The Small Blue

By Hannah Shelbourne

Love. Regret. Redemption.

July 1943.

Seventeen-year-old Gracie Wells' life is about to change. The sleepy Sussex village of Barnfield seems a million miles away from the horrors of war, but Gracie's brother Alec and boyfriend Cliff are about to be called up and her concerns for them are heightened when local enigma Wilfred Whitman unexpectedly returns on medical leave with shocking scars.

The Whitmans have always been the talk of the village - there are rumours of madness, adultery, and even murder - but Gracie has her own reasons for avoiding the family; she's shaken by the memory of nearly drowning in their lake years before, spooked by old Captain Whitman on the shore. It was Cliff who saved her back then, and he never lets her forget it: without him, she'd be dead. But Cliff can't save her in her nightmares, where the captain's face still haunts her and the lake whispers an ominous warning. What force keeps drawing Gracie back to that water, to the Whitmans, and to the mysterious and magnetic Wilfred?

Soon everything Gracie thinks she knows about love and duty is called into question, and the cold reality of war threatens to destroy everything.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FPCM16X9
• ISBN13: 9798262085675
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 330 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 8.0"