An impossible decision in the chaos of D-Day. Ripples that cascade seventy-five years into the present. And two lives transformed by the tenuous resolve to reach out of the darkness toward fragments of light. Cancer stole everything from Ceelie–her peace of mind, her selfimage, perhaps even her twenty-three-year marriage to her college sweetheart, Nate. Without the support of Darlene, her quirky … support of Darlene, her quirky elderly friend, she may not have been able to endure so much loss.
So when Darlene’s own prognosis turns dire, Ceelie can’t refuse her seemingly impossible request–to find a WWII paratrooper named Cal, the father who disappeared when Darlene was an infant, leaving a lifetime of desolation in his wake.
The search that begins in the farmlands of Missouri eventually leads Ceelie to a small town in Normandy, where she uncovers the harrowing tale of the hero who dropped off-target into occupied France.
Alternating between Cal’s D-Day rescue by two French sisters and Ceelie’s present-day journey through trial and heartbreak, Fragments of Light explores a timeless question: When life becomes unbearable, will you surrender to the darkness or dare to press toward a lingering light?
Praise for Fragments of Light
“Michèle Phoenix skillfully explores the strength and resiliency of the human spirit but also its heartbreaking limits. Brimming with expertly researched wartime details, Fragments of Light abounds with poignancy and insight.” –Susan Meissner, bestselling author of The Last Year of the War
“As a D-Day Airborne participant, I recommend this novel with enthusiasm. Everyone should read it.” –Staff Sergeant Thomas Rice, WWII Veteran, 101st Airborne
“Michele Phoenix’s Fragments of Light is a luminous portrait of men and women grappling with the past in a brave attempt to forge a different kind of future . . . A story as beautiful as it is heartbreaking. In short, I loved this book!” –Lauren Denton, USA TODAY bestselling author of The Hideaway
“Deeply personal and beautifully humane, Phoenix once again asserts her power as one of the most moving and lyrical voices in inspirational fiction.” –Rachel McMillan, author of The London Restoration
“Written with depth and understanding, this story offers readers a wonderful journey spanning from war-torn World War II France to a battle for love in our time.” –Katherine Reay, bestselling author of Dear Mr. Knightley
“As the title suggests, there are no easy illuminations on the path of healing. Cancer attacks more than the body. War destroys more than flesh and bone. Not all heroes welcome the attention, and not all husbands are up to the challenge. Women find the most unlikely sources of strength, and the best families defy definition.” –Allison Pittman, bestselling author of The Seamstress
“It’s not often a story moves me as Fragments of Light has. With a rare and honest voice, Michèle Phoenix weaves a story of heroes from yesteryear and also those from your neighborhood–each with hearts of valor–as they endure the fight of their lives.” –Elizabeth Byler Younts, Carol Award-winning author The Solace of Water
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Michèle Phoenix skillfully explores the strength and resiliency of the human spirit but also its heartbreaking limits. Brimming with expertly researched wartime details, Fragments of Light abounds with poignancy and insight.
Michele Phoenix does it again in Fragments of Light. With prose that takes your breath away, she expertly navigates two time periods while exploring themes of loss, love, forgiveness, regret, and redemption.
This is a novel told in two time periods and it’s a story of regret, redemption and ultimate acceptance during both time periods.
Current timeline: Ceelie has been undergoing treatment for breast cancer. After she rings the bell that shows she’s cancer free, her husband of over 24 years tells her that he wants out of their marriage. He had helped her throughout the cancer but could no longer cope with what their lives had become. Ceelie’s friend Darlene – who she met at the hospital during treatment – helped her through the loss of her husband. When Darlene find out that her cancer has returned, she asks Ceelie to help her find out about her father, Cal, who had deserted her when she was very young. She had huge resentment about her father but decided that now was the time to find out about him and try to understand why he left the family. Trying to find out what happened to Cal, takes Ceelie to Missouri and ultimately Normandy, France. While Ceelie works to find out more about Cal, the memory of her husband leaving after such a long marriage, continues to affect her life.
1944 timeline: Cal is in the Army and parachutes to France to help the advance forces before D-Day. Due to the weather, he ends up off target and stuck in a tree. When he drops out the tree, he injuries himself. Two sisters, 14 year old Sabine and her younger sister Lise, find him and take him back to their castle. They need to be very careful because the Germans who had used the castle as a headquarters are still in the area and along with the sisters, many of the town’s families have come to the castle for safety. What happens during the few days at the castle, set Cal’s life on a completely different past.
This book has brave and wounded women that you won’t soon forget. It’s a story of love and friendship and asks the question ‘ When life becomes unbearable, will you press toward the light or let the darkness win?’
An immersive and unforgettable treatise on the power of love in all of its manifestations.
I was honored to receive a request from Becky Monds, an editor with HarperCollins Christian Publishing, to see if I would be interested in reading an advance copy of Michele Phoenix’s fifth novel, Fragments of Light. I jumped at the chance. Here’s my endorsement:
A journalist on the brink of divorce and coping with life-altering surgical scars, and a spunky elderly friend facing the end of her life, team up in a race against time to search for a WWII paratrooper who abandoned his wife and young daughter seventy some years ago.
