As the Nazis march toward Paris in 1940, American ballerina Lucie Girard buys her favorite English-language bookstore to allow the Jewish owners to escape. Lucie struggles to run Green Leaf Books due to oppressive German laws and harsh conditions, but she finds a way to aid the resistance by passing secret messages between the pages of her books.
Widower Paul Aubrey wants nothing more than to return to the States with his little girl, but the US Army convinces him to keep his factory running and obtain military information from his German customers. As the war rages on, Paul offers his own resistance by sabotaging his product and hiding British airmen in his factory. After they meet in the bookstore, Paul and Lucie are drawn to each other, but she rejects him when she discovers he sells to the Germans. And for Paul to win her trust would mean betraying his mission.
Master of WWII-era fiction Sarah Sundin invites you onto the streets of occupied Paris to discover whether love or duty will prevail.
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Elise’s Thoughts
Until Leaves Fall in Paris by Sarah Sundin shows why she is the master of writing World War II fiction. This story is filled with intrigue, danger, and romance when two American expatriates living in Paris navigate the “normal” of German occupation in 1940, while secretly working for the resistance.
Lucie Girard has been living in Paris since she was ten years old. She quits her job as a ballerina for the Paris Opera Ballet School to buy her favorite English language bookstore from her good friends to allow the Jewish owners to have money to escape Nazi controlled France. She decides to use the bookstore to help the resistance by having them hide messages in books she delivers to other resistance members.
Widower Paul Aubrey is being shunned by the Americans living in Paris including Lucie. Even though Lucie is attracted to him she rejects him when she discovers he sells to the Germans. Paul is an engineer and owns an automotive factory in France. He is only cooperating with the Nazis because the American military asked him to be a spy. Paul offers his own resistance by sabotaging his product and hiding British airmen in his factory.
This is an excellent historical novel. Sundin has engaging characters and realistically shows what it would be like for Americans living in Nazi occupied France during the neutrality period of 1940.
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Elise’s Author Interview
Sarah Sundin: There are three books in this series dealing with Nazi Germany. I decided to write a story with Americans who remained in France during the occupation. Through my research I found there were 1000s of Americans who remained in France between the Nazi invasion of 1940 and before December 1941, when America was still neutral. At that time American citizens there were free to come and go. Some stayed because of having their roots in France, others enjoyed the French culture, and businessmen who stayed for making money. I wanted to explore these reasons.
Elise Cooper: Why the ballet?
SS: I did it growing up for ten years. Paris is the home of ballet. The ballet is in the main character’s heart.
EC: How would you describe Lucie?
SS: Her character was inspired by Sylvia Beach, a single woman, who ran the bookstore “Shakespeare and Company.” It was an English language bookstore in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s up until December 1941. Many of the bohemian expatriate’s literary community hung out there including Hemmingway. She also published James Joyce’s Ulysses. I gave Lucy a reason to stay, sacrificing her savings to buy a bookstore from her Jewish friends so they can escape. She is dreamy, artistic, and poetic with her feet on the ground. She can read people. Since she only went through 8th grade, she did not feel smart because of being a daydreamer and not good with numbers.
EC: How would you describe Paul?
SS: He was easy to write because he is very much like my husband and son. Very left-brain with numbers as their friends. Paul is good with people in a managerial way and knows what makes them tick. He has no appreciation for the arts. Typical of people who are like Paul, an engineer. He is also an extrovert, social, and likes to be around people.
EC: What about the relationship between Paul and Lucie?
SS: Her intuition told her one thing, while her eyes and ears told her something else. She cannot make heads or tails about Paul. They do have similar personalities. They are kind, honorable, courageous, and determined. They challenge each other. Both came into the relationship guarded and judgmental.
EC: What role did Josie play?
SS: She is Paul’s four-year-old daughter. She is very creative and spirited. She challenges Paul and grows very fond of Lucie who appreciates her stories. She thinks Lucie is wonderful and is enamored by her. Josie bonds with Lucie. Paul originally tried to stifle her thoughts but comes around to understanding her through Lucie who brought both together.
EC: Treatment by the Nazis?
SS: Early in the war, France was different, than by the end of the war. The Germans wanted to pacify the French, so they delayed being brutal. But everything changed in 1942 where the Nazis took away Jewish businesses. They censored civil liberties. They took over houses. German repression was light early on to make sure there was little resistance. At first, they only did some things like the “Otto Rule,” a ban on books, and burning of books. But by the end of 1941 their horrific behavior spiraled. French police helped with the roundups.
EC: What was the role of the bookstore?
SS: I thought about how the resistance found interesting ways to pass messages. I thought that they could do it through the pages of the books. It was like choreographing the resistance code. Lucie would greet resistance members like any other customer. The store would be a letter box. Books brought in were placed behind the desk. The code question to be asked is, “did you read the author?”
EC: Next book?
SS: No title yet. It is set in Denmark in 1943. The hero is a Nobleman and takes on the persona of a shipyard worker. He meets a nuclear physicist, a brilliant woman. They both work for the resistance and strike up an unlikely friendship. It delves into the rescue of the Danish Jews. Because of the resistance over 7,000 Jews were taken safely to Sweden. The whole Danish population united to save their fellow citizens from the Holocaust. It will be out this time next year.
THANK YOU!!
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
Today I am excited to be on the HTP Books Fall 2021 Women’s Fiction Blog Tour. I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for SISTERS OF THEGREAT WAR by Suzanne Feldman.
Below you will find an author Q&A, a book summary, my book review, an excerpt from the book and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Author Q&A
Q: Your books have won quite a few awards. Do you ever feel pressure when you write a new book to make it an award winning book?
A: I do love awards and who doesn’t? (I’m striving for a Pulitzer!) But awards are sort of a wonderful perk for what I already love doing, which is making something big from a little spark of an idea. I think it’s a stretch to think to yourself, ‘I’m going to write something for THIS award.’ because what if the book doesn’t win anything? I’m much happier just writing and editing until I think it’s ready to go out into the world–then we’ll see how it does.
Q: What inspired this book?
A: Sisters of the Great War was a four-year project that started one morning as I walked into my classroom at some pre-dawn hour. I’d been thinking about my next project after ‘Absalom’s Daughters’ and I knew I wanted to write a war story–but there were already so many books about WW2. So I thought, what about WW1? Could I write something epic yet intimate about that period? I wrote on a post-it: ‘WW1; epic yet intimate,’ and put it in my pocket. After school that day, I found the post-it and by some miracle, I still knew what I’d meant.
