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SANDMAN
A serial killer on the loose, a woman with a psychotic stalker and a homicide detective who must find the connection before it’s too late.
He collects women. Imprisons them. Plays with them. Tortures them. He gathers souvenirs. His trophies are many.
LOCK YOUR DOORS AND PULL THE SHADES
Meagan McInnis is being psychologically tormented. Her dog has become restless. He barks incessantly, but when peering out into the darkened abyss, there’s no one in sight. The image of a pair of eyes staring back from the pitch haunts her. The phone startles her awake, only dead air answers her plea. Until the night she stumbles upon a grisly display in her garden.
THE CALLER IS SILENT NO MORE
Seasoned, Homicide Detective, J.J. Thomas, is working his most horrific case to date, and he’s seen some pretty gruesome things in his time. The monster he’s hunting ranks up there with Ed Gein. He wouldn’t be surprised to find lampshades made out of human skin in the psycho’s living room.
THEY CALL HIM THE SANDMAN
With no one else available, Thomas is called out to a crime scene in the wee hours of the morning. He’s told to pass the case off as soon as possible, so he can focus on his own investigation. But that’s before he realizes the ghastly exhibit and his case are linked. Better yet, that Meagan McInnis, is the key to discovering the Sandman’s true identity.
SWEET DREAMS
With his department grossly understaffed, only he and his partner, Shadowhawk, can see to Meagan’s safety. At the same time delve deep into her past to uncover just how she became the obsession of this sadistic killer before she becomes his next prize.
ALL THE BOOKS IN THIS SERIES ARE STAND ALONE. NO NEED TO READ THEM IN ORDER.
Language in the Blood
The story follows Cameron as he comes to terms with his new ‘life’, from his first days as a hapless vampire in war-torn France to the glamorous modern day setting of the Côte d’Azur. Along the way, he develops a distinctive taste for the finer things in life: jewels, yachts, small dogs and champagne-infused human…
About the author
Angela Lockwood-van der Klauw was born in the Netherlands. She learned her trade as a jeweller and gemmologist at the Vakschool Schoonhoven before moving to Edinburgh as an apprentice jeweller. There she met and later married her husband Adam. Angela ran her own jeweller’s shop in Edinburgh for ten years before she and her husband moved to the south of France in 2011. Like Cameron, Angela prefers the climate there, but often thinks about the town she left behind and its people.
Cameron’s story was born in the spring of 2013, a very wet spring during which Angela found herself climbing the walls, frustrated that she couldn’t go out and have her usual long walks along the seafront. Seeing his wife’s frustration, Adam suggested ‘Why don’t you write a book?’
Angela thought about it for a few days, then switched on her laptop and started writing. This is her first book.
She Sins at Midnight
With her fifteenth high school class reunion on the horizon, Lila finds herself at a crossroads. More than anything she wants to go home and see her childhood friends but is embarrassed that she hasn’t accomplished the things she feels she should have by this time in her life; mainly marriage and children.
After another brutal run-in with Melinda Forrester, Oscar nominated actress and client of her boss, Josh Furber, Lila decides that fleeing Hollywood for a month is the best thing for her. Lila packs her bags for her childhood home of Bentley Hills, sure that her friends and family will be the touchstone of normalcy that she so desperately needs. What she doesn’t expect is that Melinda will follow her and a tabloid media circus will ensue!
Not only does Lila discover that her home is nothing like she remembers, but she meets and falls in love with the very man that inspired the hero in her novel.
She Sins at Midnight is full of laugh out loud hijinks that will make you never look at Hollywood the same way again!
Author, Whitney Dineen, swears that this novel is based purely on fiction and that any characters bearing any resemblance to any celebrities you know are completely and totally fictitious; even though she spent eighteen years in La La Land, with a celebrity client base for her real job…
Just Pru
WINNER 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the category of General Fiction (under 80K words)
FINALIST 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the categories of Ebook Fiction and Humor/Comedy
“I fell in love with this gem of a contemporary novel.” Whimsical Nature
“From the very first page, Just Pru ….completely pulled me in…. I know I’ll be thinking of it for a long, long time.” Maureen’s Book Notes
“…A wonderfully told and humorous coming of age story with characters you can’t help but fall in love with.” Gin’s Book Notes
When twenty-five-year-old Pru Anderson—braless, pajama-clad, and clutching her cat, Chuck—is rescued from her burning Los Angeles apartment, the thing that scares her most is meeting the neighbors. New people make her hide in the bathroom, counting by sevens, but when her home is destroyed, she must turn strangers into friends … or crawl back to the controlling parents she only recently escaped.
What would her idol, Pepper Hathaway, do? That’s a no brainer: the detective-slash-supermodel heroine from Pru’s favorite TV series would take no prisoners while looking fierce in a tankini and stilettos. So when the chance comes to live with her upstairs neighbor, Ellen, a playwright, Pru goes for it Swept into Ellen’s whirlwind life, Pru begins to build her own, as director’s assistant for a new play, muse to brooding actor Blake, and possible love interest to adorably neurotic neighbor, Adam.
Only one thing can derail Pru’s exhilarating ride. Her parents are in a car headed straight for LA to torpedo her life. When the past that nearly destroyed her comes calling, who will she be: a Prudence or a Pepper?
Fall From Grace
The Angel’s Covenant
Author Lynn Landes’ gift of vivid imagery transports you deep into the world she has created. Here you find characters such as Azrael and Raphaim who leave you with chills as they reveal their dark and destructive powers. Only when Elina (keeper of the light) and the Watchers are introduced do you feel a sense of hope and balance to the power possessed by Azrael and Raphaim.
Landes engaging dialogue and back story will keep you on the edge of your seat as you explore this complex and mystical world that she has created. The in-depth nature of story produces a broad range of life-like characters and a world that is magical, mysterious, and riveting. I highly recommend this book and can’t wait for the next installment of the Covenant Series!
A Peek at Bathsheba
This standalone novel is also volume II of The David Chronicles. It is told candidly by the king himself, using modern language, to indicate that this is no fairytale. Rather, it is a story that is happening here and now. Listen to his voice as he undergoes a profound change, realizing the magnitude of his sin, and the curse looming over his entire future.
If you like ancient historical fiction about court intrigue, this king David novel has a modern twist like no book you have read before. Describing king David’s wives in the context of a forbidden love romance, it gives a grand twist to this series, which is one of historical fiction series best sellers of all times.
The Ming Storytellers
This is BEIJING. A city seething with mystery and royal intrigue.
Once a palace orphan, the wilful Min Li has only ever sought to please, even if that means pleasing Emperor Zhu Di. Now a powerful concubine, Min Li unearths a terrible secret concealed within the walls of Beijing’s Imperial city. Driven to despair, she seeks help from her lover, Admiral Zheng He. But this will spark a chain of events that even sets Beijing’s palace on fire. Min Li’s fate is sealed but her true enemy is not who she thinks.
The Ming Storytellers is a historical tale of 15th century China that sweeps across the palaces of Nanjing and Beijing into the mountainous villages of Yunnan, where a mysterious shaman holds the key to a woman’s destiny.
Across the oceans, from the bustling bazaars of Southern India to the lush shores of Zanzibar, nothing is quite what it seems.
For the eyes and ears of the Ming Emperor are ever near.
Winter Journey
Free to Be Tegan: Free from the Cult…to Find Love, to be Herself
Enjoyed Maeve Binchy and Diane Chamberlain? You’ll love “Free to Be Tegan”
”Strong writing, insights, and secrets most of us do not understand flow form the pages of this readable novel.”- Grady Harp, Hall of Fame, Top 100 reviewer, Vine Voice
“This debut novel is a triumph.”
“Loved the book …. I was gripped and couldn’t put it down.”
“It was very thought provoking and emotional with lots of plot twists to keep you on your toes. I highly recommend this book.”
(over 80 Amazon.co.uk reviews average 4.7)
Maternal Harbor
About the Author:
Marie Martin lives in a fertile valley at the base of the Rocky Mountains. She enjoys a quiet life where laughter comes easy, love easier. Marie and her four siblings were raised on ten acres of clump grass and bull pine trees. They roamed nearby creeks, woods, and the cemetery. All places for good fun. Her father worked in a sawmill, and her mother was a librarian; an upbringing that fostered love for people and books. In her blog, Shady Nook, you may read stories of her exceptional childhood growing up in a rich, rural area filled with unique people and a magnanimous landscape known as the Big Sky County.
Marie is the mother of four grown children and shares her life with a side-kick cocker spaniel by the name of Katie Lou. Links to her two blogs are available at http://www.mariefmartin.com
“Perfect balance of suspense, action and heart-racing tension. It draws you in from the first well-written paragraph.” Richard Hanners, Hungry Horse News.
“A tense thriller that taps into every mother’s worst fear.” D. Burke, author.
“The author was familiar enough with her settings and characters to create a unique story. She even accomplished the “le Carre Effect (increasing the plot tension as the book nears its climax such that the reader is obsessed with finishing the book.)” T. Hughes, Amazon Reviewer.
“The concept my be fairly simple, but the execution is awesome. Without giving away the plot, suffice it to say, the villain of this take is one of the spookiest and most depraved you will ever encounter.” Dixon Rice, author of The Assassins Club.
“A beautifully written novel that makes characters real and believable. The author’s excellent storytelling abilities, makes the experience absolutely fascinating.” Angela Townsend, author of Angus McBain.
The Raven Bride
The year is 1692, and sixteen year old Victoria Crowe lives with her mother and sister just north of Salem, Massachusetts. Her father passed away earlier in the year, leaving the duties of tending to the crops to Victoria. It’s hard work, and with winter pressing in, she’s not sure if they’ll be able to survive the winter. The church helps out when they can, but not even Reverend Abernathy can devote enough time to help the women.
One night, Victoria’s mother leaves under mysterious pretenses, putting Victoria in charge of the house. Hours later, Victoria is woken from her slumber by a pounding on the door—the local deputies have come to arrest them as witches!
It is up to Victoria to prove both her and her sister’s innocence—an impossible task for anyone, let alone someone who is still trying to wrap her mind around the sermons the Reverend preaches. Will she be able to convince the town that they are not evil? And if she fails, what happens to her and her sister?
— A portion of the proceeds from this book will be donated to Soulation to help them in their mission to help those who have been spiritually abused. To learn more about Soulation, visit soulation.org. —
Purling Road – The Complete First Season: Episodes 1-10
The strain intensifies when a chance encounter with the new sheriff of Rockport sends chills down Caleb’s spine. What is it about Sheriff William that unsettles them all? David’s return to Rockport lands him in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it may just be perfect timing for someone else in need.
A handsome stranger catches the eye of the adorable and frantic Muzzy Brown. What are his intentions in town, and will she slow down long enough to find out? A family secret is discovered in Jonathan’s attic, leading him to question everything he knew about his past.
More secrets from the past are revealed, complicating the group’s lives even further. Aryl is tempted by old demons. Jean’s birth mother’s reputation becomes a source of pain for Jean. The tension between Jonathan and Caleb finally comes to a head.
Will they forgive each other, or will they go their separate ways for good?
Keep up with the characters of 1929 by following them through ten episodes of Purling Road, A 1929 Serial.
The Smuggler’s Gambit
Port Beaufort, North Carolina – May 1765
Seventeen-year-old Adam Fletcher is no stranger to fist fights, but when he bloodies the nose of the obnoxious son of Port Beaufort’s customs agent, the local magistrate offers Adam two choices: jail or an apprenticeship.
Choosing the latter, he soon finds himself bound apprentice to a reclusive old man with a secret, colorful past. Although Adam is less than thrilled about his new situation, when he is asked to spy on his master as a suspected smuggler, he has to decide where his loyalties lie. Will he perform his civic duty to the Crown, or will he do whatever is necessary to protect the old man, possibly putting even his own family in danger?
Secrets will be revealed, loyalties will be questioned, betrayals will be uncovered, and a young man’s character will be put to the test in The Smuggler’s Gambit.
The Smuggler’s Gambit is the first book in the Adam Fletcher Adventure Series of historical fiction novels. If you like fast-moving adventures, impetuous young heroes, suspense-filled plots, and a dash of romance, then you’ll love Sara Whitford’s entertaining series.
The White Piano
Behind his father’s back, Ben and Anita find themselves increasingly drawn to each other. They take turns using an old tape recorder to express their most intimate thoughts, not realizing at first that their voices are being captured by him. These tapes, with his eloquent speech and her slang, reveal the story from two opposite viewpoints. What emerges in this family is a struggle, a desperate, daring struggle to find a path out of conflicts, out of isolation, from guilt to forgiveness.
Do you like reading a family secrets and romance novel, especially when it is tinged with family saga romance and family sagas historical fiction about the 20th century, with a second chance in love with a strong female lead? Then this family saga series, Still Life with Memories, is for you.
Pulling Home: That Second Chance
Pulling Home is Book One of That Second Chance Series. It is also the prequel to Mary’s bestselling family saga, A Family Affair: The Promise, Truth in Lies, Book Seven.
She’ll risk anything to save her child…even the truth.
It’s taken nine years and a cross-country move, but Audra Valentine Wheyton has kept her secrets safe. She’s created the perfect life: a husband who loves her, a daughter she adores, and a position as head writer for an award-winning daytime soap. When her husband dies suddenly, Audra returns to her hometown for the funeral and faces a community that has not forgotten her meager beginnings and the man who has never forgiven her for marrying his brother.
Jack Wheyton is a successful pediatric neurosurgeon who is about to become engaged when Audra walks back into his life with her daughter. He forgave his brother long ago for taking something that had been his, something he hadn’t even realized he wanted until it was gone. But forgiving Audra is another story…and forgetting her? Near impossible.
When a shattering illness strikes Audra’s daughter, she turns to Jack to save her child and risks exposing a secret that will change their lives forever.
That Second Chance Series:
Book One: Pulling Home (Also prequel to A Family Affair: The Promise)
Book Two: The Way They Were (Also prequel to A Family Affair: The Secret)
Book Three: Simple Riches (Also prequel to A Family Affair: Winter)
Book Four: Paradise Found
Book Five: Not Your Everyday Housewife
Book Six: The Butterfly Garden
BONUS MATERIAL: Included in this book is 2 Chapters from The Way They Were: That Second Chance, Book 2
This Much Is True
The air is different. I cannot breathe, and a part of me doesn’t really want to anymore. We spent the first seventeen years of our lives together and shared everything from our looks to our clothes to our innermost thoughts.
But then, one day, it was over.
And no one prepares you for that.
No one.
Months after tragic loss left her reeling with grief and heartbreak, Tally Landon attempts to move on, intent on finishing high school and pursuing her ballet career in New York. This is her plan. This is her only plan. But a chance meeting at a college party where she pretends to be someone else and lies about her age leads to an inexplicable connection with Stanford’s star pitcher,Lincoln Presley, and inexplicably changes her plan.
His future is pre-determined. The famous baseball player is about to hit the big time by signing with the Major League Baseball. He already knows this girl represents a complication, yet; it’s a risk, he is willing to take. That is until the lies she’s told and the secret he’s kept from her unravels between them.
Even so, the undeniable attraction between them and a hidden truth they ultimately share will only intensify. This much is true.
This Much Is True is an intense, emotionally-charged love story about a broken seventeen-year-old ballerina and a lonesome, golden boy and the wonder that the truth will bring them.
THIS MUCH IS TRUE
THE TRUTH ABOUT AIR & WATER
TELL ME SOMETHING TRUE
The Little Sentinel Of The Sierra Nevada
“A remarkable story of endurance and the human spirit…”
“…a raw, emotive and superbly written book.”
It is 1846 and Sarah Harlan is just thirteen when she sets out with her family on the great trek West to California. Confident and assured beyond her years, schooled and shaped by the Father she adores, Sarah believes life has little more to teach her. But this is a journey like no other. In crossing a Continent they must face all that nature can unleash upon them; tempests and floods; raging rivers and scorching deserts; disease and starvation.
To face these challenges and overcome them, Sarah must also take her own journey of discovery. Encouraged by her cousin Nathan, she must look within and find the truth of who she wishes to be, of who she must be.
Before her long journey is through her strength and resolve will be tested beyond endurance as, above and beyond the torments of the road before them, their small group must face the cruelty and corruption of their fellow travellers. A disagreement between two groups that will fester and grow; a poison that will cast a shadow across their path, until one last bloody confrontation high in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Once Bad Intentions: An Urban Love Story of Triumph and Redemption
Told through the eyes of Stephanie Johnson, Once Bad Intentions provides an integral insight into the causal factors that shape the characters of dysfunctional, disenfranchised youth.
A gritty, realistic, and poetic portrayal of a life captured by music, fashion and a lost identity growing up in South London throughout the nineties. Stephanie Johnson takes readers on an emotional journey from days fuelled by bad intentions to the mercy of forgiveness at the footsteps of redemption.
This book is partly inspired by classic and contemporary literary fiction authors such as:
– Sista Souljah
– Zadie Smith
– Richard Wright
– Maya Angelou
– Toni Morrison
– Ralph Ellison
Visit http://oncebadintentions.com/ for a multimedia extension into protagonist Stephanie Johnson’s world.
I hope, through the at times disturbing and heartfelt depictions of a journey familiar by many, you see the subtle humour. Feel the raging love. Unearth the daily learnings. And, above all, find enjoyment and inspiration in this read.
Monique Dixon
Author
Spirit of the Mercury Dime
Her personal life is in trouble, too, when Eileen’s affair with a hospital board member, Virgil Ellingsworth, is deep-sixed. It’s Virgil’s company that sells faulty grommets to the hospital. Now Sunrise is on the wrong end of a long line of lawsuits. It’s going to take a miracle to save the place—and Eileen plans on finding one as she sets out to prove the Underground Railroad rumors true. But she doesn’t have much time. Will history be enough?
As probing as it is witty, Swoyer delivers an imaginative tale with style and spirit, imbuing every character with a unique viewpoint and voice to create a fully envisioned world, exposing the foibles, failings, and grace of the human heart. Filled with passion, humor, and irreverence, Spirit of the Mercury Dime will leave you laughing and deeply affected by her characters’ emotional journeys.
The Witch of Napoli
Naming The Bits Between
Suddenly, she’s gone. Devastated, he’s lost. The comfortable life that married couple Celeste and Eric Harper shared, is shattered by tragedy. For Eric, an unmotivated journalist who is grieving the accidental death of his wife, sorting through this broken existence without Celeste is nearly impossible. It is utterly excruciating.
Right when he needs it most, his neighbor and closest confidant, Mrs. Flynn, presents an eye-opening gift. Inspired, he attempts to move past his own debilitating grief by focusing on what was important to others. With each stranger’s name chosen at random from the newspaper, he honors that person by doing what they loved most in their lives.
One profound adventure after another follows. By documenting the many facets of these lives in his journal, Eric carves a life changing path. With renewed purpose, Eric shares what he learns with Mr. and Mrs. Flynn, illuminating new possibilities for them all.
Look at the world differently after experiencing this uplifting adventure; fully aware, we can each laugh, learn, and ultimately be changed, by one another.
Hoplite
Alexander decided that there was no-one around and started to move from under the ramp but, before he could make his escape, he felt the ship rock as a loud tramping came from the gangplank. He froze in position while he tried to work out what this new sound meant.
After listening for a short time, he realised that the troops were boarding the ship. He needed to get away, so he dragged himself fully out from his hiding place and made his way to the ramp. Maybe he could just run past them all before they realised he was there. Then, to his horror, the ramp down into the hold started shaking and the tramping came closer as the soldiers started coming down it into the hold to shelter from the sun.
He was trapped!
All Alexander wants to be is an Olympian. But, when his hoplite father is recalled to war, Alexander tries to follow and becomes trapped aboard a troop ship.
His life spins out of control when they make port. The seemingly benign state of Samos overthrows the mighty Athenian army and tragedy strikes.
Bowl of Fruit (1907)
A lively, multilayered novel that connects two uncommon souls to a shared past.” Kirkus Reviews
“While BOWL OF FRUIT (1907) undeniably starts off slow, once the novel starts delving into the intricacies of Leon’s incredibly complex psyche it’s impossible to put down. The secrets that define both the plot and Leon are incredibly original and Cacoyannis’s skill with delivery is truly incredible. Stretching a day to fill an entire novel is a bold choice, but despite the brevity of the time period nothing about the novel feels rushed or forced. Each addition to Leon’s story is welcome, and while his history with Anna may be fantastical it seems believable, a credit to Cacoyannis’s ability with character…
BOWL OF FRUIT (1907) is an incredible read, with well-crafted characters and a plot that is refreshingly original.” ~ IndieReader (5 Star Review)
Named to “BEST INDIE BOOKS OF 2015” ~ IndieReader
Rubies and Other Gems
Lily’s life is in shambles. Her husband is clueless, and her children are rudderless. It’s little wonder she seeks comfort in her dreams, unaware that Grandma’s rubies have sent her back in time to a safer, saner existence.
Aware she can’t mend her marriage or steer her children in the right direction unless she stays in the here and now, she vows to leave the past to the past. But in her attempt to take away the jewelry’s power, she accidentally sends herself back without her return ticket, the rubies. Will her dysfunctional family fall apart without her? Or will they pull together for the common good? It could go either way.
The Runner
“As good as the source material — if not better! I loved this story and hardly breathed as I read it straight through.” —HUGH HOWEY, author of Wool.
“We all have a reason for being here, we’re just not sure what it is.”
Time is running out. As the Great Flood threatens to consume the silo, Ace and a team of divers are in a desperate battle to avert disaster. When a terrible accident destroys the person he cares about most, Ace has little left to live for.
After nearly succumbing to the silo’s flooded depths, he realizes that drastic measures must be taken in order to save their underground home. But those in charge deem his ideas too dangerous, his methods too forbidden, and he is shunned for his sin of toxic words.
When an opportunity for redemption presents itself, Ace has only one question: Why should he fight to save these people, if they aren’t willing to help themselves?
*The Runner contains plot elements found in Hugh Howey’s Wool Omnibus (Wool 1-5).
Their Works Shall Be in the Dark
Secrecy is next to godliness.
Tired of constantly pretending to be the perfect Mormon teenager, Jacob Crompton devises a plan to guide his fellow priests into an underground regimen of experimental sin. As they begin to dabble in behavior which is forbidden by the rules of their religion, the risks of their endeavors increase and their fears of discovery grow. The boys’ conspiracy soon threatens to careen off the rails to bring public humiliation and ecclesiastical condemnation down on them, forcing each young man to examine his loyalties, address his priorities, and ultimately confront his true beliefs.
I really enjoyed reading this book. I downloaded it one day and finished it by the next.
Alex has an amazing grasp of the difficulties and internal struggles young people face as members of the Mormon Church. The book does a great job of showing how Mormon youth have to come to terms with living truthful and authentic lives versus living the way the church would have them live.
The very first line of the book got me thinking about myself and other kids I grew up with. The main character Jacob says: “I’m a phenomenal liar” and goes on to explain why and how he became that way. It reminded me how at youth conferences the leaders all but forced everyone to bear their “testimony.” The leaders were simply following the recommendation of LDS Apostle Boyd K. Packer who advises members to bear a testimony of the church even if they don’t have one: “Oh, if I could teach you this one principle: a testimony is to be found in the bearing of it!”
Alex purposefully bring the common struggles kids face today into the book like: the Word of Wisdom, swearing, bullying, sex, masturbation, anti-Mormon literature, bishop interviews, early morning seminary, dealing with member/non-member friends, etc. He shows how difficult being a member of the Mormon Church makes these issues for Mormon kids. In so doing, I believe he accomplishes his stated goal of illustrating how damaging the church can be.
The Gaslight Gunslinger
Enter Matthew Slade. Formerly the Pinkerton Detective Agency’s best gun-hand, investigator, and tracker. No sooner does he arrive at San Francisco’s stockyard than he rescues Mai Lee, a little Chinese girl, from a pair of thugs intent on kidnapping her.
Slade finds out that the girl is wanted by Huang Sun, the leader of the dominant tong – a Chinese crime syndicate that runs opium dens, fan-tan parlors, and prostitution in the city. And Slade can’t walk away, even if he wanted to. His first paid job as a free agent is to keep Mai Lee out of Sun’s hands – no matter the cost!
Can a gunslinger used to the open plains and prairies of the West deal with the criminal underworld of a crowded metropolis? Even with the help of his friend, sea-captain Amos Harding and the backing of a pair of bawdy-house madams, the odds are long at best!
Angels Watching Over Me
From Publishers Weekly
In this first book in the Shenandoah Sisters series, Phillips, a prolific author and longtime CBA bookseller, offers a light historical novel with the flavor of young adult fiction. Mary Ann “Mayme” Jukes is a young African-American slave girl living in Shenandoah County, in North Carolina, in the 1860s. When marauding outlaw Confederate soldiers kill her family, she escapes to Rosewood, another plantation owned by the white family of Kathleen “Katie” Clairborne. Here, Mayme finds more devastation; 15-year-old Katie is the only person left alive. The girls become friends and together vow to run the plantation and keep the adults’ deaths a secret until Katie comes of legal age to own the debt-ridden property. The book is mostly a collection of short, sketchy scenes, presumably setting up events for the next book in the series. Phillips’s prose is simple and workmanlike, adeptly moving the events along. The reader is left with a few questions (the plantation is devastated, yet the girls have plenty of livestock and groceries), and the spiritual thread is fairly basic (God tells Mayme directly what to do, and they speak to each other in italics). The epilogue leaves the reader hanging until the promised second installment. Young evangelical Christian women looking for escapist historical fiction will find this passable, if not particularly memorable, entertainment.
Electrified
The Last Jump: A Novel of World War II
After the last veteran passes away, his hopes are dashed but one reaches from beyond the grave to identify the only other living person who who knows the secret and he races against death to reach her. A shocking conclusion awaits him, if only he can get there in time!
This book resonates with veterans of all wars and their sons and daughters. Active military and patriotic supporters of our Armed Forces also love this book, especially fans of Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan.
A historical fiction book requires significant research to understand the personalities of the famous participants and the location of various units and the timeframe in which the action is taking place. The challenge is to seamlessly place the fictional characters in historically accurate situations and venues to tell the story. As such, it took 4 years to write this book and a year to edit it.
As part of the research, we met and talked to numerous World War II veterans. They are almost universally humble, modest and appreciative of the gratitude so generously expressed by many, in both America and Europe, so late in their lives. So, come and join the adventure as we take a trip through a time in this country when everyone pulled together to achieve the improbable victory against the forces of evil. Learn what it was like to live in and fight for America in the dark days of World War II and enjoy a rousing war story and an elusive mystery. We have much to learn from that generation. The Last Jump teaches us some of it. And keeping their memory alive is something they earned.
Some proceeds from the sales of The Last Jump are donated to assist families of the fallen.
Searching for Glory
Gloria Star hasn’t always been an A-list celebrity. She used to be just a regular Midwestern girl named Glory Stark. Now she is forced to reconcile her two lives because Johnny Carter, the only man she ever loved, has asked her to return to her hometown, and she can’t say no. Ten years ago, one night changed everything for Gloria and Johnny. Not only did Gloria lose Johnny, but she also lost herself.
Now she’s headed back to her home town in Missouri, to reconnect with her sister and make amends with Johnny. She quickly realizes that returning to Glory Stark’s life isn’t going to be easy. As she faces painful truths about her past and an uncertain future, Gloria learns that forgiveness is essential, family is everything and love is forever.
Of Giants and Other Men
Swearing that he will avenge his father’s death, Tomás finds a friend in his cousin Fausto and the two boys become blood brothers, promising that they will always put one another first.
But events take an unexpected turn with the arrival of the alluring Ana, who has returned to the country from Europe. An attraction between Tomás and Ana begins to form, one which does not sit well with Fausto.
As the cousins grow into men, life takes them onto different paths: while Tomás becomes a doctor sworn to protect life, Fausto becomes a soldier who embraces his career with a passion that earns him the nickname “Lieutenant Knife.”
With their allegiance to each other being tested by as sickening war, and their love for the same woman, can Tomás and Fausto remain true to the vow they made when they were children? Or will war and revolution tear them apart?
“Of Giants and Other Men” is a masterful story of love, betrayal, honor and sacrifice, depicting the horror and beauty that lie at the core of the human heart.
The Thin Wall: A POW/MIA Truth Novel
Midnight, August 20, 1968: the sirens of Prague are sounding. Without warning, Russian tanks have crossed the frontier and are pouring into the city. The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia has begun. Arriving with the troops is Colonel Grigori Dal, a seasoned KGB officer and coldblooded killer. While the country slips into chaos, Dal uses the fighting as cover to apprehend an American prisoner-of-war from a military prison in Prague. Within days, only a cursed woman and a troubled war hero will stand between him and protecting the Cold War’s darkest secret: proof U.S. servicemen were secretly transferred to the Soviet Union.
R. Cyril West’s unforgettable novel of tragic love, suspense, intrigue, and the dangerous machinations of the human heart—The Thin Wall.
Watch book trailer video and learn more at: http://www.powmiatruth.com
The Sekhmet Bed: A Novel of Ancient Egypt
Is Ahmose’s divine gift a blessing or a curse?
The second daughter of the Pharaoh, Ahmose has always dreamed of a quiet life as a priestess, serving Egypt’s gods, ministering to the people of the Two Lands. But when the Pharaoh dies without an heir, she is given instead as Great Royal Wife to the new king – a soldier of common birth. For Ahmose is god-chosen, gifted with the ability to read dreams, and it is her connection to the gods which ensures the new Pharaoh his right to rule.
Ahmose’s elder sister Mutnofret has been raised to expect the privileged station of Great Royal Wife; her rage at being displaced cannot be soothed. As Ahmose fights the currents of Egypt’s politics and Mutnofret’s vengeful anger, her youth and inexperience carry her beyond her depth and into the realm of sacrilege.
To right her wrongs and save Egypt from the gods’ wrath, Ahmose must face her most visceral fear: bearing an heir. But the gods of Egypt are exacting, and even her sacrifice may not be enough to restore the Two Lands to safety.
The Sekhmet Bed is the first volume of Libbie Hawker’s series The She-King, a family saga of the Thutmosides, one of ancient Egypt’s most fascinating royal families. Don’t miss Book 2: The Crook and Flail
Note: This ebook edition contains a preview chapter of Libbie Hawker’s new ancient Egyptian series, The Book of Coming Forth by Day.
Child of the Ghosts
When her life is torn apart by sorcery and murder, young Caina Amalas joins the mysterious Ghosts, the legendary spies and assassins of the Emperor of Nighmar. She learns the secrets of disguise and stealth, of assassination and infiltration.
But even that might not be enough to save her.
For the evil that destroyed her family seeks to devour the entire world…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Standing over six feet tall, Jonathan Moeller has the piercing blue eyes of a Conan of Cimmeria, the bronze-colored hair a Visigothic warrior-king, and the stern visage of a captain of men, none of which are useful in his career as a computer repairman, alas.
He has written the “Demonsouled” trilogy of sword-and-sorcery novels, and continues to write the “Ghosts” sequence about assassin and spy Caina Amalas, the “Beginner’s Guide” series of computer books, and numerous other works.
The Aunt Sally Team
THE AUNT SALLY TEAM – A Soap Opera:
When Bill Green puts a notice in a post office window in Oxford, he hopes for a group of intellectually stimulating companions with whom to share long summer evenings playing Aunt Sally, a quaint, traditional English pub game. Instead he gets a zany assortment of characters, not one of whom lives up to his preconceptions.
