Hi,
I'm not sure if this is the right place, but I am looking for some suggestions. Romance novels set in the 1920s and 1940s (during or post WWII). I would prefer more romance plot then regular fiction.

I have read Lacy by Diane Palmer.

Thanks for your help!

THE BRONZE HORSEMAN, by Paullina Simons. Set in wwll in Leningrad Russia. Great book!!!

My recommendation would be Dorothy Garlock. She has written some wonderful books about that time: With Heart, With Hope, With Song, After The Parade. Mother Raod, Hope's Highway, Song of The Road.There are more that you can find at her site.

Pamela Morsi has books out about that time.

LaVyrle Spencer has one that is wonderful, Morning Glory. as well as That Camden Summer.

Hope this is what you were asking about, and that you enjoy them.

Gini

Are the 1930s out then? Is there is a specific country you are looking for? (i.e. British, American, continental European) at all?

Bodie Thoene has a Christian inspirational series that is excellent set in pre-WWII Europe through the end of the war.

Zion Covenant
1. Vienna Prelude (2005)
2. Prague Counterpoint (2005)
3. Munich Signature (2005)
4. Jerusalem Interlude (2005)
5. Danzig Passage (2005)
6. Warsaw Requiem (2005)
7. London Refrain (2005)
8. Paris Encore (2005)
9. Dunkirk Crescendo (2005)

A few more, which I think have been mentioned elsewhere, set in WWII...

<u>Pasadena Promises</u>:
<i>Healing Heart
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
Against the Tide</i>
~ series by Rachel Druten

"Three strong-minded women live their lives on the fringe of romance and relationship. Rebecca, a bereaved widow, must deal with her attraction to a man whose body and soul have been ravaged by war-time violence. Daisy has silently borne her deep love for her older brother's best friend since they were children, wondering if her beloved will ever see her for the woman she has become. Finally, there is Claire, who rejects her fiancé after he refuses to go to war in the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Three women, three hearts, three stories of love lost to unavoidable circumstances and redeemed in remarkable and unexpected ways."

<I>Arms of Deliverance - A Story of Promise</i>
~ Tricia Goyer

"Two friends, Mary and Lee, land similar reporting jobs at the New York Tribune on the eve of the war's outbreak and soon they become competitors.

Mary's coverage of a bombing raid over Germany leads to a plane wreck and an adventurous escape attempt from across enemy lines. When Lee hears of Mary's plight, she bravely heads to war-torn Europe in an effort to help rescue her friend.

Will there be enough time for diplomacy or will war get the best of everyone?"

<i>Dawn of a Thousand Nights</i>
~ Tricia Goyer

"Daniel Lukens has two great loves: combat flying for the Army Air Corps and Libby Conners, a female pilot he met while stationed in Hawaii. Libby is a flight instructor, and their budding romance is put to the test when Dan is transferred to the Philippines.

Mere months after their parting, Pearl Harbor is bombed by the Japanese. Eight hours later, Clark Field on the Philippines is also bombed, propelling the Americans into the war and forcing the U.S. military forces on the island to fight with limited food, weapons, and supplies. Dan and the other soldiers bravely fight, only to find themselves prisoners of the Japanese."

<i>Night Song</i>
~ Tricia Goyer

"Night Song is inspired by the orchestra started by prisoners in Hitler's Mauthausen death camp.

Around this orchestra, four lives intertwine: a beautiful member of the Austrian resistance, the American GI who loves her, a young prisoner who fakes his way into the group in a desperate attempt to stay alive, and a Nazi officer who will stop at nothing to obtain the priceless violin he desires."

<i>From Dust and Ashes</i>
~ Tricia Goyer

"Amidst the dark horror of 1945 Austria, a cowardly SS officer abandons his wife Helene as U.S. forces advance on Nazi death camps. Alone and guilt-ridden, Helene begins helping the holocaust survivors---and experiences her own liberation from spiritual bondage. But when she meets Peter, an American soldier who helped free the town's concentration camp, will old shame overcome the promise of new hope and forgiveness?"

<i>Trial by Fire</i>
~ Frank Simon
("Since the time they met as teenagers, Erich von Arendt has loved Johanna Kammler. She, however, loves another man. When her father forces her to marry Erich to make a bond between the two powerful German families, Johanna sees no choice but to agree. World events, however, soon overtake these concerns. As Hitler rises to power, Erich's father embraces the ideas of the new regime with enthusiasm, but the devoutly Christian Erich sees the evil at work in Germany. Although the heart of this uplifting and powerful book is a romance story, the true power of Simon's (Walls of Terror, LJ 9/1/97) writing comes through in his depiction of Erich, a flawed yet noble man fighting to do what he believes is right"

<i>Dear Enemy</i>
~ Jack Cavanaugh
(American nurse is captured/taken prisoner by a German soldier)

<u>Secret of the Rose</u>:
<i>Rose Remembered
Eleventh Hour
Escape to Freedom
Dawn of Liberty</i>
~ series by Michael Phillips
"From the Back Cover:
Prussia, 1937
Baron von Dortmann cares for his family with the same passion and devotion with which he tends the roses in his beloved garden. He brings his beautiful daughter, Sabina, to the garden and through his stories, teaches her his wonderful life lessons about God, creation, and love. Already she has caught the eye of the young American, Matthew, and their neighbors’ son, Gustav.
Amid the placid rhythms of his life, the baron looks over his estate with both a father’s and a gardener’s eyes.
Unfortunately, he is not the only one watching. . . .
Suddenly a storm sweeps over neighboring Poland—the thunder and lightening of the German blitzkrieg—and it will change the Dortmann’s life forever.
The baron will be left with a most difficult decision.
Sabina will be left with the secret of the rose."

