When No One Else Will by Amanda Skenandore

 

My thoughts

I was truly shocked by how good this book was. Not because the author writes bad books. Quite the contrary. Her books are excellent. This was a touchy subject but one that needs to be talked about. After how women are being treated now because of abortion laws being overturned it's even more important. This story was told with a lot of grace and honesty. A lot of heartache and tears. It was well researched and based on facts. Though it's a work of fiction it's also true. A very true story. 

The women in this story are all strong and seem to have high morals. The main character, Mimi, has a family. Two children, a husband, and a mother in law from another planet. I laugh typing that but it's true she's awful. I really liked Mimi. She had backbone. Her husband made me so mad through most of the book. He and his mother finally came around to my good graces but good grief it took forever. 

This is a story about an illegal abortion clinic. A family. A lot of women who had good reason for not wanting a pregnancy. Times were hard. A war was on the brink of starting. So many things were expensive. Food was not that easy at that time. Another hungry child..... No.

This book is not for everyone but also everyone should be aware. It's a good one told from Mimi's POV. Mimi is a nurse. Her husband was injured playing baseball and can no longer play. Yet he can't seem to get off his lazy butt and get a job. Mimi has no choice but to work. She doesn't want to lose her home. She doesn't want her two children to go hungry. 

Be sure and read Author's Note at the end. It explains a lot and is very good. 

Thank you to Kensington Publishing and Highbridge Audio for the ARC.

4.75 stars...

About

Based on the true story of an illegal women’s clinic at the center of a high-profile trial in 1940s Chicago and the nurse who risked her safety and freedom to work there, a thought-provoking, powerfully timely novel of courage, sisterhood, and women’s healthcare for readers of Kristin Hannah, Kerri Maher, and Audrey Blake.

In the fall of 1939, while Europe grapples with the outbreak of war, Mimi Lukas wages a private battle in her Chicago neighborhood. Her husband, Stan, once a promising White Sox player, has been sidelined by a broken leg. His hopes of returning to baseball are dwindling along with their savings. As Stan sinks into inertia, Mimi resolves to go back to nursing.

When a friend tells her of a women’s clinic in need of a nurse, Mimi hesitates. Such places are illegal and at odds with her religious upbringing. But Dr. Gabler’s office isn’t the dingy establishment Mimi envisioned. The space is clean, bright, and welcoming, the staff skillful. Patients are treated with dignity and compassion, even as they are sworn to secrecy about what happens within its walls.

The patients, too, are not who Mimi expected. Some are heartbreakingly young. Most are married, and many already have children. Police and state prosecutors are paid handsomely to turn a blind eye. As Mimi finds kinship with her colleagues and with an officer on retainer, she begins her own private reckoning between what is legal and what is necessary, no matter how painful or inconvenient.

But Mimi senses the tide turning against them. She knows, too, that soon she must decide how much she will risk to defend the ideals she’s come to embrace through hard-won experience . . .

Poignant and insightful, here is a story of courage and empathy, as timeless as it is timely.