For Love and Glory

For Love and Glory opens in 1940 as Lange DeLony, a civilian pilot in Texas, is down on his luck—no car, no money saved, and his estranged wife has just been killed in a car accident. With his self-esteem at low tide, he learns Britain is recruiting American pilots to fly for the Royal Air Force. Knowing he needs a fresh start, he joins the RAF and is posted to a fighter squadron east of London. On the train headed there he meets a Canadian ferry pilot, Mackie MacLeod. What begins as a hasty war-time romance turns into an intense love affair. Once the United States entered the war, the air battles intensify, each mission becomes more treacherous. Through it all, Lange's single, all-consuming desire is to survive and get back to a post-war future with Mackie.

For Love and Glory opens in 1940 as Lange DeLony, a civilian pilot working for a crop-duster company in south Texas, is down on his luck—no car, no money saved, and his estranged wife has just been killed in an automobile accident. With his self-esteem at low tide, he reads in a local newspaper that the British military is recruiting American pilots to fight and fly in the Royal Air Force. Since the United States has not yet entered the war, Lange decides to join the RAF. He needs a fresh start, to find his purpose, to regain his own self-worth, and not least, to earn his father's approval. He is posted to a fighter squadron east of London. On the train headed there he meets a Canadian woman named Allison "Mackie" MacLeod, a pilot in the British ATA, Air Transport Auxiliary. What begins as a hasty wartime fling turns into an intense love affair. With the backdrop of danger from the war, they start a life together. Once the United States enters the fighting, the danger intensifies, each fighter mission becomes more treacherous. Lange's single, all-consuming desire is to survive the war and get back to Mackie and their dream of a shared future. Well-researched for historical accuracy, For Love and Glory is a novel for adult male and female readers alike. Told in multiple points of view, the plentiful battle scenes are intertwined with a timeless love story and extended family concerns.

Cindy Bonner takes an unstereotypical--and historically truer--approach to writing. None of the gunmen in her fictional shoot-outs are very good shots; the soldiers in her war stories drive supply trucks rather than tanks. Historical accuracy is the keystone of her work. Bonner's writing career includes four literary novels published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. Her short stories and book reviews have appeared in American Way Magazine, The Gettysburg Review, High Plains Literary Review and many other periodicals and literary journals. Her first novel, LILY, was a finalist for the Western Writers of America's Pipe Bearer's Award. Her novels have been listed as "Best Books" by the American Library Association and have been translated into Spanish and German. Her fourth novel, RIGHT FROM WRONG, won the PEN Texas Award. Besides writing, Bonner has taught workshops at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi and at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio. She has been a featured speaker at the University of Colorado Conference on World Affairs, the Texas Book Festival, and the American Library Association Convention.