Publisher's Synopsis
Torn from her Havana home, twenty-two year old Angeles Valdivia is separated from expatriates, the only family she has ever known. In 1966, compelled by a fierce loyalty, she leaves the Sorbonne in Paris and returns to the Comedero ranch and coffee plantation in Guatemala to be with exiles and her father, ex-Cuban Colonel Francisco Valdivia. In Miami, ex-Korean War Marine fighter pilot Paul Demille is a man plagued with the nightmare of wounded and dying Marines fighting their way back from the Chosin Reservoir with their faces searching the skies for air support he could no longer give. Sixteen years later as CEO of Caribbean Marine Transport, he risks his life in the world of air racing to escape the old fierce pull of memories. The girl from the Sorbonne and the man in search of redemption meet during Pauls' business trip to the Comedero plantation. High on a Mayan Temple overlooking the ruins of a thousand year old city they are drawn into a love that will be tested and fought against by loyalties and tyranny greater than they could ever have imagined. The Ties that Bind was originally written as a screenplay entitled, An Island Too Far. Because of the span of time, I decided to rewrite the reality of tyranny and struggle eighty miles across the Florida Straits from sunny Key West. Force of Will is the first volume. An Island Too Far is the second in this odyssey of love, loyalty and redemption. - Roland A. Ritter
