About the Book
Book: Secrets of the Desert Rose
Author: Marilyn Turk
Genre: Dual Timeline
Release Date: February 24, 2026
Three Women. Two generations. Their friendship survived the war. Their secret survived even longer.
Monique and Audrey, one French and one British, grow up in French Algiers on the coast of the sparkling Mediterranean Sea. Best friends, they keep each other’s secrets into adulthood when World War II changes their world and Algiers sides with the Hitler-based Vichy government. Audrey joins Charles DeGaulle’s resistance army, the French Foreign Legion, while Monique stays to work in the underground resistance aiding the Allied invasion of North Africa.
In present day, American born great-granddaughter Nicole, a graduate student in archaeology, goes to North Africa for an internship. The now centenarian Monique (Mimi), debilitated by a stroke, urges her to find the Desert Rose. Nicole finds different types of desert roses, but none are the right one until she stumbles onto information that hints the desert rose might not be a flower after all. While Sami, her instructor in Algiers, helps her find the desert rose, he also has to protect her from people who want the heirloom ring Nicole wears which has its own secret.
Will Nicole find the secret before it’s too late?
Excerpt from the Book:
“Mom. The year-abroad graduate program I told you about!”
“The one in North Africa?” Mom sipped her coffee and sat down on the cushioned stool next to Nicole.
“Yes, in Algiers. My chances of getting accepted were practically impossible?”
Mom nodded, holding her coffee with both hands. “And you’ve been accepted? Nicole, that’s wonderful!”
“Yes! Oh, Mom, I’ve wanted to go there for so long. That area has so much cool archaeological stuff with more to be discovered. By me!”
“Keep your voice down so you won’t upset Mimi.” Mom nodded toward Nicole’s great-grandmother. The petite woman whose hair retained its original jet-black color, now streaked with silver, sat in a wheelchair nearby, staring out the window. “I wonder what she would think about you going back to the place where she grew up?”
Nicole’s gaze followed her mother’s. Ever since Mimi’s stroke, Mimi hadn’t been able to talk. Mimi was one of the reasons she’d wanted to go to Algiers. Her eyes moistened. “I wish I knew. I want to tell her and see how she responds. If only she could still talk to me. I miss her stories about growing up in Algiers.”
“You’ll miss her 100th birthday this summer if you’re out of the country.”
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About the Author
Award-winning author Marilyn Turk has written over twenty historical and contemporary novels and novellas laced with suspense and romance. She especially likes writing World War II era books, and loves to discover information not widely known for her stories. In addition to fiction, Marilyn is also an annual contributor to Guideposts’ Walking in Grace and other Guideposts anthologies.
Marilyn enjoys helping other writers and founded the Blue Lake Christian Writers Conference. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Faith, Hope and Love Christian Writers, AWSA, Word Weavers International and the United States Lighthouse Society.
Marilyn’s most recent books have been Secrets of the Desert Rose, The Escape Game set in World War II, and a novella, The Gilding of Minnie Tucker, set in The Gilded Age..
She and her husband Chuck have a blended family of four sons, one daughter and four grandsons whom they enjoy spending time with. Marilyn and Chuck are lighthouse enthusiasts and have visited over 100 lighthouses in the United States and other countries. They also served as volunteer lighthouse caretakers at Little River Light off the coast of Maine. As a result of her interest in lighthouses, Marilyn wrote Lighthouse Devotions, 52 Inspiring Lighthouse Stories.