Stevie’s review of Harvest of War (Leonora Trilogy, Book 3) by Hilary Green
Historical Romance published by Severn House 1 Jul 13
I already raved about pretty much anything written by Hilary Green, and then she wrote this series about the conflicts between 1912 and 1918: not just the First World War, but the conflict in the Balkans that led up to it – one of my favourite authors writing one of my favourite eras. So what can you expect from the saga? Women who get involved. Women who travel across dangerous territories by whatever means necessary. Men who may disapprove but who love those women anyway and will generally help rather than force them to sit at home knitting scarves, packing up food parcels and waiting. This series has all that in bucket-loads and the third book is the stand-out volume.
The book picks up the story of Leonora (Leo) Malham Brown in Salonika during July 1916. Having travelled with the Serbian army during their retreat from Albania, she is once again nursing – this time with the Red Cross – in order to do her bit for the war while staying close to her lover, Colonel Count Aleksander (Sasha) Malkovic. Leo is far from your standard heroine – she spent much of the first book dressed as a boy, even fooling Sasha for many of their months as comrades-in-arms – and she refuses to stay at home in England, no matter what her brother Ralph has to say on the matter.
Leo’s one concession to respectability has been to become engaged to Tom – himself in love with Ralph – on the understanding that they will never actually go through with a wedding while there is a chance she might one day marry Sasha.
Over the next two years of the war, Leo loses Sasha, has his baby, has to leave her child behind in Macedonia when she falls ill and is evacuated back to England against her will, and is reunited with her best friend Victoria (Vita) and their friend Luke, who is in love with Vita. Tom and Ralph, meanwhile, get caught up in the horrors of the Somme. It’s grim at times, but throughout the horror there is love between the couples and among the friends. Not everyone survives – it wouldn’t be a realistic WWI story if they did – but they all get to know love and success at some point.
The series also contains one of the most understated and angst-free abortion subplots I’ve ever read. The abortion takes place in the second book, and is only vaguely alluded to in this book, when the character in question is communicating news of her new, much-wanted pregnancy.
As for Leo, Sasha, and their baby? Well, two of them are the main characters in the saga, what do you think?
Highly recommended to anyone who likes 20th century history, but you really ought to read the whole series back-to-back.
Grade: A
Summary:
1916. The remnants of the Serbian army are holed up in the Greek city of Salonika. Working as a volunteer with the Red Cross, feisty young Englishwoman Leonora Malham Brown has secretly become the lover of their colonel, the dashing Sasha Malkovic. Meanwhile, Leo’s fiancé Tom, engulfed in the horrors of the Somme, discovers a shocking secret about Leo’s brother, Ralph. And Leo herself is keeping a secret from Sasha . . . Tragedy and heartbreak will follow before Leo has a chance of happiness.
No excerpt available.
Other books in this series:
