The Melody of Secrets by Jeffrey Stepakoff takes place in 1960 with flashbacks of World War II in Germany. Maria who was born and raised in Germany had lived a quiet life with her father, but as the war was coming to an end, the bombings from American pilots and their allies shook her world up. Sadly, her father did not survive the bombings, so Maria went on with her life living in their small cabin playing her violin. She was an artist of music, and could have been a professional violin player, but now she's lost and may have no future if the bombings continue.
One night while alone playing her violin, her door slams opens to one downed American pilot James Cooper. He seeks refuge with Maria in the tiny cabin and his stay becomes longer they fall in love and lust blooms, but there comes a time when James must leave the cabin to escape death and return to his American buddies who are looking for him. Before he leaves, a low life German soldier tries to rape Maria and James saves her life or does she save his?
Fifteen years pass and Maria is married to a Scientist with a child living in America. Her husband works for the space program, at a time when Russia sends the first satellite into space. The race is on and Maria hardly ever sees her husband. She has a few close friends, some American and a few German/Americans. Her life is simple and she enjoyes her friends company, but one day someone walks back into her life and it's James Cooper! What will she do now that her true love is back in her life now. Her husband is never home for he's working for the space program 24/7 and her son has been sent to a boarding school with her husband's blessings. Will Maria's love for her husband keep her marriage together or will she and James seek out each other?
What a wonderful read filled with lies, secrets, love, lust and one heck of a great violinist that being Maria! THE MELODY OF SECRETS is a recommended read! Enjoy for there is much to enjoy in this story!
Jeffrey Stepakoff's The Melody of Secrets is an epic love
story set against the 1960s U.S. space program, when
deeply-buried secrets could threaten not just a marriage,
but a country.
Maria was barely eighteen as WWII was coming to its
explosive end. A brilliant violinist, she tried to comfort
herself with the Sibelius Concerto as American bombs rained
down. James Cooper wasn't much older. A roguish fighter
pilot stationed in London, he was shot down during a daring
night raid and sought shelter in Mariaβs cottage.
Fifteen years later, in Huntsville, Alabama, Maria is
married to a German rocket scientist who works for the
burgeoning U.S. space program. Her life in the South is at
peace, purposefully distanced from her past. Everything is
as it should beβuntil James Cooper walks back into it.
Pulled from the desert airfield where he was testing planes
no sane Air Force pilot would touch, and drinking a bit too
much, Cooper is offered the chance to work for the
government, and move himself to the front of the line for
the astronaut program. He soon realizes that his job is to
report not only on the rocket engines but also on the
scientists developing them. Then Cooper learns secrets that
could shatter Mariaβs world...
No excerpt available.
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