From D-Day to present-day, two lives are irrevocably changed by the decision to chase brave or to run away from it.Cancer stole everything from Ceelie—her peace of mind, her self-image, even her twenty-year marriage to her college sweetheart, Nate. Were it not for the support and cheerleading of her quirky elderly friend, Darlene, she might not have been able to endure so much loss.When Darlene's prognosis turns dire, Ceelie can't refuse her friend's seemingly impossible request: find a WWII paratrooper named Cal McCallum, the father who disappeared when Darlene was just a toddler and left a lifetime of desolation in his wake.The search that begins in the farmlands of Missouri eventually leads Ceelie to a small town in Normandy where, with Nate's unexpected help, she uncovers the harrowing story of a hero who dropped into occupied France in the early hours of D-Day.As Ceelie and Nate shed new light on Cal's past, they find in...

When Marshall Becker arrives in Lamorlaye, France, to begin the massive renovation of a Renaissance-era castle, he unearths a dark World War II history few in the village remember. The project that was meant to provide an escape for Becker instead becomes a gripping glimpse into the human drama that unfolded during the Nazi occupation and seems to live on in midnight disturbances and bizarre acts of violence.

"There were seconds, when I woke, when the world felt unshrouded. Then memory returned." When Jessica regains consciousness in a French hospital on the day after the Paris attacks, all she can think of is fleeing the site of the horror she survived. But Patrick, the steadfast friend who hasn't left her side, urges her to reconsider her decision. Worn down by his insistence, she reluctantly agrees to follow through with the trip they'd planned before the tragedy. "The pages found you," Patrick whispered. "Now you need to figure out what they're trying to say." During a stop at a country flea market, Jessica finds a faded document concealed in an antique. As new friends help her to translate the archaic French, they uncover the story of Adeline Baillard, a young woman who lived centuries before—her faith condemned, her life endangered, her community decimated by the Huguenot persecution. "I write for...

Shelby’s life isn’t glamorous, but it is predictable—and that’s the way she likes it. A survivor of her father’s violence, she has spent a lifetime creating a safe existence devoid of dependence. But her carefully managed world begins to break when, under staggering circumstances, she becomes a single mother to four-year-old Shayla. In a drastic attempt to escape her childhood’s influence, Shelby moves to Germany, but she quickly discovers how intimately linked memory and healing are—and how honestly she must scrutinize her past in order to aspire to a richer future. As she juggles a new job, a new culture, a new daughter, and the attention of an enterprising man, Shelby’s fresh start becomes a quest for the courage to be not only a survivor, but someone who prevails.

"I felt torn between two worlds. Each with its own mystery. One more captivating than the other, but the other more real and breathing."It took Lauren and her husband ten years to achieve their dream—reaching primitive tribes in remote regions of Nepal. But while Sam treks into the Himalayas for weeks at a time, finding passion and purpose in his work among the needy, Lauren and Ryan stay behind, their daily reality more taxing than inspiring. For them, what started as a calling begins to feel like the family's undoing. At the peak of her isolation and disillusion, a friend from Lauren's past enters her life again. But as her communication with Aidan intensifies, so does the tension of coping with the present while reengaging with the past. It's thirteen-year-old Ryan who most keenly bears the brunt of her distraction.Intimate and bold, Of Stillness and Storm weaves profound dilemmas into a tale of troubled love and honorable...