Lauren Willig’s book Band of Sisters, is one of our favorite WW1 Books so I was eager to read this novel. It’s a dual-timeline story with a single heroine who finds herself caught in a war between Greece and Turkey in 1896 and in the Spanish-American War of 1898.

Betsy Hayes travels to Greece to study archeology but ends up embroiled in the middle of a war, where she becomes a nurse. After witnessing the horrors of war, two years later she’s off to Cuba to try to stop her friend from experiencing the same things.

As usual, I loved Willig’s writing. I was immersed in both stories as I rooted for Betsy and her spirited ways.

Two Wars and a Wedding is a story of 3 young, strong, and brave women in the late 1800s. Betsy travels to Greece to be close to an archeology project, only to discover women at that time were not allowed to do the actual work. The Greco-Turkish war breaks out in 1896 so she applies to become a nurse even though she has not passed her nursing exams. She pours herself into helping the wounded as best as she can and then a couple years later volunteers with the Red Cross to aid the wounded in the Spanish American war in Cuba in 1898. I loved the story as well as these characters. I will definitely be reading more books by Lauren Willig. Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for an advance e-copy. Two Wars and a Wedding is available now.

I loved this book! I really didn’t know anything about either of the wars in the book and I felt like I learned a lot. The book was very historically accurate but still had a great story…I was hooked and never felt like I was reading a textbook.

I really enjoyed this book. When I first started reading, I really did not like the main character, Betsy. I found her entitled and self absorbed, but as the book progressed she became thoughtful and caring. It was amazing what the Red Cross nurses had to endure. I really didn’t know anything about the Spanish-American or the Greek-Turkish Wars, so having those as the settings was very interesting. Recommend!

Betsy and Ava are two very strong-willed characters that made this story so interesting. Reading about the two wars, the first the war with Greece and Turkey while Betsy is there as an archaeologist, and the second the Spanish-American war with Betsy and Ava serving as nurses taught me so much about two wars I knew very little about.

The background story of Betsy and Ava’s friendship and rift added a nice element to the story and was a great contribution to the dual timelines as we learned more about both women and about their relationship.

The mixture of real characters and fictional ones had me so invested in the story, and learning who was real, besides the obvious ones, was so interesting to me.

If you like historical fiction, and time periods not as common in today’s storylines, I recommend this book. I look forward to reading more by the author.

Thank you to William Morrow for the copy of this book. All views are my honest opinion.

I tried reading this book on numerous occasions, and never could get into it. The description of the book was intriguing but the first 7% was not. I typically will give a book at least 10%, but this one I could not even get through 10% before moving it to my unfinished shelf.

Fabulous book! I loved the heroine, she was sympathetic, strong, adventuresome, and spunky and she had a great learning curve. The hero really grew on me. I learned a lot about two very different wars on both sides of the Atlantic. The way the author moved back and forth between the two time periods for the same main character was different from anything I've seen done before, and an intriguing method of telling this particular story. Lauren Willig never disappoints with her thorough historical research, humor, and romance. Highly recommended to readers who enjoy historical fiction inspired by true stories.

This was such a great book! I learned so much it made me want to go and check out other books by this author. I loved the different characters and the overall storyline was addicting.

Lauren Willig’s Two Wars and a Weddings hits the bullseye for this reader. I enjoyed reading about war from a nurse’s viewpoint. Willig has taken the war between Greece and Turkey in 1896 and inserted a fictional character, Betsy Hayes, an aspiring archeologist who is in Athens. Betsy volunteers as a nurse which changes her life. The second time period finds Betsy in the middle of the Spanish-American war in Cuba in 1898. For much of the first half of the book, I felt there was just too much description rather than really seeing wat was happening through character conversations. The second half changed my mind. The pace picked up, and I felt like I was an observer of the horrors of war. The brutal diseases, lack of medicines, injuries, and the hospital ship returning injured soldiers to New York made me feel like I was in the middle of the story. I especially enjoyed the long epilogue and the very thorough author notes on her research and the real life people she based her characters on in the book. My thanks to William Morrow for an ARC of this book. The opinions in this review are my own.

