Kristina McMorris books in order

Chicago, 1944. Liz Stephens has little interest in attending a USO club dance with her friends Betty and Julia. She doesn't need a flirtation with a lonely serviceman when she's set to marry her childhood sweetheart. Yet something happens the moment Liz glimpses Morgan McClain. They share only a brief exchange--cut short by the soldier's evident interest in Betty--but Liz can't forget him. Thus, when Betty asks her to ghostwrite a letter to Morgan, stationed overseas, Liz reluctantly agrees.

Thousands of miles away, Morgan struggles to adjust to the brutality of war. His letters from "Betty" are a comfort, their soul-baring correspondence a revelation to them both. While Liz is torn by her feelings for a man who doesn't know her true identity, Betty and Julia each become immersed in their own romantic entanglements. And as the war draws to a close, all three will face heart-wrenching choices, painful losses, and the bittersweet joy of new beginnings.

A country is plunged into conflict and suspicion--forcing a young woman to find her place in a volatile world.

Los Angeles, 1941. Violinist Maddie Kern's life seemed destined to unfold with the predictable elegance of a Bach concerto. Then she fell in love with Lane Moritomo. Her brother's best friend, Lane is the handsome, ambitious son of Japanese immigrants. Maddie was prepared for disapproval from their families, but when Pearl Harbor is bombed the day after she and Lane elope, the full force of their decision becomes apparent. In the eyes of a fearful nation, Lane is no longer just an outsider, but an enemy.

When her husband is interned at a war relocation camp, Maddie follows, sacrificing her Juilliard ambitions. Behind barbed wire, tension simmers and the line between patriot and traitor blurs. As Maddie strives for the hard-won acceptance of her new family, Lane risks everything to prove his allegiance to America, at tremendous cost.

NB: This book is also known as Every Time We Say Goodbye.

A mother’s bond with her child, and the power of personal histories to echo through generations ... 

Two years have done little to ease veterinarian Audra Hughes’s grief over her husband’s untimely death. Eager for a fresh start, Audra plans to leave Portland for a new job in Philadelphia. Her seven-year-old son, Jack, seems apprehensive about flying—but it’s just the beginning of an anxiety that grows to consume him.

As Jack’s fears continue to surface in recurring and violent nightmares, Audra hardly recognizes the introverted boy he has become. Desperate, she traces snippets of information unearthed in Jack’s dreams, leading her to Sean Malloy, a struggling US Army veteran wounded in Afghanistan. Together they unravel a mystery dating back to World War II, and uncover old family secrets that still have the strength to wound—and perhaps, at last, to heal.

An ambitious and heartrending story of immigrants, deception, and second chances.

On a cold night in October 1937, searchlights cut through the darkness around Alcatraz. A prison guard’s only daughter—one of the youngest civilians who lives on the island—has gone missing. Tending the warden’s greenhouse, convicted bank robber Tommy Capello waits anxiously. Only he knows the truth about the little girl’s whereabouts, and that both of their lives depend on the search’s outcome.

Almost two decades earlier and thousands of miles away, a young boy named Shanley Keagan ekes out a living in Dublin pubs. Talented and shrewd, Shan dreams of shedding his dingy existence and finding his real father in America. The chance finally comes to cross the Atlantic, but when tragedy strikes, Shan must summon all his ingenuity to forge a new life in a volatile and foreign world.

2 CHILDREN FOR SALE. 

The sign is a last resort. It sits on a farmhouse porch in 1931, but could be found anywhere in an era of breadlines, bank runs and broken dreams. It could have been written by any mother facing impossible choices.

For struggling reporter Ellis Reed, the gut-wrenching scene evokes memories of his family's dark past. He snaps a photograph of the children, not meant for publication. But when it leads to his big break, the consequences are more devastating than he ever imagined.

A sweeping World War II tale of an illusionist whose recruitment by British intelligence sets her on a perilous, heartrending path.

As a little girl raised amid the hardships of Michigan's Copper Country, Fenna Vos learned to focus on her own survival. That ability sustains her even now as the Second World War rages in faraway countries. Though she performs onstage as the assistant to an unruly escape artist, behind the curtain she's the mastermind of their act. Ultimately, controlling her surroundings and eluding traps of every kind helps her keep a lingering trauma at bay.

Yet for all her planning, Fenna doesn't foresee being called upon by British military intelligence. Tasked with designing escape aids to thwart the Germans, MI9 seeks those with specialized skills for a war nearing its breaking point. Fenna reluctantly joins the unconventional team as an inventor. But when a test of her loyalty draws her deep into the fray, she discovers no mission is more treacherous than escaping one's past.

The Philippines, 1941. When U.S. Navy nurse Eleanor Lindstrom, U.S. Army nurse Penny Franklin, and Filipina nurse Lita Capel forge a friendship at the Army Navy Club in Manila, they believe they’re living a paradise assignment. All three are seeking a way to escape their pasts, but soon the beauty and promise of their surroundings give way to the heavy mantle of war.

Caught in the crosshairs of a fight between the U.S. military and the Imperial Japanese Army for control of the Philippine Islands, the nurses are forced to serve under combat conditions and, ultimately, endure captivity as the first female prisoners of the Second World War. As their resiliency is tested in the face of squalid living arrangements, food shortages, and the enemy’s blatant disregard for the articles of the Geneva Convention, the women strive to keep their hope— and their fellow inmates—alive, though not without great cost.