I started doing research and realized pretty quickly that the reason WW1 literature peaked with All Quiet on the Western Front was because it was a trench war, and over the space of four years, the trenches barely moved so there were very few ‘victories.’ The war itself was awful beyond description. Troops went out and were mowed down by new weapons, like the machine gun, tanks, and poisonous gas. It’s hard to write a glorious book about a barbaric war that had no real point, so I decided to explore the lives of the forgotten women–the nurses and ambulance drivers who were in the thick of the action, but not really mentioned in the movies and books about the period.
Q: Where is your favorite place to write?
A: I have a room where I write, my ‘office.’ I have all my favorite art, my most-loved books, and a bed for my dog. I love being able to close the door and just get into the groove of writing, but I have been known to write in coffee shops and libraries. When I was teaching, when I would get an idea, I would write on a post-it and put it in my pocket, so, yes, technically I have written at work as well.
Q: Do you have a writing routine?
A: My writing routine involves getting really wired on coffee in the morning and then taking a long walk with my dog, sometimes by the river and sometimes in the mountains. I get my ideas for the day in order, and the dog gets tired. Then I spend about four hours working on writing projects–sometimes novels, sometimes short stories, and drinking a lot more coffee. By then the dog has woken up, and we go out for another walk. I like to treat writing as a job. It’s not too exciting, but it works for me.
Q: Are you a plotter or pantser when it comes to writing?
A: I’m a pantser and proud of it! I love not really knowing what’s going to happen, and I love the discovery of plot points and personalities that might not show up in an outline. My favorite part is when a character does something on the page that I never thought of, and I get to go with that. What’s funny is that as a teacher (before I retired) I needed a plan for everything!
Q: What is a fun fact about you?
A: I was a high school art teacher for almost 30 years, and I am also a visual artist. I do a lot of abstract painting, which you can see on my Instagram account, Suzanne Feldman Author. I’ve taught every art class you can imagine, from darkroom photography to ceramics. I had a wonderful time teaching, and I loved nearly all of my students.
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Book Summary
Two sisters. The Great War looming. A chance to shape their future.
Sisters Ruth and Elise Duncan could never have anticipated volunteering for the war effort. But in 1914, the two women decide to make the harrowing journey from Baltimore to Ypres, Belgium in order to escape the suffocating restrictions placed on them by their father and carve a path for their own future.
Smart and practical Ruth is training as a nurse but dreams of becoming a doctor. In a time when women are restricted to assisting men in the field, she knows it will take great determination to prove herself, and sets out to find the one person who always believed in her: a handsome army doctor from England. For quiet Elise, joining the all female Ambulance Corps means a chance to explore her identity, and come to terms with the growing attraction she feels towards women. Especially the charming young ambulance driver who has captured her heart.
In the twilight of the Old World and the dawn of the new, both young women come of age in the face bombs, bullets and the deadly futility of trench warfare. Together they must challenge the rules society has placed on them in order to save lives: both the soldiers and the people they love.
SISTERS OF THE GREAT WAR by Suzanne Feldman is a Woman’s fiction/historical fiction story which follows two American sisters who volunteer to work at the front during WWI. Both want to escape the conventional roles society and their father demand they follow.
Ruth Duncan has grown up assisting her doctor father and dreams of attending a medical school to train as a doctor rather than the nursing school she is currently attending. Her father refuses to even consider assisting her and wants her to be a nurse then a wife and mother.
Elise Duncan has grown up being able to take anything mechanical apart and put it back together again. She is currently living at home and is the mechanic for her father’s car he needs for house calls. She has always felt different than other girls and her father believes she will continue to live at home and never marry.
Both sisters want their freedom and travel to England to join the war effort. Ruth volunteers as a nurse and Elise follows volunteering as an ambulance driver and are sent to the front at Ypres, Belgium. As both adjust to the appalling conditions, they also both seize the opportunities to realize their dreams. The sisters suffer heartache and loss, but also realize their resilience and strengths. Bonds of friendship are forged that cannot be broken by war.
I really enjoyed this story even as there are many scenes depicting the horrors and suffering of the troops and volunteers during WWI. The field hospital doctors and nurses had to deal with so much loss and the lack of current medical knowledge and antibiotics underscore how lucky we are with the medicine of today. The sister’s personal dreams and love interests are depicted with strength, vulnerability and empathy. This Women’s fiction/historical fiction story realistically depicts some of the horrors of WWI, feminist issues and an LGBT relationship all through the eyes of two American sisters.
I recommend this Women’s fiction/historical fiction story.
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Excerpt
1
Baltimore, Maryland
August 1914
Ruth Duncan fanned herself with the newspaper in the summer heat as Grandpa Gerald put up a British flag outside the house. If he’d had a uniform—of any kind—he would have worn it. People on the sidewalk paused and pointed, but Grandpa, still a proper English gent even after almost twenty years in the U.S., smoothed his white beard and straightened his waistcoat, ignoring the onlookers.
“That’s done,” he said.
Ruth’s own interest in the war was limited to what she read in the paper from across the dining table. Grandpa would snap the paper open before he ate breakfast. She could see the headlines and the back side of the last page, but not much more. Grandpa would grunt his appreciation of whatever was in-side, snort at what displeased him, and sometimes laugh. On the 12th of August, the headline in the Baltimore Sun read; France And Great Britain Declare War On Austria-Hungary, and Grandpa wasn’t laughing.
Cook brought in the morning mail and put it on the table next to Grandpa. She was a round, grey-haired woman who left a puff of flour behind her wherever she went.
“Letter from England, sir,” Cook said, leaving the envelope and a dusting of flour on the dark mahogany. She smiled at Ruth and left for the kitchen.
Grandpa tore the letter open.
Ruth waited while he read. It was from Richard and Diane Doweling, his friends in London who still wrote to him after all these years. They’d sent their son, John, to Harvard in Massachusetts for his medical degree. Ruth had never met John Doweling, but she was jealous of him, his opportunities, his apparent successes. The Dowelings sent letters whenever John won some award or other. No doubt this was more of the same. Ruth drummed her fingers on the table and eyed the dining room clock. In ten minutes, she would need to catch the trolley that would take her up to the Loyola College of Nursing, where she would be taught more of the things she had already learned from her father. The nuns at Loyola were dedicated nurses, and they knew what they were doing. Some were out-standing teachers, but others were simply mired in the medicine of the last century. Ruth was frustrated and bored, but Father paid her tuition, and what Father wanted, Father got.
Ruth tugged at her school uniform—a white apron over a long white dress, which would never see a spot of blood. “What do they say, Grandpa?”
He was frowning. “John is enlisting. They’ve rushed his graduation at Harvard so he can go home and join the Royal Army Medical Corps.”
“How can they rush graduation?” Ruth asked. “That seems silly. What if he misses a class in, say, diseases of the liver?”
Grandpa folded the letter and looked up. “I don’t think he’ll be treating diseases of the liver on the battlefield. Anyway, he’s coming to Baltimore before he ships out.”