Diana craves excitement after ending a comfortable but unchallenging relationship. But is she heading for trouble when she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Dante Blackthorn? He’s handsome, charismatic and a feckless alcoholic and compulsive gambler, though his devil-may-care attitude and hazy sense of boundaries mask a sensitive and complex personality. His dissatisfied ex wife Beccy still hankers after him and his self-centred but vulnerable daughter Lucy hates the idea of a new woman coming into her Dad’s life!
Best friends Lissa and Bethany are pagan teenagers who have their own coven but want to meet boys and have fun as well. Which is fine till Liss falls for someone and jeopardises the friendship.
Meanwhile Jason, a delinquent eighteen year old, has been forced to play Aunt Sally by his Dad and Uncle, who hope being part of the team will keep him out of trouble. When Lucy and Jason are attracted to each other, things get complicated, especially as Beth has set her sights on him as well.
Elderly widow Vera needs to put the past behind her. Will helping Jason fill a gap in her life and begin the process of healing?
And Rashi’s family owns the George and Dragon pub where the Aunt Sally Team is based. He thinks his future is mapped out until he falls in love and is pulled between the culture he grew up in and the expectations of his Indian family.
With these and other characters thrown into the mix, the ensuing interactions and relationships become more and more entangled as the players progress through the season. From May Morning celebrations in Oxford to riotous Aunt Sally matches at idyllic Cotswold village pubs – with fun, drama, sex, romance and chaos along the way – by the end of the summer their lives will have been changed forever.
The Cryptographer
I also need to remark that I love the cover of this novel. Her second novel, which I unfortunately have to wait for until November! – has the same look, and I find it very appealing. I read some of the other reviews, and I am very impressed this is a debut work. I can’t wait for the next one!
My Honor Flight
During the flight, the old man shares stories from his platoon’s tour in Europe, many ending in dramatic (or occasionally, humorous) twists.
The stories share not only suspenseful situations, but also the emotional impact of the platoon’s journey through a broad range of humanity: Fear. Courage. Compassion. Anger. Love. Death. Loyalty. Mercy. Retribution.
In a final defining moment near the end of his tour, Mackinack is forced to decide his path in a split second. Will he return to the man he was before the war, or will he become the killer the war created?
When Mackinack and his great grandson reach the monument, there is one final surprise tied to events sixty six years earlier.
The Tour: A Trip Through Ireland
And of course there’s Conor O’Shea in the thick of it all, solving problems and mending hearts, but what about his own?
This is a story filled with romance, humour, history, culture and a little bit of mystery all against the backdrop of the beautiful and inspirational Emerald Isle.
Family Love
Not Just Another “Mother Daughter Story…”
The Love Family Women Have Their Say
You’ve met the Love brothers….now it’s time for Mama Love and her only daughter to tell their story.
A wealthy horse farmer’s rebellious daughter meets a sultry stable hand…but the result is far from the average tale of forbidden romance.
The epic saga of one family’s turbulent beginning is entwined with the challenge of a mother’s relationship with her youngest child, the longed for only daughter, Angelique. But a secret Lindsay Halloran Love has kept for years could rip the tight-knit clan apart for good.
When novelist Aiden Love publishes his parents’ story he has no idea the trauma it will cause. This mash up of New Adult Romance and Women’s Fiction will satisfy your craving for the REAL “backstory” with a twist that is guaranteed to leave you, and the entire Love Family, breathless with shock.
Meet the Family from the Beginning: Lindsay Halloran & Anton Love–the Parents
- Antony: The Oldest
- Kieran: The Athlete
- Dominic: The Bad Boy
- Aiden: The Baby
- Angelique: The Sister
˃˃˃ “Liz Crowe writes intense true-to-life stories that make you feel. Whether it’s anxiety, love, fear, hate, bliss, or loss woven into her plot lines, you will feel it deep down to your very soul.”
#1 New York Times Best Selling Author Audrey Carlan
through infinity: forever and a day
Candice and Jason Woodruff had everything going for them: a strong marriage, the family they’d dreamed of, and successful businesses. When they made their wedding vows, they promised to love each other through infinity and beyond…but Candice doesn’t remember making that vow. Candice doesn’t remember the last eighteen years.
After a medical emergency, Candice awakens to find herself a married mother of four. She’s surrounded by a loving family of strangers, but Candice struggles to claim an identity while learning to be a wife and mother.
Candice is no longer the same woman Jason fell in love with all those years ago. Can they learn to love each other in this new reality?
Through Infinity is one woman’s journey as she rediscovers the love of her husband and children. But will that new found love be strong enough to carry them through infinity and beyond…
Unexpected Gifts
Master storyteller S.R. Mallery creates a colorful portrait of the past as she takes the reader through an incredible time-machine from one generation to the next, while we witness unforgettable, historical events that come to life, along with unique characters. The treasure that Sonia found, a discovery of her roots, was the golden key that unlocked the secret door, which helped to shape her own life through the experience and lessons learned from her ancestors.
The author has a remarkable gift. The amazing ability not only to bring rich, historical events to life, but also the ability to perfectly blend different generations, showing how they all connect. As I read through the intriguing and bittersweet pages, the heartfelt stories within the pages of this book not only brought me back to my generation as a Babyboomer, but also to the flashbacks down memory lane of my own father’s stories about his Purple Heart and his touching stories about Pearl Harbor, and survival from turmoil during his generation. This book will be thought-provoking, long after we close it. “UNEXPECTED GIFTS” is as captivating as Forest Gump, as compelling as We Were Soldiers, and as impressive as Saving Private Ryan. Highly recommended to all those who enjoy historical fiction.
A Bridge Apart
In the quaint river town of New Bern, North Carolina, at 28 years of age the pieces of Andrew Callaway’s life are all falling into place. His real estate firm is flourishing and he’s engaged to be married in less than two weeks to a beautiful banker named Meredith Hastings. But when Meredith heads to Tampa, Florida – the wedding location – with her mother, fate, or maybe some human intervention, has it that Andrew happens upon Cooper McKay, the only other woman he’s ever loved.
A string of shocking emails lead Andrew to question whether he can trust his fiancé, and in the midst of trying to unravel the mystery he finds himself spending time with Cooper. When Meredith catches wind of what’s going on back at home, she’s forced to consider calling off the wedding, which ultimately draws Andrew closer to Cooper. Andrew soon discovers he’s making choices he might not be able, or even want, to untangle. As the story unfolds, the decisions that are made will drastically change the lives of everyone involved, and bind them closer together than they could have ever imagined.
Unravelled
It was too much to bear. Too much to know. Too hard to swallow.
But now that the world knows, now that the world has heard, it all seems so simple, so easy to defray.
I screamed and no one heard.
Next time, will you be listening?”
Aliz and her twin sister, Hajna, are enjoying their playful, carefree and comfortable life with their parents in Szeged, Hungary just before the Nazis invade. Seemingly overnight, their lives change drastically as they are transported to the ghetto on the outskirts of the city and then to Auschwitz to be used in Mengele’s deadly twin experiments. After several months of brutal torture, Aliz is liberated to find that she is the only survivor in her family. At not even 11 years old, Aliz must make the journey to San Francisco alone, an entire world away from everything she’s known, in order to live with her only known relatives whom she has never met– a depressed aunt and teenage cousin who is more than ready to escape her mother’s melancholy. Told through the eyes of both Aliz and her cousin Isabelle, Unravelled tells a powerful story of survival, hope, family and the lives war and genocide haunt long after liberation. It is a truly moving piece of historical fiction, based heavily on historical facts.
NOTE: This is a new edition featuring further edits and a historical note.
The Criers Club
Troubled by his newly-discovered death sentence, Adam joins a support group for the terminally ill. There, he meets six strangers who are struggling to cope with their own impending demises.
When one member of the group dies, leaving behind an unfulfilled dream, the others realize just how limited their time is. Now, as the youngest member nears the end of his short life, they become determined to make sure the boy’s dream comes true before it’s too late. Together, they embark on a road trip that will teach them all what it means to live, and to die.
Rise to Power
In an era of cruelty, when destroying the enemy is deemed a sacred directive, the slayer of Goliath finds a way to become larger than life. His search for a path to power leads him in ways that are, at times, scandalous. Notorious for his contradictions, David is seen by others as a gifted court entertainer, a successful captain in Saul’s army, a cunning fugitive, a traitor leading a gang of felons, and a ruthless raider of neighboring towns who leaves no witnesses behind.
How does he see himself, during this first phase of his life? With his hands stained with blood, can he find an inner balance between conflicting drives: his ambition for the crown, his determination to survive the conflict with Saul, and his longing for purity, for a touch of the divine, as expressed so lyrically in his psalms and music?
If you like ancient historical fiction about court intrigue, this king David novel has a modern twist like no book you have read before. Describing king David’s wives in a new way, it gives a grand opening to The David Chronicles, one of a historical fiction series best sellers of all times.
Mark of the Loon
Want to know more? …
What happens when a single workaholic falls in love with an old stone cottage in Northern California? In Mark of the Loon, Madison renovates and sells property in addition to her busy real estate sales career. Her work-centric lifestyle leaves little time for anything beyond business and her three wise, hilarious friends. When Madison buys the Blackburne’s former house, a series of mysterious events both endanger her and lead her to love – and a permanent home. Mark of the Loon is the skillful combination of history, mystery, and romance in a novel that explores choices, taking risks, dealing with loss, deep, satisfying, unconditional friendships – and introduces Genevieve Delacourt as an impressive amateur sleuth!
What people are saying:
Molly Greene’s stunning debut novel, Mark of the Loon, is a glorious read, with brilliant descriptions and pitch-perfect characterization. I loved spending time with the four smart, wise, fun-loving women at the center of this novel. As I read, their gorgeously developed friendship made me wish I could climb into their world and join them. With Mark of the Loon, Molly Greene has established herself as a remarkable new voice in contemporary fiction. ~ Terri Giuliano Long, Author of the bestselling novel, In Leah’s Wake
Reviewer Aya Walksfar says: “From the time that Mallory Blackburne hears “the thunderous boom of metal striking wood…” this mystery captures the reader. Romance and mystery without the need for graphic sex or graphic violence; just a great read!”
Reviewer Lisa Mack says, “…a mystery that doesn’t devolve around murder, peopled by smart women who are figuring out things for themselves, who have personal issues that don’t center on whether they’re overweight or pretty or…whatever. The main characters are all fleshed out and real, with real people problems. And well edited to boot!”
Reviewer Susan Goldin says, “Molly Greene has a gift which spins a tale that keeps you in the dark until the dawn slowly rises and reveals a landscape of unexpected proportions. Ms. Greene is very good at defining characters via their actions and dialogue. The dialogue is so well crafted the reader feels they are sitting in an armchair or at the table with those in discussion instead of reading words on a page.”
In the Midnight Rain
LOOKING FOR THE PAST…
Ellie Connor is a biographer with a special talent for piecing together fragments of the past. Her latest project, though, promises to be her most challenging–and personal. Not only is she researching the life of a blues singer who disappeared mysteriously forty years ago, but Ellie is also trying to find the truth about the parents she never knew. The love child of a restless woman who died young and an anonymous father, Ellie has little to go on but a faded postcard her mother sent from a small East Texas town–the hometown of her latest subject.
COULD MEAN FINDING HER FUTURE
It is there that Ellie meets Blue Reynard, a man with deep roots and wide connections who may help her find answers. With a piercing gaze and cool grin, Blue is as sultry and seductive as the Southern night air. Beneath his charming surface, however, lies a soul damaged by loss. Despite her better judgment, Ellie finds herself irresistibly drawn to Blue’s passion–and his pain. But Ellie’s been lured by sweet talk and hot kisses before. How can she possibly stay with Blue when every instinct tells her to run?
****
REVIEWS
4-1/2 stars GOLD
With a writing style that is both lyrical and evocative, Ruth Wind makes her much-anticipated mainstream debut. Ms. Wind, (aka Barbara Samuel) seems born to produce novels that enrich us with their complex emotions and dramatic characterizations. A must-read book! — Reviewed By: Jill M. Smith at Romantic Times Magazine
Stormer’s Pass
With Max just one season away from a state championship, the mysterious girl strolls out of the surrounding hills and punts all his plans. Inspired by Aidos’ bewitching genius, Max is soon on a collision course with those who fear the changes the remarkable girl is having on him, his friends, and the entire town.
With a championship, scholarships, and many reputations at stake, Max becomes captain of something bigger than a football team. As he leads his friends into a contest more dangerous than a football game, Max becomes America’s most reluctant rebel. To win this showdown he will need more than his usual grit and determination. He will need to believe in the magic of courage.
Whether maverick or hero, outlaw or savior, being a champion was never harder.
I Have Lived Today: A Boy’s Coming of Age Story
Hitchhiking beneath the backdrop of a wild and loveless November, Tristan encounters every possible character, from the genuinely kind to the inherently wicked. Beaten, robbed and stripped of even hope, Tristan finds himself on the gritty streets of London’s East End, where everything he thought he knew about life starts to shatter and crumble around him. With all hope seemingly lost, a young boy even questions the futility of life itself. But when he learns that there are others who share his torment and understand his pain, can Tristan find the courage to make it through his darkest hours?
Tristan’s tale is a grim exploration into his own conscience. As he discovers the unique ability of humans to do such heinous things both to themselves and to one another, it’s all he can do to keep control as his passage of internal discovery takes one dark turn after another and sends him to the edge.
“Moore has a crisp, economical style, and sets the scene well. The story, while bleak, is shot through with moments of pathos…compelling from start to finish” – Mark Dawson, bestselling author of the John Milton, Beatrix Rose, Isabella Rose and Soho Noir series.
“One of those books I already know I’ll return to. A story of genuine breadth and depth, hard without being bleak. Thoroughly recommended” – John Bowen, author of bestselling occult thriller, Where The Dead Walk
“A book of real substance, it takes you on a powerful journey” – John Hopton, author of coming of age novel ‘Three Little Boys.’
A top 100 bestseller in British and Irish literary fiction, I Have Lived Today is a thought provoking, Dickensian quest out of violence and darkness that will appeal to lovers of British and Irish family sagas and inspiring and emotional coming of age adventures.
The Irish Cottage: Finding Elizabeth
A story about losing your way and finding your life. Book 1 of 3.
The Irish shores welcome her as she learns a shocking truth, kept secret for thirty-five years. Devastated and now alone in the world, Beth tries to find peace in a beautiful cottage by Lough Rhiannon, but peace isn’t what fate had in mind. Almost as soon as she arrives, Beth’s solitary retreat into the magic wilds of Ireland is interrupted by Connor Bannon. A man with light brown hair, ice blue eyes and a secret of his own. He’s gorgeous, grieving, and completely unexpected.
With the help of Mags’ letters, the colorful townspeople of Dingle, and Connor, Elizabeth might just find a way back to the girl she lost long ago and become the woman she always wanted to be.
Name and Number: Based On a True Prison Story
Nick hopes to spend his sentence in an open prison, the type he’s read about in the papers. The ones often referred to as ‘holiday camps’. Instead, his worst nightmare comes true.
Locked up in HMP Blackthorpe, a prison known for its medieval-like squalor, Nick lives at the mercy of the drug barons and in fear of the lifers. Constantly stalked by danger he has to find a way to survive.
To earn protection money he turns to the one thing he’s good at—art. But can selling pictures to visitors be enough to keep the mob at bay? Or will he be made an example of by the hard men and suffer the worst type of prison punishment?
Based on the experiences of the author.
ABOUT JOHN HOSKISON:
In 1994, bestselling author John Hoskison broke a lifetime rule by drinking and driving and on his way home, he hit and killed a cyclist. As a non-violent first offender, he was told he would serve part of his sentence in an open prison, but was instead consigned to some of the toughest in Britain.
John was only able to survive his time in prison through the incredible forgiveness he received from the woman whom he’d made a widow and by the support of friends and family who knew his actions were so out of character.
Now John spends time speaking to young people at schools and through community out-reach programs, warning them about taking unnecessary risks and what prison is really like. If anyone is under the illusion that prison is a holiday camp, and that breaking the law just once is worth the risk, read this book.
OTHER TITLES by John Hoskison
INSIDE: One Man’s Experience of Prison
A Golf Swing You Can Trust
Shooting Lower Scores
The Light in the Wound
When Jesse Cain enters her life, she falls hopelessly in love with him, and every sadness she’s ever felt is washed away by his intensity and passion. But people change as they grow up. Things can never stay the same forever.
Jesse and Isabel fight to stay together, determined to hold on to what they once had. Isabel wonders if a second love can ever be enough to make her forget her first.
This book is intense. It’s angsty and romantic. It messes with your head one minute, makes you smile from ear to ear the next. You’ll find yourself rooting for Alex….or maybe Jesse. I won’t tell you who I rooted for so as not to spoil anything in the plot. But, Ms. Brae does an incredible job of keeping you guessing!!! And, I literally couldn’t put the book down at a certain point—I Just HAD TO KNOW!
I can’t wait to read more from Christine Brae—-I see a very strong career in her future!!
The Illegal Gardener
From INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLING AUTHOR Sara Alexi, who ranks as one of Amazon.co.uk’s TOP Literary Fiction authors
The first in the Greek Village Collection
Each brings their own problems, their own past baggage, and she approaches these with sympathy and understanding as well as exploring the nuances and differences in therir cultures as they become more and more dependent on each other.
This is a book that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading…
What other readers have to say about The Illegal Gardener …
‘Sensitive with beautifully crafted characters that you really cared about.’
‘The Illegal Gardener’ is a story of betrayal, love, trust and friendship. Not a romance but perhaps a lesson in life on just how young minds can be damaged by spite or thoughtlessness, and how those same minds can be repaired by true friends.’
‘I was captivated from the start unable to put the book down.’
‘The Illegal Gardener’ is a delightful story, filled not only with love of Greece but a deep understanding of the varieties of love which can bring people together.’
‘reminiscent of Remains of the Day.’
‘The author has huge potential and if she keeps writing and developing like this then I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see her name on a future Man Booker list!’
‘A good tale well told. Shades of Steinbeck and Bradbury.’
‘A most charming and sensitive book.’
If you like Gerald Durrell you’ll love this book…
Unscrambled Eggs
The {Re}Model Marriage
With their divorce scheduled for the day after their daughter’s high school graduation, Jamie and Kirk have to fix the home’s problems to lift their selling price out of the basement. Working to renovate the home together, they discover secrets—in the home, in their marriage, and in the fertility clinic that helped give them their daughter—and find themselves questioning what true love really is.
Brute: A Tale of the Spartan Creed
Autumn in Carthage
Nathan Price is a college professor with crippling impairments, seeking escape from his prison of necessity. One day, in a package of seventeenth-century documents from Salem Village, he stumbles across a letter by his best friend, Jamie, who had disappeared six months before. The document is dated 1692–the height of the Witch Trials. The only potential lead: a single mention of Carthage, a tiny town in the Wisconsin northern highland.
The mystery catapults Nathan from Chicago to the Wisconsin wilderness. There, he meets Alanna, heir to an astonishing Mittel-European legacy of power and sacrifice. In her, and in the gentle townsfolk of Carthage, Nathan finds the refuge for which he has long yearned. But Simon, the town elder, is driven by demons of his own, and may well be entangled in Jamie’s disappearance and that of several Carthaginians. As darkness stretches toward Alanna, Nathan may have no choice but to risk it all…
Moving from the grimness of Chicago’s South Side to the Wisconsin hinterlands to seventeenth-century Salem, this is a story of love, of sacrifice, of terrible passions–and of two wounded souls quietly reaching for the deep peace of sanctuary.
You Only Get So Much
Billy soon finds that his family isn’t better off without him, in fact he’s the only one who can help them. Billy is forced to fight through his tormented past to make a better future for those he loves. He is guided on this journey by a woman from his past, who he quickly realizes was the one who got away.
For Billy, it’s more than a second chance, it’s his last chance to get it right.
“[You Only Get So Much] had everything I look for in a good read: some romance, a mystery to be solved, connections to family and friends that are tested, and an ending that fits the story being told.”
– Wendy Miller, Author of “Tangled Deceit”
“Beautifully written with engaging characters. The twists and turns will keep you yearning to learn more about this story. Couldn’t put it down!”-Nightwriter, Amazon Review
“A family drama with twist, funny at times!”
-Shierly, Goodreads review
“An entertaining, humorous romantic mystery”
-Joan, Amazon review
“Dan was able to make all his characters dance through my head as I drove into the books.”
-Barbara H., Goodreads review
Tainted Love
A ‘Best Contemporary Fiction’ Finalist – Orangeberry’s Hall of Fame 2013
“So bone-chilling honest that it had me quite emotional” – Reading in Black & White
“Incredible…Cawood’s book tore me apart, and I couldn’t put it down.” – Samantha Stroh Bailey
“Tainted Love is a spellbinding, raw, eye-opening novel of the mind. Cawood brings to light a difficult, realistic insight into the mind and rationale of an abused woman. The story is easy to read and hard to put down, in spite of the difficult topic.” – Reviewed by Ica Iova for Readers’ Favorite
***
“Promise me you’ll tell no one.” – Faith McKenzie
For anyone in a relationship, the words ‘we need to talk’ can only mean one thing. In the last twenty-two years, the McKenzies have been through it, survived it, learned by it, and grown stronger from it, because life didn’t stop for breath when they needed it. Amongst the tears and the tragedies, the hopes and happiness, they’ve built something amazing: a happy family, a luxury lifestyle and a booming empire. Don’t they deserve to have it all?
But for the perfect wife, those four sinister words mean something entirely different. They’re a summons into dark places where what happens behind closed doors stays behind closed doors.
Faith has no doubt in Calvin’s undying love for her. It’s what kept her sane in the darkest hours. If only she could figure out what it is she does wrong… because it’s rapidly becoming apparent their tainted love is running out of time.
Cherry Cobbler
My Clarity
Shadow Heart
What if you could ask for what you want without being afraid? Could you trust another person that much? Could you trust yourself to ask it and be willing to hear the things you fear?
And what if you could truly begin to conquer those deep fears that hide inside you, allowing your heart to open, become vulnerable, and have the chance for real intimacy—the kind that allows another to come closer than you’ve ever let anyone before? What if you dared to be loved and because you did, you transitioned into joy?
My name is Nicky Young. This is my family saga and a love story that tells about the horrible, beautiful, twisted, amazing vulnerability of family dysfunction and how I overcame fears of abandonment and deep intimacy. Relationships were things to be held at a distance. When I learned to open my heart and trust another – and myself – I was able to really, really, be alive.
This story is about letting go of old fears, daring to love and transition into joy.
“I’m very excited about this book in the Broken Bottles Series by Pamela Taeuffer. As a family therapist for more than thirty years, it is my opinion these books are like no other. They offer you an inspiring adventure as well as a thoughtful journey towards trust and intimacy. Truly a stimulating and thought-provoking read.”
—Louise Monahan, M.S., MFT
At Odds with Destiny
Each one of the novels in this boxed set anthology is outside the box. Open it at your own risk!
Rise to Power by Uvi Poznansky
Notorious for his contradictions, David is seen by others as a gifted court entertainer or a traitor leading a gang of felons. How does he see himself? Can he control his destiny and strike a balance between ambition and longing for purity?
Double Forté by Aaron Paul Lazar
In the deep cold of winter, threats erupt from the dark woods, spinning events out of hand—and Gus, tormented by the unexplained death of his wife, braces for the fight of his life.
Pam of Babylon by Suzanne Jenkins
After Jack dies, his wife Pam discovers secrets and lies. Is she destined to succumb to vengefulness against his two lovers, or will she find a different way forward?
Dream Student by James DiBenedetto
Everything was going according to plan, until the night when college junior Sara Barnes started seeing other people’s dreams. Is she the only one witnessing the secrets of a serial killer?
Let in the dog and let out the cat, for this boxed set holds dangers of the most rarefied kind!
Trails in the Sand
As Caroline starts to report on the oil spill threatening the sea turtles on Florida’s Panhandle beaches, she begins to uncover the secret of her own mother’s past, which includes her brother’s suicide and a teenage pregnancy. With Caroline’s sharpened reporter skills, she digs until she brings all the secrets to light, including her own.
A Dignified Exit
Finalist for Best Literary Fiction — (eFestival of Words).
Monroe Colson, a successful children’s book illustrator living in small-town Texas, baffles family and friends when he unceremoniously announces he’s moving to Mexico, ostensibly to paint.
In Mexico, the true nature of his mysterious behavior not only comes to light, but takes an unexpected turn when he runs into a vibrant young American woman who has been abandoned, penniless, by her fiancé.
This emotionally powerful and often humorous story with its controversial subject matter is a poignant testament to love and the resilience of the human heart.
When Monroe Colson suddenly leaves his intimate Texas hometown and decamps for Mexico, he announces it’s so he can find uninterrupted time and inspiration for his art. But Monroe has a secret he isn’t telling anyone–not his close friends, not his estranged wife and son, and certainly not the beautiful young woman he rescues from her abusive boyfriend on the patio of a Mexican taqueria. He came to Mexico to avoid entanglements, not seek them out. But the woman–Angelina–creeps past his defenses with her open, ingenuous embracing of life, and Monroe must reassess the secret he guards–and the resolution he’s made because of it–and decide whether to open himself up to love despite the vulnerabilities it creates.
Asher’s novel is a lyrically written portrait of the beauty and culture of Mexico, art, and most of all, the risks–and triumphs–of letting someone love you unconditionally. Asher’s prose is elegant and evocative, but his characters are so real, and he weaves such welcome humor amid the pathos, that his writing offers real emotional impact without a trace of Nicholas Sparks schmaltz. A lovely, engaging read that feels like a trip through Mexico through the eyes of someone who knows it well–and loves it–and a touching exploration of what it means to let someone love you–for better or for worse.
Haunted: A Psychological Family Life Drama
A contemporary existential drama.
When Max, a broody loner haunted by his past, meets Helena, an audacious beautiful woman and single mother of two, in a bar in downtown Tel-Aviv, he has no way of foreseeing the years of trials and tribulations that will follow. From catastrophe to despair, the two fruitlessly try to make a life for themselves, but in vain. Their quest for a better future leads them all the way to Australia, only to find disaster haunting them there as well. When an old relative shares with Max for the first time the tragic history of his family, Max feels that he has found the answer. But he is in for a devastating surprise.
Haunted is a sensitive contemporary novel that intriguingly weaves existential insight with romance and psychological drama, into a convincing tale of our current times.
Looking out his window in the middle of a scorching Tel-Aviv summer, Max is baffled. He needs to find an answer, to understand how, and why? A lost man searching for the wrong answers in all the wrong places, stuck in a helpless attempt to turn his fate around and make a life for himself and his family. Could it be that the battle is already lost?
Don’t miss this contemplative masterpiece that sheds light on the nuanced drama of contemporary living.
The Little Sentinel Of The Sierra Nevada
“A remarkable story of endurance and the human spirit…”
“…a raw, emotive and superbly written book.”
It is 1846 and Sarah Harlan is just thirteen when she sets out with her family on the great trek West to California. Confident and assured beyond her years, schooled and shaped by the Father she adores, Sarah believes life has little more to teach her. But this is a journey like no other. In crossing a Continent they must face all that nature can unleash upon them; tempests and floods; raging rivers and scorching deserts; disease and starvation.
To face these challenges and overcome them, Sarah must also take her own journey of discovery. Encouraged by her cousin Nathan, she must look within and find the truth of who she wishes to be, of who she must be.
Before her long journey is through her strength and resolve will be tested beyond endurance as, above and beyond the torments of the road before them, their small group must face the cruelty and corruption of their fellow travellers. A disagreement between two groups that will fester and grow; a poison that will cast a shadow across their path, until one last bloody confrontation high in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Rondo
But things unravel quickly for the young sheriff. An old friend is killed, and Rondo’s past continues to haunt him when a mysterious stranger rides into town.
RONDO continues the story of The Landon Saga…
Resolution: Huck Finn’s Greatest Adventure
Strange: Not Your Normal Paranormal
Nine Complete Novels Featuring Psychics, Demons, Aliens, Angels, Gods and Goddesses, Time Travel, and More!
Dive into nine different worlds that aren’t your normal paranormal. These aren’t your run of the mill vampire, werewolf, and witch stories. Immerse yourself in these unique, full-length novels from national bestselling authors:
Bad Vibrations ~ Christine Pope
When psychic Persephone O’Brien reaches out to famous ufologist Paul Oliver for help, they soon find themselves drawn into a far-reaching alien conspiracy that sends them on the run…and into one another’s arms.
Pisces ~ Rachel Medhurst
The bracelet around my wrist is a permanent reminder of my mission. The silver charm attached to the leather cord is stamped with my birth sign. Mission: Unite with my twin flame soulmate.
Beyond the Veil ~ Pippa DaCosta
Muse must decide whether to trust a Prince of Hell or the assassin sent to kill her. Little do they know, she’s more dangerous than both.
Bitter Ashes ~ Sara C. Roethle
She’s not their long lost fairy princess. She’s their executioner.
Thrown into a world of Norse Myth, Madeline must work her way through a web of deceit and intrigue. Maddy might just survive, but many others may die in her place.
Deception ~ Stacy Claflin
After meeting a gorgeous stranger on a blind date, Alexis feels like she’s known him her entire life. Suddenly, dark long-forgotten memories swirl in her mind. She realizes she’s powerful, stunningly beautiful, and marked for death.
The Legacy of the Key ~ S.L. Morgan
Men in Black meets Avatar! Reece Bryant is just an average young woman on Earth, or so she thought! Follow Reece as she is brought into an enchanting dimension for protection and discovers the truths of who she really is!
Nolander ~ Becca Mills
As an orphaned and perpetually single photographer in a tiny rural town, Beth Ryder Knows she’s different. Still, when strange monstrosities begin cropping up in her photos, she thinks it’s a cruel joke, until she’s plunged into a world she never knew existed.
The Girl In Between ~ Laekan Kemp
Bryn Reyes is a real life sleeping beauty who spends most of her time alone in a dream world made up of her memories. Until one day a boy she’s never met before washes up on the illusory beach of her dreams with no memory of who he is.
Rune Gate ~ Mark E. Cooper
Alex Yorke is a top police clairvoyant on the edge of sanity. Living inside the heads of serial killers has taken its toll. Can she do it one last time?
Southern Bound
***For a limited time, you can also get the second Max Porter book, Southern Charm, for free – check here to find out more: http://bit.ly/MaxPorter (just copy and paste into your browser)***
“Southern Bound gets it right! A great blend of ghosts and gumshoes. If you like haunting mysteries you’ll love Southern Bound!” – Edgar-nominated author, Joel Goldman
It was supposed to be a new beginning – good job, good pay, and a lovely home in North Carolina.
But when Max Porter discovers his office is haunted by the ghost of a 1940s detective, he is thrust neck-deep into a world of old mysteries and dangerous enemies.
One in which ghosts, witches, curses, and spells exist. One in which a simple research job can turn deadly.
Real history meets the paranormal in this fun mystery series!
I’m a big fan of the paranormal/occult/Cthulhu Mythos detective stories out there. This, this is good stuff. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Mr. Jaffe does with the next book. Things to love here: the P.I. is dead, the main character is a teacher, he and his wife are happy within the bounds of reason, and the book managed to follow the rules of both the hardboiled detective and of fantasy. Specifically, the detective can’t really change anything on a big scale, so his victories are mostly moral (and there’s plenty of room for backlash) and maybe pyrrhic while in fantasy, magic isn’t a solution to your problems, it’s just a new subset of problems but with bigger explosions. So yeah, I’m on board and I’m glad to be there.
