title: The White Rose
author: Cook, Mary Ann
description: A work of fiction inspired by the lives of Lieutenant Lilya Litvyak, Hero of the Soviet Union and Captain Alexei Salomaten
  Theirs was a love forged in the fiery cauldron of war as they fought alongside each other in the savage skies over the frozen steppes of Stalingrad.
  She Would Fight for Her Country
  Lilya Litvyak answered the call to arms as Hitler’s armies stormed across Mother Russia.  Enlisting in the Red Air Force, she quickly mastered the Yak-1 fighter.  When the Soviet Union teetered on the brink of collapse as German panzers reached the banks of the Volga, Lilya and her best friend, Katya Budanova volunteered to join the all male 73rd Fighter Regiment, then pitted against Hitler’s elite pilots in the murderous skies over Stalingrad.  There Lilya and Katya battled the sexism of their comrades and faced the fury of Hitler’s Luftwaffe.
  With an enormous white rose painted boldly on the side of her fighter, Lilya engaged the enemy with a deadly ferocity.  She became known as THE WHITE ROSE of Stalingrad and was feared by the German pilots.
  Lilya and Katya were a lethal duo, becoming the world’s first women aces, pilots who destroy 5 or more enemy planes in aerial combat.  And in the midst of violent death, horrendous destruction and the horrors of war, each found courage, pride and love.
  He Vowed To Protect His Heart
  Death was Captain Alexei Salomaten’s constant companion.
  An veteran ace fighter pilot, he was fearless in the air.  But his comrades were dying and each loss left a bitter scar on his heart that would never heal.  So he brooded, drank to forget and avoided friendship.
  Yet when the beautiful, strong-willed Lieutenant Litvyak joined his squadron his fate was sealed.  The stunning blonde beauty flew at his side, then into his shielded heart as she guarded his life with her own.
  Each knew that to fall in love was to risk the ultimate pain--the unbearable anguish of losing a loved one.  Yet their passion would not be denied.  Flamed by desire, it was as inevitable as their destinies.  Together they summoned the courage to love.
  But it would be a bittersweet love, a love doomed to be consumed in the merciless fury of the Great Patriotic War.  Entwined by fate, they found an everlasting love...and a place in history.
  Cover by Aleta Rafton
  178,000 words - approximately 334 pages