by Ciji Ware
First published 2019
Catherine Thornton hovers in a British Halifax bomber above occupied France in 1942. The former American embassy wife has become a secret agent, and she faces a deadly choice between parachuting into German-controlled territory or arriving by submarine. Below wait Nazi sharpshooters and an uncertain fate. Catherine carries personal motivations for accepting this perilous assignment, reasons she keeps hidden even from Henri Leblanc, the ex-Vichy diplomat who thinks he knows why she volunteered. Using the alias Colette Durand, she conducts dangerous operations across the French Riviera and works with Resistance cells in the coastal region. Her mission becomes more complex when she develops feelings for a fellow agent who has been captured. The German SS begins tracking her activities, putting both her life and the broader Allied war effort at risk. Catherine faces a race against time to identify the traitor within her network before the Germans expose her true identity and destroy her operation entirely.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, adventure, espionage
Vibes: fast-paced, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: France, French Riviera
Period: 1942
474 pages · Paperback · Lion's Paw Publishing
Content warnings: violence