The Poppy Field: A gripping and emotional World War One historical romance

This is a good but predictable story, which I don’t dislike in a romance, but as the book went on, a lot of grammatical and punctuation errors became a distraction. Early in the story, Tom was injured by an “IUD” instead of an IED. Some editing would make this a very good book.

I am falling in love with Deborahs’ stories. Just can’t put the books down. Can’t wait for the next one. Dianne C.

The Poppy Fields is by Deborah Carr. This book mainly takes place in France during World War I. It mainly takes place at a forward transition center where doctors and nurses care for the wounded soldiers. The Sisters (Nuns) make up the nursing staff and are helped by volunteers from France and England. These young girls have volunteered to do their best for the cause and were uprooted from their homes to come to France. Here they live under very strict rules of conduct and even their letters are read by the Matron before being given to them. Letters are generally permitted only from family members. They are not to interact with the patients nor grow too close to them. They are constantly watched by the Sisters. Still, they manage make friends. It also takes place in the present when Gemma takes a leave from her job as a nurse and comes to the cottage owned by her Father to renovate it and get it ready to sell. It had belonged to her Father’s cousin whose Mother had been a nurse in the area years before.Gemma needed a rest from her job as a trauma nurse. She needed to decide which direction her life would take upon her return. She was used to being alone so the isolation of the small farm didn’t bother her. Her parents were professionals and her birth was “an accident”. She saw her parents rarely when she was growing up and although they cared for her, it was almost an afterthought. However, when she needed a place to go, her Father gave her the responsibility of getting the unseen farm renovated and read for the market. She needed someone to do the heavy work and hired Tom, an Englishman who had moved here. He was willing and able to help her between his other jobs and his price was fair. During the time she renovates the house and outbuildings, Tom is usually the only one she talks to. She finds a metal box of letters that belonged to her ancestor, Alice Le Breton. Alice had written them to Lieutenant Peter Conway and Captain Edgar Woodhall. Who were these men? Why was she writing to both of them? What was her life like? What happened to her? Gemma had many questions and the only possibility of answers was in the letters.Alice Le Breton’s life in France is revealed via these letters with their notes on the backs. A young girl from the island of Jersey, she had set out to be a volunteer nurse and go where she was needed. She ended up in a transition camp in France to help the wounded get their best shot at surviving. She and her friend Mary work long hours helping the wounded; but they are the first to grow attached to their patients. Only sorrow can come from being attached to their patients or to the doctors, so they try to steer clear of those attachments. But can they?The book is very good and gives a very clear account of what life in the hospitals could have been during the war. The opposition of what it is like in the hospital to what it is like at the farm is the best I have heard in a while.

I enjoyed the story very much. It definitely could have used better proof reading, but it didn’t detract from the story for me.

The Poppy Field by Deborah Carr is a story of a farm in the French countryside and two young nurses falling in love with wounded soldiers - a hundred years apart.Hoping to take her mind off a recent tragedy and betrayal, trauma room nurse Gemmaarrives in northern France to remodel a property recently inherited from a distant cousin.Early in the renovation she finds a box of letters written during WW1, and a beautiful red poppy broach hidden away in the floor boards. As Gemma begins reading the letters she finds they are written by a young nurse to the wounded soldier she has fallen in love with. Gemma is quickly drawn in, eager to learn the details of their relationship, and how it and the broach relate to the farm.There are many parallels between what she reads in the letters and her life, helping her to open up to the possibilities of her own future. As she falls in love with the farm she comes to realize she has more in common with the girl in the letters than just their love of poppies.This is an easy to read story of love and loss, the tragedies of war, and second chances at happiness. I enjoyed reading and recommend for anyone who enjoys historical fiction set in war torn France, but wants a change from the typical WW2 setting.

The Poppy Field is the second book I've read written by Deborah Carr. I really enjoyed reading it. It was hard to put down.

I really enjoy historical fiction and have read a number of books that depict life during WW 2 and WW 1. This book describes the care of nurses and their volunteer helpers for the severely injured soldiers in France during WWi. The author also described the life of a current day nurse and wove the 2 stories together always letting the reader know which person she was writing about.What this book greatly needs is editorial help. Sentences start in one direction then go in another direction without erasing the words from the first attempt at writing the sentence. The punctuation is often poor. In particular, there are many commas that are not needed. In one chapter the names of the 2 leading men were mixed up. I read the book on a Kindle so don't know if that makes a difference. I don't know if the book was also published in paper form but can attest to the fact that the electronic form needs editorial help.

Two women, both nurses, separated by a hundred years but with so very much in common - especially the trauma of dealing with young lives cut much too short. As Gemma struggles to come to terms with the loss of a love, she immerses herself in revamping an old cottage in the French countryside. It's there that she discovers a treasure trove of letters written by Alice, a nurse in WWI. The more she works - & reads - the more she learns about life & about herself, including whether the handsome young builder who's helping her has any place in her future.. Some annoying lapses in editing & continuity do not distract too much from what is a sweet & absorbing story.

Deborah Carr has written a beautiful dual narrative where our heroines, Alice and Gemma, share intriguing threads of their lives, even though those lives are 100 years apart.I longed for both to find love and happiness.

I do love dual timeline stories, and this one did not disappoint. Set near the battlefields of France during World War I and present day, this story is filled with coincidences separated by 100 years.

This is a romance. I loved the way the male protagonist helped the girl toachieve her dream home.I loved the historical aspect of the story

The Poppy FieldsAuthor Debroah CarPublisher Harper CollinsThis book is set in ww1 in the battlefields of the Somme, also in 2018,It is the story of a volunteer nurse from Jersey in the Chanel Islands who is posted to the Somme.The story is also of Gemma in 2018 who is also a nurse needing to escape from her NHS traumatic job which is in turmoil and atragic relationship.She volunteers to renovate a farm house in France near to the battlefields of the Somme for her her father.This turns of to be more than she bargained for. During the renovations letters were discovered hidden in the farmhouse it turns out to be that her Aunty Alice Le Breton once lived at the farmhouse.This is a story of WW1 romance compared to the modern day challenges.The story is very well written and I enjoyed it immensely.It is well worth a read.

As a retired nurse the story of two nurses from differing decades captured my attention. I enjoyed the flow of the two story-lines, one in present day and one in WW1. We learn of the anguish the Great War brought to many, and of how members of our present day forces suffer, too. Emotional and physical pain is written about both sets of couples, and the years between the stories are nothing; love is love. The strength of both women dealing with their past, present and facing unknown futures are what kept me turning the pages of this lovely historical romance.