I’m thrilled to announce the upcoming birth of my second novel, Two Lights of Hope, Book Two in A Cold War Trilogy! It will be released sometime this summer, so stay tuned to find out exactly when as that becomes clearer.
The Storyline
The story picks up with Adriana Nicu, a teenager in Communist Romania in 1988. Life becomes increasingly dangerous for her as she and her friend Gabi seek answers to a forty-year-old mystery. Their mission: find an old green wardrobe intended to be a Jewish family’s way of escape from the Nazis, and maybe—just maybe—find out what happened to the family after they disappeared.
In her quest for the truth, Adriana must learn who to trust as she navigates her ever-changing world—where ordinary citizens become spies and informants, either for the all-powerful Securitate or for the growing Resistance. Along the way, Adriana finds herself confronted with evil she can hardly imagine. Yet, through an old Jewish man and the banned books she secretly reads, she also encounters love, faith, and hope in a dark world where some lights never go out.
New characters join the ones readers love from the first novel. Adriana’s narrow world expands when she travels outside her borders for the first time—to Yugoslavia—and meets someone from America.
While being firmly rooted in the oppressive Cold War era, the novel looks back on the terrors of the Holocaust: two horrific periods in history. Adriana finds that even the smallest glimmer of hope can break through the darkest night.
The Series
My original vision always included a series of three novels. I have named them A Cold War Trilogy. The cover for the first novel is so beautiful that I had to get the same cover designer, Megan McCullough, for the second one. And then I asked her to also design the third novel, to keep the theme consistent. I love what Megan did!
To recap: In One Degree of Freedom, Adriana’s life has been decided; she will be an engineer, like it or not. But when she walks through her aunt’s blue wardrobe into a room hidden in the wall and filled with stacks of forbidden novels, her world expands and her life begins to strangely parallel those of her novels’ heroines. Adriana starts to rethink things she’d always been taught as truth.
Adriana learns that the second of three seemingly-magical wardrobes, a green one, vanished during World War II. Readers will left wanting to know if the wardrobe will be found, if the country will become free, and if Adriana’s budding romance will take off.
In Two Lights of Hope, Adriana still reads books in her secret room, as she does throughout the series. And the novels she reads still speak to what she is experiencing. When you read the titles on the spines, you get an idea of the theme of this new book.
Two Lights of Hope finishes with the world gearing up for revolution. That’s where the third novel, Three Colors of Courage, will pick up.
If you haven’t read it yet, now’s a good time to pick up a copy! It’s available for order wherever you buy your books.