The Girl of The War

In a city at war, the most dangerous thing isn't always a bullet. Private Johan Dekker never expected to fall in love. He certainly never expected it to happen in a crowded market, over a bowl of local dish sold by a girl with porcelain skin and eyes that held secrets he couldn't read. Maryam is the most beautiful woman in the market district-every man knows it. Javanese nobles bring her gifts. Dutch officers linger at her stall.
Even the remaining Japanese soldiers watch her from a distance. But Maryam serves her spiced peanut sauce with a smile that gives nothing away, working beside her quiet grandfather as the war rages beyond the market walls. Johan learns her language. He earns her trust. And slowly, carefully, he begins to see past the surface-to the truth she's been hiding in plain sight. But some truths are dangerous enough to kill for.
When a single violent night tears away Maryam's carefully constructed world, Johan must make an impossible choice: between the country that sent him here and the woman who's shown him what he's really fighting for. In a war where borders are drawn in blood, some lines can only be crossed by the bravest hearts. From the harsh days of colonial occupation to the emerald mountains of a newly independent nation, The Girl of the War is a sweeping tale of courage, betrayal, and a love powerful enough to remake a man's entire world.
Perfect for readers who loved The Nightingale, All the Light We Cannot See, and epic romances set against the backdrop of real historical struggles.