A Florida girl who migrated to the Pacific Northwest, Kate Breslin was a bookseller for many years. She is a Carol Award winner and a RITA Award and Christy Award finalist and lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington.
In this interview, Kate discusses her latest WWI romance novel, In Love’s Time.
FF: Please provide a brief summary of your new novel In Love’s Time.
WWI London hospital orderly Clare Danner is terrified of losing her baby daughter, Daisy, to the ruthless and powerful Lange family, who took her child from her once before. Only Captain Marcus Weatherford, the man Clare loves, can provide the proof needed to save her child. But Marcus is badly injured and engaged to marry a beautiful Russian ballerina, and the chasm between them now seems insurmountable. Clare is running out of time to save her daughter.
Marcus embarks on a secret mission to Russia with a beautiful ballerina, posing as his fiancée. His assignment: to save the king’s own family and to learn of an assassination plot that will change the course of the war. For those reasons, despite Clare’s unhappiness, he cannot reveal to her his secrets. Nor can he confess the love buried deep in his heart. And when his trip is suddenly cut short and he returns to London wounded, he must again deny Clare when she asks him for help. The clock is ticking for them both, as Clare and Marcus must find a way to navigate the difficult road back to mutual trust and reconciliation, or each will lose all they hold dear.
FF: In Love’s Time takes place during WWI. Can you give us some historical context of the events that surround your characters’ lives in this book?
Most of the story takes place in Great Britain during the summer of 1918. The war in France against Germany rages on, and the Bolsheviks have murdered the Russian tsar and allegedly his family as well. While most of Britain’s men are fighting overseas, the women take up the slack back at home and succeed in accomplishing nearly all previously male-dominated jobs. Food is being rationed as a result of German U-boat attacks on supply ships coming to Britain, and new hospitals are created to accommodate the wounded soldiers returning to Britain to be treated there.
FF: What kind of research was required to write this story? Did you discover anything particularly interesting?
I usually do extensive research on a time period, place, and various events for a novel, using all kinds of media, and I’m usually rewarded with a “nugget” of information that inspires a story idea. For In Love’s Time, I discovered and feature in my story the very first military hospital in London run entirely by women. This was almost unheard of back in 1918, but the two women suffragist surgeons who created and ran Endell Street Military Hospital were a phenomenal success—both in London and before that, in the war in France—and both garnered the respect and sponsorship of the British military.
FF: Can you tell us a little more about the inspiration behind this story? What draws you to this era?
When Masterpiece Theater’s series, Downton Abbey, first aired on PBS television years ago, I was captivated by the time period, the costumes, the British countryside, and the drama many faced during that time period. I found inspiration for my first WWI novel, Not by Sight, when in the series two suffragists handed out white feathers of cowardice to the men not in uniform, and for one footman in particular, this had devastating consequences. Since that time, I’ve continued my research and have come to learn that so many facets of the Second World War had their beginnings in the Great War of 1914–1918.
FF: Can you tell us more about your main characters, Clare and Marcus?
Clare and Marcus first met in my earliest WWI novel Not by Sight while Clare was in Kent baling hay for the cavalry horses overseas with the Women’s Forage Corps. Captain Marcus Weatherford works with the British Secret Intelligence Service through the Admiralty in London, and he’s often overseas on assignment. Clare is a single mom and now works as an orderly at the Endell Street Military Hospital in London. Having courted for over a year, Marcus and Clare’s “together time” isn’t as often as they’d like, but the couple enjoys being with each other and her daughter, Daisy, when they can.
FF: What are some of the major challenges they face in the novel?
Clare’s heart was terribly wounded when her infant daughter was taken from her by the aristocracy, and because of that, she has trust issues. Marcus’s hidden life and his secret work can therefore often stretch the boundaries of Clare’s confidence. There is also the difference in their classes. Clare once worked as a domestic servant, while Marcus is a wealthy and knighted captain in the Royal Navy. For Clare, this also challenges her sense of worthiness. With Marcus, because he’s always facing the silent threat of the enemy, he is hesitant to make a commitment to marrying Clare or starting a family while the war is on. Yet he has his own deep-seated issues concerning trust, which he can only overcome with faith in God and in himself.
FF: What lessons do you hope readers gain from reading In Love’s Time?
I hope my story offers a new perspective on what we value most in life. Time won’t wait, and in the midst of our bustling, day-to-day living, we often miss out on building relationships, not only with each other but also with God. And faith is the key to trust, which opens our hearts to love and happiness. This is also a story about second chances. As the old adage goes, God doesn’t close a door without opening a window, and opportunity always awaits us if we believe and have the eyes to see.
FF: What are you working on next?
I’m researching new story ideas, set during either WWI or WWII.
In Love’s Time
Kate Breslin
Bethany House
Genres: Historical Romance, Historical
Release Date: December 13, 2022
ISBN-10: 0764237497
ISBN-13: 978-0764237492
Book Summary:
At the height of World War I, two sweethearts face impossible odds in this powerful tale of courage, duty, and heartbreak.
In the summer of 1918, Captain Marcus Weatherford arrives in Russia on a secret mission, with a beautiful ballerina posing as his fiancée. He must search for the missing Romanov tsarina and her son—who allegedly survived the murdering Bolsheviks—and also glean information behind an allied plot to assassinate Lenin. Yet as the danger intensifies, Marcus’s sense of duty battles his desire to return home to Clare, the woman he truly loves, before all is lost.
Hospital orderly Clare Danner still suffers from Marcus’s betrayal and now fears losing her daughter to the heartless family who took Daisy away from Clare once before. Only Marcus can provide the critical proof needed to save her child.
Faced with the terrifying and unexpected threat, can Clare trust Marcus, or will he shatter her world yet again?
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