Barnes & NobleA Ballad Of Love And Glory: A Novel by Reyna Grande

A Long Petal of the Sea meets Cold Mountain in this epic and exquisitely wrought (Patricia Engel, New York Times bestselling author) saga following a Mexican army nurse and an Irish soldier who must fight, at first for their survival and then for their love, amidst the atrocity of the Mexican-American Warfrom the author of The Distance Between Us.A forgotten war. An unforgettable romance. The year is 1846. After the controversial annexation of Texas, the US Army marches south to provoke war with Mxico over the disputed Ro Grande boundary. Ximena Salom is a gifted Mexican healer who dreams of building a family with the man she loves on the coveted land she calls home. But when Texas Rangers storm her ranch and shoot her husband dead, her dreams are burned to ashes. Vowing to honor her husbands memory and defend her country, Ximena uses her healing skills as a nurse on the frontlines of the ravaging war. Meanwhile, John Riley, an Irish immigrant in the Yankee army desperate to help his family escape the famine devastating his homeland, is sickened by the unjust war and the unspeakable atrocities against his countrymen by nativist officers. In a bold act of defiance, he swims across the Ro Grande and joins the Mexican Armya desertion punishable by execution.