I really loved this story and the character, Gemma. It was easy to be absorbed in the back and forth between the past and the present while seeing a different side of WWI.

This book is a blend of historical & contemporary romantic fiction. I've recently read a couple of books that follow the formula of simultaneously telling stories based in the present and the past; The Poppy Field is an exquisite example of how this can be blended in to a wonderful story involving two brave and strong females, 100 years apart.

The story of Alice Le Breton, a young nurse with little experience in some of the worst WW1 battlefields in France was heartbreaking as you acknowledge what so many young men and women experienced during this war. With the upcoming Armistice centenary, it is especially poignant to remember the horrors of war. My great-grandfather was injured in a gas attack in France, he was cared for in a rehabilitation center for some months after before returning home and he suffered many long term effects throughout his life, yet he was seen as one of the lucky ones. To read in this story the gruelling experiences of both the nurses and the soldiers who experienced mustard gas attacks (as well as other injuries from explosions) was particularly touching because of my great-grandfather.

The modern day story of nurse Gemma who is doing up a dilapidated farm cottage in France was more subtle, but equally a powerful story of a woman following her own path and dreams. As the story unfolds and you see how the two women are interlinked, a century apart, you get a feeling of how history sets us all on a path and that even from the most devastating of situations we can find our true purpose.

If there is any criticism of this book, then it is that the copy I received had several errors in it that needed further sequence editing and correction. The odd typo or word missing usually doesn't bother me but there were a few that really jarred my reading flow, and a couple of the past-present sequences were a bit misaligned which I think could have been edited better to blend more. Hopefully these things will be tweaked with final edits because it is a wonderful story that leaves you uplifted and thinking about it after the final page.

A decent enough story, linking the lives of two nurses living 100 years apart. Gemma is reading a bundle of letters found hidden in her French farmhouse and is keen to know all about Alice's love affair, so why does it take her months to read them? And why couldn't we read the letters too? They are mentioned but we don't see the words. I needed to read the letters themselves to be able to connect with them and feel the emotion. And there are so many typos and editing errors, which I always find so off-putting. This story had potential that was never fully realised.

I've read a lot of books set in or after WWII, but not as many dealing with WWI, so I was excited to read The Poppy Field. The story alternated between Gemma, living in France in 2018, and Alice, a nurse during WWI. I enjoyed the dual story line, and the two parallel love stories. This was a fun, quick read.

I was excited for this story; a WW1 nurse vs a modern day nurse 'meet' through old letters. I was sure a great story was bound to follow.

The overall story is good; we follow Gemma, a trauma nurse turned house renovator on a leave of absence after her ex dies in the emergency room. She goes to France to restore a farm that belonged to the family through some distant cousin. Here she meets a kind English contractor who helps her with the house and with moving on from her trauma. In this house she finds letters belonging to Alice, who is a WW1 nurse in a casualty clearing station in France who falls for one of her patients. In the chapters from her POV we follow their romance closely, as well as the hard work a nurse such as Alice had to put in and the emotional toll it took.

However it was not very well written or worked out. The main characters are written out quite well, but all secondary characters are superficial and their characterisation was a little confusing at times (I still am not sure what kind of person fellow-nurse and friend Mary is?) and it was a little trope-y at times (for example: the sexy hot contractor turns out to be an Afghanistan veteran with a prosthetic leg. OR the overly stern, tyrannical Matron at the CCS). The writing was a little bit awkward - at least, for me (my stomach churns when I hear a character being described as 'super hot'- and I think the author felt much more at home in the parts set in WW1 than she did in the modern setting. What I did like a lot was Alice's ending, which seemed very fitting in a Vanity Fair-esque way.

Overall the result was alright It was an interesting story in an interesting setting. Sadly the writing style and characterisation made this book a little hard to pull through.

I loved this book!
It kept me from all my chores simply because it was just so heartwarming and I was desperately trying to find out which direction Alice's and Gemma's lives would take them.
Beautifully written. I love WW stories very much and have read many of them. This one didn't disappoint.

Thanks to Netgalley, Deborah Carr and Harper Impulse for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.

The Poppy Field pays homage to  WWI war veterans. Hence this book was aptly released in 2018, that marks the  100th anniversary of the end of WWI.

