Under the Golden Sun
A Novel
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
A soul-searching young woman takes a leap of faith and discovers a place to call home and someone to share her heart in this remarkable novel of family and love during a time of war.
England, 1941. The world is at war. London is under siege as the German blitz pounds the city without warning, without mercy. Rose Hamilton did her part as a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force until she was unfairly discharged following a tragic loss. Working as a secretary on a Devon farmland, Rose is out of harm's way, but she needs to contribute to something greater than herself to truly recover.
Answering a newspaper advertisement for a companion to accompany an orphaned child to Australia, Rose becomes enchanted with four-year-old Walter Lucknow. Shy, imaginative, and kind, the boy lost his parents and has been living in near seclusion with his elder great aunt. As heir to a wealthy Australian cattle station, Walter must return to his homeland and his mother's family.
Leaving her own family—and fiancé—Rose braves the long, dangerous voyage across Pacific waters where war is imminent to see Walter safely home. But upon arrival, Rose learns the truth about Walter's relationship to the Lucknows and the land he's supposed to inherit, a truth that haunts the boy's Uncle Max, a wounded pilot scarred inside and out. And as Max opens his heart up to Walter, Rose is drawn to the man's strength and compassion, finding herself torn between returning to England and staying with the child and man she's grown to love in this uplifting tale of found family, second chances, and the secrets that bind us.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ashcroft (Meet Me in Bombay) offers an enticing story of a young Englishwoman's path toward self-discovery. Rose Hamilton is traveling by train from her home in Devon to London during WWII when she sees an advertisement seeking someone to escort a young child to Australia. Needing a change after having a miscarriage and being discharged from the air force for being unmarried and pregnant, Rose, who is engaged to a perennially noncommittal American press correspondent named Xander, answers the advertisement. Vivian Barnes needs someone to travel with her late great-niece Mabel's son, four-year-old Walter Lucknow, as Vivian is dying from cancer. Together, Rose and Walter journey by ship to Australia and travel to the cattle station that Walter has inherited, which Mabel's brother-in-law, Max, a pilot seriously wounded in the war, will hold in trust until Walter is 21. Max and his sister, Esme, however, are extremely unwelcoming. Rose's reluctance to leave Walter and return to England is complicated by an unexpected romance with Max, as well as the untimely arrival of Xander. Ashcroft enlivens the plot with an expertly crafted set of characters. For fans of WWII-era historicals, this will hit the spot.
