Nightingales on Call by Donna Douglas

It’s 1937 and the student nurses are into their last three months of training. But how will Dora feel when she is paired up with her old enemy Lucy? The pair had never got along, but with them both facing problems in their personal life could this bring forth a change in their respect for one another?

Jess Jago comes from a rough family background, and she cannot believe her luck when she lands a live-in job at the Nightingale, working as a maid. She is keen to do well, and be free of her family’s bad reputation, but when things start to go missing and Jess is put in the frame, an unlikely source steps in to help.

Effie O’Hara is happy following in her sister’s footsteps when she leaves her home in Ireland to become a student nurse at the Nightingale. But she soon finds herself in trouble, much to her sister’s disappointment. Is nursing what she wants to do? She must make the decision before the decision is taken from her.

I always look forward to reading these delightful books from Donna Douglas, the characters are now so real to me as I have got to know them over the last three books. It was nice to see some brand new characters introduced in this book too. They were instantly likeable, and their strong storylines in the book had me drawn in with the drama, and intense circumstances they find themselves in. I do hope we will be here again soon from the Nightingale nurses, I can’t wait to see what happens next to all these wonderful characters.

The Nightingale Nurses by Donna Douglas

We catch up with the trainee nurses at the Nightingale hospital in the third of Donna Douglas books in the Nightingale series.

The nurses are now in their final year of training and their final examinations are looming.

Dora is still in love with Nick, but Nick has done the right and responsible thing and married Ruby, Dora’s best friend and is prepared to make a go of their marriage. But will things change if Nick finds out that Ruby has not been honest and is keeping a dark secret from him?

Helen is in a good relationship with Charlie, much to her over bearing and interfering mother’s disappointment. Can she find the courage to stand up to her mother and to do what she feels best for her life?

Millie is left worried after getting a disturbing message from a fortune-teller regarding her fiancé. When he is sent to Spain to cover the Civil War this only adds to Millie’s anxiety. Will the fortune-tellers prediction come true?

I really have enjoyed reading the Nightingale series of books by author Donna Douglas. I could not wait to read this, the third book and to pick up from where the last book left off, and to catch up with the lives of the young trainee nurses. Over the three books I have come to really care about what happens to these wonderful and likeable characters that Donna Douglas created.  Not only does this book concentrate on the lives of the leading characters but it covers historic events of the time, the pending war and life in the East End is becoming disrupted by the uprising of the blackshirts led by their fascist leader Oswald Mosley. They cause damage; destruction and violence on the streets, which adds to the pace of the story, making this book an excellent read and a book not to be missed.

Hello, I’m Donna Douglas and I’d like to thank Nikki for inviting me to visit her blog to tell you all about my new book, The Nightingale Nurses.

The Nightingale Nurses is the third in my series set in an East End hospital in the 1930s. But don’t worry if you haven’t read the first two, as you can enjoy the books separately as well as together!

The story begins in the spring of 1936, when student Helen Tremayne is six months away from her final exams. Her domineering mother Constance is determined that nothing should stand in the way of Helen’s success, least of all her working class boyfriend Charlie. Poor Helen finds herself torn between wanting to please her mother and following her heart. But then a twist of fate changes her life forever…

Her friends Dora and Millie are facing problems of their own. Society girl turned student nurse Millie is blissfully planning her wedding to her fiance Sebastian, a foreign correspondent. But then a fortune teller’s dire prediction makes her fear she might not get the happy ending she expects. Meanwhile, there’s no prospect of a happy ending for down to earth Dora. She has to stand by and watch as Nick, the love of her life, weds her pregnant best friend Ruby.  For her friend’s sake, she knows she must forget Nick and keep her feelings to herself. But little does she know Ruby is hiding a devastating secret of her own.

The Nightingale Nurses is a tale of love, courage and friendship against all the odds, set against the background of a pre-war East End hospital. I really hope you enjoy it. Look out for Nikki’s review coming soon!

The Nightingale Nurses is published by Arrow. It’s available from bookshops and supermarkets, or from Amazon –

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nightingale-Nurses-Nightingales-Donna-Douglas/dp/0099585146/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381764628&sr=8-1&keywords=the+nightingale+nurses

If you’d like to know more about Donna Douglas, please visit her website – www.donnadouglas.co.uk

I would like to introduce special guest-author Donna Douglas to my blog.

The Nightingale Sisters by Donna Douglas

Ever since The Nightingale Girls came out last summer, readers have been asking me when the sequel is coming out. And I’m pleased to say that The Nightingale Sisters is finally published this week! 

The Nightingale Sisters continues the story of the three student nurses, feisty Dora, shy Helen and aristocratic rebel Millie, training at an East End hospital in the 1930s. But there are lots of new characters, too, so you can still enjoy it even if you haven’t read the first book (although I hope you will!).

The Nightingale Sisters picks up a couple of months after the last book finished. The three girls are still students, sharing a room in the nurses’ home under the watchful eye of the formidable Home Sister. As well as coping with the ups and downs of life on the wards, with demanding patients and even more demanding Sisters, they each have their own heartaches to deal with. East End girl Dora’s family is facing poverty, and Dora has a difficult dilemma – should she give up her nursing dream to save them from ruin? And then there’s Nick Riley, the bad boy next door. Dora’s in love with him, but so is her best friend – and Ruby isn’t going to give him up without a fight!

Meanwhile,  her room mate Millie is involved in a love triangle of her own, as she finds herself caught between her fiancé Seb and handsome doctor Will. But then an unlikely friendship with an elderly patient makes her question where her heart – and her future – really lies.

