I am Eva

 I Am Eva, Elena Zhuravleva, 2024

Eva is your average resident of Kyiv, Ukraine before the Russian invasion. Several days of constant shelling convinces her to flee. Her ex-husband is no help; he has already paid a fortune to leave Ukraine, dressed as a woman. His attitude is "get out on your own."

There is a harrowing train ride to Poland, along with other refugees. The train is forced to stop, and shut off all lights, every time a plane goes overhead. After time in a Polish refugee camp, Eva takes a bus to an, unnamed, town on the Mediterranean. It is quiet, and peaceful, and she lives with an older couple who treat her like family. She can't stay forever, so she moves to the nearby city to live her own life. There she meets John, an American volunteer. Their time together is quite passionate. Do they stay together, away from the Russian invasion, and live "happily ever after"? Do either, or both, of them get on a train heading east, back to Ukraine?

The author of this story packs a lot into 20 pages. It has current events, it has romance, and it has lots of good writing. This story is very much worth reading.