I read Two Wars ands Wedding by Lauren Willig. I enjoyed the dual timeline and feel the characters were well developed. The story was interesting from a time period I know little about. I felt the book was long and at times challenging to get through. I gave this book 3 stars.
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lauren Willig is one of my favorite writers. This novel is engaging. I like the time periods in this novel. The only thing I didn’t like about it was that I didn’t care for Betsey. She made many decisions that I didn’t agree with. She was very irrational. I also thought the middle dragged. Still, I recommend this for fans of romances during both the World Wars. It was just not Lauren Willis’s best novel.

Another fantastic, well researched tome by Ms. Willig. A difficult read given the suffering found on many of the pages that feels especially relevant at this current time in modern history. The novel manages to ask difficult questions about war while also engaging the reader into the lives of the female heroines.

I thought this book was so creative. I thought that the cover in the description relaxing but then when I finished reading this book, I thought it was amazing. The red dress has so much per positivity and I loved it.

Thanks to netgalley.com for this ARC.

This a story that takes places mostly in Cuba and Greece during the end of the 19th century. It is the story of one woman's struggles to find her way in a man's world and to survive being a single woman in that world.

There is an underlying love story or two and its makes for a fun yet interesting and historical read. Lauren Willig does not disappoint again.

While this book was well-written and researched, it, unfortunately, was not right for me. I DNF'd at 64%

This was a beautiful story and I learned a lot. As a nurse myself, I love reading stories with female leads and especially when medicine is incorporated.

This author always and I mean always writes a moving, sometimes gut wrenching novel that makes me hold my breath. And I pray for the past discretions and always hope for a happy ending. This one held me close with the promise it would be all right because life will move on. Our history is proof.
I loved it and only cried once. It was written well and the entire thing was gold. Great characters with many intense and heartfelt moments.
I highly recommend and hope you add this to your TBR!
Thanks William Morrow via NetGalley.

Lauren Willig is amazing at writing about little known times in history. I so enjoyed the story of Betsy who was a nurse during two wars just two years apart .... one in Greece and one in Cuba. Lauren Willig bases her characters on real people and she really knows how to make these stories come to life. Betsy and Holt's story isn't all fun but it's sweet to watch them fall in love.

Lauren Willig's books are on my to be read list every single time!

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Publication date: 21 March 2023.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC of Two Wars and a Wedding!

Two Wars and a Wedding follows Betsy Hayes as she longs to follow in her father's footsteps as an archaeologist.in 1896. Betsy is attending the American School in Athens having recently graduated from Smith College. Her male professors refuse to allow her to participate in the excavations since she is a woman. She finds an ally in Charles, Baron de Robecourt. Betsy finds herself swept up in the conflict between Greece and Turkey, first as a passionate supporter of Greece's independence and then as a nurse to support the Greek soldiers. Betsy's feelings for Charles continue to grow, with surprising revelations along the way.

This is a dual timeline story, with the second timeline occurring in 1898 when Betsy once again throws herself into the fray as a nurse in the Spanish-American War in Cuba. Betsy and the American Red Cross deal with limited supplies and understaffing, as well as being rebuffed for being women.

I loved this book! These are two historical eras that are not often written about in the historical fiction genre and I loved learning more about these periods, especially from the point of view of a woman. The writing was excellent and the characters were compelling. Please be sure to listen to the author's note at the end.

Two Wars and a Wedding follows Betsy Hayes from Greece to Cuba in the late nineteenth century. An archaeologist turned nurse, Betsy, after a doomed romance with a French archaeologist and a broken friendship, takes her former friend’s place on a nurse ship to Cuba during the Spanish-American War, where she makes new friends and saves lives along the way. Based on a few historical women, Lauren Willig’s characters are vibrant and dynamic, and Betsy in particular is a fully fledged and fierce (and fiercely intelligent) woman. Willig’s settings are equally vibrant, and she brings the horrors of nineteenth-century warfare and medicine to light. Willig handles the multiple locations, perspectives, and characters wonderfully, and the switches between characters and locations adds another level to the book. The book provides a fascinating insight into two overlooked wars, and the multiple perspectives from the characters provide interesting perspectives, especially around their differences and different experiences during the wars. Willig’s story and characters are both incredibly compelling, and the relationships and settings are compelling and immersive. Betsy Hayes’ story, with all its twists and turns and romances and tragedies, is consuming, enthralling, and fascinating to explore.

This. Was. A. Struggle. For. Me. There, I said it. I didn’t like this book at all. I acknowledge that it’s well written (thus the 3⭐s) and probably a four-star read for most folks, but I didn’t connect with this story. All jokes aside, the subject matter in the book's first half was way too close to home for me, making this hard to get through. For may years I lived with an ancient Greek archaeologist; the trauma from that relationship's end kept playing over in my mind as I read this, making it hard to concentrate on the book. I almost DNFd, but I kept seeing so many other great reviews that I switched to audio and trudged on. In the end, I felt the book was good, not great. Would I have enjoyed it better had I not re-experienced the trauma of a past relationship? Maybe, but probably not. I’m picky about romances, and the central romance of this novel is rather icky. And the “woman in trouble” trope is not my favorite, particularly in books purporting to have strong female leads. Some books you just don’t vibe with, and this was one of mine. Read if you enjoy learning more about women’s struggles to break into male-dominated fields, want to learn more about the Spanish American War, or just love a slow-paced war story.

