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They Called Him Marvin by Roger StarkThey Called Him Marvin by Roger Stark


Publisher: Silver Star (September 21, 2021
Category: Historical Romance, WW2, Family Saga, Based on a True Story
Tour dates: April 25-June 24, 2022
ISBN: 978-0578855288
Available in Print and ebook, 320 pages

They Called Him Marvin

Description They Called Him Marvin by Roger Stark


They were just kids, barely not teenagers, madly in love and wanting to be a family, but WW2 and a B29 got in their way.

Three hundred ten days before Pearl Harbor, buck private Dean Sherman innocently went to church with a new friend in Salt Lake City. From that moment, the unsuspecting soldier travelled a remarkable, heroic path, falling in love, graduating from demanding training to become a B29 pilot, conceiving a son and entering the China, Burma and India theater of the WW2.

He chronicled his story with letters home to his bride Connie that he met on that fateful Sunday, blind to the fact that fifteen hundred seventy five days after their meeting, a Japanese swordsman would end his life.

His crew, a gaggle of Corporals that dubbed themselves the Corporealizes, four officers and a tech Sargent, adventured their way across the globe. Flying the “Aluminum Trail” also called the Hump through the Himalayas, site of the most dangerous flying in the world. Landing in China to refuel and then fly on to places like Manchuria, Rangoon or even the most southern parts of Japan to drop 500 pounders.

Each mission had its challenges, minus fifty degree weather in Mukden, or Japanese fighters firing away at them, a close encounter of the wrong kind, nearly missing a collision with another B29 while flying in clouds, seeing friends downed and lost because of “mechanicals,” the constant threat of running out of fuel and their greatest fear, engine fire.

Transferred to the Mariana Islands, he and his crew were shot down over Nagoya, Japan as part of Mission 174, captured and declared war criminals.

Connie’s letters reveal life for a brand new mother whose husband is declared MIA. The agony for both of them, he in a Japanese prison, declared a war criminal, and she just not knowing why his letters stopped coming.

My Thoughts They Called Him Marvin by Roger Stark


When Dean and Connie met on a blind date, they fell instantly in love. However, there were complications.  1. Connie was a Mormon 2. Dean training to become a B29 pilot 3. The U.S. was just about to be brought into WWII.

Dean converts to Mormonism and Connie’s parents then agree to their marriage and they get married.  Connie travels with Dean during his training and military placements around the U.S. Soon Connie becomes pregnant. However, when Dean has to go abroad to fight in WWII, Connie goes back to her parents and lives with them.

‘They Called Him Marvin’ is based on a true story about Dean and Connie.  Connie saved their correspondence and their real letters are printed in this book, with their sons, Marvin’s permission.  He told Roger Stark the story of his parents and agreed with Roger that it should be told.

Besides the real letter, Stark uses history and fiction to recreate what Dean and Connie when through during the war.  He also used the character of a little boy in Japan to show what life was like for civilians there. The letters themselves not only show the couples deep love for each other but what it was like for a solder and his family during the war.

I bet you are wondering or even guessing what happened to Dean, Connie, and Marvin. I wish I could tell you but it may spoil it. So, you will have to read the book to find out.

The way Stark tells the story with the use of the letters, real history and fiction to fill in the story is magical.  I felt like I was there, with both Dean, at battle and Connie, waiting for his letters and of course, having their son. This book is near impossible to put down!

I highly recommend it and give it 5 stars!

I received the ebook for my honest opinion.

About Roger StarkThey Called Him Marvin by Roger Stark


Roger Stark, by his own admission, is a reluctant writer. But there are stories that demand to be told. When we hear them, we must pick up our pen, lest we forget and the stories be lost. Six years ago, in a quiet conversation with his friend, Marvin, he learned the tragic story of his father, a WW2 B-29 Airplane Commander, shot down over Nagoya, Japan, just months before the end of the war.

The telling of the story that evening by this half orphan was so moving and full of emotion, it compelled Roger to ask if he could write the story. The result being “They Called Him Marvin.”

