Take Me Home

The new novel from the Voice of America's Heartland. Life in the small town of Miller's Creek, Wisconsin in 1945 is focused entirely on the war in Germany. Olivia Marsten is doing everything she can to support the troops: working in the local hardware store while the owner's son is serving, collecting recyclables for the war effort, and offering support to Billy, her childhood best friend who's leaving in a month for Navy training. When Billy pulls her aside, desperate to talk, she doesn't think anything of it...until he confesses he's been in love with her for years and proposes marriage. Stunned and unable to hurt his feelings, she accepts. But in her heart she knows it isn't right. How do you break your best friend's heart, especially when you think you might secretly be in love with the stranger who literally saved your life? From the moment Peter Becker lays eyes on Olivia, she took his breath away. They had only just been introduced when a car careened out of nowhere, and he pulled her out of the way, saving her life. When he comes to, he's recovering in Olivia's parents' home and slowly falling in love with Olivia. But Peter Becker isn't who he says he is. He's a German soldier whose infantry was taken prisoner by American soldiers and brought to the United States, their final destination an internment camp. But while headed there, a massive train accident occurred and both he and Otto, the prisoner chained to him, survived. As the son of an American WWI veteran, Peter has grown up loving baseball and apple pie--he never wanted to serve in the Nazi party and hates what they stand for. He knows he must turn himself in, but he can't bring himself to do it, especially knowing that it he might lose Olivia forever. But when mysterious accidents start to befall the town and Olivia's family in particular, it's clear to Peter that Otto is responsible. Can he save the woman he's come to love from a madmen hellbent on revenge?