Good historical Fiction on women and medicine set in the mid 1800s London. The book examines how women were band from practicing medicine and ethical situations in discovering lifesaving techniques. There is a big romance set in this book,
but enough medical experiments and
…more surgeries to keep this geeky science girl interested! The Historical references were good and interesting and the characters were complex and endearing. In some ways the romance was important in context to demonstrate the difficulties of women trying to break that glass ceiling and all the rules of convention it involved but I felt it was too predictable and was tiresome at times. I really adore Nora the main character who is adopted by a distracted but brilliant Doctor and his housekeeper. The Doctor is inclined to step out of “the box,” when it comes to how and who is practicing medicine, so Nora is not denied a brilliant education in science however impractical it will be to her. Nora is bright, compassionate and has strong moral values yet she is totally unconventional for her time throwing many people in her life off guard! However, this never stops Nora from pushing forward to obtain her dreams and I felt akin to her right away. A book I would recommend to fellow historical fiction lovers. Interesting note about the author Audrey Blake, which is a pseudonym of Jaime Fixsen of Canada and Regina Sirois of Kansas! Being from Kansas, I loved this book involved a local author How fun!! (less)
