Kristina McMorris (Ariel Lawhon) Books in Order

When Kristina McMorris writes with Ariel Lawhon, you get a blend of two compatible kinds of historical fiction. McMorris often focuses on ordinary Americans facing moral crossroads in the Depression and World War II, as in Sold on a Monday and The Ways We Hide, while Lawhon frequently builds her novels around real historical mysteries and little known heroines.

When We Had Wings is the heart of their collaboration. Set in the Philippines in 1941, it brings together U.S. Navy nurse Eleanor Lindstrom, U.S. Army nurse Penny Franklin, and Filipina nurse Lita Capel, who meet at the Army Navy Club in Manila and think they have landed a dream posting in the tropics.

Each woman is running from something, whether it is family expectations, a broken relationship, or a narrow future back home, and the early chapters linger on the friendships, dances, and seaside evenings that make their new life feel almost like a holiday. That sense of ease is important, because it throws the coming crisis into sharp relief when war finally reaches their shores.

When Japan invades, the Philippines become a battleground. The nurses shift overnight from routine hospital work to field triage and emergency surgeries, then into the grinding realities of captivity as the islands fall. Inspired by the real "Angels of Bataan," their story walks readers through hunger, overcrowded prison camps, and the daily work of keeping patients and fellow prisoners alive when supplies and medicines are almost gone.

McMorris and Lawhon alternate points of view so you move in and out of each woman's perspective, seeing the same events in slightly different light. The book leans on the careful research both authors are known for, from military timelines and geography to small details of ward routines, letters home, and the ways the women quietly resist their captors.

Across this collaboration, the focus stays on friendship and endurance rather than battlefield heroics. If you come to this page looking for where to start with either author, this shared novel offers a vivid introduction to their strengths, especially if you like World War II stories that highlight women's service and the emotional bonds that outlast war.