This month, WFWA showcases the challenges, courage, and tenacity of individuals who serve our country and the people who love and support them.
CODE NAME RASCAL by Dorothea N. Buckingham
(Sydney Press, December 2025; now available for pre-order)
Code Name Rascal chronicles the service of four vastly different American women who join a secret radar unit days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. With the war as a backdrop, the story highlights women’s roles and the prejudices they endured during that time and explores the deep friendships that forced each to examine the course of her life.
THE RESISTANCE DAUGHTER by Joanne Kormylo
(Hodder & Stoughton, a member of Hachette, July 2025)
Inspired by true stories of WWII, The Resistance Daughter is an emotional and poignant historical novel debut of courage against all odds. In 1942, after witnessing the destruction of her hometown in Warsaw, Anna Kowalski joins the Polish Resistance. She is tasked with smuggling children out of the Warsaw Ghetto through the sewers and relocating them to safety. Through her work, Anna meets Johnnie Nowak, an RAF pilot who managed to escape a prisoner of war camp. He’s not safe in Warsaw, so Anna leads him out of the city to protect him, but they are caught. The SS sends Anna to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where a female guard known as The Beast, renowned for her violence towards her prisoners, has set her sights on Anna. When Anna is relocated, she is reunited with Nowak. Desperate to escape, they devise a plan, but failure could mean a fate worse than death.
SHATTERED PEACE: A CENTURY OF SILENCE by Julie McDonald Zander
(St. Helens Press, March 2025)
A forgotten diary. A century-old secret. A town still haunted by its past. When Navy Seabee Colleen Holmes remodels the house she inherited in Centralia, Washington, she uncovers secrets from a past better left forgotten: clues to the events that unfolded on the city’s streets on November 11, 1919, turning the town’s first Armistice Day parade into a tragedy. Inspired by true events.
BENEATH THE SWAYING WILLOW by Amily D'Nas
(Royal Lime Press, July 2024)
Tensions are running high in 1970 as the anti-war movement and feminism wash over the nation. Nora Thompson and Russ Ayers are torn apart when he is drafted and deployed to Vietnam. Scars are concealed. Secrets are kept. When things spiral out of control, they must find the strength to continue. A riveting account of love, sacrifice, and human struggle, Beneath the Swaying Willow shines a light on the destructive side of humanity and shows how the courage of one woman can be the catalyst for positive change. Inspired by true events and reviewed by the Vietnam Veterans of America.
AMAZING GRACIE by Laura Drake
(The Story Plant, April 2023)
CJ has returned from war, but she hasn’t left it behind. The bright spot in her life is her nine-year-old sister, Amazing Gracie, or Mazey, as CJ knows her. Mazey is brilliant, curious, and innocent, but she has burdens of her own, including a deep desire to meet the father she’s never known.
When CJ heads off on a cross-country motorcycle trip to visit the homes of her fallen friends, Mazey convinces CJ to let her tag along. It isn’t the journey CJ expected, but it is the journey she needs as she contends with her demons, confronts her past, and faces her future. And when Mazey’s quest takes a surprising turn, both CJ and Mazey discover that their road trip has been headed someplace different all along.
THE EMPTY NESTERS by Carolyn Brown
(Amazon Montlake, August 2019)
The worst of times calls for the best of friends.
Dear friends and army wives Diana, Carmen, and Joanie have been through war, rumors of war, marital problems, motherhood, fears, joy, and heartache. But none of the women are prepared when their daughters decide to enlist in the army together. Facing their empty nests won’t be easy.
With no one at home and nothing to lose, the girlfriends impulsively embark on a road trip with their elderly neighbor. The recently widowed Tootsie has an RV, a handsome nephew at the wheel, and a plan to embrace memories of her late husband. Still grieving, Tootsie can use the company as a balm for her broken heart. The empty nesters, it turns out, need the trip to restore their sense of purpose.
Embarking on a journey of hope, romance, and healing, Diana, Carmen, and Joanie are at a turning point in their lives. And the open road ahead of them is just the beginning.
