First published 2016
Emily Emerson has lost everyone. Her father abandoned the family during her childhood. Her mother died when Emily turned eighteen. Now her grandmother has passed away too. When Emily loses her reporting job, she feels completely lost. Then a painting arrives at her door. It shows a young woman in a sugarcane field beneath a purple sky. Emily recognizes her grandmother's face. A handwritten note accompanies the artwork: "He never stopped loving her." Emily starts investigating. Her research reveals a hidden chapter of World War II history. German prisoners of war worked on Florida farms in the 1940s. Some fell in love with American women. Emily's search for answers takes her from the Florida Everglades to Munich and back. She discovers how her grandmother's past connects to this forgotten wartime story.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, hidden-history
Setting: Florida, Munich, Everglades
Period: 1940s, World War II
384 pages · ebook · Gallery Books