“Here?” said Ruth in surprise. “But why?”
“For one thing,” said Grandpa, “I haven’t seen him since he was three years old. For another, you two have a common interest.”
“You mean medicine?” Ruth asked. “Oh, Grandpa. What could I possibly talk about with him? I’m not even a nurse yet, and he’s—he’s a doctor.” She spread her hands. “Should we discuss how to wrap a bandage?”
“As long as you discuss something.” He pushed the letter across the table to her and got up. “You’ll be showing him around town.”
“Me?” said Ruth. “Why me?”
“Because your sister—” Grandpa nodded at Elise, just clumping down the stairs in her nightgown and bathrobe “—has dirty fingernails.” He started up the stairs. “Good morning, my dear,” he said. “Do you know what time it is?” “Uh huh,” Elise mumbled as she slumped into her seat at the table.
As Grandpa continued up the stairs Ruth called after him. “But when is he coming?”
“His train arrives Saturday at noon,” Grandpa shouted back. “Find something nice to wear. You too, Elise.”
Elise rubbed her eyes. “What’s going on?”
Ruth pushed the letter at her and got up to go. “Read it,” she said. “You’ll see.”
Ruth made her way down Thirty-Third Street with her heavy bookbag slung over one shoulder, heading for the trolley stop, four blocks away, on Charles. Summer classes were almost over, and as usual, the August air in Baltimore was impenetrably hot and almost unbreathable. It irritated Ruth to think that she would arrive at Loyola sweaty under her arms, her hair frizzed around her nurse’s cap from the humidity. The nuns liked neatness, modest decorum. Not perspiring young women who wished they were somewhere else.
Elise, Ruth thought, as she waited for a break in the noisy traffic on Charles Street, could’ve driven her in the motor-car, but no, she’d slept late. Her younger sister could do pretty much anything, it seemed, except behave like a girl. Elise, who had been able to take apart Grandpa’s pocket watch and put it back together when she was six years old, was a use-ful mystery to both Father and Grandpa. She could fix the car—cheaper than the expensive mechanics. , For some rea-son, Elise wasn’t obliged to submit to the same expectations as Ruth—she could keep her nails short and dirty. Ruth wondered, as she had since she was a girl, if it was her younger sister’s looks. She was a mirror image of their mother, who had died in childbirth with Elise. Did that make her special in Father’s eyes?
An iceman drove a sweating horse past her. The horse raised its tail, grunted, and dropped a pile of manure, rank in the heat, right in front of her, as though to auger the rest of her day. The iceman twisted in the cart to tip his hat. “Sorry Sister!”
Ruth let her breath out through her teeth. Maybe the truth of the matter was that she was the ‘sorry sister.’ It was at this exact corner that her dreams of becoming a doctor, to follow in her father’s footsteps, had been shot down. When she was ten, and the governess said she’d done well on her writing and math, she was allowed to start going along on Father’s house calls and help in his office downstairs. Father had let her do simple things at first; mix plaster while he positioned a broken ankle, give medicine to children with the grippe, but she watched everything he did and listened carefully. By the time she was twelve, she could give him a diagnosis, and she remembered her first one vividly, identifying a man’s abdominal pain as appendicitis.
“You did a good job,” Father had said to her, as he’d reined old Bess around this very corner. “You’ll make an excellent nurse one day.”
Ruth remembered laughing because she’d thought he was joking. Her father’s praise was like gold. “A nurse?” she’d said. “One day I’ll be a doctor, just like you!”
“Yes, a nurse,” he’d said firmly, without a hint of a smile. It was the tone he used for patients who wouldn’t take their medicine.
“But I want to be a doctor.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. He hadn’t sounded sorry at all. “Girls don’t become doctors. They become nurses and wives. Tomorrow, if there’s time, we’ll visit a nursing college. When you’re eighteen, that’s where you’ll go.”
“But—”
He’d shaken his head sharply, cutting her off. “It isn’t done, and I don’t want to hear another word about it.”
A decade later, Ruth could still feel the shock in her heart. It had never occurred to her that she couldn’t be a doctor because she was a girl. And now, John Doweling was coming to town to cement her future as a doctor’s wife. That was what everyone had in mind. She knew it. Maybe John didn’t know yet, but he was the only one.
Ruth frowned and lifted her skirts with one hand, balancing the bookbag with the other, and stepped around the manure as the trolley came clanging up Charles.
Suzanne Feldman, a recipient of the Missouri Review Editors’ Prize and a finalist for the Bakeless Prize in fiction, holds an MA in fiction from Johns Hopkins University and a BFA in art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her short fiction has appeared in Narrative, The Missouri Review, Gargoyle, and other literary journals. She lives in Frederick, Maryland.
Defending Britta Stein is a story of bravery, betrayal, and redemption—from Ronald H. Balson, the winner of the National Jewish Book Award
Chicago, 2018: Ole Henryks, a popular restauranteur, is set to be honored by the Danish/American Association for his many civic and charitable contributions. Frequently appearing on local TV, he is well known for his actions in Nazi-occupied Denmark during World War II—most consider him a hero.
Britta Stein, however, does not. The ninety-year-old Chicago woman levels public accusations against Henryks by spray-painting “Coward,” “Traitor,” “Collaborator,” and “War Criminal” on the walls of his restaurant. Mrs. Stein is ultimately taken into custody and charged with criminal defacement of property. She also becomes the target of a bitter lawsuit filed by Henryks and his son, accusing her of defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Attorney Catherine Lockhart, though hesitant at first, agrees to take up Mrs. Stein’s defense. With the help of her investigator husband, Liam Taggart, Lockhart must reach back into wartime Denmark and locate evidence that proves Mrs. Stein’s innocence. Defending Britta Stein is critically-acclaimed author Ronald H. Balson’s thrilling take on a modern day courtroom drama, and a masterful rendition of Denmark’s wartime heroics.
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Elise’s Thoughts
Defending Britta Stein by Ronald H. Balson is a wonderful read. Although the book has some courtroom drama including legal strategy and loopholes, most of the story is Britta Stein’s recounting of the events leading up to and during World War II in Denmark. This is historical fiction at its best with bravery, betrayal, and redemption.
Britta Stein is a 92-year-old Jewish Danish woman who emigrated to America. She is being sued for defamation after being seen and then admitting to spray painting “Coward,” “Traitor,” “Collaborator,” and “War Criminal” on the walls of a restaurant. The owner, 95-year-old Ole Henryks, will be honored by the Danish/American Association for his many civic and charitable contributions. Frequently appearing on local TV, he is well known for his actions of saving Jews in Nazi-occupied Denmark during World War II and is considered a hero. But not to Britta who claims he was anything but and sent Jews to their deaths including her sister and brother-in-law.
