A Hazard of Hearts

From the bustling energy of Sydney Town to the brawling goldfields of Victoria comes a compelling saga of three passionate women who pit themselves against society’s restrictions to carve their place in history.
Elly Ballard, spirited and intelligent daughter of an eminent surgeon, rallies from violent betrayal to take on an outdated, vermin-infested hospital and its officious and self-serving board of directors.
She is aided by the diminutive and fiery Pearl, who has escaped slavery and the horrors of war-torn Nanking, and by Jo-Beth Loring, a spoiled beauty who has lost everything, including the man she loves, in a shipwreck off the Australian coast.
Denying her own need for love and her strong attraction to Paul Gascoigne, a man haunted by his past and ambitious for the future, Elly fights to establish nursing as an honourable profession, and a woman’s right to be considered an intelligent force in society.