This HFC Book of the Year Gold medal winner is a thought-provoking and literary historical novel, a passionate historical romance full of suspense, guilty secrets, and dilemmas, set against the turbulent backdrop of WWII Paris.

For 20-year-old Winter Pale choices were never an option. Living in Paris, a British woman so far away from home, she has a history laden with sorrow and regret. When the city falls under Nazi occupation comes a time of struggle for survival; a time when love starts to bloom.
Winter’s heart is torn between two men, the dangerous and enchanting French Resistance fighter René Martin, and the regimented and refined SS major Friedrich von Stielen, neither of whom is a book to be judged by its cover.
As her expectations are subverted, Winter realizes that there is more at stake for her than her choice of man. She has spent her entire life trapped in a vicious circle of blame and shame and now is her last chance to finally break free. But first, she must believe in herself again and trust in the power of love. Can she work up the courage to do it? And at what cost?

Readers who loved The English Patient, Suite Francaise and Captain Corelli’s mandolin, will keep on turning the pages in this moving wartime romantic adventure.