The One True Love of Alice-Ann

Illumination Book Awards 2018 Gold Medal winner!One of Booklist?s Top 10 Inspirational Fiction for 2017Living in rural Georgia in 1941, sixteen-year-old Alice-Ann has her heart set on her brother?s friend Mack; despite their five-year age gap, Alice-Ann knows she can make Mack see her for the woman she?ll become. But when they receive news of the attack on Pearl Harbor and Mack decides to enlist, Alice-Ann realizes she must declare her love before he leaves.Though promising to write, Mack leaves without confirmation that her love is returned. But Alice-Ann is determined to wear the wedding dress her maiden aunt never had a chance to wear?having lost her fiancé in the Great War. As their correspondence continues over the next three years, Mack and Alice-Ann are drawn closer together. But then Mack?s letters cease altogether, leaving Alice-Ann to fear history repeating itself.Dreading the war will leave her with a beautiful dress and no happily ever after, Alice-Ann fills her days with work and caring for her best friend?s war-torn brother, Carlton. As time passes and their friendship develops into something more, Alice-Ann wonders if she?ll ever be prepared to say good-bye to her one true love and embrace the future God has in store with a newfound love. Or will a sudden call from overseas change everything? Review Everson (Five Brides, 2015) tells a classic 1940s coming-of-age war love story complete with soda shops, five-and-dimes, rationing, and German POWs. She brilliantly captures life in small-town America and the men who went to war, those who came back, and the women they left behind. Rich with prayer and Christian faith, Alice-Ann?s characters are portrayed with soul-satisfying emotional vulnerability as they hit all the high notes of the aching of youth, the shock of loss, and the gentle surprise of falling in love again. BooklistLiving in non-glamorous, small-town Georgia in the 1940s does nothing to satisfy 16-year-old Alice-Ann?s longing for beauty and maturity. She wants to be seen as a woman and is in love with her brother?s best friend, Mack; she plans on confessing her love to him. But when Pearl Harbor is attacked, the build-up of war stuns the town and puts her plans on hold. Mack enlists and promises to write, but never broaches the subject of his feelings for Alice-Ann, leaving her to wonder whether her love is returned. She savors his letters, and when news of his death reaches her, she struggles to let go of her childhood love. When her best friend?s brother, Carlton Hillis, returns from the war badly injured, Alice-Ann becomes his caregiver, never expecting to care more deeply for him. As Mack?s place in her heart slowly fades, or transforms, she receives an unexpected call from the Pacific that shakes her world and forces her to make a choice. Everson (Five Brides) beautifully captures the fickle, inexplicable nature of human emotion in this sob-inducing romantic tale. Publishers Weekly Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The One True Love of Alice-AnnBy Eva Marie Everson, Kathryn S. OlsonTyndale House PublishersCopyright © 2017 Eva Marie EversonAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4964-1590-5CHAPTER 1BYNUM, GEORGIA DECEMBER 7, 1941 2:20 P.M.Alice-Ann Branch stood in front of her bedroom dresser, eyes focused on her reflection in the large oval mirror hanging before her. Her foot tapped to the rhythm of a Glenn Miller tune that played in her head as her slender fingers wound frizzy light-brown hair, first from the right side of her face, then from the left. She secured both sides - as best she could - with the new tortoiseshell combs shed purchased the day before at Hilliss Five & Dime with money Grandmother Branch had sent for her birthday.She blinked hazel eyes, large and plain, then frowned at the overall vision looking back at her. "Silly ole freckles," she said, leaning closer. "I bet Shirley Temple doesnt have to put up with these thi