SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE by Jennifer Robson

Note: I am not a paid reviewer, and I have purchased this title to read for my personal enjoyment.

Lilly’s sheltered, aristocratic upbringing is turned on its head at the onset of WW1 when her brother Edward and his working class-bred best friend Robbie join the British army, and she crosses her imperious mother to do her bit. Lilly becomes an ambulance driver, and makes her way to serve at surgeon Robbie’s field station in France. Lilly’s and Robbie’s budding romance takes center stage, and they must clear a myriad of class-driven and war danger hurdles to connect. Even as a back-drop to Lilly’s and Robbie’s romance, scenes of casualty transport and treatment give us a lucid picture of the struggles of those who cared for combatants. Early scenes of Lilly’s family’s opulence nearly lost me, but I came to enjoy the pacing of the story and the Lilly character, especially Ms. Robson’s handling of her many encounters in which the grip of the war set class differences aside.