Το λουλούδι της Κριμαίας

by Julia Gregson, Φωτεινή Πίπη (Translator)

Mε φόντο τη ρομαντική Ουαλία του 1840, η Κάθριν και ο Ντέιο ζουν τον έρωτά τους και μοιράζονται την αγάπη τους για τα άλογα. Η συντηρητική κοινωνία της εποχής δεν θα μπορούσε όμως ποτέ ν’ αποδεχτεί την αγάπη της Κάθριν, γόνου αριστοκρατικής οικογένειας και του Ντέιο, που προέρχεται από κατώτερη κοινωνική τάξη. Η λαχτάρα για μια ζωή μακριά από την κοινωνία της Ουαλίας, ο ανέμελος τρόπος ζωής του Ντέιο και μια τραγωδία που θα πλήξει την οικογένειά της, θα είναι οι αφορμές για τη φυγή της, καθώς με τη βοήθεια του Ντέιο εγκαταλείπει το σπίτι της και ταξιδεύει στο Λονδίνο με σκοπό να γίνει η γυναίκα που πάντα επιθυμούσε.
Μαζί με τον Ντέιο θα βρεθεί στο Λονδίνο και θα αναζητήσει την περιπέτεια της ζωής δίπλα στην ξακουστή Φλόρενς Νάιτινγκεϊλ, τη γυναίκα που έμεινε γνωστή στην ιστορία για την προσφορά της στον πόλεμο της Κριμαίας. Η Κάθριν μαζί με άλλες εθελόντριες νοσηλεύτριες θα ζήσει τον εφιάλτη και θα νοσταλγήσει την παλιά της ζωή, την αγάπη της οικογένειάς της, την αγάπη του Ντέιο…
Πόσο δύσκολο είναι να κυνηγήσεις το όνειρό σου; Πόσο εύκολο είναι να ξαναδείς τους αγαπημένους σου ανθρώπους;

Άραγε το λουλούδι της Κριμαίας θα ανθίσει ξανά;

Το Λουλούδι της Κριμαίας είναι ένα δυνατό έπος που καθηλώνει και το οποίο η Julia Gregson ζωντανεύει με την αριστοτεχνική της γραφή, μέσα από τα μάτια μιας ευαίσθητης νεαρής κοπέλας που τόλμησε να εναντιωθεί στα πρέπει της εποχής.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Romance, War, British Literature, Adventure

616 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

My father was in the Air Force, so after thirteen schools I left early longing to travel and have adventures. I worked as a jillaroo in the Australian outback, a girl groom, a shearer’s cook, a secretary, a hospital cleaner, and later, back in England, as a house model for Hardy Amies in London.

In the seventies, and back in Australia again, love of horses led to riding out with Mick Jagger on the set of Ned Kelly and my first published article in The Sydney Morning Herald. Gave up paid employment, poverty and panic followed, but eventually got more work as a journalist. Secretly wrote short stories that were never published. I eventually started to write regularly for Australian magazines. In the seventies, I was sent to Vietnam and India to write stories, and later to New York as a foreign correspondent for a group of Australian magazines (Sungravure) where I also worked for Rolling Stone Magazine.

During this time, spent four days with Muhammad Ali in a boxer’s training camp in Pennsylvania, interviewed Buzz Aldrin in Houston; Ronnie Biggs in a Brazilian jail at midnight; president’s wives, film stars in Hollywood and several notorious criminals. All good grist to my story-writing mill.

I enjoy writing short stories and have published in places like The Literary Review, The Times, Good Housekeeping, and read on the B.B.C.

Orion published my first novel, THE WATER HORSE, in 2005. I rode a horse across Wales to do the research- a wonderful experience- and then went to Istanbul and Scutari where the rest of the novel is set.

Writing EAST OF THE SUN involved two research trips to India, A great highlight. For MONSOON SUMMER, I went to Kerala, and lived with an Indian family, and travelled in a rice boat up many of the back waters I describe.
I’m married, have one daughter and four stepchildren and live in Monmouthshire with two rescue ponies, two chickens and a collie.

