt like I was actually there. A perfect read and a perfect tribute to the wonderful women who did their duty as War Nurses. We will remember them all.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for allowing me to read this book.
I absolutely loved it. A beautiful wartime story. They are my absolute favourite and this one didn't disappoint. But then I wouldn't expect anything less from Lizzie Page. She always delivers in spades.

Absolutely loved this book! One of the best books I've read in ages, even with my love of wartime novels!. Brilliant story and characters and a gripping read that I both couldn't wait to finish but also didn't want to end. Can't wait to read more from the author now.

I just finished reading Daughters of War by Lizzie Page and was totally blown away. I have for the longest stuck to mysteries and thrillers and this was a very welcome break.

The book is set during World War I and we follow May Turner on her assignment to France as she volunteers as a war nurse. She has left her husband who is out philandering most of the time and her two young daughters are at boarding school due to the husband’s wishes.

May manages to visit her daughters a couple of times until her husband starts keeping her from them.

The book seems very realistic in both the historical setting and also in the characters by showing how war, love and hardships can happen no matter where you are.

I am overjoyed that I had the chance to read this ARC and thank Bookouture and NetGalley and Lizzie Page for this opportunity. I will definitely read more in this series and highly recommend Daughters of War.

Well deserved 5 stars.

An unputdownable book that had me reading under the covers,so keen was I to find out what happened next
This book follows May who is desperate to change her life as she married foolishly young. She becomes a vad in world war one after meeting the famous Elsie Knocker and I was riveted by her adventures on the Somme.
Although this is part of a series you don't have to have read the first book to enjoy this one and in fact I enjoyed this more. I like that may is human and makes some poor decisions and is not a good mither.
Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for gifting me an arc of this fabulous book.