Roger Stark’s life has been profoundly touched in so many ways by being part of documenting this sacred story. He prays that we never forget, as a people, the depth of sacrifice that was made by ordinary people like Marvin and his father and mother on our behalf.

Website: https://theycalledhimmarvin.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TCHMarvin

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Giveaway They Called Him Marvin by Roger Stark


This giveaway is for 3 print copies, one for each of 3 winners. This giveaway is open to  the U.S. only and ends on June 24, 2022 midnight, pacific time.  Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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They Called Him Marvin by Roger Stark

Lighting the Stars by Gabriele WillsLighting the Stars by Gabriele Wills

Publisher:  Mindshadows, November 2020
Category: Historical Fiction, World War II, Historical Romance
Tour dates: May-June, 2021
ISBN: 978-1775035411
Available in Print and ebook, 477 pages
Lighting the Stars

Description Lighting the Stars by Gabriele Wills


A riveting tale of a generation torn apart by war.

Tucked into the rugged Canadian wilderness of Muskoka’s majestic lake country, Merilee Sutcliffe’s peaceful town seems worlds away from the escalating conflict in Europe. But life is about to change dramatically in the Summer of 1940. As her patriotic friends and relatives leave for battle, her small town is thrust into the war machine. Merilee’s formerly tranquil skies soon roar with aircraft from the Royal Norwegian Air Force, stationed nearby to train young men determined to liberate their country from Nazi occupation.  When German Prisoners of War march into her shocked community, they become Merilee’s closest neighbours – and biggest threat.

What unfolds in her remote town and on foreign shores sets Merilee and her growing circle on a collision course with an unimagined destiny. Caught up in the chaos is Luftwaffe pilot Erich Leitner. Shot down during the Battle of Britain and transplanted to a lakeside prison in Muskoka, he discovers he has more to fear from his comrades than his captors.

While her cousin-in-spirit, Elyse Thornton, navigates the treacherous skies of Britain as a Spitfire Girl, audaciously ferrying warplanes from factories to airfields, Merilee becomes quietly entangled in her own dangerous liaisons on the home front. Caught between worlds, with conflicted loyalties and a sense of duty, she joins the Royal Canadian Air Force, Women’s Division, and soon finds herself in ground-zero London, focussing her photographer’s lens on a city under bombardment.

Far from carefree summers on the lake, struggling to survive the relentless demands and sacrifices of war, Merilee, Elyse, and their friends wonder if they dare to risk their hearts as well.

As unlikely lives intersect, ideologies and social hierarchies are challenged, loves and friendships are forged or broken, and countless heroes are made and lost.  But even those who return to the serenity of Muskoka are changed forever.

My Thoughts Lighting the Stars by Gabriele Wills


‘Lighting the Stars’ is book 4 of ‘The Muskoka Novels saga’.  Gabriele Wills has brought WWI to the end of WWII in this beautiful series.  It is from a Canadian perspective with a vast and lively cast of characters.

In ‘Lighting the Stars’, the next generation has to step up and go to war, as their parents did in WWI. Most of the men either train pilots to fly and fight in areal combat and the women join The Royal Canadian Air Force, Women’s Division in various positions. Elyse Thornton becomes what was known as a “Spitfire” girl, delivering airplanes for combat and Merilee Sutcliffe, with her skill as a photographer is sent all over Great Briton to photograph the aftermath of bombings from the Germans and other war interests.

The story opens right before Canada enters the war. We are introduced to the character’s while they enjoy their annual summer at Lake Muskoka in Ontario. Merilee is a 17-year-old girl and spends mot of her time with her best friend Peggy.  Through their eye’s as well as the other characters, we see a carefree summer turn to getting ready for battle.  As their older male friends and relations go off to Europe to fight and some of their female friends go to fly planes, nurse, and other duties also in Europe, German POW’s move in to a prison camp, right in Muskoka.  In fact, right next door to Peggy and her parents’ house! Now the two girls can no longer swim there.

