Military Friendships

When Theo gets off a bus in Destiny, Florida, he's left behind the only life he's ever known. Now he's got to live with Uncle Chester, a Vietnam War vet and a loner who wants nothing to do with this longlost nephew. Thank goodness for Miss Sister Grandersole's Boarding House and Dance School. The piano that sits in Miss Sister's dance hall calls to Theo. He can't wait to play those ivory keys. When Anabel arrives, things get even more enticing.

Izzie Silver left the small Irish town of Tamarin behind her for life in New York. She's big, beautiful, and dreams of her own model agency for plus-sized women (what her grandmother would call "healthy" women). Life is good - but she's just broken one of her cardinal rules and fallen for a married man.

Dear Mr Bigelow is an enchanting selection of weekly 'pen-pal' letters written between 1949 and 1961 from an unmarried woman working at the Pier Approach Baths in Bournemouth, to a wealthy American widower, living on Long Island, New York. Frances Woodsford and Commodore Paul Bigelow never met, and there was no romance - she was in her forties when he died aged ninety-seven - yet their epistolary friendship was her lifeline.

Family and friendship mean everything under the darkening skies of wartime Britain, by Sunday Times best-selling author Margaret Dickinson. It is the 1930s, and the Maitland family have spent the years following the Great War struggling to come to terms with its catastrophic aftermath, and their hopes now lie with the next generation. Their Lincolnshire village of Doddington suffered terrible loss and it has taken great courage for the bereaved families to rebuild their lives without their loved ones.

The fight continues with Leslie, John, Jade, Ryan, Taylor, and the others as they struggle with overcoming their internal demons. Life throws everyone into obstacles, tossed around with memories, relationships, family, morals, identity, and purpose. Here is a personal story of what many vets face: silently facing their reflection and past, not sure how to find the words to describe what they think and feel. The Fight series brings many of these things to light.

Europe, 1940. With war on their doorstep, German classmates Klara and Rachel, and French brothers Lucien and Paul, are forced to leave their homes. They are taken to Gurs, a French detention camp in the south-west of France. It's a crowded place, with little comfort and even less food. When Klara and Rachel are promised safe refuge in a remote French village, Lucien and Paul are anxious to join them—and will risk their own lives to get there.

I had a memory of wearing a sidearm when I escorted Miss Missouri in Viet Nam. Upon examining photographs of that occasion, I found no evidence of a pistol. This memory of taking a sidearm, I think, was a memory that drifted in from a later event. Nevertheless, this “false” memory carries the truth of how important the safety of Miss Missouri meant at the time. On the other hand, my memory, tested against other evidence like photographs or other accounts, has often proven more accurate than some written records.

Echoes of the American War in Afghanistan transports readers into a world shaped by the intense human stories behind a 20-year conflict. This powerful novel follows Mariam and Tariq, two young Afghans whose paths cross amid war and whose lives are forever bound by courage and resilience. As the country endures political upheaval and relentless violence, they navigate a world torn apart, confronting loss and finding strength in places they least expect. Mariam, uprooted from Kabul, faces the challenge of adapting to life as a refugee in the United States, torn between her love for her ...

It is the story of friendship between Freddy and George, Freddy’s classmate whom Freddy meets in school in Paris. Moreover, it is also the story of Sigmund, whose patriotic blindness impacted his and his family’s life; the story of Nellie, who left Germany for Colombia before Nellie’s parents sought refuge in France; and whose mission would be to reunite the family in a peaceful and friendly country.

Johnny Maxwell and his friends have to do something when they find Mrs Tachyon, the local bag lady, semi-conscious in an alley...as long as it's not the kiss of life. But there's more to Mrs Tachyon than a squeaky trolley and a bunch of dubious black bags. Somehow she holds the key to different times, different ears: including the Blackbury Blitz in 1941. Suddenly, now isn't the safe place Johnny once thought it was as he finds himself caught up more and more with then.

Written in 1940 in Yiddish, this heart-wrenching story of two nine-year-old friends caught up in the earliest tremors of anti-Semitic hatred in Vienna is all the more shocking because its author had no idea of what was still to come. Despite the casual violence done to their families - Karl's parents were socialists and Emil is Jewish - the boys find moments of kindness, courage and hope along their painful journey.