In Christy Award Finalist Michele Phoenix’s latest novel, Fragments of Light, the author deftly takes us on a journey from Illinois to an abandoned farmhouse in Missouri to Normandy, France, in this compelling narrative that alternates between past and present, asking the reader: What length would you go to defend freedom and repair the fragments of shattered lives broken by war and illness, by misunderstandings and assumptions? With enough wry humor sprinkled throughout to keep the reader chuckling even in the midst of pain.
Highly Recommended!
This one isn’t my usual type of reading. I usually read light-hearted romantic comedies. But I got started and couldn’t stop reading. If you like compelling, inspirational historical fiction, you’ll love it!
“Fragments of Light” by Michele Phoenix is a haunting story about love, loss, anger, and resentment. It is a story about cancer survivors and WWII survivors. Although this mostly takes place in the modern-day, we are reminded of the many different stories of people everywhere. Their wounds and scars, triumphs and tragedies, but mostly, forgiveness and mercy. Without those two qualities, it is difficult to live life abundantly. Paraphrasing her words, “We must remember the past to illuminate the future.” I have currently read four novels by Michele. I will be on the lookout for more. She is such a gifted writer. Emotions are thoughtfully expressed. The reader becomes a part of the lives of these wonderful but broken characters. Well done, Michele!
A compelling story across time of love, loss, and what happens when tragedy strikes.
Michele Phoenix’s Fragments of Light is a luminous portrait of men and women grappling with the past in a brave attempt to forge a different kind of future. From page one, I was all in. Ceelie’s anguish and hope, Darlene’s spunk and pain, and Cal’s courage and conviction–all of it combines to create a story as beautiful as it is heartbreaking. In short, I loved this book!
I feel undone. There is so much emotion in this book with characters so easy to empathize with. Ceelie, with her cancer journey; her husband Nate; Ceelie’s close friend, Darlene, with her own cancer journey and need to find out more about her absent father after spending years hating him; Cal, Lise, and Sabine whose meeting on that fateful day long ago in France changed the course of so many lives. Fragments of Light is a powerful dual timeline book that I highly recommend.
Fragments of Light by Michele Phoenix is an excellent, emotion packed novel. I expected a good novel with a historical bent. The historical part of the book is well done and full of loss and regrets. That part alone is excellent. But the modern day story that overlays it all— that story blew me away. It is full of tragedy and grief, pain and loss. I felt such deep emotions while reading this book, from grief and pain to hope and rebirth. I can’t recommend this novel strongly enough. When I finished reading this book, I wanted to tell everyone I know. It is that good. I cannot wait to read more by this author. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.
Ms. Phoenix pens a beautiful but realistic story of the power of forgiveness over a life that is haunted by pain and regrets in a split-time novel with an intriguing plot that kept me invested to the end. As Ceelie struggles with her own battles that life has dealt her, she befriends an elderly patient whose cancer has taken a turn for the worse. Their journey to bring Darleen closure to the resentment from the past gives Ceelie hope as she struggles with grief and abandonment of her own. This compelling story told quietly but with the confidence that provokes deep thought into the power of long buried emotions that can shadow one’s life will tug at your heartstrings.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author/publisher and was not required to write a review. All opinions expressed are my own.
What a beautiful heartrending story! This novel is such a hard and wonderful emotional and physical journey. I laughed and cried. I’ll be thinking about that ending for a long time. A beautiful portrait of how even a life so broken and bruised can find hope and new life again. Highly recommend this novel!
Favorite Quotes:
Every year—every year—I tell myself that it’s just a routine check… and that millions of women go through this without anything bad coming of it, but still … I sit in this room that’s clearly designed for optimism and calm, and it’s all I can do not to write an obituary in my mind.
Truly good men are as rare as rocking horse poo
“He’s not much of a talker, but he sure looks out for people.” A sad sort of envy hummed somewhere in the back of my mind. “You’re a very fortunate woman,” I said. “I know that now.” She laughed. “Didn’t always, mind you. But all these years later, when the frustrating stuff has settled into normal, it’s easier to see the treasure in the trash.”
“Pulled a Casper.” When I looked at her in confusion, she added, “Ghosted you. But not in a friendly way.”
When I was little and things would frustrate me, she’d tell me to give time the time it needs.
My Review:
This was an intensely emotive and heartrending tale that intertwined two narrations until they slowly and thoughtfully merged near the conclusion. The writing was staggeringly insightful and bruised my heart but I fell right into the shifting sands and curiously evocative and compelling nuances of both timelines, one a harrowing period in history and life-altering experiences for a young GI during WWII, and the other a distressing and devastating turn of events for a cancer survivor in modern times. Connected by a gossamer-thin thread being the vibrantly colorful and spirited character of Darlene, who was the relative of one and friend to the other, and who happened to be my favorite above all others. She was a colorful and spry little septuagenarian dynamo and what I aspire to be at any age.
