“Forgiveness is the greatest gift we can give to ourselves.”
—Isle of Hope by Julie Lessman
Happy Summer, Everyone!
Hope you all are having a good one, but, WHEW! Where does the time go? Cannot believe summer is almost half over — YIKES!
I’ve been busy putting a proposal together for my upcoming O’Connor Cousins series starting with Gabe’s story, and WHOA, my head is spinning from doing research!
Most of the book takes place in England and France during WW2 and the hero is a aeromedical evacuation pilot while Gabe is a WASP (Women Air Force Service Pilot) who ends up as a foreign war correspondent.
So, between military terms, medical terms, and getting the plot aligned properly with history, I have spent an entire month researching, which is more than I have spent on ALL of my other 21 books put together!! I’ll tell you what — it sure gives me a WHOLE new appreciation for amazing Christian WW2 authors like Sarah Sundin, Cathy Gohlke, and Cara Putman.
Here’s a sneak peek at Book 1 in my Days of Thunder Series, A Wing and a Prayer:
ONE-LINE PREMISE
Book 1 in the Days of Thunder Series
A Wing and a Prayer
From WASP to war correspondent,
a charismatic troublemaker flies high in the war effort of WWII
until a no-nonsense flight officer clips both her wings and her heart.
JACKET BLURB
She’s dead-set on giving everything to the war overseas …
Even if she loses everything in a war of the heart.
A street orphan abused and abandoned by an alcoholic father at age five, Gabe O’Connor has never let a man stand in her way yet. So when a handsome flight officer thwarts her plans to become a Women Airforce Service Pilot, she’s determined to join the war effort anyway she can. Her chance comes when she reads about a war correspondent who sneaks on a medical ship to reach the front. As the adopted daughter of the Boston Herald’s editor, Gabe plots to do the same, hoping to report on Operation Overlord (D-Day) by “borrowing” foreign correspondent credentials from the Herald. Stowing away on the medical ship that is transporting her cousin Hope Dennehy to England as a nurse with the Army Nurse Corp, Gabe manages to charm everyone she meets … except the one officer she longs to win over the most.
Lieutenant Reece Kincaid pegs Gabe O’Connor as trouble the moment she steps foot on Avenger Field. As the eldest brother of a boy whose jaw Gabe broke in grade school, Reece is familiar with her reputation as both a charismatic ringleader and a headstrong hooligan who’s challenged every male and nun from grade school to college. Assigned as her WASP flight instructor, Reece keeps a tight rein, even attempting to forge a friendship rooted in God. But when Gabe mistakes his friendship for more, Reece’s rejection kindles her ire, resulting in her expulsion when she pulls a dangerous stunt against Reece’s orders.
As an aeromedical evacuation pilot in France eight months later, Reece is stunned to run into Gabe again, especially when he learns she is posing as a foreign correspondent under a fraudulent name. She charms his fellow pilot and friend Zach into flying her to Paris to cover its liberation, where Zach is not only wounded, but now facing a possible court martial. Hoping to protect Zach from Gabe and Gabe from herself, Reece makes a deal that inadvertently lands both Gabe and him behind enemy lines, exposing them to a danger as perilous as the German tanks roaming the Reichswald Forest—a love that neither expects.
So, prayers greatly appreciated for this project! THANK YOU!
📹 My Most Recent Facebook Live!
If you didn’t have a chance to see Part 2 of my new video series, NOVEL INSPIRATIONS, a series of life lessons I learned the hard way and put into each of my books, now’s your chance! The subject is our header quote above:
“Forgiveness is the greatest gift
we can give to ourselves.”
Check it out below!
📕 99-Cent 3-Book Bundle Ends Soon!
In honor of summer, I am currently offering my Isle of Hope Beach Bundle Collection for only $ .99, so you will never get a better deal than this for the perfect 5-star beach read! That’s THREE 5-STAR BOOKS FOR ONLY 99 CENTS, but the deal ends this weekend, so don’t miss out!
And I need your help!
If you have already read the Isle of Hope trilogy and posted a review for any of them on Amazon, can I ask you to please repost that review on my Isle of Hope Beach Bundle Collection?
Since it’s technically a new book, there were no reviews until one person posted a one-star review due to “sexual desire” in the book and language (I used the word “freak” once in the book, as in “what the freak happened to my Red Bull?”).
Unfortunately, this happened the same day I was running a very expensive Book Bub special, so I have no doubt that one-star negatively affected my sales (I sure wouldn’t buy a book that only had one review — a one star — would you?). I did pray for the reviewer, of course, and then asked people who had posted reviews for the three books to repost those reviews or a short review on the bundle, which has helped greatly.
But … I sure could use some more help! So if you have read any of the Isle of Hope books, would you consider posting a brief review that can be as short as 1 or 2 lines, stating which book(s) you read and that you liked it (them) if you did? That would be a tremendous help to me, so thank you SO much!
And MEGA HUGS to those of you who have already posted reviews on the bundle — I know who you are — and I am sooooo very grateful for you taking the time to do that! God bless you!
Hugs and HAPPY SUMMER!
Julie
