Overview

Save. Kill. Live. Die. How much do I give? 1944, and war rages in the Pacific. Two young recruits from opposing sides destined to cross paths without ever meeting, changing their lives forever... Honolulu-Dedicated nurse Lieutenant Jeannette Crawford has been working tirelessly, with dedication and wisdom beyond her years, to help wounded US servicemen on home soil face their greatest enemy-time. Wanting to do more, she volunteers to serve on a hospital ship, hoping to save the men she treats and worrying about the man she loves. But nothing can prepare her for the horrors she now faces on the front lines of the Pacific islands. Tokyo-Akira Tanaka is conscripted to serve his country. He does so with determination to honor his family and the country he loves. Initially motivated in his fighter-plane training, he soon discovers that the news being shared with the people of Japan is a lie: the Combined Fleet is losing badly, and their European allies crumbling. As the ferocity of fighting intensifies, and the reality of combat hits home, nurse and pilot experience very different wars in striking parallel. But when the Americans close in on the Japanese home islands, and the emperor's forces become increasingly desperate in their tactics, the true, horrifying heartbreak of Jeannette and Akira's shared destiny becomes clearer, drawing closer... The Choice Within is a story of two people, opposite in many ways, yet share an idealism, love of life, and the same questions: who is the real enemy and how much do I give? This heartrending fiction weaves historical events into a rich, poignant tale of love, duty, sacrifice, and questions never asked until the end.

Full Product Details

9798989940646

Table of Contents

Reviews

Gold Medal Winner - 2025 HFC Hemingway and finalist for Book Of The Year - Historical Fiction Company Meticulously researched, artfully crafted. Not a story you read, but one you live... Profoundly moving, by a master of historical fiction. - Lorraine Cobcroft, Reedsy Discovery ""... a powerful novel that needs to find its home in any library strong in fictional World War II experiences."" - D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review ""... a lovely, powerful story that I thoroughly enjoyed and that deeply impacted me. I cannot recommend it highly enough."" - G. Leishman, Readers' Favorite - 5 star ""Readers interested in WWII history augmented with detailed antidotes will be fascinated by this book. ""The Choice Within"" should be mandatory reading for college students and recommended reading for high school. This historical fiction as its best."" - Author's Reading ""This reviewer, an old (and enthusiastic) hand at reading this genre, thought she was prepared for the ending, whatever it would be. But Woodman's skill at delving into the true nature of her characters meant being drawn into an ending that was impossible to prepare for and will linger in the mind for some time to come. What an incredible (and challenging) book!"" - Highly Recommended - Historical Fiction Company ""... one of the best historical novels I have read in a long time. This character-driven tale is a sweeping, emotionally charged novel with cleverly explored themes of sacrifice, honor, and the invisible ties that bind, even across enemy lines. I couldn't put this book down."" - D. Zape, Readers' Favorite - 5 star ""... captures a sense of history hurtling along as people try to make sense of it; the novel is rich in letters to loved ones, scenes of surprise connection, moments of wonder."" - Booklife

Author Information

Stephanie Woodman is an avid collector of experiences and a perpetual student of life. Despite her analytical background with a long engineering career and a short tenure as a high school math teacher, Stephanie has a powerful creative side which has manifested itself in her debut novel, Eye Contact Over Truk, a decades-long endeavor which was started in 1996 and finished after her retirement in 2021. With the additional life experience, her writing transformed to explore themes of perseverance, forgiveness, grief, loss, life, love, and adventure. This evolution of her story is captured best by Helen Keller's quote: ""Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.""Outside the realm of literature, Stephanie loves playing pickleball and golf, scuba diving, sailing, traveling the world, and spending time with her son, who is on his own adventure in college. Nicole Lewis is a young, burgeoning artist who has embedded herself in the world of the fantastical in order to make sense of the one we live in now. Born and raised in Southern California, she spent her childhood years exploring the many different artistic ways of expressing herself through storytelling. After graduating from the University of California, San Diego with a Bachelor's Degree in Studio Arts with an emphasis on drawing, she has had her illustrations published in the novel, ""A Choice Within"" and works as an educator for a non-profit organization, Art Trek, between projects. In the classes she runs, Lewis works closely with young students to help them explore and tell their own stories with art. With the aspirations of illustrating children's books and creating her own graphic novels, she's currently building an illustration-based portfolio that focuses on blending traditional and digital art.

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