Above all, Frank Barnard lays bare the meaning of war, and the selflessness of those prepared to fight until the end. The perfect read for fans of Band of Brothers. In September 1939, war is declared and Europe holds its breath. For RAF fighter pilots patrolling the Franco-German border it is a bizarre time: one moment they are chasing an elusive Luftwaffe, the next ordering champagne in Paris. Then, in May 1940, Hitler launches Blitzkrieg and the Hurricane squadrons find themselves engulfed in battle. Blue Man Falling follows the fortunes of two RAF pilots; Englishman Kit Curtis, and American Ossie Wolf, who clash not only with the Germans, but also with each other, fighting for different reasons and employing different methods as France collapses and the Allies face humiliation and defeat. They also encounter the insidious Fifth Column, the enemy within, and those intent on profiting from chaos...What readers are saying about Blue Man Falling:'Brilliantly conceived and superbly written. There is humour and a fascination throughout. Without doubt this is a must-read book - one that grips you from start to finish' 'Captures the harrowing, insidious shadow of despair that swept across Franceand the civilised world in the wake of Blitzkrieg. Each character is drawn with touching, intimate detail and it is the many finely portrayed action scenes that gives this novel a life of its own''Takes you to another world effortlessly. Pacy, gripping and full of unexpected twists and turns'

    She had one last story to tell. Theirs. And it began in hell on earth.’ It is 1942 and Eva Adami has boarded a train to Auschwitz. Barely able to breathe due to the press of bodies and exhausted from standing up for two days, she can think only of her longed-for reunion with her husband Michal, who was sent there six months earlier. But when Eva arrives at Auschwitz, there is no sign of Michal and the stark reality of the camp comes crashing down upon her. As she lies heartbroken and shivering on a thin mattress, her head shaved by rough hands, she hears a whisper. Her bunkmate, Sofie, is reaching out her hand... As the days pass, the two women learn each other’s hopes and dreams – Eva’s is that she will find Michal alive in this terrible place, and Sofie’s is that she will be reunited with her son Tomas, over the border in an orphanage in Austria. Sofie sees the chance to engineer one last meeting between Eva and Michal and knows she must take it even if means befriending the enemy… But when Eva realises she is pregnant she fears she has endangered both their lives. The women promise to protect each other’s children, should the worst occur. For they are determined to hold on to the last flower of hope in the shadows and degradation: their precious children, who they pray will live to tell their story when they no longer can. A heart-breaking story of survival, where life or death relies on the smallest chance and happiness can be found in the darkest times. Fans of The Choice and The Tattooist of Auschwitz will fall in love with this beautiful novel. Readers are captivated by Lily Graham’s writing: ‘Absolutely one of the best books I have read … Lily Graham has written one of the best books of the year in my honest opinion! If I could have given this a higher rating that 5 stars I would have done so… truly an unforgettable story!’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Warning! This book will make you cry... The most moving story I’ve read in a long while… I have not wept so much in a while… I fell in love… by the end I was smiling and crying. I was an emotional mess all round really.’ The Book Trail, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I was hooked… a beautiful story… absolutely amazing!… truly beautiful… even though I did spend most of the time blubbering into my tissues!’ Stardust Book Reviews, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Hands down one of the best books I've read in a long time. This story hooks you immediately, one cannot put it down. I even dreamed about the book! Absolutely love it!’ 5 stars – Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Beautiful, just beautiful… one of my favourite books of all time. Just, wow.’ The Writing Garnet ‘Gorgeous; reminding me of a Kate Morton novel… I had a difficult time wanting to put down this book most nights; staying up into the wee hours of the morning… this stunning book was a perfect summer read, and I relished every page.

    Sister Marie's latest novitiate is a young woman named Noele whose fiancé, René, fled to Paris only to find it overrun by the Nazis. Now back in sleepy Brassac, both René and Noele realize that decisions of love and liberation can never, truly, be avoided. Sister Marie is not unsympathetic to the emotions with which Noele battles; having gone through a similar struggle when she was young. The offbeat nuns must wrestle with how far to expand the margins of their vows, in hopes of saving their town and themselves. A Habit of Resistance is a humorous, but thought-provoking story of personal denial and redemption.

