Review: 'No Place for a Lady' by Gill Paul (2015)

All’s fair in love and war … 1854. England is in the grip of a gruesome war.
Lucy Harvington, ill-educated beyond how to be a wife, has travelled to the Crimea with her handsome and impetuous officer husband Charlie. As the day of battle dawns she can only pray her husband survives. If he doesn’t, what will become of her?
Dorothea Gray, volunteer nurse at the Westminster Hospital, is determined to follow her little sister Lucy to the front and to serve her country alongside her heroine Florence Nightingale and the pioneering nurses already risking their lives.
But neither sister could possibly have known the horrors they are about to witness – the courage, the cowardice, the danger – and the excitement – nor could they have guessed the risks they must take, the passion they will taste, and the simple fact that they may never see one another again…
A few weeks ago I was part of the blog tour for the release of author Gill Paul’s latest historical novel, ‘No Place For a Lady’. I had a special guest post from Gill Paul herself on why she writes historical novels, so be sure to check that out if you haven’t already done so by clicking here. The e-book version of the novel was released on the 4th of June and the paperback version on the 2nd of July. As part of the blog tour I also received a review copy of the book and since it didn’t arrive on time for me to include my review with my blog tour post, I have my review of ‘No Place For a Lady’ to share with all of you today. I personally really looked forward to sitting down with the novel because I had heard a lot of positive things about Gill Paul’s writing, but I hadn’t had the chance to check out one of her other books before. I love a great historical novel every now and again, so I hoped both the author and the book would match all the great things I’d read and heard!
‘No Place For a Lady’ is set in England in 1854, the time of the Crimean War, and focuses on two sisters from London, Lucy and Dorothea Gray. Lucy is still young but when she falls head over heels in love with handsome officer Charlie Harvington, she decides to get married straight away and follow her new husband to the war front in the Crimea. Lucy’s older sister Dorothea is against the hasty marriage and tries to warn her sibling about life in a foreign country and on the battlefield, but nothing can stop Lucy. Dorothea tries to focus on her work as a volunteer nurse in Westminster Hospital, but she can’t stop worrying about her younger sister. When the opportunity arises for her to serve her country by working as a nurse at the warfront, Dorothea knows she has to take this opportunity. Not only so she can work alongside her own personal heroine Florence Nightingale, but also to hopefully track down Lucy before it’s too late.
I can’t believe it took me this long to pick up one of Gill Paul’s historical novels, and after having read ‘No Place For a Lady’ I can say with certainty that it definitely won’t take as long before I sit down with one of her other novels; what a wonderful and captivating read this was! The combination of the intriguing time period and place in which the novel is set (both England and the Crimea during the Crimean War around the 1850s) and the author’s engaging and detailed writing style resulted in a read which I really looked forward to picking up and getting lost in. The storyline immediately spoke to me with a focus on two sisters who are separated during the war, and since the story is told from both Lucy’s and Dorothea’s perspective I really felt like I got to know both characters and got the chance to look at the events in this historical period from different points of view.
Lucy and Dorothea are great main characters; really different and each with her own story to share. Lucy is the young and hopeless romantic one, who is willing to leave everything behind, including her family, to go to the warfront with the man she loves. Dorothea is the older, more thoughtful and worrying, sister and also the character I personally liked best. Both women are forced to be strong and find their own way in life, and I really enjoyed being taken on this journey with them. Author Gill Paul really has her own voice; one filled with a lot of detail (I honestly felt like I learned a lot while reading this book) which made it easy to picture everything, but also its own distinctive style. I loved jumping back in time and joining these characters during this fascinating period in the past and can’t wait to pick up another one of Gill Paul’s novels to travel back to another historical event. Overall, ‘No Place For a Lady’ is a wonderfully captivating and intense historical novel; a book that held me in its grips from the very beginning and quite simply couldn’t get enough of!

Rating:9,5/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Blog Tour: 'No Place For a Lady' by Gill Paul!

Another amazing blog tour which I am incredibly excited to be a part of stops by 'A Spoonful of Happy Endings' today, namely the tour for Gill Paul's latest release 'No Place For a Lady'. The e-book version of the novel was released on the 4th of June and the paperback version will follow on the 2nd of July. I honestly can't wait to pick up 'No Place For a Lady' which sounds like an intriguing historical read. I have a special guest post from Gill herself on the blog today, in which she tells us all a bit more about why she writes historical novels. Be sure to check it out below!
Why I write historical novels By Gill Paul How on earth did I get into this? It would be so much easier to write fiction set in the present day, in the town where I live, based on characters I know, but I must be a glutton for punishment because I seem to be stuck on writing historical novels, with No Place for a Lady my fifth so far. 
I blame my mother. She was a Jean Plaidy fan so my first taste of adult books was reading her Tudor and Stuart series with their old-fashioned illustrations of ladies in fancy gowns on the covers. Mum also loved the Sunday night historical dramas on the tele so I sat with her through series like Jewel in the Crown and the original Poldark, long before Aiden Turner ripped open his shirt. We liked Antonia Fraser biographies and we wept over Gone with the Wind, Gandhi and Schindler’s List. As a teenager I had quite a crush on Charles II, fantasising about being one of his mistresses, before progressing into my Anne Frank phase. I always wanted to be a novelist, and when I started writing my passion for history led me straight back to the past.
The first problem with writing historical fiction is the huge amount of research you have to do. Some writers don’t bother with the minutiae but I like to get every single detail correct: the clothes, the food, which mod cons they would have had, the social etiquette, the way they spent their leisure time. My readers let me know if I get the teensiest little thing wrong  (thank you for that, by the way – I can always correct the ebooks). Because of this, I have usually been researching for about six months before I even start the first chapter so that’s why I could never produce more than one book a year, and No Place for a Lady is my first in two years. It’s not that I’m sitting at home twiddling my thumbs… honest!
When working out the plot, I stick to the sequence of historical events, so that roughly determines the structure. I couldn’t have Florence Nightingale eloping with a Russian general. Heavens, no! I have lots of real-life characters in there and feel a responsibility to represent them accurately. Where possible I get experts to check them: the director of the Florence Nightingale Museum very kindly read the proofs of No Place for a Lady and corrected a few things for me.
Historical novels shouldn’t ever feel like a history lesson. I like to immerse myself completely in the period and know a huge amount that I will never use so that I can tell the story with just enough detail to set the scene and keep it effortless for readers. It’s tricky when there’s a complex political backdrop, as with the Crimean War, which is why I’ve got into the habit of writing a ‘historical afterword’ for those who want to know more – but you can also skip it if you prefer.
So why do it? Because history has all the best stories. You simply couldn’t make them up. As the old adage goes, truth is far, far stranger than fiction. I love the fact that people 160 years ago were motivated by the same human emotions that drive us today, so they behave in ways we can empathise with. I like taking my characters and putting them in extreme situations to see how they react. And what could be more extreme than putting two genteel middle-class Victorian ladies in a chaotic, gory war zone, 1,500 miles from home?
Hope you enjoy 'No Place for a Lady'! Thanks so much for having me on the blog!
Thank YOU, Gill! :)