This month’s listicle showcases the courage and tenacity of individuals living through times of war. Whether serving in active duty, supporting those who do, or struggling to survive a war-torn world, we want to read about the heroism of your characters.
Tangles by Kay Smith-Blum
Oppenheimer was just the beginning. A decade later, government-mandated secrecy threatens the entire Columbia River Basin.
When a harpooned whale offers proof the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is endangering all life in the region, Luke Hinson, a brash young scientist, seizes the chance to avenge his father’s death, but a thyroid cancer diagnosis derails Luke’s research. Between treatments, he dives back in, making enemies at every turn.
After a soul-purging overnight trek, Luke discovers evidence that Mary, his former neighbor, embarked on the same treacherous trail and her disappearance, a decade prior, may be tied to Hanford’s harmful practices and sanctioned malfeasance.
A love story wrapped in a mystery, this Cold War home-front tale lays forth the real costs of the birth of the nuclear age and celebrates the quiet courage of wronged women, the fierce determination of fatherless sons, and the limitless power of the individual. Tangles is a genre-defying must-read for our time.
The Refugee’s Daughter by Carolyn Newton
How can a girl keep hope amid unimaginable suffering?
Winter 1945. The Soviet army is sweeping into East Prussia, and they have their sights set on punishing Germans for the Nazis’ reign of terror. Thirteen-year-old Giti and her younger brother, Otto, live with their mother and grandmother. When soldiers arrive, their farm is set ablaze, and the family is loaded into a crowded train bound for the Soviet Union.
When their mother tragically dies on the train, the two children are thrust into a dark world, orphaned and terrified. Giti is determined to escape, but her plan goes horribly wrong. While she manages to jump from the train, Otto is trapped and is carried far away, separating him from his sister.
Wandering into the forest, scared and alone, a traumatised and mute Giti is rescued by a disabled veteran who is hiding in the woods. As Giti fights for her life, she is determined to be reunited with her brother. But how long will she have to wait, and will the reunion be as happy as she envisaged?
Yesterday’s Song by K. Meldrum Denholm
As the 1970s dawn in Virginia, grieving guitarist Cal Leonardowski is ready to end it all when he hears Hendrix will play at the Second Atlanta International Pop Festival. He delays the devastating thought for the rock and roll respite, and there he meets adventurous, Beatles-loving Nainsi Murphy, from County Dublin, who only wants to do what her late Ma didn’t get the chance to: build her own music industry career in America.
Yet love changes everything, as does the exploding world of the Vietnam War and the Troubles. Just as she chooses between family, country, religion, and her dreams, Cal opens a draft letter and makes a drunken, desperate choice of his own. What becomes of the broken-hearted, a new family created in peace, love, and music, but reeling in the times? With a 1970s playlist and questions for a book club, the family saga, Yesterday’s Song, explores recovery from loss and trauma, the definition of family, the necessity of love, and the nature of forgiveness and redemption.
Odette by Joëlle Searle
A story of a woman’s coming of age in war-torn Paris. Her challenges, adventures and. passions.
Odette is a young, highly intelligent, headstrong Parisian woman, from a bourgeois military background. She finds herself flirting around the edges of a bohemian lifestyle during the heady days of resistance fighters and WWII. Her story takes us through her work in Paris at the French Ministry of defence, their re-location to make way for German occupation, her journey into a world of resistance fighters and espionage during which time she meets Jean, born of a German father and an Irish/French mother, and discovers the pleasures of womanhood and love.
Jean is charismatic, a born leader and undertakes daring missions as a Parisian resistance cadre leader who sets up escape routes for the Jews of Paris. But he is an enigma. Is he a spy or not, if so, for friend or foe? Nobody really knows who he works for.
This is their story.
Her Own War by Debra Borchert
As Napoleon rises from the ashes of the French Revolution, one woman dares to spy against him.
Imprisoned for the crime of impersonating a man, Geneviève LaGarde fears giving birth in an asylum could be certain death for her and her unborn child. Desperate for her release, her husband, Louis, trades his freedom for hers and must join Bonaparte’s army in Egypt.
As Geneviève wages her own war against the tyrannical general, she not only risks her own life but also those of her children and the four hundred families who depend on the Château de Verzat estate. Knowing her desperate actions could cause the revolutionary government to confiscate the entire vineyard, she sacrifices everything to save her husband and protect the people who become her family. A captivating tale of the power of love, hope, and courage, and the strength of community.