Attorney Catherine Lockhart and Investigator Liam Taggart, husband, and wife, have agreed to defend Britta and have as an assistant counsel her granddaughter Emma. The plot alternates between present day Chicago (2018) and Britta’s oral account of her memories of her homeland of Denmark prior to the presence of the Nazis and during World War II. They are up against “Six o’clock” Sterling Sparks, Henryk’s’ shady attorney, who pushes for a speedy trial and is willing to waive witness lists and pretrial exhibits. Readers anxiously turn the pages hoping Britta will be vindicated since they take a journey with her during the horrific events.
What is very interesting is the way Balson contrasts defamation versus freedom of speech, the consequences of staying versus leaving, and Denmark’s role in protecting its Jewish citizens.
This book will stay with readers well after they finish the book. The author has an incredible way of telling a story with sympathetic heroes and monstrous villains before and during World War II. The story has mystery, intrigue, suspense, and history all intertwined into a riveting novel.
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Elise’s Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Why Denmark?
Ronald H. Balson: I wanted to tell the story of what this country did since it was so unique and extraordinary. They unified and came together as a country, they came together to hide, protect, and ultimately rescue 7,600 of their Jewish brethren from certain death. Other countries did not do it: not Belgium, not France, not Norway, not any other country.
EC: It was interesting that Hitler made a non-aggression pact with Denmark, The Cooperation Agreement?
RHB: Denmark got a pass from Hitler who considered the country small and not a military force. But he needed this country to get into the North Sea. For whatever reason he decided not to totally occupy Denmark and to peacefully co-exist. Denmark ran its own internal affairs and was allowed to govern their Jewish population until 1943.
EC: The Danish people were incredible?
RHB: I hoped to get across through the civil jury trial here in America what it was like to be a Dane and Jewish. As I recounted in the book, there were plenty of non-Jews who put themselves at risk to help save the 7600 Jewish citizens in Denmark. They were hidden in hospitals, churches, stores, and homes. Many also helped the Jews get to Sweden. I wanted to show how the Danes had emotional pride and belief in their own country.
EC: You discuss the debate about staying versus leaving?
RHB: I have this scene in the book between Catherine her lawyer, and Britta. Catherine says, “I know it’s easy for me to say in hindsight, and it’s not fair, I shouldn’t judge, but the consequences of staying were dire, yet they found some reason to ignore the writing on the wall, which to me defies logic and good sense.” Britta responds, that if they could see into the future a wiser decision could have been made; yet, they “would have packed up and left everything and everyone… your job, your home, your profession, and headed off blindly in some unknown direction… At that time, in 1943 Hitler owned Europe.”
EC: You seem to explore this in many of your books?
RHB: It is a constant theme in a lot of my books. They all had the same opportunity to leave. But how does someone leave everything including family and community. Where would they go? How many countries would have taken in millions of Jews? What the Nazis did continued to escalate, and no one could imagine the concentration camps. Many thought they could last out the war.
EC: How would you describe Britta-I thought of her like Golda Meir?
RHB: Really interesting. She was a spunky young woman and now in her 90s she is a spunky older woman. She is a fighter, passionate, principled, independent, determined, and headstrong.
EC: She was accused of having a Nazi symbol but denied it?
RHB: She said she would never use these symbols because then it becomes a part of her language.
EC: In the story there is an explanation between freedom of speech and defamation?
RHB: I have a scene in the book where Catherine explains to Britta that freedom of speech is not absolute. No one can use words to legally defame someone. If someone is accused of criminal conduct, crimes of moral turpitude, and coalescence with the Nazi Party there can be serious consequences. Traitor, Nazi agent, and Nazi collaborator are defamatory on their face. But couldn’t liar, informer, and betrayer be opinions?
EC: How would you describe the granddaughter, Emma?
RHB: She is learning a lot about her grandmother who she admires. She is a brilliant young lawyer who is articulate and dignified.
EC: What about the lawyer Sterling Sparks?
RHB: He is called “Six O’clock Sparks” for a reason. I have been practicing law for over 49 years and have met plenty of Sterlings. He knows how to work the media. Very flashy but not that sharp as a lawyer. Very brash, narcissistic, over-confident, and conceited.
EC: What do you want readers to get out of your books?
RHB: I think of historical fiction like cheating. The backdrop has already been written by history. My job as a writer is to create characters, a plot, and a setting to weave into the history, making sure a certain point is brought out. I want my readers to be invested in the fictional characters created. My goal is for people to learn something.
EC: What about your next book?
RHB: It will not have Catherine and Liam although I think I will write another one with them. This next book takes place in 1945 with some espionage. It will possibly come out in September next year.
THANK YOU!!
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
For readers of Lilac Girls and The Lost Girls of Paris comes a captivating novel of resilience, as three generations of women battle to save their family’s vineyard during WWII.
Champagne, 1939
Gabrielle Leblanc Dupree is taking her family’s future into her hands. While she should be preparing for a lavish party to celebrate two centuries of champagne making, she secretly hides Chateau Fouché-Leblanc’s most precious vintages behind a fake wall in the cellar in preparation for the looming war. But when she joins the resistance, the coveted champagne isn’t the most dangerous secret her cellar must conceal…
A former Parisian socialite, Gabrielle’s mother, Hélène, lost her husband to another war. Now her home has been requisitioned by the Germans, who pillage vineyards to satisfy the Third Reich’s thirst for the finest champagne. There’s even more at stake than Hélène dares admit. She has kept her heritage a secret…and no one is safe in Nazi-occupied France.
Josephine, the family matriarch, watches as her beloved vineyard faces its most difficult harvest yet. As her daughter-in-law and granddaughters contend with the enemies and unexpected allies in their midst, Josephine’s deep faith leads to her own path of resistance.
Across years and continents, the Leblanc women will draw on their courage and wits, determined against all odds to preserve their lives, their freedom and their legacy…
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Elise’s Thoughts
The Widows of Champagne by Renee Ryan is the story of a family struggling to survive in Nazi occupied France. Three widows who lost their beloved husbands must now protect their livelihood, the Chateau Fouche-LeBlanc vineyard in Reims, after it was requisitioned by the Nazis.
The plot has wine merchant, Helmut Von Schmidt, now turned Nazi Captain in the Wehrmacht, requisitioning the LeBlanc home and stealing their wine for the German troops. Throughout the days he appears as Lord over the women and the manor.
