Book Synopsis:
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.
Young nurse, Gemma, is struggling with the traumas she has witnessed through her job in the NHS. Needing to escape from it all, Gemma agrees to help renovate a rundown farmhouse in Doullens, France, a town near the Somme. There, in a boarded-up cupboard, wrapped in old newspapers, is a tin that reveals the secret letters and heartache of Alice Le Breton, a young volunteer nurse who worked in a casualty clearing station near the front line.
Set in the present day and during the horrifying years of the war, both woman discover deep down the strength and courage to carry on in even the most difficult of times. Through Alice’s words and her unfailing love for her sweetheart at the front, Gemma learns to truly live again.
This epic historical novel will take your breath away.
The Poppy Field is available now in ebook at the amazing price of 99p and will be published in paperback on the 27th December. You can purchase or pre-order your copy of both here.
My Review:
The Poppy Field is a fantastic dual timeline story set in WW1 that was a truly fascinating and emotional read. The story follows Gemma in the present day as she tries to recover from a broken heart whilst renovating an old farm house for dad in France. The other timeline follows Alice who is working as a nurse during ww1.
I must admit I did prefer Alice’s story to Gemma’s as there was a lot more going on and the historical details were very interesting. It’s hard to believe the conditions that the nurses had to work in and the horrors they must have encountered on a day to day basis. The descriptions of the constant drop offs of casualties was hard to read about at times and it made me wonder how the nurses coped. Alice is a brilliant character, feisty and brave with a huge heart which was well suited to her chosen career. The love story that starts between a wounded soldier and her was wonderful to read about and it was great to see Alice happy as I felt she deserved it. The scenes describing this relationship were a great contrast with the war scenes, though quite poignant at times as with it being war you were never sure what would happen.
That’s not to say Gemma’s story wasn’t interesting. I really enjoyed reading about the old farm house and her plans for renovating the place, particularly as this is something I’d love to do. The rather hunky builder who comes to help her definitely made for great reading and I kept hoping that something would happen between the two of them as I felt Gemma deserved some happiness. The discovery of the letters did help add more to Gemma’s story as I felt it made her more connected to the house and town she found herself in, helping her to build her confidence in her new surroundings. I did want to scream at her though to get a move on and read the letters a bit faster as sometimes there seemed to be quite a big gap between them.
The story is very well plotted and the author has obviously done her research as there is a lot of fascinating historical detail that I didn’t know about included in the story. The two women’s story’s linked together really well and, although I did prefer Alice’s story, I kept reading as I wanted to discover how both of their stories ended. The two stories seemed very believable and the characters very real which made it easy to get involved in the story.
This is the first book by this author that I have read and I would definitely read more from her in the future. If you enjoy dual timeline historical fiction that is quite emotional and fully immerses you into the story then you’ll love this book.
Hige thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Harper Impulse for my copy of this book via Netgalley.
About The Author:
Deborah Carr lives on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands with her husband, two children and three rescue dogs. She became interested in books set in WW1 when researching her great-grandfather’s time as a cavalryman in the 17th 21st Lancers. Broken Faces is her debut historical novel.
She was recently commissioned to write The Poppy Field to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War for HarperCollins’ romance imprint, HarperImpulse.
She is one third of the Blonde Plotters writing group and was Deputy Editor on the online review site, Novelicious.com. Her debut historical romance, Broken Faces is set in WW1 and was runner-up in the 2012 Good Housekeeping Novel Writing Competition and given a ‘special commendation’ in the Harry Bowling Prize that year.
Follow Deborah:
Website: http://www.deborahcarr.org
Twitter: @DebsCarr
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeborahCarrAuthor/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/deborahcarr/
Over The Rainbow Blog 
I have read a lot of books about WWII, but very few from WWI. I think I will check this book out. Great review, Joanna.
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I was thinking the same thing, I’ve read loads of books from WWII, so this one focusing on WWI is very appealing!
Great review, Jo! xx
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