Bøker av Arthur Archambeau

To some, home is not a place but a time. For every child of the 1980s who's ever said, "I want to go back." A nostalgic romance with a spiritual bent. Michael "Mickey" Collins is a Generation X writer lost in a Generation Z world. He graduated from high school in 1982 and joined the Marines. A year later, he was severely burned by a terrorist bombing in Lebanon. Now, he pines for the past. Specifically, for 1982, his "last good year." Upon moving back to his childhood home, he receives a mysterious letter addressed to him and postmarked more than forty years ago. It's a response from a young woman named Laura Harlech to a pen pal request he'd placed in a magazine more than four decades prior. For literary inspiration, he writes a mock response that gets mailed by an overly conscientious mailman. But much to Mickey's shock, he receives a reply. The logic defying reality sinks in that he has a pen pal across time. Mickey and Laura begin corresponding. Friendly banter turns into something deeper. For the first time in his life, Mickey finds himself in love. But love is hard when you have to go back to the past to realize your future. Can Mickey and Laura overcome the ultimate long distance relationship? Chock full of 80s nostalgia-the music, the television, the movies, the fads, the events and personalities-this short but very sweet novel about love letters is itself a love letter to the greatest decade of all-time. No, it won't change your life. But it will take you back to the time before life changed. So, dust off your VCR, put on your painter's cap, and stick a Styx tape in your Walkman...and prepare to enter a world where it's Forever 1982.

A gritty slow burn romance with a Christian bent. Everyone has a war story to tell. A jaded cop struggling to come to terms with her past falls for an idealistic former Marine turned cat rescuer on the crime-infested streets of west Baltimore. Hope Kennedy is a cynical Baltimore cop. Her beat is the Mondawmin area of west Baltimore-the most dangerous neighborhood in America's most dangerous city. And she's struggling-unsuccessfully-to overcome a terrible event that has come to shape her life. Hope's become angry and bitter. She's spiraling out of control. Hope has lost hope. Luke Matthews is a decorated Marine Corps combat veteran. He received the Purple Heart for a wound inflicted in Afghanistan. Now, he works as a carpenter for a nonprofit that builds homes for disabled vets. In his spare time, he volunteers with a local cat rescue. But Luke's battling his own demons. He's haunted by the war. Specifically, by a fog of war experience-a tragic accident-that has left him racked with guilt. When Hope and Luke meet in a dingy alley, it's anything but love at first sight. But a near-fatal accident a week later forges a bond. Eventually, in the middle of a cold Baltimore winter, a romance heats up. Little-by-little, Hope and Luke help one another feel alive again. But Hope doesn't know how to process her past, a past that is now jeopardizing her future. And as she and Luke get closer, she questions whether she's worthy of love. Can two wounded, badly bruised, purple hearts come together and help one another heal? Purple Hearts is not for the faint of heart. It's as gritty as the city it's set in. It's a slow burn, blue-collar romance about going the distance. And finding unconditional love at the end of the journey. And along this journey, Hope and Luke meet a memorable cast of supporting characters-a no-nonsense police sergeant who practices tough love. A colorful late-night radio DJ. A homeless Vietnam veteran. A repentant mobster. A precocious young boy who seems to be in the know. A mysterious emergency room physician. A street cat looking for his forever home. And a little girl fighting cancer. Purple Hearts is a story about life and death, joy and sorrow, laughter and tears-and ultimately, hope. All wrapped in the love of two perfectly imperfect human beings.

How far would you go for love? An Army officer visits a mysterious antique shop and is given a hope chest containing love letters written more than fifty years prior by a nurse in Vietnam. Mike Falco is a young Army lieutenant and 1960s aficionado. When Mike visits the new antique shop in town, the eccentric proprietors insist that he's the rightful owner of an old dust-covered hope chest. Reluctantly, he accepts the piece, despite the caveat that, "Once you touch what's inside this chest, it will touch you back." He quickly discovers that the sole contents are love letters written in 1969 by a twenty-two-year-old Army nurse serving in Vietnam. As Mike reads the letters, he finds himself deeply moved by them. And by the young woman who'd penned them more than a half-century before. He sets out on a quest to track her down, hoping she's still alive so he can return them. But what he discovers when he finally unlocks the Secret of the Letters From 1969 propels him on an odyssey that spans not only continents, but across Time itself. It's a journey fraught with risk and danger. But Mike's willing to go as far as necessary for love, even if that means finding his future in the past. So, put on your bell-bottoms, tie-dye, and love beads because Letters From 1969 will take you back to the Age of Aquarius, to the music, the culture, and the events that embodied that tumultuous time. And to all the joy-and heartache-that shaped both a nation and a generation.