But the three widows come up with a plan. Josephine, the family matriarch, a grandmother to Gabrielle, another widow, will use her early stages of dementia, appearing confused. She and Gabrielle appear to struggle for control over the vineyard so that Von Schmidt must have all his dealings with the granddaughter. Helene, Josephine’s daughter-in-law, has the worst chore, to be the social secretary and a mistress to Von Schmidt. Her two daughters, Gabrielle and Paulette, struggle to understand why their mother seems to have turned into a collaborator. Gabrielle fights to defend her vineyard and her country by joining the French resistance movement. She does not understand why she is both fearful and enchanted with Gestapo Detective Wolfgang Mueller, who searches out French citizens. Completely unlike Gabrielle, Paulette is young and selfish and has an SS boyfriend. The three widows struggle to keep each other alive, out of the Nazi grasp, and to make sure the Nazis do not find out their secrets.
This is a story of resistance, betrayal and heartache. It delves into the sacrifices and risks people will take to protect what they love.
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Elise’s Author Interview
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for this story?
Renee Ryan: I was writing another WWII story and came upon how Hitler’s soldiers stole all these treasures including the French wine. Unfortunately, the wine was lost forever. Think about it, no one can ever get back or make, for example, a 1912 or 1867 wine.
EC: How did the wine and champagne play into the story?
RR: The story is set in and around a vineyard that is the LeBlanc family livelihood. The Nazi occupiers shipped all the wine to the front to give to the soldiers. It is based on a true story. A lot of widows ran these vineyards because they lost their husbands during WWI. For example, there were the widows Veuve Clicquot, Elisabeth Law de Lauriston Bollinger, and Marie-Louise Lanson de Nanoncourt.
EC: How would you describe the four women?
RR: Josephine is the boss until she realizes she is becoming confused. As the matriarch of the family, she has passed the running of the vineyards to her granddaughter Gabrielle. She is very courageous.
Helene is the former Parisian socialite who is witty, charming, and brave. She appeared to be a collaborator but is doing what must be done to save her family.
Gabrielle is the fighter and very responsible.
Paulette is spoiled and entitled. She represents those children who have yet to grow up.
All the women are trying to find their own way.
EC: How would you describe Von Schmidt?
RR: He is self-indulgent, self-promoting, and narcissistic. He used the war for his own purposes. Just like him, a lot of the SS men forwarded their own agenda. He is a bully, thief, controlling, opportunistic, and has no regard for women. He took away Helene’s dignity and independence.
EC: Helene was accused of being a collaborator, but she wasn’t?
RR: People make assumptions without asking the questions. It was assumed that these women were able to make choices, while for many it was their only choice. Survival for themselves or their family should be considered very noble, such as Helene. But there were also the ones like Coco Chanel, women more like Von Schmidt. Since I worked for Chanel for a time, I learned how she hated these Jewish brothers. The Nazi seizure of all Jewish-owned property and business enterprises, provided Chanel with the opportunity to gain back the full monetary fortune generated by Parfums Chanel and its most profitable product, Chanel No. 5. The directors of Parfums Chanel, the Wertheimer brothers, were Jewish. Chanel used her position as an “Aryan” to petition German officials to legalize her claim to sole ownership.
EC: You go into how some people were stuck in the Nazi controlled lands?
RR: This was the backdrop for Helene who decided to stay, thinking it would get better. Her father had begged her to leave with her mother and himself. They did get out, but when Helene wanted to leave it was too late.
EC: What about your next book?
RR: It is scheduled to be published in October 2022. It is a WWII European setting during the 1930s, early 1940s. An Austrian opera singer and a British romance writer joined forces to get the Jews out of Germany and Austria.
THANK YOU!!
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
Seduced by her employer’s son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early nineteenth-century London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered and sent to the notorious Newgate Prison. After months in the fetid, overcrowded jail, she learns she is sentenced to “the land beyond the seas,” Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony in Australia. Though uncertain of what awaits, Evangeline knows one thing: the child she carries will be born on the months-long voyage to this distant land.
During the journey on a repurposed slave ship, the Medea, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with Hazel, a girl little older than her former pupils who was sentenced to seven years transport for stealing a silver spoon. Canny where Evangeline is guileless, Hazel—a skilled midwife and herbalist—is soon offering home remedies to both prisoners and sailors in return for a variety of favors.
Though Australia has been home to Aboriginal people for more than 50,000 years, the British government in the 1840s considers its fledgling colony uninhabited and unsettled, and views the natives as an unpleasant nuisance. By the time the Medea arrives, many of them have been forcibly relocated, their land seized by white colonists. One of these relocated people is Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, who has been adopted by the new governor of Van Diemen’s Land.
In this gorgeous novel, Christina Baker Kline brilliantly recreates the beginnings of a new society in a beautiful and challenging land, telling the story of Australia from a fresh perspective, through the experiences of Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna. While life in Australia is punishing and often brutally unfair, it is also, for some, an opportunity: for redemption, for a new way of life, for unimagined freedom. Told in exquisite detail and incisive prose, The Exiles is a story of grace born from hardship, the unbreakable bonds of female friendships, and the unfettering of legacy.
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Elise’s Thoughts
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline brings to life five women in nineteenth century Australia. All faced similar hardships struggling for redemption and freedom in this new society. They were mistreated and taken from a culture they knew. These women were all brought to their new lives against their will but showed strength and courage.
Evangeline, orphaned after her Vicar father died, found a job as a Governess. But the stepson living in the manor seduces her and shows her affection by giving her a family heirloom ring. The maid, Agnes, finds it and accuses her of stealing it. To make matters worse, she pushes Agnes and is now also accused of attempted murder. Found guilty she is sentenced to fourteen years in an Australian prison.
Olive, also a prisoner, befriends Evangeline. Accused of stealing, she received a sentence of seven years and transport to the Australian prison. She was street wise and knew what was needed to survive.
Hazel, a sixteen-year-old, was accused of stealing a silver spoon and sentenced to seven years in the Australian prison. She is a skilled midwife and herbalist, bartering her skills for goods and favors.
All three women are transported to Australia on the ship, Medea. They must struggle with sea sickness, avoiding sailor’s advances, and the harshness of the journey. Evangeline also must deal with being pregnant, the father being the stepson. She knows she will give birth to her baby while at sea.
Mathinna, the Aboriginal native, an orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, has been adopted by the new governor of Van Diemen’s Land the setting for the Australian prison. She is used by the Governor’s wife as an experiment in civilization, trying to make her into a “lady.” Her life intersects with Hazel’s about two-thirds of the way through the book. Although Mathinna is not a convict, she like the other women is a prisoner with no control over their life.
Caleb Dunne is the doctor on the ship. Because of a misdiagnosis of a prominent woman, he decided to escape and signed up for the ship. Shy and feeling out of place he first forges a friendship with Evangeline, both enjoying the discussion of books. But later he and Hazel become friendly after he realizes her worth as a mid-wife. Their relationship becomes stronger as the story progresses.