    Malaya, 1941. Connie Thornton plays her role as a dutiful wife and mother without complaint. She is among the fortunate after all-the British rubber plantation owners reaping the benefits of the colonial life. But Connie feels as though she is oppressed, crippled by boredom, sweltering heat, a loveless marriage. . .Then, in December, the Japanese invade. Connie and her family flee, sailing south on their yacht toward Singapore, where the British are certain to stand firm against the Japanese. En route, in the company of friends, they learn that Singapore is already under siege. Tensions mount, tempers flare, and the yacht's inhabitants are driven by fear.Increasingly desperate and short of food, they are taken over by a pirate craft and its Malayan crew making their perilous way from island to island. When a fighter plane crashes into the sea, they rescue its Japanese pilot. For Connie, that's when everything changes. In the suffocating confines of the boat with her life upended, Connie discovers a new kind of freedom and a new, dangerous, exhilarating love.

     As Nazis occupy his beloved city, Professor Josef Held feels helpless. So when he discovers his former pupil Michael Blum is trying to escape the Gestapo, he offers Michael a place to hide in his attic. In the quiet gloom of the secret room, Michael talks of his beautiful, fearless girlfriend, Elke. Michael insists that not even the Nazis will come between them. But Elke is a non-Jewish Dutch girl, and their relationship is strictly forbidden. Josef sees the passionate determination in his young friend’s eyes. Furious with the rules of the cruel German soldiers and remembering his own heartbreak, Josef feels desperate to give Michael and Elke’s love a chance. But then tragedy strikes, and Josef is faced with an impossible choice. In the dark days of war, with danger and betrayal at every turn, no-one can be trusted. If Michael is to survive and get back to the woman he loves, it will be down to Josef – to find the hero inside himself, and do whatever it takes to keep Michael alive. Even if it means putting his own life in mortal danger. A heartbreakingly beautiful story about courage against the odds, perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, All The Light We Cannot See, and The Nightingale.

    Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past forever.Ten years later, now a radio producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, on a different battleground, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat. A bill of reckoning is due, and she finally begins to realize that there is no action without consequence.

    Perfect for fans of Katie Flynn.It is 1939 and in the town of Dartford, Grace, Sally and twins Daisy and Rose, are determined to do their bit when war is declared. Grace, desperate to get away from her sad home life, signs up for the Land Army. Sally’s dream of stage school is thwarted by the war, but she finds hope in an unexpected place.For the twins, nothing has prepared them for the shock of the blitz and the nightly raids on their hometown. Rose signs on at the local munitions factory, but with her brothers away fighting, Daisy is needed at home in her father’s greengrocer shop.When she unwittingly trespasses on a wealthy estate and meets the aristocratic flying ace, Adair, Daisy initially dismisses him as a ‘toff’. But they become friends and Adair encourages Daisy to indulge her passion for aeroplanes. Could Daisy’s dream of being a pilot be closer than she thinks? And in these uncertain times, a girl would have to be crazy to fall in love, wouldn’t she?

    When she receives a journal for her sixteenth birthday, Sophie decides to chronicle day-to-day life on the island. But this is 1936, and the news that trickles in from the mainland reveals a world on the brink of war. The politics of Europe seem far away from their remote island—until two German officers land a boat on Montmaray. And then suddenly politics become very personal indeed.

    --Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads SingSpanning World War II and the sweep of the twentieth century, We Must Be Brave explores the fierce love that we feel for our children and the power of that love to endure. Beyond distance, beyond time, beyond life itself.A woman. A war. The child who changed everything.December 1940. As German bombs fall on Southampton, England during World War II, the city's residents flee to the surrounding villages. In Upton village, amid the chaos, newly married Ellen Parr finds a girl asleep, unclaimed at the back of an empty bus. Little Pamela, it seems, is entirely alone.Ellen has always believed she does not want children, but when she takes Pamela into her home, the child cracks open the past Ellen thought she had escaped and the future she and her husband Selwyn had dreamed for themselves. As the war rages on, love grows where it was least expected, surprising them all. But with the end of the fighting comes the realization that Pamela was never theirs to keep. Spanning the sweep of the twentieth century, We Must Be Brave explores the fierce love that we feel for our children and the power of that love to endure. Beyond distance, beyond time, beyond life itself.

