Oh how I loved this! For me Colleen McCullough (rest her soul) was always a hit or miss, but this one definitely hit the bulls eye - it has everything I wanted: family relationships, drama, medicine, romance, history. Well-written, with excellent dialogue and lovely characters, this is one you shouldn't miss!

Bittersweet was an aptly titled bittersweet journey for me. I received an advance copy a few months before Colleen McCullough passed away, but I hadn't gotten around to reading it yet at the time of her passing. After her death, I didn't have the heart to read it for a good long while - The Thorn Birds is one of my all-time favorite novels, and I suppose I was afraid of disappointment. In the end, I was in fact a bit disappointed. There was a lot I really should've liked here - great potential with an interesting premise of two sets of twin sisters setting out in post-WWI Australia, all beginning their adult journeys training to be nurses. But there was some type of disconnect for me - it might've been that the book often felt a bit disjointed. Honestly if it had been written by someone I'd never read before I might've felt differently about it. Despite my disappointment it was a good story overall, it just wasn't the "great" read I'd hoped for from McCullough. I still recommend it, but for anyone who loved The Thorn Birds as much as I did, I'd say don't go into it expecting another read on that level.
My thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

The book wasn't my style. I love historical fiction but this book did not grab me like I was hoping.

This work wasn't as expansive as The Thorn Birds but it was still a beautifully written and engrossing read.

I loved earlier work by the author and was eager to read a book that returned to similar themes that I had enjoyed, namely historical Australia. Unfortunately, this book just didn’t have a plot other than the passage of time for two sets of twins. The book only covered ten years of their lives and was primarily involved with their training to become nurses and their early marriages. Other than that the book focuses too much on outside issues, meaning historical descriptions absent the characters. It left me disinterested as a reader.