The Nightingale Girls: (Nightingales 1) (Nightingales)

by Donna Douglas

Three very different girls sign up as student nurses in 1936, while England is still mourning the death of George V. Dora is a tough East Ender, driven by ambition, but also desperate to escape her squalid, overcrowded home and her abusive stepfather. Helen is the quiet one, a mystery to her fellow nurses, avoiding fun, gossip and the limelight. In fact she is in the formidable shadow of her overbearing mother, who dominates every aspect of her life. Can a nursing career free Helen at last? The third of our heroines is naughty, rebellious Millie an aristocrat on the run from her conventional upper class life. She is doomed to clash over and over again with terrifying Sister Hyde and to get into scrape after scrape especially where men are concerned.

This utterly delightful novel brings a London pre-war hospital vividly to life.

• ISBN10: 0099569353
• ISBN13: 9780099569350
• Publish Date: 16 August 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Cornerstone
• Imprint: Arrow Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 512
• Language: English

Reviews

[Lianne]

I was approved an ARC of this book by the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This review in its entirety was originally posted at eclectictales.com: http://www.eclectictales.com/blog/2015/05/22/review-the-nightingale-girls/

The reader follows Dora, Millie, and Helen, as they go through their probationary period and first year with classes, become accustomed to what is required of them, learn to deal with patients and staff, and interact with each other. Each main character comes from a different socioeconomic background, but they are all similar in that they want to excel as nurses. They have their ups and downs with the profession, whether it be failing a practicum or getting in trouble and having to go before the Matron, but I love how their friendship with each other grows that they’re able to support each other by the end of the novel.

Their individual storylines were interesting and I was invested to reading how it all works out for them. Helen undergoes quite a major character journey from being under her mother’s formidable persona with a very quiet, compliant persona to becoming a woman who makes her own decisions regardless of her mother’s opinion and finding happiness along the way. Millie also goes through a journey of responsibility and finding herself in a wee bit of a love triangle (sort of); I think I find her the most endearing of the three because she just wants to do her own thing despite coming from an aristocratic family. Dora’s story was the darkest, not because of her working class background and her difficulties fitting in, but because of her stepfather and his presence in her life.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading The Nightingale Girls. I was wholly invested in their stories and cared for many of the people in their lives. I highly recommend this novel for readers of historical fiction and fans of Call the Midwife and other related medical period dramas.