I enjoyed this story of friendship, family and love. I felt that the storyline was a bit too basic and could have gone further. I loved the characters and they were well developed

I loved the concept of this one. A beautifully important read giving insight about the windrush generation. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

Thanks to Sarah Lee and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#AnOceanApart #NetGalley

I really enjoyed this book and the storytelling was brilliant. Told from 3 different view points, its everything and more you want from a book. Such an emotive subject and the author wrote it perfectly.

Ruby, Connie and Billie are part of the Windrush Generation. From Barbados and Jamaica respectively, they move to the UK to become nurses in the early days of the NHS.
I found this a very interesting story and enjoyed learning about the girls and how they were treated on their arrival. I did think the story was quite simple, but it was nonetheless a very enjoyable read. Thank you to net galley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

Told from three POV we are introduced to the world of Connie, Ruby and Billie, lovable and courageous women. Through these women we learn all about the foundation of our NHS, a service I am proud we have in the UK. Sarah Lee does not shy away from the hard stuff and there are many themes addressed in this story that really bring home the emotion. Overall this was a brilliant and heart warming read.

I have to confess to being disappointed by this book. The writing style is very simplistic, and it reads more like a YA title to me. The girls’ experiences come across as more young teens in Mallory Towers, than young women in their twenties in a nurses residence. It’s all a bit juvenile.
It’s a nice enough story, but I’m puzzled as to why one sister would be telling her younger sister details about how they grew up in the Caribbean. Why wouldn’t she know this? If this was used as a means to let the reader know their background, it was clunky and unsubtle.
I don’t get any sense of the real challenges that these young women must have faced as trainee nurses in the NHS, England, Having travelled half way across the world to follow their dreams of making better lives for themselves, and supporting their families back home, I expected more substance to their stories. Glamming each other up to go to the local pub, the jolly jape of being locked out of the nurses home at night, and failing to master hospital corners on the ward beds was not the in-depth read that I hoped for. There is much emphasis on hairdos, makeup, fashion, and ways to be appealing to the young men they encounter, it’s all so superficial. This is a DNF for me, sadly.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

Really enjoyed this book! Thanks NetGalley Publishers and author for this great advanced readers copy

Set in 1954 the book focuses on migrant sisters travelling from Barbados to the UK. Ruby and Connie are keen to start their nursing career in the NHS. Sometimes not what they expected, the novel is about new beginnings, love, hope and friendship. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

A brilliant historical novel set in 1954 when three young nurses from the Caribbean were tempted by the offer of on the job nursing training in England. Their passage was paid for by the newly formed NHS and they arrived after a long journey eager and apprehensive. They soon realised that not all was as they had hoped as one of their fellow trainees was a racist and a bully, Fortunately not everyone had this unacceptable attitude. I really enjoyed the book and following their journey of integration and the different aspects of their training.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. What a lovely read this was, great storyline, great characters. I really enjoyed it.

The story follows and is told from the point of view of three women. Connie and her sister Ruby left Barbados in search of a better life. A family secret leaves Connie wanted to prove herself. Billie is from Jamaica.

The three girls were part of the Windrush Generation. The new NHS had a shortage of workers so were offered a job and accommodation if they came to England to work. Full of high expectations the reality was much different. The much colder weather, ignorance and the racism soon show its ugly side. That said there are lots of funny, lighter moments.

This book looks into the early nursing side of the NHS and the training and what life was like around that time. I really enjoyed this book and found the 1950's such an interesting era to read about.

3.5 stars rounded up

This was a very cute read. It's impossible not to like our three main characters from the Caribbean, Ruby, Connie and Billie. It was great to see them grow and achieve their dreams throughout this book. Overall, however, I expected a bit more drama and hardship. While there certainly are several instances when the girls face great challenges, these were often resolved quickly or the characters simply didn't dwell upon them much. Overall, this made it a very mellow, easy read - the perfect book with which to curl up on the sofa. I definitely enjoyed it.

This is such a heartfelt read that is well written has a compelling story and well developed characters. I can never understand how it felt for Carribean immigrants but I think this book did a great job at compassionately showing what life was like for them.

An Ocean Apart by Sarah Lee is a marvellous historical novel that I just could not put down.
The novel is set in 1954 as we follow three young women from the Caribbean to England to train as nurses in the fairly new NHS. We witness the bravery needed to cross the ocean.
Nursing is a profession requiring high standards. We follow the new recruits through exams and ward rotations. Everyone has different gifts – some are good with children or in maternity or on the psych ward. Whichever their area of expertise, we witness the dedication, hard work and care needed.
Britain at the time was emerging into a new world. The Windrush generation were here. They were greeted with warmth and love on the whole but there were pockets of ugly racism and ignorance. The girls all have varying personalities and support each other. The reader witnesses, with horror, the lengths some will go to with their prejudice.
World War II was not that far removed. Some returning soldiers still suffered with shell shock. Treatment was beginning to emerge.
All the characters were well drawn, likable and realistic. The reader admires the bravery and guts needed to start a new life in Britain.
The future awaits for the three women. We see the opportunities beginning to open up.
We read with horror the stigmatism that is attached to unmarried mothers – attitudes are harsh, and the modern reader finds this hard to understand. All new life should be celebrated and all new mums should be helped.
I really enjoyed An Ocean Apart. I think it would make a fabulous Netflix series. I really want to know what happened next so I am hoping there will be more books following the characters.
I received a free copy from Net Galley. A favourable review was not required. All opinions are my own.

What a great book showing the people who came to help. It’s great to be educated as well in the ways of the foreign community who came to help set up the nhs.
Great read throughly enjoyed this book

Spoon feeding the reader isn't really my style...

I was really interested in the premise of this book as I have a personal connection to the stories of west Indian nurses. I loved following the stories of the different women who we met and learning more about how they trained and lived alongside each other. All of the characters were truly unique in their outlook and issues, it was great seeing how they developed over time.

Unfortunately I really struggled with a lot of the writing. I felt like I was often being spoon fed background information about the characters - why would one sister be telling the other about how they grew up?) And I found many opportunities for a more dramatic or interesting character driven narratives were missing with a heavy dose of coincidence being used to drive the story instead.

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC

I needed a bit of a palate cleanser after a lot of dark thriller type books and this was perfect. I love period fiction and thought this was very well written. I’ve read quite a bit of fiction set around the Windrush era recently and I’m glad more stories are being told about the people we invited, and very much needed, and their experiences which weren’t always in line with their expectations. This book handled very heavy subjects but in an easy to read way, it was quite a hopeful and sweet story overall and very much a love letter to the NHS. I’d love to follow Billie’s story and find out what she went on to do, I hope the author might be considering this?! This will appeal to anyone who enjoys this era and programmes like Call the Midwife. I could imagine this as a three-part tv series, I’d definitely watch it.

As the daughter of a Caribbean immigrant, who came to the UK to train as a nurse and answer the call to work, the characters and stories in this book really resonated with me. This book is written with such compassion and humanity, it's real and heartfelt and it's full of the stories our mothers longed to tell but we didn't always understand.

This is an interesting read, but not my style of book. It was more about the friendship and experience of three trainee nurses. I was hoping it would be more issue centred confronting in a larger way the racism and sexism people were subjected to in post war Britain. Having said that it was great to see such a positive profile for the fledgling NHS and some of the themes developed were important and noteworthy. In particular the lingering effects of WW2, both psychological and practical were handled well, woven seamlessly into the narrative. While this was book was not what I expected, it will still be a highly enjoyable read for many.