I really wanted to like Two Wars and a Wedding. I have read other books by the author and enjoyed them. Something about this plot did not work for me. I found myself not looking forward to reading because I could not connect. with any of the characters. The story of two women during two separate wars sounded so fast paced, but it wasn't! It didn't seem to move at all. This one really wasn't for me.

For fans of historical fiction, with a touch of romance thrown in for good measure. The book has a dual timeline, 1896 when Betsy diverts paths to do nurse training, after becoming frustrated that as a woman, she is not allowed to excavate in archeological digs. 1898 represents Betsy’s time as a nurse in the Spanish American War, serving time in Cuba with limited facilities and supplies to help the men as much as possible. Betsy is a strong character, breaking out of the mold of the dutiful woman by attending college and traveling as a nurse. The book was a bit slow to get into but the last third was excellent. Even better, the book is based on real people and real life events. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

From the blurb: Set during an electrifying era of nation-building, idealism, and upheaval, Two Wars and a Wedding is the tale of two remarkable women striving to make their place in a man’s world—an unforgettable saga of friendship, love, and fighting for what is right.

Told in alternate timelines, the Greco-Turkish War and also the Spanish-American War this is a women-centric piece of historical fiction, one that keeps you reading along and wondering if all goes well in the end.

With themes of loss, grief, and the brutality of war, Two Wars and a Wedding's characters are relatable and true to life. The women in Wittig's book are capable of bold decisions. Sometimes they are proud of their choices and other times not so much. As in life, we see that options and decisions aren't always black and white, but land in the gray.

Wittig's book follows the Red Cross and its importance. Her characters remind us how wars and decisions have consequences. While Wittig's characters, Betsy and Ava, are best friends and sisters in the war, they do not always agree. Regardless of that, you know they care deeply for each other.

Many thanks to William Morrow and Netgalley for providing me the opportunity to step inside Wittig's world. At the end of this wonderful book, I was left with feelings of hope, strength during extraordinary times of weakness, and humor in the face of uncertainty.

Two Wars and a Wedding is a loose prequel to Lauren Willig’s delightful Band of Sisters. This epic tells us the backstory of Dr. Ava Stringfellow and Betsy Rutherford, née Hayes, who led the Smith College Relief Unit that was the focus of that novel. It’s an interesting look at how history often repeats itself – the names and places might change, but as the old saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

We begin our story with Ms. Betsy Hayes, who is on a mission of mercy. She had goaded her friend Ava into being more adventurous and was subsequently horrified when she received a letter advising her that the medically minded Ava has decided to begin her exploits by heading to war-torn Cuba as a nurse. Betsy, having served as a nurse herself in the Greco-Turkish War, definitely doesn’t approve. War is a dangerous, horrible business, and she wants Ava nowhere near it. To forestall Ava’s going, Betsy comes up with the harebrained idea to volunteer herself in Ava’s place. Like many of Betsy’s ideas, this one goes wrong from the start.

This is a dual-timeline novel, so chapter one ends with Betsy in a bit of a mess in June of 1898, while in chapter two, we go back to find her in a bit of a mess in 1896. She’s with the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, determined to join them on their dig at Corinth. She has, after all, traveled halfway around the world with the express purpose of participating in an excavation. Betsy doesn’t quite understand why the professor thinks her class-skipping, feisty self isn’t suited to the work, but naturally blames it on misogyny. (It is, but she is also not the ideal person to break that glass ceiling.) Fortunately, making a friend of Aikaterini MacHugh means Betsy’s trip to Greece isn’t a complete waste of time.

