Stevie‘s review of It Started At Waterloo by Lynne Connolly
Historical Romance published by Samhain Publishing, Ltd. 16 Jun 15
The 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo has given some of my favourite historical romance authors the opportunity to write something about the run up to the battle as well as events taking place in its aftermath. Not to be outdone, Lynne Connolly has written two novellas about those events, and this was the first of those that I read. As I’ve come to expect from this author, we got a very thoughtful hero and heroine and lots of details around attitudes, expectations, and ‘common knowledge’ of the time.
Amelia and Will are dedicated to their cause – both the saving of lives through battlefield surgery, and understanding more about why some patients recover and some wounds heal, while others don’t. When news of the impending battle reaches them, they rush away from the Duchess of Richmond’s Ball (I’ve been seeing a lot of that event recently, but no two authors take quite the same slant on it) to set up their equipment in preparation for the wounded men who will shortly be arriving at the hospital.
I love that Amelia and Will are willing to try ideas that we now take for granted – such as triage, even in the face of disapproval from those who want the injured treated in order of rank or social standing – and are also prepared to notice when their actions lead to the desired result – more patients recovering – even if they can’t quite connect the two. Of course they also face disapproval from those who think Amelia should restrict her activities to rolling bandages, rather than helping directly (and ruining her best dress), including Amelia’s mother, who finally puts in an appearance at the hospital the morning after the pair have collapsed onto Will’s camp-bed due to exhaustion.
Amelia’s mother has arrived to report that she’s found a husband for her daughter, and so will be able to put more effort into finding matches for the other girls, but he’s not a man Amelia would consider spending her life with. She thinks her sister is fond of him, though.
Will steps in and proposes – not without good reason from his point of view, even if he hadn’t previously been considering marriage. The pair wed, and Will has to explain to his bride that he’s just a little richer and a lot more important than he’d led her to believe. He has better reasons for avoiding his responsibilities than the blurb led me to believe, and Amelia has a fair number of reasons for finding the transition from minor very gentry to nobility difficult – especially as she and Will still want to carry on their work, if not on the battlefield, at least in the arena of writing up their experiences to educate others.
Back in London, there are a couple of human obstacles to the pair’s happiness, of course, although I do feel that those issues need more pages before reaching resolution. In think this story would have worked better as a short novel rather than as a novella. Other than that, I enjoyed following Will and Amelia’s adventure and am looking forward to reading more stories set in the same few weeks as this summer continues, especially the other novella from this author.
Grade: B
Summary:
Does she love him enough to let him go?
After three straight days working beside surgeon Will Kennaway to treat the wounded of Waterloo, Amelia Hartwell collapses on the nearest bed to sleep. Surely she can be forgiven for not caring that the warm body sleeping next to hers is Will’s.
Amelia’s status-hungry mother, however, couldn’t be more pleased to have an excuse to get the painfully shy, socially awkward Amelia married off, albeit to a less-than-ultra-rich husband.
Will doesn’t keep his title a deep, dark secret. His little-known earldom simply affords him the financial freedom to focus solely on healing the sick. But now that he has a wife to think about—and to admire, thanks to her unstinting bravery at Waterloo—he reluctantly takes up the mantle of earl to do his duty.
Missing her meaningful work as a nurse, Amelia finds herself floundering in society’s glaring spotlight, wondering if Will regrets being forced to marry. Perhaps it might even be better to give him his freedom, even if doing so will break her heart…
Warning: Steamy, battlefield kisses under a tent canvas lead to steamy scenes in the bedroom.
Read an excerpt.
