ABowlofRiceCoverArtAnna Maria wants to be a nurse to help soldiers wounded in war—she finds her core values and independence challenged by war protesters and men she meets in Vietnam. She also meets George, and with his help, rescues another nurse from the Viet Cong and learns the real meaning of honor and family.
 
A Bowl of Rice is book 3 in the Legacy of Honor series.

Excerpt:

Just then they heard the sound of gunfire. The sounds of the jungle behind them, the normal cacophony of birds and insects, went quiet once again. The mission had begun.

The four medical people sat down on one of the cots. No one spoke. Anna Maria was praying for the safety of Kathy, the chaplain, and all of the soldiers, nuns, and children. She guessed that her companions were deep in prayer as well. She remembered her father telling her the old cliché, “No atheists in foxholes.” This wasn’t a foxhole. It was a pup tent. Under fire, Anna Maria surmised pup tents were as good a place to look for God as foxholes.

The gunfire seemed to last forever. Anna Maria looked at her watch. The insects and birds began their chorus once more. For the jungle, it was all over. For Anna Maria and the others, the work was just beginning. They hoped the approaching jeeps would be filled with their own. During the planning, the preparation and the praying, Anna Maria had never allowed herself to think the unthinkable that it might be the Viet Cong and Chinese who came out to kill them and to take their supplies from them, not their own people.

A Bowl of Rice is available now on Amazon.

Joan Leotta

Joan is both a performer and a writer. Her motto is “Encouraging words through pen and performance.” Since moving to North Carolina, she has returned to her first love–creating fiction on paper as well as on stage. She has been fortunate enough to have stories accepted by St Anthony’s Messenger, OMDB, Crimestalker and others. Her contract with Desert Breeze for her Legacy of Honor series is her first fiction book contract. There are four books in the series. A Bowl of Rice is number three.