Be Careful - It's My Heart by Eleri Grace

The drama and larger-than-life grand love affairs of the 1940s was one of the things that drew me to write romance novels set during the pivotal years of WWII. Everything from the era's glamorous Hollywood stars and box office hits to the crooning ballads of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra sets the stage for epic love stories.

The war provides the perfect antagonist -- it cruelly separates, endangers, wounds, and forever shapes the character and life path of my heroes and heroines.

But in addition to the romantic love central to my novels, I think some of the most emotional depth in my work comes from the subplots relating to family and friendships that I weave into my Clubmobile Girls series.

In my first novel, there's the love Vivian has for her fellow Red Cross Girl and best friend Mabs, and the fierce love Jack has for all the men in his B-17 crew. There's the greater love of humanity that threatens to crush Vivian's spirit as she watches the mounting casualties among the bomber crews. She's terrified of losing Jack of course, but her heartache for all the Allied forces is genuine. In my second novel, Skip's heartbreak over the loss of his beloved older brother at Pearl Harbor drives him and colors all his actions, while my heroine Hadley wrestles with her own demons and the loss of a dear friend years ago.

Showing a range of love relationships in our novels adds power and resonates with readers. I read extensively in the genre of war memoirs as background research for each of my novels. I also read a few "big-picture" books for whichever locale I'm focusing on for that novel. For my debut novel, I started with "Masters of the Air," which remains one of my all-time favorite WWII nonfiction books. There are quite a number of similar books and combat memoirs written by the men who fought in the skies over Europe. I was particularly touched by the theme that cropped up again and again in these accounts by and about the bomber crews -- those ten men became an insular and tight-knit family.

They were truly brothers-in-arms and dropped all boundaries that military rank, education, race or social class might normally have divided them. They fiercely defended each other -- both up in the air in combat and on the ground in the give-and-take of life on a military base and on recreational leave trips. That's one of the love relationships I'm most proud of in my both my novels -- the bromance that was a bromance before it was cool, the love that was so prevalent among the valiant crews of our airmen.

Love is all around us, and I think our readers appreciate when we take advantage of our ability to show the range of human experience with love in all its forms in our stories. 

Learn more about me and my writing on my website or follow me on my social media accounts at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. 

You can find my Clubmobile Girls novels on Amazon.