• ISBN-10: 1609360257
• ISBN-13: 978-1609360252

Summerside Press

Visit the Brothers In Arms series website for more information.

Nightingale Esther Lange doesn’t love her fiancé—she’s trapped in an engagement after a mistaken night of passion.  Still, she grieves him when he’s lost in battle, the letters sent to her by the medic at his side giving her a strange comfort, so much that she strikes up a correspondence with Peter Hess, an Iowa farmboy.  Or is he?  Peter Hess is not who he seems.  Indeed, he’s hiding a secret, something that could cost them both their lives, especially when the past comes back to life.  A bittersweet love song of the home front war between duty and the heart…a battle where only one will survive.

My favorite review:

Wow. Wow. Wow. This was one of those books that is both tender and gut-wrenching. It was romantic and suspenseful. It was filled with historical detail and characterization that was rewarding to read and planted me firmly in that time period. I especially loved the letters. And the romance was breath-taking. It totally swept me away. Seriously.

Nightingale holds so much spiritual truth and depth. I found the novel to be not only entertaining, but insightful, complex and rewarding to read. It loved it not just because it was a good story, but like Sons of Thunder, it was a story that went way beyond the surface. It was a story that touched me deeply. I am totally in love with Susan May Warren’s historicals. I just wish I’d read this sooner, like when it first released in November so it could have made my favorites list. This is the kind of story that has the potential to be life changing. It really stirred my heart and left me with a glow at the end that was hard to shake.

I love having a lump in my throat and feeling my heart ache because I care so much about the characters. This story made me feel like I was sitting at the edge of my seat several times. I didn’t want to do anything else. I had to see what happened. Will she or won’t she? Could she or shouldn’t she? Does he or doesn’t he? Lots of questions and very rich in detail. Also, the answers that were given weren’t pat answers, but ones that were true to life. I really loved this story. I can’t say too much because many of the key points that spoke to my heart would also be spoilers if I shared them. Guess you’ll just have to read this one yourself to find out why I loved it so much. ~ M.S. Reviewer

Behind the pages:

Did you know that, in 1945, Wisconsin and Minnesota hosted German POWs in over 140 POW camps throughout the state? In fact, America held over 200,000 German POWs from 1942-1946.

What’s most interesting is that these POWs worked on farms and in canneries throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, (and other states), right next to first generation German immigrants who, ten years earlier, might have been their neighbors. Indeed, some of the German immigrants had family fighting for Germany, and relatives in the very POW camps nearby.

I read a newspaper account about a woman who was moved because she heard hymn, sung in German (her native language) coming from inside the camp which was housed just across the street from her home. It made me realize that beneath the stamp of enemy just might be a fellow Christian, pressed into serving their country.

An even bigger theme in Nightingale was, just because someone made a mistake once, did he or she deserve to be imprisoned inside that mistake forever? I applied this theme broadly to both Peter and Esther. Esther might be healer, but she’s trapped inside her sins, unable to see God’s grace setting her free. And I wanted Peter to see that his service in the war might be to fight the demons that held her captive. His story is a Daniel story of sorts, a prisoner sent into a forgiven land to do good and hold onto faith. Esther’s story is that of the woman caught in sin…and set free to sin no more. Both of them have to surrender themselves into God’s hands, to let Him set them free and mold them into who he wants them to be.

If you have made a mistake, don’t let it mold your life. Let God set you free with his grace, his forgiveness and discover who you are when you let God take over. Be found in Him.

Thank you for reading Esther and Peter’s story.

In His Grace,

Susan May Warren