Historical War Saga

As World War II rages across Europe and the Pacific, its impact ripples through communities in the heartland of America. A farm girl is locked in a dangerous love triangle with two Germans soldiers held in an Illinois POW camp. Another German, a war refugee, is forced to risk her life spying on the developing Manhattan Project in Chicago. And espionage surrounds the disappearance of an actress from the thriving Jewish community of Chicago's Lawndale.

1942: With the war's outcome hanging in the balance, President Roosevelt sends an unlikely new taskforce on a unique mission. They are librarians and microfilm specialists trained in espionage, working with a special branch of the Office of Strategic Services and deployed to neutral cities throughout Europe. By acquiring and scouring Axis newspapers, books, technical manuals, and periodicals, the librarians can gather information about troop location, weaponry, and military plans.

Young Dorothy is trapped in a life of poverty and heartache. Abandoned by a mother who never loved her, she is forced to live with grandparents who care even less for her than they do for their own bratty children. Dorothy must persevere and hold on to the distant memory of her loving father with only a tin of letters and a small toy soldier to remind her of her former life of wealth and privilege. Just when Dorothy thinks life has nothing left to offer, a letter arrives, inviting her to visit her father in London. Will this be the opportunity Dorothy has been waiting for?

1939. After the sudden and tragic loss of her husband, Helen is returning home to her mother’s house in Biggin Hill, Kent - the one place she vowed she’d never go back to again. Alone and not knowing where to turn, Helen finds herself joining the local women’s sewing circle despite being hopeless with a needle and thread. These resourceful women can not only make do and mend clothes, quilts and woolly hats, but their friendship mends something deeper in Helen, too.

When conflict photographer Jackson Swann dies, he leaves behind a conflict of his own making when his three daughters, each born to a different mother, discover that they’re now responsible for the family’s Oregon vineyard - and for a family they didn’t ask for.

It’s spring 1919, and the Great War has ended. New life flourishes on the red cliffs of the Northern Isles of Scotland—sea pinks and primrose, puffins and guillemots. But this windswept corner of the world harbors a dark secret. Rose Van Etten has always reveled in danger and defiance. When the war started, she went from racing cars to driving ambulances and learned of an insidious spy ring from a dying soldier. Now that the war is over, she ventures to Scotland in search of the truth.

London, 1941. The Blitz. When a Royal Navy memo arrives at head office, requesting female recruits to sign up as motorcycle dispatch riders, delivering highly classified orders across the country, three women jump at the chance to sign up for the most dangerous jobs in London.

Pauline réside désormais à Berlin avec Hans. Et la vie est douce, malgré les zones d'ombre autour du passé de son époux. Mais les rumeurs de la guerre s'amplifient, le régime nazi trouve ses alliés. À la fin du mois d'août 1939, les ressortissants français sont tenus de quitter l'Allemagne.

"Je suis un vieil homme habité par la guerre. Chaque fois que j'ai cru pouvoir m'éloigner d'elle, un événement est survenu qui l'a lancée à mes trousses. Vieux chien hargneux, elle s'accroche à moi et refuse de me lâcher. Mais je ne sens rien de féroce dans sa ténacité. Son grognement est presque un murmure d'amitié. Alors je le caresse. Il ouvre sa gueule et, sans hâte, il me précède. Je le suis. Je sais très bien qu'il me conduit sur le sentier des guerres que nul ne saurait vraiment oublier."

Loyalty to your people. Loyalty to Rome. Only one can remain... Centurion Faustus Valerianus has already proven his bravery and skill, marching alongside Julius Agricola for six gruelling years to conquer the north of Britain. But that was just the beginning... With Agricola back in Rome, Faustus is given a new mission: to journey to Hibernia with exiled Irish prince Tuathal Techtmar and help him reclaim his rightful throne.

Fifteen-year-old Kate lives a rarefied life of wealth and privilege in the pre-war Hong Kong expatriate community, but when the Japanese invade she’s interned in squalid Stanley Camp with her parents. Enduring cramped conditions, humiliation, disease, and starvation, Kate befriends seventeen-year-old Charles, who is half Chinese, and they give their hearts to each other under the orchid tree. Meanwhile, forty miles away in Portuguese Macau, thirteen-year-old Sofia’s suspicions are aroused when her father invites a Japanese family to dinner.

