The American Girl (Maureen Ritter #1)

Can one woman’s inspirational story inspire hope in her granddaughter’s lost soul?

New York, 2006.
Amy Sullivan’s life is a mess. Fired from her dream job at a prestigious newspaper, she gets a call from her 90-year-old grandmother in the South of France. Maureen Ritter flies to America, the land of her birth, ostensibly to visit her ailing sister, but soon she begins to share with Amy what she’s hidden for more than 60 years—the story of her war.

France, 1940.
The impending German invasion threatens the idyllic existence Maureen and the Jewish refugees living with her enjoy in the French countryside. On a trip to Paris to arrange visas for them to escape, Maureen meets Christophe, a handsome would-be suitor who seems to have something to hide. When he tells her of some Jewish children about to be caught in the eye of the Nazi Blitzkrieg in Belgium, they assemble a team to rescue them before they are swallowed up by the invading Wehrmacht.

But when the Nazis occupy northern France, the need to evacuate the Jewish orphans in her personal care becomes apparent. With the help of the resistance and a new network designed to extricate Allied servicemen from France, she will begin a dangerous and arduous journey to save the lives of those she loves most, no matter what the cost to herself might be.