Reviews

[Misfit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Catherine Carreg, unhappy with her life in Wales, dreams of running away to London and convinces long time friend Deio Jones to help her do it - dressed as a man and on a cattle drive to boot. Once in London without many options for her, she takes employment at Florence Nightingale's home for sick governesses and she signs up to follow Miss Nightingale to aid the wounded in the Crimean war. Catherine and her fellow nurses are in for quite a shock at the brutal conditions in the Scutari hospital, and that includes what the nurses must endure as well - although Miss Nightingale does seem to live more comfortably.

Meantime Deio gets it into his head to take his horses to the Crimea where healthy horseflesh is in great demand and through one circumstance and another ends up with a commission in the now rag-tag and poorly prepared British army. Now that he realizes he loves Catherine will he find her in time? Or will he just give up and go to sleep in the bitter Russian winter like the other soldiers? Can Catherine escape the clutches of the lecherous, evil Doctor Cavendish?

Definitely sounds like an interesting read and plenty of story potential, but this book just didn't quite gel for this reader. Catherine and Deio didn't have enough chemistry to sizzle off the pages, and it really, really took too long for the story to move to Turkey - I found myself skimming more than I should. That said, the scenes in the hospital and the suffering endured by all due to poor management, extreme graft and stupid government officials will rip your heart out at the injustice of it all - and don't be snacking on much in the latter third of the book either (unless you want to lose it). In the end, it is a good book just not a great one.

Note, this book was previously published under the title The Water Horse, so if you own that one you don't need to own this one as well.

[Littlebookworm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Set during the Crimean War, this is the story of Catherine Carreg, a young Welsh farmer's daughter, who runs away from her restricted home life hoping to find her place in the world. Catherine's adventures takes her from working in a home for invalid governesses in London to joining Florence Nightingale's brigade of nurses to the Crimea. Her journey and experiences wake Catherine up to the harsh realities of the wider world, though through her hardships she also makes some good friends as she grows into a maturer young woman, and also comes to accept her feelings for her childhood sweetheart drover Deio Jones, whom she finds herself reunited with in the crimea.

The Water Horse is a well researched story, particularly with regards to details of the hospital wards and conditions in the Crimea; there are some interesting references to Florence Nightingale, as well as to the drover's way of life.

Catherine makes for a spirited heroine, her courage and resilience admirable. The story itself has a range of settings which contrast well against each other, from rural Wales, to the scenes of devastation in Scutari and Balaclava; and Gregson succeeds in painting a vivid picture.

I wasn't too keen on the central romance nor on Deio overall as a character; he came cross as too arrogant a lot of the time, and their relationship rather too immature. Also it has to be said that the pace is rather on the slow side.

Overall an average read, though I would undoubtedly recommend The Rose of Sebastapol, set during the same period, as a superior read.

[alysa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very disappointed in this book. I thought it would be a historically significant book about the birth of nursing. It was a cheap, very unrealistic romance novel. It was set at the time of Florence Nightengale, the mother of nursing. I really wonder if any part of the book was historically accurate. The author became so lazy in the writing, that I wonder if she ever did any research into the history of the facts. She reaches a point in the book that rather than spelling out her secondary character's names she refers to them with their initials. Of course the love story that the entire book is based on is incredibly unrealistic. As a friend in my book club pointed out, who could fall in love with their rapist? I really was hoping for a historical novel - this was NOT it.

[Πάνος Τουρλής · Rating 4 out of 5]

Μπορεί να κινούμαστε στα ίδια μοτίβα με το επόμενο βιβλίο της συγγραφέως, το Γιασεμί της ανατολής (ένας άντρας αγαπάει μία γυναίκα και οι περιστάσεις τους χωρίζουν αλλά ο έρωτάς τους θεριεύει με την απόσταση και όταν επιτέλους οι συνθήκες τους φγέρνουν κοντά ζουν την απόλυτη ευτυχία), όμως αυτό το βιβλίο το θεωρώ κάπως καλύτερο. Πιο μεστό, πιο βαθύ σε χαρακτήρες, πιο λυρικό σε περιγραφές και ρομαντισμό. Φυσικά όλα τα βιβλία της συγγραφέως είναι εξαιρετικά καλογραμμένα, με φοβερές εικόνες και περιγραφές και με υπέροχη πλοκή.

