Book Review: "Band of Sisters" by Lauren Willig
"Band of Sisters" by Lauren Willig
Synopsis: 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?
Rating: 4.5
See? Proof.
Review: Well, none of you should be surprised that I’m about to write a glowing review about Lauren Willig’s newest as a) I’ve been looking forward to it for months and b) I love Lauren Willig’s books to the point I think I’ve recommended them to all of my real-life friends. Luckily, my very (very) high expectations were not only met but knocked out of the park (see text) with this one.
Lauren (I consider us social media friends on a first name basis) adapted the true-life story of a band of Smith College graduates who went to France to serve in World War I to fiction in the best way. There are 15 girls in the unit, but the narrative focuses on three: Kate, Emmie, and Julia. We spend the most time with Kate, a scholarship girl with a big chip on her shoulder, who ends up thriving in wartime France in a way that surprises her. Emmie was her college roommate, and she’s one of those rich and historic New Yorkers, and Emmie’s cousin, Julia, is a doctor looking for additional training. They go on the adventure of a lifetime — to France during World War I to help adjacent to the front lines, rebuilding communities that have been devastated by the Germans.
I know this is going to sound like a strange observation, but I read a lot of historical fiction set around war time and featuring women (you know, the books that all have the backs of women on the cover), and this one felt like a breath of fresh air. There was no dual timeline. There was no modern woman solving a mystery. There were no Nazis. To be fair, there is a time and a place for all of those books (and I will continue to read them), but it was nice to just read a book about a historical adventure featuring some strong as hell women, and have it be just that.
Lauren didn’t pull any punches in describing the horrors of war, either. She talks about the reality of what it must have been like on the front lines: injuries, gas attacks, deaths, and even a few rogue chickens. However, the book isn’t at all gruesome, and even in the sad moments, there’s an undercurrent of hope and affection. Kate is one of my favorite characters I’ve read recently, but all of them were wonderfully and fully written. I want to give all of them a giant hug, a bath, and a carafe of wine. Most importantly, I think this is one of the best odes to female friendship I can remember seeing. I just loved everything about it, and even though the subject matter was at time difficult, this book actually felt like a warm hug.
TL;DR: A book about female friendship and strength in hard times that’s was a balm to my spirit after a year at home, missing my friends. Plus, a good war story and France with a mostly happy ending is a personal fave.
If You Liked This, Try These:
“All the Ways We Said Goodbye” by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White (Bookshop | Kindle | my review)
“The Summer before the War” by Helen Simonson (Bookshop | Kindle)
“The Guersney Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrow (Bookshop | Kindle)
and finally, pretty much anything on this round up of Women in World War II Literature
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