The Silence of Trees
I’ve wondered what happened ever since. I bought “The Silence of Trees” as soon as the book was available via Amazon and even paid extra for second day delivery. I sat down with the book and a cup of tea expecting to finish in one sitting.
Normally, I’m a serial devourer of books, but “The Silence of Trees” was entirely too rich for that. I paused at 75 pages and dreamed that night of the gypsy camp. Music, counterpointed by the jangle of tambourines rang in my ears. I even saw the raven-haired dancer clad in red and gold.
I followed Nadya through fifty years of her life, learning what it was like to lose family during World War II, to live in a German work camp, and to finally immigrate to a new land where you do not speak the language and begin anew. Each step is full of the same vivid detail as the initial scenes. Nadya and her family grow and become as real as next-door neighbors.
Ms. Lupescu’s prose truly is the stuff that dreams are made of. The narrative voice of her protagonist Nadya remains strong throughout nearly fifty years of her life. You can almost taste the kolachi and feel the willow switches on your backside on Palm Sunday. The best of literature transports you to places you have never been. While some of the locales of “Silence” are places you may not have wished to be, there’s heart and hope in every page.
Miranda Warning
But when an anonymous warning note shows up in her best friend Miranda’s mailbox—a note written in a dead woman’s handwriting—Tess quickly discovers that ghosts are alive and well in Buckneck, West Virginia. Hot on a cold trail, she must use limited clues and her keen insight into human nature to unmask the killer…or the next victim might be Tess herself.
Tinged with the supernatural and overshadowed by the mountains’ lush, protective presence, this twisting psychological mystery is the first in A Murder in the Mountains series.
This novel is written from a Christian worldview.
The Locket
From author Emily Nelson comes a heartwarming and emotionally gripping story of loss, trials, and the healing love can bring…
“It was simple, heartwarming, painful, and lovely, all in perfect doses.” -Writer’s Digest
Nelson writes and readers respond…
“A Modern Day To Kill A Mockingbird.”
“Inspiring. Remarkable.”
“It touched me in a way that I didn’t know books could.”
“Friendship, heartbreak, life, and death. This novel has it all.”
“A story bound to make an impact in literary circles.”
“The characters were so compelling that they literally brought me to tears.”
“Simply put: brilliant!”
“Heartbreaking and beautiful.”
THE CHOSEN
An Epic Novel Based on the Biblical story of Daniel
Separated from his family, his homeland and his childhood sweetheart, Daniel, a Judean youth of noble lineage, is exiled to Babylon, where his captors hope to use his talents at the Royal court.
What will eventually become of the youth – as he is subjected to grueling trials and tests – neither he nor his captors can even imagine…
Shlomo Kalo’s masterpiece of Biblical literature, THE CHOSEN, is being republished in three volumes. Kalo, one of the most prolific writers in Israel and a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature, brings to new life the themes and spirit of the Biblical story of Daniel in this lively, dramatic epic novel. His masterwork of storytelling weaves together the themes of faith, friendship, betrayal, love stronger than death, and redemption.
“It is indeed an epic-like novel filled with drama and passion. Mr. Kalo weaves together the political, personal and spiritual with great skill.” G. Glijansky, HarperCollins, US
The Guestbook
“Evocative and heartfelt, The Guestbook is the profound story of one woman’s journey toward hope, renewal and a second chance at love on a lush Pacific Northwest island. Curl up with your favorite cup of cocoa and enjoy.”
~Anjali Banerjee – author of Imaginary Men and Haunting Jasmine said about this women’s fiction romance
This book weaves together the heart of Nicholas Sparks, the romance of Nora Roberts, and the charm of Debbie Macomber.
Fleeing her picture-perfect marriage among the privileged set of Brentwood and the wreckage of a failed marriage, Lily Parkins decides to move to the only place that still holds happy memories, her grandmother’s old farmhouse. The lush and majestic setting of the Pacific Northwest calls to her and offers a place of refuge and perhaps renewal. Her grandmother has passed away, leaving the Madrona Island Bed & Breakfast Inn to Lily.
Left with only an old guestbook as her guide–a curious book full of letters, recipes, and glimpses into her family history–Lily is determined to embrace her newfound independence and recreate herself, one page at a time. With the help of the quirky island residents she has befriended, she slowly finds the strength to seek out happiness on her own terms. But as soon as she has sworn off men and is standing on her own two feet, Lily meets Ian, the alluring artist who lives next door, and her new life is suddenly thrown off course. The last thing she wants to do right now is to open her heart to another man.
Ultimately, Lily must decide if it’s worth giving up her soul for security or risking everything to follow her heart in this romantic love story.
Better
Aubrey is embarking on a bucket list trip around the world, the last wish of her Aunt Ally. It was supposed to be the trip Ally would take when she got better. Now it’s just a chance for Aubrey to say goodbye.
True North
Scarred. Hopeless. Lost.
Alexa Cross leaves Los Angeles with a scarred heart, beat-up car, and a secret. She’s ready to move on and leave her past behind, but fate has had a way of knocking her right back down. Marooned in the middle of nowhere—she imagines misfortune has dealt its final blow, but this time, destiny seems to have a different plan when she ends up in a place aptly called The Last Resort.
Reassembling shattered lives is what innately sexy, bar owner, Zane Abbamonte, does best, and it rarely ends well for him. When he sees a woman stranded on the side of the road, desperate and alone, the otherwise irascible biker rescues her without hesitation, but Zane harbors secrets of his own. When Alexa begins to uncover the truth about Zane, the weight of her past comes crashing back. Her instincts say, “Run!” but her heart tells her to stay.
Glimpsing the chance for a future together, Zane and Alexa must confront their “ghosts” and navigate through their fears. Will The Last Resort be the end of their encounter or the beginning of everything they desire?
Find out in True North.
Those Who Dare
Studio Relations: Love in the Golden Age of Hollywood
Weston Holmes is the handsome partner of Holmes International, the parent company of Lion Studios. Averse to risk and focused on the bottom line, he’s worried that audiences won’t accept an epic war picture directed by a young woman.
With Hollywood in the midst of the Great Depression, and the Women’s Decency League railing against working women, Vivien struggles to convince Weston that she is the best director to make this movie. When a publicity mishap results in their staged marriage, Vivien and Weston must learn to overcome their differences to finish the film and find their Hollywood ending.
Like
You’ll meet Greg, a realtor whose success stems from his Internet savvy. His tweets are re-tweeted a hundred times and thousands follow his blog.
Then there’s Paul, who stumbles on an old crush while Facebooking. Through research of her online habits, he arranges a “chance” meeting so they can fall in Like with each other.
Martin is a cancer survivor with renewed purpose in life thanks to a supportive social media family.
It’s a tapestry of people and events woven together with this era’s most abundant thread: social media.
“With one Like I can say hi to a friend, support them during a crisis, share in a joke, make someone happy, or reinforce a person’s self-esteem. I make myself part of their world. It’s like I stopped by for coffee. But, by Liking, I can also avoid talking to all the people I don’t want to waste time on. Or I can check to see what my ex-girlfriend is doing seven or eight times an hour. It’s a double-edged mouse click.”
– Anonymous
Dorothy Lyle in Colour
Dorothy Lyle is back, brasher and sassier than ever, and now with a new-found wealth which allows her to holiday in Rome like a celebrity, while gambling away enough cash to feed a small Central American country. She is having fun, living life on the edge and to the full, determined to enjoy her status as a woman of wealth and leisure. And she’s doing it in style.
But when she decides to treat herself to a tarot card reading one day, she is stunned to hear the medium’s prediction for her future. Why would someone want to hurt her? What could she possibly have done to make such an enemy?
Dorothy tries her best to ignore the portent, but she cannot get the words of the mystic out of her head and they continue to haunt her, lurking in the deepest recesses of her mind. And when the spiteful text messages and malevolent phone calls begin, the words of foreboding return to her and she begins to question her very sanity.
She begins to wonder if there is some truth to the warning after all. Is it possible that betrayal and catastrophe are lying in wait, ready to destroy her new life before she can fully enjoy it, or blow all the cash?
Miracles & Millions – A Story of Gratitude.
Lila Blue
For many years Annie Katz worked on the Oregon Coast as a barber, waitress, bookstore clerk, and college teacher. Her life there inspired the delightful characters and dramatic adventures of Rainbow Village, the fictional world of Lila Blue.
HUGO How Two Boys Learned of Life From a Killer Shark
It is a story of a simpler time. The boys’ boat had no depth meter and no compass. There were no cell phones, yet parents routinely allowed their children to vanish “down the river” for days on end to fish and explore and socialize, an easy parental willingness that ended when townspeople began being killed by a shark bigger than anyone had ever seen.
It is a story of adventure, and of a summer that began in innocence, but ended in a tragedy that forced the boys toward manhood.
Outline for Murder
Catherine Dickens: Outside the Magic Circle
Excerpt:
That hour was a blessed relief. I was free of the constraint of being discarded wife and mother. I was someone faceless in whom nobody had a vestige of vulgar curiosity.
The woman, who was a Mrs. Evans from the country, come to visit her married daughter, looked at me searchingly and asked, “Forgive me, my dear, have you suffered a bereavement?”
I nodded.
“Your husband.”
When I again nodded, she said, “You poor dear, I could tell by your face. You are not bearing up well, I fear. I know it is a difficult cross to bear, I lost my dear sainted John two years ago, but I have learnt to find comfort in my children and grandchildren. You should try that dear. Do you have children?”
When I did not answer, she continued, “Ah, that makes it difficult. My sister too is a widow and finds the going very difficult because her marriage was barren.”
I did not correct her about me being the mother of nine living children. At that moment, the children I had carried in sickness and brought forth in pain and hardship seemed like phantom children. They had been born but had drifted away like wraiths.
Only little Dora seemed real. Beautiful, delightful Dora, whom the merciful lord had taken away when she was only eight months old. I had not understood then but I realized now it was a good thing my daughter had died an infant. She would have been about twelve now. Being a girl, she would not have the escape of school and she would have remained in misery in a divided household. Dear beloved Dora was happier in a better world.
I said, “My marriage was not barren. I had a daughter but she died an infant.”
Mrs. Evans dabbed at her eyes and recalled her two infants she had buried.
That night I realized a sorry truth. From now on I would have nothing to say to women except about the death of a child. The usual conversation of husband and children and household matters was forever closed to me.
Inside The Bubble
A dramatic encounter between five women set against the backdrop of the hi-tech industry in Silicon Valley and it’s grand economic collapse.
Daniela is a psychologist in her forties , leading a grey life within the social enclave of Israeli émigré in the Silicon Valley. When she meets four woman friends from her home country, she is faced with disturbing suspicions and doubts that will leave their mark on her personal and professional life.
˃˃˃ A nuanced contemporary drama of adultery, envy rivalry and greed.
Relocated to California on account of their husbands – chief high-tech executives in the Silicon Valley, Daniela, Gaby, Mika, Ghila and Anita move back and forth between the worlds of past and present, California and Israel, adulthood and childhood.
˃˃˃ Five women in parallel moments speak in clear, distinct and often contrasting voices about their secrets, their desires and their life decisions.
Secrets are half-spoken and future plans formed as they discuss men and women, Americans and Israelis and life far away from home. As their personal stories unfold, the dramas of their marriage, family and personal life is revealed.
Odyssey In A Teacup
“Paula Houseman’s keen understanding of the ancient, universal forces at work in the very roots of humanity, and magnificently bawdy humor make Odyssey in a Teacup an epically defiant, bold, painful, hilarious, soul-fortifying must-read for anyone who has ever dared (or hoped) to look at themselves in the mirror and ask the question, How in the hell have I survived?
Crazy-brilliant!”
—Stephanie L Harper, author
Winds of Betrayal
A rousing family saga for the fight for America’s independence!
The winds of change brews over the colonies. Tension against the crown is mounting daily. In Williamsburg, the rebellion burns strong in the hearts of two siblings, Jonathan and Hannah Corbett. Spirited and headstrong, Hannah finds herself thrust in the middle of a conspiracy when her father receives a strange package from Philadelphia. Jonathan, a physician for the Continental Army, is torn between duty and family. With war looming on the horizon, the siblings soon discover there is a high price to be paid for the cry for freedom.
The Saga continues….
EMBRACE OF THE ENEMY, Book Two
It’s a dangerous game you set to play, Miss Corbett. One that can have far worse than deadly consequences!
In the midst of the struggle of America’s bid for independence, Hannah Corbett makes a fateful decision, descending into a world of deceit. Spurred by revenge, she heads to New York, setting in motion a dangerous game for which there is no return. Searching desperately for the man who betrayed her family, she faces the cold and brutal reality of the life of a spy. Caught in a web of lies, living with betrayal, she is trapped. She has nowhere to turn except to a man it would be treasonous to love, setting duty and desire at war. Her heart is ripped apart when she must choose between the man who risks his career and life to protect her and the only thing that has remained constant in her life…her belief in her cause.
Pelican Bay
Some things are better left alone…
After Ethan Hodges discovers an undersea cemetery just off the beach of Pelican Bay, South Carolina, he seeks answers from a grandfatherly fisherman named Captain Shelby. The captain wants the past to remain buried, and he warns Ethan to stay away. But Ethan doesn’t listen.
Ethan’s best friend and secret love interest, Morgan Olinsworth, joins in the investigation, unearthing intriguing secrets about the mysterious fisherman. When Captain Shelby is suspected of murder and disappears, a manhunt ensues, revealing a truth that unnerves everyone in Pelican Bay.
Editorial Reviews:
“Christiansen offers a tale sure to entrance readers—a story of love and wisdom and the mystery of a forgotten graveyard under the waters of PELICAN BAY.” —Man Martin, author of Paradise Dogs
“A riveting read sure to please mystery lovers. Christiansen pulls readers into the world of PELICAN BAY with vibrant characters, evocative imagery, and a tantalizingly mysterious sea captain. A seafaring mystery tinged with Southern Gothic appeal, PELICAN BAY offers a fast-paced story, hooking readers with a mysterious captain, a forgotten graveyard, a series of accidental deaths, and a coastal community with constant storms on the horizon. Dark clouds loom on the horizon in PELICAN BAY and mystery lovers will enjoy the resulting storm.” —Elizabeth Craig, author of Death at a Drop-In
“With beautiful prose and a fresh voice, Jesse Giles Christiansen’s PELICAN BAY, is a wonderfully written sea-side page turner. Take heed, Christiansen has got serious writing chops.” —Jeff Bennington, bestselling author of The Secret Tree
“PELICAN BAY is a story full of suspense and intrigue that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading the last word. While the dialogue is distinct, it is the prose that is volatile and sublime in equal measure.” —Jacinta Rao, Howtotellagreatstory.com
“An old undersea cemetery, a secret love, mystery and intrigue await you in PELICAN BAY. Jesse Giles Christiansen has written a well-crafted story of suspense that will keep you turning pages!” —The Dark Phantom Review
The Rowan Tree
THE ROWAN TREE reaches from the tumultuous 1960s into humanity’s future, encompassing the worlds of politics, sport, ballet, presidential leadership, and world governance. An international cast of characters personifies the catalytic role of love in political change.
Replete with illicit loves, quixotic quests, and inextinguishable hope, THE ROWAN TREE foretells a dignitarian world much as the story of King Arthur and the round table sowed the seeds of democracy. .
A Favorite Son
Listening to Yankle telling his take on events, we understand the bitter rivalry between him and his brother. We become intimately engaged with every detail of the plot, and every shade of emotion in these flawed, yet fascinating characters. He yearns to become his father’s favorite son, seeing only one way open to him: deceit.
In planning his deception, it is not love for his father, nor respect for his age that drives his hesitation–rather, it is the fear to be found out. And so–covering his arm with the hide of a kid, pretending to be that which he is not–he is now ready for the last moment he is going to have with his father.
This is so much more than a morality tale. Do you find sibling rivalry in adults intriguing? Are you troubled by the notion that the sins of the fathers will be visited upon the children? If so, you will find this story utterly captivating.
The Truth About Us
Nadia’s Hope
The nightmares continue. Memories won’t heal. Nadia must make a choice.
Nadia Minsky fled Israel to escape her past, but she can’t outrun her nightmares. The throbbing scars along her hip and stomach are cruel reminders of shattered dreams. Even though surgeons mended her body, her spirit still bleeds. Friends claim only God can heal her. For Nadia, trusting a God who allowed her to suffer is inconceivable.
Can close friends, a wild roommate, and a handsome medical student help Nadia learn to trust? Or will she chose to allow her past to forever cripple her future?
Nadia’s Hope — Runner-up for Women’s Fiction, 2010 (ACFW) American Christian Fiction Writers Genesis Contest
Behind Closed Doors
“This book is the perfect example of a page turner…”Onlinebookclub.org
The characters are well developed. As you can imagine, the choices they make are often far from ideal, but their actions fit perfectly within the storyline. The chapters alternate between each girl’s points of view. I can see why the author chose this plot device, as the reader is able to see the women’s parallel progression through the years. This book deserves nothing less than 4 out of 4 stars The author should be commended for shining a light on a sensitive topic by crafting an interesting, believable tale. I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates good writing, particularly about a subject that is too often swept under the rug.
“Behind Closed Doors is one of those you have to read novels…” African American On The Move Book Club (AAMBC)
A novel that contains the stories of three different women who have suffered in ways their friends and family never knew about. Each woman’s story is realistic, sad, painful, but shows how one can overcome what has happened to her. I found these words inspiring. A.L. Smith has beautifully woven together a novel that will touch the hearts of many and inspires women everywhere. I highly recommend Behind Closed Doors to readers worldwide. It’s a novel readers can’t miss. Overall, I rate it a five out of five stars for its powerfully written message to all.
Montezuma Kings
Alexander Alston was once the golden boy of the Drug Enforcement Agency, but after making one fatal mistake on a case two decades ago, his career fell to shambles. He’s always believed he’d eventually return to his former glory, but as the years have worn on, and his role at the agency has diminished, he’s begun to lose hope he’ll ever get the chance to make his glorious comeback. Then, one morning when he’s on the brink of retirement, he receives an anonymous letter that will change his life.
Fictionally inspired by the real life events of Operation Sudden Fall, one of the largest collegiate drug busts in U.S. history, Montezuma Kings is the first of a two part story that is both suspenseful and thrilling, and at times, tragic.
Rose of Anzio
“Tessa, I don’t know how to swing dance, and I wouldn’t be very good at it if I tried. But if you care, I’d like to do a different kind of dance with you.”
Summer 1940. Fourteen-year-old Tessa Graham finds herself in a new, unfamiliar world. For her safety, she is sent from England to Chicago to live with the prominent Ardley family just before the London Blitz. Stifled by the ways of the rich, she is soon drawn to the city’s infamous South Side. A world where she discovers jitterbug dancing, and the intrigues of the powerful Irish community. But is this the escape she really wants?
On the University of Chicago campus, eighteen-year-old Anthony Ardley has to make a choice. His country stands at the brink of war. Conscription threatens to become reality. As sole heir to the Ardley fortune, should he stand with his beloved uncle, a staunch isolationist, or join his radical classmates clamoring for American intervention?
What will happen when Tessa and Anthony cross paths on the way to discovering themselves?
A coming of age tale that emerges into an epic love story, this book takes you back to Chicago in the pre-war era, when two young people must find their paths in a world that is fast falling out of control.
Don’t miss this story if you enjoy reading WWII historical fiction, moving romance tales, or slice of life stories during the WW2 era.
The entire series is completed. Target release dates
Book 2 Jalousie – April 15, 2016
Book 3 Desire – June 30, 2016
Book 4 Remembrance – September 15, 2016
All proceeds received for the first month of released will be donated to the Chicago Veterans
Slippery Souls
‘Libby Hood has hit a bad patch in life and just when she thinks things can’t get any worse she’s killed in a car accident alongside her dog, Rufus. During their transition
to the afterlife’s Sunray Bay, Rufus somehow manages to absorb Libby’s soul – which, in turn, gives him human-like qualities and renders her soulless.
Accompanied by her now talking dog, Libby tries to unravel the mystery of her slippery soul, encountering many setbacks and dilemmas along the way. She has no idea why a group of monster slayers, headed by an ex-convict, are hunting her down, and when she teams up with a rogue Peace & Order Maintenance Officer called Grim, she’s shocked to discover that there’s a mob of disgruntled vampires and a very angry mayor hot on her heels too.
Libby has never felt so unpopular and begins to wonder if it’s possible to die twice in one day…’
Slippery Souls was short-listed for the UK’s Writing Magazine’s Self-publishing Award 2012.
1930: Book Three
As the family and friends come to grips with Aryl’s death, the struggle to survive both emotionally and financially strains everyone in different ways.
So it’s up to Maura to see them past the worst of it, but she faces setbacks of her own when complications arise in her pregnancy. The new sheriff, Marvin, is working both sides of the law and takes advantage of Caleb’s state, getting him involved in bootlegging that threatens the business and his family. A concerned Patrick tries to help him, but stubborn as a mule, Caleb won’t listen.
But the gears of life slowly start to move again, and new friends are made and old enemies return. Claire finds refuge in Gordon, a widower, and the two find a common bond, finally allowing her to move on and accept her new life.
Until she’s met with a shocking surprise.
Brothers Beyond Blood
Slow Boat To Purgatory
“Vernon Baker lands a K.O. on his first try. Slow Boat will answer questions you didn’t know you had about Angels and Demons, Heaven and Hell and the realm of the Boatman in between.” David Beem, Author of Abyss of Chaos
“The series has a lot of potential and I can see it becoming a hit with fans of Dan Brown..” Book Monster Reviews
“It takes a very brave – some might say reckless – novelist to attempt a story of such magnitude as this – giving life to Good and Evil in an eternal battle for our souls. Vernon Baker has done quite an impressive job at it in this riveting epic tale spanning almost a thousand years.” Pete Morin, author of Diary of a Small Fish
Slow Boat To Purgatory…
Gaspar De Rouse, a Templar Knight, a man murdered by his brothers for the secret he possessed, resurrected and made immortal. Given a second chance at redemption he has walked the earth for over seven-hundred years.
Dominicus Bureau, a renegade priest, torn between his vows and the secret he pursues, a secret protected by an immortal. He carries a silenced pistol and uses it. Often.
Alex Donovan, a modern day warrior thrust into an ages old war, a war between good and evil, heaven and hell. Armed with an ancient chronicle of the life of Gaspar, Alex searches for the immortal and perhaps his own destiny.
All three men, passengers on a Slow Boat To Purgatory.
Malala’s Mission For The World
Fighting for oneself is a self-limiting journey, whilst fighting for others to enable them achieve victory and success, spreading education which inturns nourishes the minds of young generations is a victory worth achieving. Born in a beautiful valley of Swat, Pakistan, Malala Yousuf Zai, is a strong advocate of girl’s right for continuing education. In an area, where educating girls was considered unnecessary and unlawful, Malala stood out as a shining star and her courage glittered in every girl, providing them vision to continue education to bring pride and success for their families and homeland.
Her toys were books, and writing blogs that inspire young generation was her passion which flourished due to her father, her great enthusiast and admirer, who supported her in the struggle to bring the change in the world.
She was raised to global fame as an education activist after she attacked by a Taliban gunman in Pakistan in 2012, her family resettled in Birmingham in Britain. But the incident never stopped her and she continued striving as a role model to bring peace through education.
Across the world, a whole generation of girls who are excluded from learning by violence, discrimination or harmful traditional practices, can see themselves in Malala, whose struggle for peace is the pride for humanity.
Drinking from a Bitter Cup
After the death of her mother, Sylvia Butler’s father, a man she knows only from an old photo, takes her from Louisville, Kentucky to Ozark, Alabama to live with his family. But his wife resents everything about this intruder, from her out-of-wedlock conception to her dark skin and nappy hair.
When the wife’s younger brother Charles returns from Vietnam, Sylvia thinks she has found a friend and confidante, only to be hurt again, but this time, in a manner she never could have imagined.
Set under the backdrop of the Deep South in the 70s and 80s, this coming of age story of redemption and grace follows Sylvia in her journey from awkward girl to confident young woman, at last standing on her own.
Pennies from Burger Heaven
In the tradition of The Lovely Bones and Room, Pennies from Burger Heaven tells a dark story through the eyes of a child. With wit and wisdom, Copper Daniels will steal your heart, then break it in two.
AWARDS:
*Winner – Writers’ League of Texas: Best Mainstream Novel
*Winner – Frontiers in Writing: Best Mainstream Novel
*Winner – Frontiers in Writing: Best of Show
“Against the gritty backdrop of an inner-city ghetto rises the unforgettable voice of eleven-year-old Copper ‘Penny’ Daniels, offering poignant and heartbreaking insights into the horrors and trials of homeless life on the streets, finding heaven where you least expect it, and help in those you never thought to ask.”
– A.G. Howard, New York Times Bestselling Author of the Splintered Series
“At once disturbing and exhilarating, heartbreaking and heartwarming, Pennies is the story of an undying love between a mother and daughter. It grabs you by the heartstrings from the start and won’t let you go, even after you’ve read the last word.”
– Ken Oder, author of The Closing and Old Wounds to the Heart
“Debut novelist McKay infuses Pennies from Burger Heaven with wit, charm and moxie, so much so that the achingly beautifulness of Copper Daniels’ life sneaks up on you. All of this wrapped around a mystery that is fast-paced and rife with tension, with a satisfying series of twists. Can’t wait for the next Burger Heaven novel.”
– Pamela Fagan Hutchins, author of the Katie & Annalise mystery series
“[Pennies from Burger Heaven] gave me shivers on the first page…[Marcy McKay’s] writing is beautiful and emotional, without being sappy.”
– Frontiers in Writing
“Unputdownable.” – Texas Writers’ League Annual Manuscript Contest
The Whiskey Tide
Kate, the bookworm, hatches the plan, sacrificing her last year at Wellesley to make every grueling and dangerous trip. Rosalie risks her engagement to a clergyman to help on the home front – and tends Kate’s gunshot wound from rum-pirates. Aggie, a dazzling flapper hungry for adventure, uses the undertaking to catch the eye of a man she doesn’t realize is a vicious killer.
Kate’s courage in the face of storms, crooks on both sides of the law, and the treacherous tides of the Bay of Fundy changes her view of the world. It also changes the lives of those around her. Joe, the teasing Portuguese-Irish fisherman she hires to captain Pa’s Folly earns money enough to provide previously unimagined help to his poor but close-knit family — but must bear the secret burden of falling in love with Kate. A wealthy old woman dying of loneliness in her cliff-top mansion finds reasons to live. Even Kate’s cousin, shattered in body and spirit by his service in The Great War, is caught in the ripples.
Kate and Aggie’s every success makes their enemies more determined to ruin them. Their gentle cousin becomes an unwitting pawn in a deadly game. The meeting of minds between Kate and Joe, and the mutual attraction they try to deny, forces each to confront the social chasm between them, and the cost of a romance they dare not begin.
THE WHISKEY TIDE is a sweeping historical saga of family ties that bind and chafe and sometimes fray, of adventure and courage, and of new horizons glimpsed in the dark of the moon.
My Name Is Hardly
Gerald “Hardly” McDougall is a forgotten man. He’s abused, bullied, and left behind. The only escape left is to join the British Army. At first, he’s a reluctant soldier. Then, everything changes when tensions in Northern Ireland escalate and the Army need a man with a particular set of characteristics. Hardly’s assignment takes him into the heart of the troubles where he lives in the same houses as the IRA soldiers he’s fighting against.
“My Name Is Hardly”takes the reader on a spellbinding twenty year journey through Hardly’s life-from the beginning, when he leaves Scotland and joins the Army, to the tragic final days when he embarks on a search to find the only woman who can answer all of his questions.
Follow-up to the #1 Amazon Bestseller, “My Temporary Life”-easily enjoyed as a standalone novel.
Push Not the River
With Empress Catherine’s Russian armies streaming in to take their spoils, Anna is quickly thrust into a world of love and hate, loyalty and deceit, patriotism and treason, life and death. Even kind Aunt Stella, Anna’s new guardian who soon comes to personify Poland’s courage and spirit, can’t protect Anna from the uncertain future of the country.
Anna, a child no longer, turns to love and comfort in the form of Jan, a brave patriot and architect of democracy, unaware that her beautiful and enigmatic cousin Zofia has already set her sights on the handsome young fighter. Thus Anna walks unwittingly into Zofia’s jealous wrath and darkly sinister intentions. Forced to survive several tragic events, many of them orchestrated by the crafty Zofia, a strengthened Anna begins to learn to place herself in the way of destiny–for love and for country. Heeding the proud spirit of her late father, Anna becomes a major player in the fight against the countries who come to partition her beloved Poland.
PUSH NOT THE RIVER is based on the true eighteenth century diary of Anna Maria Berezowska, a Polish countess who lived through the rise and fall of the historic Third of May Constitution. Vivid, romantic, and thrillingly paced, it paints the emotional and unforgettable story of the metamorphosis of a nation–and of a proud and resilient young woman.
Beyond the Cliffs of Kerry
Jax
Newly admitted attorney Page Davenport is willing to do anything it takes to get out from under her father’s thumb and finally prove herself in his law firm. Anything except represent the infamous miscreant, Jackson “The Mauler” Malone. Despite her protests, Page is powerless to avoid becoming the sacrificial lamb, the token female, who will be the face of the violent, angry Neanderthal’s defense team.
Jax is a bad boy with a temper, doing whatever the hell he wants in life while flipping the bird at all his haters. Page is the prim and proper rich debutante her parents want her to be. They’ve been pulling her strings, telling her what to do, where to go to school, what to wear, and even who she should marry.
Page and Jax struggle to work together, engaging in a knockdown drag-out fight for dominance. When they finally stop taking swings at each other, they’re both surprised to realize that sometimes first impressions are completely wrong. In fact, opposites really do seem to attract. However, there are lines that attorneys and their clients can never cross, if Page wants to keep her license to practice law.
Will Page risk it all and submit to the cocky fighter? Or will Jax’s temper and jealousy prove too much for her to take on outside of the courtroom?
Either way, one thing is for sure – neither Page nor Jax are going down without a fight. In the end, the secret for them to find heaven may be to battle their way through hell first.
This 72K word book has a HEA with no cliffhanger.
The Boy Who Lit up the Sky
Grief stricken at the loss of his daughter, the Mishnese King hastily sends Senya, his infant grandson off to a decrepit inner city orphanage with the intent to retrieve him much later when things got sorted out. At the orphanage, Senya is protected by the invalid Sister Meri who instantly falls in love with the little fellow. She’s not bothered at all by his strange telekinetic and telepathic powers, flickering pupil-less silver eyes, or wicked clawed toenails. The House Father takes a shine to the lad too, and when Senya is six years old, he is summoned to the Father’s chamber. The Father ends up in flames, forcing Meri and Senya out into a snow storm running for their lives.
Thus begins the tale of Senya, a prince created to be king of a planet but tossed aside until his twelfth birthday when Lt. Taner, a Royal Guard detective is sent to retrieve him. It is unclear to all whether Senya is the product of something good or something evil, but in either case, it is very apparent that he is something more than just Lydia Kalila’s son.
Note to readers: This title contains graphic language, sexual situations, and some violence. It is not intended for children or young teens.
The Gardener of Baghdad
“Two people, one city, different times; connected by a memoir. Can love exist in a city destined for decades of misery?”