Όπως είδα στη Wikipedia (http://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9A%C...) ο Κριμαϊκός Πόλεμος (1853-1856) ήταν η ένοπλη σύγκρουση της Αγγλίας, της Γαλλίας και της Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας κατά των Ρώσων, με σημαντικότερες μάχες αυτές στη χερσόνησο της Κριμαίας. Στόχος η ανάκτηση των ανατολικών εδαφών της παραπαίουσας Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας. Η επέλαση της Ελαφράς Ταξιαρχίας μάλιστα έγινε και ποίημα από τον Τένισον (αναφέρεται και στο βιβλίο). Επίσης αξιοσημείωτη είναι η συμβολή της Φλόρενς Νάιτινγκέιλ στην εφαρμογή πρωτότυπων νοσηλευτικών μεθόδων που έσωσαν τη ζωή πολλών βρετανών στρατιωτών, σε εποχή μάλιστα που οι γυναίκες δεν είχαν αναγνωριστεί στην κοινωνία ως ιστότιμα μέλη, πόσο μάλλον όταν εμφνίζονταν γυναίκες νοσοκόμοι σε καθαρά ανδροκρατούμενα πεδία όπως ο πόλεμος.

Σημαντικό πρόσωπο στην ιστορία είναι η Φλόρενς Νάιτινγκέιλ (http://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A6%C...), η οποία μετά από επιτυχημένη διοίκηση και διαχείριση νοσοκομείου στο Λονδίνο έφυγε για το μέτωπο της Κριμαίας επικεφαλής εθελοντριών νοσοκόμων και εργάστηκε στο Σκούταρι της Κωνσταντινούπολης υπό άθλιες συνθήκες. Όλα αυτά περιγράφονται με ακρίβεια στο βιβλίο.

Ποια είναι η ιστορία λοιπόν; Η Κάθρην και ο Ντέιο ζουν στην Ουαλία. Εκείνη κόρη μεγαλέμπορου σε παρακμή αλλά κυρίαρχης και καθώς πρέπει φιγούρας στην τοπική κοινωνία. Εκείνος γελαδάρης. Τα παιδιά μεγαλώνουν μαζί όμως στην εφηβεία τα αισθήματα μεταμορφώνονται και ο Πατέρας τους απαγορεύει να ξαναβρεθούν. Η Κάθρην, από τη μια θέλοντας να ξεφύγει από αυτήν τη δεσποτική στάση και την περιοριστική κοινωνία όπου ζουν, με τις απαιτήσεις της, τον κώδικα ηθικής κλπ. ("Ράψιμο, ψώνια, κηπουρική, εμφιάλωση. Αυτά έκανε και η μητέρα σου και περνούσε μια χαρά", σελ. 80). αλλά κυρίως γιατί ήταν μπροστά στη μητέρα της όταν γέννησε και αβοήθητη κι άπραγη την είδε να πεθαίνει μπροστά στα μάτια της, το σκάει μεταμφιεσμένη σε γελαδάρη χάρη στη βοήθεια του Ντέιο και φτάνει στο Λονδίνο, όπου εκπαιδεύεται δίπλα στη Φλόρενς Νάιτινγκέιλ ως νοσοκόμα. Μετά πάει μαζί της στην Κωνσταντινούπολη και τέλος στο μέτωπο της Κριμαίας.

Ο Ντέιο αρχίζει να γίνεται καλός στο ζωεμπόριο και αρχίζει να εμπορεύεται άλογα. Λόγω του πολέμου τα άλογα είναι ανάρπαστα κι έτσι μεταβαίνει με μια παρτίδα ζώα στην Κριμαία. Μια θύελλα του καταστρέφει το κοπάδι κι έτσι δεν του μένει τίποτε άλλο πια να κάνει παρά να καταταχτεί στο ιππικό, οπότε τραυματίζεται και μεταφέρεται στο νοσοκομείο όπου εργάζεται η Κάθρην. Εκεί το ζευγάρι, ανανεωμένο με τις εμπειρίες που έζησε, δίνει μια ευκαιρία στον έρωτά τους. Θα τα καταφέρουν;

