I think I am in Love with Christian, the main character in Grayton Beach Affair. It happened so quickly I was not even aware until I realized that I was almost at the end of the book and would have to let him go. Christian is German but was raised in America and even graduated from Georgia Tech. After World War I though, Germans in America faced discrimination and he and his parents were no exception. After his parents died he decided to go back to Germany and start a new life for himself. A German man who speaks english with no accent and can pass as American was very valuable to Germany during World War II. Christian has no choice but to enter the war effort on Germanys behalf.

Maggie is a woman who loses her fiance in the attack on Pearl Harbor. She flees to Grayton Beach Florida to try and get herself back together, but her situation gets worse before it gets better. Much worse. She meets another man named John Logan and he is up to no good. I have to admit that I loved Maggie too, in a way. I admired her bravery, her strength and her attitude. I think that she is a woman who is not going to play a victim. She is content to be her own hero if she can. There are some squirm worthy things that happen and I wanted to cheer for Maggie when she did things I wish were legal, but they most decidedly were not.

This is one of those books that I want to sit down with you, have a cup of coffee and tell you every amazing detail. I don't want to ruin the story for you though, because it was amazing. Christians mission brings him to Grayton Beach and Maggie is there trying to find her way back to happy. Those two people end up needing each other in so many ways. I thought that I was going to be reading a story about war and devastation. Instead I am quite sure I read a love story that also happened to take place during a war.

I read this book in one sitting. I don't mean over the course of a day, I mean I sat on my bed and started page 1 and did nothing else until I finished page 314. I can not promise it will be like this for everybody. There was some rated R content, this one is adults only. I really enjoyed the parts that were about the war, there were not overly long explanations of the specs of WWII aircraft or anything like that. The story stays focused on Christian and Maggie. I might have to get extra copies to lend out because I assure you that I can not part with mine. I know that I am going to read this again one day and love it just as much as the first time.

I urge you to give this one a chance! I know it seems a bit outside of the books that are normally on the blogs, but this is at its heart a love story. Or at least I found it to be a love story. Perhaps it is like a painting and you will read it and think it s something else. Either way, it is worth the read to find out. This book makes me wish I were a better writer so that I had the words to convince you to buy this book!

BOTTOM LINE: THIS BOOK WAS LIKE A FIRST LOVE; UNEXPECTED, INTENSE, FULL OF SURPRISES AND WONDERFUL! ( )