Adnan leads a weary existence as a bookshop owner in modern-day, war-torn Baghdad, where bombings, corruption and assault are everyday occurrences and the struggle to survive has suffocated the joy out of life for most. But when he begins to clean out his bookshop of forty years to leave his city in search of somewhere safer, he comes across the story of Ali, the Gardener of Baghdad, Adnan rediscovers through a memoir handwritten by the gardener decades ago that beauty, love and hope can still exist, even in the darkest corners of the world.
“A journey to another time, another place. A history lesson about Baghdad. A love story being read to you by the narrator who is as anxious to read the next page as you are. Beauty in so many ways.” –Amazon reviewer
“This is a fantastic book. You will not be disappointed in buying it. Super story! I cried so hard at the end. I loved it.” –Amazon reviewer
“Very intriguing read. I really got caught up in the story
and had trouble putting the book down.” –Amazon reviewer
“A nicely crafted tale of forbidden love. Using gardens and the beauty of nature contrasted with political strife and cultural taboos was a refreshing vehicle for a romance story.” –Amazon reviewer
“This amazing story will keep you spellbound and wanting more.” –Amazon reviewer
From the Author
“Love and peace are not just words, they are a way of life..And in an honest living, love will always conquer”
No matter how dark life becomes sometimes, there is always hope. All you have to do is believe.
The Gardener of Baghdad, is a novel of hope.
~Ahmad Ardalan~
OUT OF THE BLUE
Will going back to a past love end up destroying everything?
When Liv Callaghan inherits her grandmother’s cottage in Cork, Ireland, it offers escape from London and her marriage to her alcoholic husband Douglas. She travels back to the beautiful place where she spent idyllic childhood summer holidays. She learns to enjoy the challenge of living in the rustic cottage, which is without electricity or running water. But looming over her is a family secret that curtailed the summer visits of her youth.
Unexpectedly she meets her first love, Aidan. But he’s married now and lives locally with his family. Twenty years ago he broke her heart, so what happens when they get the chance to rekindle their relationship? Can you ever go back and what are the consequences for those close to you?
This is a wonderfully engaging novel of love, family, learning about yourself and your past, and finding independence.
Great for people who like Hilary Boyd, Jodi Picoult, Anne Enright, or Elena Ferrante
NOW AVAILABLE:
LOST CHILD by Gretta Mulrooney
Brilliant women’s fiction telling a heartbreaking tale of good intentions gone wrong. You won’t be able to put down this beautifully written novel till the shocking and emotional conclusion.
What happens when you take an orphaned child into your new family?
May has just started a new life with Nathan and his son from his first marriage. May meets a recently orphaned little girl, Elva, at the children’s home where May teaches. She develops a close relationship with Elva, and together with her husband, she draws the child into their loving family circle. The bereaved girl blossoms in the easy affection of the new family.
PRAISE FOR GRETTA MULROONEY’S PREVIOUS BOOKS:
ARABY
‘Mulrooney has a real gift for dialogue, the words and phrases ring true and make her characters wonderfully real… A tenderly funny and genuinely moving piece. I loved it.’ Fiona Morrow, Time Out
‘A beautifully observed study of reconciliation, Araby makes astute points about conflict and shifting values between generations.’ James Eve, The Times
‘I loved it. It’s such a sweet story, without being in the least sentimental. There are moments when the reader is absolutely there, so acute is this novelist’s ear and eye.’
Margaret Forster
MARBLE HEART
‘All of this is wickedly, sharply amusing. But when they really join the party with an act of meaningless terror, Mulrooney shows how constructive and contagious that situation was. And as Nina slowly takes the sweet-natured Joan as her final victim, Marble Heart proves itself to be an excellent lesson in the difference between cleverness and wisdom.’ The Times
‘Mulrooney slows the pace leading to the shocking denouement by deftly layering each chapter with different character’s voices. She shows herself to be an acute observer of all the intricacies that comprise female friendship. By making her readers wait, she not only heightens the gripping tension of her story but positions us with Joan and Nina, who are also waiting – Joan patiently [so she] may be married; Nina fearfully, for her secret crime to be brought into the open.’ Time Out
The Color of Destiny
At the same time, in another part of the world, sixteen-year-old Ryan Hamilton makes his own share of mistakes, but learns important lessons along the way. Twenty years later, Kate’s and Ryan’s paths cross in a way they could never expect, which makes them question the possibility of destiny. Even when all seems hopeless, could it be that everything happens for a reason, and we end up exactly where we are meant to be?
Includes Bonus Content: A Bookclub Discussion Guide
Be sure to read the first book in this series – the USA Today bestselling novel by Julianne MacLean: The Color of Heaven
Moon Over Alcatraz
But when the baby dies after a difficult birth, Brandy’s perfect life blows up in her face. Stricken with grief, she and Weston pull apart. This new distance leads them both to disaster. Not until a chance encounter with her high school friend, Edward Barnes, does Brandy pull herself together. Brandy and Weston agree to recommit to each other, striving to forgive infidelity and recreate their previous existence.
Everything is once again going according to plan—until Brandy discovers she’s pregnant. While she struggles to cope with this new obstacle, Edward Barnes returns to town and discovers she’s having a baby, while Weston is torn between his love for his wife and his anger at her betrayal. Can Brandy manage to keep her marriage to Weston together? Will Edward be a part of Brandy’s life if she and Weston separate?
The Dirty Parts of the Bible — A Novel
Semifinalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
The Dirty Parts of the Bible is a humorous adventure across America during the Great Depression—a rollicking tale of love and liquor, preachers and prostitutes, trains and treasure, sure to appeal to fans of O Brother Where Art Thou?, Mark Twain, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash.
Publishers Weekly says:
“While the title suggests a raunchy read, this rich and soulful novel is actually a rather well-done bildungsroman [coming-of-age story] steeped in wanderlust and whimsy that at times recalls The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and at others a tamer On the Road. The story begins in 1936 as 19-year-old Tobias is thumbing his way from Remus, Mich., to his uncle’s farm in Glen Rose, Tex., to find a hidden bag of money, after his father, a Baptist pastor, drunkenly slams his car into the church and is removed from the parsonage. The author does an excellent job in making well-charted territory (riding the rails; scavenged campfire meals under the stars) seem vibrant and new. Snippets of scripture, Southern spirituals, and folk ballads lend context and flavor to the text. Most impressive are the jangly dialogue and the characters’ distinctive voices, which are authentic and earthy but not remotely hoary. When Tobias finally arrives at his uncle’s, the surprises that await him are more than enough to keep his–and readers’–interests piqued.” (Review from the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award)
“The Dirty Parts of the Bible has it all … a plot that brings lots of laughs and a few tears, a writing style that is comfortable and matches the story, and characters that are pure joy.” —Front Street Reviews
“The Dirty Parts of the Bible is a grown-up Mark Twain-type adventure with lots of spirit and humor.” –Reader Views
“A fun read.” –The Nashville Scene
Longshot in Missouri
In LONGSHOT in MISSOURI, we meet Rob Finn – an Irish immigrant farmer living in Wisconsin – and follow him through his introduction to the grueling realities of war within a nation. Rob’s unusual talents with a rifle have earned him the nickname of Longshot, together with assignments that take him to various places around the western theatre of the war. It is a physically taxing, emotional journey, on which he is sometimes surprised by the truths he learns while doing his job as a soldier and a spy.
We also meet Allan Pinkerton, thus gaining a little insight into what the beginnings of military intelligence for the United States government was like in its infancy.
Historical characters interact with our fictional hero; actual events are intertwined with the daily lives and conversations of people in those rapidly changing times. Join with Rob as he works to serve and save the things he believes to be of utmost importance, and struggles to sort out those beliefs – the true from the false – in a baffling environment.
Language in the Blood
The story follows Cameron as he comes to terms with his new ‘life’, from his first days as a hapless vampire in war-torn France to the glamorous modern day setting of the Côte d’Azur. Along the way, he develops a distinctive taste for the finer things in life: jewels, yachts, small dogs and champagne-infused human…
About the author
Angela Lockwood-van der Klauw was born in the Netherlands. She learned her trade as a jeweller and gemmologist at the Vakschool Schoonhoven before moving to Edinburgh as an apprentice jeweller. There she met and later married her husband Adam. Angela ran her own jeweller’s shop in Edinburgh for ten years before she and her husband moved to the south of France in 2011. Like Cameron, Angela prefers the climate there, but often thinks about the town she left behind and its people.
Cameron’s story was born in the spring of 2013, a very wet spring during which Angela found herself climbing the walls, frustrated that she couldn’t go out and have her usual long walks along the seafront. Seeing his wife’s frustration, Adam suggested ‘Why don’t you write a book?’
Angela thought about it for a few days, then switched on her laptop and started writing. This is her first book.
Dear Stephanie
Dear Stephanie is a sinfully addictive walk through a world of beauty, affluence, and incidental love that effortlessly moves the reader between laughter, tears, heartache, and hope with the turn of every “Paige.”
I admit that I only bought it as a courtesy to my friend, because I’m not a voracious reader and this sort of story didn’t seem like the kind that I’d spend much time becoming interested in. As I mentioned, I was wrong.
Paige Preston is an addict. She’s what some would call a whore, a user, a druggie and an overall manipulative bitch. The joy of books though is that we get to see what’s going on inside the minds of those we’d otherwise be judging pretty harshly from the outside. Paige is a lot of things, including depressed. The suffocating grip of depression is hard to notice on a person who’s so beautiful, wealthy and seemingly carefree as Paige Preston, but it’s there in her everyday life, stealing her ability to just live freely.
Dear Stephanie exposes the demons inside Paige’s head as she vacillates between happiness and sadness and struggles with the constant self-doubt depression demands, even of seemingly perfect people. She is very much aware of her good looks, money and entitled lifestyle, but the trade off is what price is she paying for living this way? Can she be happy? Does she deserve to be loved? Does everything and everyone she loves fall apart or abandon her at some point because she deserves it?
Paige has accepted that she is paying for the sins of her lifestyle choices with shallow relationships and meaningless sexual flings, until one day she inexplicably finds love right in front of her face. Mandi’s description of Paige’s struggle to accept love and happiness by unloading her negativity and self-doubt is brilliant. So many little nuances make this story a gripping read. I highly recommend it.
Unfortunately Human
When it All Went to Hell: Stories
Full of disorientation and disillusion, revelation and redemption, loneliness and hope, When It All Went To Hell is a collection that will take you from the smallest of small town America to the far reaches of Africa and back again. These tales are inhabited by unpredictably real and absurdly honest characters that explore the complexities and simplicities of love and relationships, question what you learn when you step outside of your own culture and into another, and travel far, far down the extremes of (ir)rational thinking. And of course we will need the allegorical blast on religion that all starts with a scruffy and most untrustworthy raccoon named Fred.
Pappas has created a compelling and hilarious world of different voices, settings and characters, grown from his own wild style imagination, rooted deep in his days as a line cook in the bowels of the kitchen, as a hard travelin’ globe trottin’ tramp, and sketch comedian king bullshitter of bullshitters with a keen eye for the rich details. With this collection we see a young writer actively seeking, participating full-on in his own life, reporting back to us what he finds, and, slowly but surely — discovering his own permanent truth in letters.
Tales of the Late Twentieth Century
TALES OF THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY
*An aging, ex-musician working inside the incinerator chamber of an old 19th century hotel discovers a locked room that contains a Book of Souls of tenants of the past century.
* A soldier returning from the Iraq War meets someone waging her own military campaign, as darkly terrifying as the one he left behind.
* The son of a New Orleans mobster hit-man receives a beyond-the-grave message from his once-abusive, now-dead father that changes everything he thought he knew about their lives.
* A homeless man, collecting cans to survive, finds himself being followed by a stranger he is sure is the reincarnation of Dick Tracy.
* A woman who has lost her Texas ranch-man husband and any further meaning to her life, is suddenly contacted by a young runaway cousin whose parents are also dead, and is now in hot pursuit of her own aimless existence.
* In Cold-War Europe an American soldier falls in love with a beautiful and enigmatic girl, whose ties to a German terrorist gang are causing her life to spiral quickly out of control in THE BLUE LIGHT.
From tragic to comic and in-between, these and other tales journey and explore the zeitgeist, the spirit of our age, which was the late twentieth century. (Short Stories)
James Snyder’s previous works include the young-adult, literary trilogy THE BEAUTIFUL-UGLY; the military thriller AMERICAN WARRIOR; and the award-winning, suspense thriller DESOLATION RUN: “Simultaneously brutal, bloody and beatific, this is crime fiction done right. A relentlessly paced, unpredictable page-turner powered by well-developed characters.” Kirkus Reviews
In The Shadow of Babylon
THE GREAT BARRINGTON TRAIN WRECK
By Robert Trainor
NOTE: The Great Barrington Train Wreck can also be purchased with three other novels of mine for $3.99 in a book entitled Four Novels.(The three other novels are Frontier Justice, The Blackwater Journal, and The Road Map to the Universe.)
Living on the street isn’t easy, but Mike Stratton knows his way around…at least until the day that he almost dies from hypothermia. Scrambling around, he finds a job as a cab driver, rents an apartment, and falls in love with his most beautiful fare, the enigmatic Alexandra Hughes. Alexandra, who is only twenty, has a boyfriend, but Mike is obsessed with her, and before long, it appears that she needs him—especially on the night when she tells him, through a flood of tears, that her father has murdered her boyfriend and is coming after her.
But all is not quite what it seems in this tale of a down-and-out guy who is never able to see through the smokescreen of his lust…or see through the erotic night he spends in bed with Alexandra…or see through Alexandra’s mysterious disappearance…or see through his unexpected arrest for murder.
The following is an excerpt from Part One:
Just to introduce myself, I’m about as poor as poor can get. Not third-world malnutrition poor, but dirtbag American poor–tattered, friendless, homeless. Twenty years ago, when I was fifteen, I dropped out of high school, and a year later, I was booted out of my parent’s house. Since then, I’ve been living on the streets and have hardly even slept in an apartment, much less rented one. During the long, cold northern winters, I’ve gone from one homeless shelter to another or from one abandoned house to another. In the summers, I usually crash in the city park, or on rainy nights, I’ll walk the five miles to the state forest where I’ve dug a hole in the ground that’s covered with logs, tarpaulin, and brush. Meanwhile, through it all, drugs and alcohol have been my staples–morning, noon, and night.
Even though I have no formal education to speak of, I’ve spent thousands of hours in the public library reading about things that interest me, regardless of their relevance or practicality. Because of this, you might be pleasantly surprised by my vocabulary and ability to write a coherent sentence–I guarantee you that this isn’t going to be one of those crude, half-baked books that is littered with four-letter words and all sorts of peculiar vulgarities that some writers, many of them quite famous, find so attractive.
I suppose, to be authentic, I should begin with what happened at the cabin. It doesn’t actually have anything to do with the main part of my adventures—in fact, it’s just a pathetic sideshow to the catastrophe that befell me after I became involved with Alexandra Hughes. Even so, the story of my downfall wouldn’t be complete unless I included my death-defying march down the Landon Falls Road. I have been through more than my share of desperate times, including a stint on death row, but I think the thing that scarred me the most, even more than having a gun pointed at my head, was that eight-mile walk down a deserted road in a torrential November rainstorm.
When I look back on it, I can see that my two days at the cabin were an omen of what was to come. Although there would be a twist to some of the details, the ultimate result of my liaison with Alexandra would be another kind of death march, even if the road was paved in gold and adorned with beauty. Nowadays, with the wisdom gained from my many mistakes, I can see that the Landon Falls Road is nothing more than a symbol of my failed life. It is a road that stretches on forever—all the way to infinity, if infinity is defined as the length of my life. And I am walking down it, with neither man nor God nor nature for company—walking down a desolate, abandoned road until I fall or am pushed into my grave.
A Funeral for an Owl
By Jane Davis
Twenty years of change, One person who cares
‘Jane Davis is an extraordinary writer, whose deft blend of polished prose and imaginative intelligence makes you feel in the safest of hands.’ J J Marsh, Triskele Books
What kind of a boy would it take to convince two high school teachers to risk their careers?
“Let me tell you what I’m willin’ to do for you. We start a new gang. Very exclusive. You and me.”
Times have changed since Jim Stevens chose to teach. Protocol designed to protect children now makes all pupil/teacher relationships taboo – even those that might benefit a student.
“Promise me one thing, Sir. If you decide you gotta pick up that phone, you tell me first so that I can disappear myself. Because I ain’t havin’ none of that.”
What kind of boy would cause Jim to risk his career? A boy who can clothe a word in sarcasm; disguise disdain with respect. So what is it that Jim finds he has in common with 14-year-old Shamayal Thomas as they study the large framed photograph of an owl that hangs above the fireplace? It is Aimee White’s owl, to be specific. At least, that’s how Jim thinks of it.
“The wings, all spread out and that? They’re kind of like an angel’s.”
A rule-keeper, Ayisha Emmanuelle believes the best way to avoid trouble is by walking away. But, arriving on the scene of what appears to be a playground fight, that isn’t an option. To her horror she finds her colleague Jim Stevens has been stabbed. In the messy aftermath, when Shamayal discloses that he and Jim are friends, Ayisha’s first duty is to report her colleague. But, not knowing if he will pull through, something makes her hesitate. Now, all she can do is wait to see if her instinct was justified. And waiting is something Ayisha has never been very good at.
A powerful exploration of the ache of loss, set in a landscape where broken people can find each other.
˃˃˃ ˃˃˃ What reviewers are saying:
‘All the heartbreak of A Kestrel for a Knave (Kes) and then some. Imagine Billy Casper living in South London in the 1990s’
‘The dialogue sparkles. This is mature and assured writing.’ Writers’ Workshop
‘Davis is a phenomenal writer’ Compulsion Reads
‘I bought A Funeral for an Owl as a birthday present for my mum. There is no greater compliment.’ JJ Marsh, Triskele Books
‘Jane’s descriptive power reminds me of being inside a kaleidoscope; colourful, surreal, real, poignant and offering an ever-changing, intense view of what it means to be human.’ Amazon Reviewer
‘Jane has a way of writing that sucks you in to the book, feeling for the characters involved.’ Karen Begg
‘Davis really does bring characters to life, mothers, fathers, friends, teachers are all perfectly described along with their actions and reactions to events.’ Cleo Bannister
˃˃˃ ˃˃˃ If you enjoyed this you might like to try These Fragile Things
Leaves one panting to read more. (Jill Foulston)
A brilliantly imaginative and quirkily fresh take on the world. Brimful of originality and creativity. (The Literary Consultancy)
Davis is a phenomenal writer whose ability to create well-rounded characters that are easy to relate to felt effortless. (Compulsion Reads)
An elegant and understated prose style with a very satisfying rhythm. This is really very good writing indeed. (Debi Alper)
This book will take you on a journey into parts of the psyche we never normally explore. It will make you look at life differently and ask yourself the big questions we all normally avoid. (Book blogger, Athena Brady)
Masterly writing on a subject most of us don’t give a second thought to. Very well written with utterly believable characters. (Amazon reviewer)
Catching the Light
By Mary Grand
A compelling and heart warming set of four short stories by Mary Grand, author of ‘Free to Be Tegan’, which has over 50 reviews at amazon.co.uk, averaging 4.7 stars.
The New Arrival
Rachel has moved to the Isle of Wight determined to become invisible. Hiding a shameful secret she cultivates a ‘cold polite smile as effective as an electric fence.’ However, unexpectedly, into her life comes a loving, crazy, individual: Lottie the cocker spaniel. Everything is about to change.
Catching the Light
Erin thinks she has found her fairytale prince. However, the honeymoon in a remote cottage in Wales shatters the dream. For the first time in her life Erin discovers the mystical world of fairies.
Belonging
Megan works in a Theatre for the Deaf. She is Deaf. Her language is British Sign Language. One evening she meets John, who is hearing, and two worlds collide. This is the story of the struggles, joys and tears of their remarkable relationship.
The Outing
This was to be the most important day of Kay’s life. However her mission to be free from years of guilt reveals so much more than she could possibly imagine.
Free to Be Tegan
Also included is an excerpt from the author’s full length novel ‘Free to Be Tegan’.
Tegan, aged twenty seven, is cast out of the cult, rejected by her family and the only life she has known. She is vulnerable and naïve but she also has courage and the will to survive. She travels to Wales, to previously unknown relations in the wild Cambrian Mountains.
Reviews of Free to Be Tegan
“An excellent debut novel, can’t wait for the next one.”
“Powerful and beautifully written and I look forward to reading further books from Mary Grand.”
“Loved the book …. I was gripped and couldn’t put it down.”
“It was very thought provoking and emotional with lots of plot twists to keep you on your toes. I highly recommend this book.
Sunflowers
By Melodie Starkey
There’s nothing like a knock on the door at 3:00 a.m. to change your life forever. Gus Moore discovers how true this is when his ex-girlfriend blows in on an icy January night just long enough to dump “his problem” on the couch. From indolent single slob to competent single parent, Gus’s metamorphosis over the next six years is astonishing.
All is going swimmingly for Gus and his son, Sam, until two women complicate their lives: Sarah, with whom Gus has an unsatisfactory friends-with-benefits relationship, and Maureen, his son’s bipolar mother, who has decided she wants back into her child’s life. Maureen’s illness is a subtextual presence that eventually steers the course of the novel.
Sunflowers, which takes its name from the Van Gogh studies of the same, will appeal to a wide spectrum of contemporary fiction readers. Refreshingly, Gus does not have the stereotypical Mr. Mom awkwardness of being a single parent (although he does “outsource the Jesus stuff” to the mother across the street), and there is no predictable “happy couple works it out” ending.
Sunflowers is the author’s second book. Her young adult novel, View from the Closet Doorway, won the 2008 SouthWest Writers Conference award in its genre, and she received a grant from the Illinois Arts Council for another novel in progress. Her short story, Stars, won the South Carolina Fiction Writers award and was later included in an anthology of Southern writers. She has also published multiple stories in literary magazines.
The Collection of Heng Souk
By S.R. Wilsher
For many, Heng Souk is a hero, to others he is a criminal. Yet Souk sees himself as neither, merely a man seeking to balance what he once was, with what he now is. When the daughter of his estranged brother arrives, with her comes the possibility of atonement.
Sun has come to tell him of the death of her father, and to give him a package. Her frail uncle is a very different man from family legend. Yet when she discovers the notebook of an American POW, detailing his torturous relationship with his captor, she is startled by what she learns.
Meanwhile, Thomas Allen, still reeling from the death of his daughter, learns that the man he called Dad was not his biological father. The tragically unresolved love story his mother tells him, prompts Thomas to find out why her ‘greatest love’ never returned to her after the Vietnam War.
His search leads him to the notorious prison ‘the Citadel’, and to Sun and her uncle. Despite the hostility of her family, Sun and Thomas begin a perilous relationship. Aware that the fate of Thomas’ father is revealed in the notebook, she is torn between helping Thomas, and the damaging affect the notebook’s revelations will have on all of them.
Tea & Comfort
By Andrea Hurst
Fear made her run – A second chance at love made her stay
After receiving life-changing news, Kyla Nolan ran away from her life as a top model in New York and left her fiancé, Luke Bradford, behind. Now, almost two years later, Kyla has a rebuilt her life as the successful owner of Tea & Comfort on Madrona Island. She lives in a cozy home behind her tea shop, has great friends, and a community where she belongs. But Kyla’s life is thrown off balance when Luke moves to the island.
Luke has purchased the local vineyards, just like he and Kyla had always dreamt of. But Luke is not here just for the grapes. He is determined to discover why Kyla left him, if she still loves him, and if the future they planned is truly over.
Kyla must face her past and make a decision. She knows that this time around if they have a chance at happiness she will have to reveal her true identity and the secrets that drove her away…
Tea & Comfort is the second novel in the Madrona Island series. It follows the Amazon bestselling novel, The Guestbook. Escape to the enchanting island where comfort food and serenity await. Catch up with your favorite characters and meet new ones. This book can be read as a stand-alone novel or as part of the series.
Fans of Marie Force’s Gansett Island series and Susan Mallery’s Fool’s Gold series will enjoy Andrea’s Madrona Island trilogy.
Reader’s praise drawn from over 1000 Amazon reviews of The Guestbook:
“It warmed my heart and renewed my faith that life can have happy endings.”
“Engaging the reader from the first page… [it is] a story that filled the soul.”
“A great story of true friendship and love.”
“If you like the Notebook, you will love this book too.”
Early reviews for Tea & Comfort
“Tea & Comfort is interwoven with warmth, friendship and learning to love
and trust again.”
“I loved it! The best yet!”
Michael’s Irish Magic
By Brian Hunt
Patrick is down on his luck and penniless when he comes across an ancient thatched cottage in the deep countryside of County Kerry. There he meets an old woman who invites him to join her for lunch, and he gradually becomes enchanted by the spirits of previous inhabitants. His luck changes from the first day he sets foot in the flower-filled gardens of the cottage, and although he doesn’t realise it, his life will never be the same again. On each visit, he finds himself transported back to another time, where he seems to lose control over his mind and body to another person from the past – the Irish icon, Michael Collins.
He becomes friendly with the landlord of the pub where he has taken a room and with his magical change of luck, the customers all flock around him like bees settling on honey-dew. Even the landlord’s wife and daughter are enamoured with him! His business luck changes and all seems wonderful for him, but the magic at the cottage keeps drawing him back. The day comes, when he has an opportunity to find true happiness with the girl of his dreams, thanks to Michael’s Irish Magic!
LEVI KOENIG: A Contemporary King Lear
By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson
A Universal Dilemma
The Eskimos leave their old people out on the ice to die when they are no longer able to contribute to society. What is the best course to take when dealing with an elderly parent in modern Western society?
The dilemma confronting the three grown-up daughters of Levi Koenig is not an unusual one. Should he be placed in sheltered accommodation, encouraged to live with one or another of his ‘girls,’ or enabled to stay in his own home with a live-in carer?
This situation is not new. Back in the seventeenth century Shakespeare tackled it in his play, King Lear. But was he simply being misogynistic when he depicted two of King Lear’s daughters as grasping, conniving harpies and the third as goodness incarnate? And was King Lear the poor, exploited old man that Shakespeare portrays or really a calculating arch-manipulator? Some aspects of Levi Koenig’s three daughters parallel those of their Shakespearean predecessors, while others do not. Their father also turns out to be a complex, many-sided person, so that matters are far from being black and white.
˃˃˃ Harpies or angels?
The three sisters in Levi Koenig, A Contemporary King Lear are neither harpies nor angels. Like the husbands of two of them (the third is divorced), they are human beings, with human quirks and foibles, both good and bad. With the best of intentions, they set out to find a solution to the problem of their elderly father’s increasing frailty. But as everyone knows, the road to hell is paved with…good intentions. When it transpires that the old man has been sending sums of money to an unknown woman from his past attitudes change and the picture changes drastically.
In addition, each sister has her own issues to contend with, whether it’s an inadequate husband, a drinking problem, demanding children, money troubles, an unfulfilling job, or a failed love affair. Each sister is an individual in her own right, with wishes, motives and plans of her own. And each one makes her own contribution to the unfolding drama. Levi Koenig’s Filipina helper, Flora, adds another element to the mix, with her peculiar English and her own way of looking at things. Past antagonisms and childhood jealousies also come back to haunt the three sisters, further complicating the interaction between them.
˃˃˃ Getting to know them
As the story unfolds we get to know each of the three women more intimately, the daily minutiae of their lives, their thoughts and feelings, and the attitude of each one to herself, her nuclear family, her father, and her sisters. Each one of them is a person with a defined character and her own individual approach to the difficulties that beset her personal life and the extended family unit. Their father makes his own inimical contribution to the course of events, and like the tentacles of an octopus, the ties that bind the family together also restrict their actions and determine the eventual consequences.
˃˃˃ In brief
Levi Koenig, A Contemporary King Learexplores the relations between three grown-up sisters, their attitude to their aged father, and the way each one strives to juggle home, family, work, and love-life while tending to their father’s needs. Their relations come under additional strain when it transpires that their father has been sending money to an unknown woman, turning what seemed initially to be a straightforward situation into a complicated morass. Whether the ending is happy or sad is for the reader to judge.
Shaded Light
By J.A. Menzies
A muggy July weekend in Toronto. A house party with a disparate assortment of guests. A tired police inspector and his rookie partner. And murder.
“Reminiscent of the best Agatha Christie had to offer… Humor, complications, and characters so real that you can just about touch them and smell their sweat.” —Midwest Book Review
Get to know and love (or hate) a rich cast of characters
Homicide inspector Paul Manziuk wants nothing more than a few days R and R to recharge his brain.
Constable Jacqueline Ryan believes she owes her promotion to the Homicide Squad to being a black woman, and that she’ll do a better job of proving she belongs there if she can avoid working with the no-nonsense, intimidating Manziuk.
Senior corporate lawyer George Brodie and his wife Ellen want their son to marry a nice girl and settle down. To that end, Ellen invited the auburn-haired daughter of a distant relative for the July long weekend. But her plans go sadly awry when George invites his junior partners and their wives, and their son brings along his roommate—a ladies’ man.
Jillian Martin, the spoiled young wife of one of George’s partners, looks forward to being the center of attention at the house party. But first her husband insists they take along her disgusting older sister; then an old flame seems to be more interested by a boring religious do-gooder and an experienced older man makes fun of her. The last straw is when the jealous wife of another partner dares to challenge her.
After Jillian’s lifeless body is found in one of the gardens on the estate, chaos ensues.
Manziuk and Ryan are given the case, and it isn’t long before Manziuk feels he’s been thrust into an Agatha Christie novel where everyone has a motive and it’s necessary to sort through numerous baffling clues and conflicting alibis to find the truth. However, he’s no Hercule Poirot, and Ryan is definitely not Miss Marple.
Twisted in a Positive Way
By Chikamso Efobi
5 out of 5 star reviews…
“…If your dreams are being discouraged or disparaged in any way you should read this charming, well-plotted beautifully written book.”
Howard Lipman
Amazon Reviewer
“…This book is entertaining, inspiring and didactic. It is filled with nuggets of wisdom that would change lives. If you are getting discouraged about a dream or vision, this is a book to read, it is a story reminiscent of Paul Coelhlo’s “The Alchemist.””
Manny Olawale
Amazon Reviewer
“I really enjoyed reading this book. It follows the story of a girl named Aduago as she works hard to achieve her dreams despite all the adversaries she faces. It is a well written and heart-warming story, and the end left me with a smile on my face!”
Amazon Reviewer
Book Description
Spanning decades in the heart of Mushin, Lagos Nigeria, this coming-of-age tale of a charming heroine unfolds delicately and is based on the story of a young girl, Adaugo who faces difficult odds. The loss of a loved one and navigating cultural expectations and gender roles are major themes in this personal narrative documenting the growth and learning of a young girl with big dreams.
As Adaugo listens to the still small voice within her, her growth from a young girl in boarding school to a precocious brave woman is studded with precious gems of divine insight.
Her journey is one that any person, young or old will learn from as it illustrates the beauty and triumph of dreaming big and never giving up.
More Praise from Twitter…
“…Easy to read and an enjoyable story with some good morals, well done!”
@Samanthaldunn
If you are looking for an inspiring and romantic story filled with deep valuable life lessons…Twisted in a Positive Way is the book for you.
The Rowan Tree
By Robert W. Fuller
Rowan Ellway is a young college president; Easter Blue, an impassioned student leader. Upon graduation, she takes a fellowship to Africa, and they lose touch. When, decades later, they meet again, they discover that their prior bond was but a rehearsal for the world stage.
