Publishes March 21, 2023-William Morrow-448pp.
Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab
Lauren Willig’s dual timeline novel is set during the 1896 Greco-Turkish War and the 1898 Spanish-American War. Betsy Hayes, a Smith College graduate, and aspiring archaeologist is denied a place on the excavation team at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. The director suggests she become a librarian instead. This ignites Betsy’s quest to prove that women can indeed, dig and involves “two wars and a wedding.”
These two wars are the backdrop for Lauren Willig’s coming of age story. Through reams of research Willig sinks readers into the prejudices true to the late 1800’s. Main character, Betsy Hayes is an amalgam based on real life women Harriet Boyd Hawes and Janet Jennings. At the emotional core of the novel are Betsy, her best friend Ava, and aspiring journalist, Kit. Willig focuses on how these American women are striving to take their place in the world and how each responded socially and politically to war. Keeping readers aware of the timelines and actions are the especially appealing openings of each chapter; Kit’s dispatches to the St. Louis Star or Betsy’s letters to “Darling Ava.”
Adept at conflict that reveals winners and losers Willig exposes political conflict between the U.S. Army and Clara Barton. Compelling details of dire situations on ships and battlefields, supported by newspaper accounts and reports by doctors who traveled with Clara Barton and the American Red Cross, are seamlessly woven into the narrative. Amazing, true accounts of Clara Barton being snubbed, turned away while soldiers were dying, or told women didn’t belong in the field were taken from the historical record. Willig’s meticulous research also documents the Rough Riders and Roosevelt in various battles depicting the experiences and confusion of the men in the field during the Spanish-American War.
Lauren Willig masterfully tells the story of women fighting for what is right by sharing a saga of friendship and love woven through Two Wars and a Wedding.
Lauren Willig is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty works of historical fiction, including Band of Sisters, The Summer Country, The English Wife, the RITA Award-winning Pink Carnation series, and four novels co-written with Beatriz Williams and Karen White. Her books have been translated into over twenty languages, picked for Book of the Month Club, awarded the RITA, Booksellers Best, and Golden Leaf awards, and chosen for the American Library Association’s annual list of the best genre fiction. An alumna of Yale University, she has a graduate degree in history from Harvard and a JD from Harvard Law School. She lives in New York City with her husband, two young children, and vast quantities of coffee.
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