Soldier's Joy Book II of The Sentinel Heart Trilogy

Avery Gowan is barely home from Iraq when a ghost appears to him-one that looks disturbingly like him. The apparition says that Jessie Gibbs, a woman Avery just met, can help him overcome the guilt of a mission that killed three of his friends and maimed another.Days earlier, at a service honoring his family's Civil War relative, Lemuel Sanders, Avery was drawn to Jessie's quiet strength. Camping with her Civil War-style band the previous year, Jessie, a musician, had discovered Lemuel's unmarked woodland grave, leading to his identification and proper burial after 145 years.Jessie and Avery begin a relationship, but his emotional volatility threatens their bond. While Avery hides the truth about his spectral visitor, Jessie hides something too-a secret about her true connection to Lemuel Sanders that may cost her Avery's love.The sequel to the award-winning Stones River, Soldier's Joy stands alone as a haunting story about how the past refuses to stay buried, how healing demands facing it, and how love gives the courage to do so.