L M Elliott Books In Order

Under a War-torn Sky

A searingly emotional and action packed account of a WWII pilot’s struggle to make it home through enemy territory. Henry Forester is a 19 year old farm boy far from home. Having joined the American Air Force as a bomber pilot, his plane is shot down on a mission to Germany, leaving him alone, injured and terrified in a dangerous land. Relying on the kindness of strangers and the cunning of the French Resistance, he struggles from town to town, wary of imminent danger at every step. Desperately hoping to end his journey alive and free, he comes to feel a deep respect and affection for the freedom fighters who risk their lives for him.

A Troubled Peace

March 1945 World War II may be ending, but for nineteen year old pilot Henry Forester the conflict still rages. Shot down behind enemy lines in France, Henry endured a dangerous trek to freedom, relying on the heroism of civilians and Resistance fighters to stay alive. But back home in Virginia, Henry is still reliving air battles with Hitler’s Luftwaffe and his torture by the Gestapo. Mostly, Henry can’t stop worrying about the safety of those who helped him escape especially one French boy, Pierre, who, because of Henry, may have lost everything. When Henry returns to France to find Pierre, he is stunned by the brutal after math of combat: starvation, cities shattered by Allied bombing, and the shocking return of concentration camp survivors. Amid the rubble of war, Henry must begin a daring search for a lost boy plus a fight to regain his own internal peace and the trust of the girl he loves. L. M. Elliott’s sequel to Under a War Torn Sky is an astonishing account of surviving the fallout from war.

Annie, Between the States

The civil war has broken out, and Annie Sinclair’s Virginia home, Hickory Heights, is right in the line of battle. Caught up in the rising conflict, Annie and her mother tend to wounded soldiers while Annie’s older brother, Laurence, enlists in the Confederate cavalry under Jeb Stuart. Even Annie’s rambunctious baby brother, Jamie, joins John Mosby, the notorious ‘Gray Ghost.’ Faced with invading armies, Annie is compelled into a riskier role to protect her family and farm. She conceals Confederate soldiers and warns Southern commanders of Union traps, and the flamboyant Jeb Stuart dubs her ‘Lady Liberty.’

Annie’s loyalty is clear until a wounded Union officer is dragged onto her porch. Saved from a bullet by a volume of Keats’ poetry he keeps in his pocket, Thomas Walker startles Annie with his love of verse. After several chance encounters, Annie is surprised by her growing interest in the dark eyed Northerner as they connect through a shared passion for poetry.

As the war rages on, Annie begins to question some of the values driving Virginia’s involvement. Then tragedy befalls Hickory Heights, and Annie becomes the subject of a shocking accusation. She must confront the largest quandary of all: choosing her own course.

L. M. Elliott crafts a stirring novel that carries readers from the Manassas battlefield to fancy dress balls to the burning of the Shenandoah Valley while capturing the tenacious spirit of a young hero*ine facing an extraordinary, complex time in American history.

Flying South

In the sticky hot summer of 1968, a year in American history marked by assassinations, Vietnam War protests, and civil rights rioting, Alice faces some trying concerns of her own. Alice longs for a connection with her mother, who is beautiful but distant, caught up in the search for a husband who will help erase the memory of Alice’s father. Alice’s friendship with Bridget, a tennis playing Twiggy, introduces her to competitiveness and the shallow pettiness of spoiled rich girls, as as well as to the prejudice that many Americans still feel toward black people. It is Alice’s friendship with Doc, the family gardener and handyman, that continually brings her back to the truths that will shape the decsions in her life. Doc reminds Alice that life is about ‘passing the test’ doing what’s right. Flying South celebrates a young girl’s coming of age in a delicate, moving narrative that sings with the understated, yet resonate, pleasures of life in the American South.

Give Me Liberty

Thirteen year old Nathaniel Dunn is an indentured servant in colonial Virginia. Life is hard, and it’s about to get harder when Nathaniel is sold. But in a twist of luck, he meets Basil, a kind, elderly schoolmaster. An arrangement is struck lending Nathaniel’s labor to a Williamsburg carriage maker with strong loyalist ties in a town increasingly led by patriots such as Thomas Jefferson. Basil introduces Nathaniel to music, books, and philosophies that open his mind and heart to daring new attitudes on equality.

The year is 1775. Colonists are enraged by England’s taxation. When Virginia organizes a protest embargo of British goods, patriots and loyalists clash. Soon Patrick Henry’s impassioned words ‘Give Me Liberty, or give me death‘ become the sounding call. Should Nathaniel and Basil join the fight? And what is the meaning of ‘liberty’ in a country that depends on indentured servants and slaves? Nathaniel grapples with the choices a dawning nation lays before him and the possibility of facing his closest friend in battle as the American Revolution explodes in Virginia.

L. M. Elliott’s gripping account captures the hopes and dilemmas of a boy caught up in this crucial turning point in American history.