Melanie Dobson Books In Order

Publication Order of Legacy of Love Books

Publication Order of The Magic Portal Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of American Tapestries Books

Publication Order of Love Finds You Books

Publication Order of Ordinary Women of the Bible Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Melanie Dobson is a historical fiction award-winning author. Some of her novels, including the Chateau of Secrets, have won Carol Awards awards, while Catching the Wind won the Audie 2018 Inspirational Fiction award. She weaves both contemporary and historical fiction stories with bits of romance and suspense in them.

Love Finds You in Liberty won as the best novel in Indiana, while Memories of Glass and Catching the Wind were on the final list for Christy awards in the historical fiction genre.

Catching the Wind
The author takes the reader back to July 1940, where Dietmar and Brigitte, his friend, run for their lives. Dietmar separates himself from his friend, thinking she’ll be safe, hoping that’s the best thing to do. Dietmar is a young warrior leading the knights who swore to keep the ten-year-old Brigitte ‘Princess’ safe. While growing up, their kingdom was a treehouse with a fantastic view of the forest and the back yards of their homes, and they spent most of their daytime there.

They see their parents interrogated one day and their houses knocked down. Upon witnessing this, Dietmar grabbed Brigitte’s hand and started to run since he had enough proof that there were in danger. They then parted way at some point, and he didn’t think of is whether she would disappear for good and go to places far from his reach. They all cared about running to save their lives, just like Dietmar’s parents had taught him to do.

In the present day, Quenby finds a purpose in her career, but even with her success as an investigative journalist, she has always felt that big break story is out of reach. She has an emotional and private investigation in a related World War II espionage story, which is why Knight hires her. When Daniel Knight asks for her help in searching for a person he lost contact with during World War II, she accepts even when she isn’t sure whether it’ll be a success.

Knight is ready to do whatever it takes to find Brigitte to fulfill his childhood promise. He was sure that Quenby would succeed after the rest of the people he had hired failed in the task since she had studied and followed her career for some time. She’s his only hope, so he prays that she will fail him. Quenby had the tenacity of finding missing people when other investigators failed.

In addition to her insecurity, she gets an instant clash with Lucas, Mr. Knight’s lawyer, and her emotional baggage, searching Brigitte more personal and special to her. Even though Quenby is fighting her demons and cautious at the idea of teaming up with the lawyer, the temptations of the story is too much to resist. The dual dig deep into the past as they follow a series of deception, sacrifice, and healing capable of changing their future.

The story’s themes include letting go of bitterness, forgiving yourself for past life and choices, and dealing with feelings of abandonment. Quenby, Daniel and Brigitte must face the consequences of the choices they made in the past and those made by others which also affected them. The forgiveness and reconciliation among the characters are so inspiring.

Dobson has provided the reader with engaging characters and settings and an entangled storyline that weaves past and present into an amazing adventure. It’s a fascinating and beautiful story about two tragedies of loss and love and how one can learn to love again. The story keeps the reader guessing what will happen next.

Chateau of Secrets
The story alternates between present-day and 1940s Nazi in France. The Nazis took over people’s homes and turned the homeowners into their servants, watching and abusing them day after another. The author paints an accurate picture of what France went through and the Jewish families endured. She also points out the people who took them in, especially the orphans hoping that the war would end since life can’t be so harsh.

The novel features a lady named Gisele whose father had been killed, and her brother went into hiding at the tunnels below Chateau together with a resistance group. The group counter-attacked the Nazis at any chance they got since they had taken over the Chateau and made it their headquarters.

The French were recruited into service, and others were forced to help the Nazis, and all were hoping that their allies would rescue them from this brutal life soon enough before it was too late. One soldier named Josef was half-Jew, and only a few knew it. To stay alive and take care of his mother, he had no choice but to work for the Nazi as an officer even when he hated him.

What’s more impressive is that he wasn’t serving the Nazis, but God always prayed to help whenever he could. He Stopped Gisele from getting raped by a German officer. He helped her on multiple occasions with false papers. Gisele never thought she would fall in love with a German officer after Josef’s way of helping people, especially the orphan, melted her heart and began to trust him.

The current day story is of a lady named Chloe whose family owned the Chateau grabbed by the Nazis 70 years back. A journalist contacted her parents concerning an article on the area. Chloe accompanies him reluctantly, but as they researched and went over all the places interrogating people who knew her grandmother, she found out more information than she bargained for.

Finding out that her fiancé isn’t who she thought she was, Chloe becomes confused but lucky for her; she meets someone who helps her sort the questions and gain trust once more. At times he had a lot of questions about God and where he is when one is undergoing a difficult time in life. She was always wondering whether someone could really start over again even after making the wrong decisions in the past. Can one judge those who make unacceptable choices?

Riley and Chloe put together the pieces of information they found, and the new and hard to believe information gave Chloe a new way of trusting God in taking them through every aspect of life. There is enough suspense that keeps the reader on their toes as they flip pages.