THE STING OF LOVE by Janet Graber - Spotlight & Giveaway

 

Georgina is visiting her widowed father in England to celebrate his seventy-seventh birthday, decades after he fought in WWII.  She is astonished when he asks her to accompany him back to Trieste in Northern Italy.  He has always refused to set foot in Europe again.  What changed?  And why now?

Captain James Drummond survived the battlefields of North Africa and Italy. Instead of his anticipated return home to wife and a four-year-old daughter whom he had yet to meet, he was assigned to the grim task of military occupation in Trieste.

On a summer patrol in 1945 in the disputed hills above Trieste, he encountered a group of Yugoslav partisans, bathing. When he glimpsed a woman emerging from the pool, water cascading from her body, a new conflict emerged with no clear lines, one he must navigate alone. The war-weary captain was faced with heart wrenching choices.

Meanwhile, Georgina confronts her own demons – a stale marriage, a secret affair, and her father’s new revelations. Weaving historical facts with fictional characters, The Sting of Love moves seamlessly between Georgina’s tumultuous life, and that of her father in the aftermath of WWII, viewed through the lens of their several weeks together in Trieste.

Graber’s profoundly moving novel explores grief, family secrets, and the collision of honor versus desire; a conundrum that has persisted from one generation to the next throughout human history.

JANET'S WORDS:

• I was born in England within sight of St. Mary’s Island Lighthouse on April 23rd.

• My father was deployed before my birth, and demobilized a year after the end of WWII in 1946. I met him for the first time when I was four years old.

• During the war my pet rabbit was stolen from his hutch. I was heartbroken, knowing full well what happened to Peter Rabbit’s father.  (He was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor!)

• I learned to read under the stairs, while sheltering from bombing raids.

• From an early age, I scribbled stories on shopping bags, used envelopes, simply any scrap of paper available.

• My faith in my ability to write was severely damaged when I was fourteen years old.

• I grew up, traveled widely, and ended up in America, where I got married, and raised a family. Finally overcoming the sting of that long-ago rejection, I followed my dream and began writing stories.

• After much hard work, I published picture books and novels for teens, and earned amongst other awards a McKnight Artist Fellowship in Children’s Literature.

• Encouraged by fellow writers I wrote and published The Sting of Love in 2020. It is selling well. I encourage you to order your copy from Itasca Books before the first print run is depleted.  And out in the world now for young readers, Malcolm Mouse, Explorer and The Secret Chamber of Gwendolin Riston.  I have completed the first draft of another adult novel, and am mid-way through a sequel, Malcolm Mouse, Mariner.

• I live in an apartment in Minnesota, surrounded by treasured family mementos, and books, books, books. I consider myself blessed.

Thanks to RMA Publicity we have one copy to giveaway. Just tell us your favorite novel about family secrets. We'll announce a winner soon. Good luck!
GIVEAWAY: USA only please

*Please leave your email with your comment.

Winners, please make sure you post a picture of you with your book on FaceBook: BluePointPress when it arrives. We love our followers.