Bio
Rumor has it that Melina Druga came out of her mother’s womb with a pen in her hand. While we can neither confirm or deny this, you could say she was destined to become a writer.Melina was so young when she began writing that she can’t remember exactly when the urge began. She does remember, however, her first novel – an historical fiction story about two sisters living in an Ohio canal town in the 1840s – that she wrote at age 10.
Music keeps Melina sane, and it has gotten to the point that she cannot write without it. It keeps her awake, alert, motivated and productive. Music has even inspired her fiction. And not just The Rock Star’s Wife series. The My Chemical Romance song “Mama” was the inspiration for her historical fiction novel Angel of Mercy.
Melina lives in the Midwest with her husband, daughter, black cat, books and CD collection.
Genres
Free Book Giveaways
The Unmarriable Kind (review copy)
In 1880s Ontario, the arrival of a new, forward-thinking headmaster forces a young teacher to wrestle with her heart’s conflicting desires.
Lucretia Goodwin bucks centuries of tradition by refusing to take a husband. She wants no part in the custom that has her best friend keen to marry a man who treats her poorly and whisked a beloved sister off to do missionary work in Barbados. Besides, women lose what few rights they have the moment they say, “I do.”
When she suddenly finds herself teaching under a politically outspoken headmaster, Lucretia isn’t sure what to do… or how to feel. Mr. Steward believes in women’s suffrage and — perhaps more shockingly — wants to open all classes to students of both sexes. But what do girls need to know about history or geography, when they’re fated to become keepers of hearth and home?
As Lucretia tries to determine where she stands on issues both personal and political, she’s caught between family and friends convinced she’s gone radical and the f
Mr. Right is a Myth (The Rock Star's Wife #2 ARC)
This heartfelt follow-up to Sexual Awakening follows its ambitious diarist to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where her hopes and dreams for the future are further tested by a string of social hiccups.
Cassie Economos has rules. If a new boyfriend can’t wait two months to have sex with her, he’s not the guy for her. If he refuses to wear a condom, he’s not the guy for her. And if dating him would mean maintaining a long-distance relationship, he’s… well, you get the picture.
She’s got her life planned out, and she knows better than to try to make things work with someone who can’t agree on the basics, like where to live and whether to have kids. But Cassie isn’t perfect, and the more disappointing situationships she finds herself in, the more she wonders if there’s even such a thing as a “Mr. Right.”
But Cassie doesn’t have time to worry too much about that. Her four years at U of I are passing quickly, which means it’s time for her to chart her final course: toward Chi
1914 (A Tale of Two Nations #1 -- review copy)
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in 1914 Sarajevo plunged the globe into a massive war — one that would completely reorganize life as we once knew it. Little more than a month after the Austro-Hungarian heir’s death, Great Britain formally joined the fray with a declaration of war against Germany. And, far across the Atlantic, the costs of international engagement weighed heavily on two neighboring countries.
On the surface, the United States’ and Canada’s predominant viewpoints on the war served only to magnify pre-existing tensions between the nations. Yet news reporting from either side of the U.S.-Canadian border reveals deeply divided reactions among public officials and private citizens alike. Despite the country’s longstanding commitment to neutrality, many major U.S. newspapers sang profiteering’s praises. In the north, Canadian reporting divided along party lines as debates raged over whether the nation should fight alongside Great Britain or
1918 (A Tale of Two Nations #5 -- review copy)
The war ended on November 11, 1918. By the time of the Allies’ armistice with Germany, Canada had been at war for more than four years, and the U.S. for nineteen months. All in all, World War I had lasted for 1,576 days. Civilians in both nations celebrated the close of hostilities abroad.
No one could have predicted that a bigger, deadlier shadow was just over the horizon. The Spanish influenza pandemic was brewing for months before the ceasefire. In the final months of 1918 alone, the illness would claim nearly 300,000 American lives. By the time the pandemic ended in 1920, Spanish flu had killed more people than the war itself.
This final volume in Druga’s history series finds both countries wrestling with whiplash. Thrown out of the frying pan of combat, Canadians and U.S. citizens alike fell directly into the fire of a global health crisis.
Those Left Behind (WWI Trilogy #2 -- review copy)
Newlyweds Hettie Steward and Geoffrey Bartlette wasted no time heading to the Western Front after the war began. In the wake of the couple’s traumatic and untimely separation, their families begin to knit themselves together ever tighter. Matriarchs Lucretia Steward and Amelia Bartlette attempt to keep the home fires burning, unable to escape the tumult of the war.