England, 1937: After a devastating childhood at Blakely Hall Orphanage, 15-year-old Sandra is released. She finds work as a housemaid, finally able to put her past behind her. But the start of World War Two throws the country into turmoil, and her brother, Alf, is sent away to fight, leaving her completely alone. Germany, 1939: Eleven-year-old Frieda is about to board a ship bound for England with her brother, Kurt. But at the last moment, as Frieda stands on the deck crammed with frightened children, she spots her brother jumping off, back to land.

As a teenager in Chicago, May always dreamed of travelling the world. So when she falls in love with George Turner, she can’t wait to return to London as his wife. Two beautiful daughters follow, but George isn’t the husband he promised to be. Ten years on, May is wondering if she’s made a terrible mistake. The Great War has been declared in Europe, and all around, brave young men are being called up to serve. George, banned from conscription himself, has taken to the bottle, and May suspects he’s seeing other women, too.

"They’re running wild. Feral! If I had a shilling for every time a Scott Street boy said he was doing something when he was doing something else entirely I’d be living in Cardiff in a house made of Lardy cake. What did I say? Bad things will happen!" The idea of the war coming to their small, impoverished Welsh mining village always seemed remote, but with one explosive event and the arrival of the Americans preparing for the invasion of France, the people of Treherbert find their world turned upside down.

The phony war is over and Hitler is beginning his rampage through Europe. But back home Barbara Sinclair has troubles of her own. With her wedding to Spitfire Pilot Alex Everton imminent, Barbara is worried about a secret she is keeping from her new husband – one that could ruin everything. Determined to try and maintain some normality in her life, the wedding goes ahead, but Alex leaves almost immediately to continue fighting the Germans. Barbara fears for his safety and for the moment, her secret must wait. But when bombs fall on Barbara’s new home, the war feels closer than ever.

Now that he has made a name for himself and shown his courage in battle Sven Saxon Sword becomes not only a leader in battle but also a target for others when he fights. Beginning with the Battle of Svolder when hundreds of ships clashed in the sea, the novel takes us through the maelstrom of war. Sweyn Forkbeard has ambitions in the west, where there is a weak Saxon king, Aethelred. Sven Saxon Sword and his foster father are part of the force that battles in Wessex, Cornwall and Kent.

Alice Lake has arrived in London from Liverpool to start her training as a District Nurse, but her journey has been far from easy. Her parents think that she should settle down and get married, but she has already had her heart broken once and isn’t about to make the same mistake again. Alice and her best friend, Edith, are based in the East End, but before they’ve even got their smart new uniforms on, war breaks out, and Hitler’s bombs are raining down on London.

En raison du manque de soldats, Hitler appelle sous les drapeaux tous les hommes disponibles. Les criminels, prisonniers politiques et déserteurs sont amnistiés et envoyés au front. Ils sont tous réunis dans un bataillon de marche et ils sont affectés aux missions les plus pénibles. L'obéissance aveugle est ce qu'il y a de plus dur. Bien plus de vingt fois par jour, on leur rappelle, entre malédictions et instructions prussiennes, qu'ils font partie d'un régiment disciplinaire et qu'ils seront les meilleurs soldats du monde.

Annie Pearson is working on Emmerdale Farm, while her love, Edward Sugden is at the front line. Lily Dingle has found purpose in joining the ATS, though she may get more than she bargained for. And Meg Warcup, now teaching at the local school, has taken in two children evacuated from Hull. They have adjusted to their new way of life until one day a German plane comes crashing down in the village....and changes everything in the village of Beckindale.

Society heiress Evelyn Brooke-Edwards is a skilled interrogator—her beauty making her a non-threat in the eyes of the prisoners. Farm girl Betty Connors may not be able to type as she claimed, but her crack analytical skills soon find her unearthing covert connections. German ex-pat Judith Stern never expected to find herself listening in to German POWs' whispered conversations, but the Nazis took her father from her, so she will do whatever it takes to help the Allies end this war.