Book Review #2

This book is about a young midwife during the Civil War. Her greatest desire is to become a surgeon which was unthinkable for a woman in the 1800's.   However, the war provides her the opportunity to learn things she might not have wanted to know.  I especially enjoyed this book because Mary was living in Washington D.C. and dealing with the battles that occurred near our home in NOVA.  Some of the details of childbirth and leg amputations made me a little squeamish.  Perhaps I could have done without such graphic descriptions. The cover tells of an epic love story, but the romance was lacking.  Historically, this is a great novel that sheds new light on one of the darkest time periods of American History. Unfortunately, there is one scene where a depraved soldier abuses himself and three or four swear words, neither of which added anything to the story. Other than that, it was a clean book  as long as you are okay with gruesome medical jargon. If anything it certainly makes you thankful for modern medicine. 

I give it 3 1/2 stars (out of 5).