‘Lighting the Star’s is teeming with friendship, romance, action, adventure, heart breaking loss, and of course history.  I have rarely read an entire book series but The Muskoka Novels saga’ is irresistible! After each book ends, I miss the characters so much!  They are so well written that they come to life, grab the reader by the hand and yank them right into their lives.  I wish someone would buy the rights to this series.  It would make an amazing move or television series!

I don’t know if Wills will be writing a fifth book for the series but I hope so! This is my favorite book series of all time! I give it 5 plus stars!

Note, ‘Lighting the Stars’ can be read without reading the other books in the series however, there are a huge cast of characters and you may feel a bit lost at first when the older characters appear.  It is best to start with book,1.  Once you read that, you will want to read the entire series!

I received the eBook for my honest opinion.

About Gabriele Wills


Lighting the Stars by Gabriele Wills

Gabriele at the location where ‘Lighting the Stars’ begins

Gabriele Wills is the author of 6 highly acclaimed historical novels, including 4 in The Muskoka Novels saga set in North America, Britain, and Europe through the two cataclysmic World Wars and the seductive Jazz Age.

Her passion is to weave compelling stories around meticulously researched and often quirky or arcane facts in order to bring the past to life, especially with regard to women’s often forgotten contributions.

The first novel in her ‘Muskoka Novels’, ‘The Summer Before the Storm’ was the “Muskoka Chautauqua Reading List Winner”

Website: https://www.themuskokanovels.co
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GabrieleWills
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GabrieleWills

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Giveaway Lighting the Stars by Gabriele Wills


Print copies are open to the U.S. and Canada only. Gifted Kindle is open to the U.S only and Kobo is open to anyone who has a usable account on Kobo. It ends on June 30, 2021,midnight pacific time.

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Lighting the Stars by Gabriele Wills

Prisoner’s Wife by Maggie BrookesPrisoner’s Wife by Maggie Brookes

Description Prisoner’s Wife by Maggie Brookes


Inspired by the true story of a daring deception that plunges a courageous young woman deep into the horrors of a Nazi POW camp to be with the man she loves.

In the dead of night, a Czech farm girl and a British soldier travel through the countryside. Izabela and prisoner of war Bill have secretly married and are on the run, with Izzy dressed as a man. The young husband and wife evade capture for as long as possible–until they are cornered by Nazi soldiers with tracking dogs.

Izzy’s disguise works. The couple are assumed to be escaped British soldiers and transported to a POW camp. However, their ordeal has just begun, as they face appalling living conditions and the constant fear of Izzy’s exposure. But in the midst of danger and deprivation comes hope, for the young couple are befriended by a small group of fellow prisoners. These men become their new family, willing to jeopardize their lives to save Izzy from being discovered and shot.

The Prisoner’s Wife tells of an incredible risk, and of how our deepest bonds are tested in desperate times. Bill and Izzy’s story is one of love and survival against the darkest odds. 

Praise Prisoner’s Wife by Maggie Brookes


“An absorbing and engaging tale of wartime bravery and endurance. I loved it!”–Rachel Hore, author of Last Letter Home and The Memory Garden

“It is a story that Hemingway might have envied.”–Juliet Gardiner, author of Wartime; Britain 1939 to 1945 and The Blitz; The British Under Attack.

“Heart wrenching and heart-warming in equal measure…an unputdownable novel”–Ben Kane, author of The Eagles of Rome series

About Maggie BrookesPrisoner’s Wife by Maggie Brookes


Maggie Brookes is a British ex-journalist and BBC television producer turned poet and novelist. She is an advisory fellow for the Royal Literary Fund and also an Associate Professor at Middlesex University, London, England, where she has taught creative writing since 1990. She lives in London and Whitstable, Kent and is married, with two grown-up daughters. She has published five poetry collections in the UK under her married name of Maggie Butt.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/maggiebrookes27

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