Unforgettable

My Rating: 5/5

Review: This was such a beautifully written story about war and love and terrible loss. Mary Sutter is a strong, independent woman, who will stop at nothing to achieve her goal. She is the best midwife in Albany like her mother before her, but she desperately wants to be a surgeon. This desperation will take her to Washington where the horrors of the Civil War is just beginning to be felt. She will face horrible struggles, tragic loss, exhausting work, grueling days and nights, and heart breaking sites. Robin Oliveira completely transfixed me with her words, and I had a hard time putting her book down. It will certainly stay with me for some time to come.

Book Description: In this stunning first novel, Mary Sutter is a brilliant, head­strong midwife from Albany, New York, who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Determined to overcome the prejudices against women in medicine-and eager to run away from her recent heartbreak- Mary leaves home and travels to Washington, D.C. to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded. Under the guidance of William Stipp and James Blevens-two surgeons who fall unwittingly in love with Mary's courage, will, and stubbornness in the face of suffering-and resisting her mother's pleas to return home to help with the birth of her twin sister's baby, Mary pursues her medical career in the desperately overwhelmed hospitals of the capital.