Lily's War, A Novel

Love and passion can make a strong person weak to the point of self-loathing. Why can't you walk away? Why do your eyes find him and give away your heart? And why do you treat the one you love with such contempt? Why do men speak plainly yet women misconstrue what they say? Why do women need to hear the words, "I love you," to feel they are truly loved then still need constant reassurance? Anyone who has been in love knows the elasticity that pulls two people together even when they try to stay apart. Lily's War takes the reader into Lily's world of pleasing men, pretty clothes, scented baths, and living in a house of red velvets, polished woods, gleaming crystal, and good food and drink. Into this world comes David who, in the mode of Jane Austen heroes, is a wealthy, ambitious, and haughty young cadet who would never haven entered such an establishment had his jealous friend not gotten him drunk. Teetotaler David has set high career and moral goals for himself, and wakes to his surroundings saying that the place is "not fitting, not responsible, not moral. It's probably the last place on earth I should be." Yet, he stays the night. Lily's War is strong women fighting to save their families and their ways of life. It is dashing young men wanting glory in battle. Told with realistic grittiness, Lily's War is about people displaying their good and bad natures and people wanting what they cannot have. It is about two young people who should never have met then try to beat the odds to be together. As their country fights, they fight their love and attraction and their sense of right and wrong. They hide their identities, commit espionage and kidnapping, spend time in prison, almost hang, and take advantage of friends and family-and war-to love and hurt each other. What will they do when the war is over?