Showing results by author "Rachel Wesson" in All Categories

Connie Fitzwalter never imagined that her passion for music would lead her into a world of danger and intrigue. When her old family friend, Stephen, who works for the foreign office, tells Connie the true scale of the violence against Jewish people in Germany and Austria, she can stand aside no longer. Together, Stephen and Connie devise a daring mission to help families escape the clutches of Nazi persecution. Under their cover as music enthusiasts traveling to high-society concerts in Europe, Connie and her sister Dottie begin by smuggling money and valuables for families over the border.

Gracie Thompson has a job, a loving family, a twin brother who drives her insane and a great friend. A chance meeting introduces her to the love of her life. But the storm clouds are gathering, Europe is teetering on the verge of war and threatening to destroy everything Gracie holds dear. When war arrives her family are split up, her younger siblings evacuated, her brothers join up to serve, her boyfriend, Charlie, is in daily danger and her life is threatened.

France, 1942: With Europe struggling under German occupation, Sophie Bélanger, grieving the deaths of her brother, fiancé and friends, is no longer prepared to stand on the sidelines. Risking everything, she becomes increasingly involved in helping to save those on the run – even though that means persuading Jewish parents to hand over their children, in the desperate hope of saving their lives. When she is forced to flee to the non-occupied zone, her medical skills take her to the French camp of Rivesaltes, where she cares for the injured and unwell – until one day her luck runs out.

Ninety-one-year-old Bridget has spent her life believing she was unwanted, abandoned as a baby by a mother who never loved her. Now, she has learned she had a brother she never knew existed—and the nuns lied about everything. Unable to deny her Grammy’s emotional plea, Caitlin travels to the windswept Irish coast, a place of breathtaking beauty and painful history. There she begins to unearth Bridget’s mother’s story—a tale more heartbreaking than she could ever have imagined.

Bridget Collins is in dire straits - she needs to get out of New York, fast. With two young siblings under her wing, her options are limited. Her priest sends her as an outplacement agent on the orphan trains that run from New York to out west. With almost 40 orphans under her care, she's relieved that fellow and more experienced outplacement agent Carl Watson is there to guide her. But Carl is dealing with his own trauma and finds it difficult to handle the pain the orphans are dealing with.

Paris, 1940: As the German soldiers march down the Champs-Élysées, the Bélanger twins know there is no escape – their lives are about to change forever. But while Sophie, a third-year medical student, works long days and nights saving casualties of war at the American hospital, and waits anxiously for news of her fiancé from the front line, her recently widowed twin, Adèle, is determined to enjoy her freedom. Nothing – not the bombs, the curfews or the Nazi officers sidling up to her in nightclubs – can stop her from indulging in the temptations of Parisian society.

Bella Jones and Kathleen Collins are as close as sisters and that's how they want things to stay. But fate intervenes. Kathleen's brothers have disappeared; they traveled from New York on the Orphan Train and nobody has heard from them since. She can't shed her gut feeling something awful has happened to them. She goes looking for them, but is she prepared for what she will find?

Kathleen Green longs for a child of her own. Her work with the orphan trains only serve to heighten her need. When tragedy strikes, will she get the child she always wanted? Will the cost be worth it? 

Daniel Sullivan needs a wife; the bank insists they will only finance his business if he gets married. What's he to do when the woman he's interested in is promised to another?

Penny is hell-bent on revenge on the man who caused her to flee France as a fourteen-year-old with little more than the clothes on her back. She lost everything, her friends, her home and her family. Stifled by the restrictions of her father's family, she aches to contribute more to the war effort. A brush with death puts her face all over the newspapers and almost breaks her heart in the process. 

Eleanor Templeton, recently arrived in Clover Springs, is looking for a place to hide and nurse her invisible wounds. Gary Barrett, the saloon owner, tries to break down the barriers she has erected, convinced he has found the woman of his dreams. Wilma, usually the first to help new arrivals, doesn't want to meet the new school teacher. Seeing Eleanor from a distance has triggered painful memories leading to Wilma's collapse. With Doc Erin out of town, can Father Molloy and Mrs. Grey rescue their old friend and their new one?

Kenny Clark knows Santa is magical and only he can find his family. Kathleen Collins fights poverty and desperation every day in her bid to find new homes for the orphans of New York. But what about her happily ever after?

While war rages across the world, Kate struggles on her family farm by the wild Atlantic Ocean. But when she meets American airman Tony, whose blue eyes are as stormy as the sea, her life collides with the war in ways she never imagined.Their time is cut short when Tony leaves for war, promising to come back for her. Only then does Kate learn she is carrying his child - and when her family finds out, she is shunned and banished to a Magdalen Laundry to be imprisoned.

Distant rumblings of conflict in Europe have reached even the secluded, snow-dusted mountains of Virginia, where Lauren Greenwood faces a battle of her own. The Great Depression is crippling America, leaving millions of its victims without shoes on their feet and clothes on their backs. Hope House - the orphanage Lauren runs - is suffering more than ever. The one thing Lauren is not short of is love. But with just a handful of dollars to her name, every day is a struggle to feed the orphans and keep a roof over their heads. Yet she refuses to give up.

Molly wants to fight Hitler by using her skills as a pilot. But the USA says no to female pilots. America is at war and Molly, a qualified pilot, is determined to use her skills in the air against the Nazis. The American Air Force isn't ready to admit female pilots just yet but the British are desperate for pilots following their devastating losses in the Battle of Britain.

A long lost relative escapes to Clover Springs, but it's not the happy reunion anticipated by her sister. She's escaped with her life—but brought baggage that jeopardizes her future. When her past threatens her once more, Clover Springs rallies around to help.

Mary Ryan leaves the orphanage and heartbreak behind and follows her friend Katie to Clover Springs to become a mail order bride. She's nervous, but reminds herself that Davy Sullivan must be a nice man or Katie wouldn't have recommended him.

Virginia, 1933: Lauren Greenwood was born to look pretty and land a rich husband. For her and her high-society family, it’s easy to forget that America is in the devastating grip of the Great Depression, where children run wild in the streets, endless queues for soup kitchens line sidewalks, and desperation hangs in the air. But when a young servant comes to Lauren, pregnant and begging for help, her world crumbles. Someone she loves is responsible, and when she finds out the shocking truth she must decide: Protect the Greenwood name or be cast out?

What begins as a practical arrangement slowly transforms. Amid the snow-capped peaks and harsh beauty of the frontier, Ivy finds not just purpose, but belonging. Yet shadows from her past aren't finished with her. When a violent man comes calling—claiming Ivy as payment for her brother's betrayal—she and Cormac must stand together or risk losing everything.

She risked everything to heal the wounded. Now she must fight to rebuild her own life. Shamrock Ridge, Colorado Territory, 1868. Sarah Dunne arrives with little more than a worn carpetbag, a horse, and a past she cannot speak of. Trained as a doctor during the war, she treated the wounded until...