Amber Bay

Lutheran author Sharon Hinck has written a book I really want to read: Amber Bay. It’s based on a true story involving a woman who fled the Bolshevik revolution only to see her beautiful Baltic coast town in Latvia come under attack in during World War II.

Here’s the Amazon blurb, which puts it better than I do:

Based on a true story

Two nations battle across her homeland. Two men alter the course of her future.

After fleeing the terrors of Russia’s Bolshevik revolution, Marija Kappel longs for a peaceful life in Latvia. Her beautiful Baltic coast town with its white sand beaches is the perfect place to dream of marriage and children who can hunt for amber on the bay.

But her fragile hopes for stability collapse as powerful governments negotiate treaties that change everything. What starts as an agreement for a naval base soon becomes a full Russian occupation with all its brutality. Daily perils invade even her own home.

While Russia and Germany battle over Latvia like dogs over a bone, Marija fights to hold her family together. Her resilience is further tested by the horrors of the Nazi invasion. Torn by the atrocities of World War II, she grapples with decisions about her future and the two men who have played an important role in her life. As the world around her crumbles, she uses every strategy to protect her family and aid her friends. Will her faith in the God of her parents—preserved like a relic in amber—endure through loss and danger? Will she have the strength to love and trust again?