Emily is a young nurse training at the St Marylebone Infirmary in London of 1918. Already understaffed and overcrowded while caring for the injured soldiers, the hospital staff find themselves pushing harder to not only save their patients, but also their peers and loved ones when the Spanish Flu hits.

Kate Eastham did an amazing job with this beautifully crafted novel. She was able to capture the time period perfectly, and all of the emotions that come with a pandemic without it being too hard to read. The characters were easy to connect with, there were plot twists that I never saw coming, romance, and gentle reminders of what needs to be done to overcome a global pandemic. I found myself reading slower and even re-reading passages just to saver it all. Thank you to NetGalley, Kate Eastham, and Bookouture for this free e-ARC in return for an honest review.

#WhentheWorldStoodStill #NetGalley
Thanks NetGalley, my favorite publisher Bookouture and Kate Eastham for an ARC to review.
Be prepared with a large box of tissues, clear your schedule before you start reading this book.
The year is 1918, hospitals are crowded with wounded soldiers, nurses and doctors are overwhelmed and emotionally drained trying their best to save bodies and souls.
20 years old Emily is training to be a qualified nurse at St Marylebone Infirmary, she and her friends are stretched thin when above all the Spanish flu spread viciously stealing lives everywhere.
Emily's fiance Lewis is participating at the war front while she's waiting for him and for the war to be over.
A heartbreaking yet uplifting emotional book that will definitely stay long with you after you finish it.especially during the stressful times we are living through. A major shout out to all the medical sector workers, sacrificing it all and doing their best fighting a painful epidemic.

All through the war, the nurses of London’s St. Marylebone Infirmary have stood strong, but they are about to be tested like never before when a deadly flu sweeps the country.

Emily Burdon has recently trained as a nurse, getting practical learning tending to the soldiers who’ve returned from war as well as the patients from the crowded London poorhouses. When patients in the hospital contract the flu in late September 1918, Emily’s faith and courage are put to the test. It spreads rapidly, leaving the hospital staff shorthanded and ill-equipped. In an effort to curb the transmission, they adopt Florence Nightingale’s philosophy regarding the importance of strict hygiene and ventilation. Sound familiar?

Emily’s fiancé, Sgt. Lewis Dupree, watches his best friend die on the battle front from the flu before contracting it himself. He suffers in a Dunkirk hospital as the war ends. Having survived the war, will the flu be the cause of his death just days before the war ends?

Doctor James Cantor is sent from Prince Edward Island to help the understaffed hospital cope with the pandemic. Tall, gorgeous and clearly attracted to Emily, he brings tension to the hospital. Can Emily survive the changes the pandemic has brought to her life? Can she do it with her heart intact?

This heartbreaking historical novel based on the Spanish Flu epidemic is emotional and unforgettable. The first quarter of the book is a slow simmer as the author sets the scene, but by the midpoint in the story, you’ll be glad you stuck with it. There are plot twists, deaths, and romance, mixed in with heartwarming moments and shattering heartbreak as well as reminders of those before us who wore masks, washed hands, sanitized, and social distanced. Central to the theme of this novel are the important threads of love, care and life and how the pandemic brings to light that these threads are the only things that matter. The author has a fantastic write up about her research on the Spanish Flu at the end of her novel. There are many similarities that give us comfort that we are not alone in our Covid-19 fight and make us thankful for progress in the science and medical fields since then that have reduced the number of deaths. Eastham's historical fiction novel will be published February 22, 2021.

Thank you to Kate Eastham, Bookouture and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.