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:

Monique would have never chosen the path of danger and adventure Audrey lived.

Even when they’d gotten into a little trouble at school together, Monique always came out looking innocent. No one would have believed Monique with her delicate angelic face and dark curls would do anything wrong. Instead, Audrey was the one always suspected, and with just cause. She looked guilty, like she was up to something. At least that’s what the strict nuns at the convent school said to her father. Not that she could disappoint him any more than she already had by being a daughter and not a son. Funny how these memories surfaced now.

A shell exploded to her left, raining more sand down upon her. Audrey tried to catch her breath in the foul, smoke-filled air. No, Monique had chosen the safe route, the normal domestic lifestyle expected of a young lady. She would never have survived this kind of life. A lump formed in her throat, and she pushed it down. Audrey had tried domestic life. She’d thought that’s what she wanted too. Didn’t last though. She wasn’t cut out for it after all. Her heart squeezed at the memory. Forcing it away, she accepted her situation. Those plans hadn’t worked out, so when adventure called again, her stint at domestic life ended.

Missed an Excerpt? Go Here:

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.