Lorena - Hardcover

Bean, Frederic

2.85

13 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312860617 ISBN 13: 9780312860615

Publisher: Forge, 1996

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Lorena Blaire is one of the Union nurses Ulysses S. Grant has sent to infiltrate the Rebel medical corps, and she does so, only to realize that she must choose between her loyalty to the North and the rebel doctor whom she loves.

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From Publishers Weekly:

This fast-paced historical novel set during the last bloody months of the Civil War is a well-crafted blend of action and romance. At the end of 1864, idealistic young Union nurse Lorena Blaire volunteers to infiltrate the Confederate army in Tennessee via the medical corps of the brilliant and elusive General John Bell Hood, and to report his movements to the Union commanders. Convinced of the righteousness of her mission, Lorena sends word that Hood's First Texas Cavalry Regiment, devastated by the Battle of Franklin, is moving to Nashville. But Lorena's moral certainty gradually dissolves as she assists surgeon Jonathan Cross and witnesses his attempts to save lives under primitive conditions, with no medicine or supplies. Drawn to this gentle, compassionate man, Lorena is horrified when she realizes that, because of her actions, Union forces are bearing down on Nashville to destroy the weak Confederates, including her beloved Jonathan. Veteran western writer Bean's (Pancho) research is solid, and he is at his best re-creating the horrors of war. Though the dialogue is sometimes stilted, the novel never loses balance or focus. The traditional romance audience may find the novel too graphic in its descriptions of warfare, battlefront medicine and (in one brutal scene) rape.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

In this Civil War novel, Northern nurses Lorena Blaire and her friend Clara Brooks are sent South as spies. Their mission: to locate and report on the whereabouts of John Bell Hood and his men. Predictably, Lorena's faith in their cause is shaken when she falls in love with dedicated Confederate surgeon Jonathan Cross, and she agonizes over her "betrayal" of the doctor. Noted for his Westerns, Bean (Guns on the Cimarron, Kensington, 1995) does a good job of describing the harsh realities of war, but his characters never come to life, and readers won't care what happens to them. There is some interesting history here, but the tepid romance and amateur espionage get in the way. Most libraries can pass.
Elizabeth Mellett, Brookline P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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