Hettie’s brother and brother-in-law join her on the front lines. Back in Ontario, some households grow. Others remain painfully stagnant. Romantic relationships wax and wane as these bright-eyed young adults fall in and out of love with one another and wrestle with the tension between timeworn traditions and the shiny appeal of progress.
Those Left Behind offers readers the opportunity to connect deeply with the characters they met in The Unmarriable Kind and Angel of Mercy. As five years of deaths, births, tragedies, and triumphs unfold, one question never strays far from center: How does one maintain strong filial bonds
Rose's Assignment (review copy)
When she’s asked to care for a young Black woman fleeing bondage, a white Ontarian must confront her privilege and the racism that pervades her community in this striking historical novel from the author of Angel of Mercy and Journey of Hope.
Rose Goodwin is proud of her charity work with the Simcoe County Vigilance Committee, where she’s responsible for gathering provisions to help formerly enslaved Americans start new lives in Canada.
Her entire life turns upside-down with the arrival of Judith, a critically ill Black refugee who grew feverish after she lost contact with her children during their border crossing. Now practically immobile and still bearing the marks of brutality, Judith needs someone to nurse her back to health before she can settle in the local Black village.
The assignment falls to Rose, who quickly notices the cracks in her hometown’s wholesome façade. Her husband offers little support. The town doctor refuses to treat Judith, and even Rose’s own mother and sist
1917 (A Tale of Two Nations #4 -- review copy)
Following its victories at Ypres and Courcellette, the Canadian Expeditionary Force secured yet another hard-won victory, this time at Vimy Ridge — an escarpment in northern France that both French and British troops had previously failed to hold. This historic win would later be viewed as Canada’s coming-of-age, but were the news reporters back home aware that a watershed moment had transpired across the Atlantic?
After years of speculation in the United States, President Woodrow Wilson finally declared war on Germany, plunging America into the international conflict. The prediction that U.S. involvement would provoke a German surrender proved false. A wave of patriotic fervor washed over the country — even as domestic unrest continued to stir among U.S. pacifists — in spite of the fact that the American military was ill-prepared. Thus did the United States finally enter the fray.
Rock Star Romance (The Rock Star's Wife #3 ARC)
A college grad still reeling from an amicable breakup falls for a rock star who’s given up on love in this contemporary, second-chance romance.
A year after she and her now-ex-boyfriend were forced into a devastating decision when life took them — literally — in different directions, Cassandra Economos is done with men. Or so she thinks. Just as Cassie’s getting bored and starting to think she needs to get back out there, she meets Nat, and everything changes.
Dramatic Sneezer frontman Nathaniel Hardwick hasn’t dated anyone for months, ever since he caught his girlfriend cheating. Weeks away from the launch of the band’s next tour, however, he finds himself falling for his sister’s friend.
Nat isn’t Cassie’s type, but something about him — something more than mere rock star charisma — draws her in. Soon, she’s breaking all her long-standing relationship rules for him.
With tour dates looming on the horizon, Cassie’s already seeing parallels to her last breakup. But what happens if
Angel of Mercy (WWI Trilogy #1 -- review copy)
Being an idle housewife never suited Hettie Bartlette. So, when her husband, Geoffrey, decided to enlist only a couple of months after their wedding, the choice to join him was easy.
At the time, it seemed as if the tide would turn against the Germans at any moment. But once the ambitious young couple arrives in Europe, it’s plain to see that the turmoil on French soil shows no indication of abating.
It isn’t all bad: Hettie finds purpose tending to the wounded in the Casualty Clearing Station. Unlike people back home in Ontario, hardly anyone within the Allied forces believes her work as an army nurse to be unseemly for a married woman of Hettie’s wealth and breeding.
But nothing, not even coming face-to-face with the horrific aftermath of gas and gunfire on a daily basis, can prepare Hettie for the tragedies and tribulations 1915 has in store. With letters from her family pouring in, begging her to come home, Hettie must soon decide on which side of the Atlantic she belongs.
Journey of Hope (review copy)
An idealistic young couple set out across country in search of a better life for themselves and their young son in this sweeping historical novella set against the rugged backdrop of early-19th-century British North America.
When her drunken father-in-law showed up threatening to kill both her and her husband, 19-year-old Claire didn’t need any more convincing to strike out west. Together with their 1-year-old son, she and Harold leave New Brunswick behind on a 900-mile trek across Upper and Lower Canada.
At first the journey feels like the adventure that farm-boy Harold has always wanted, not to mention a way for Claire, who was hired out at ten, to finally move up in the world. But the land is unyielding, the weather harsh, and it isn’t long before the couple find themselves waylaid. Soon every mile they put behind them feels like a step in the wrong direction.
