Customer Reviews

Secret for a Nightingale

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This romance centers on the life of Susanna, the rather sheltered daughter of a widowed British colonel stationed in India. After her education in England Susanna returned to her father in India but soon found romance with the charming, wealthy heir to a country estate 'back home'. Soon after her marriage Susanna realized that her husband was addicted to drugs, and that a well known doctor and author was involved in his circle of drug taking friends. When Susanna can endure no more of this life she leaves her husband - a shocking action in Victorian society - and becomes involved with the equally shocking Florence Nightingale. Susanna's path leads her to Germany and then the Crimean War theater. Along the way she learns not only nursing but to question long held beliefs about her society and herself.

As is typical of Ms Holt's work romance abounds in exotic locations. Although the plot is rather formulistic and the mysteries quite transparent and the happy ending obvious from the beginning it is an entertaining way to spend a few hours.

Victoria Holt really captures you in this one. She keeps you hanging on till the end wondering whom the heroine will end up with in this one. It has great historical insite too, which is not a surprise to Victoria Holt fans. In this one the heroine follows Florence Nightingale to heal soldiers and try to improve hospital conditions. She finds herself falling in love with a doctor she suspects of killing her child and ruining her husband with drugs. It is wonderful and you have to read it if you like Victoria Holt at all.

This book is my second favorite of Victoria Holt's, my first being "The Demon Lover". Her books are quality romance/mystery/history, which are hard to find these days. This book realistically portrays the struggle of a nurse durring WWI, not just with her nursing duties but with her immense personal struggles as well.

This probably isn't my favorite Victoria Holt book, but somehow the magic is still there!There is something disturbing about the doctor in the end who goads Susanna into thinking he believes what happened to her child was her fault. That part was ok with me , but I do wish it would have been clarified later that he did not really believe this. It's kind of hard to imagine them riding off into the sunset with that between them. However it is a richly entertaining novel with many "dark" surprises. As an author, I do understand that you don't always want to use the same format for every novel and at times feel constrained by the form. So hat's off to her for doing something completely different. In a way, it has all the "modern day novel" components (drugs,crime,illicit sex) but it's set in the time of the Crimean war! How unusual!

This is one of Victoria Holt's best book. Once you get into it you'll never be able to put it down. I have gotten in trouble for staying up all night while reading her books. It is a great novel. I actual hated Dr. Adair in the beginning, I couldn't stand him! But then when I got to know the real him, I was in love with the character. (not literally!) If you haven't haven't read this book you should, you won't regret wasting time on a book when it's one of Victoria Holt's books.

if you've never read a victoria holt book than this one you would love it is the 12th victoria holt book i read

I am a huge fan of Victoria Holt, and I love her style. But this is truly the best out of all her novels. Why? Because she strays a little from her well-known formula to tell a story with many surprising twists and turns. She presents a heroine who is courageous and strong and does not let tragedy defeat her. Also, the supporting characters play a major role, and the reader comes to care for them just as much as for the main characters. For anyone who hasn't read anything by Victoria Holt yet, I highly recommend this one as the first.

"Secret for a Nightingale" is absolutely a very good book. When I read it, I was nearly hypnotized by it! The book is filled with exitement, mystery-and romance. It is a typical Victoria Holt-ending, the unexpected ending.That`s some of the good things about her.

This was the first Holt book I have ever read. This was such a good book that after I read it I was on the lookout for more. Her boks are a wonderful combo of the great writing elements: suspense, history, romance and adventure. Her books make you feel like you are there. It's unreal.

This is one the few books written by Victoria Holt that I've absolutely hated. Though Holt's writing is not formulaic, she does have a predictable pattern that I love: intelligent, but beleaguered heroine, an interesting backstory, a shadowy "hero" or two, and verbal wit, not to mention plenty of intrigue and lovely settings. Secret for a Nightingale is the story of Susanna, who grows up to become a nurse during the Crimean War after a horrible marriage. Holt's attention to detail is present, as is her usual intelligent and independent heroine; the mystery is somewhat interesting, but the so-called hero is not. Susanna's driving force to do good and succeed on her own is to get away from her bad marriage and the memory of her dead husband's opium addiction. However, the "hero" of this story is the man who led her husband astray, and horrifyingly enough, he spends most of the book convincing Susanna that her husband's weakness was all her fault! What's worse is that she believes it, and she is frequently overcome by her strong attraction to the "hero". I read on to the end because I hate not completing a book, but I closed the pages not with a sigh of enjoyment, but with a grimace filled with disgust.