Ρομαντική ιστορία, σε ρομαντικό (όσο γίνεται) περιβάλλον. Συγκλονιστικές περιγραφές, βαθιά αισθήματ, καλογραμμένη πλοκή, βαθιά συναισθήματα κι όχι προχειρότητες. Θα σταθώ ιδιαίτερα στις περιγραφές. Κι εδώ έχουμε ρομαντικές εικόνες, μικρές καθημερινές στιγμές αλλά οι περιγραφές των τραυμάτων, της ψυχολογίας των ετοιμοθάνατων, του χειρουργείου, των πεδίων μάχης, των απίστευτα κακών συνθηκών (και ανθυγιεινών) στα νοσοκομεία πρααγματικά σοκάρουν. Πολλές φορές συγκαρτήθηκα να μη φωνάξω γιατί η πένα της συγγραφέως κόβει σα λεπίδα και δεν ανασαίνεις. Η Φλόρενς Νάιτινγκέλι περιγράφεται όπως ήταν (φαντάζομαι), χωρίς ωραιότητες και εικονολατρείες, με τα προτερήματα και τα ελαττώματά της. Οι περιπέτειες που ζει η Κάθρην θα μπορούσαν να συμβούν εκείνη την εποχή και υπό εκείνες τις συνθήκες (μέχρι και θύμα βιασμού καταντά η καημένη και η θέση της χειροτερεύει όταν ο χειρούργος που τη βίασε χειρουργεί τον αγαπημένο της Ντέιο).

Σε γενικές γραμμές μην το αγνοήσετε, διαβάστε το!

Στα ελληνικά από τη Διόπτρα το 2011 (Το λουλούδι της Κριμαίας).

[Pamela Pickering · Rating 3 out of 5]

What to say on this one? I really liked Gregson's East of the Sun but just couldn't find the same level of appreciation for this one. Although I tore through it rather quickly it seemed like it just lacked depth and character development. Despite depicting the hardships of the Crimean War, it eventually did not seem more than a run of the mill romance novel. For that I would normally rate a 2 but I still found myself coming frequently back to the book to finish it.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Back when my mum was bringing me free book hauls, this book was in the mix. Though unlike my mind likes me to believe, this isn't a movie..or at least..not the ones I know of, anyway.

I'll be honest, I got 36 pages in and felt so lost. The book is written in a way that I'm not used to, with each page, I thought i was paying close attention but kept getting confused,thinking I had missed something. Released in 2004, yet set during the 1800s.

I'm gonna be completely honest, I don't really know what this story wants for me. 200 pages in and its all words. I understand that there's Catherine/Catrin, who doesn't want to be just a daugher, or a housewife during the 1800s, so sneaks off and becomes a nurse, which leads her to putting her hand up to be a nurse for the soliders. But there's also a story of her love interest, Deio, whose a stockman and pretending not to pine for her, who joins the ranks of war as a drover, but his story is a bit blurring to follow along.

Look..I time to kill during my 10hour work day, so it helped past the time but for the life of me..it was all just words.

[Getalocalife · Rating 5 out of 5]

Όπως πάντα ένα υπέροχο βιβλίο της Gregson. Σκληρό, αληθινό και ύμνος στον άνθρωπο και τη γυναίκα. Ένας πολύ όμορφος έρωτας, δύο πολύ νέοι άνθρωποι που θα χρειάζεται να ωριμάσουν σε δύσκολες συνθήκες για να εκτιμήσουν τη δύναμη της ειρήνης και της αγάπης!

[Novelle Novels · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was ok but I wasn’t expecting so many triggers..

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

**There will be spoilers in this review. Please do not continue to read if you do not wish to know them.**

Note: There is a fair bit of sexual assault/Rape in this story that I was a bit taken aback by how many times. It upset me greatly that there were depictions of these events but historically and currently we know that happen.

I give this story 3 1/2 stars as I really enjoyed the premise of the story, but I didn't like all the bits inside. The only character I really liked was Catherine. Most of the rest of them pissed me off or did things to make me hate them.


I thought it was a good story about a young woman finding herself and discovering her career in nursing right up to the end. However, I was very disappointed in the ending as it focused on love interests rather than the power Catherine had gained in herself after all she had been through. It felt like an easy cop-out to this story because the writer couldn't imagine her without a husband.

