Customer Reviews

Once a Warrior

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Fran Baker has become one of my all time favorite authors. Her Once A Warrior had me on my toes, crying, cheering and longing for more. I savored every word and can see the settings and characters as vividly as though they were part of my own world. The longing for lost love, the adrenaline rush of lives in peril, the horrors of war and the acceptance of a child left behind but not forgotten, touched me profoundly

Diversity is such a wonderful and refreshing quality to witness in a writer. While we writers are often labeled  genre wise  Fran Baker stands out like a beacon in the literary arena. Her crisp, often funny delivery, intelligence, insight to the human heart and soul make her a winner in my book.

Moving her story deftly between the 1940s and the 1990s, Baker offers readers something new and different in the romance genre. Many romances are set against the backdrop of war. ONCE A WARRIOR takes the reader straight inside the wars that have shaped the second half of the 20th century. A multigenerational saga, ONCE A WARRIOR presents a culturally diverse set of characters, including a French woman fighting underground with the Resistance in World War II to a Chinese-American man fighting in Vietnam. Although this story is sure to have special appeal to families in the military, it will also satisfy the reader looking for an unusual romance.

War scenes are as powerful as those in the movie Saving Private Ryan. The characters are sensitive and realistic and bring to mind the heroic actions of all those who fought in wars. A gripping story... you can't put it down! Excellent reading, highly recommended.

The author has created vibrant characters I still can't forget and a seamless blend of love and war that left me breathless at times. I highly recommend this book.

Fran Baker's novel may have been written a few years ago, but do yourself a favor order this book. It will move you--if it moved me -- and it did -- then it will move you, too.

What more can you ask from a reading experience? (that's a rhetorical question, by the way).

I'm not sure I can add much to the praise that's already been expressed. Except to say that Ms. Baker did an exceptional job of capturing our country's history and the way we lived and loved in wartime. This book should be made into a movie or a TV mini-series, it's that good. I've already recommended it to several other readers I know.

This is one of the best novels I've ever read. 'Nuf said.

Ms. Baker's attention to detail in depicting war and its effect on people's lives is unforgettable. I was immediately swept away by the characters and their stories--and couldn't put the book down until I'd turned the last page. A great read!

This book puts meaning behind all the medals in a box, pictures strewn about here and there. Uniform in a closet. It brings to daughters of fathers who fought in World War II a meaning that has never been openly discussed. This is also true of the the same women who married men who fought in the Vietnam War who brought home more medals and more uniforms that hang in closets but are closed mouthed about what really happened. As women we are seekers of facts from bits and pieces of lives that we have been excluded from. Post Tramatic Stress Syndrome has set us apart from our men. We are unique in that our fathers, our husbands, and maybe our sons (God forbid, yet for some women it is true of their sons) will all have a corner of their mind where we as women may never enter. A dark foreboding corner where if the truth be told we would not want to go. Yet we are incomplete as we try to understand the men we love.

Ms. Baker did it and did it so well. She brilliantly weaved adventure, character development, romance, humor, action and mystery into one incredible generational tale. The characters in Once A Warrior achieved and instilled in me a pride and gratitude for those who gave their best for their Country and the World. These Warriors and their families will never be the same! Ms. Baker book will help a part of our county (her reader's)understand and be thankful for their blessings and sacrifices of others. Yes, Ms. Baker did an extraordinary job weaving the characters together into a non-stop adventure, but the characters in the book are the ones who grabbed my heart, emotions and left me thankful!