Henrietta Bartlett (Hen) is an Army Surgeon’s daughter and, as the novel starts, she is found assisting her father on the battlefield at Waterloo in 1815. She is very young but has developed considerable skill working alongside her father for many years, ever since her mother died. The wounded and dying men think she is an angel. One of them is particularly taken by her and proposes. Life is short and they must look to the future so, despite the shortness of their relationship, it is agreed and a hasty battlefield marriage is undertaken.

But there is to be no future for our heroine and her new husband. As Hen finds herself a young widow she also loses her father but he leaves her a healthy inheritance. Hen decides to undertake the perilous journey to the colony of New South Wales to make a new life. There she hopes to make a difference, using her medical skills to unofficially improve the lives of many of the colonists, while befriending the local Aboriginal people. But life is not all smooth sailing for Hen.

Hen is an engaging, sympathetic character, and the story of her pursuit of happiness is well plotted. Both the horrors of the battlefield and the challenges of the New World are realistic and sensitively portrayed. What I found particularly interesting is the narrative around how land was allocated, and the strict social hierarchies around free settlers and convicts.

This was an entertaining and engrossing novel. Although I would never have picked this book for myself it has reinforced for me that lovely saying about not judging a book by its cover. Well worth the effort.

Reviewed by Lesley West