I have to state that this is not a love story kind of book in essence. It's more a story of a young woman finding herself after the loss of her mother and her power in the world of the 1850's. She learns to deal with a great many problems and learns to become a Nurse during the time of the Crimean War. Her desire was to learn to be a doctor to help save women during child birth. A decision she makes after her mother and the baby both died. Her fortitude in those times of crisis and war made her a character I really enjoyed reading, but there were some issues that I felt could have been written better to allow her to really shine as a strong woman. She had such potential to be a force of nature in a time when women were owned by their parents or husbands and not independent persons.

I suppose given the time period, we got a story that could and probably should be expected in terms of how Catherine's story ended. But I was really rather disappointed that it ended in a demure kind of way rather than with the steadfast personality Catherine was known for throughout the whole story. Here will follow a spoilery backstory: You see, Catherine and her childhood best fried Deio end up together on a long journey when Catherine runs away from home. One night, in a drunken stupor on Deio's part, he forces her into intimacies because he loves her, but hasn't actually told her this; possibly because she's on the journey in disguise as a boy. Catherine says no repeatedly and Deio doesn't stop. This was hard for me to read and I thought an unnecessary scene, but it leads to Catherine spending a good portion of her story wondering about her feelings and Deio when, from my perspective, he just raped her, she should feel hatred and disgust of him. But it's also kind of painfully clear that she doesn't understand what had happened or refuses to grasp what happened and just moves on with her plans to go be a doctor or nurse.

After Deio's act, we have Catherine meet up with Dr. Cavendish when she arrives in the Crimea to work. He's not what he seems. I grew to hate him very quickly. He takes advantage of Catherine on multiple occasions both physically and mentally/emotionally.

The part of this book that makes it history is not just the Crimean war as a setting, but the inclusion of Ms Florence Nightingale as a "mentor" to Catherine. I didn't particularly enjoy her incorporation but it was certainly a little learning experience for me and I did some research on her after I finished reading the book.

I don't know if I'd recommend this story to everyone, but if you have an interest in stories about war and the impact on people, you might like it. Considering it's more than 400 pages(the stats here say 400, my copy was 455 pages long), I read through it quickly and I didn't find that it lulled too much that I got bored in any one place. I am a skip-reader through. If there's a lot of descriptive parts I find them boring so I'll skip ahead a paragraph.

Cheers. Enjoy if you decide to read it.

[Ape · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lordy it was a relief to finally get to the end of this book this evening. I suppose overall I liked it on some level, but I did find that it drivelled on too much for me. Too much petting of ponies, and the two star crossed lovers alone and simpering with their thoughts and how much they missed one another was just on constant repeat.

It's about a Welsh girl, Catherine Carreg, who feels frustrated in her mid 1800s life with nothing more to look forward to than being a farmer's wife. So she runs away to London with the help of the Welsh drovers, gets a job at Florence Nightingale's home for ill governesses and then volunteers to be a nurse at the Crimea. Sounds exciting? It takes half the book (a good 200 pages) before we get to the Crimea. Then there's the awfulness of the hospital facilities, simpering, Catherine being as dumb as nuts, and a melodramatic reunion. And Florence Nightingale comes across as an utter witch, a hospital burocrat who does nothing to get her hands dirty. And dear old Catherine, addmittedly a bit naive about the world when she runs away to London. But when she's out at the hospital, she lets a doctor physically assault her several times without realising she should do or say something - she just remains passive and cowering.

I believe this is Gregson's first book. I've already read one of her later ones, East of the Sun, which I remember being a lot better than this. And if you want to read a great book about the Crimean War, go for Rose of Sebastapol.

[Lia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Πολύ ωραίο βιβλίο γεμάτο συναίσθημα. Μου θύμησε λίγο τον μπρούτζινο καβαλάρη.

