Nora leaves behind her only family after having her fill of their close minded beliefs and their lack of compassion for those suffering. I thought it would be about a young woman who finds love despite all sadness and tragedy surrounding her during the AIDS epidemic, but it is so much more than that. This book is so much more than I thought it would be. Their struggle is not only about HIV/AIDS-but about how the nation responds, and the humanistic choice to be unsung heroes. After months of hardships, another crippling loss shakes the foundation of Nora’s faith. The only comfort is the solace they find in each other. They watch their friends waste to nothing, yet no answers are being offered. Nora and Donald grow closer as the war on HIV rages around them.

And then there’s Donald, another volunteer who fights alongside those with dwindling hope. She is soon faced with the horrors of AIDS-a reality she wasn’t quite prepared for… Just as the courageous group of caregivers and volunteers have their emotional strength depleted to the point of no return, the group rallies together and pushes forward, remembering their mission-if they aren’t there for these people, who will be? Nora wasn’t expecting to find him here, to “fall in love among the ashes…” Along her journey, she meets a diverse community of lionhearted survivors. Bunking in a tiny apartment with a longtime friend, Nora secures a job within a large hospital and begins volunteer work for an organization that cares for those afflicted with the disease. At the height of the AIDS epidemic, Nora, a registered nurse, believes she can be an asset to the community.

In 1986, twenty-three-year-old country girl Nora Brown decides it’s time for a change… Complacent and bored with her life in rural Oklahoma, Nora leaves her bigoted father and all she’s ever known to pursue a new life in San Francisco.

13 by Bradon Nave