Imagine you're listening to the acclaimed WWII melodrama, Casablanca. But instead of Rick's café in Vichy-occupied North Africa, you're in the South Pacific, trapped on Truk Lagoon – island stronghold of the Japanese. Well, that's exactly where this romantic World War II audiobook, Red House Rising, begins its story.
It's July, 1941. War is already raging in Europe. Japan has swallowed up Korea, and now terrorizes China. Pearl Harbor is about to explode. And three women, an ace transport pilot, a Chinese Intelligence officer and a local Island leader, must join forces to rescue young girls sexually enslaved by the Japanese Navy and its ruthless secret police, the Tokkeitai. As World War Two roils the Pacific, the story continues in the islands, in Hawaii, in China and Japan. There's flying and spying and action galore. And the story calls out the fascism, racism and misogyny of that dark time. But this audiobook is most definitely about lovers – star-crossed or otherwise – finding their way in a world at war.