Aphrodite, as the defendant in a mock courtroom trial, spins the intertwined stories of both pairs of star-crossed lovers in a plea to soften her husband's anger. Aubrey, a Harlem ragtime musician, and Colette, a Belgian refugee who has lost everything to the war, meet in a YMCA relief hut at the American training base at Saint-Nazaire, France.Īphrodite and Ares meet for a secret tryst in a Manhattan hotel room, only to be caught and exposed by Hephaestus, the goddess of love's jealous husband.

Hazel, a pianist, and James, a builder-turned-soldier, meet at a London dance in late 1917, on the eve of his departure for the trenches of World War I. The year-plus I spent researching, writing, and revising it was intense, and harrowing at times, but I'm thrilled with where we landed. :) I can't wait to share it with the world. I did write it, so the possibility of bias is real.

She seeks to answer the age-old question: Why are Love and War eternally drawn to one another? But her quest for a conclusion that will satisfy her jealous husband uncovers a multi-threaded tale of prejudice, trauma, and music and reveals that War is no match for the power of Love.Ī sweeping, multi-layered romance with a divine twist, by the Printz Honor-winning author of The Passion of Dolssa, set in the perilous days of World Wars I and II. Thirty years after these four lovers' fates collide, the Greek goddess Aphrodite tells their stories to her husband, Hephaestus, and her lover, Ares, in a luxe Manhattan hotel room at the height of World War II. But that's before he meets Colette Fournier, a Belgian chanteuse who's already survived unspeakable tragedy at the hands of the Germans. A gifted musician who's played Carnegie Hall, he's a member of the 15th New York Infantry, an all-African-American regiment being sent to Europe to help end the Great War. When they fall in love, it's immediate and deep-and cut short when James is shipped off to the killing fields.Īubrey Edwards is also headed toward the trenches.

She's a shy and talented pianist he's a newly minted soldier with dreams of becoming an architect.

It's 1917, and World War I is at its zenith when Hazel and James first catch sight of each other at a London party.

Lovely war berry