Her second chance comes with strings—him Navy veteran Hudson Rafferty is fine being alone with his nightmares and what’s left of his soul. He’s not fine with Ember Nixon calling dibs on the space in downtown Superstition Springs that he’s earmarked for his new restaurant. She’s the one woman he can’t ignore, the one woman who pushes past his carefully constructed boundaries—and the one woman who seems to accept his quirks. Ember left Superstition Springs at seventeen, pregnant and disgraced. She never dreamed she’d be back with a special-needs seven-year-old in tow. Or that ...

A small town doctor’s prescription for mending her broken heart: one reclusive, battle-scarred hero Ex-SEAL Rowe Hardy deserves every last bad thing that happened to him on that final mission, especially the scars on his face. After all, it’s his fault that he and the other guys on his team were kicked out of the Navy. Losing his hearing is his penance, same as being single forever. No woman would be interested in a half-deaf beast anyway. Especially not the beautiful new doctor in town…the one he can’t stop dreaming about. Dr. India Kingston didn’t get the memo that Rowe is ...

She’s betting on the wrong man—and he’s all in to prove it to her Aria Nixon doesn’t need a man, but when her Aunt Serenity predicts Aria will find love via a makeover, it’s game on to prove this understated wallflower can land a man as is. Superstition Springs newcomer Isaiah West is just the guy to help since she’s set her sights on his teammate. This quirky small town is just a temporary stopping place for Isaiah. As soon as the Navy veteran comes up with a plan for his life, he’ll move on—but suddenly he can’t deny a fierce attraction to blunt, feisty Aria. Sure he’s...

When your four-year-old finds her Christmas daddy sleeping under the mall tree, Christmas magic gets complicated… Bree Kennedy knows exactly what she wants for Christmas: a daddy. When she discovers Tyler Manning sleeping under the giant Christmas tree at the mall, she's absolutely certain Santa delivered early. Combat boots, emotional baggage, and all—he's perfect. Kelly Kennedy, Bree’s mortified mother, has learned not to trust in miracles. Once a successful investment banker, now scrubbing office floors, she knows life rarely delivers what you order. But Tyler's broken smile and ...

This book contains numerous short stories as seen through the eyes of a dusty old baker. The stories are made up of observations, history, and imagination, as the author watches the world go by as he sits at the large table in the middle of his bakery.

Thank you for the music....It's 1939, and the war in Europe casts a long, all-encompassing shadow. In a sleepy town in Suffolk, the generous and determined widow, La, forms an amateur orchestra to entertain the locals and soothe her own broken heart. She recruits Felix, a refugee from Poland, to play the flute, and a touching friendship emerges. When the war is over and the orchestra disbands, La is left pondering her next move. What role can she play in her community now the war is over?

Twelve-year-old Robyn has grown up in Bletchley Park, where her father works as a driver. When she's not at school, she helps her dad in the garages. Then the war begins and everything at Bletchley changes. Robyn is assigned to help with the carrier pigeons that take messages to the Allies. But first, she must sign the Official Secrets Act and is ordered not to leave the grounds of the park. While Bletchley is buzzing with people recruited for the war effort and all eyes are on the skies, Robyn becomes convinced that there's something sinister going on within Bletchley Park.

Past and present are woven into this novel set in contemporary times and WWII Poland. Based on a real-life story about friendship and endurance in the darkest situation. Kat is a 12-year-old girl who loves working on her super-heroine comic, Girl 38 – the girl she longs to be like. But she's not brave, or fearless. At school, Gem is no longer her "best friend". And at home Kat is lonely while her parents are busy working long hours. She's even a bit afraid of her elderly neighbour, Ania.

For Jason and his fiancé Thelma, the bomb meant he never had to invade Japan and maybe die or at least be wounded. For Fred, the bomb means guilt and fear, wondering why it had to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as his wife Sally tries to help him. For Soviet and East German scientists trying to develop a sufficient weapon of mass destruction means involuntary servitude to a nation intent on catching America in an arms race. For a federal employee who worked where the first bomb was developed, life spirals into a search for an escape from nuclear annihilation. When Jason discovers ...