Gotta chime in with Morning Glory by LaVryle Spencer which was already recommended...get it, get it, get it!

Peace, Julie

THE ROAD TO LOVE by Linda Ford is a May release from Love Inspired Historicals. It's #1 in a series set during the Depression. I haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Hannah Alexander's LIH, HIDEAWAY HOME, is set in Missouri during WWII.

SONGBIRD
by Walter Zacharius

RT Rating: 4½ stars
Category: HISTORICAL
Setting: WWII Europe and U.S.
Publisher: Atria
Published: September 2004
Type: Historical Fiction


Songbird is a powerful testament of a remarkable woman's courage and determination in a story so enthralling, I dare any reader to put it down before the last page.

When Hitler's troops march into Poland, Marisa (Mia) Levy, a Jewish teenager, loses everything—her home, her family and her dreams of studying music. But Mia is a survivor. She makes her way through Poland, joins the Jewish militia, finally flees over the border to Switzerland and then goes on to America to live with relatives.

When her aunt and uncle escort her to a dance, Mia meets clarinet player Vinnie Sforza. The handsome New Yorker takes Mia under his wing and helps her acclimate to America. Soon they fall in love and dream of a future together. But Mia is haunted by what is happening in Europe and makes one of the hardest choices of her life. She returns to Europe to avenge her family's deaths at Treblinka, leaving Vinnie behind.

In Paris, she joins the French Resistance as a double agent and uses her sensuality and wits to cripple the Germans' plans. Vinnie is never out of her mind, and she longs for a time when they will be reunited. But fate takes a strange and bittersweet twist when Paris is liberated. A book as satisfying as Songbird comes along once in a while and will resonate with readers. Like Gone With the Wind's Scarlett O'Hara, A Woman of Substance's Emma Harte and Dr. Zhivago's Lara, Mia plows through obstacles, doing whatever she must to survive.

This amazingly accurate portrayal of the era and its events, full of little-known historical details, could only have been written by a war veteran. Zacharius' real-life experience serving in World War II and witnessing the liberation of Paris add truth to his novel, making it an evocative read. You'll shed tears, but your heart will also sing as you're lifted up by the sheer emotional power of this heartbreakingly beautiful debut. (Sep., 288 pp., $24.00) —Reviewed by Kathe Robin

Thanks for all the suggestions!!! I'll be sure to check them out!

there's a website for everything

here's one listing books set in the first half of the 20th century.

http://romancereaderatheart.com/century/

click on books at the top for listings.

I second the Garlock recommend.

I ditto the Thoene series. Diana Palmer has more books set in the 1900's. Brenda Joyce and Susan Johnson.
This site, http://thebestreviews.com/ , has a catorgory for romances listed in the 1920's and WW2. Also you can do an advanced search for the time period at http://www.fictiondb.com/Default.asp .

Paul McCusker has an inspirational mystery titled A Season of Shadows that is set during this timeframe.

Judith Pella's Daughters of Fortune is another inspirational series set during WWII.

What about Lynn Austin's Hidden Places?

Charlotte Bingham's The Chestnut Tree (and maybe some more?).

Ditto the Thoene series - I haven't read them in years but those Zion books are unforgettable once you get into them!

I third the Dorothy Garlock recommendation. I recently read "Train from Marietta" which is set in 1933 and is a good romantic suspense.



Lisa Marie

Thank-you to everyone for all your suggestions!!!

<i>A Distant Melody</i> by Sarah Sundin



Never pretty enough to please her gorgeous mother, Allie will do anything to gain her approval--even marry a man she doesn't love. Lt. Walter Novak--fearless in the cockpit but hopeless with women--takes his last furlough at home in California before being shipped overseas. Walt and Allie meet at a wedding and their love of music draws them together, prompting them to begin a correspondence that will change their lives. As letters fly between Walt's muddy bomber base in England and Allie's mansion in an orange grove, their friendship binds them together. But can they untangle the secrets, commitments, and expectations that keep them apart?

A Distant Melody is the first book in the Wings of Glory series, which follows the three Novak brothers, B-17 bomber pilots with the US Eighth Air Force stationed in England during World War II.

<i>The Swiss Courier: A Novel</i>
Tricia Goyer and Mike Yorkey

She's risking her life to save a man she doesn't know. But whom can she trust along the way?

It is August 1944 and the Gestapo is mercilessly rounding up suspected enemies of the Third Reich after an attempt on Hitler's life. Gabi Mueller is a young woman working for the newly formed American Office of Strategic Services (the forerunner to the CIA) in Switzerland. When she is asked to put herself in harm's way to safely "courier" a German scientist who is working on the atomic bomb out of enemy territory, the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

Try Sentimental Journey by Jill Barnett, so moving.

A Woman Place by Lynn Austin
All She Ever Wanted by Lynn Austin (can't remember exact time--I think 1920's?)
Eve's Daughters by Lynn Austin(1890's-1960's)