by Joan La Blanc (Author)
MINISTRY OF ANGELS is the second of a series of four carefully researched and beautifully written historical romances about young nurse Anna Donovan. It begins just after her Navy husband is lost at sea early in World War Two. In October, 1943, after the loss of both her Navy officer husband and the baby they were expecting, 25-year old widow Anna Donovan leaves her parents' New Hampshire home to work as resident nurse on a remote, isolated island off the coast of Maine. Hoping to find new purpose for her life, she moves into an old hotel operated by Jean Cropper, a troubled young woman with her own history of serious loss. Their fragile friendship grows even shakier when a German U-boat blows up offshore and Jean becomes involved with a fugitive enemy sailor. Meanwhile, Anna is increasingly attracted to Jim Millett, the crippled doctor she works for, but with no expectation he'll ever share her passion. Tragedy briefly draws them together, but soon dashes her hopes of ever winning his love. Caught up in an old pattern of retreat from painful situations, she leaves the island to volunteer for the Navy Nurse Corps. But the past will follow her even to war. What exactly is Anna Donovan searching for? And will she ever return to Hope Island?
Author Biography
JOAN LA BLANC began writing fiction during her childhood in Philadelphia. While she set this addiction aside to raise four children, it later enabled her to survive marriages to two career Navy men and one with Alzheimer's. Now, in her "golden years", it continues to offer romance, travel, and the adventures of an international spy without the associated dangers. After a "real" career as a PR and non-fiction writer, she crafts circumspect prose for church publications between visits to the various parallel universes that provide her greatest inspiration and creative fulfillment. She lives in Virginia, close to the sea.