Band of Sisters
Fiction
William Morrow
March 2, 2021
Advanced reader copy
528
Free from publisher
A scholarship girl from Brooklyn, Kate Moran thought she found a place among Smith’s Mayflower descendants, only to have her illusions dashed the summer after graduation. When charismatic alumna Betsy Rutherford delivers a rousing speech at the Smith College Club in April of 1917, looking for volunteers to help French civilians decimated by the German war machine, Kate is too busy earning her living to even think of taking up the call. But when her former best friend Emmeline Van Alden reaches out and begs her to take the place of a girl who had to drop out, Kate reluctantly agrees to join the new Smith College Relief Unit.
Four months later, Kate and seventeen other Smithies, including two trailblazing female doctors, set sail for France. The volunteers are armed with money, supplies, and good intentions—all of which immediately go astray. The chateau that was to be their headquarters is a half-burnt ruin. The villagers they meet are in desperate straits: women and children huddling in damp cellars, their crops destroyed and their wells poisoned.
Despite constant shelling from the Germans, French bureaucracy, and the threat of being ousted by the British army, the Smith volunteers bring welcome aid—and hope—to the region. But can they survive their own differences? As they cope with the hardships and terrors of the war, Kate and her colleagues find themselves navigating old rivalries and new betrayals which threaten the very existence of the Unit.
With the Germans threatening to break through the lines, can the Smith Unit pull together and be truly a band of sisters?
My review:
3.5 stars
There was a lot to enjoy about this book, and a couple problems I had that kept it from being a 4 star read. First the positives. Hooray for a book about WWI. While I enjoy those written during WWII, I'm a bit burnt out on them right now. I also loved the fact that this was a story about empowered women who tackled obstacles in their path, and worked together to help those in need. These women were certainly ahead of their time, and I enjoyed the way they had that can do attitude! The stories from the ravaged villages were descriptive and captivating, and moved the story along nicely. I was not as enthralled with the stories of the women themselves. Kate definitely had a chip on her shoulder, and I was on board with her issues until it kept coming up over and over, and it started to grate on me. Her relationship with Emmie was a main focus of the book, and I could have used a bit less of that and more of the war story. My other issue is that the book was just too long. I'm sad to say that I had this same issue with Willig's book released last year (The Summer Country). Luckily when I found myself bored with a section, something would happen to peak my interest again, and I would carry on. I wonder if this could have been remedied by editing a hundred or so pages out (or would this have changed the whole dynamic of the book)? I certainly had no issues with the writing style, the author did a great job with setting, plot, and characters.
An enjoyable look at the Smith College Relief Unit, a group of women who helped bring relief to villages in France that had been ravaged by the Germans during WWI. Really interesting, albeit a bit too long for my tastes.