The story fascinatingly allows the reader to follow the lives of these women in 19th Century Australia as they forge a new life with new opportunities. People will have their eyes open to pieces of history that are still pertinent today. It is obvious the author did her research and intertwined it into a riveting novel. Readers’ take a journey with these women and root for them as they gain strength and resilience.
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Elise’s Author Interview
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?
Christina Baker Kline: I was inspired by a small article I read in a newspaper about criminal ships. The point of the article is how convicts then had it harder than today. I thought how parts of my life intersected with this story. I had a life-changing six-week Rotary fellowship to Australia. I taught in women’s prisons. I also wrote a book with my mother about the second wave of the women’s movement. A lot of the issues in this book are relevant today including the needed reform of the criminal justice system and the role of women in society. I think it is a hopeful story.
EC: Why the map in the front of the book?
CBK: I wanted to show the route from London to Van Diemen’s Land, renamed Tasmania. It is from the mid 19th Century. I hope readers get a sense of the wide-open places including the placement of the ports, an understanding of the geography. This is the setting where the convict women stayed.
EC: Why the Lowreenne Tribe?
CBK: I went to Australia and Tasmania before Covid. I learned when I arrived about the Aboriginal people who were essentially being pushed into open air concentration camps. By the late 1860s there was no full-blooded Aboriginal people left in Tasmania, out of thousands. I felt it would be irresponsible if I did not address it. Mathinna was a real person who died tragically at the age of seventeen. Everything I described in the novel actually happened to her.
EC: How would you describe Evangeline?
CBK: She was the perfect person to lead the reader into the story, in some ways a stand-in for the reader. Evangeline was naïve and emersed herself in books. The convict world was a shock for her. She was inquisitive, thoughtful, brave, and very lonely. She did not know how to survive as a convict because she was not tough so depended on Olive and Hazel.
EC: How about Hazel?
CBK: She had this “superpower” of healing; a knowledge learned as a mid-wife. Hazel knew how to balance things really well. She was savvy, caring, and angry at being abandoned. I think she goes through a change in the novel. At first, she was a mistrusting teenager, betrayed by her mother. As the story unfolds, she begins to trust more people and comes to love the baby, Ruby.
EC: How would you describe Olive?
CBK: Funny, irreverent, a comic relief, and does what it takes to get by in prison.
EC: What about the relationship between Dr. Dunne and Hazel?
CBK: He is called the “hot doctor.” As with Hazel, he also changes over time. He went on the convict ship because he needed work. At first, he befriends Evangeline who is more like him. Yet, over time Hazel and he realize they share an interest in medicine. He comes to respect her. All the class restrictions fall by the wayside.
EC: How would you describe the doctor?
CBK: A complex character. At times he could appear to be a jerk because he was dismissive, a snob, but overall caring.
EC: What was the role of the Quakers?
CBK: They believed the convicts were worthy of redemption. Elizabeth Fry was a real person who helped them. She was very judgmental because she thought they were sinners. She gave them a sense of dignity and treated them as human beings but was never 100% accepting.
EC: There are similarities with today’s topics?
CBK: Most of these women sent to Australia committed crimes of poverty. They stole to feed themselves and their family since there was no social safety net. These women fell through the cracks. The criminal justice system was brutal then. Back then the poor had no rights and were considered expendable. Legal counsel was only for the rich and the poor had no recourse. Evangeline was an example of someone without allies, resources, and representation.
EC: Why did the British courts sentence these women to prisons in Australia?
CBK: The goal of the British government was to populate Australia. It had a ratio of nine men to every woman. They were sent there under flimsy pretenses. Today, 20% of Australian descendants come from convicts. The Australian personality was forged within their convict past: irreverent, willing to take changes, and never took themselves very seriously. When out of prison, these women had opportunities they would never have had in Britain.
EC: Why the drowning scene?
CBK: I wanted to show how no life is sacred. I read books on drowning. Sebastian Junger who wrote the non-fiction book, The Perfect Storm describes in detail how someone drowns. This was very helpful to me with those scenes in the book.
EC: A powerful quote, “People we love live inside us, even after they’re gone.” Please explain.
CBK: In my novels I often talk about this. In Orphan Train the book begins with the line, “I believe in ghosts. They are the ones who haunt us. They are the ones that left us behind.” With both quotes I thought about the tree metaphor. I love the idea of years that pass, giving us a core of strength. The convict women were alone and had to draw on what they had internally. Even though they lost someone they still had a piece of them in their memories.
EC: What about your next projects?
CBK: My next book, probably out in 2023 will be set in the Civil War era in North Carolina. This novel has been optioned for a TV series by Bruna Papandrea. I will be an executive producer.
THANK YOU!!
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
Today I am once again on the Harlequin Trade Publishing Historical Fiction Summer 2021 Blog Tour and I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for RADAR GIRLS by Sara Ackerman.
Below you will find an author Q&A, an about the book section, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Author Q&A
Q: What do you think drives authors to continue to find stories to tell set around WWII?
A: Perhaps it’s because there are still so many amazing untold stories out there? There are so many individuals with unique experiences during the war, all over the world, that the books could just keep coming. Also, I know for myself, while I’m researching for a novel, I often stumble upon something that makes me sit up and think, Wow, that would make a great story! And then I file it away for future consideration. This happened while I was researching for The Lieutenant’s Nurse, my second novel, and first heard about the Women’s Air Raid Defense. It’s how Radar Girls was born!
Q: How are you hoping readers will relate to Radar Girls?
A: I hope that readers will see a little bit of Daisy Wilder in themselves. I think it’s human nature to put yourself in the shoes of the characters and wonder about how you would react in a crisis. Would you rise to the occasion?
In Radar Girls, we have one woman trying to make her way in the world. Daisy is special in her own way, but no different than you or I, really. And then in one day, everything changes. Through her lens, we experience what it was like firsthand to live in wartime Hawaii, a very dark and scary time. We go along for the ride as she overcomes obstacles, deeply connects with other WARDS, falls in love, and proves herself as an important member of a critical command center Pearl Harbor. We feel her hopes, dreams and fears. As a reader, when I feel the humanity of a story, it makes me care. And when I care, I want to keep turning the pages. I hope that as readers turn the pages of Radar Girls, they will feel empowered and inspired and proud.
Q: What’s something that you connected with personally as you researched and wrote Radar Girls?
A: When I was reading about the real WARDs, the thing that stood out to me the most was how these women quickly became a sisterhood. And I know that many were still close and kept in touch until their dying days. I have a band of friends who I love like sisters, so this really resonated with me. I greatly admire how the WARDs held each other up and maintained such grace under pressure, as well as a great sense of humor throughout. It was so inspiring to me, and made me want to hug all of my friends.
