Joleen Zarkades is busy raising two children and trying to salvage her failing marriage when she is unexpectedly called to deploy to Iraq. The war has just begun, and Joleen's training as a pilot puts her in high demand. Her husband, who has been married to his job for many years, suddenly finds himself responsible for both a preschooler and a teenager, as well as the day to day chores required to keep their household running.

Hannah does a wonderful job of exposing the realities of military life, including the impact of deployment on every single member of a military family.

Imagine a love that crosses time and distance. Kate is a Wall Street analyst and Julian is a British hedge fund billionaire. She is surprised when he makes a point of meeting her and seems to know her. Next we find Kate and Julian in France during World War I. How did they get there and what has happened bring them there? Kate and Julian fall in love but there is always a shadow of danger over them. Their story travels back and forth through time. Julian loves Kate and is protective of her but seems to always keep a part of himself from her. Kate and Julian's happiness is clouded by corporate espionage, secrets from the past and questions about how and why they have traveled through time . Overseas is a romantic and exciting read from beginning to end.

Amanda and Dawson were small town sweethearts from opposite sides of the tracks - she from a privileged family, he from a clan prone to violence. They spend time together at the car repair shop where Dawson works and, to escape his violent family, has been taken in by Tuck, an older friend to both of them. Theirs is a passionate romance of youth, one that each feels is a love that comes along only once in a lifetime. But when high school ends, the reality of a life together ends when Amanda's mother sends Amanda to college after which she marries and has a family. Dawson spends time in prison and then takes up work on an oil rig where he is severly injured in an explosion and suffers from hallucinations. The two former lovers are brought back together after 20 years when Tuck, their friend and mentor, dies leaving instructions that Amanda and Dawson are to return to their small town to participate in his final rites. Upon meeting again, both realize that time has not erased their feelings for one another, and there is an urgency to make up for the years lost. But, the paths taken and the choices both have made since youth make it difficult to create a new path together. Then, unforeseen events occur that once again alter their lives forever.

Haunting and whimsical, Neil Gaiman’s Fragile Things (2006) is an interesting compilation of short works featuring dark and lovely stories and poems including a particular favorite, “October in the Chair.” This specific tale is evocative of Gaiman’s distinctive and romantic style and his charming and eerie prose. In this short story, the months of the year are personified and are gathered for a board meeting around a campfire. Each month demonstrates his/her own personality traits and skills for storytelling as they share tales with the group. October is presiding over the autumnal meeting, and his story of a young boy who makes a ghostly friend after he stumbles into a cemetery will appeal to Gaiman fans who have read The Graveyard Book. In this Gaiman collection of tales and poems, vivid imagery and sensory diction weave a dream-like web to catch the reader’s attention, particularly those partial to the science fiction and fantasy genres. Excerpt: “October was in the chair, so it was chilly that evening, and the leaves were red and orange and tumbled from the trees that circles the grove. The twelve of them sat around a campfire roasting huge sausages on sticks, which spat and crackled as the fat dripped onto the burning applewood, and drinking fresh apple cider, tangy and tart in their mouths.”