The Nightingale Sisters also introduces us to the new Night Sister, Violet Tanner. It soon becomes clear that Violet is not all she seems – but who is she, and what is the secret she’s hiding? The other Sisters are determined to find out. But their discovery sends shockwaves around the hospital…

I hope you enjoy reading The Nightingale Sisters as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you want to find out more about me and my books, take a look at my website – www.donnadouglas.co.uk.

You can buy The Nightingale Sisters here – http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0099569426/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0099569353&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1NJYF4RPE9FC4EEJXTPG

Happy reading!

Dx

And now my review

At last the sequel to The Nightingale Girls, the brand new book from author Donna Douglas is now available to buy. I really enjoyed the first book and I really looked forward to catching up with the characters in the new book The Nightingale Sisters.

In book two the Sisters are now in their second year of training at The Nightingale Hospital in Bethnal Green, in the East End of London in the 1930’s.

Dora who is from a working class background finds it a struggle at times training alongside all the respectable middle-class students. In some ways she is working twice as hard as the rest trying to prove that she is just as capable as the rest and it is not easy for her. Things are made even harder for Dora when problems present themselves at home too and Dora faces a difficult decision of whether to carry on with her training or to help out her family.

Millie is now engaged to Seb but when they are married he expects Millie to give up nursing and become a full-time wife. Not happy with this plan will Millie be drawn to the charms of the handsome doctor William Tremayne?

Violet is the new night Sister with a dark secret she is in desperate circumstances in her personal life, when help comes from an unexpected source.

Continuing two months from where the last book left off. We are back in the lives of Donna Douglas’s wonderful characters. Each of the nurses have their own stories to tell and the brilliant way that Donna Douglas writes leaving the reader in suspense at the end of chapters, that you can’t help but read on, wanting to know and find out what is happening to these amazing characters that you can’t help but care about. I really liked the introduction of a new character called Violet and I found her story to be really moving. I really do hope there will be a book three in the series as I did not want this book to end. If I was able to award this book more than five stars I would, just like The Nightingale Girls, The Nightingale Sisters is a book well worth reading.

I would like to welcome, a very special guest on my blog, author Donna Douglas

Hello, and thanks for inviting me to be a guest on your site. I’m Donna Douglas, author of The Nightingale Girls, the first in a series of stories set in an East End Hospital in the 1930s.

It’s not often a publisher gives you an idea for a novel, but that’s what happened with The Nightingale Girls. It was my editor who suggested that a hospital might make an interesting background for a series of stories. I had to admit, it was a tempting idea. A hospital is a mini kingdom of consultants and nurses, porters and patients, each with their own story to tell. It’s also a place where you’ll find love, laughter, heartache, dramas, and human life at its most raw. All fantastic material for a writer!

So I started doing some research. And I discovered that a nurse’s lot in those days was harsh, to say the least. They trained for three years, during which time they lived in the nurses’ home under the watchful eye of the Home Sister. They were not allowed visitors, and had to be in bed for lights out at ten (although they devised ingenious ways to get around this particular rule!). They would be on duty for 14 hours at a time, during which they weren’t even allowed to sit down, except for three short breaks (and even these were at the ward sister’s discretion). There was a strict hierarchy among the junior and senior staff, to the point where students were not even allowed to pass a senior in the corridor. Nurses were also referred to by their surnames, and often went through their whole careers not knowing each other’s Christian names!

I started to think about the kind of girls who might sign up for such a life. I came up with tough East End girl Dora, who becomes a nurse to try to better herself and escape the clutches of her evil stepfather. At the other end of the social scale, I had reluctant debutante Millie, the poor little rich girl with everything except her independence. Finally, I had Helen, the timid one. Helen has never broken a rule or disobeyed an order in her life – until she falls in love with a patient on her ward. Suddenly she has to choose between her head and her heart.

Nursing may sound a bit grim, but in spite of the harsh regime, all the nurses I met spoke fondly of their time on the wards, the fun they’d had and the lifelong friends they’d made. That’s certainly true of my three characters, who form an unlikely bond that helps see them through the bad times they all face.

I really hope you enjoy the book. If you want to find out more about me and my writing, please visit my website – www.donnadouglas.co.uk – or my blog – donnadouglasauthor.wordpress.com.

Thanks for listening, and thanks to Nikki for allowing me to be part of your amazing blog!

To buy The Nightingale Girls from Amazon.co.uk, click here http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0099569353

The Nightingale Girls by Donna Douglas

The Nightingale Girls is all about three girls with very different personalities, who have signed up to be trainee nurses at one of the best teaching hospitals in London in the 1930’s.

Dora comes from a poor background and she is passionate and determined to become a nurse. Dora has always dreamed about being a nurse and it is a career choice that can help her escape from her humble beginnings and save her from her abusive Stepfather.

But with money for new text books to be found, will Dora be able to keep up with her fellow students if she falls behind in her studies due to a lack of books?

Helen’s mother is a hospital trustee and her brother is a doctor. Helen does not have many friends and she tends to keep herself to herself. But deep down Helen is deeply unhappy; her controlling mother controls all aspects of her life. So when Helen gets the chance to live her own life and break free from her overbearing mother, will she be able to make a stand?

Millie or to give her, her full title Lady Amelia is a carefree girl from an aristocrat family. Millie is a bit of a rebel often arriving back at the hospital late after a night out and avoiding the more senior staff. Millie is already repeating her preliminary training after failing the first time round, she now needs to work hard. Can she become more organised and prove she as what it takes to become a nurse?

This is the first in a series of novels following the lives and loves of three trainee nurses in the 1930’s. It is a really wonderful read that I found really touching at times. I really liked all the characters they are really likable. The story does not just concentrate on the characters time in the hospital but on their personal lives too. I really want to find out what is going to happen to the characters in the next book, so it is a book that leaves the reader wanting more and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

To buy this book from Amazon.co.uk, click here http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0099569353