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About the Book
WWII historical fiction inspired by the real women of the Women’s Air Raid Defense, RADAR GIRLS follows one unlikely recruit as she trains and serves in secrecy as a radar plotter on Hawaii. A tale of resilience and sisterhood, it sees the battles of the Pacific through the eyes of these pioneering women, and will appeal to fans of Kate Quinn and Pam Jenoff.
An extraordinary story inspired by the real Women’s Air Raid Defense, where an unlikely recruit and her sisters-in-arms forge their place in WWII history.
Daisy Wilder prefers the company of horses to people, bare feet and saltwater to high heels and society parties. Then, in the dizzying aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Daisy enlists in a top-secret program, replacing male soldiers in a war zone for the first time. Under fear of imminent invasion, the WARDs guide pilots into blacked-out air strips and track unidentified planes across Pacific skies.
But not everyone thinks the women are up to the job, and the new recruits must rise above their differences and work side-by-side despite the resistance and heartache they meet along the way. With America’s future on the line, Daisy is determined to prove herself worthy. And with the man she’s falling in love with out on the front lines, she cannot fail. From radar towers on remote mountaintops to flooded bomb shelters, she’ll need her new team when the stakes are highest. Because the most important battles are fought—and won—together.
This inspiring and uplifting tale of pioneering, unsung heroines vividly transports the reader to wartime Hawaii, where one woman’s call to duty leads her to find courage, strength and sisterhood.
RADAR GIRLS by Sara Ackerman is an engrossing historical fiction story featuring young women on the island of Hawaii after the attack on Pearl Harbor who are enlisted and become the Women’s Air Raid Defense (WARD). This is a standalone historical fiction novel with a romance subplot set on a beautiful island with plenty of real life drama and intrigue.
Daisy Walker is more comfortable around horses than people and is working on the Montgomery Ranch to support herself and her mother. Then the attack on Pearl Harbor throws the island and the entire country into a panic. The men are needed for the front and Daisy is recruited with many other young women to be trained to take over their jobs in the newly formed Women’s Air Raid Defense (WARD) to protect the Pacific coast and help pilots find their way back home.
For the first time in her life, Daisy builds bonds with other women who like and respect her. The women are a diverse group who learn a strategic top secret skill and learn to work together even through their differences in education and social status. As the women bond, it is not all work, as the group gets caught up in several schemes and adventures. Daisy also learns about relationships from her friends and begins to fall for her neighbor who has always seemed out of reach.
Set between the attack on Pearl Harbor and VJ Day, this historical fiction drew me in immediately and I was sorry when it was over. Ms. Ackerman did amazing research not only on the time period and location during the early 1940’s, but on radar and all the skills the women needed to learn and do their jobs. Daisy is a memorable and strong lead character who matures and grows in confidence in herself as the story progresses. She also learns how strong the bond can be between female friends. The romance subplot between Daisy and Walker was realistically paced and intertwined with her relationship growth with the other women. All the secondary characters were believably written and Daisy’s female friends stood out. All of the story elements kept me turning the pages.
I highly recommend this historical fiction story!
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Excerpt
2
The Bust
Their shack, as Daisy referred to the house, was nestled in a cluster of bent ironwood trees, all by its lonesome. Set back far from the beach to protect it from a direct blast of onshore winds, it still took a constant battering and the salty air and elements had done a fine job reclaiming it. Windowpanes had been blasted opaque, you could see through the back wall, and flowers had taken up residence in the gutters. The siding had gone from forest green to pale green to peeling gray, the roof turned to rust.
When he had first started working up at the ranch, Daisy’s father had somehow persuaded Mr. Montgomery to sell him the small parcel of beachfront property for the price of a bag of sand. Most likely because it was in no-man’s-land between Waialua and the ranch. And because her father had been the best horse trainer in Hawai’i and everyone knew it.
She flung open the front door and ran inside. “Mom?” she called.
All quiet. She tiptoed across the lauhala mat in the living room, avoiding the creaking floorboards. Her mother spent much of her life in one of two states—sleeping or staring out to sea. The bedroom door was cracked and a lump lay under the blankets, pillow over her head. There was no point in trying to wake her, so Daisy ran back outside, hopped on her bike and rode for the stables.
The air was ripe with burnt sugarcane and a scratchy feeling of dread. She bumped along a dirt road as fast as her old bike would carry her. That plume of black smoke above Schofield caused her heart to sink. So many Japanese planes could mean only one thing. An attack or invasion of some kind was happening. But the sky remained empty and she saw no signs of ships on the horizon.
By the time she reached the stables, she had worked out what to tell Mr. Silva—the only person at the ranch who was even close to being a friend—and beg that he help her find Moon. Whether or not he would risk his job was another story. Jobs were not easy to come by, especially on this side of the island. Daisy counted herself lucky to have one. When she rounded the corner by the entrance, she about fell over on her bike. Mr. Silva’s rusted truck was gone and in its place sat Mr. Montgomery’s shiny new Ford, motor running and door open.
As far as old Hal Montgomery was concerned, Daisy was mostly invisible. She had worked for him going on seven years now—since she was sixteen—but she was a girl and girls were fluffy, pretty things who wore fancy dresses and attended parties. Not short-haired, trouser-wearing, outdoorsy misfits. And certainly not horse trainers and skin divers. Nope, those jobs belonged to men. There was also the matter of her father’s death, but she preferred not to think about that.
Should she turn around and hightail it out of there before he caught sight of her? He’d find out eventually, and he would be livid. Daisy pulled her bike behind the toolshed and slipped around the back side of the stables, peering in through a cloudy window. The tension in the air from earlier had dissipated and the horses were all quiet. A tall form stood in front of the old horse—Ka‘ena—she was supposed to ride. It was hard to tell through the foggy pane, but the man looked too tall and too thin to be Hal Montgomery.
Horsefeathers! It was Walker, Montgomery’s son. A line of perspiration formed on the back of her neck and she had the strong urge to flee. Not that Daisy had had much interaction with Walker in recent years. He was aloof and intimidating and the kind of person who made her forget how to speak, but he loved Moon fiercely. Of that she was sure. Just then, he turned and started jogging toward the door. His face was in shadow but it felt like he was looking right at her. She froze. If she ducked away now, he would surely catch the movement. She did it anyway.
She had just made it to her bike when Walker tore out of the tack room with a wild look in his eye. He had a rifle hanging across his chest, and he was carrying two others. He stopped when he saw her. “Hey!” he said.
“Oh, hello, Mr. Montgomery.”
He wore his flight suit, which was only halfway buttoned, like he’d been interrupted either trying to get in it or trying to get out of it. His face was flushed and lined with sweat. “Don’t you know we’ve been attacked? You ought to head for cover, somewhere inland.”
He was visibly shaken.
