Happy January! I hope you're keeping warm wherever you live. Here on the Canadian prairies, we're settling in for a long, cold winter. I can hardly wait for spring!
This month on Book Hooks, I'm featuring my books set during, and shortly after, World War Two. Today it's my #WW2romance HOME FIRES. It tells the story of an English girl who travels to Canada after the war to marry her dashing Canadian fiance only to discover he's married someone else. Here's the blurb and excerpt for HOME FIRES:
Blurb:
Anne Wakefield travels halfway around the world for love. But when she arrives in Canada from England at the end of World War Two, she discovers the handsome Canadian pilot she’d fallen in love with has married someone else. Heartbroken, she prepares to return to London, though she has nothing left there to return to. Her former fiancé’s mother makes a suggestion: marriage to her other son.
Badly wounded and scarred during the war, Erik Gustafson thinks he’s a poor substitute for his brother. Although he loves Anne almost from the first time he sees her, he cannot believe she would ever be able to love him as he is – especially as he might be after another operation on his bad leg. Anne sees the beauty of his heart. The cold prairie winter may test her courage, but can she prove to Erik that her love for him is real?
Excerpt:
She offered him her hand. Erik looked at it for a moment, then at her face. Not a trace of pity marred her beautiful features. He took her small, soft hand in his, and was surprised at the strength with which she pulled him to his feet.
“You’re a lot stronger than you look.”
She laughed, the first genuine sound of amusement he’d heard from her. “Probably comes from spending the war lifting men twice my size.”
“Anders said you were a nurse. Are you planning to continue nursing now that the war is over?”
Her smile disappeared. “I hope not. I’ve seen enough misery to last me the rest of my life.”
He nodded. After witnessing the blood bath at Dieppe, he knew exactly what she meant.
“How far is it to the house?” she asked.
Erik leaned on his cane. “Not far. Wait. You’ve got dried leaves stuck in your hair.”
He pulled the offending leaves from her hair, letting his hand linger on the silky tresses. She looked up at him, her dark brown eyes huge and round. But she didn’t move or stop him from touching her. With her porcelain skin and fine bone structure, she looked like a delicate English rose, yet he detected a strength in her that would put any man to shame.
“We should go,” she whispered.
Erik dropped his hand. What was he doing? This beautiful English rose was still in love with his brother. His handsome, fit, unscarred brother. She didn’t want him.
He’d do well to remember that. He’d already been rejected by one beautiful English girl because of his scars. Another rejection would be more than he could bear.
Buy Link: https://books2read.com/Home-Fires
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Painful yet very realistic, Jana.