[Shelley Alongi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young Welsh girl leaves home with the help of her childhood play mate, a male drover, and finds herself in the middle of the Crimean War with her friend on her mind and her guilt over her mother's death in childbirth driving her to prover herself in the messy, bacteria-ridden environments of the governesses home in London and then the military hospital in Scutarin. Reading this book made me want to clean my house and take a shower. I could see how the characters changed during the events of the story, and sometimes I was very happy with actions and reactions of Catherine and Deio to each other. I really hope the hospitals weren't that bad. The insertion however of the doctor who was intent on chasing and sexually abusing Cathering eas a little too much for me. It may have been a real part of history but the only thing it did for the novel was make me glad when that entire affair was over. Working that part into the operation on Deio for the exchange of her body was not a happy part for me. I could have done without that. I knew that Deio would end up in her hospital. I found myself second guessing plot twists. I could see most of them coming. The book wasn't a bad read but I was glad to put it down and thank God we don't live in those conditions. Descriptions of the poor food and conditions made me wonder how anyone could have survived. With the lax supervision that existed, in the story anywy, I didn't find any of the story unbelievable. I thought it was a nice way to bring the two together by love of one horse. That was a nice addition. Nice book.

[Maddie Kievit · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book from the thrift with the hopes of learning about the gory, BA medical techniques of Florence Nightingale’s all-woman Crimean war group. In actuality, it was a coming-of-age tale that just so happened to be set in the context of the war. It took a long while- over half the book- to get even a mention of a necrotic toe. My medical self was extremely disappointed when there was more detail regarding the war horses than the actual men.

There were several well-written segments I was roused by (Catherine leaving to pursue her independent medical dreams instead of staying in her “find a husband and have a child” hometown sounds quite familiar), and I appreciated the author’s unwillingness to shy away on tough topics such as rape & forced submission that were harsh realities for women in this time. However, despite the entire book being about following her own destiny, Catherine magically finds her childhood-best-friend-turned-misogynist in Crimea, whom she nurses back to health and escapes with to ~live together forever~. I finished the book with a sigh.

All this to say, were I not the feminist, nursing student, lover of antique vocabulary that I am, Band of Angels would have been abandoned by chapter 10.

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been such an unexpected read. I am so glad I found this in the charity shop, as I have always been fascinated by anything to do with Florence nightingale.
Catherine was such a great character , and her growth over the novel was so pleasant to read ,
The Crimea part of the novel was brutal , honestly so but that was integral to the story . The writers descriptive style was good, it highlighted the attitude of nurses going out to Crimea , the journey which was an uneasy one to the stark, distressing conditions that the nurses found themselves in when they arrived at Crimea.
One of the things that surprised me is my changing attitude to Deio as a character. At first I found him disturbing as he seemed a bully to Catherine, rather controlling but at the end of the novel I had softened to his character .
This is a rather startling , unexpected and at times rather gritty novel . If your interested in Florence Nightingale, the Crimean war and nursing you should read this book.

[Reem Hazem · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was... A literally an open gate to another world, no, an open gate to Catherine's eyes, the book made me feel as if I WAS Catherine, as if I LIVED in that era, the dystopian atmosphere went straight to my heart and took me into Catherine's world. Catherine taught me so much, though she was not away from the idea of "not the typical girl of her time, she's rebellious, she's wild, she must be disciplined, and that's what makes her cool". She taught me what independence really means, what it means for an eighteen year old girl to live by herself during wars and where danger is the core trait of her time, she taught what it feels like when you go through so much experiences. The author knew how to describe Catherine's fear, sadness, dullness, the fire in her eyes. The book was outstanding!!

[Hafsah Kundi · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I liked the most about this book was that despite the fact that the path Catherine had chosen was filled with hurdles unimaginable by any other woman with her background she didn’t give up. She fought and went on ahead, trying to figure out a way to deal with all the madness, insanity, the hurt, the pain and the loss shrouding her like veil.
It shows the strength and resilience that one can be capable of if they set their mind to a particular thing. However, the book at certain points ( which were quite a lot ) did seem a bit tedious with all the details I felt were quite unnecessary.
I couldn’t get myself to feel something for the characters except only for catrin and Deio but for a few countable moments I couldn’t seem to connect with these characters as well.

[karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

So I made it about halfway through this book before I gave up. It was just disappointing all the way around, not at all on a par with Ms Greyson's other novels. Maybe she had a really bad ghostwriter for this one? It lacked pretty much everything that drew me to love her other books. Oh well. Characters were all portrayed as shallow selfish children & plot dragged horribly. I got bored with both.

