I hope you are enjoying the holiday season. I love the trappings of Christmas, especially the twinkling lights on the tree and sitting in front of a roaring fire with the cats wrapped around me so this is my time of the year. If you follow me on Facebook you’ll see that throughout December I’m having fun with holiday images I’m creating in Canva. If you like them, please share them with your friends.

December is also a popular time for new book releases. I’d hate to break with established tradition, so I’m releasing The Shadow Ally, the first Short Read in The Yankee Years series today. The series is set in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland during the Second World War and follows the lives of service men and women who are posted to the county and local residents as they meet and mingle.

Let me tell you a little about The Shadow Ally:

America is not yet at war, but the country is preparing for it. And it is essential that this remain secret.

June 1941: Ruth Corey is puzzled by the attractive, enigmatic Italian-American civilian contractor, Frank Long, who is staying at her family’s hotel in Irvinestown, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Serious and reserved, he is nothing like the friendly, outgoing British and Canadian servicemen she knows. Nor, she discovers, does he even use his real surname.

War is a time of alliances and secrets. The biggest secret in the county is the construction of an American flying boat base outside Irvinestown. Since their country is not at war, the American contractors must keep the building project hidden. America’s neutrality will be destroyed if Germany discovers its existence.

Ambitious local reporter, and Ruth’s almost fiancé, Harry Coalter is consumed with curiosity about the new American airbase. But why? When Ruth finds a letter Harry has written about the flying boat base she fears he is pursuing a path that will land him in serious trouble. She enlists Frank’s help to stop Harry from making a terrible mistake.

Can Ruth safeguard a military secret that will have a profound impact on the course of the war and protect her beau?

As a special gift to readers, The Shadow Ally will be free today and tomorrow Thursday and Friday). I would be delighted if you would download a copy – and even more thrilled if you would leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads after you read it.

You can download it on Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Hope you have lots of wonderful holiday reading!