Two Wars and a Wedding is the story of a classicist turned nurse in the Spanish American war. I ended up reading this book a long time after I downloaded it. I am notorious for forgetting what books are about by the time I end up reading them, and completely forgot what this one was about. The cover design made me nervous as it reminded me of a WWII book, which is almost never my cup of tea. So I took a while to get around to reading it.

And I blown away by how much I liked it! I could not stop reading it. The characters were great, the setting was great, I was very invested in the romance, and I was interested in the historical aspect of nursing and the Spanish American War. That's a war that I know very little about (like almost nothing) and it's an interesting time period. Betsy, the main character, was fun and spunky in a way that I really enjoyed. Her experiencing nursing in Greece and how women were viewed in other professions was really interesting to read about. I liked how she ended up finding a way to make a difference after failing in other areas.

I highly recommend this book if you are into historical fiction! 4.55 starts rounded up to 5 from me. Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the electronic advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Lauren Willig does such a great job of bringing to life the intelligent, spirited women who were our forebears. In Two Wars and a Wedding, we travel to Greece during the war with Turkey in 1896, and then, a few years later, to Cuba during the Spanish American. Betsy Hayes finds herself, inadvertently and then deliberately, in two different war zones. This tale of love and friendship, found and lost, was a a great way to start off a summer's reading.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I had a difficult time getting involved in this storyline. I started and stopped numerous times and just could not find myself drawn into the plot. I've enjoyed other books by this author so I'm hopeful this was just a one off for me.

I love Lauren Willig's books and this is no exception. The dual timeline novel covers topics I don't usually read about - the Spanish-American War and the Greco Turkish War - which are connected via archaeologist and nurse, Betsy. She's a formidable character you can't help but root for, and the side characters are also strong. I can't wait to see what Willig will write next.

Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for the copy to review.

I absolutely loved this book! This was historical fiction at its best. I also didn’t know much about either conflict from this book so I learned a lot. I love Lauren Willig’s style of writing and this book did not disappoint. I definitely recommend this book for historical fiction lovers. I received a free copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

“Two Wars and a Wedding”, a female centric and non-linear historical fiction, weaves an American woman’s  point-of-view with Roosevelt’s Rough Rider Hold ‘em Holt in two settings: Greco-Turkish in 1896 and the Spanish-American War in 1898. As always, bestselling author Lauren Willig’s smart dialog, impeccable research, and phenomenal storytelling had me invested from the start. Willig painstakingly peels back the layers of Smith College graduate, archaeologist wanna-be turned nurse, Betsy Hayes, building her character arc and revealing the injured friendship with Ava Rutherford. The tension ramps up once Betsy finds a delirious, wounded Holt in her makeshift hospital.

‘And there she was again, that woman, that Miss Hayes, only this time she wasn’t clad in diaphanous white robes but in a none-too-clean white Libby over a blue dress with the Red Cross band on one sleeve. In the twilight, she seems to film over like hot breath on a cold window, shivering in and out of his vision, blurry around  the edges, as if she were a ghost, as if she were that figure in the vibes, warning, warning…

‘“Look.” Holt turned to pull Paul’s arm, tried to point. “Look where she comes again again.”

‘“Oh, thank goodness,” Paul said, and dragged Holt forward toward the apparition. “It’s Betsy. Betsy! I’ve got a casualty for you!”’

…And later, the novel becomes unputdownable, once the heartbreaking relationship with Charles de Robecourt, a married French archeologist, is fleshed out.

‘But that wasn’t the whole reason. Was it because to fall into a man’s bed once—well, several times on the space of one week—could be accounted as carelessness, but to do it again would be to form a practice? She loved Charles; she was in love with Charles. But to love someone and to be someone’s mistress were two very different things entirely. It was much easier to run about being noble and avoid the whole question.’

With more than a nod to the real life story of American Harriet Boyd Hawes, Willig crafts an elegant tale using actual events, historical people, and factual news reports. “Two Wars and a Wedding” should not be missed.

The latest by Lauren Willig is good! Her typical multiple timeline across generations wasn't how she splits Two Wars. Instead, Betsy, our main protagonist, splits the dual timeline about a year apart: her year as a Classics/archaeology student in Greece and then her year nursing in Cuba with the Red Cross. I enjoyed seeing the character's growth and *revelation* of the big secret (didn't see coming, too early, anyways!). Fans of Willig will enjoy this departure from her typical UK/America setting.

Betsy Hayes wants more than anything to be an archeologist and is in Athens trying to be given a chance. But things don't work as she planned so when war breaks out between Greece and Turkey Betsy heads out to nurse them The experience changes her so when she finds out her best friend Ava is going to be a nurse in the Spanish-American war she rushes to Miami to stop her. In Miami Betsy doesn't find Ava but does find the Red Cross and Clara Barton and joins them. Cuba is even worse than Betsy feared but that doesn't stop her from doing everything she can to save the men. This is a story of a woman discovering what is important and finding the strength to do what she must.