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Preface
by Mary Kirk

What true-blue romance fan can resist a wounded hero? Certainly, none that I know.

Through the pages of some of the genre's most memorable "classics," we've cried as he struggled with the demons plaguing him from both without and within, at the same time he went on searching for peace, freedom, or simply a home. The wounded hero holds a special place in our hearts, and nothing gives us greater satisfaction than seeing that brave man find peace and happiness--and the love of his life, as well.

The Journey Home is about the wounded hero. The man who does what he must. The soldier who risks his life for his beliefs, his family, his country. The warrior who gives his all for a cause. It's about the man who goes to war and discovers, when it's over, that he's a different man--and, maybe, that he isn't certain who or what he's become.

It's also about the woman who loves such a man: the one who waits at home, worrying, wondering. When her man finally returns, will her love be enough to heal the invisible wounds of combat? Will he even recognize the stranger sleeping alongside him at night?

Whether victors or vanquished, all survivors of a conflict must face the aftermath. But where do battle-scarred and world-weary warriors go to lick their wounds and to heal? How do they come to grips with what they've done and with what's been done to them? Will they--can they--return to hearth and home? Or are they destined to live in painful isolation, unable to find a woman brave enough to love a man whose heart has been shattered?

The award-winning, best-selling authors of The Journey Home have created a wonderfully romantic collection of tales about wounded heroes who find healing love in unexpected-- and strangely uncanny--ways and places.

In Patricia Rice's "Home is Where the Heart Is," Thomas returns from Vietnam missing part of his foot, bringing with him the ghost of his best friend--and hardly daring to hope that his anti-war, high-school sweetheart will still love him.

Rebecca York's ("A Hero's Welcome") rebel Ben Linkman won a hero's boon, helping his enslaved people rise up and take control of their Earth-colonized planet. He now owns a confiscated plantation. But nobody except Kasi, daughter of his former master, can give him what he wants most: her heart.

Lying ill unto death in a Union prison, Jared, in Rickey R. Mallory's "A Better Man," has given up hope, when he's rescued by his brother, an officer in the Confederate army. Rob leads Jared home, leaving him at the doorstep, unconscious. But six days later, when Jared awakens, he learns Rob has been dead for months . . . and Christianne, his brother's widow, whom Jared has loved in silence since childhood, is ready to love again.

To honor a promise to his twin sister, Brian Mason (Linda Madl's "Heart Crossings") asks psychic medium Amanda Sherman to help him contact his sister on "the other side." But Amanda knows it's Brian own grieving, cynical soul that needs to be contacted--and brought back from the Great War and the trenches of France to the land of the living . . . if only he'll trust her to help him.

Then, in "The Stargazer's Familiar," Mary Jo Putney has created a hero who . . . well . . . actually, no, I don't think I'll tell you. I'll let you find out for yourself about the handsome and intriguing Leo--and about all the other wonderful wounded heroes in The Journey Home.

From the Wars of the Roses to the American Revolution, from The Great War of the twentieth century to a battle for control of an Earth-colonized planet, you'll find in these pages glimpses into the souls of a few good men and the women who love them. Their passionate stories reveal that, no matter the place, the time, or the reason, war scars those who engage in it. And when the last shot is fired, the hero's struggle to reclaim his humanity--and his heart-- may only just have begun.

Summary

Soldier, Warrior, Rebel . . . The award-winning, best-selling authors of The Journey Home have conjured an inspired collection of short stories about the most compelling figure in romantic fiction: the wounded hero. In each passionate and magical tale, you’ll meet an irresistible warrior who's facing the aftermath of a conflict. You'll meet, too, the courageous woman who wants to tend his wounds, help him rebuild his shattered dreams, and give him the love he needs and so richly deserves"if only he will let her. Ten romantic encounters of the extraordinary kind, each proving what the heart knows is true" that the most powerful healer . . . in any time or place . . . was, is, and always will be love.