As her previously happy marriage takes a turn toward estrangement, Claire scrabbles for shreds of peace and stability, se
Sexual Awakening (The Rock Star's Wife #1 ARC)
This coming-of-age story, set against the backdrop of the mid-1990s Midwest, follows Cassandra, a high schooler whose big dreams clash with her family’s conservative expectations, as she comes into her own while navigating the complexities of teenage sex and dating.
Fourteen-year-old Cassandra Economos doesn’t fit the mold of her traditional Greek family. She’s always been a good kid, but lately she’s begun to question how much influence her relatives’ expectations should really have on her life.
Cassie doesn’t understand why anyone would want to stay in Sterling, IL when there’s a whole world out there to explore and experience. She wonders why her brother Chris gets showered in love and affection after becoming a father at twenty-five, when she and her sister, Vanessa, aren’t even allowed to date before they’re his age. And she’d rather go see Nirvana play live in Chicago than attend her homecoming dance.
Christmas Surprise (The Rock Star's Wife companion novella ARC)
This multi-POV interquel in The Rock Star’s Wife series follows four young adults through one fateful holiday break in the year 2000.
Double first cousins Cassie and Phil might be all grown up, but that doesn’t mean they’re exempt from their conservative Greek family’s expectations. And by dating non-Greeks, they’ve gone and kicked a hornet’s nest.
Spending the 2000 holidays at home in Sterling, IL, Phil and his girlfriend, Jennifer, wrestle with their desires for the future. They’re in love, but his family objects. Besides, Phil’s proposed courthouse wedding is not the event Jennifer’s been dreaming of.
Cassie’s parents have similar misgivings about her relationship with her boyfriend, Corey. But unlike her cousin, Cassie isn’t sure that spending the rest of her life with him is in the cards, given their disparate post-graduation plans.
Moving between Cassie, Corey, Phil, and Jennifer, Christmas Surprise offers a profound look at the inner lives of young Gen-Xers. With the girls’
1915 (A Tale of Two Nations #2 -- review copy)
The newly founded Canadian Expeditionary Force’s first sortie was the Second Battle of Ypres, which stretched on for more than a month in the spring of 1915. There, Germany unleashed nearly 200 tons of chlorine gas upon Allied trenches, leaving France’s defense in the hands of the untested Canadians, who managed to secure victory by avoiding catastrophic losses.
Fifteen days after the chemical attack on Allied troops, the German Navy sank the RMS Lusitania, a British ocean liner, killing more than 1,100 passengers and crew. The 128 American casualties complicated U.S. neutrality; violent outbreaks between American citizens soon followed.
Germany’s use of chemical weaponry and attacks on civilian targets made it clear that the Allies were fighting a war unlike any other in recorded history. But the question remained: Would President Wilson declare war in retaliation?
Heinous: Forgotten Murders From the 1910s (review copy)
Every day, amateur sleuths take to the internet in droves to solve disappearances and catch killers on the run. Writers and public figures ask whether it’s healthy to be so obsessed with all things lurid and obscene. Think this widespread fascination with true crime is merely a symptom of living in the Information Age? Melina Druga will force you to reconsider.
In this gripping volume, the journalist and author of A Tale of Two Nations unearths newspaper reporting from more than a century ago, revisiting 19 grisly and unnerving cases that shocked the U.S. — including a few that continue to stump investigators to this day.
Crime was on the rise in 1910s America. As headlines about axe murderers and missing children became inescapable, criminologists and journalists alike expressed concerns about the homicidal nature of “half-wits” and “morons.”
Heinous collects tales of robberies gone wrong, murderous janitors, a fake priest’s blood sacrifice, and a man dubbed the “dime novel fiend.”
Adjustment Year (WW1 Trilogy #3 -- review copy)
It’s been five years since Hettie left home a blushing bride. Recently relieved of her duties as an army nurse, she makes her long-awaited return a newlywed once again… and pregnant.
Hettie can’t escape the painful memories of the thousands of wounded soldiers she tended to at the Casualty Clearing Station, the devastation of the Halifax Explosion, or the death of her first husband, killed in action shortly after they arrived in France. In a fragile state, she finds little in the way of acceptance or affection among her new in-laws, who can’t seem to understand how a way of life that was once so familiar could become so frightening.
To make matters worse, Hettie barely knows the man whose child she’s carrying. By the time the war finally came to an end — and she accepted his proposal of a hasty marriage — Col. Alfred Taylor had spent more time as her penfriend than her lover.
He’s the only family she has in Niagara-on-the-Lake, but Alfred might be too caught up with his own problems
