While My Heart Beats by Erin McKenzie

• Publisher: Bold Strokes Books, May 12th 2020
• Genre: Romance, Historical Fiction, LGBTQ+
• Format: Paperback (eARC)
• Page Count: 242 pages
• My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)

CW: war, off-page deaths of family

This is a beautiful historical romance across classes set in WWI Great Britain and France.

Ellie Winthrop is high-born, a feminist, and holds big dreams during a time women cannot even vote. Her mother is eager to marry her off at twenty-two, but Ellie enlists in Volunteer Aid Detachment. At the hospital, she meets Johanna Lennox, a working-class, twenty-four-year-old nurse with a no-nonsense attitude. As the pair gradually become friends, they can no longer resist their yearnings for each other’s bodies. But with Ellie’s mother pestering Ellie with marriage, Johanna wonders if she, being poorer and a woman, could ever be good enough for her.