“I saw the planes. What do you know?” she said.
“Wheeler and Schofield are all shot up, and they did a number on Pearl. Battleships down, bay on fire. God knows how many dead.” His gaze dropped to her body for a moment and she felt her skin burn. There had been no time to change or even think about changing, and she was still in her half-wet swimsuit, hair probably sticking out in eleven directions. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I was worried about the horses,” she said.
“That makes two of us. And goddamn Moon is not in his stall. You know anything about that?”
Taking Moon had been about the dumbest thing she could have done. But at the time, it seemed a perfectly sane idea. The kind of thinking that got her into plenty of trouble over the years. Why hadn’t she learned? She looked at the coconut tree just past him as she spoke. “I have no idea. Perhaps Mr. Silva has him?”
“Mr. Silva went to town last night to see his sister,” he said.
She forced herself to look at him, feeling like she had the word guilty inked onto her forehead. “Looks like you have somewhere to be. You go on, I’ll find Moon. I promise.”
Her next order of business would be scouring the coast and finding that horse before Walker returned. There would be no sleeping until Moon was safely back at the stables.
“I sure hope so. That horse is mighty important to me,” he said.
Tell him!
She was about to come clean, when he moved around her, hopped in the car and slammed the door. He leaned out the window and said, “Something tells me you know more than you’re letting on, Wilder.”
With that, he sped off, leaving her standing in a cloud of red dirt and sand.
In the stables, the horses knew the sound of her footsteps, or maybe they smelled the salt on her hair. A concert of nickers and snorts erupted in the stalls. Daisy went to the coatrack first, and slid on an oversize button-up that she kept there for chilly days. It smelled of hay.
“How is everyone?” she said, stopping at each one to rub their necks or kiss their noses. “Quite a morning, hasn’t it been?”
Peanut was pacing with nostrils flared, and she spent a few minutes stroking his long neck before moving on. Horses were her lifeblood. Feeding, grooming, riding, loving. She only wished that Mr. Montgomery would let her train them—officially, that was. Without being asked as a last resort by Mr. Silva when everyone else had tried. Lord knew she was better than the rest of the guys. When she got to Moon’s stall, all the blood rushed from her head. The door had been left open and two Japanese slippers hung from the knob. She had hidden them in the corner under some straw—apparently not well enough.
Damn.
Just then she heard another car pull up. The ranch truck. A couple of the ranch hands poured out, making a beeline to the stables. Mr. Montgomery followed on their heels with a machete in his hand and a gun on his hip. Daisy felt the skin tighten on the back of her neck. His ever-present limp seemed even more pronounced.
When he saw her, he said, “Where’s Silva?”
No mention that they were under attack.
“In town,” she answered.
“What about Walker?”
“Walker just left in a big hurry,” she answered.
One of the guys had his hunting dog with him. It was a big mutt that enjoyed staring down the horses and making them nervous, as if they needed to be any more nervous right now. Daisy wanted to tell him to get the dog out of there, but knew it would be pointless.
“The hosses in the pasture need to be secured,” Mr. M said.
“Do you need my help?” she offered.
“Nah, you should get out of here. Get home. Fuckers blew up all our planes and now paratroopers are coming down in the pineapple fields. Ain’t no place for a woman right now.”
Daisy wanted to stay and help, but also wanted to get the hell away before he noticed that Moon was not here. “Yes, sir.”
He stopped and sized her up for a moment, his thick brows pinched. “You still got that shotgun of your old man’s?”
“I do.”
“Make sure it’s loaded.”
On her way home, Daisy passed through Japanese camp, hoping to get more information from Mr. Sasaki, who always knew the latest happenings. A long row of cottages lined the road, every rock and leaf in its place. The houses were painted barn red with crisp, white trim. On any given Sunday, there would have been gangs of kids roaming the area, but now the place was eerily empty.
“Hello?” she called, letting her bike fall into the naupaka hedge.
When she knocked and no one answered, she started pounding. A curtain pulled aside and a small face peered out at her and waved her away. Mrs. Sasaki. She was torn, but chose to leave them be. With the whispers of paranoia lately, all the local Japanese folks were bound to be nervous. She didn’t blame them.
This time when Daisy ran up to the shack, her mother was sitting on the porch drinking coffee from her chipped mug.
She was still in her nightgown, staring out beyond the ocean. When she was in this state, a person could have walked into their house and made off with all of their belongings and her mother would not even bat an eye.
Daisy sat down next to her. “Mom, the Japanese Army attacked Pearl Harbor and Wheeler and who knows where else.”
Her mother clenched her jaw slightly, took a sip of her coffee, then set it down on the mango stump next to her chair. “They said it would happen,” she said flatly.
“This is serious, mom. People are dead. Civilians, too. I don’t know how many, but the islands are in danger of being invaded and there are Japanese ships and planes all around. They’re telling us to stay inside.”
A look of worry came over her mom’s face. “You should go find a safer place to stay, away from the coast.”
“And leave you here?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
Her mom shrugged.
She knew Louise couldn’t help it, but a tiny part of Daisy was waiting for that day her mother would wake up and be the old Louise Wilder. The mother of red lipstick and coconut macaroons, of beach bonfires and salty hugs. The one who rode bikes with her daughter to school every day, singing with the birds along the way. The highs and lows had been there before, but now there were only lows and deeper lows.
After some time, her mother finally spoke. “Men, they do the dumbest things.”
“That may be true, but we’re at war. Does that mean anything to you?” Daisy said, her voice rising in frustration.
“Course it does, but what can we do?”
She had a point. Aside from hiding in the house or running away, what other options were there? Used to doing things, Daisy was desperate to help, but how? Their home was under attack and she felt as useful as a sack of dirt.
Louise leaned back. On days like these, she retreated so far into herself that she was unreachable. You could tell by looking in her eyes. Blank and bottomless. Mr. Silva always said that you could see the spirit in the eyes. Dull eyes, dull spirit. That Louise looked this way always made Daisy feel deeply alone. The onshore winds kicked up a notch and ruffled the surface of the ocean. She knew she should stay with her mom, but more than anything, she wanted to go in search of the horse. Moon meant more to her than just the job. She loved him something fierce.
Only one thing was clear: their lives would never be the same.
USA Today bestselling author Sara Ackerman was born and raised in Hawaii. She studied journalism and earned graduate degrees in psychology and Chinese medicine. She blames Hawaii for her addiction to writing, and sees no end to its untapped stories. When she’s not writing or teaching, you’ll find her in the mountains or in the ocean. She currently lives on the Big Island with her boyfriend and a houseful of bossy animals. Find out more about Sara and her books at www.ackermanbooks.com and follow her on Instagram @saraackermanbooks and on FB @ackermanbooks.
