Victoria E. (shespeaksvolumes) reviewed on 4/25/2014 + 3 more book reviews

My favorite place is the The Walnut Tree Cottage. This is a place to find peace. There, characters found respite from the gray world of WWI and renewal of their health and inner strength.

The novel begins amongst the beauty and carefree days just prior to the French and English entrance into WWI. Suddenly, as it would be in our real world, characters are called to war. Our leading Lady Elspeth wants very much to help but is restrained by the attitudes of her class and especially her guardian. Still she finds a way. As Elspeth Douglas, she studies nursing, takes a flat in London, where one of her room mates is Bess Crawford. From there she is assigned to field hospitals within earshot of artillery battles where her friends are fighting. Elspeth finds herself among the fighting soldiers several times. On one of these occasions, Peter Gilchrist, a long ago friend, shelters her in the stone rubble of a church.

Within this novel is as surprising turn of events for Elspeth whose fiancé has been taken prisoner by the Germans. While reading, I was as surprised as Elspeth. But, in the author's clever way, this brought us all back to The Walnut Tree Cottage.

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