Love, Loss and Honor

This is a tale of two women, separated by over 400 years, whose lives are inexorably intertwined. Karen, a goal-driven pre-med student, is pursued by two men: well-bred and wealthy Martin and Peter, her virtuous but poor blue-collar study partner. After a series of relationship stumbles, an accidental pregnancy forces vacillating Karen to choose Peter. In 1572 Anthwerp, Mariken discovers she has a physician's gift for healing. She falls in love with Pieter, an injured blacksmith with a mysterious past of his own. How are these two women connected?

In this book, modern-day nurse practitioner Karen battles PTSD. She is also a grieving military widow, debilitated with guilt for cheating on her husband while he was alive. Fighting for normality, almost able to breathe again, it all falls apart when a disturbed veteran living in a homeless camp claims to be her lost fiancee from 1573 Antwerp.

Karen Williams-Schmidt’s children are approaching adulthood. The week of her son Bill’s high school graduation, he commits what may be the biggest mistake of his life. Bill’s error starts Carrie Bennett, his best friend since childhood, down her own dark path of abuse and Stockholm Syndrome. Heartbroken and wracked with guilt, Bill bounces between jobs and relationships, trying to find someone to love. The conflict between the two rural youths leaves an international path of destruction involving competing Mediterranean crime bosses, Interpol, even a small Hutterite community.