Series: The Home Front #1
Cover Artist: Tammy Seidick
Publication Date: October 15th, 2014
Publisher: Free Spirit Press
Genre: Historical Romance
Pages: 347
ISBN: 9781940665078
Synopsis (from Author): Before they became The Greatest Generation, they were young men and women in love . . .
It's June 1943. From New York to California, families gather to send their sons and husbands, friends and lovers off to war. The attack on Pearl Harbor seems a long time ago as America begins to understand that their boys won't be home any time soon.
In Forest Hills, New York City, twenty-year-old Catherine Wilson knows all about waiting. She's been in love with boy-next-door Doug Weaver since childhood, and if the war hadn't started when it did, she would be married and maybe starting a family, not sitting at the window of her girlhood bedroom, waiting for her life to begin.
But then a telegram from the War Department arrives, shattering her dreams of a life like the one her mother treasures.
Weeks drift into months as she struggles to find her way. An exchange of letters with Johnny Danza, a young soldier in her father's platoon, starts off as a patriotic gesture, but soon becomes a long-distance friendship that grows more important to her with every day that passes.
The last thing Catherine expects is to open her front door on Christmas Eve to find Johnny lying unconscious on the Wilsons' welcome mat with a heart filled with new dreams that are hers for the taking.
"This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
A full-fledged Baby Boomer, Barbara Bretton grew up in New York City during the Post-World War II 1950s with the music of the Big Bands as the soundtrack to her childhood. Her father and grandfather served in the navy during the war. Her uncles served in the army. None of them shared their stories.
But her mother, who had enjoyed a brief stint as Rosie the Riveter, brought the era to life with tales of the Home Front that were better than any fairy tale. It wasn’t until much later that Barbara learned the rest of the story about the fiancé who had been lost in the war, sending her mother down a different path that ultimately led to a second chance at love . . . and to the daughter who would one day tell a little part of that story.
There is always one book that’s very special to an author, one book or series that lives deep inside her heart. SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY and STRANGER IN PARADISE, books 1 and 2 of the Home Front series, are Barbara’s. She hopes they’ll find a place in your heart too.
Six Don't-Miss World War II Movies
Being a writer is a wonderful thing. You can stay home in your pajamas all day, talk to your imaginary friends (officially known as “characters”) and, if you’re very lucky, get to watch wonderful old movies and call it research.
When I was writing SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY, I immersed myself in the 1940s. The music. The fashions. The books. The newspapers and magazines. And, of course, the movies.
Oh, those movies! Steeped in romance, rich with emotion, brimming with a sense of destiny that jumped off the screen and straight into your heart. I let myself sink into them until I totally forgot I was living in the age of computers and GPS systems and smartphones and fell backward through time to World War II America and a world on the brink.
Here’s my short list of Six Don’t-Miss World War II Movies:
What are your favorites? I’m off to watch Shining Through for the 827th time!
Many thanks to Indigo Quill for inviting me to stop by. It’s been great fun.
- Casablanca – this really needs no explanation. It’s the perfect blend of love and romance, honor and courage, destiny and sacrifice. The ending isn’t the happily-ever-after one we long for, but it’s definitely the right one.
- Mrs. Miniver – Greer Garson as the courageous Englishwoman who faces a downed German paratrooper in her kitchen. Yes it’s sentimental and clearly crafted to serve as encouragement for war-weary Brits, but it makes me long for the past.
- Shining Through – this takes place during World War II but it was filmed in the early 1990s. If you can sit through this without shedding a tear – well, pass me the Kleenex, because I start crying just thinking about the scene in the nightclub . . .
- Yanks – another movie not actually made during the war. Richard Gere in his prime. Courageous Brits. Cocky Yanks. Three romances for the price of one. How can you go wrong?
- Pearl Harbor – yes, the one with Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett. The one that everyone hated. I love it. What can I say?
- Hanover Street – I’m not a Harrison Ford fan, but I love this one. Again, it’s Yanks in Britain and all that entails.
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