    But his subject seems more interested in finding out about Robert's past than he does in revealing his own. For years, Robert has refused to discuss his past. After the war ended, he refused to go to reunions, believing in some way that denying the killing and the deaths of his friends and fellow soldiers would mean he wouldn't be defined by the experience. Suddenly, he can't keep the memories from overtaking him. But can he trust his memories and can we believe what other people tell us about theirs?Moving between the present and past, between France and Italy, New York and London, this is a powerful story about love and war, memory and desire, the relationship between the body and the mind. Compelling and full of suspense, Where My Heart Used to Beat is a tender, brutal and thoughtful portrait of a man and a century, which asks whether, given the carnage we've witnessed and inflicted over the past one hundred years, people can ever be the same.

    A talented young woman travels to Paris with a stranger. The promise of an exciting career as a milliner beckons, but she is about to fall in love with the enemy...Londoner Cora Masson has reinvented herself as Coralie de Lirac, fabricating an aristocratic background to launch herself as a fashionable milliner. When the Nazis invade, the influence of a high-ranking lover, Dietrich, saves her business. But while Coralie retains her position as designer to a style-hungry elite, Paris is approaching its darkest hour.Faced with the cruel reality of war and love, Coralie must make a difficult choice—protect herself or find the courage to fight for her friends, her freedom and everything she believes in.

    It came when she was flying. She thought she could write a book about the things she'd seen from above - herds of deer, hundreds of them, rippling across hilltops, houses...people small as matchstick men. Once, she'd seen a couple entangled in their own not-as-private-as-they-thought rapture on a sun-soaked moor. She was addicted to the air. 'Vicar's daughter Izzy feels hugely guilty that she's having a very good war. Having learned to fly in a travelling circus before the war, she's now joined the Air Transport Auxiliary as one of their few female pilots and is having the time of her life. The only cloud on the horizon is having to lie to her father about her exact role in the ATA. Her father is against the whole notion of women flying - he certainly wouldn't approve of her becoming a 'spitfire girl'.Izzy also feels distinctly out of place among the more upper class ladies of the ATA. She would love to be as worldly as her flighty housemate, Julia, or as sophisticated as society wife Clare. But when Izzy finds herself falling for the charms of a dashing American doctor it is to Julia and Clare that she turns for help...

    She is twenty-seven, with a sister who needs her constant care, a hazardous journey ahead, and now a child in her charge.Several decades later, Chiara lives alone in Rome, a self-contained woman working as a translator. Always in the background is the shadow of Daniele, whose absence and the havoc he wrought on Chiara's world haunt her. Then she receives a phone call from a teenager claiming to be his daughter, and Chiara knows it is time to face up to the past.

    Their fathers, though once enemy combatants, are friends having met one another in No Man's Land during the spontaneous Christmas Truce of World War One. When Hans and Aimée meet for the first time in 1940 during the Nazi occupation of France, they could not have envisioned the course of events that would ensue as Europe spirals into the abyss of global conflict. With World War Two raging and the deportation of Jews escalating, Hans learns Aimée and her entire family are intended for arrest and deportation. In response, he executes a daring and courageous plan to rescue them from the fatal grip of the Gestapo, a plan enacted against all odds and borne of selfless love.

    She is assigned as a teacher to children who were evacuated from London and have been rejected by the countryside because they are infirm, mentally disabled, or—like Mary’s favorite student, Zachary—have colored skin.Tom, an education administrator, is distraught when his best friend, Alastair, enlists. Alastair, an art restorer, has always seemed far removed from the violent life to which he has now condemned himself. But Tom finds distraction in Mary, first as her employer and then as their relationship quickly develops in the emotionally charged times. When Mary meets Alastair, the three are drawn into a tragic love triangle and—while war escalates and bombs begin falling around them—further into a new world unlike any they’ve ever known.A sweeping epic with the kind of unforgettable characters, cultural insights, and indelible scenes that made Little Bee so incredible, Chris Cleave’s latest novel explores the disenfranchised, the bereaved, the elite, the embattled. Everyone Brave Is Forgiven is a heartbreakingly beautiful story of love, loss, and incredible courage.