About the Book

Book: Secrets of the Desert Rose

Author: Marilyn Turk

Genre: Dual Timeline

Release Date: February 24, 2026

Three Women. Two generations. Their friendship survived the war. Their secret survived even longer.

Monique and Audrey, one French and one British, grow up in French Algiers on the coast of the sparkling Mediterranean Sea. Best friends, they keep each other’s secrets into adulthood when World War II changes their world and Algiers sides with the Hitler-based Vichy government. Audrey joins Charles DeGaulle’s resistance army, the French Foreign Legion, while Monique stays to work in the underground resistance aiding the Allied invasion of North Africa.

In present day, American born great-granddaughter Nicole, a graduate student in archaeology, goes to North Africa for an internship. The now centenarian Monique (Mimi), debilitated by a stroke, urges her to find the Desert Rose. Nicole finds different types of desert roses, but none are the right one until she stumbles onto information that hints the desert rose might not be a flower after all. While Sami, her instructor in Algiers, helps her find the desert rose, he also has to protect her from people who want the heirloom ring Nicole wears which has its own secret.

Will Nicole find the secret before it’s too late?

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About the Author

Award-winning author Marilyn Turk has written over twenty historical and contemporary novels and novellas laced with suspense and romance. She especially likes writing World War II era books, and loves to discover information not widely known for her stories. In addition to fiction, Marilyn is also an annual contributor to Guideposts’ Walking in Grace and other Guideposts anthologies.

Marilyn enjoys helping other writers and founded the Blue Lake Christian Writers Conference. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Faith, Hope and Love Christian Writers, AWSA, Word Weavers International and the United States Lighthouse Society.

Marilyn’s most recent books have been Secrets of the Desert Rose, The Escape Game set in World War II, and a novella, The Gilding of Minnie Tucker, set in The Gilded Age..

She and her husband Chuck have a blended family of four sons, one daughter and four grandsons whom they enjoy spending time with. Marilyn and Chuck are lighthouse enthusiasts and have visited over 100 lighthouses in the United States and other countries. They also served as volunteer lighthouse caretakers at Little River Light off the coast of Maine. As a result of her interest in lighthouses, Marilyn wrote Lighthouse Devotions, 52 Inspiring Lighthouse Stories.

More from Marilyn

Why did I write Secrets of the Desert Rose by Marilyn Turk

Because I enjoy reading novels set during World War II, I also enjoy writing them. Most of the novels I’ve read are set in Europe – England, France, and surrounding countries. But we know the war impacted the whole world, so I look for stories set in places we don’t know much about.

Why did I set this book in North Africa? My sister-in-law’s mother was French and was born and lived in Algiers until sometime during World War II. Unfortunately, I waited too long to ask her about it, even though she lived to the age of 94. However, she left journals which gave insight into her life in Algiers and opened my eyes to what happened there before and during World War II. Monique is modeled on her stories.

While researching Algiers though, I came across another woman who was British and also played a role in North Africa during the war. Her name was Susan Travers, and her autobiography provided more interesting information. Although the two real women may have never met, her life was the basis for Audrey’s character.

I always find historical surprises when I research a novel and discovering the story of Cleopatra Selene was fascinating to me, so I had to include her in the book as well. And since there was so much secrecy involved in the true stories, I thought my characters needed secrets of their own, and my present-day character, Nicole, would have to discover them.

Author Interview

Can you tell us a little bit about what readers can expect from your books?
They can expect to learn something historical they didn’t know before, plus there will be some romance and suspense. There will also be a lighthouse somewhere if you look for it. 😉

What is the greatest advice you have ever been given about writing?
Go ahead and write the book and don’t worry about what other people are doing.

What book made you fall in love with reading?
Hard to say, but the book I read faster than any other book I’ve ever read was This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti.

Can you share 5 random facts about this book?
1. It takes place in Algiers, North Africa, when it was a French territory.
2. The burial place of Cleopatra’s daughter, Cleopatra Selene, is there because she was a ruler in that area.
3. There is more than one kind of desert rose.
4. Algiers has a Casbah like Morocco does.
5. There are many Roman ruins throughout North Africa.
6. The Sahara Desert is in the southern part of Algeria.

Can you share something interesting or surprising you learned while researching for the book?
Yes, I learned about Cleopatra Selene, the famous Cleopatra’s daughter, who was captured after Cleopatra died, raised in Rome, then married a young man named Juba II, and they ruled the northern coast of Algeria along the Mediterranean from 25 BC to 5 BC.

What was the most challenging part of bringing this book to life? 
It’s a dual time with three characters, so keeping their timelines and stories going was a challenge, but fun.

What was the most rewarding?
Discovering how the stories intertwined.

What do you hope readers will take away from the book?
I hope they’ll see that each of us possesses courage but in different ways, and that family characteristics can extend through generations.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. Before you go, where can readers keep up with what’s next?

I have a newsletter they can sign up for. They can go to my website at marilynturk.com and click on the box that says to sign up for my newsletter.