Berlin Butterfly

Book excerpt: Treachery, heartache, and loneliness led Ella Kühn to take her first alcoholic drink ten years ago. Survival in the shadow of the Berlin Wall takes on a new face as her resulting addiction turns toxic. While memories of her past haunt her future, the butterfly tattoo covering the gunshot wound to her right shoulder becomes a physical and emotional reminder of Stefan's absence, which now spans twelve years. In 1983, trust remains a fragile ally as the Communist Bloc begins to crumble. Ella's involvement in the rising opposition and underground punk movement puts her more at risk than any escape plan. She is followed, watched, and hunted but by whom? An old enemy? The Secret Police? Or her new employer? In Release, the third and final installment of the Berlin Butterfly Series, Ella battles her inner demons as she struggles to survive the ever-growing darkness in the Deutsche Democratic Republic. Will she regain her former strength and find a way to flee to the thinning borders of Czechoslovakia and join Anton and Josef? Or will ties to her precarious past keep her bound--her only release found in freedom from pain and guilt while embracing life in East Berlin without her family? Fans of German war fiction and historical romance will love this extraordinary twentieth-century political drama.