Salute Army's 240th birthday with a romance read
Today is a double holiday as Flag Day and the U.S. Army's 240th birthday. Born from the Continental Army, today's U.S. Army is the largest of the five services. Its ranks include 490,000 active-duty personnel, 550,000 reservists and guardsmen, and almost 5,000 aircraft. In fact, the Army operates both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft for transportation, attack and medical evacuation. The Army also operates over 50 ships. The Army goes rolling along on land, air and sea, right into romance novels.
Army active-duty officer by day and romance author at night Jessica Scott rolls her Army experience into her contemporary romances, including the Homefront series with Come Home to Me, After the War and Forged in Fire. Army veteran Elizabeth Ashtree conquered Harlequin's Superromance with The Colonel and the Kid, A Captain's Honor and Into Thin Air. Former Military Policewoman Caro Carson is a double RITA finalist this year with A Texas Rescue Christmas and The Bachelor Doctor's Bride. Her debut novel hits home with Doctor, Soldier, Daddy.
Army spouses serve on the home front, giving them firsthand experience to infuse emotional homecomings into romance novels. Robyn Carr brings Army heroes home to the Virgin River series with Temptation Ridge and Wild Man Creek. Rebecca Yarros finds inspiration from Army Aviation for her Flight & Glory series, including Full Measures and Eyes Turned Skyward. Donna Michaels honors the National Guard with her Citizen Soldier series in Wyne and Dine and Wyne and Chocolate.
Cat Johnson, a long-standing supporter of deployed troops, treats readers to the Men of the Red, Hot & Blue series with A Few Good Men, Model Soldier and A Prince Among Men. Barbara Witek unites an Army soldier with a virtual stranger to care for his orphaned niece in Daddy Wore Dog Tags. Lori Wilde matches an Army amputee-turned-sheriff with a jilted bride in Addicted to Love.
Romantic suspense roars with military action in Lynn Raye Harris' Hostile Operations Team (HOT) with Hot Pursuit, Hot Mess and Hot Shot. M.L. Buchman gets airborne in the Night Stalkers, including The Night Is Mine, I Own the Dawn and Bring on the Dusk. Kaylee Cross features all services in the Bagram Special Ops series, focusing on the Army in Danger Close and Collateral Damage.
Soldiers continue to serve long after they leave active duty. Elaine Levine offers heart-pounding action with the Red Team in The Edge of Courage, Shattered Valor and Honor Unraveled. Shannon K. Butcher hits the ground running in the Delta Force series with No Regrets, No Control and No Escape. Black is back in Cindy Gerard's Black Ops series including Show No Mercy, Take No Prisoners and Whisper No Lies. Laura Kaye turns disgraced soldiers into tattoo artists in the Hard Ink series with Hard as It Gets, Hard as You Can and Hard to Come By.
A soldier's valor isn't forgotten in historical romance. Lisa Kleypas delivers a hero jaded by war in Love in the Afternoon. Cathy Maxwell spotlights a soldier's addiction (and recovery) in The Scottish Witch. Elizabeth Boyle addresses a war hero's PTSD in The Viscount Who Lived Down the Lane.
Only a few authors can address PTSD with the sensitivity it deserves. Kathleen Korbel (Eileen Dreyer) delivers a heartfelt romance of two Army Vietnam veterans in The Soldier's Heart, winning RWA's RITA Award for Best Long Contemporary Series in 1995.
Two Army veterans have published non-fictions books about their personal experience with PTSD — Stephanie Shannon's Battling the Storm and Latoya Lucas' The Immeasurable Spirit: Lessons of a Wounded Warrior about Faith and Perseverance.
For your honor, dedication and service, we salute you.
Add to the list of romance novels with Army heroes with #RomanceSalutesArmy on Twitter.
Kim Lowe is an Air Force veteran, Air Force spouse and romance book blogger at SOS Aloha. You can reach her at sos.aloha@yahoo.com.