The Photograph — Virginia Ellis

Chosen by the Romance Writers of America as One of the Top Ten Favorite Books of the Year

As a nation of young soldiers marches off to war, two women left behind will embrace a final keepsake, a profound reminder of the moment before their lives changed forever -- its bittersweet images telling the story of an innocence lost, of a love just beginning, and of a family that may never be whole again. . . .

For Maddy Marshall, it was a time of innocence. Then on her seventeenth birthday, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Her fiancé and all the neighborhood boys ran off to enlist, ready to defend their country. It was all incredibly romantic to Maddy. Until the night before her brother Davey shipped out, the night she danced with dreamy Lieutenant Tull-Martin, the night of the photograph -- when her world fell apart. Only Davey's wife, Ruth, will discover what happened, helping Maddy to hide her grave secret and its undeniable consequences. Together these sisters of the heart maintain a deception that, like the shifting reflections of a picture, becomes a beacon of possibility to be cherished until fate brings their men home.