[D.A. Cairns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essentially a romance novel, The Water Horse, is a long, long way from Mills & Boone. Set in the mid 19th century, it tells the tale of a young rebellious Welsh woman, and her quest to break away from the traditional expectations of women.

Equally stubborn, independent and ambitious is her love interest, Welsh drover, Deio. This love story is one of destiny, and one which testifies to the truth of the maxim "the course of true love never did run smooth."

The beautiful, almost idyllic landscape and lifestyle of Wales, gives way, first to the black gloom of London and then to the Crimea where a bloody war is raging. The Lady of the Lamp, Florence Nightingale assembles a team of nurses to travel to a war hospital at Scutaria. The action becomes increasingly bloody, disgusting and sickening as Gregson spares nothing in her powerful descriptions of war, disease and death. It's quite shocking really, and distasteful. In fact, there were a couple of sections I skipped because they were too much for me.

Despite the hellish setting, The Water Horse, doesn't leave the reader feeling hopeless at all, thanks largely to the almost superhuman perseverance of the heroine Catherine Carreg. What a wonderful character, so strong: inspirational.

Gregson's skill at vividly describing such awful things and horrible people, while retaining a sense of humanity and compassion is remarkable, and is in particular, what sets The Water Horse, well apart from anything I have ever read. If you have an open mind, and you should seeing as you're a reader, The Water Horse will shake your brain.

It's funny how sometimes you pick up a book, and you think "this looks okay, I'll give it a go", and then you get unexpectedly blown away. Wonderful book.

[Carolyn Fitzmaurice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the fourth book by Julia Gregson that I have read and again I really enjoyed reading it. This book takes a strong willed young woman from her home in Wales to the filthy hospitals in Scutari and the thick of the Crimean War - very different settings to Julia's other novels which feature India and Egypt. Another good read.

[Niki Karaoli · Rating 3 out of 5]

´Ενα ατμοσφαιρικό και καλογραμμένο βιβλίο εποχής, με ζωντανές εικόνες και με πένα ικανή να σου μεταδώσει ατόφια τα συναισθήματα των ηρώων. Βάζω μονο 3 αστεράκια γιατι με έσκασε μέχρι να το τελειώσω...ένοιωθα ότι οι περιγραφές και οι πληροφορίες δευτερεύουσας σημασίας υπερτερούσαν κατά πολύ της ίδιας της ιστορίας...

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had been on my to read list for a while. The premise was interesting. Set during Crimean war, it was about the first group of female nurses to go to war, led by Florence Nightingale. There was a bit too much detail for me. The underlying story was good, but could have been more condensed. I do like the way she writes though I struggled to get through the last third.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

An historical novel and romance in the classic style presented in beautiful prose - even when describing the grotesque of war. I've thought of the two protagonists several times even a few weeks after finishing the book.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn’t a massive fan of this book. I didn’t like how Catherine and Dieo treated each other. How I was expecting historical information about the war and about nursing. But no! I got two star crossed lovers sulking about each other’s feelings.

[Ilene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Girl itching to find her place in the world is torn between settling down with her first love or gaining independence as one of the original nursing staff alongside Florence Nightingale. Slow to get going, but a good read overall for historical fiction/romance/coming of age lovers.

[Kelly McCloskey-Romero · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the beginning,but about 2/3 of the way through I got a bit tired of it. I hope it’s not as basic as that the part in war was accurately miserable. Loved East of the Sun but this one not rn early as much.

[Nancy Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this novel at our library sale. Turns out, I loved the story and the writing. I would really like to read more from Greyson. It got gritty when Catherine went to be a nurse in Crimea. Surprise was the way nurses were thought of in the society of that time period. Actually shocking.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I thought this a fairly good read it was very superficial and more of a Cookson type romance . The gritty facts of the Crimea were realistic though I believe better accounts of Nightingales nursing advances exist.

[Vicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ποιοτική γραφή, αλλά η ιστορία με κούρασε... Θα έλεγα ότι δεν χρειάζονταν καν τόσες πολλές σελίδες...
Όσο για το τέλος, ήταν προβλέψιμο από πολύ νωρίς...

[Marion Aranjo · Rating 3 out of 5]

unnecessarily drawn out

[Indianna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Welsh girl goes with the drovers and then to the Crimea as a nurse with Florence Nightingale. Ok.