Review of Saving the Front

[Jenifer Payton]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Saving the Front" by M.E. Gustafson.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Saving the Front by M. E. Gustafson is a historical fiction following a group of army nurses from the United States and their journey throughout Europe during WW2. The story chronicles their experiences while they serve their country by caring for American and other Allied soldiers. A fictional story, based on the lives of Gustafson’s grandmothers, Saving the Front sheds new light on the environment these nurses were in during this time and the real difficulties they had to face while doing their jobs.

M. E. Gustafson did an amazing job with this book and telling the stories of WW2 nurses. Most people today aren’t aware of how these women really lived during this tumultuous time in history. Many people only hear about the things that the soldiers went through instead of hearing about the nurses. This book greatly shows how these nurses went from site to site, following these soldiers and the fighting, and saw a lot of action and violence.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend others read it. I didn’t give this book the fourth star mainly because it isn’t one of the best books that I’ve read. There were many great things about this book but there wasn’t anything that made it seem outstandingly amazing to me. That being said, it was still a really great read and definitely deserves the amount of stars that I gave it.

I recommend this book 100% to people who are fans of historical fiction and anyone who has an interest in the medical field. This book does a really good job with describing the medical aspect of the story and the way that the nurses had to work in that environment. This book is a great way for these types of fans to look back in time and see how these people lived and worked through these circumstances and had to adjust to do their job. The way that the book addresses the hardships and grueling day-to-day challenges for the nurses was really enlightening in the way that they had to quickly come to grips with their new way of life for multiple months. Gustafson really emphasizes this with the multitude of characters and their backgrounds, as well as showing their similarities and differences before and after their time serving during the war. The characters really made this book and really rounded out the experience in a way that adequately teaches the readers more about how these people in real life were affected by the war and the people, places, and events they witnessed.

This book was really well edited, there not being any typos or spelling/grammatical errors, and the writing being done really well. The diary-type format of the book was one of my favorite aspects of the story, really aiding the movement of the story with the many months and the changing settings. This book has certainly changed what I thought I knew about nurses during WW2 who went overseas to help soldiers, which will be the same for everyone else who reads this book. With this new narrative, many people will be able to see this new and improved account of how these people sacrificed their time, and in some cases their lives, to help their country as well as the people that were actively fighting for their country.

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Saving the Front
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[Obi Egbuniwe]

I do love a good historical fiction but I've read one too many set in WWII told from the perspective of medical personnel. So it's a pass for me. Thank you so much for a very detailed review.