Betsy quickly finds herself caught up in the social whirl that surrounds Aikaterini and is especially captivated by the charms of that lady’s good friend, Monsieur de Robecourt. He’s older, a wealthy historian who is enchanted by Betsy’s opinions and delightfully captivated by her spunky personality. For Betsy, who has faced endless disapproval from those who find her fiery temperament and determination to participate in unladylike activities unappealing, his fascination with her is enthralling. Betsy dreams of their being another “Mr. and Mrs. Radcliffe Emerson, both covered in dirt and dust, posing next to a half-excavated column”. A dream that is shattered when she learns Charles is very much married with no intentions of getting a divorce. She friend-zones him and redoubles her efforts to prove she is capable of the hard work and of mastering the difficult living conditions required of those who participate in archeological expeditions.

Part of her plan to prove her capability includes nursing during the war that has just broken out. Through a series of convoluted events, she finds herself running a small hospital for a week – which is apparently all the time it takes to master that particular profession. This begins her months-long odyssey in aiding the sick. Much will happen during this period that will change who she is, the trajectory of her life, and subsequently, Ava’s life as well.

It’s easy to wax lyrical regarding almost anything Ms. Willig writes. Of AAR’s listed twenty-two reviews of her work, nine are DIKs, with another nine being B+ grades. Her lowest ratings are the Bs that account for the other four reviews.

There’s a good reason for this. The author is an expert wordsmith who writes thoroughly enjoyable stories. Her historical research is nothing short of outstanding, and she regularly shines her spotlight on fascinating, often overlooked aspects of the past. Her stories are heroine-centric, and those heroines are spectacular, intriguing, intelligent women who are well worth knowing. Most of that is true of this novel.

What keeps the book from being a DIK read is Betsy. She is more spirited than smart or capable, and her emotions drive her more than her reason. At the start of the story, she is also woefully naïve, and her love interest, Charles de Robecourt, is a stereotypical practiced seducer of young women. While the author presents him with a degree of sincerity, his smooth compliments and artful courtship left me skeptically rolling my eyes every time he appeared on the page. Their affair shows a couple caught deeply in the whirlwind of their sexual chemistry, but I never believed it was more than that.

Additionally, I struggled with Betsy’s growth in this novel. Unlike Kate and Emmie from Band of Sisters, who grow into their best selves, Betsy grows into a different person. The young woman we begin the novel with would not have turned into the one we find throughout much of the middle and end portions. I had an ‘aha!’ moment when I read the author’s note and found out the character was based on the life experiences of two different women – which explained to me how we got two different Betsys. Had the narrative covered more time and events, I might have believed the transformation, but as it stands, I struggled with this aspect of the tale.

Another quibble I have is with Ava and Betsy’s friendship. While it is presented as lovely and powerful, it is also distant. The groundwork for their camaraderie was apparently laid during their years at Smith, but on the page, they spend relatively little time together. It feels in many ways that Betsy’s attitude towards Ava is what one feels towards a revered elder sibling; she desperately wants her approval, but it takes a bit of growing up for Betsy to see Ava as a fully formulated adult separate from Betsy’s ideal of her.

Fortunately, we get plenty of strong female friendships in the form of Aikaterini and Kit Carson, a fellow nurse/reporter Betsy meets during the Cuba portion of the story. Both these ladies help Betsy move towards becoming her best self and provide love and support throughout her journey to getting there.

Betsy’s relationship with Holt, a soldier in Cuba, is another highlight of the book. Holt is able to understand and accept Betsy in a way no one else in her life really has. Intelligent, capable, resourceful, and supportive, Holt is everything that a hero should be.

Two Wars and a Wedding isn’t perfect, but it is perfectly readable and enjoyable. The quibbles I’ve listed kept it from being quite as impactful for me as Band of Sisters or The English Wife, but they certainly won’t keep me from recommending it. If you enjoy heroine-centric historical novels at all, this is a must-read.

This was a wonderful book about both the war the Greco-Turkish War and the Spanish-American War.