NB: Co-authored with Ariel Lawhon and Susan Meissner.

A war bride awaits the arrival of her GI husband at the platform…A Holocaust survivor works at the Oyster Bar, where a customer reminds him of his late mother…A Hollywood hopeful anticipates her first screen test and a chance at stardom in the Kissing Room…

On any particular day, thousands upon thousands of people pass through Grand Central, through the whispering gallery, beneath the ceiling of stars, and past the information booth and its beckoning four-faced clock, to whatever destination is calling them. It is a place where people come to say hello and good-bye. And each person has a story to tell.

Featuring stories from Melanie Benjamin, Jenna Blum, Amanda Hodgkinson, Pam Jenoff, Sarah Jio, Sarah McCoy, Kristina McMorris, Alyson Richman, Erika Robuck, and Karen White.

Poppy Turner has spent more than a decade teaching children grammar and arithmetic. Suddenly her days are steeped in fears that reach well beyond a classroom filled with air-raid drills and anxious young faces. 

As a mother-to-be, she worries about bringing a child into a time of such turmoil. To find stability, she will have to decide if she’s willing to look more closely at her own past.

NB: Kristina McMorris’s Poppy’s Story is part of Good Intentions, a riveting collection of stories about the instincts, fears, and fierce love inherent in motherhood from award-winning, bestselling authors. 

Here is the complete list of the collection:

1. The Magician by Rebecca Serle

2. Poppy's Story by Kristina McMorris

3. Deluge by Charmaine Wilkerson

4. The Road Home by Kristin Harmel

5. Mother Country by Etaf Rum

6. The Days Before Us by Sejal Badani

7. A Planned Occasion by Angie Kim

A woman uncovers family secrets and romance while liquidating an estate at Christmastime in this novella by the author of Sold on a Monday.

Toss, repair, sell, repeat. Most of the time, people are grateful for estate liquidator Jenna Matthews’s organizing services. Not Reece Porter, her new client’s handsome but grouchy grandson. As far as he’s concerned Jenna is a vulture, picking through his late grandfather’s treasures, during the holidays, no less. Personally, Jenna isn’t one for Christmas nostalgia, or any kind of nostalgia. Plus, she’s just doing her job.

But when she and Reece are drawn together in an emergency, it becomes clear there’s a whole other kind of tension between them, one that’s pure electricity. And when Jenna discovers keepsakes that suggest an intriguing Porter family secret, unwrapping the mystery leads both Jenna and Reese to the greatest gifts of the holidays—and the truth in their hearts... 

Four special holiday offerings from today's favorite authors remind us that when love is on your list, you never have to stop believing...

"A Winter Wonderland" by Fern Michaels

Angelica Shepard left New York for Christmas in Colorado to relax and unwind--but an out-of-control snowboarder almost had her laid to rest. When she wakes up in the hospital, all she remembers is the handsome angel who saved her...

"The Joy of Christmas" by Holly Chamberlin

Not all happiness is good for you--or that's what Iris Karr thinks when she decides to move away instead of marrying her sweetheart Ben. Even years later, living with that decision isn't easy--until a familiar face comes to call her home for the holidays...

"The Christmas Thief" by Leslie Meier

Elizabeth Stone is ready for a white Christmas in Tinker's Cove, Maine--until a fancy Yule ball at the Florida hotel where she works dumps snow on her plans. The sponsor's jewels have gone missing and the police are asking about her ties to a cute mystery guest. Good thing Elizabeth's mother, Lucy Stone, flew down to surprise her. ‘Tis the season for a little investigating...

"The Christmas Collector" by Kristina McMorris

Estate liquidator Jenna Matthews isn't one for Christmas nostalgia. But when one grandmother's keepsakes suggest a secret life, unwrapping the mystery leads Jenna--and her client's handsome grandson--to the true heart of the holiday spirit...

The holidays are a time for cherished traditions and warm memories of Christmases past. But for some, Christmas also offers the gift of new beginnings.

THE CHRISTMAS COLLECTOR by Kristina McMorris

Jenna Matthews has made a career of decluttering other people’s lives. After a childhood marked by her mother’s hoarding, it feels satisfying to sort and evaluate possessions. Some items, however, defy simple categories—like the shoebox of WWII memorabilia she finds in an elderly client’s home. Nestled alongside a Bronze Star is a photograph of a blushing army nurse and an adoring young serviceman. Estelle Porter, the box’s owner, becomes curiously tightlipped at Jenna’s discovery. Even Estelle’s grandson, Reece, knows nothing about this secret in her past. But as Jenna delves deeper, she pieces together Estelle’s heartrending story—one that paves new, unexpected paths for many.

GIFTED by T. Greenwood

Christmas Eve in New York City is a portrait in holiday cheer. Yet Alex, a young ballerina who’s just been ousted from her ballet company, is contemplating a bittersweet homecoming—until she crosses paths with a stranger. At eighty, Simone’s memory is rapidly failing, but something has led her back to the place where she began her career as a professional violinist. Different as they may be, both women understand the nature of ambition and self-doubt, joy, and regret. And in a moment of grace, in a place where journeys begin, each will be reminded of what matters most ...