No Time to Mourn

2026 Distinguished Favorite. Independent Press Award

Malta, 1940 — The war has found them. Will love and courage be enough to survive the darkness ahead?

For Katarina, life in the sunlit capital of Malta is almost perfect—helping in her family’s bakery, surrounded by friends, and untouched by the conflict raging across Europe. But when the distant echo of war becomes a roar overhead, everything changes.
Desmond, an RAF pilot newly stationed on the island, faces a grim too few planes, too few men, and missions where returning is never guaranteed.
As bombs turn homes and businesses to rubble, Malta’s people are driven underground into the ancient catacombs to try to survive. Cut off from supply ships, starvation creeps into every shadow. In the midst of fear and loss, Katarina and Desmond find a fragile love—a lifeline in a world unraveling.

But war is merciless. Torn apart by devastating twists of fate, each must endure impossible trials, uncertain if they will ever reunite. As the final days of the siege approach, the question will either live to see the war’s end… or will the conflict claim them both?