Written in dual timelines, readers oscillate between 2018 and 1910s through Alice Le Breton's letters. Romance aside, Deborah Carr gives readers a greater appreciation of the sacrifices made by both men and women during war times for nationalistic endeavours.

Let's be honest WWII sub-genre has to be one of the most popular sub-genres in the publication. Perhaps partly because of the stories of resilience from the Jewish Holocaust and other atrocities. Personally, I never really got into WWI fiction until after watching Wonder Woman in 2017. Mainly because one of the notions that stayed with me was WWI would be the war that ends all wars ( Ha!).

During my brief UK stint, I gathered that there was a great respect for their war veterans which I did not fully comprehend until reading a wounded soldier's delirious comment while receiving treatment on whether future generations would recall their sacrifice.

If you are in the market for a page-turner (forgive the cliche) without heavy-handed romance, then The Poppy Field is the book for you

4 and 1 / 2 stars

Gemma, originally from Guernsey but now relocated to Brighton is a trauma nurse. She is burned out on her job and taking a break. Also after a disastrous affair and an additional personal trauma, she has had enough. She tells her father that she will go to Doullens, France to oversee the renovation of an old cottage that belonged to a relative. It hasn’t been lived in for years. Doullens is near the Somme where some horrific battles were fought during WWI.

The cottage is very dilapidated and in poor repair. She is disheartened. She meets Tom in the hardware store and he agrees to come out to look at the place. He is a contractor. There is one old building that has a painted shut door. Opening it, they discover a box. In the box are letters written by Alice LeBreton, a nurse stationed in France during WWI. Alice becomes entranced with Alice’s letters and the little notes that she has written on the backs of the letters. She is immersed in Alice’s story.

Meanwhile her father wants to put the cottage up for sale, or at least rent and keeps emailing her to ask is it ready yet? Gemma has fallen in love with the place and doesn’t want to leave. She doesn’t want to go back to nursing, but she is ill-equipped to do anything else. She has become quite attached to Tom who is doing most of the renovation work.

I usually don’t read romance novels (no heaving bosoms or sculpted manly chests for this girl), but this book is so much more than that. I would class it as romance light. It is more about war and its horrible effects on both those injured and those treating the injured. The medicines available in the early 1900’s were nothing compared to what we have today. Gemma, and Tom too, were saddened to think that they could have done so much more for the soldiers if they only had…The courageous men who fought the war and the brave women who cared for them are depicted in this book in a highly skilled manner. The reader may be reading a “romance light” novel, but there is so much educating also going on that it cannot be ignored.

The writing and plotting of this book was done very well. The transitions were done well and the book was written logically and linearly. It was informative as well as being entertaining. I liked Gemma and Tom and was pleased to see Gemma learning a great deal about herself while also growing into her personality. Tom was a delight. Alice was a courageous woman with a contagious likeableness about her. I liked this book very much and look forward to reading more novels from Deborah Carr.

I want to thank Harper Collins/HarperImpulse and NetGalley for forwarding to me a copy of this wonderful book to read, enjoy and review.

The Poppy Field by Deborah Carr is super split time Historical Fiction. The story centers around two nurses, Alice serves in 1916 as a volunteer nurse in World War I France and Gemma in 2018 England. Mysterious hidden letters and a brooch are found in a house being remodeled. Vivid descriptions of scenery, people, food, and the medical care in World War I. I loved the story of the reality’s of life in both love and tragedy. Excellent writing style and flow of the story. I really enjoyed this book and hope to read more by Deborah Carr. I am also hoping to read more of Alice‘s story following World War I and more of Gemma’s story in the present. My thanks to the author, Harperimpulse and Netgalley for allowing me to read, review and enjoy this exceptional book.

What a wonderfully written gem this is! The story alternates between modern day France and WWI France. Modern day Gemma and WWI Alice find that their lives are intertwined through letters that Alice wrote. This story is both heartbreaking and full of hope and happiness.

Many thanks to netgalley and HarperCollins for this advanced readers copy.

Working in the medical field has left nurse, Gemma, with a case of PTSD. She leaves her job to help tackle the renovation of a derelict farmhouse in France. It’s in the farmhouse that Gemma finds the letters that Alice, also a nurse, wrote during World War I. Crossing back and forth from past to present, Carr pens a beautiful, heartbreaking novel of war and loss and the resilience of the human spirit