THE ROWAN TREE reaches from the tumultuous 1960s into humanity’s future, encompassing the worlds of politics, sport, ballet, presidential leadership, and world governance. An international cast of characters personifies the catalytic role of love in political change.
Replete with illicit loves, quixotic quests, and inextinguishable hope, THE ROWAN TREE foretells a dignitarian world much as the story of King Arthur and the round table sowed the seeds of democracy. .
The Rowan Tree…is the type of novel that is often called “sweeping” – it spans six decades and has a backdrop of global politics as a framework. It tackles tough subjects, the types of subjects that often lead to heated conversations on The Good Men Project – education reform, interracial relationships, nuclear disarmament, world government, college and pro basketball…Ultimately, The Rowan Tree tells the story of a young man’s search for meaning and purpose in an age of irony. He finds it in his discovery of the centrality of dignity in human relationships, and this insight propels him onto the world stage. – The Good Men Project
Crossing
By Dror Segev
Life is here and now, there is no rerun, and now is the right moment
Daniel is a successful, full of himself architect – but is NOT happy with his life. At the age of 38, he seems to be running away from everything substantial, living his life on auto-pilot. He eats, plays with his children, works out, doing what he always does, but at the end of the day, he feels utterly exhausted and terribly lost.
Something MUST give.
With a split moment decision he leaves his home, his wife and his children. He picks up a mourning friend, and embarks on a long cross country hike.
During this journey, Daniel takes a long, probing look at his life. He wrestles with his inner demons, faces his true emotions, and maps his various relationships.
Nothing will ever be the same anymore.
I had not read Dror Segev prior to discovering “Crossing” – but I am going to be eagerly seeking out everything written by him now.
When you have everything but feel nothing, what do you do? Well, if you are Dan Sagi (Daniel Elbaz), you leave everything you have ever known behind you and set off on a journey that starts in the middle.
This is a complex dialogue that speaks deeply to any that have questioned their lives, their purpose and their own happiness. Set in Tel-Aviv, this has all the rich imagery and emotion common to Israeli narratives – the humanness of ‘being’ that is hard to find in other novels.
Circled
By Anne McAneny
A fire ignites a whirlwind of action and accusation in a swamp town that hasn’t seen excitement since the big lottery win twelve years ago. Little does reporter Chloe Keyes know that when she sniffs around for clues, she’ll end up facing her own demons while unsettling the very foundation of her hometown.
Chloe starts her day by pulling a gun on two intruders—and things only go downhill from there. Driving to Boyd’s General for her daily caffeine fix, she finds the place ablaze. When the flames die down, she uncovers evidence that points to a dire fate for her missing childhood friend, Hoop. He disappeared twelve years ago, on the same day his girlfriend was struck and killed by a car. The events have left a dark mark on Chloe.
Over the next two days, strange occurrences pile up: Chloe’s neighbor is found floating and bloated in Black Swamp; the head of a cosmetics conglomerate is arrested by federal agents; phone records point to a dead girl making calls; and a handsome stranger mystifies everyone he encounters. Through it all, the promise of a spectacular magic show captivates the local residents.
Close calls with gators, crossbows, and armed felons lead to a startling conclusion, complete with illusion, chicanery, and the most divisive trick of all: cold, hard truth. Will Chloe’s murky existence finally be clarified, or will she succumb to the demons that haunt her?
Beautiful Pleasure
By Lucia Jordan
It has always been Lily, Kyle, and Travis.
The three of them were always together. They were a team. They grew up together, went to school together, and even graduated college together, but something in their world is shifting.
Lily is beginning to see them differently. She doesn’t want things to stay the way they are. Her heart races when they are in the same room together. She imagines their hands on her body. What happens when her secret dreams become reality? Is she willing to cross that line?
If she does, there will be no coming back.
Three best friends, Lily, Travis and Kyle, step beyond their friendship boundaries. The moments and thoughts leading up to their first time together were exciting and hot. I enjoyed their easy banter and camaraderie, and I especially loved learning Lily’s secret thoughts as she finds herself beginning to see her friends in a new light. Their first time together was sizzling and intense, and I’d love to see how their relationship pans out. I’m also curious about Travis and Kyle’s thoughts and how their feelings for Lily evolved.
A Chance for Sunny Skies
By Eryn Scott
Sunny Skies is drowning. The problem, besides the whole not-being-able-to-breathe part, is that when her life flashes before her eyes, she doesn’t recognize any of it. Convinced the universe phoned in a default slideshow, Sunny gives in to the current.
After a fisherman snags the twenty-six year old in his net, she decides it’s time to cast off her hermit like ways. When she meets slightly-less-awkward-than-her Brian, an archery-loving neat freak, she discovers that living her new life might be scarier than drowning. But scary or not, this may be the only chance for Sunny Skies.
Every now and then you come across a story that is so awesome that you hate to see it end! This is definitely one of those stories! You will not only fall in love with Sunny but the author makes you actually feel every one of Sunny’s thoughts and struggles. There were times I actually laughed out loud and other times when I wanted to wrap my arms around Sunny to give her a hug. Do NOT pass this one up!
My husband and I BOTH loved this book! I found myself giggling and could completely relate to the character. It’s a light read, but also provokes a lot of deeper thinking about how we relate with and treat other people in our lives.
First of all — this book is hilarious. The moment we met Sunny it’s like, ohmygosh cringe-worthy slash I-can-so-relate slash how-is-Sunny-gonna-get-her-HEA? The story is unexpected because it takes such a funny approach to a story line that could be intense. Sunny, for all her insecurities and self-doubt, comes to life as Eryn introduces us to a unique and well-developed cast of characters and weaves in this whole concept of life-flashing-before-your-eyes in a way I haven’t seen before. I found myself trying to guess the other “items” that Sunny was looking for. I like that Sunny isn’t perfect, she is flawed, but also, that’s why I love her. Highly recommend!
Company Man
By E.A. Hooper
Scott and his psychotic partner Daniel are company men, hired thugs that act as the eyes and hands of the all-powerful corporation that controls their dystopian megacity. Being a company man brings Scott respect and good money until he starts to feel empathy toward their victims… and empathy is against company policy.
This was a great story, I really loved it. I couldn’t put it down, as even the first page really draws you in. Like another reviewer stated, the plot twists are great for the most part. Really my only critique is that the largest twist seemed a bit obvious, though that may just be me. The characters are well thought out, as well as the society they live in; one of acid rain and corporate control over every aspect of one’s life. I’m excited to read whatever EA Hooper comes up with next!
Surprisingly good narration. Too bad so short. Could be expanded to a larger story, would be an exciting read.
This book was recommended and I am glad I read it. Lots of surprising twists. Wanted to keep reading to see what happened next. Well done.
Burning Through Gravity
By Addison Moore
His lie cost her a few sleepless nights.
Her lie will cost him everything.
Contemporary Romance
From the NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAYbestselling author, Addison Moore:
Cosmopolitan Magazine calls Addison’s books, “…easy, frothy fun!”
Absolutely BRILLIANT! ….hardcore and dramatic to the finest…highly recommend it to any lover of romance, Burning Through Gravity is an absolute MUST-READ! — Lita, Goodreads Review
One of the hottest books Addison has written!—A Crazy Vermonter’s Book Reviews
I abso-freaking-lutely loved it! Addison takes us on a ride…so many twists, turns and jaw-dropping moments I swore my jaw would become detached…I love Addison’s books! I am a huge fan…—Tabby’s Tantalizing Reviews
Lust, lies, and secrets equals one amazing book hangover! —Delphina Reads Too Much Blog
Burning Through Gravity is a wicked, heated chase to the truth. Deception, lies, and scheming abound, with layers upon layers of shocks and twists. From its first page to its last, it’s an emotion packed ride! —Three Chicks and Their Books Blog
(New Adult Romance)
BURNING THROUGH GRAVITY—they soared so high so fast they never expected the fall.
***Can be read as a standalone*** NO CLIFFHANGER***
Two beautiful souls.
Two seemingly innocent deceptions.
Once they meet, Stevie and Ford explode into one another in a ball of lust, hotter than a July moon. Ford is assertive, dominate and in control, that is until Stevie brings him to his knees. He thinks she’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever met both inside and out. Stevie thinks he’s sweet, and sort of goofy—of course it doesn’t hurt that he drips sex like honey.
Stevie is starting to fall hard for Ford.
And Ford is all in with Stevie.
She wonders if he could ever forgive her for what she’s about to do.
She wonders if she wants him to.
They say love conquers all.
But love never met two liars like Stevie and Ford.
A Story of Becoming: An Inspiring Fantasy Fable
By Ayn Cates Sullivan
Ayn Cates Sullivan’s latest book, A Story Of Becoming is a fable for all ages which can be read with friends and family to invite increased trust and healing. It is the story of a seed that over time becomes an apple tree and after a storm becomes a living miracle. The tale is a metaphor for our own process of self-transformation and discovery, reminding us that no matter what we have faced in life the essence of our true self remains whole and complete. Our inner light can never be extinguished.
“A Story of Becoming is an enlightening tale of self-discovery and realization brilliantly depicted through the “life and lens of an apple tree. Woven in with the life lessons of strength, courage, hope, love, fear and loss is the essential message of transformation from the ordinary to the miraculous through trial and faith. Coupled with soulful, hand drawn illustrations of great beauty and depth, it will captivate the heart and touch the soul of both children and adults alike. It is a true treasure for every member of the family.”
Jessie Lamando.
“Take your time and allow the combined treasure of Ayn’s words and Belle’s illustrations to sink like deep balm into your heart and soul… for profound healing. A gift for that precious being within each of us.”
Dr Susan Lange, OMD, L.Ac. –Dr. Susan Lange, OMD, L.A.c
At Odds with Destiny
By Uvi Poznansky
Each one of the novels in this boxed set is outside the box. Together, they have nearly 1000 five star reviews! Open this box at your own risk!
Bestselling, critically acclaimed, and notoriously creative authors from across the book continuum join forces to bring you At Odds with Destiny, everything you’ve wanted in a boxed set but thought you’d never find: full-length novels brimming with myth, fantasy, mystery, history, romance, drama, originality, heroism, and suspense. Finding themselves at odds with destiny, the characters in these stories fight to shape their future and define who they are. Come follow them in their amazing journeys.
Rise to Power by Uvi Poznansky
Notorious for his contradictions, David is seen by others as a gifted court entertainer or a traitor leading a gang of felons. How does he see himself? Can he control his destiny and strike a balance between ambition and longing for purity?
Double Forté by Aaron Paul Lazar
In the deep cold of winter, threats erupt from the dark woods, spinning events out of hand—and Gus, tormented by the unexplained death of his wife, braces for the fight of his life.
The Luck of the Weissensteiners by Christoph Fischer
In WW2 Eastern Europe, two families—one Jewish, one Catholic—fight for survival amidst deception, fear, distrust and betrayal. In the entangled web of political, religious and familial loyalties, can love endure?
Outview by Brandt Legg
Nate embarks on a breathless quest to save his brother and unravel the mystery of their father’s death. His desperate flight takes a stunning turn when mystics reveal an extraordinary destiny to him.
Among the Shrouded by Amalie Jahn
An ancient prophesy foretells the birth of seven psychics destine to change the world… Among the Shrouded follows Mia, Thomas and Kate, three unsuspecting strangers whose lives intertwine to reveal the significance of their gifts and the greater purpose of their collective lives.
Pam of Babylon by Suzanne Jenkins
After Jack dies, his wife Pam discovers secrets and lies. Is she destined to succumb to vengefulness against his two lovers, or will she find a different way forward?
Broken Angel by S.W. Vaughn
To rescue his kidnapped sister, Gabriel is forced to join a crime syndicate, where he discovers a dark underside to the city that few have ever seen. Yet the game can’t be won by their rules. He’ll have to make his own.
Tempus by Janet Morris
Woe betide the soul who dares too much! Ride with Tempus and his Sacred Band of Stepsons cavalry into myth, legend, and adventure like no other.
Native Lands by P.C. Zick
When their environment is torn apart by a battle for power and control of the last of the Florida frontier, a tribe of native Floridians thought to be extinct rise up to halt the destruction of the natural world they treasure.
Dream Student by James DiBenedetto
Everything was going according to plan, until the night when college junior Sara Barnes started seeing other people’s dreams. Is she the only one witnessing the secrets of a serial killer?
November Surprise
By Laurel Osterkamp
* Twenty years
* Six presidential elections
* One consuming love affair
For Lucy, the distinction between love and politics is hazy at best. Both can be all-consuming, and either can lead to a heart-breaking loss or an exhilarating win.Lucy first learns this lesson in 1988, when she’s a shy girl, battling a high school bully and rooting for Dukakis. Through the years Lucy will experience stunning victories and agonizing defeats as she makes the choices that define her. Meanwhile, she also struggles to define her relationship with Monty, who comes in and out of her life like the changes in public opinion. Is Monty simply a one-night stand, a kindred spirit, or the love of her life? And by 2008, can he offer her a change to believe in?
Filled with snarky political and pop-culture references, November Surprise is about the journey we take to believe in a candidate, in love, and in ourselves.
November Surprise is a companion piece to Campaign Promises, which is free on Amazon. They can be read in either order. Both have a liberal slant.
The Girl On The Half Shell
By Susan Ward
***An Amazon Top 100 Best Selling Coming- of-Age***
People think Chrissie Parker has a picture-perfect life. She leads an opulent lifestyle in Santa Barbara, her father, Jack, is a beloved music icon from the sixties, and she possesses a wealth of musical talent that will certainly lead to a promising future. But behind the façade, everything is far from perfect.
When Chrissie journeys from Santa Barbara to New York City for an audition at Juilliard, romance is the last thing on her mind. She never anticipated encountering British Superstar Alan Manzone, a musician fresh out of Rehab, tormented by his own weakness and troubled past. Alan’s life is everything Chrissie’s is not; exciting, glitzy, and an all-out train wreck.
Chrissie is soon consumed by Alan’s shocking pursuit of her, his dark secrets, and his sexual desires. Will their stormy affair destroy them? Or will their love keep them together for a lifetime?
MATURE CONTENT
This story contains sexually explicit material, mature subject matter, and is intended for individuals over the age of eighteen.
Her Whole Self
By Tracy Wainwright
Abandoned by the two most important people in her life – her fiancé and best friend – Jen flounders as she picks up the pieces of her life. Desperation prompts her to reach out to an old classmate, who regrettably is a Christian. Is a night of free entertainment worth the cost of spending it with a group of hypocrites? The answer to that question surprises her almost as the next several upheavals in her life.
A very well written novella. It deals with issues that happen to all of us at one time or another. The best part is that feelings, insecurities, and doubts are woven with the help of the fellowship of others, that believe in God.Scriptures are used to enhance her search. Read this book and find what you maybe looking for. It started my search! Thanks Tracy Wainright, looking for the next book.
I read the print version of this book and really enjoyed it. Found myself laughing, crying and totally relating to the main character. Glad to see it here on Kindle.
Red Clover
By Florence Osmund
Imagine feeling like an outsider. Now imagine feeling like an outsider in your own family.
Lee Winekoop suffered a childhood fraught with criticism and isolation. Now twenty-six, confused and emotionally bankrupt, he leaves his dysfunctional upper-class family to find his true self. In pursuit of cultivating a meaningful life for himself, Lee discovers a world poles apart from the one he had left behind and an assortment of unforgettable characters to go with it. But just when things start falling into place, a well-intentioned domestic servant divulges an alarming family secret that causes Lee to question who he is and where he’s going.
What others are saying about “Red Clover:”
Windy City Reviews – “Red Clover is a wonderfully written story about a man overcoming his upbringing and becoming his own man. The finished product, both the man and the story, are exemplary.”
Charlie Bray, Founder of INDIETRIBE.com – “Florence Osmund is a brilliant wordsmith who paints such a rounded picture of each character that the reader feels he is in the book with them.”
BestChickLit – “A beautiful moving story that gently absorbs you into the lives of the characters.”
Awakenings
By Greg Gaines
Have you lost your religious faith?
Then you might know what 23-year-old Thomas Giordano is going through.
Realizing that his Catholic faith no longer makes sense, Thomas falls into despair and becomes estranged from his religious family. He clashes most with his devout sibling Christian, who wonders what has happened to his brother and former kindred spirit. Over time Thomas discovers a new sense of purpose and forges new friendships, escaping the pitfalls of fatalism while learning to live without God. Yet even as he salvages his life, Thomas must somehow repair the growing rift with Christian, and rescue his brother from a spiritual crisis every bit as terrible as his own.
If you’re one of the many who’ve let go of their faith, or the countless others who’ve struggled with doubt and the troubles it can bring, this book will speak to you.
How does a young man attempt to broach the subject of abandoning his faith and religious upbringing with his devoutly religious family? More importantly, how does he do so without alienating them while living under the same roof? This is the dilemma faced by Thomas, the main character of Awakenings. He does so with grace and respect for his parents’ deeply held beliefs. Thomas’s confrontations with his brother are another matter. All in all a thought provoking premise that makes for a very interesting read. I highly recommend Awakenings.
Greg Gaines’s book kept me riveted. Haven’t most of us questioned our faith at some point in our lives? Awakenings touches all of us. Great writing, and very interesting.
So We Said Goodbye
By Rama Marinov-Cohen
Young love cannot be left behind
The reunion of childhood sweethearts shakes up their world when passionate memories become a life-changing reality.
Yaron has just turned fifty when he receives an unexpected phone call. Nearly thirty years ago, his childhood sweetheart slammed the door shut behind her and walked out of his life. Now, she calls him and asks to meet. What does she want? Can he refuse?
They each have a life and a family, but memories of a first love carry a threatening power of their own. The repercussions of their late reunion are many; their lives and marriages are shaken up, leading, reluctantly, to psychotherapy, disturbing in its own way. In the swirl of memories and unresolved secrets, nothing is safe, including everything they worked for their entire lives.
The flame of young passion never dies; its memory is inscribed within the body and soul. Two people in the middle of their lives are compelled to deal with the resurgence of their past. In distinct voices they narrate their conflicting memories of the youth they shared, the youth that shaped the people they have become.
˃˃˃ What would you give up to experience young love once again?
So We Said Goodbye delivers a thrilling drama in a compelling and contemporary language and form. It “deals courageously and wisely with a reality shared by many couples after years of marriage” (Alit Karp, columnist for Ha’aretz) and is a must for anyone who ever loved and has not given up on the hope of loving.
Leaving Green Island
By Em Barrett
** “If you enjoy Emily Giffin or Jennifer Weiner, then add Em Barrett to your list!” ~The Indie Bookshelf **
More than simply a modern love story, Leaving Green Island is a poignant yet lighthearted tale of friendship, family, and the search for a place to belong in the complex world of today’s twenty-something women.
With a new job at a prestigious Chicago law firm and an engagement ring on her finger, everything seems to be falling into place for Brecken Pereira these days. However, all this perfection quickly unravels when Reed Whalen, Brecken’s first love, unexpectedly resurfaces. Despite the years that have passed since Brecken and Reed met as teenagers on exclusive Green Island in northern Michigan, Brecken has never been able to fully escape her lingering heartache over the unresolved end of their relationship.
After Reed’s return, Brecken is torn between her longing for the past and the world she has carefully built for herself since Reed vanished from her life years before. Her relatable and complex relationships with her two best friends provide the backbone that supports Brecken, both as the life she knows quickly dissolves around her and as she struggles to pick up the pieces.
This unputdownable novel is certain to pull on the heartstrings of anyone who ever had a first love.
{This book contains underage drinking and a bit of explicit language and sexual content.}
Leaving Green Island
By Em Barrett
** “If you enjoy Emily Giffin or Jennifer Weiner, then add Em Barrett to your list!” ~The Indie Bookshelf **
More than simply a modern love story, Leaving Green Island is a poignant yet lighthearted tale of friendship, family, and the search for a place to belong in the complex world of today’s twenty-something women.
With a new job at a prestigious Chicago law firm and an engagement ring on her finger, everything seems to be falling into place for Brecken Pereira these days. However, all this perfection quickly unravels when Reed Whalen, Brecken’s first love, unexpectedly resurfaces. Despite the years that have passed since Brecken and Reed met as teenagers on exclusive Green Island in northern Michigan, Brecken has never been able to fully escape her lingering heartache over the unresolved end of their relationship.
After Reed’s return, Brecken is torn between her longing for the past and the world she has carefully built for herself since Reed vanished from her life years before. Her relatable and complex relationships with her two best friends provide the backbone that supports Brecken, both as the life she knows quickly dissolves around her and as she struggles to pick up the pieces.
This unputdownable novel is certain to pull on the heartstrings of anyone who ever had a first love.
{This book contains underage drinking and a bit of explicit language and sexual content.}
The Parts I Remember
By A.K. Mills
Act first. Think never. Remember nothing.
Welcome to Kelly Rockport’s existence at Haysville University, where responsibility is just an elective. After all, fake IDs, alter egos, and one-night stands are all part of the college experience, right? So what if she blacks out from time to time? Memory is overrated.
When freshman year lasts about as long as a one-night stand and is quickly followed by the Year of the Blackout, Kelly projects junior year to be nothing shy of amazing. But as shots, beer, cocaine and men mesh together in an intoxicating haze, Kelly’s reckless ways get her into serious trouble. The only problem is, she can’t remember what happened.
As she hovers along the edge of consciousness, Kelly forces herself to think past her pain to piece together the shards of her life. This is her story, told in her words: The Parts I Remember.
Picked
By Jettie Woodruff
It started with a game, a very different computer game, and a desire to know a life so intriguing and different from my own. I had just started to venture out with my own work at my father’s private investigating firm when our paths crossed on purpose. My purpose. I never expected things to go the way they did. I never expected him to be so nice and handsome. I couldn’t be number four. How could any woman love a man with more than one wife? Not only was it impossible, it was ridiculous. There was no way I was getting any closer. I was going to get in, dig around a little, and get out. That’s it. Does anything ever turn out the way we plan? Becker Cole’s wives were not the typical, obedient little housewives wearing aprons and submitting to him I had pegged them to be. They were cute, young and full of life. I loved them. All three of them. And somehow, I loved Becker too. Could I swallow the persona that society expected me to be and share him, or was this too much? Was I ready to be a part of this world? And if I wasn’t… could I just walk away?
The Guardian of Secrets
By Jana Petken
“This is a must-read for historical fiction fans” BlueInk Reviews. “A suspenseful, Compelling Historical Fiction” Kirkus Reviews
A historical family saga spanning four generations, from 1912, Kent, England, to Spain and its 1936–39 civil war.
Celia and Ernesto’s two sons march under opposing banners, whilst their daughters take different paths, one to the Catholic Church and the other to the battlefields, and in the shadow of war, an evil ghost from the past watches and waits for an opportunity to destroy the entire family. In exile, Celia and Ernesto can only wait and pray for their children and their safe return home..
“Debut novelist Jana Petken delivers a powerful family epic that chronicles the travails of a British woman and her family during the Spanish Civil War.Recently wedded, Celia Merrill Dobbs’ initial expectations of marital bliss quickly dissolve in 1912, when her husband Joseph reveals he has married her only to inherit her wealthy father’s prosperous farm in the English countryside. After Celia discovers that Joseph is her father’s killer, she and their newborn son Peter escape to Spain.
In Spain, she lives with the Martinéz family, aristocratic landholders in Valencia. Celia becomes enamored with widower Ernesto Martinéz. They soon marry and raise their four children amid rising political tensions gripping the country.
Petken masterfully moves the gripping action along by creating credible characters and suspenseful plot twists. Writing in a straightforward manner and infusing scenes with details that inform but don’t overwhelm, she portrays each of the characters’ efforts to survive while coming to terms both with the horrors of wartime and personal bouts with excessive pride and passion.
Though the action is grounded in a particular time and place, the novel’s concerns are universal, as typified when Celia’s daughter ruminates on whether Spain would eventually “look back and feel proud of a war that had killed hundreds of thousands…or would it feel as she did now, betrayed by men with selfish political ambitions and lust for power.” Despite its length, the captivating story succeeds brilliantly and becomes an unforgettable page-turner.
This is a must-read for historical fiction fans.” (Blue Ink Review)
Moon Struck
By Jeannette Raleiigh
“Ms. Raleigh drew me in and held me tight from the first word until the last, and left me wishing for more. It is definitely worth your time to add this story to your collection.” –Bitten By Books–
Jen has never enjoyed the full moon. Not like her family and certainly not like her boss, Rob, whose monthly trysts leave the office in a shambles. Jen turns into a mouse on the full moon, the most disrespected form in the were-community.
Her crush on Rob only makes her deep loneliness and feelings of alienation worse. When her friend steals an amulet with the power to turn were-wolf, Jen decides to try it on… only to find that being a wolf isn’t all its cracked up to be. Guaranteed to make you howl.
An Amazon.com Top 100 Bestseller in April
****ALSO AVAILABLE: The When Were & Howl Collection. Five Books bundled together.
(Formerly released as Wolf N Mouse)
Just when I think I’ve seen all the possibilities of shifters, Jeanette Raleigh surprises me with something new. The fact that Jen shifts into a mouse is amusing, but you can also feel the shame the character feels. When she decides to try an amulet that will give her the power to turn into a wolf the book gets even better. If you love paranormal romance, give this one a try.
I found this novelette funny and a great read!
I only had one issue with it… It was too short! I know it is a novelette, it is supposed to be short but I fell in love with Jen and really wanted more story. No one wants to leave when they are having a good time and I was having a wonderful time.
The book opens to a disgruntled Jen coming into the office and listening to her boss’ latest sexual moon driven episode. Her office is a huge mess because apparently her boss Rob decided that her desk and the area around it needed to be christened with his love pheromones. Several things happen and I followed it, completely rooting for Jen to get the guy.
Jen and Rob are both shifters. Rob is the big bad wolf and Jen the little bitty mouse. This could cause a problem but with the help of a little magic she thinks might have a way to fix their problem. This results in a hilarious episode where the heroine needs saving.
I really want to read the rest of the books now that I have had a taste of this little one. I am rating it 4 out of 5.
Until She Walked In
By Lila Felix
*This novel was previously released under the title AnguiSH*
Until she walked in, Breaker James floated around in a prison of his own making, crippled by agoraphobia.
Until she walked in, he itched for something more.
Until she walked in, his world was in limbo.
A simple note pinned to a corkboard will lead Ash right to Breaker’s solitary world and she will learn that there’s more to love than holding on tight.
Sometimes it means you have to let go.
“This was an amazing story, offering so much more than I anticipated. The story was unique, well written, and I loved the dialog.” Lost In Romance Books
“This is a fantastic book! I felt for the characters and went through everything right along with them. The storyline is fresh and pulls you in from the beginning. I love that the main girl character was strong from facing her own demons. I honestly kept putting it off and I have no idea why. I wish I had read it sooner. I highly recommend!” Mick Loves Books
So Much Owed
By Jean Grainger
January,1918 – Dunderrig House, West Cork, Ireland.
Dr Richard Buckley returns to his beloved Dunderrig, disillusioned and damaged by the futility of war. At his side is Solange Allingham, his best friend’s widow who has lost everything she ever loved.
Richard’s wife Edith is bitter at what she sees as her husband’s betrayal of his country by wearing a British uniform. After giving birth to twins, she withdraws into a silent world, finally leaving her family for strange new bedfellows. Solange is obliged to overcome her own heartbreak to become the mother Edith’s children so badly need. James and Juliet are inseparable and incorrigible and the life blood of Dunderrig. As they grow up, they come of age into a world where despite the horrors of the past, war looms large yet again.
From tranquil West Cork to wartime Belfast, from neutral Dublin to occupied France, the twins lives diverge in unforeseen ways as Dunderrig waits anxiously once more for the safe return of its children.
An absorbing story of neutral war-time Ireland, it highlights the tensions to families and relationships created by political divisions and war. An entertainingly written, winsome tale of love and devotion, at times unrequited,I found myself in sympathy with, and loving the resilient good nature of the Irish in hardship and under provocation. I appreciated the accurate historical background, and the insights this novel has given me into a people whose influence has spread around the globe.
From page one, So Much Owed had me captivated. It is rare to read a truly great Irish story intertwined with the factual events of World War 1. (Alan Monaghan’s The Soldier’s Song is another one)
The story shows how a small town and its population are affected by worldly events hundreds of miles from their doorsteps. A story that still rings true today. Jean Grainger’s style of writing is light and refreshing, a particularly difficult task given the subject matter. I read The Tour last year, and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed So Much Owed even more, and very much look forward to Ms. Grainger’s next work. Highly recommended!
Catching the Light: Four women, four compelling short stories
By Mary Grand
A compelling and heart warming set of four short stories by Mary Grand, author of ‘Free to Be Tegan’. 10 five star reviews at amazon.co.uk already.
The New Arrival
Rachel has moved to the Isle of Wight determined to become invisible. Hiding a shameful secret she cultivates a ‘cold polite smile as effective as an electric fence.’ However, unexpectedly, into her life comes a loving, crazy, individual: Lottie the cocker spaniel. Everything is about to change.
Catching the Light
Erin thinks she has found her fairytale prince. However, the honeymoon in a remote cottage in Wales shatters the dream. For the first time in her life Erin discovers the mystical world of fairies.
Belonging
Megan works in a Theatre for the Deaf. She is Deaf. Her language is British Sign Language. One evening she meets John, who is hearing, and two worlds collide. This is the story of the struggles, joys and tears of their remarkable relationship.
The Outing
This was to be the most important day of Kay’s life. However her mission to be free from years of guilt reveals so much more than she could possibly imagine.
Free to Be Tegan
Also included is an excerpt from the author’s full length novel ‘Free to Be Tegan’.
Tegan, aged twenty seven, is cast out of the cult, rejected by her family and the only life she has known. She is vulnerable and naïve but she also has courage and the will to survive. She travels to Wales, to previously unknown relations in the wild Cambrian Mountains.
Reviews of Free to Be Tegan
“An excellent debut novel, can’t wait for the next one.”
“Powerful and beautifully written and I look forward to reading further books from Mary Grand.”
“Loved the book …. I was gripped and couldn’t put it down.”
“It was very thought provoking and emotional with lots of plot twists to keep you on your toes. I highly recommend this book.”
Flawless
By Jan Moran
“An engrossing view into the world of ‘beautiful people’ with an ending that will leave you wanting more.” – New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Melissa Foster
Verena Valent is at the helm of her family’s legendary Swiss skincare company, which caters to a glamorous clientele in the heart of Beverly Hills. After her parents are killed in an automobile accident, she becomes the sole provider for her younger twin sisters and her grandmother. Instead of attending college with her friends as planned, she rises to the challenge to guide and expand her family’s business. She is in the midst of a critical international expansion into Asia when her carefully organized life begins to unravel.
Verena is shaken to discover that her fiancé, Derrick, might be behind a scheme to take over her growing company. While she struggles to save the business that means everything to her, she meets Lance, an executive chef at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She encounters this intriguing man again while on a business trip to Paris, and soon gains a new perspective on love, romance, and relationships.
When the unthinkable occurs and Verena’s world collapses, her friends rally around her, among them Scarlett Sandoval, a top intellectual property attorney; Dahlia DuBois, a perfumer from an esteemed line of French perfumers; and Fianna Fitzgerald, a fashion designer with her own trendy boutique.
Ultimately, Verena learns that truth, family, friendship, and love are the unshakable pillars of life. But will she get a second chance in business, or in love?
Rating: PG for mild language and sexual content. (No strong language, graphic sex, rape, or violence).
