In the summer of 2000, Trevor, a young man from small-town Illinois, dreams of becoming more than his dead-end job and unpaid bills. Determined to build a future that matters, he enlists in the Army as a Cavalry Scout—ready to trade comfort for purpose, and fear for the chance to prove himself. Then he meets Alyssa, a bright, driven girl with plans of her own. What begins as a fleeting summer romance quickly deepens into something neither expected: a love strong enough to challenge the uncertainty of war and the passage of time.

As Trevor leaves for Fort Knox, both he and Alyssa must learn what it means to wait, to believe, and to hold on to hope when letters are all they have left. Their journey unfolds across two worlds—the innocence of young love and the harsh reality of military life—woven with moments of tenderness, longing, and unshakable devotion.

Set on the eve of a new century and shadowed by the events that will soon change America forever, Hearts Against Odds captures the ache of growing up, the pride of service, and the timeless struggle between duty and desire.

In the freezing depths of the North Atlantic, 1942, duty and desire collide beneath the surface of war.

Commander Harlan Reyes, haunted by the loss of his last ship and the men he couldn’t save, leads the USS Sea Serpent, a U.S. Navy submarine patrolling enemy waters where a single mistake can mean death. Every command is a gamble against the relentless German U-boats—and against the ghosts of the past that stalk him through every mission.

When a sealed order brings Lieutenant Dr. Lena Voss aboard—an enigmatic German-born cryptographer with a doctorate in linguistics and a past shrouded in secrecy—the balance of his world begins to shift. Her assignment is vital: decode intercepted Kriegsmarine transmissions that could expose the wolfpacks threatening Allied convoys. But her very presence on an American submarine ignites suspicion, resentment, and a spark neither of them can ignore.

As the Sea Serpent hunts through the gray Atlantic, Reyes must decide if Voss is a savior or a spy. Her calm intelligence challenges his every instinct, while her haunted blue eyes remind him of everything he thought he’d buried with the dead. Trapped together in the claustrophobic steel corridors of the sub, their lives—and hearts—become dangerously intertwined. Each coded message she breaks might save hundreds of men… or doom them all.

From Berlin’s shadowed safehouses to the torpedo-rattled depths of the Atlantic, Beneath Iron Waves weaves a tale of courage, sacrifice, and forbidden love forged in fire and salt water. When the enemy closes in and loyalties blur, Harlan and Lena must choose between the safety of duty and the peril of trust—between the war they fight outside and the battle rising within.

Taut with suspense and aching with emotion, Beneath Iron Waves is a sweeping World War II love story that plunges readers into the heart of the submarine war—where the line between devotion and destruction grows ever thinner, and where love, like the sea itself, demands everything.