A woman's future is determined by fate and choice in a gripping WWII novel about danger, triumph, and second chances by the New York Times bestselling author of The Venice Sketchbook and The Tuscan Child. London, 1940.
Bombs fall and Josie Banks's world crumbles around her. Her overbearing husband, Stan, is unreachable, called to service. Her home, a ruin of rubble and ash. Josie's beloved tearoom boss has been killed, and Josie herself is injured, with nothing left and nowhere to go.
Evacuated to the English countryside, Josie ends up at the estate of the aristocratic Miss Harcourt, a reluctant host to the survivors of the Blitz. Awed as she is by the magnificent landscape, Josie sees opportunity. Josie convinces Miss Harcourt to let her open a humble tea shop, seeing it as a chance for everyone to begin again.
When Josie meets Mike Johnson, a handsome Canadian pilot stationed at a neighboring bomber base, a growing intimacy brings her an inner peace she's never felt before. Then Stan returns from the war. Now a threat looms larger than anyone imagined. And a dangerous secret is about to upend Josie's life again. Her newfound courage will be put to the test if she is to emerge, like a survivor, triumphant.
About the Author
Rhys Bowen is the New York Times bestselling author of more than forty novels, including The Venice Sketchbook, Above the Bay of Angels, The Victory Garden, The Tuscan Child, and her World War II novel In Farleigh Field, the winner of the Left Coast Crime βLeftyβ Award for Best Historical Mystery Novel and the Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel. Bowenβs work has won twenty honors to date, including multiple Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards. Her books have been translated into many languages, and she has fans around the world, including an online following of over two hundred thousand fans worldwide. A transplanted Brit, Bowen divides her time between California and Arizona.