A review by nursenell
Bittersweet by Colleen McCullough

4.0

Two sets of twins, 20 months apart, same father, different mothers. The mother of the first set of twins dies giving birth. The rectory housekeeper ends up marrying their rector father and is the mother of the 2nd set of twins. She is an evil stepmother but as equally evil as a mother, there's no love lost between the young women and their stepmother/mother. The rector himself isn't that fond of her either. The setting is Australia in the 1920's. Nursing at that time, in that place, was more like on the job training rather than professionally educated nurses. The 4 girls enter the first professional education program for nurses in their state. The book follows them through the 3 years of education and the first few years after. I enjoyed the story because of the history of nursing education and practice.