by Ann Howard Creel

It’s an after the war story. Which was refreshing!

The story begins with two nurses at the end of WWII in New York City. One of them has a baby (her husband is in Europe somewhere) and leaves it with her roommate without telling her where she is going or how long she will be gone. She has what we would call the Baby Blues today. And she mistakenly believes her husband is never coming home. The roommate assumes care for the child and begins to fall in love with her.

V-J day in Times Square: the famous photo of the sailor and the nurse . . . it’s the same day the husband comes home to find his wife is AWOL and his baby, who doesn’t like strangers, has a new mother.

What makes a mother? Certainly, it’s more than biology. But what is best for a child? To take her away from the one who cares most for her so she can be with her biological parents? Or to leave her with the only mother she’s known, depriving her true parents of raising and learning to love her?

These questions and more drive the story forward, exploring the lesser known tragedies of wartime which occur mostly after the war. Sacrifices made by a mother who didn’t know she was a mother reveal the stark reality of adoptive mothers everywhere. They love their children just like biological mothers, but they may also live in fear of losing their cherished children.

There is much fodder for discussion here. Want to snag a copy? Grab it here.

Content:  no sex on the page, very little language.