Betsy has just graduated from Smith College and is finishing her studies by going to Greece to be come an archeologist. The problem is she is female and the American College will not allow her to excavate as she so badly wants to. She finds a friend in Charles, Baron de Robecourt, and he is able to take her places that she has been wanting to go. Romance ensues and then she learns that he is married. Betsy then decides to change plans and take a nursing course with her friend Ava with aspirations of helping in the Greco-Turkish War.
Charles catches up to her and when things do not go as she had hoped, she leaves Greece for a new venture. Ava was planning to nurse during the Spanish-American War and Betsy goes to try to take her place and keep her safe.

Betsy meets the Rough Riders on her journey to Cuba. She works with The Red Cross and Clara Barton to nurse the wounded after having proven herself in the Greco-Turkish War.

Betsy meets Kit who is a newspaper reporter that is nursing to get the scoop on all the male reporters.

This is a wonderful dual timeline book that travels back and forth almost seamlessly to share all of Betsy's stories from both war experiences.

Another great work by Lauren Willig.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy of the book

I wanted to love this book more but I had a hard time getting into the story and the motivation of the characters.

I thought this was a good book. I have read this author before, and enjoy the way she can bring a story to life. Though there was much about the Cuban-Spanish war, it also includes subplots for each of the main characters. To me, the main theme was womens' struggle for respect in their chosen fields. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read the ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for ARC, in exchange for an honest review*

Marvelous.

Books like these made me wish I wasn't taking five classes, so I had more time to read. When I got to read, I couldn't get enough of this story, and I was eager to see what would happen with Betsy, Ava, and Kit next. Betsy was one of my favorite characters in the book; she was the character you felt most connected with. Betsy's character developed most of the book's characters. As I read Two Wars And A Wedding, I watched Betsy grow so much, and it was as if I was reading about a different person from the beginning of the book and as she progressed in her nursing career. I love reading books dealing with war and nursing, so this was the perfect combination. I was thinking about reading the book when I wasn't reading it.

Every time I had a chance to read the book, it made me wish I had more time to read it. I would have read the book within a few days if I weren't in school. Two Wars And A Wedding is one of those books where it's hard to describe my emotions because there are so many. Two Wars And A Wedding is one of those books where you will have to force yourself to put the book down. Although, despite being in school, there were a few times that I stayed up later just so I could read more, I was eager to find out how it would end for Betsy if she finally found her happiness. From the start, you could see the connection and attraction between Holt and Betsy, and you couldn't help but root for them from the start. The description in this book had me feeling as if I was transported to the time, as if I was beside Betsy, taking care of the wounded. I can't even begin to imagine being a nurse during that time, and I don't think I could handle all that death.

I loved the letters, and the notes at the beginning of each chapter, making it feel more personal. I loved the author's historical notes at the book's end, and I wondered which parts of the book were historical facts. I have read books by Lauren Willig that she wrote with Karen White & Beatriz Williams and loved them both, but this was the first solo book that I have read by her. This won't be the last book that I will read by her. I'm so grateful that I got a chance to read an early copy. I'm eager to see what the author has for us next.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!

I think there were some aspects of the book I liked, but overall I hated the main character. She was selfish and honestly a little narcissistic and I don't think that was the intention which was why it made the book as a whole suffer.

I was sucked into this book from day 1. Although I have learned about them, I have never read historical fiction about the Greek/Turkish conflict of 1896 and the Spanish American War. So not only did I enjoy the story, but I enjoyed the historical part of this book too. The characters were incredible - they struggled, they grew and the duel timelines only added to their background. The book is told from the perspective of Betsy, switching between two timelines, her experience in the Greek/Turkish conflict and then during the Spanish American War. Part of the story is written in letter format, which was great. You really were able to feel for the character and her experiences. Anyone who enjoys historical fiction, especially laced with some romance and drama should pick this up. I really enjoyed this book.

Thank you netgalley for my advanced reader copy.