The 2nd book in the Channel Fleet series, The Surgeon's Lady starts a few months after Marrying The Captain ended. The Napoleonic Wars are still playing havoc with everyone's lives, and that's the setting of this book. You don't have to read the 1st book to understand the 2nd, but you might want to do that if you don't like spoilers because some events that took place at the end of the previous book are mentioned in this one.

Lady Laura Taunton is one of Lord Ratliffe's illegitimate daughters - the others are Nana, the heroine in the previous book Marrying The Captain, and Polly, the heroine in the next book Marrying the Royal Marine. Unlike Nana, Laura caved to her father's demands and agreed to marry one of her father's "friends" so he could pay his gaming debts. Her marriage to Lord Taunton, who was 30 years older than her, turned out to be a nightmare and she was glad when he died 5 years later. Now, one year after his death, Laura is finally ready to get acquainted with her recently-discovered half-sister Nana.

While visiting Nana, Laura meets Lieutenant Philemon Brittle, a Royal Navy surgeon who happens to be the son of Daniel Brittle, sailing master of Nana's husband Captain Oliver Worth's ship. (Yes, this is a small, small world.) Laura and Philemon become friends, then co-workers (when she ends up working with him as a hospital matron) and finally lovers (in the emotional sense). Unfortunately, some obstacles must be overcome: war times aren't conducive to courtship, Philemon is a commoner while Laura is a Lady (by marriage, but still a Lady) and she's still too traumatized by her late husband's behavior to deal with the physical prospect of lovemaking. Luckily for Laura, Philemon is a very understanding - and patient! - man.

I wanted to love this book so much, but alas, that didn't happen. There was nothing wrong with the writing - Ms. Kelly definitely knows how to do it without resorting to misunderstandings, betrayals and other contrived plot devices - but I didn't connect with Philemon and Laura. It's hard to buy a romance when I can't connect with the H/h.

Laura grated on my nerves: first, with her crying and babbling her life story to every single person who showed her a minimum of affection; then, with her indecision about the consummation of her marriage to Philemon. Okay, I know she had reasons to fear the marriage bed considering what she had gone through with her late husband, but she should have also believed Philemon and Nana when they told her that having marital relations with someone you loved would be different - I mean, she knew it was possible to enjoy it because she had been close to feeling some pleasure with her horrible husband a few times.

As for Philemon, he was a saint: caring, dependable, funny, strong and patient. Too patient. He was no pushover, but the way he waited for months for Laura to come to her senses and to their marriage bed made me want to shake him and tell him to go after what he wanted. I like beta heroes, but that was pushing it.

Overall, this was an OK read to me, saved mostly by Ms. Kelly's writing. I liked how she set up the story, inserting historical facts without taking the focus away from the main plot. I loved revisiting Oliver and Nana: they're still going strong despite the hardships of war and they have the most sigh-worthy scene in the whole book. I liked the realistic tone of the story, even though following Philemon's medical activities was too detailed for my taste sometimes. All that I missed was a strong H/h I could love.