A Season In Saigon: A story of love, honor, and friendship won and lost amid the Vietnam War

by Dorothy Love

"Thoroughly engrossing and atmospheric....A Season In Saigon is a winner." Midwest Book Review

1968. Saigon. An idealistic young journalist determined to restore her tattered reputation. A compassionate Southern doctor seeking his own kind of redemption. From veteran author Dorothy Love comes a story about love, honor, and friendship forged and tested in the chaos of a jungle war far from home.

1968. When an honest mistake shreds her professional reputation, fashion writer Tallis Reed leaves New York for Saigon, determined to salvage her career and to make a difference by reporting the war's hidden stories. But in a wary city teeming with refugees and orphans, soldiers and spies, truth is elusive and danger is an ever-present shadow.

The last thing she expects is to fall in love with Nick Landry, a doctor volunteering in a remote provincial hospital. Ruggedly handsome and intensely private, Nick has come to Saigon for reasons of his own. Their quiet attraction deepens into love but both are bound by past mistakes and obligations.

Lost on the rainy streets of the foreign city, Tallis is rescued by seasoned reporter Geri Fielding and the two form a deep friendship. But it falls to Tallis to complete Geri's reporting on a military operation gone wrong.

Alone in Saigon as the brutal jungle war rages on, Tallis embarks on a search for justice, a search that tests everything she believes about honor. About friendship and love. But she must stay and redeem her past before she can claim her future.

Inspired by true events, A Season In Saigon is about one young woman gone to war but it illuminates the all-but-forgotten experiences of the women who fought to report their stories and to reaffirm the importance of a free and independent press. It is at once an adventure tale and a sweet love story that adds a new chapter to the story of the American experience in Vietnam.

Genres: Historical Fiction

284 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 4, 2025

About the author

Before returning to her writing roots in historical fiction, Dorothy Love published twelve novels for young adults. Her work has garnered numerous honors from the American Library Association, the Friends of American Writers, the International Reading Association, the New York Public Library, and many others.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just could not stop reading it.

[Catherine Richmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Dorothy Love brings 1968 Vietnam to life. Journalist Tallis searches for a big story and for her missing friend. She finds the country ripe with soldiers, doctors, reporters, and locals - all distinctive and suspect. Yet even in the desecration of war, there is beauty, friendship, and love.

If Kristin Hannah's The Women left you wanting more, this is your story!

[Heidi Bernier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book.

This story grabbed me from the first chapter. I was a teenager during the Vietnam war and remember watching and reading news reports from the war. This book made me feel like I was there. I enjoyed the characters. One of my favorites.

[Leanna Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Tallis was a sympathetic character whom I could relate to. She wants to find her friend, and that takes her on a journey into Saigon and the Vietnam War. I was young during the war, so I really knew nothing much about it but what was taught in school. So this helped me have a better understanding of the 1960s, the War, and those who struggled through it on both sides. If you like stories of friendship, self-discovery, with a little romance, and you liked The Women by Kristin Hannah, you will love this book.

[Chris Unwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Generation

I stayed up several nights waayyy past midnight reading this book saying I must stop. This is the story of Tallis a magazine writer who goes to Vietnam looking for her best friend Kay who had disappeared. Kay went to be a Dollie girl for the Red Cross at the height of the war. While there looking for Kay she freelances to make money to support herself by writing for different magazines. She finds the horrors of war come calling. What is her answer? Will she find Kay?

[Janie R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

You don't want to miss this story, I highly recommend it!

[Pat Black-Gould · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I think of the Vietnam War, I think of the brave men who fought and risked their lives. It never occurred to me to consider the women journalists who also risked their lives and what they endured as they fought to get the truth told. My thanks to Dorothy Love for covering another battle during the Vietnam War that I had not previously considered.

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite Vietnam book yet.