Top voices in historical fiction deliver an unforgettable collection of short stories set in the aftermath of World War I—featuring bestselling authors such as Hazel Gaynor, Jennifer Robson, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig and edited by Heather Webb. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month... November 11, 1918. After four long, dark years of fighting, the Great War ends at last, and the world is forever changed. For soldiers, loved ones, and survivors the years ahead stretch with new promise, even as their hearts are marked by all those who have been lost. As families come back together, lovers reunite, and strangers take solace in each other, everyone has a story to tell. In this moving anthology, nine authors share stories of love, strength, and renewal as hope takes root in a fall of poppies. Featuring: Jessica Brockmole Hazel Gaynor Evangeline Holland Marci Jefferson Kate Kerrigan Jennifer Robson Beatriz Williams Lauren Willig Heather Webb

In a short story from New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig, a woman discovers it’s never too late to make things right She's the widow of the Aviator in the Iron Mask-- a British World War I hero whose exploits both on the field and off of it made the papers on two continents. But was their Armistice Day engagement really the romantic fantasy it seemed? A lifetime later, Camilla Frobisher is forced to retrace the steps of her past-- all the way back to November 11, 1918, the day her life changed forever.

New York Times bestselling author Hazel Gaynor captivates with a beautifully rendered short story about the strength of a mother’s love as the Great War comes to an end at last . . . As the final moments tick down to the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, signaling the end of fighting, midwife Annie Rawlins is doing everything she can to save an infant’s life. Too many have lost too much and Annie prays that the time for sorrow has passed. Meanwhile across the fields of France her son, Will, is on patrol one last time, clinging to thoughts of home and doing all he can to make it there. As the Armistice bells ring out, Annie and Will must fight one last time to grasp the hope of a new life and a new day. Originally published in the moving collection Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War, this e-book also includes an excerpt from Gaynor’s new novel, The Girl from The Savoy, coming in June 2016.

In this breathtaking short story, Heather Webb, the acclaimed author of Becoming Josephine, explores the heartbreak and devotion of a mother searching for peace in war-torn France. Madame Beatrix Joubert has lived her life by the rhythm of the clocks, the call of a cuckoo bird, and the gongs of bells. These once comforting sounds, accompanied by the laughter of her husband and son, now only remind her of the emptiness of her home and the anger that grows inside her. Of German birth, she is an outcast in her French village, but her homeland is the enemy that stole all she held dear. As she plots and plans, fueled by grief and the need for revenge, Beatrix will embark on upon a dangerous journey that could forever alter the life she once knew. Originally published in the moving collection Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War, this e-book also includes an excerpt from Webb’s latest novel, Rodin’s Lover, available now.

This suspenseful saga of Tibet during the rise of Chinese Communism “conjures up a faraway world . . . panoramic and intimate at the same time” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times). A lively and cinematic twentieth-century epic, Red Poppies focuses on the extravagant and brutal reign of a clan of Tibetan warlords during the rise of Chinese Communism. The story is wryly narrated by the chieftain’s son, a self-professed “idiot” who reveals the bloody feuds, seductions, secrets, and scheming behind his family’s struggles for power. When the chieftain agrees to grow opium poppies with seeds supplied by the Chinese Nationalists in exchange for modern weapons, he draws Tibet into the opium trade—and unwittingly plants the seeds for a downfall. A “swashbuckling novel,” Red Poppies is at once a political parable and a moving elegy to the lost kingdom of Tibet in all its cruelty, beauty, and romance (The New York Times Book Review).

New York Times bestselling author Kate Kerrigan brings Dublin’s past vividly alive in her heart-wrenching short story about the forbidden passion between a soldier and a rebel, and the woman years later who discovers their secret. When British soldier Clive Postlethwaite wandered into Dublin’s National Gallery, falling in love with a fiery Irish girl was the last thing on his mind. As soon as he meets Eileen O’Hara, he’s instantly enthralled with her humor and beauty. But the Irish Republicans are rebelling against Home Rule every day, and Clive and Eileen may be forced to choose sides, forever. Originally published in the moving collection Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War, this e-book also includes an excerpt from Kerrigan’s novel Ellis Island, available now.

Evangeline Holland, author of the Bledington Park series, enchants readers with this poignant short story about a woman seemingly alone in terrible aftermath of the Great War and the man who proves she has more than she ever realized. War stole everything from Morven Williams—her husband, her friends, her livelihood, and her home. As Paris erupts in Armistice celebrations, she stands on the precipice of her past and her future, and the arrival of a handsome, charming Harlem Hellfighter stirs her spirit. But they share an unexpected link to her past—one that may tear their burgeoning romance apart forever. Originally published in the moving collection Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War, this e-book also includes an excerpt from Holland’s novel An Ideal Duchess, available now.