Echoes on the Wind by Helaine Mario
Two strong women, generations apart, connected by music…
In 1943 war-torn France, a young woman on the Night Train to Paris has a chance meeting with two very different men who will change her life, setting in motion a Dual Timeline story that will resonate like ripples on water for generations to come.
Many years later, classical pianist Maggie O’Shea is drawn to Brittany by a long-lost letter from her French grandmother and the stirring music of Chopin, whispering like echoes across the years. But as Maggie discovers the secrets of her past, her life spirals out of control, threatening her upcoming wedding and those she loves.
Set against the backdrop of World War II France, Maggie learns her grandmother’s story, chord by chord, through Chopin’s emotional Preludes. And, in one shocking moment, Maggie’s love story will take a heart-breaking turn that will change her life and echo into her future. Past and present converge in this haunting tale of loss and sacrifice, friendship and family, courage and survival – and the transcendent power of hope, music and love.
Look Away No More by Carol Owens Campbell
It’s May 1970. Georgia debutante and history scholar Tally McCall is searching for purpose in a world ablaze. Colleges are on the cusp of anarchy while her coastal college is on the cusp of summer fun. Her brother is serving in Vietnam. Her sweetheart is a Yankee. Her mother owns a bridal boutique. Her daddy is a judge.
Yet Tally has no desire to marry and worries about the legal consequences of helping a friend escape the draft. The killing of students at Kent State sparks her fury and her passion for justice. Now Tally must discover how to navigate through landmines of country club society, stay true to her ideals, and seize the power of her privileged status to challenge the status quo.
The Bravest Soldiers by Elaine Aucoin Schroller
As the Pacific War looms ever closer to Australia, will waiting and wondering break two women’s hearts?
September 1939. WWI nurse Sophie Parker knows the physical and mental devastation war can wreak on hearts, minds, and bodies. When WWII breaks out, and Australia is called to join the effort, Sophie knows what her sons will face when they enlist to fly and fight.
Marianne Ryan grew up in a French town battered by the Germans during the Great War. But while she spends WWII in Sydney, far from her home and family in occupied France, an unexpected new love could break her heart beyond repair.
With the war looming ever closer to Australia, Sophie and Marianne must watch and wait as the Japanese cut a swath through the Pacific. Can these two women be as courageous as the men they love? As in all wars, the women who wait at home must be the bravest soldiers.
The Bravest Soldiers is the next chapter of romance, love, and longing begun in Dare Not Tell, but can be read as a standalone.
Agustina de Aragon by Gail Meath
Barcelona, Spain, 1803. Agustina Saragossa, the youngest daughter of a bladesmith, sneaks around the military barracks, yet not to snag a husband as everyone thinks. Stubborn, hot-tempered and fiercely devoted to her country, like her grandfather before her, she is far more interested in learning about the ensuing war between Britain and France than the lazy, arrogant Spanish soldiers at the compound.
When Sergeant Juan Roca, a handsome officer with a troubled past, is relocated to the barracks, he is instantly struck by Agustina’s beauty and fiery spirit. Despite her heated rejections and open mistrust, he relentlessly pursues her. Will he ever win her heart?
As the war progresses between their neighboring countries, Napoleon Bonaparte deviously orders the invasion of Spain, thinking it will be an easy task. But Agustina and Juan join the fight first as guerillas, then soldiers in their valiant effort to crush the enemy and regain the freedom of their country.
The Whistle Stop Canteen by Barb Warner Deane
After losing her fiancé in WW1, Margaret Parker settled into a quiet, lonely life as the town librarian in North Platte, NE. After the US enters WW2, Margaret volunteers as the historian for the Servicemen’s Canteen organized by the women of North Platte. Maggie has little in her life besides her work at the library and her hostile, alcoholic mother. Everything changes when she becomes friends with the women at the Canteen and when Captain Tom Carter waltzes into the Canteen for 15 minutes, changing Maggie’s life forever.
While reluctantly falling in love long-distance, Maggie also opens her heart to the teenaged girl she supervises and the townswomen working beside her, while fearing for the lives of the servicemen and women she meets at the Canteen. When Tom springs a surprise on her, and then winds up MIA, Maggie must come to grips with her fear of another loss. Relying on her new family and friends, she must take a chance on love, if she wants to make a life for herself after the war is over.
English (US) · 