Flawless is the first book in the Love, California series. Follow a group of smart, stylish, entrepreneurial friends as they navigate the turbulences of modern life in the business of beauty. Set in Beverly Hills with action flung across the globe, this engaging series features gutsy, determined best friends, and how they manage to live the lives of their dreams.
“Flawless is an astute, intelligent, gripping romance for the modern woman. JaAmazon Linkn Moran’s writing took me to the edge; she creates a heroine whom you can’t fail to care for and understand. A fabulous first book in the series; I can’t wait to read the next one!” – Hannah Fielding, Author of The Echoes of Love
In Their Shoes: A Collection Of Short Stories
By L.J. Higgins
Throughout our lifetimes, most of us will face different hardships, and create many amazing memories. All of those blend together to make you the person you become. Each of us have a different story, taking a different path. Whether you believe someone has taken the right path or not, it is important to remember that we all want the same things in life – to be happy and to be loved for who we are.
In Their Shoes is a collection of short stories that allows you to have a glimpse into someone’s life, giving you insight on how it may feel to be them for just a moment.
This compilation of short stories takes a look through the eyes of these people at their best and worst times. It’s interesting because the emotions are real and how I think I’d feel if put in these kind of situations. It kind of makes you take a step back and think before you look down on someone, as so many do. People have problems, even those who pretend they don’t . These stories are the perfect insight to those problems. Quick and easy read i’d recommend.
It’s amazing how judgy the world can be. But no one truly knows what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes. In these short stories, we don’t get a beginning or an end, just get thrown into the middle of someone else’s life for a short period of time.
A few hard topics are tackled, one happy one, but all of them were memorable stories.
My favourites were the one with Stella and her Mum – really heart wrenching – and the last one about a possible/maybe pregnancy – it felt so real.
I believe the author really got into the heads of each of the characters, and found the stories to be realistic and emotion provoking.
Land of the Free
By Woodrow Landfair
“Influences like Jack Kerouac” BISMARCK TRIBUNE
“In the tradition of dustbowl balladeers like Woody Guthrie and writers like John Steinbeck” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
A coming of age classic and an action adventure thriller… A young man pawns his possessions, purchases a used motorcycle, changes his name, and attempts to create a new life for himself in an indefinite, forty-eight state adventure.
In the custom of traveler novels like ON THE ROAD, and teen & young adult books like A SEPARATE PIECE, Landfair delivers a novel on par with the best action and adventure fiction books.
Dogs Don’t Look Both Ways
By Jane Hanser
A heartwarming book, now a 2015 B.R.A.G. MEDALLION HONOREE for Literary Fiction. Author Jane Hanser presents a coming-of-age story about a dog and his family that is filled with adventure, and regales us with endearing story-telling that keeps us enthralled.
“Joey Hanser is a very handsome Labrador Retriever who has endless amounts of energy and curiosity. His need to explore outside his boundaries offered him opportunities to meet new friends (and get treats!), but it also led to a horrible accident…an accident that could have had a sad ending. But with Joey’s determination and the love and support of his parents, (he) learns that maybe, just maybe, some of those rules are important and if the rules are broken, then there are consequences.” The Avid Book Collector
“When reading a book about animals there is always that slight apprehension that ‘This is not going to end well!’ As a dog and cat lover I have read books in the past and have had to buy in boxes of tissues and chocolate to get to the end.. I am delighted to say that those extreme measures are not required for this book.. All the chocolate that you need is Joey himself who is of the Labrador variety…” writes Sally Cronin, “Smorgasbord – Variety Is the Spice of Life.”
Dogs Don’t Look Both Ways is a true story with a unique voice about discovery and freedom, rules and boundaries, communication, and, of course, our dependence on the kindness of others – is a message about life itself.
Appropriate for all adults and for children 5th grade and up.
The Rowan Tree
By Robert W. Fuller
Rowan Ellway is a young college president; Easter Blue, an impassioned student leader. Upon graduation, she takes a fellowship to Africa, and they lose touch. When, decades later, they meet again, they discover that their prior bond was but a rehearsal for the world stage.
THE ROWAN TREE reaches from the tumultuous 1960s into humanity’s future, encompassing the worlds of politics, sport, ballet, presidential leadership, and world governance. An international cast of characters personifies the catalytic role of love in political change.
Replete with illicit loves, quixotic quests, and inextinguishable hope, THE ROWAN TREE foretells a dignitarian world much as the story of King Arthur and the round table sowed the seeds of democracy. .
Rubies and Other Gems
By Joyce DeBacco
A one-night stand in her dreams isn’t the worst thing to happen to Lily. Learning her dream lover was a real man who lived and died years before she was born qualifies for that.
Lily’s life is in shambles. Her husband is clueless, and her children are rudderless. It’s little wonder she seeks comfort in her dreams, unaware that Grandma’s rubies have sent her back in time to a safer, saner existence.
Aware she can’t mend her marriage or steer her children in the right direction unless she stays in the here and now, she vows to leave the past to the past. But in her attempt to take away the jewelry’s power, she accidentally sends herself back without her return ticket, the rubies. Will her dysfunctional family fall apart without her? Or will they pull together for the common good? It could go either way.
Come Eat at My Table
By Ruth O’Neal
Karin is a woman with a past. About the time she thinks no one will ever know, it comes back to haunt her. The deeper she tries to push it away the more prominently it returns. Forgiveness is a word that isn’t in her vocabulary as far as the people from her past are concerned. She thinks she’s fine until someone from her past shows up unexpectedly forcing her to think about what happened. With the help of her family and other people around her she realizes that she must learn to forgive, even if forgiveness wasn’t asked of her.
Ruth O’Neil’s new release, Come Eat at My Table, is a delightful novel. The story tickles the heart with the sweet fragrance of humor and real life tales of sibling relationship, marriage, and a daughter’s perspective of her mother. Ruth writes with a simple voice that slowly and gently warms you up to each character through daily life nuances. The lesson of forgiveness weaves in and out and culminates in a most surprising way; the last few chapters take an unexpected turn that makes your mouth drop! However, the overriding theme is hospitality at its best. Come Eat at My Table paints the picture of hospitality as love, as duty, as desire, and as healing. The main character, Karin, exudes the love of the Lord in all her interactions and reactions throughout the story. Her humble character is one to emulate. Anyone hoping for a clean story, easy to read, and full of hope and promise…then this is the next book to put in your hands!
This book captivated my heart and soul with the family dynamics and how they worked as a unit. Karin was a submissive wife, a loving mother and a devoted friend to all that needed her to listen to them. The girls were outgoing and sensitive at the same time to their family issues. And the dad was a supportive,loving,provider for the whole family.This book gave great insight for those who do not put their trust in Lord to really look at themselves and where their faith lies. It’s also good for those who have a hard time forgiving others to look at themselves and see where they can improve in this area. It’s a suspensful book hard to put down waiting to see what happens next. A great book for all to read.
Purling Road
By M.L. Gardner
After the terrible accident that nearly claimed his friend’s life, Caleb quits the fishing business and returns to his farm, disrupting Jonathan’s plans for growth. Though the men must continue on without him, tension remains between the friends.
The strain intensifies when a chance encounter with the new sheriff of Rockport sends chills down Caleb’s spine. What is it about Sheriff William that unsettles them all? David’s return to Rockport lands him in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it may just be perfect timing for someone else in need.
A handsome stranger catches the eye of the adorable and frantic Muzzy Brown. What are his intentions in town, and will she slow down long enough to find out? A family secret is discovered in Jonathan’s attic, leading him to question everything he knew about his past.
More secrets from the past are revealed, complicating the group’s lives even further. Aryl is tempted by old demons. Jean’s birth mother’s reputation becomes a source of pain for Jean. The tension between Jonathan and Caleb finally comes to a head.
Will they forgive each other, or will they go their separate ways for good?
Keep up with the characters of 1929 by following them through ten episodes of Purling Road, A 1929 Serial.
The Art of Peeling an Orange
By Victoria Avilan
Rainbow Awards finalist. Also nominated for Lambda and Golden Crown Awards 2015. ” . . . a beautiful page turner that is also . . . an extended poem. And a love poem at that. Vividly written, suspenseful, darkly humorous” (Jeff York, The Examiner)
When Carly Rosen is jilted on the eve of her wedding, she embarks on a startling journey of self-discovery. This gender-bending risqué retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in sizzling West Hollywood, echoes the ancient story of the lovers in the Underworld.
What do you do when your lover has eloped with another woman on the eve of your wedding? The other woman is a famous beauty named Anna Garibaldi, and you die inside. To add insult to injury, the one who has abandoned you dies unexpectedly. Where do you go from there for solace, for justice? If you are Carly Rosen, a portrait artist with huge imagination, you use your art to charm your way into the life and inner circle of the alluring Anna Garibaldi, whose seductive and secretive underworld is nothing you could have expected! You are doomed and you are blessed, and you don’t know which you prefer.
The Holdout: A Robin Bricker Novel
By Laurel Osterkamp
Robin wanted to win The Holdout, a cutthroat reality TV show, so she gave it her all, challenge after challenge. Then she fell for Grant, with his irresistible eyes and heartbreaking life story.
But Grant was only using Robin as they competed for a million dollars. Once home, Robin wants to hide from the humiliation as episodes of The Holdout are aired, and she worries her family was right all along; she’s not a survivor.
Yet she could surprise everyone, and have the last laugh.
Besides, Robin now has jury duty. And as she forges ahead, confronting her demons about bravery, justice, and romance, Robin will come to decide which is more important: the courage to stand alone, or the strength to love again.
Laurel Osterkamp’s award winning novels have been hailed as funny, intelligent, snarky and poignant. She is the author of four novels and two novellas, including the November Surprise series, which, like The Holdout, features the Bricker family. Laurel was recently on a federal jury, and she loves watching Survivor.
Visit her at http://www.laurelosterkamp.com
9 Lovers for Emily Spankhammer
By Kaleesha Williams
When winsome young Emily’s beau is taken from her by an infected beaver bite, she is left both devastated and heavy with child. Driven by revenge, the fantastically attractive southern belle takes the insurance money and opens a ranch. But are a best-selling range of beaver merchandise and combat with her rebellious daughter enough to distract her from the yawning chasm in her achey breaky heart? Or can Emily, with the questionable help of her spirit guide, Sparkle the mostly-invisible pink unicorn, learn to follow her heart and find true love?
But with Sparkle intent on working his way through his own depraved bucket list and the cruel hand of fate tight upon the windpipe of her dreams, destiny seems to have other ideas.
Romance, absurdity, and close calls with death, the law and personal hygiene – join Emily Spankhammer on her unforgettable quest for the true meaning of love.
Fire Country
By David Estes
“Exciting Post-Apocalyptic Tale…world building is rich, detailed, and believable. Readers who enjoyed Blood Red Road by Moira Young will absolutely love this book!”- Mike Mullin, bestselling author of ASHFALL
“Fire Country is a fast, fierce read. You will root for the protagonist, Siena, and her story will rake you across the coals. I will be keeping an eye on David Estes. You should too!” -Emmy Laybourne, bestselling author of MONUMENT 14
“Strong world building and vivid characters make Fire Country stand out from other post-apocalyptic YA novels. Young Siena is spunky and believable, and readers will pull for her to escape the clutches of her father and the dystopian society in which she lives.”- Rysa Walker, bestselling author of TIMEBOUND
In a changed world where the sky bleeds red, winter is hotter than hell and full of sandstorms, and summer’s even hotter with raging fires that roam the desert-like country, the Heaters manage to survive, barely.
Due to toxic air, life expectancies are so low the only way the tribe can survive is by forcing women to procreate when they turn sixteen and every three years thereafter. It is their duty as Bearers.
Fifteen-year-old Siena is a Youngling, soon to be a Bearer, when she starts hearing rumors of another tribe of all women, called the Wild Ones. They are known to kidnap Youngling girls before the Call, the ceremony in which Bearers are given a husband with whom to bear children with.
As the desert sands run out on her life’s hourglass, Siena must uncover the truth about the Wild Ones while untangling the web of lies and deceit her father has masterfully spun.
TREAD SOFTLY ON MY DREAMS
By Gretta Corran Browne
“We were taught nothing about Ireland or its history in school, and when I did learn of the part we played in that struggle, I felt shame. The world should know about young men like Tone and Robert Emmet.”——-Oscar-winning actor COLIN FIRTH (Sunday Times Magazine 2012)
Gretta Curran Browne’s books have been internationally published in translation throughout Europe and Japan.
THE BOOK SOME CRITICS ARE CALLING – THE IRISH `LES MISERABLES’
WHAT THE PRESS SAY ABOUT “TREAD SOFTLY ON MY DREAMS”
“A compelling mix of political thriller and love story, beautifully written, meticulously researched, immensely enjoyable and, by turns, heartbreaking and uplifting.” – THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT
“I can honestly say it’s one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read for some time. I can’t recommend it highly enough.” – IRISH WORLD
“Written with feeling and humour, and the meticulous research illuminates the scene without ever intruding upon it”. – SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
“A very fine achievement.” – SUNDAY PRESS
“Her research brought her to the Wicklow Hills, the archives in Dublin Castle, and back again to the Crown papers in London … an incredible tale of political corruption.” – ‘IRISH TIMES
“A hidden, secret story behind the commonly received “facts”, one that has nothing to do with legend … cuts across political or religious prejudices.” – BELFAST TELEGRAPH
“On as grand a scale a Flanagan’s “The Year Of The French”. She has treated the story of Robert Emmet sensitively and movingly and has also managed to produce a well-balanced and fast-paced story.” – IRELAND ON SUNDAY
When first published in hardback, Tread Softly On My Dreams and Fire On The Hill were bought by the University of Notre Dame in the USA, The National Library of Ireland, and The Princess Grace Irish Library in the Palace of Monaco.
AN EPIC NOVEL FROM IRELAND’S PAST. (Book One of THE LIBERTY TRILOGY)
“The Emmets are Protestants, belonging to the elite society of Ireland’s ruling class. Born in 1778, Robert Emmet, the youngest son of the State Physician of Ireland, has grown up in the heart of a prosperous and loving family, one of the most respected in Dublin city. From his parents he acquired a deep love of Ireland and a commitment to justice. From his brother Thomas he acquired an understanding of the divisions and inequalities of his country.
In the historic year of 1798 Robert’s life changed from its charted course to one of rebellion. A brilliant student at Trinity, he casts aside all hopes of a scientific career, all the privileges of his class, to join the United Irishmen – a society dedicated to the union of Protestant and Catholic. But the men in Dublin Castle determined on the continuance of English rule, force him to flee to France. But even as his boat sails away from his beloved homeland, he looks back and knows he will return – to the cause of his country’s liberty, and to the beautiful girl he has fallen in love with, Sarah Curran, the daughter of Ireland’s most talented lawyer.
He returns – and meets Anne Devlin, a passionate and brave Catholic country girl, who becomes his most devoted companion.
Set against the background of the beauty of Ireland, the dark clouds of its past, as well as the humour and dreams of its people, this is a passionate and powerful true story of three young people, Robert Emmet, Anne Devlin, and Sarah Curran, drawn together in love, in hope, and tragedy.
“Although I started off thinking this would be a love story, an incredible tale of political corruption began to unfold.” The Irish Times.
To Be Free
By L.R. Teague
At twenty-two years old, Annora struggles to accept that her life is nothing but a lonely existence. After the death of her father, she falls stricken with grief, plagued by nightmares and the realization that she is the only remaining member of her family. Annora cautiously builds a friendship with her new neighbor, Vin, who helps her discover that there’s more to life than the pain of her present.
To Be Free is Annora’s journey toward healing and toward the freedom that comes from learning she is not alone, even in her darkest moments.
Don’t miss the sequel: To Be Loved! Available NOW on Amazon Kindle!
The best compliment you can get from me about a book or some such thing is that I seriously can’t put it down and stop reading it and this book was just that. I loved how real it felt and how easy it was to relate to Annora. And it really spoke to me. And this style of writing is honestly one of my favorites. An awesome read and I’m so excited to see more work from this author!
I had no idea what to expect when I started this book, but within minutes I was absolutely captivated. It is an open and honest tale of hurt and loneliness and the struggle to overcome, the inability to do it alone, and the journey to joy, all told with such a poetic rhythm that I was swept away. I was so caught up feeling what Annora was feeling that I literally could not put it down. A beautiful story woven by an obviously talented writer. Definitely a “Must Read”!!
Behind the Forgotten Front: A WWII Novel
By Barbara Hawkins
This forbidden story about lunacy at the top was exposed by one soldier’s diary. Picture India and Burma in 1942: with unexplored jungles, Himalayan Mountains, monsoon rains, Naga headhunters, and a young man looking for adventure. For fifty years he swore to keep secret the military’s ‘win at all cost’ mentality. This is not another ‘boy goes to war’ tale; instead it’s about Harry Flynn’s struggle with himself as he helped to build the ‘road to nowhere’ through Japanese-occupied Burma and eventually as a combatant in America’s first guerrilla-supported units, Merrill’s Marauders and later the Mars Task Force. Malaria, the smell of fear, loneliness and the enemy were overcome through the unbreakable bonds of friendship he made on the battle field and the undying love of his life back home. It’s not about heroes but about people; soldiers who may have been good men even if they weren’t brave. Everyone knows the outcome of WWII, where men walked away carrying unspeakable memories and ‘lives that could have been’ haunted those that lived. Behind the Forgotten Front brings them all back to life and shows that history is about facts driven by the passions and sometimes mistakes of real people.
Smart Blondes
By Sonia Koso
Austin socialite Carrie Pryce has no clue her criminally charming husband is carrying on with another woman until she returns home unexpectedly, mistakes the sounds of passion for a home-invasion robbery and accidently shoots him in the backside. Stunned, Carrie drives all night to her quirky hometown and collapses in a near-catatonic state.
A crew of ladies spanning three generations realize it’s up to them to help Carrie get her life out of the ditch. Known as the “Presbyterian Mafia,” these are not sweet grandmothers. They have a book club that never reads, a garden club that doesn’t garden, and a bible study class that gossips about the Methodists. They’re known around town for antics including catfights, car chases and Voodoo rituals. The women enlist Carrie’s former childhood best friend Portia (now a lawyer) and her flamboyant cousin Eric (recently returned from New York) in their effort.
While dealing with the after-effects of her imprudent gunplay and managing a hair color disaster, Carrie meets Rhett Richards, an attractive oil field worker who can make women think un-Christian thoughts by the mere act of wearing a pair of tight wranglers. Carrie soon learns that hometowns can be the perfect places to bury old scandals and create new ones.
Barnaby Smith
By Daniel Martin Eckhart
They always asked Barnaby, “Why do you want to fly?” And he’d always reply, “Why do you want to breathe?”
Barnaby Smith is the tale of a most unusual journey by a despairing psychiatrist and her patient – a story about life, love, belief, compromise and freedom … and yes, the dream of human flight.
Six months after her son’s suicide, psychiatrist Dr. Martha Lewis takes on a position at Brooklyn’s St. Joseph’s Hospital where she is given the charge of the Barnaby Smith. Barnaby has tried to fly, like a bird, his entire life. He has jumped off roofs nine times, he has broken every bone in his body … and he has been at St. Joseph’s, heavily medicated for his own safety, for the past twenty-three years. Martha makes it her obsession to bring this man back into life, to save him … only to realize that Barnaby just may be the key to her own salvation.
Read this book immediately! And when you finish it go and read Eckharts other book ‘The Champ’ immediately too! This guy is fast becoming my favourite writer… It’s a cliche I know, but I honestly couldn’t put this book down! (Or in this case my Kindle). I found Eckharts style of writing accessible and engaging but also intelligent. Not only is the storyline a page turner, thoughtfully and steadily drawing you in with it’s mystery and its intricate, interesting characters, but this book is also nourishing for the mind and heart. It seemed to take me on an emotional and almost spiritual journey into human potential and I felt changed, enlivened, wider as a person afterwards. And inspired! This is a super enjoyable, fun read. Magic! Enjoy!
Spiral
By D.U. Okinkwa
SURVIVAL. LIES. SELF-DISCOVERY
Left to raise her three younger siblings at the tender age of seventeen, Nina Bishop is accustomed to solving problems. Now that she and two friends run their own law firm, she gets paid for solving other people’s problems. And as a businesswoman, she can always smell a great opportunity. So when her biggest client, Parker Drayton, organizes a networking ski trip to Salzburg, Austria, she is the first to board the plane. There’s only one drawback: Parker is bringing along his two notoriously difficult, grown-up sons, Justin and Hugh.
Even before take-off the tension between Parker and his sons is palpable. But when Hugh causes their small jet to crash, plunging them all into unforgiving back country, the networking trip goes from tension-filled journey to living nightmare.
The Boy who Lit up the Sky
By J. Naomi Ay
Lydia Kalila, the Princess Royal of Mishnah, is forced into marriage with the son of her country’s mortal enemy for the sole purpose of producing an heir. Duty comes before personal choice for a princess, especially when her country has been at war for more than a thousand years. Lydia’s pregnancy removes her brother and new husband from their respective lines of succession, placing her yet unborn infant at the head of both queues. No one is happy about this, especially Lydia who dies during childbirth from wounds caused by the talon-like toenails of her very strange newborn son.
Grief stricken at the loss of his daughter, the Mishnese King hastily sends Senya, his infant grandson off to a decrepit inner city orphanage with the intent to retrieve him much later when things got sorted out. At the orphanage, Senya is protected by the invalid Sister Meri who instantly falls in love with the little fellow. She’s not bothered at all by his strange telekinetic and telepathic powers, flickering pupil-less silver eyes, or wicked clawed toenails. The House Father takes a shine to the lad too, and when Senya is six years old, he is summoned to the Father’s chamber. The Father ends up in flames, forcing Meri and Senya out into a snow storm running for their lives.
Thus begins the tale of Senya, a prince created to be king of a planet but tossed aside until his twelfth birthday when Lt. Taner, a Royal Guard detective is sent to retrieve him. It is unclear to all whether Senya is the product of something good or something evil, but in either case, it is very apparent that he is something more than just Lydia Kalila’s son.
Note to readers: This title contains graphic language, sexual situations, and some violence. It is not intended for children or young teens.
Finding The Grain
By Shulamit Hartal
Can you still have self-discoveries and change your life at a late middle age?
Chani Tavin is testimony to the fact that it is never too late to learn.
One day Chani Tavin, a sculptress in late middle age, has a fortunate accident when she literally trips over a pile of psychology books at the local recycling center. She is fascinated since it sparks off a vast change in her life. Chani takes the pile home, applying the psychology she is learning to unravel the secrets of her own life.
As Chani re-examines her life, she revisits her childhood. The emotional wasteland of the conditions in which she grew up rise to confront her. Chani starts to see her own life in perspective, and she has to learn how to embrace and forgive herself for feelings she still carries. However, just when Chani achieves a startling insight in understanding her past, she dies unexpectedly the following day.
The story is set in the frame of the 7- day period of mourning that follows Chani Tavin’s death and it encompasses including various dramatic and revealing conversations between the family of the narrator and her friends and neighbors.
Chani Tavin is testimony to the fact that it is never too late to learn, even as the mother of grown up children and a teenage grandchild.
Farr Point
By Sam Havens
The smell of oil is in the air, and so is murder, when eighteen-year-old Eddie Tipton arrives in a small Texas town with his widowed mother in 1950. Eddie and his teacher mother take rooms in the home of Texas oil widow, Faye Ruth Collier, leading to a surprising relationship between Eddie and Faye Ruth. Eddie spends time with handyman, Ned Cotton and soon learns that Mrs. Collier’s late husband was murdered a few years earlier. Ned Cotton warns Eddie to stay away from Faye Ruth and to ignore the murder of Lawrence Collier. Eddie, of course, cannot resist.
Making his way in a new school, dodging the stigma of being the schoolteacher’s son, succumbing to the lure of his middle-aged landlady, Eddie is embroiled in dangerous adventures on all fronts. And then, Eddie suffers a devastating loss that spurs him to ratchet up his quest for answers and leads to a near-fatal showdown.
Sam Havens is Professor Emeritus in Drama at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. Havens founded the Drama Department where he teaches playwriting and screenwriting.
Havens has written fifteen plays with productions in the USA, Canada and Australia. His plays have been selected for showcase productions in New York City, Westport, Connecticut, Amherst, Massachusetts, and East Hampton, New York. He has received playwriting grants from the Ford Foundation and from the Texas Commission on Arts and Humanities. Three of Havens’ plays are published.
Havens taught playwriting and screenwriting for ten years in Rice University’s School of Continuing Studies.
In addition to writing and teaching, Havens performs voice-over narration for radio and TV commercials and industrial films. He is also an abstract artist and a consultant in presentation skills.
The Edge of Revolt
By Uvi Poznansky
Struggling to find the right balance between loving his sons and upholding justice, David is silent when Amnon rapes his daughter, Tamar, and when Absalom lures Amnon to his death. These crimes go unpunished, because a mysterious change has come upon the king, which his court scribes note even before he does. In the past he had to explain his actions, such as the affair with Bathsheba, to them. Now, they want to understand the opposite thing: his lack of action.
In families other than his, such matters may be a mere matter of gossip. Yet when assault, incest, and murder occur in the king’s family, they affect matters of the state. David is toppled from his throne, and must escape from the son he adores, Absalom.
Even as he finds a way to quell the revolt and come back to the City of David, the road ahead seems unclear. How will he find the right successor amongst his remaining sons, the one who will connect to him and continue his legacy?
This standalone novel is volume III of The David Chronicles. It is told candidly by the king himself. David uses modern language, indicating that this is no fairytale. Rather, it is a story that is happening here and now. Each volume can be read as a standalone novel. Taken together, they put you in the skin of the character from youth to old age.
Mother’s Day
By Ron Vincent
Phil Oglesby hasn’t spoken to his mother in years. And she doesn’t seem to care until he surprises her with a Mother’s Day visit that becomes the biggest mistake he’s ever made.
Williemaye, Phil’s mom, is not a Norman Rockwell mom. For many people the Sunday set aside to celebrate motherhood is often regarded as a celebration of the deepest ties, the warmest memories, and the best emotions.
Phil’s Mother’s Day is like being invited to a birthday party where the guests decide to hang you. Sometimes in life, it is often a much better idea to stay at home.
This story is personal to a lot of people. It is very reflective of the particular culture in which it develops. It is a resource for those aware of alcoholism and mental illnesses but perhaps not so familiar with it particularly those in spiritual care. It explores the difficulties of growing up in and dealing with the consequences of such dysfunction and struggling to extend grace. It’s just a part of a picture but thank you Ron Vincent for sharing it with us and for doing so with such compelling humor. I kept seeing Matthew McConaughey as Greg but he might prefer the main character. I am going to read it twice more myself placing him in each role and see if I have a preference! Thankful for such talented artists! And for Grace. (Language is strong as a cautionary note.)
Crossing: A Contemporary Fiction Novel
By Dror Segev
Life is here and now, there is no rerun, and now is the right moment
Daniel is a successful, full of himself architect – but is NOT happy with his life. At the age of 38, he seems to be running away from everything substantial, living his life on auto-pilot. He eats, plays with his children, works out, doing what he always does, but at the end of the day, he feels utterly exhausted and terribly lost.
Something MUST give.
With a split moment decision he leaves his home, his wife and his children. He picks up a mourning friend, and embarks on a long cross country hike.
During this journey, Daniel takes a long, probing look at his life. He wrestles with his inner demons, faces his true emotions, and maps his various relationships.
Nothing will ever be the same anymore.
I had not read Dror Segev prior to discovering “Crossing” – but I am going to be eagerly seeking out everything written by him now.
When you have everything but feel nothing, what do you do? Well, if you are Dan Sagi (Daniel Elbaz), you leave everything you have ever known behind you and set off on a journey that starts in the middle. This is a complex dialogue that speaks deeply to any that have questioned their lives, their purpose and their own happiness. Set in Tel-Aviv, this has all the rich imagery and emotion common to Israeli narratives – the humanness of ‘being’ that is hard to find in other novels.
Justice For Abby
By Cate Beauman
2015 READERS’ FAVORITE INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD GOLD MEDALIST
2015 National Indie Excellence Award Finalist
2015 Golden Quill Award Finalist
Named “The Best Kindle Books of 2015” by Digital Book Today
Fashion designer Abigail Harris has been rescued, but her nightmare is far from over. Determined to put her harrowing ordeal behind her and move on, she struggles to pick up the pieces of her life while eluding the men who want her dead.
The Mid-Atlantic Sex Ring is in ruins after Abby’s interviews with the police. The organization is eager to exact their revenge before her testimony dismantles the multi-million dollar operation for good.
Abby’s safety rests in the hands of former US Marshal, Jerrod Quinn. Serious-minded and obsessed with protocol, Ethan Cooke Security’s newest agent finds himself dealing with more than he bargains for when he agrees to take on his beautiful, free-spirited client.
As the trial date nears, Abby’s case takes a dangerous turn. Abby and Jerrod soon discover themselves in a situation neither of them expect while Jerrod fights to stop the ring from silencing Abby once and for all.
How Do You Know?
By Meredith Schorr
Life doesn’t happen on a schedule, there are no deadlines in love, and age is just a number.
On the eve of her thirty-ninth birthday, Maggie Piper doesn’t look, act, or feel much different than she did at twenty-nine, but with her fortieth birthday speeding toward her like a freight train, she wonders if she should. The fear of a slowing metabolism, wrinkling of her skin, and the ticking of her biological clock leaves Maggie torn between a desire to settle down like most of her similarly aged peers and concern that all is not perfect in her existing relationship. When a spontaneous request for a temporary “break” from her live-in boyfriend results in a “break-up,” Maggie finds herself single once again and only twelve months from the big 4.0.
As Maggie reenters the New York City dating jungle, suitors present themselves quickly, but who is “The One?” Is he a sexy coworker, one of many bachelors at a speed-dating event, or is he the man she already set free? How do you know? Her fun-loving friends and supportive family, including meddlesome “no-filter” Aunt Helen, eagerly share their (often unsolicited) opinions, but Maggie is determined to find her own way, even if she falls on her face—repeatedly.
“Fun, fun, fun! Those are the best words I have to describe the latest novel by author Meredith Schorr, How Do You Know? In Book one in the Seeking Happily Ever After series, we are introduced to Maggie Piper. Preparing to turn 39, she takes stock in her life. She doesn’t feel much older than she did in her twenties, but realizes that her biological clock might not agree. When her boyfriend suggests a break that ultimately ends in a break up, the pressure really builds. Feeling like forty “is a train approaching her at warp speed with a shoelace stuck in the track,” Maggie sets her next birthday as a goal to have everything figured out; who she is, what she wants, and how she’ll get there.
I loved this book! Simply loved it! Author Meredith Schorr does a wonderful job at creating a spunky, delightful character in Maggie, and you’ll truly come to care about her and her future. If that’s not the hallmark of a great writer, I’m not quite sure what is. I could not stop reading this book once I started, and readers should make sure they have enough time to read this book from start to finish once they begin. How Do You Know? would appeal to any reader who loves fiction with a fun, fresh, female protagonist, chick lit, or just a well-written, completely engaging read. This is the first book I’ve read by author Meredith Schorr, but it certainly will not be the last!” Reviewed by Tracy A. Fischer for Readers’ Favorite
Can’t Go Home
By Angelisa Stone
“A beautiful, steamy, love story that you’ll think about for days after…wishing you could read it all over again for the first time. The kind of book that will make you want to finish in one sitting while it tugs at your heartstrings.” Christine Zolendz (Author of Mad World Series)
“Angelisa Stone will bring you home with her quick humor, unforeseen twists, and a sincerity that makes Can’t Go Home a must read.”
