2015-2016 VNRN Awards

It is with both triumph and shame that I bring you the best (and worst) of the year, both because I abandoned this blog for eight months and because, obviously, I came back! This year’s roundup therefore includes the orphaned eight reviews from 2015 in addition to the 34 from 2016.

What you need to know: Winners are chosen from the 42 VNRNs I’ve read these two years 29 different authors. The Best and Worst Authors categories includes all the VNRNs reviewed for this blog (312 to date), but only authors with more than one review are included; the One-Hit Wonders category is reserved for the best books by authors with only one review.

BEST BOOKS:

1. Nurse with a Past, Diane Frazer (pseud. Dorothy Fletcher)

2. Factory Nurse, Hilary Neal (pseud. Olive Norton)

3. Runaway Nurse, Ethel Hamill (pseud. Jean Francis Webb III)

4. Nurse Barlow, Lucy Agnes Hancock

5. Police Nurse, William Neubauer

6. Duty Nurse, Diana Douglas (pseud. Richard Wilkes Hunter)

7. Queen’s Nurse, Jane Arbor

8. Night-Duty Nurse, Katherine McComb

BEST NOT-A-NURSE NOVEL:

Doctor Day, Thomas Stone (pseud. Florence Stonebraker)

WORST BOOKS:

1. Nurse Kathryn, Peggy O’More

2. Holiday for a Nurse, Joanne Holden (pseud. Jane Corby)

3. Nurse Gina, Joanne Holden (pseud. Jane Corby)

4. Nurse in Las Vegas, Jane Converse (pseud. Adele Kay Maritano)

5. No Escape from Love, Bennie C. Hall

6. Wings for Nurse Bennett, Adeline McElfresh

7. Nurse in Panic, Jane Converse (pseud. Adele Kay Maritano)

BEST COVERS:

My Love an Altar

Art Colony Nurse

Woman Doctor, cover illustration by Tom Miller

Night-Duty Nurse

Nurse on Location

BEST QUOTES:

1. “She had gone out with him twice, but one time didn’t really count because they had gone to a movie she had wanted to see, a movie called The Savage Eye, which left him shaky and unfit for normal pursuits afterward.” Nurse with a Past, Diane Frazer (pseud. Dorothy Fletcher)

2. “Donna was suddenly very impressed with Steve’s ability in hand-to-hand combat.” Nurse in Istanbul, Ralph E. Hayes

3. “Sit here and contemplate the rewards of sin. I’ll case the joint.” Runaway Nurse, Ethel Hamill (pseud. Jean Francis Webb III)

4. “How do you like being an incurable disease, Beautiful?” My Love an Altar, Joan Sargent (pseud. Sara Jenkins Cunningham)

5. “Margaret Wilkerson had come to nursing through a simple process of elimination, more or less as young men of small talent decide to take up business administration in college instead of the humanities.” Nurse with a Past, Diane Frazer (pseud. Dorothy Fletcher)

6. “Do I detect an acquisitive female gleam in your eye in connection with this paragon of all manly virtues?” Woman Doctor, Peter Baldwin

7. “I’m not very hot for hardware.” Disaster Area Nurse, Arlene Hale

8. “My experience of nurses is that they’re always ravenous and cost a fortune to feed.” Hockey Star Nurse, Diana Douglas (pseud. Richard Wilkes Hunter)

9. “ ‘You make me want to cry,’ Ralph said. ‘What a hideous waste! A girl with legs like yours reading that kind of stuff.’ ” Nurse with a Past, Diane Frazer (pseud. Dorothy Fletcher)

10. “The guy has his good points. He’s asked me twice for a date.” Duty Nurse, Diana Douglas (pseud. Richard Wilkes Hunter)

BEST AUTHORS:

1. Jeanne Judson (3.9 average, based on 3 reviews)

1. Marguerite Mooers Marshall (3.9 average, based on 3 reviews)

3. Faith Baldwin (3.8 average, based on 4 reviews)

4. William Neubauer (3.7 average, based on 2 reviews)

5. Ethel Hamill (3.3 average, based on 5 reviews)

6. Elizabeth Hoy (3.3 average, based on 3 reviews)

7. Helen B. Castle (3.3 average, based on 2 reviews)

7. Joyce Dingwell (3.3 average, based on 2 reviews)

ONE-HIT WONDERS: Best VNRN authors with one review

1. “K”, Mary Roberts Rinehart

2. A Challenge for Nurse Melanie, Isabel Moore

3. Surgical Call, Margaret Sangster

4. Nurse Pro Tem, Glenna Finley

5. Walk out of Darkness, Arlene Karson

6. Woman Doctor, Alice Lent Covert

7. Town Nurse—Country Nurse, Marjorie Lewty

8. Hospital Zone, Mary Stolz

9. Factory Nurse, Hilary Neal (pseud. Olive Norton)

10. Night-Duty Nurse, Katherine McComb

WORST AUTHORS:

1. Arlene Fitzgerald (1.2 average, based on 2 reviews)

2. Patti Carr (1.5 average, based on 2 reviews)

3. Peggy O’More Blocklinger (writing as Peggy O’More and Jeanne Bowman) (1.7 average, based on 10 reviews)

4. Ruth McCarthy Sears (1.8 average, based on 3 reviews)

5. Virginia Smiley (1.9 average, based on 2 reviews)

6. Elizabeth Kellier (2.0 average, based on 2 reviews)

6. Suzanne Roberts (2.0 average, based on 5 reviews)

6. Isabel Stewart Way (2.0 average, based on 3 reviews)

9. William E. Daniel Ross (writing as Rose Dana, Ann Gilmer, and Rose Williams) (2.1 average, based on 6 reviews)

9. Jane Corby (writing as Jane Corby and Joanne Holden) (2.1 average, based on 11 reviews)

9. Richard Wilkes Hunter (writing as Diana Douglas) (2.1 average, based on 11 reviews)