Reviewed by Rosetta Diane Hoessli, Author

5+ Stars

A LIFE CAME CALLING: A WWII LOVE STORY, by Ann Howard Creel, is a love story set in both Philadelphia and the Smoky Mountain region of Tennessee at the close of WWII. Due to be released on August 18, 2025, this novel tells the story of Janey Nichol, a young woman ‘past her prime’, who suddenly finds herself weighing the proposals of two men: Todd, who’s ambitious, dependable, and rock-solid, and Cole, a now-deceased Naval officer whom she’d only known for three sublime days, two years earlier.

The rub is that in Janey’s memory, a perfect wartime love affair between her and an unpredictable, strong, breathtakingly handsome man has been magnified into an intense, heated, whirlwind romance that no regular human being can compete with. Especially not someone as steady and predictable as Todd. Adding to her trepidation about accepting Todd’s proposal is the wonderful life she’s created for herself: a single woman living alone in a home she bought on her own while working as an up-and-coming secretary for a large electric company – a part of the female work force who took advantage of the shortage of men in the United States during the war, leaving her free to encourage her own ambition and drive.

Janey feels she must come to grips with all that will change in her life, plus make certain her feelings for Todd are genuine and will last forever, before she can give him her answer. She decides to make a trip to Cole’s hometown in the Smoky Mountains to see where he’s buried and to meet the family he’d spoken of so often. Enter Luke, Cole’s cousin – the third disturbance in the growing web of confusion now clouding her usually laser-focused mind.

This book is beautifully written. Creel doesn’t shy away from description in the way that romances often do. Her prose describing V-E Day in Knoxville, Tennessee is so vivid that I could see, taste, and feel everything as clearly as if I was there. (I especially love that sequence because V-E Day is an event I’d love to have been a part of, and I felt as if I truly was.) Her descriptions of the Smokies and small mountain towns are breathtaking, her characters are perfectly delineated, and her dialogue never feels stilted or out of place. Even Janey’s struggle to make up her mind, which sometimes seems a little contrived and far-fetched, fits perfectly into the restrictive dictates for single women living in 1940’s society.

 I really loved this novel, and I strongly recommend that you buy a copy just as soon as it releases on August 18, 2025. I give it 5+ stars.

A LIFE CAME CALLING: A WWII LOVE STORY, by Ann Howard Creel, will be available on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Life-Came-Calling-Howard-Creel-ebook/dp/B0FB9GKXWK/