Denise (Flirty and Dirty Book Blog)
Everyone has secrets; secrets meant to be kept—hidden away where nobody can discover the truth. Adrian O’Donnell (aka: Dre Donley) is no exception. Dre spins tales and half-truths like it’s his job, keeping the reality of his past buried deep within each lie he fabricates. On the other hand, Kathryn Howell is the exception to the rule. She’s a straight-shooter, a tell-it-like-it-is, no filter kind of girl.
Kathryn’s honesty and straightforwardness is the ultimate turn on for a guy like Dre. He’s never met someone so sincere, so full of truth and innocence. Their chemistry is unavoidable, their connection, magnetic. When Dre sets out to make Kathryn fall for him, he doesn’t realize the grave mistake he’s making. Kathryn’s strength and convictions do not falter, even for an irresistible man like Dre. When his past resurfaces, and the lies come tumbling forth, Kathryn must decide if his deceit and betrayal can be forgiven or if the damage is irreparable. Will the truth ultimately destroy the relationship that neither one of them could deny or even attempt to resist?
Fin Gall: A Novel of Viking Age Ireland
By James L. Nelson
Book I of the ongoing Norsemen Saga. 852 A.D. For decades the Vikings have swept out of the Norse countries and fallen on England, Ireland, whatever lands they could reach aboard their longships. Few could resist the power of their violent onslaught. They came at first to plunder, and then to settle, an encroachment fiercely resisted where ever they went. Such was the case in the southern lands of Ireland. En route to the Viking longphort there, known as Dubh-Linn, Thorgrim Night Wolf and Ornolf the Restless stumble across an Irish ship that carries aboard it a single item – a crown. The Vikings eagerly snatch the prize, unaware of its significance to the people of Ireland and the power granted to the king who wears it. Soon the Norsemen are plunged into the violence and intrigue of Medieval Ireland, where local kings fight with each other and with the invaders from the north for rule of the island nation. With enemies at every hand, and loyalties as fickle as the weather, Thorgrim must lead his men, the white invaders, the Fin Gall, in the fight of their lives, with both Irish and Dane eager to see them dead.
“James L. Nelson’s Viking Sagas are a tour de force of tautly crafted twists, turns full of authentic detail, and plots that drive you to the finish!” – Dewey Lambdin, Author of The Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures
“If readers of historical fiction think Bernard Cornwell is the master of medieval sword and shield adventures, they just haven’t read James L. Nelson lately. Move over, Bernie. Much like Cornwell, Nelson spins a carefully woven tale of medieval warfare complete with royal conspiracies, treachery and betrayal – and all the bloody violence of those times – in vividly colorful and accurate historical detail.” – Bill Bushnell, The Kennebec Journal
The Highlander
By Zoe Saadia
Born in the Highlands, Kuini thought his life was simple. You hunt and you fight, defending your towns against the raids of the Lowlanders and then raiding their lands in turn. His father was the Warriors’ Leader, and he wanted to be just like him.
Yet, Texcoco, the mighty Capital of the Lowlands, seemed incredibly beautiful, sparkling, its pyramids magnificent. A friendship with the Lowlander boy, the First Son of the Texcoco Emperor, seemed harmless in the beginning. They were just boys, and their clandestine meetings were always fun, providing great entertainment.
However, on the day Kuini agrees to finally enter the magnificent city, it would all change. He expected to get into trouble, but he could not foresee the extent of the trouble and, worst of all, he did not expect to uncover hidden secrets concerning his own family.
Once again, Zoe Saadia has managed to create a reading experience that I shudder to think of anyone missing out on. The Highlander’s setting is in a time period that could easily turn into a boring history lesson if written by an author with less skill wielding a pen. As it is, Ms. Saadia manages to incorporate history into her story without making one think they are back in school. The characters in this book jumped out at me, making me fall in love with them early on in the book. You know you are reading good work when you think about what might happen next in the story no matter what you’re doing, and that is just what happened to me with this book! It’s a miracle I got anything done!
Kuini, one of the main characters, is developed in such a way that I could actually hear his voice, and I fell in love with him while reading his story. When he was happy so was I. Likewise, when he grieved I grieved along with him.
Making a reader feel personally invested in their characters is a sign that an author truly has what it takes to be one of the greats. I will definitely be recommending this book to everyone I know!
In the meantime, to all of you who are considering purchasing this book, I say: Do it now! Don’t wait one more minute! This is a book that you WILL NOT regret spending either the time nor money on! Read on, read on!! And to the author: Congratulations on producing ANOTHER addictive read, Zoe!!
Lila Blue
By Annie Katz
What would happen if you took a bright, neglected girl out of a marginal home and placed her in the perfect environment for healing and growth? Lila Blue, a heartwarming coming of age novel set on the Oregon Coast in the summer of 1985, answers that question. Cassandra feels lost when mother puts her on a Greyhound bus with nothing but a business card of a relative she’s never met. Imagine her surprise when she ends up perched on the edge of a magnificent beach with Lila Blue, a wise grandmother who welcomes her with open arms. During the next several weeks, Cassandra falls in love with her grandmother and with Rainbow Village, a caring community of artisans and eccentrics, and she envisions a rich, passionate life for herself in this new home. Now that Cassandra knows her true heart’s desire though, she fears her self-indulgent mother will take her back on a whim. If you love believable characters who grow through adversity to become independent, creative individuals, you’ll love Lila Blue.
For many years Annie Katz worked on the Oregon Coast as a barber, waitress, bookstore clerk, and college teacher. Her life there inspired the delightful characters and dramatic adventures of Rainbow Village, the fictional world of Lila Blue.
Undrawn
By Conchie Fernandez
Kyle Reed stands on the verge of his lifelong dream of artistic immortality when a call from his estranged older brother Stuart puts a halt to everything in his carefully constructed life. Kyle faces the impossible decision to go back “home” and attempt to undo the many painful choices he made that severed his ties with his family and the woman he once loved.
As he steps into the house he grew up in, Kyle revisits the lives he led. He walks through the elegant rooms where he learned to keep quiet to avoid his father’s temper, and dealt with the debilitating disease that opened the doorway to his art. In his journey through his past, he assesses the perilous habits that distanced him from his family, the bitter enmities that still ravage his peace, and the surprising loyalty he finds in the people who surround him.
Kyle juggles with the present and the past and he clings to sanity through his art, the passion that has become his true north. Between the sculptures and images that fill his spaces and canvases, lie the crucial aspects of his life that he’s been avoiding for years: the icon he destroyed, the crime that still fills him with shame, and the forgiveness he never offered…or received.
The Russian Renaissance
By Ian Kharitonov
Winner of the Grandmaster Award from the Clive Cussler Society.
Constantine can no longer hide in Europe. As he discovers a century-old secret, he must flee back to Moscow, chased by assassins.
Only one man can save him. Eugene Sokolov: an officer in the world’s most elite rescue unit, a martial arts legend… and Constantine’s brother.
They face an enemy unlike any other. In a game run by a KGB spymaster, the fate of Russia will depend on their survival.
“This book has got it all… Intrigue, adventure, high stakes, and all the action you can handle … pure nitroglycerin.” ~ Jeff Edwards, bestselling author of THE SEVENTH ANGEL and SWORD OF SHIVA
“The perfect novel for Cussler fans … A thriller experience not to be missed.” ~ Sean Ellis, co-author of WARGOD and CALLSIGN: KING
Roman Mask
By Thomas M.D. Brooke
Rome AD 9
Augustus Caesar rules Imperial Rome at the height of its power, as the Roman Empire stretches across the known world. Cassius, son of one of her most powerful families, is the personification of Rome’s imperial strength: wealthy, popular, a war hero with a decorated military career – none of Rome’s fashionable parties are complete without him – except, he hides a secret.
After his nerve is broken in Germany, the thought of genuine armed combat is enough to send him into a cold sweat of fear and shame. But this doesn’t dissuade him from living off a false reputation so he can continue a life of casual affairs, wine, and parties, as he is seduced by the many vices of Rome.
However, his scandalous life is soon upset by a summons from the Emperor’s wife. It ends his happy decadent life and returns him to Germany to assist the Roman legions in their greatest trial ever, and the events that will resound down in history, in the dark forests of the Teutoburg…
“The classical world is brought vividly to life” Daily Mail – UK National Newspaper
“I loved this book. There’s no other way to say it. Filled with action and adventure, Roman Mask will keep you on the edge of your seat. Focused on a time that doesn’t always get a huge amount of attention in the historical fiction genre, author Thomas M.D. Brooke does such a fantastic job in drawing a picture of ancient Rome that when you look up from the novel you’ll wonder where your tunic is.” 5 Stars – Readersfavorite.com
“I read Roman Mask in one sitting; it was that powerful, that mesmerizing and that well-written. Thomas M.D. Brooke is a master storyteller as he brings the glory and the shame of war to life in a time long ago when Rome thought it was its right to rule the known world.” 5 Stars – Tome Tender
Thin Rich Bitches
By Janet Eve Jocelyn
An uproarious romp through the minefield of female one-upmanship!
Leaving her cheating husband in Boston with the paralegal he impregnated, Pippin Snowe and her son move to a ramshackle farmhouse in the exclusive community of Dover, Massachusetts. Pippin finds employment with a local architect, designing kitchen renovations for wealthy Dover women who treat her as they treat the rest of the hired help. Concluding that social climbing is just another sport that she is no good at, Pippin opens a country club for dogs that offers services that the Dover women didn’t know they wanted until they found out that admission was required and spaces were limited.
With irreverent wit, Thin Rich Bitches is a humorous chronicle of one woman’s quest to find her place within a community of people who are more blessed physically and financially, while learning valuable lessons about life, love, competition, and canine couture.
Breaking TWIG
By Deborah Epperson
:: Over 200,000 copies of Breaking TWIG downloaded on Kindles ::
WARNING: According to Breaking TWIG’s Kindle readers, you may not be able to put this book down!
Set in rural Georgia in the 1960s, BREAKING TWIG is a coming-of-age novel about Becky (Twig) Cooper, a young woman trying to survive the physical and emotional abuse of her mother, Helen, a beautiful, calculating woman who can, with a mere look, send the meanest cur in Sugardale, Georgia running for its life.
Not even Twig’s vivid imagination, keen wit, and dark sense of humor is enough to help her survive the escalating assaults of Helen and a new stepbrother, but help comes from an unexpected source–Frank, her stepfather. Sometimes, having one person who loves and believes in you is all a girl needs to keep hope alive.
Often raw and irreverent and sprinkled with all the Southern flavoring found in a good bowl of chicken and dumplings, BREAKING TWIG, is about finding love where we least expect it, destroying lives with easy lies, and realizing each of us determine our own truth.
:: Recent RAVE Reviews for Breaking TWIG ::
If you are looking for a book that takes a chance, tips the scale and
teeters on the edge of “How in the hell did she write this?!?” Then
Deborah Epperson is your girl and Breaking Twig is your story.” Melissa
E. Perea, Five-Star Reader Review
“With a voice as rich as sorghum molasses, Epperson seductively draws the
reader into the rural south of the 60s and 70s. In the southern
tradition of Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner, the author
explores the depths of the human heart and spirit, with wisdom, humor, and unflinching truthfulness.” D. Burke, Five-star Reader Review
McCarthys of Gansett Island
By Marie Force
With more than 2 million ebooks sold since Maid for Love debuted in 2011, the New York Times bestselling McCarthys of Gansett Island Series has become one of the most beloved romance series available today. Read the first three books in the series: Maid for Love, Fool for Love and Ready for Love in this special offering.
Book 1: Maid for Love
Maddie Chester is determined to leave her hometown of Gansett Island, a place that has brought her only bad memories and ugly rumors. Then she’s knocked off her bike on the way to her housekeeping job at McCarthy’s Resort Hotel by Gansett’s “favorite son,” Mac McCarthy. He’s back in town to help his father with preparations to sell the family resort and has no intention of staying long. When Mac accidentally sends Maddie flying over the handlebars, badly injuring her, he moves in to nurse her back to health and help care for her young son. He soon realizes his plans for a hit-and-run visit to the island are in serious jeopardy, and he just may be “maid” for love.
Book 2: Fool for Love
Joe Cantrell, owner of the Gansett Island Ferry Company, has been in love with Janey McCarthy for as long as he can remember. At the same time, Janey has been dating or engaged to doctor-in-training David Lawrence. When things go horribly wrong between David and Janey, she calls her “fifth brother” Joe, one of the few people in her close circle who lives on the mainland. Janey decides a few days with Joe is just what she needs before she goes home to the island to face her parents and family with the news of her broken engagement. It was bad enough for Joe loving Janey from afar, but having her in his house is pure torture. Will he take advantage of this opportunity to show her what they could have together? And what will Joe’s best friend and Janey’s protective older brother Mac have to say about it?
Book 3: Ready for Love
For four of the best summers of his young life, Luke Harris was in love with Sydney Donovan, a wealthy seasonal visitor to Gansett Island. Then Sydney went off to college and never came back. She married another man and had two children while Luke remained on the island, working at McCarthy’s Gansett Marina and wondering what had gone wrong between him and the only woman he ever loved. Fifteen months after Sydney suffers the tragic loss of her husband and children, she’s returned to Gansett to figure out what’s next, and that may very well be a rekindled love affair with the one man from her past she’s never forgotten. But is she ready for a second chance at love?
The story picks up with Book 4, Falling for Love, with eight other Gansett Island stories available in the series and more to come from the island!
“With the McCarthy’s of Gansett Island, Marie Force makes you believe in the power of true love and happily ever after. Over and over again.” Carly Phillips, NY Times Bestselling Author of the Serendipity series.
Three Winds Blowing
By Randy Willis
The son of a white man and Cherokee slave, Joseph Willis, gains his freedom and swims the mighty Mississippi on a mule.
Driven by three winds…
✯ a wind of freedom driving him from North Carolina
✯ a mighty rushing wind compelling him across the Mississippi River into the Louisiana Territory
✯ a wind of war fueled by slavery
Antebellum Louisiana
Rooted in a time of tradition and chivalry, Joseph discovers a land of innocence lost.
His life converges with Louisiana contemporaries, including Solomon Northup, James Bowie, William Prince Ford, Edwin Epps, John Murrell, John Audubon, Baroness Micaela Almonester de Pontalba, Jean Lafitte and voodoo queen Marie Laveau, as well as Texas Ranger Jack C. Hays.
Inspired by a true story
From master storyteller, Randy Willis…a novel about adventure, family, faith and the character of a man that touched generations.
FREESTYLE FOR LIFE
By Latif Mercado
Freestyle music is the new sound of the City, and recording artist, Solo Cortes is the voice. Until New York’s Finest pays him a visit during the most important performance of his life…
I love it when something new and exciting comes out by any Latin writer (especially Puerto rican voices). Freestyle for life is such a book. It is right up there with “Random Life” and My favorite of all times…”Down these means Streets” By Piri Thomas….. Check it out, and support our latin Talent……Latif Mercado is on the path…..I personally recommend it!…..But, Don’t just take my word for it…..Download it and get ready to be inmersed in a nice trip!…..
As I finished this book this morning, I realized that I never contemplated much about the gambit of entertainment outside of Hip-Hop. Growing up in Brooklyn, the divisions within music genres multiplied in the the late eighties. Many of the secular genres dried up and died down, some are all but extinct.
“Freestyle”, with it’s 16th note hi-hats and 120 Beats Per Minute’s begin to fade in face of the rapid evolution of Hip-Hop. Adding to it’s demise was the huge success of crossover hits from freestyle artists, which ultimately caused an over-saturation in the genre. To many in the urban communities it became the only alternative to a life of squalor and poverty. Naturally, this explosion in the population of those attempting to become stars led to more unscrupulous business practices and an overall perversion of the artform.
In “Freestyle for Life” we follow a young successful artist named “Solo” who wears his heart on his sleeve and is loyal to the point of naive to his surroundings. He begins the hard grind of climbing his way to the top near the apex of the genre, only to have his career and life derailed by an improbable incarceration. Surviving the barbaric and mundane existence that coincides with prison, he returns home to find things have drastically changed during his prison stint.
Resisting the call for conformity with the newly dominant genres of Hip-Hop, he decides to give it all he has and make one last attempt to revive the all but dead music style he loves with all of his heart and soul. But will the same mysterious circumstances that sent him to prison the first time return to haunt him? “Freestyle for Life” is an ode to the love, hate, and envy that success breeds, and divides the lives of men families and friends.
The Duck Springs Affair
By John Isaac Jones
Devoted mother Cassie Carter is hard working and dedicated to running her small farm in Georgia. She tends to her home and sickly son daily while her truck driver husband is away on long hauls across the country. Her life and values take a sharp turn when a handsome and intelligent construction worker disrupts her daily routine. Her priorities shift and everything she keeps in her comfort zone is threatened.
Damaged romantic Paul Hamilton has a void in his life that leaves him wandering from affair to affair, empty and unfulfilled. He identifies with the haunting poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, yearning to capture an elusive love. One day, in an unexpected place, he discovers the love he is seeking, but she is out of his reach and he runs the risk of irreparably damaging the delicate balance he tries to maintain in his life.
In the Duck Springs Affair, Paul and Cassie’s worlds collide and explode. Will what they offer each other sustain and give them what they need out of life and love? Or, are they doomed to suffer the tragic consequences of their decisions as each searches for the perfect love?
1929: Book One
By M.L. Gardner
As Black Tuesday triggers financial despondency, three young couples in New York City must trade their lives of luxury for poverty, tragedy, and setbacks.
When Jonathan Garrett’s brokerage firm collapses on the day of the Stock Market Crash, he unites with his closest friends (and former business partners), Aryl and Caleb, to relocate, track down a low-paying job, and cultivate a new life.
As the three men toil in their laborious jobs, their wives, Ava, Arianna, and Claire, slowly adapt to life in a shabby, rundown apartment, learning to sew, cook, and clean. With the help of their former, outspoken, Irish maid, Maura, and a new, equally Irish friend, Shannon, the wives become even closer than before.
The couples’ rocky path leads to more turmoil, however, when a business rival, Victor Drayton, creates one disaster after another. From petty tricks to outright violence, Victor’s nefarious mind will stop at nothing to beat down Jonathan’s last glimmer of hope.
Despite everything, Jonathan and his friends are fixated on surviving.
Emotional and financial destruction nip at their heels, until finally, with a lucky twist of fate, they escape city life and begin anew in their hometown of Rockport, Massachusetts.
A story set in the past, 1929 is full of romance, drama, and humor. Vivid, expertly crafted characters make this novel more than memorable—1929 is unforgettable.
Baby Huey: A Cautionary Tale of Addiction
By James Henderson
A brilliant urban comic/tragedy that weaves satire, sarcasm and social commentary into a tightly wound anti-drug novel with an unforgettable climax.
This is the story of an average black man and his spiral into the world of crack addiction. This is one of those stories that you know from the first few chapters isn’t going to end well, but like a train wreck you can’t look away. A scarily accurate depiction of how drug addiction can happen to anybody. A lot of people don’t understand how easy it is to get sucked into drugs, and this story is a great example of how sometimes it really only takes one time. I have known more than a few drug addicts, and I also know that sometimes people you could never imagine even thinking about using drugs can fall so far under it’s spell that there is no chance for return. It really is an amazing phenomenon, can you think of anything else in the world that has that kind of power. There are a few situations in the book that would make it iinappropriate for school aged students, but otherwise I would say that this book should be required reading for all graduating high school students.
On top of the fact that this book has an amazing lesson it is also extremely well written. The characters were all extremely believable. It wasn’t just a story about some guy addicted to crack, it was about John Dough and his struggle to live. Every time he would start heading in the right direction, he would ruin it all by doing crack. That’s how drug addiction is, once you are an addict you will be one forever, it doesn’t matter if you have been sober for 10 years, use one time and you will be right back where you were. I could really relate to John’s wife Doreen and her feelings toward him and his new addiction. What do you do if you find out your husband has been using crack?
The story doesn’t end in a completely terrible way, but it does show you that drug addiction only leads to a few different endings, most of which are not good. I think that this book would be great for any recovering addict or anybody struggling to understand how someone close to them became an addict. Drug addiction is so taboo in our society and most people don’t really understand how much control drugs can have over a person. While this story isn’t technically true because it’s fiction, I know there are people going through this right now as I type this. This is a story that you will think about long after you have finished it. I highly recommend this book to anyone (over the age of 16, because of a few scenes that are absolutely not appropriate for young children). Great Book!
Secrets In The Shadows
By T.L. Haddix
Book One in the Shadows Collection
After surviving a traumatic attack as a teenager, as well as a disastrous first marriage, Lauren Taylor Grant is content with her life. So what if she gets lonely from time to time? With a healthy, beautiful daughter, and a successful coffee shop-cafe, the divorced single mother convinces herself she doesn’t have time for love. When she gets her first glimpse at her parents’ handsome new neighbor, though, she starts reconsidering her stance. Once Charlie Clark begins breaking through her defensive walls, Lauren finds him hard to resist.
Just as Lauren is learning to let go of the past and embrace the future, her personal demons rear their ugly heads in the guise of a vandal hell-bent on destroying Lauren’s happiness. When another local businesswoman is brutally murdered, the investigation into the crime reveals an unexpected connection to Lauren’s past. The message is clear–the past has come calling, and it’s out for blood.
Note for Readers: This book does deal with the issues of incest and sexual abuse, more with the effects on the victims than the abuse itself. Reader Discretion Advised.
“Secrets in the Shadows” is the first book in the Shadows Collection, a series of Romantic Suspense novels set in small-town Indiana. Other titles include “Under the Moon’s Shadow,” “Shadows from the Grave,” “Hidden in the Shadows,” “In the Heart’s Shadow,” “Deception in the Shadows,” “Seduction in the Shadows,” and “Redemption in the Shadows.”
Drop Out
By Neil Ostroff
An unbelievable journey through Hell and back!
Nathan Cruz enjoyed the perfect life until the morning of September 11th 2001. Barely surviving the twin towers collapse he loses everyone he loves in the disaster. Devastated, he flees from human contact to live in isolation aboard a houseboat moored in the Florida Keys. Years pass, but his crushing grief does not diminish with time.
Nearly drowned by a category 4 hurricane, he unwittingly seeks shelter in the home of Miriam Kanter, a young woman with pancreatic cancer who has come to the islands to die. Miriam’s unwavering enthusiasm changes everything Nathan ever thought about the meaning of life and what possibly lies beyond. She provides Nathan with the answers he needs to mend the fractures of his shattered world and heal wounds cut deep into his soul. With the clock ticking toward the end of Miriam’s life, nothing could have prepared him for the revelations he would face as she slowly slips away.
Read what Kindle Nation Daily called “the sleeper hit of the year” what Kindle Fire Department called, “riveting, touching, and deeply heartwarming, a book that will stay with you forever”.
An Indie Book of the Day winner!
“Five Stars!” says Ereader News Today!
17 Sheikh Hamza Street, Cairo
By Avraham Bar-Av
The life of a Jewish family in Cairo is dramatically affected by the rise of Arab nationalism
A fascinating drama based on the biographic memoirs of the author, offering invaluable insight into Jewish history, North African Jewry and the history of the Middle East.
The Jewish Bentata family settles in Cairo, Egypt, at the beginning of the 20th century. After a few decades of leading a respectful bourgeois lifestyle suited for middle-class westerners in the Orient, the illusion of belonging begins to crack. As Rommel’s tanks bear down on the gates of Al Alamein, Arab nationalism raises its head.
In 1948, as the Israeli war of independence breaks out, the harassment reaches its peak: Hosni, a charming yet ruthless criminal, takes advantage of the family’s political weakness. He forces himself on Suzy, the youngest daughter, threatening to harm her family if she refuses him. When he discovers that she has betrayed him by marrying an English soldier and escaping to London, he turns to her older sister, Sophie. Hosni collects evidence about Sophie’s husband Zionist activity and threatens to hand it over to the authorities. While Henri is already arrested and sent to an internment camp in the desert, Sophie is given an offer that can’t be refused. She may either buy his incriminating documents one by one or buy the whole lot of them together. Hosni is not picky about the payment method: “Payment can take the form of money or gold or jewelry. If you’d rather not part with your belongings, an intimate encounter is also an option.”
The family’s life in Egypt has hit a dead end. In the face of catastrophe, family members hurry to flee from Egypt. One part of the family escapes to Israel, others spread out to find refuge in France, Italy and Australia.
˃˃˃ A historical novel depicting the fall of a middle-class Jewish family in Egypt.
Through the life of the Bentata family, the reader is exposed to an unperceivable mixture of East and West that existed for a small historic moment, a vivid kaleidoscope of culture, heritage, color, scent, and flavor. Stage by stage we witness the historical realization of the prophecy given to Avraham, the patriarch of the Jewish nation: “thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve the people there who will afflict them… and afterward they will leave.”
˃˃˃ An adventure story reveals the roots of the Israeli-Arab Conflict and the political situation in the Middle East.
A rare documentation of a surreal, rootless elite that managed to bloom in the fissure between a rotting, corrupt regime and the dying British Empire. Ignoring the domestic and regional shifts that spelled the end of Jewish existence in Egypt, they build their homes on the back of a dormant crocodile. As it woke up, the walls of existence began to crack.
A Cold Day In Mosul
By Isaac Hooke
A high-ranking DIA operative has been kidnapped in Iraq by the Islamic State, and with her, secrets that could bring about the collapse of major intelligence-gathering networks throughout the region. Can Ethan Galaal find her before it’s too late?
Samantha Rond, head of an ultra-secretive branch of the DIA’s Defense Clandestine Service in the Middle East, has gone missing during a key operation. Her last known location: the occupied city of Mosul, the war-ravaged heart of the Islamic State in Iraq.
Ethan Galaal and his elite team of undercover operatives are dispatched to rescue Samantha. Officially, he and his men don’t exist. Unofficially, Sam is their boss, however in her absence the team reports directly to the Secretary of Defense. Their years of experience in operating incognito in the region make them the ideal candidates for the rescue mission.
But first they have to find Sam. Setbacks exist at every turn. Surrounded by enemies and unsure of whom to trust, Ethan soon begins to suspect that a rogue non-state actor has been advising the Islamic State in Mosul.
Will he find her before the interrogators extract everything of value and destroy Sam’s mind? Or will elements of the rogue faction hunt down Ethan and his team first, bringing the rescue mission to a spectacularly premature end?
Breakthrough
By Michael C. Grumley
“Intriguing and suspenseful from the beginning to the very end.” – Dr. Bojan Tunguz – AMAZON TOP 50 & HALL OF FAME REVIEWER
A TECHNOLOGY THAT WILL CHANGE WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN…
A DISCOVERY THAT QUESTIONS THE VERY LAWS OF PHYSICS…
…AND A CATASTROPHE THAT CANNOT BE STOPPED.
Deep in the Caribbean Sea, a nuclear submarine is forced to suddenly abort its mission under mysterious circumstances. Strange facts begin to emerge that lead naval investigator, John Clay, to a small group of marine biologists who are quietly on the verge of making history.
With the help of a powerful computer system, Alison Shaw and her team are preparing to translate the first two-way conversation with the planet’s second smartest species. But the team discovers much more from their dolphins than they ever expected when a secret object is revealed on the ocean floor. One that was never supposed to be found.
Alison was sure she would never trust the military again. However, when an unknown group immediately becomes interested in her work, Alison realizes John Clay may be the only person she can trust. Together they must piece together a dangerous puzzle, and the most frightening piece, is the trembling in Antarctica.
To make matters worse, someone from the inside is trying to stop them. Now time is running out…and our understanding of the world is about to change forever.
Miss Adventure: a romantic comedy
By Geralyn Corcillo
When a freak fast-food accident almost kills dayreaming city girl Lisa Flyte, she decides it’s time to get a backbone and really start living out loud. But how is Lisa supposed to get tough all of a sudden? Jack Hawkins, that’s how. When Lisa finds out that the outdoor extremist needs a clueless urbanite to test his top-secret line of idiot-proof adventure gear, she gets the most outlandish idea of her life: she will be his undercover test dummy if he helps her become brave on their adventures in the wild.
They strike a deal. Lisa survives the treks, jumps, and dives (barely!) But can she use her bumbling…uh, blossoming outdoor moxie to become the alpha hero of her everyday life? Will she find the grit to pursue a career she really wants or the nerve to stand up to her bullying family? And will she get gutsy enough to go after Jack? He’s a man who’s not afraid of anything…except maybe falling for Lisa.
All Reader Reviews appreciated! Miss Adventure has been previously published as She Likes It Tough and She Likes It Rough by GVR Corcillo.
Only In Dreams
By Wendy Owens
My tone surprises him. He looks me in my eyes and says, “I guess it’s true. A guy like me only gets the girl in his dreams.”
When he walks out the door I turn and collapse into a chair, clutching the tattoo on my wrist. I just might take the chance. Weezer’s “Only In Dreams,” begins to play in my head as if on repeat. I grab the towel on the back of the chair next to me and press it to my face, comforting myself. It’s over, don’t cry for him, it’s finally over. He has to hate you after that. – Only In Dreams
Emmie Hayes’ best friend, Paige has created a life for herself. She’s finally happy, that is until Christian Bennett resurfaces. Suddenly she learns doing the thing that is right for your soul isn’t always the easiest for your heart.
* Contains mature content including death, romantic situations, and some mature language.
Book One – Stubborn Love – Clementine’s Story
Book Two – Only In Dreams – Paige’s Story
Book Three – The Luckiest – Mac’s Story
“I just read Stubborn Love and Only In Dreams by @WendyLOwens, both were fantastic!! If you haven’t read them you need to.” – Abbi Glines
Name and Number
By John Hoskison
Art student Nick Wood risks selling a few Ecstasy tablets at a party to impress friends and ends up with a two year prison sentence.
Nick hopes to spend his sentence in an open prison, the type he’s read about in the papers. The ones often referred to as ‘holiday camps’. Instead, his worst nightmare comes true.
Locked up in HMP Blackthorpe, a prison known for its medieval-like squalor, Nick lives at the mercy of the drug barons and in fear of the lifers. Constantly stalked by danger he has to find a way to survive.
To earn protection money he turns to the one thing he’s good at—art. But can selling pictures to visitors be enough to keep the mob at bay? Or will he be made an example of by the hard men and suffer the worst type of prison punishment?
Based on the experiences of the author.
ABOUT JOHN HOSKISON:
In 1994, bestselling author John Hoskison broke a lifetime rule by drinking and driving and on his way home, he hit and killed a cyclist. As a non-violent first offender, he was told he would serve part of his sentence in an open prison, but was instead consigned to some of the toughest in Britain.
John was only able to survive his time in prison through the incredible forgiveness he received from the woman whom he’d made a widow and by the support of friends and family who knew his actions were so out of character.
Now John spends time speaking to young people at schools and through community out-reach programs, warning them about taking unnecessary risks and what prison is really like. If anyone is under the illusion that prison is a holiday camp, and that breaking the law just once is worth the risk, read this book.
THE CHOSEN
By Shomo Kalo
An Epic Novel Based on the Biblical story of Daniel
Separated from his family, his homeland and his childhood sweetheart, Daniel, a Judean youth of noble lineage, is exiled to Babylon, where his captors hope to use his talents at the Royal court.
