Where The Light Enters

Author: Sara Donati
Genre: Historical Fiction (USA)
Type: Hardcover
Pages: 672
Series: #2 in the Waverly Place series
Publisher: Berkely (PRHC)
First Published: September 10, 2019
Opening Lines: Dear Auntie, Deaf every one of you, The swiss greet each other on New Year's Eve with this saying: "Rutscht gut rein ins neue Jar!" IF I understand correctly this means "I wish you a good slide into the New Year," which I suppose makes sense, given the snow and the mountains and the amount oof schnapps consumed during New Year's Eve celebrations. 

Book Description from GoodReads: From the international bestselling author of The Gilded Hour comes Sara Donati's enthralling epic about two trailblazing female doctors in nineteenth-century New York.

Obstetrician Dr. Sophie Savard returns home to the achingly familiar rhythms of Manhattan in the early spring of 1884 to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. With the help of Dr. Anna Savard, her dearest friend, cousin, and fellow physician, she plans to continue her work aiding the disadvantaged women society would rather forget.

As Sophie sets out to construct a new life for herself, Anna's husband, Detective-Sergeant Jack Mezzanotte calls on them both to consult on two new cases: the wife of a prominent banker has disappeared into thin air, and the corpse of a young woman is found with baffling wounds that suggest a killer is on the loose. In New York it seems that the advancement of women has brought out the worst in some men. Unable to ignore the plight of New York's less fortunate, these intrepid cousins draw on all resources to protect their patients.

My Rating: 4 stars

My Review: Where The Light Enters is the second book in the Waverly Place series and follows a few months after the first book in the series The Gilded Hour left off. It features characters and future relatives of Donati's popular series, Into the Wilderness - one of my all-time favourite series.

This is a fairly complex story with many characters (thank goodness for the character reference at the beginning) and an intriguing mystery. I love that the book centres around two intelligent, strong and independent women - Sophie Savard and her cousin Anna, who are both doctors in Manhattan in the late 19th century. They are passionate about women's health and become embroiled in a case involving the murder of several pregnant women. I especially liked that much of the focus was on women's health issues of the day - specifically, birth control and the right to make decisions regarding their own bodies.

This is a giant of a book at 700 pages but don't let its girth frighten you. Donati is an author who transports her readers with her vivid descriptions of the era, well thought out characters and multiple story lines that give readers a captivating story without being overly verbose. I also enjoyed how newspaper clippings, police reports and letters were included within the story, giving the book that authentic historical feel.

Well-researched and filled with vivid descriptions of the era, Donati brings her readers into late 1880's NYC and follows the lives, loves and losses of two strong, intelligent and independent women whose focus is to help those less fortunate while struggling to make their own marks in the male dominated medical field.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Berkley Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.