Terrible things happened to good people in both soul-stirring narratives and I was engaged in their tale and as eager as the characters to unravel several maddening dead-end mysteries as well as the complicated connubial questions and issues in the current timeline. Their issues were often painfully raw, keenly plotted, and shrewdly paced while keeping the curiosity primed. Michele Phoenix is an agile and deft storyteller.
Fragments of Light# by Michele Phoenix is a historical fiction book. This book is a masterpiece and so hard to put down. Michele grew up in France. She is an educator, writer and speaker. She taught for 20 years in Germany . The story is a time split between Cal who was a paratrooper on D day on June 6, 1944. and Cecile a breast cancer survivor 75 years later. The reader will feel like they have walked through the shoes of a D Day survivor after reading the book. The beginning of the book the reader will find Cal and the injuries of D Day. At the end of the book the veterans share their memories of D Day and the visitors go to a D Day exhibit. and demonstration and meet survivors in France. The story is so beautifully researched and written. Cal is a brave and determined character. Cecile goes through the trials of breast cancer in all its forms. She is brave and she endures so much loss and continues to move forward. It is wonderful to show the reader they too can be brave when they face difficulties. the author wants the reader to remember the sacrifices so many gave for our freedoms. The book is so hard to put down and an excellent read. I highly recommend this book. Thank you to the author , publisher, netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book. I hope it is a huge success. I will post my review on facebook, Goodreads, bookbub, Barnes and Noble, cbd.com. , my blog.
Excellent story line and character development. 6 stars!!!
Cecelia Donovan survives cancer treatment, but her husband walks out. She struggles on with the help of 76-year-old Darlene, who survived her own mastectomy.
A lifetime of resentment fills Darlene toward her father, who abandoned her and her mother two months after returning home from WWII.
Cal McElway was a D-Day paratrooper. In the 48 hours after his jump, a devastating event occurs that destroyed his world. He believed he was worthless, and his family would be better off without him.
His wife Claire found comfort in Psalm 37, “Cease from anger, and forsake wrath.” Her favorite verse brings healing for Ceelie.
Ceelie and Darlene are great characters who bravely face their obstacles. But Cal, by abandoning his family in the belief he was doing them a favor, was wrong. His “sacrifice” was cruelty.
This is a story that lingers with you.
Fragments of Light starts in France on D-Day, then moves to Winfield, Illinois, in the present day. The past story is crammed into the hours and days of the D-Day landings, while the present story is Ceelie’s story as she recovers from breast cancer … and the devastation of her husband’s desertion.
Ceelie befriends Darlene, another cancer survivor, and the two of them undertake a journey into Darlene’s past, trying to find what happened to her father. Cal was a World War II soldier who went to war, came home, then disappeared. Why? She has nothing more than a few letters and an old photo. But Ceelie gets caught up in the journey, and in finding if there can be good hidden in the bad.
Most of the dual timeline novels I’ve read move between the past and present throughout the novel.
Fragments of Light is different, in that it moves exclusively to the present timeline at about the halfway point. As with all good dual timeline stories, there is no obvious or immediate connection between the past and present stories. That’s only revealed as the story progresses, and it certainly packs a punch when we make the connection. There’s even more of a punch when past and present meet.
I was impressed by Michele Phoenix’s earlier novel, The Space Between Words, and was equally impressed by Fragments of Light. It’s a powerful story of love, redemption, and forgiveness as the characters in the present discover and learn from the past. There’s a lesson there …
Recommended for fans of Christian fiction with a deeper message from authors such as Elizabeth Musser, Susie Finkbeiner, Catherine West, or Christine Dillon. Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.
This is the first book I’ve read from Michele Phoenix, and I will look for more. I loved the characters and the dual-time for two stories that end up entwined. Real life struggles, believable answers, and interesting history.
Fragments of Light by author Michele Phoenix confirms what I’ve known since I first began reading her writing several years ago; she is a master of the storytelling craft with heart gripping storylines and beloved characters.
Fragments of Light is a dual timeline story, written in current time and WWII.
Perfectly juxtaposed, flowing seamlessly, Phoenix tells the story of Ceelie, a woman reeling from a cancer diagnosis and the dissolution of her 27 year marriage, and Darlene, an elderly woman with her own medical issues, facing leaving this world without learning what happened to the father her abandoned her when she was but an infant.
When Darlene appeals to Ceelie for her help, what follows is a incredible journey of discovery; a discovery of self and selflessness, of broken relationships and mended hearts, of abandonment and security. From Missouri to Normandy, Ceelie discovers the bits and pieces of a life that was not lived in a vacuum, but one that lived quietly and without fanfare, saving lives and bringing healing, over decades of time.
I highly recommend Fragments of Light by Michele Phoenix.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, and am not required to write a positive review. All thoughts and opinions therein are solely my own, and freely shared.