What will eventually become of the youth – as he is subjected to grueling trials and tests – neither he nor his captors can even imagine…
Shlomo Kalo’s masterpiece of Biblical literature, THE CHOSEN, is being republished in three volumes. Kalo, one of the most prolific writers in Israel and a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature, brings to new life the themes and spirit of the Biblical story of Daniel in this lively, dramatic epic novel. His masterwork of storytelling weaves together the themes of faith, friendship, betrayal, love stronger than death, and redemption.
The first installment, Book 1 THE YOUTH, gives an account of Daniel’s early years – from his childhood in Jerusalem, the cradle of his spirituality and character, to his young adulthood in Babylon, when he is sent to his first duty at Nebuchadnezzar’s Royal court.
“It is indeed an epic-like novel filled with drama and passion. Mr. Kalo weaves together the political, personal and spiritual with great skill.” G. Glijansky, HarperCollins, US
Collide
By J.C. Hanigan
Harlow Jones has a troubled past, and a questionable future. Surrounded by death, tragedy, and intrigue, she is forced to mature long before her time. Plagued by anxiety and depression, she hides her inner turmoil with spite and sarcasm. Her thick skin is impenetrable…or so she thought. Until she becomes involved with her grade twelve English teacher. In this exclusive entry into the new adult genre, with raw style that is as dark as it is poignant, Collide presents the ultimate choice: forbidden love or doing the right thing.
If Stephen King wrote a modern Babysitter’s Club book… I think it would have had the same sort of effect on me. I kept reading. My skin kept crawling. I didn’t want to understand, but I did… even if I didn’t agree. As I read on, I kept wanting to counsel characters in the book. It’s rare that I become invested that way with any book… more so when I think about how far outside my normal reading fare this book comfortably sits.
There is a love story. There are real, three-dimensional, characters; complete with very real and believable flaws. There is a tale here that is extremely well told, in a voice that shows a grasp on a style of storytelling that not just anyone can accomplish. There is a deeply disturbing premise as well. The subject matter is masterfully approached, though I can still imagine many taking issue with the skin-crawling nature of Iain and Harlow’s relationship. I found myself torn between trying to understand Harlow’s position and repeating the words Stockholm Syndrome aloud as I read.
There can, and likely should, be many debates about the events that occur in the story. Further, there can be deep discussions about the innocence of the young and their recklessness with emotion. The story in this book, I’m sure could be drawn and quartered, and debated until the end of time. What I don’t think could ever honestly be open for debate is the brilliance with which the story is told.
If you are looking for a standard romance… you will be disappointed. If you are looking for a tale well told… that will, in turns, make you ask questions you are uncomfortable with, and even, to a degree, remember and view your high school years through a completely different lens… this might just work out very well for you.
The Cabin: A Christmas Short Story
By Angela Shori
Years after a tragedy that left them broken, Tressa and Chris find new hope in the magic of the holiday season. Stranded together after six years apart, they must at once face the tragedy that divided them and find forgiveness. Sprinkled among the heart-breaking memories are moments of pure joy – and isn’t that the magic of the holiday season?
If you’re in need of a brief, Hallmark movie-type holiday read, look no further. This poignant tale of painful loss and redemptive love will leave you with a lump in your throat and a renewal of hope in new beginnings.
Chris and Tressa are thrown together by circumstance in a mountain cabin they once shared as a married couple. But the loss of their baby daughter eight years earlier, and the subsequent guilt that sometimes fragments even the strongest of relationships, slowly eroded their union, and, regrettably, divorce had followed.
This remarkable short story reveals a Christmas miracle, conceived by need, and crowned with heart-warming resolution in the fire-warmed country cabin Chris and Tressa once occupied together.
Bring the tissues and settle in for a short, but imminently satisfying read. This one’s a winner!
The Tourist Trail: A Novel
By John Yunker
“The Tourist Trail is at once a romance, an adventure story, an environmental polemic, and a keen study of just how animalistic humans are.” — Phoebe Literary Journal
“The Tourist Trail by John Yunker is an exciting, thoughtful, intelligent, and extremely well-written eco-thriller.” — The Literary Lioness
An IndieReader Discovery Award Winner
“This eco-thriller is a plausible and entertaining page-turner that offers romance, engaging characters, and a fascinating plot.” — IndieReader
(Winner of the 2012 IndieReader Popular Fiction Award)
Some people stop at the water’s edge.
Some keep going…
Biologist Angela Haynes is accustomed to dark, lonely nights as one of the few humans at a penguin research station in Patagonia. She has grown used to the cries of penguins before dawn, to meager supplies and housing, to spending most of her days in one of the most remote regions on earth. What she isn’t used to is strange men washing ashore, which happens one day on her watch.
The man won’t tell her his name or where he came from, but Angela, who has a soft spot for strays, tends to him, if for no other reason than to protect her birds and her work. When she later learns why he goes by an alias, why he is a refugee from the law, and why he is a man without a port, she begins to fall in love—and embarks on a journey that takes her deep into Antarctic waters, and even deeper into the emotional territory she thought she’d left behind.
Against the backdrop of the Southern Ocean, The Tourist Trail weaves together the stories of Angela as well as FBI agent Robert Porter, dispatched on a mission that unearths a past he would rather keep buried; and Ethan Downes, a computer tech whose love for a passionate activist draws him into a dangerous mission.
294 pages
“This immensely readable and exciting novel brings together the seemingly disjointed lives of characters who share a common thread: whether they know it or not, their purpose is to be devoted to the cause of helping animals…The Tourist Trail is epic, sprawling and strikingly cinematic.”
— Our Hen House
Carry Me Away
By Robb Grindstaff
Carrie Destin, a biracial military brat, learns the injuries she sustained in a car accident will prove fatal before she reaches adulthood. She accelerates her life and sets aggressive goals: college, connecting with her Japanese roots, and the all-consuming desire to find her soul mate. A kid from nowhere, she travels the world with her Marine father and Japanese mother.
Facing an abbreviated life with a brash attitude and a biting, sometimes morbid sense of humor, Carrie races to graduate high school at age fifteen. College is her marker of adulthood, when she can smoke in public and order dessert before dinner. She tosses out her adolescent wedding scrapbook for a funeral plan. A teenage crush on Paul, a family friend and a widower seventeen years her senior, develops into a fantasy that takes on a life of its own.
As she outlives the original prognosis into her early twenties, her life goals evolve—always short-term. The longing for love stays constant, yet she walls herself off from others. Relationships end in betrayal, abandonment and violence. When love reveals itself, she pulls away, fearing that an early meeting with Death is on the horizon.
Carrie’s frantic desire to experience life before it ends spirals out of control, leading to a physical and emotional collapse. Her grandmother’s wisdom points her toward acceptance, but first she must break through her walls before she can give the gift of ‘til-death-do-us-part.
The Shopkeeper
By James D. Best
Steve Dancy tales. Honest Westerns. Filled with dishonest characters.
In 1879, Steve Dancy sells his New York shop and ventures west to explore and write a journal about his adventures. Though he’s not looking for trouble, Dancy’s infatuation with another man’s wife soon embroils him in a deadly feud with Sean Washburn, a Nevada silver baron. Infuriated by the outrages of two hired thugs, the shopkeeper kills both men in an impulsive street fight. Dancy believes this barbarian act has closed the episode. He is wrong. He has interfered with Washburn’s ambitions, and this is something the mining tycoon will not allow. Pinkertons, hired assassins, and aggrieved bystanders escalate the feud until it pulls in all the moneyed interests and power brokers in Nevada.
Is a New York City shopkeeper tough enough to survive the Wild West?
I have to say its one of the best western books I’ve read in a long time. You’ll find yourself lost in the book–the fast pace keeps it interesting. –Woman’sDay, Maritza Barone
The Shopkeeper is an entertaining story about a New York shopkeeper who has relocated to the wild west. The Shopkeeper is a smart gunslinger and star of a new western series. –Nashville Examiner, Diane Scearce
A great book, I do hope that The Shopkeeper gets the readership it richly deserves. –Blogger News Network, Simon Barrett
This is a fast paced tale with an interesting hero. In structure, with short chapters, crisp dialogue, and lots of movement, it’s reminiscent of a thriller … you’ll certainly find enough twists and turns to provide an entertaining and exciting story. –Western Writers of America Roundup Magazine, August, 2008
“If you are a fan of great westerns from authors like Louis L’Amour and Larry McMurtry, then you need to get on board with James Best and the Steve Dancy series. Great stories, interesting and diverse characters and plenty of action! I have enjoyed every one of them and The Return is a terrific addition to the series. My only complaint is that they don’t come fast enough! I can’t wait for the next one and hope it comes soon!” –Larry Winget, The Pitbull of Personal Development
The Holdout
By Laurel Osterkamp
Robin wanted to win The Holdout, a cutthroat reality TV show, so she gave it her all, challenge after challenge. Then she fell for Grant, with his irresistible eyes and heartbreaking life story.
But Grant was only using Robin as they competed for a million dollars. Once home, Robin wants to hide from the humiliation as episodes of The Holdout are aired, and she worries her family was right all along; she’s not a survivor.
Yet she could surprise everyone, and have the last laugh.
Besides, Robin now has jury duty. And as she forges ahead, confronting her demons about bravery, justice, and romance, Robin will come to decide which is more important: the courage to stand alone, or the strength to love again.
Laurel Osterkamp’s award winning novels have been hailed as funny, intelligent, snarky and poignant. She is the author of four novels and two novellas, including the November Surprise series, which, like The Holdout, features the Bricker family. Laurel was recently on a federal jury, and she loves watching Survivor.
The Sneezing Christmas Tree
By Aaron Kerr
A Christmas story the entire family will cherish. Free audiobook included!
A snowy night, a drive from farm to farm, and finally the perfect Christmas tree!
Alice and Tommy quickly name their beautiful new tree, Emily. And as they welcome her into their home, she seems like a perfectly ordinary tree. That is, until the sneezing starts.
They soon discover there is far more to this Christmas tree than they ever imagined. But everything changes when Alice realizes they may have made a terrible mistake by bringing Emily into their home.
The entire family will enjoy this story and its timeless message of the love of Jesus and the unique purpose for which each of us is made.
The Sneezing Christmas Tree is a story you’ll return to and cherish year after year.
Merry Christmas!
Fade to Black
By M.C. Webb
“Absolutely Amazing!” “Excellent Read!” “Best debut novels in years!” Best-Selling author MC Webb brings you a tale to remember. Unimaginable horror follows Piper Mitchell from adolescence to adulthood as she tries to escape the chains that hold her long after she is free. A chance meeting with one of Hollywood’s’ biggest stars, Ryan Knox, will forever change both of their lives.Venture the unknown with beauty and the daring actor as they both are forced to endure the devastating acts of evil, yet continues fight the drowning current that threatens to pull them both under. Full of hair pin turns you will not soon forget.
* due to adult situations and content, this book is recommended for ages 18 or older
Like it says, it is NOT for younger readers…Honestly, I downloaded the book last night and I can tell you, the first few chapters are hard to read, because of what “Piper” went through, but MAN!!!! I couldn’t put it down! I made myself go to bed at 2:30 this morning, and then picked my Nook back up after the kids went to school at 8:00am. Just finished reading it a couple of hours ago. I really enjoyed the book and I can’t WAIT to read more!
A gripping tale of a women is torn from a normal life and life placed in bondage and despair. how can one survive so many atrocities and despair. A gripping journey to the end. An epic tale I will follow through each trilogy!
I am not big on reading books other than biographies. But this one by far, takes the cake and has changed my perspective on what kind of books to read. If you love suspense, love, and drama….this is the book for you. Even if you don’t, I guarantee you will fall in love with this book and won’t be able to put it down. I can not wait till the second book comes out!!!
Telesa – The Covenant Keeper
By Lani Wendt Young
An island of secrets. A girl on fire. An epic battle of the elements. Can love truly conquer all? A thrilling love story inspired by Pacific mythology – featuring a sinister sisterhood of beautiful women with an environmental agenda and a fiery yet vulnerable young woman who must master her gifts – before they destroy her and all those she cares about.
“Readers of Twilight will find many familiar features in Telesa- a strong supernatural element, beautiful young people, school romance, students with cars – and potential for a lot of chaos. But with a difference: here the mythology and school are Samoan. Telesā are powerful women who manipulate elemental forces, sometimes for good, but often not. Males are expendable.
When Leila Folger’s American father dies, the 18-year old insists on going to Samoa to learn something of her mother who, she believes, died when she was an infant. She is puzzled by her aunt’s cool welcome. At school she is drawn to head prefect Daniel but sparks fly. And a fiery response to a hostile youth at an interschool rugby match brawl leaves him with burns and her in confusion.
Then a beautiful woman introduces Leila to the fractious and ruthless sisterhood of telesā. Life itself is at stake. But Leila is strong, has loyal friends and elemental support, and gives a good account of herself. These are great stories and ‘The Bone Bearer’, due in 2013, will complete the series.” NZ National Library YA Fiction Review.
She is a girl torn between two worlds…Teenager Leila Folger escapes the stifling misery of life with her American grandmother and goes to Samoa searching to connect with her mother’s family. All her efforts to learn more about the mother she never knew are met with hostility. What really happened eighteen years ago when her father fled the island with his infant daughter? Why is everyone afraid to even talk about the woman he once loved? What is a ‘telesa’ and why does even the mention of her name strike such fear in everyone Leila meets? And why is Leila having vivid nightmares about a mother she can’t remember?
Leila’s quest for truth takes a thrilling turn when she meets Daniel Tahi, irresistibly compelling with his island-warrior tattoos, breath-taking jade eyes and golden smile. What is it in Daniel’s mysterious past that binds him and Leila so closely?
When Leila discovers she is heir to a fiery birthright, she must choose between the Sisterhood and the boy she loves. Can they overcome all that divides them – even the very elements?
“A household name with Pacific readers worldwide…” SUGA Magazine.
“A gripping story that whips the reader along. It’s depiction of Leila’s struggles with identity, sexuality and society’s expectations will resonate with teens and ex-teens all over the world, while its warm portrayal of Samoan culture gives it a character all its own.” Ann Morgan, ‘A Year of Reading the World’, Freelance Editor/Writer, Guardian, U.K
“Great world building and three-dimensional characters make TELESA stand out in this crowded genre…” Bookeracy Reviews, USA
Searching for Glory
By Hunter J. Keane
Gloria Star is rich and famous. She’s on a hit television show and engaged to one of the most desired men in Hollywood. Her life is perfect. But then she gets a letter in the mail that changes everything. The past she has been trying to forget for so long has finally come back to haunt her.
Gloria Star hasn’t always been an A-list celebrity. She used to be just a regular Midwestern girl named Glory Stark. Now she is forced to reconcile her two lives because Johnny Carter, the only man she ever loved, has asked her to return to her hometown, and she can’t say no. Ten years ago, one night changed everything for Gloria and Johnny. Not only did Gloria lose Johnny, but she also lost herself.
Now she’s headed back to her home town in Missouri, to reconnect with her sister and make amends with Johnny. She quickly realizes that returning to Glory Stark’s life isn’t going to be easy. As she faces painful truths about her past and an uncertain future, Gloria learns that forgiveness is essential, family is everything and love is forever.
Pieces of Granite
By Brenda S. Anderson
A distressing diagnosis
A retreating husband
A prodigal brother
Debbie Verhoeven is not your typical woman:
*She sacrificed a counseling career to be a full-time mother
*She’d rather pound a nail than round steak
*Oprah? No way! Give her ESPN any day
*Nothing could be more stressful than scrapbooking
Nothing, except …
a distressing diagnosis,
a husband who is pulling away,
and two older brothers who refuse to get along
When the counselor is caught in the middle, when she needs to be strong for those around her, who is left to be strong for her?
Sometimes life doesn’t go the way we want it to. At all. Often it seems when trouble comes, it comes in a flood. Debbie meets difficulties at every turn, and somehow she has to be the one to stay strong, whether she feels strong enough to manage it or not.
While I can’t relate to everything Debbie faced (thankfully!), in many ways I felt like I was reading about a copy of myself. I think perhaps many moms would feel the same. When life falls apart, it’s up to us to be strong, to help hold everything together. Oh, for someone else to carry the load for a while!
I wanted to like Debbie’s older brother, Ricky, and yet I felt her frustration with him. And while I wanted to have more sympathy for her husband, Jerry, at the same time I wanted to knock some sense into him!
Pieces of Granite is the prequel to the Coming Home series. (Chain of Mercy is book one in the series, and has already been released.) If you have already read Chain of Mercy, you can easily go back and read this one — just remember that this is happening before the other events. If you haven’t read Chain of Mercy, I would go ahead and start with this one. But either way, you’ll want to read both. They are well-written books which dig into some gritty issues without being “preachy.” You’ll walk away reminded that God is indeed good, all the time — even when life is hard.
The Secret Book of Designs
By Catamount Mayhugh
Overview
Déjà Vu. The tipping sensation perched precariously on the cusp of the future. The blurred boundary between what we know for certain and what we are convinced is true. In a near future where this fleeting djinn has been bottled as a dangerous recreational drug, its addicts must cope with a profoundly damaged sense of time, a ravenous need to find meaning and connection, and cravings for the ultimate comfort that is timelessness. B-J is both artist and addict, a halfhearted participant in a new form of inpatient rehab. Surrounded by the Sunhouse Branch –a bevy of fellow resident lost souls– he struggles to kick his urges and restore order to a life where the once-familiar future seems cloaked in shadows.
Editorial Reviews
From Kirkus Reviews:
A novel about addicts recovering from a peculiar drug from debut author Mayhugh.
Blaise Joule, B-J to most, is a college dropout–turned–stained glass artist with an appreciation for myths and history, a penchant for the Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky, and a problem using correct verb tenses. Finding himself in the Red Lion House due to an addiction to the drug “Vu,” B-J is surrounded by fellow patients with equally diverse interests: Tom, a photographer steeped in Buddhism who greets people with a gentle “Namaste,” and the enthusiastic William Kelmscott, a publisher with an extensive knowledge of anthropology and quotations, both biblical and otherwise. The reader follows along as these and other patients argue, discuss philosophy, write poetry and learn to trust and, in some cases, love one another. B-J falls for the slender Cecilia, but the joining of two recovering addicts is a fragile affair. Stuffed with dialogue and references ranging from Nathanial Hawthorne to Monty Python to Calvin Coolidge and Tarkovsky, the book isn’t meant for the impatient. Discussions tend to be lengthy, and details of life in the Red Lion House (“I’m not sure Greg and Louis’ spaghetti dinner captured the essence of a special event”) can seem extraneous. Favoring a meditative quality, the book is geared more as a Dinner with Andre meets The Magic Mountain. A trust-fall exercise may not impress the reader as much as it does B-J; however, the resulting musings allow for any number of tangential thoughts and altered relationships. The prose can be a little overwrought (“Her voice took on the slightly malicious timbre of her most coquettish tones”), but the story whips through so many different concepts, the interested reader is bound to learn something in the process.
Explores many wide-ranging ideas at its own unapologetic pace.
The Day the Dollar Died
By Robert Baynes
John is an ordinary farmer in the Midwest. He has the same goals and dreams as many other hard working Americans. He loves his family and enjoys what he does to make a living. He imagines that things will be about the same for his future as they have been for his father and grandfather. He believes that he lives in the freest and greatest country on earth.
However, things are about to change drastically in his life and in the country he has grown up in. He is told by a neighbor about the changes that are coming, but he dismisses the warning and doesn’t believe that this could happen in this country. Just like a Tsunami that travels across the ocean, almost no one sees the danger coming. When it begins to rise up as it nears shore, it threatens to destroy everything in its path.
John and his family face things they never imagined would happen to them in this fast-paced novel.Forces beyond their control shape their lives.
Get a behind the scenes peek at those who promote these changes and what their motivation is. There are always two sides to every change. Walk with John as he makes some very tough decisions to protect his family and his families future. Some of these decisions can have very severe consequences.
$ $ $ $ $
As you read this book, it is not too hard to imagine that this could happen to you and your family. This book is a must read for everyone who is concerned about the direction that this country is taking.
Naught’s Had: A Romance
By Vivian Gerow
Naught’s Had is the story of Kimberly and Alex, two ordinary, unsophisticated young people, set in the 1970’s. It is a romance that bites back. Against the backdrop of the 70’s when Rock ’n Roll energized the world and made us believe in tomorrow, the story plays out the complexities of two people and their choices about how to love, and not love each other.
This isn’t your everyday romance. … These are complex characters, with complex backstories, detailed painstakingly … characters you won’t soon forget, dealing with issues that are unfortunately too prevalent in today’s society. The author does a masterful job of exploring the complex nuances of dysfunctional relationships with her often lyrical, almost stream-of-consciousness writing style … [and] paints a vivid word-portrait of just what it’s like to seek love, but never find it.
Publishers’s Daily Reviews
the Split: Part 1
By Noel Thomas Fiems
You’re sick.
What if a cure = the truth?
What if the truth was worse than the disease?
You need to be cured . . . veil jumper . . .
You’re sick . . . moonshine monster . . .
You’re not aware . . . verse skipper . . .
GO AWAY, you tell it. It can’t be . . . you have a voice in your head like everyone else. But the voice changes. It’s you, but different . . . from another time? Questions your reality, your friends, and your sanity. He tells you things before they happen. You feel them too. You don’t want him in your head – this is your life, not his. What does he have to hide?
Aurik was caught in the Split line. A joint experiment between countries, the slit experiment, ruins the planet’s petroleum. Changes life and changes kids. Physical and mental disorders plague them and continue to get worse along with confusing extrasensory powers. Compelled to seek help, they go the only place they can; the island.
Aurik is no different, except for the voice in his head. Everybody believes the island can help, but he knows better. His brother went three years before and returned home in a lead box. A lead box with a window.
Aurik’s change starts then he meets other kids with the change. Together they make the long, dangerous trip for help but something isn’t right at the island. They already know Aurik.
He’s never been there.
Summer to Autumn
By J.J. Anderson
‘A Gem of Interwoven Tales’ to engage, amuse and delight.
Five stars on Amazon. Five stars on Goodreads. Readers are asking for the next slice of English village life.
The fifth to the eighth tales in The Village; A Year in Twelve Tales.
At May-time a gardening competition re-kindles an old rivalry amid mourning and bereavement. The June wedding season sees a quartet of couples making difficult romantic decisions. There is skull-doggery and dastardly deeds at the Summer Fete. Real violence erupts with an influx of transient newcomers as the harvesting begins. The next four inter-linked stories are about life in the village and its wide cast of characters, as four generations of the Marshall family negotiate the hazards of their own family saga, while, around them babies are born, plots are hatched, romance blooms and marriages founder.
Check out the reviews on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Goodreads and Riffle.
Readers say
- ‘Anderson cleverly interlinks all the characters and …you end up becoming extremely attached to the village and the people who reside in it. What a superb first publication, I look forward to many more titles.’ A Cheeky Booklover (independent book reviewer)
- ‘The prose is clear and crisp, and the build towards the last story is subtly done, with many threads coming together for an exciting climax.’ Stuart Wakefield Kindle best selling author
- ‘A tour de force….. I shall look out for the next publication from this talented writer.’ Amazon review
- ‘I was totally absorbed in this book from page one. I… hope very much that there will be further publications telling more about the people I felt I was getting to know so well. I look forward very much to further works by this author.’ Amazon review
- ‘The inter-woven layered nature of village life is captured perfectly. I was thoroughly involved…’ Amazon review
Thores-Cross: A Yorkshire Ghost Story Novel
By Karen Perkins
Silver medal winner, European fiction – 2015 Independent Publisher Book Awards
#1 Bestseller British Horror
Over 100 5-STAR reviews on Amazon
“This is the most well-researched, intense and spookiest book I’ve ever read” – Author Amy Queau
A haunting horror thriller set in Britain’s North Yorkshire Moors about isolation, superstition and persecution
The first historical paranormal thriller in the Yorkshire Ghost Story series, Thores-Cross explores 18th century life in a picturesque but isolated village in the North Yorkshire Moors. But when a vulnerable young girl is ostracised within her community and accused of witchcraft, the descendants of her neighbours will suffer for centuries to come.
Emma Moorcroft is still grieving after a late miscarriage and moves to her dream house at Thruscross Reservoir with her husband, Dave. Both Emma and Dave hope that moving into their new home signifies a fresh start, but life is not that simple. Emma has nightmares about the reservoir and the drowned village that lies beneath the water, and is further disturbed by the sound of church bells – from a church that no longer exists.
Jennet is fifteen and lives in the isolated community of Thores-Cross, where life revolves about the sheep on which they depend. Following the sudden loss of both her parents, she is seduced by the local wool merchant, Richard Ramsgill. She becomes pregnant and is shunned not only by Ramsgill, but by the entire village. Lonely and embittered, Jennet’s problems escalate, leading to tragic consequences which continue to have an effect through the centuries.
Emma becomes fixated on Jennet, neglecting herself, her beloved dogs and her husband to the point where her marriage may not survive. As Jennet and Emma’s lives become further entwined, Emma’s obsession deepens and she realises that the curse Jennet inflicted on the Ramsgill family over two hundred years ago is still claiming lives. Emma is the only one who can stop Jennet killing again, but will her efforts be enough?
Arnco
By Ben Muse
Jake Brigham, a wildly successful first time author is drowning in the undertow of his newfound success. After years of “winning,” he realizes he has only lost–a beloved mother, a marriage, even his ability to create. Eventually, he leaves the demands of New York and returns to a place once close to his heart: Arnco, a dying Georgia mill village. He rebuilds his life, and his passion returns, for words, and for a childhood friend.
Allie Tanner, a widowed, single mother, has been fighting demons since the day she was born. Her entire life has been a struggle– with an alcoholic father, her own health problems, the death of her husband, and the constant worry that she may never be able to protect the one thing that means the most: her daughter Grace.
Jake ignites the spark of hope within her, and she within him. And each for very different reasons. When circumstances from their past collide with their present, will their hopes survive? Will tragedy cause a horrific breakdown or an inspirational destiny?
Protecting Miss Jenna
By Lisa Prysock
Abe Lincoln Country
Louisville, Kentucky 1859
Wade Taylor is the perfect blend of American renegade-pioneer and English aristocracy. He stands for God, the Bible, freedom, and guns. If anyone can bring Owens to justice, he can! The problem is, Miss Jenna is bait and doesn’t even realize it. It’s going to take round the clock coverage to protect her. Twelve schools in Jefferson County under his jurisdiction, but the school house in rural county district four… Owens is fixated on.
Vivacious and beautiful, Jenna is the product of her southern belle mother and abolitionist father. She’s also the new teacher in district four. How on earth is he going to keep her out of trouble and bring Owens to justice?
The tension is building in beautiful, rolling Kentucky in this Civil War Era love story! Kentucky author, Lisa M. Prysock, manages to keep readers on the edge of their seats with many twists and turns in this heartwarming, Christian, faith-inspired, historical romance.
‘The Lydia Collection’ is a series of unrelated, Christ-centered, historical romance books that can be read in any order. The first story in the collection is “The Redemption of Lady Georgiana,” a Regency time-period romance, loosely adapted from one of the greatest Bible love stories of all time, The Book of Ruth.
Lisa is the author of two faith-inspired, Regency, romance books and two faith-inspired, Victorian, romance books: “To Find a Duchess,” “The Redemption of Lady Georgiana,” “Hannah’s Garden: a Turn of the Century Love Story,” Volume 1, and “Abigail’s Melody,” Volume 2 of ‘The Victorian Christian Heritage Series.’ You can find out more about this author at http://www.LisaPrysock.com.
What A Person Wants
By Kris Bell
What happens when your idea of a perfect mate is tested?
Isabel is an aspiring writer engaged to her very own Prince Charming. But when he goes away on a work assignment and fails to return home, Isabel begins to suspect her prince is not who she thinks he is.
Richie is successful in every area of his life, except when it comes to getting over Chloe, the only woman to ever break his heart. Her sudden reappearance turns his life upside down.
Through a chance run-in at a bookstore, Richie and Isabel make an instant connection, but past and present relationships, relatives, close friends, and their own beliefs threaten to keep them apart. As their friendship grows, they both have to decide what it is they really want…and if what they want is ultimately what they need.
Awoken
By Sarah Nofke
Around the world humans are hallucinating after sleepless nights.
In a sterile, underground institute the forecasters keep reporting the same events.
And in the backwoods of Texas, a sixteen-year-old girl is about to be caught up in a fierce, ethereal battle.
Meet Roya Stark. She drowns every night in her dreams, spends her hours reading classic literature to avoid her family’s ridicule, and is prone to premonitions—which are becoming more frequent. And now her dreams are filled with strangers offering to reveal what she has always wanted to know: Who is she? That’s the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out. But will Roya live to regret learning the truth?
Hope For Garbage
By Alex Tully
“The fulfilling story of a young man who can turn trash into treasure.” – KIRKUS REVIEWS
Welcome to the cruel world of Trevor McNulty. No matter how hard he tries, this seventeen year-old just can’t get a break. Through no fault of his own, he finds himself living with his alcoholic uncle on the outskirts of Cleveland. His days are filled with garbage-picking and hanging out with his seventy year-old neighbor, who also happens to be his best friend.
One early morning while scanning the streets in a wealthy suburb, he meets Bea, a rebellious rich girl with problems of her own. She’s smart, cute, and a glimmer of light in his dark world.
But in the midst of their budding romance, Bea’s beautiful mother enters the picture with an agenda of her own. She sets off a chain of events so shocking and destructive, Trevor’s crazy life soon becomes more than he can handle. While he is desperate to save his relationship with Bea, he learns that nothing in his world can be saved unless he first saves himself.
Hope for Garbage is a story about resilience—about overcoming adversity under the most extraordinary circumstances—about never, ever, giving up hope.
Because sooner or later, everybody gets a break.
The Gardener of Baghdad
By Ahmad Ardalan
“Two people, one city, different times; connected by a memoir. Can love exist in a city destined for decades of misery?”
Adnan leads a weary existence as a bookshop owner in modern-day, war-torn Baghdad, where bombings, corruption and assault are everyday occurrences and the struggle to survive has suffocated the joy out of life for most. But when he begins to clean out his bookshop of forty years to leave his city in search of somewhere safer, he comes across the story of Ali, the Gardener of Baghdad, Adnan rediscovers through a memoir handwritten by the gardener decades ago that beauty, love and hope can still exist, even in the darkest corners of the world.
Doctor How and the Illegal Aliens
By Mark Speed
What if the BBC had the wrong story? What if Doctor Who had family? For fifty years, it is Doctor How who has held the line against the forces of darkness and stupidity.
Illegal aliens try to hack How’s Spectrel (TARDIS is a very rude word where he comes from), just as he suspects his estranged cousin Where has been compromised.
When reports come in of mysterious attacks by alien creatures, Doctor How has to rely on his new assistant Kevin, a petty criminal from south London, and Trinity, a morphing super-predator, as he counters this threat to humanity’s existence.
His efforts are hampered by bungling agents from MI16, desperate to capture the Time Keepers’ technology.
Can Doctor How keep ahead of MI16, save Where and combat the alien threat? Doctor How and the Illegal Aliens is the first in the five-volume series.
The Giant and the Dwarf
By Dov Yanai
Can one be a Giant with no Dwarfs around?
A captivating tale for adults
The Giant and the Dwarf is a captivating tale for adults about the journey to, and the burden of, self-empowerment. The plot,moving, catching and heart gripping, shifts between reality and the fairy world, gaining insight from both.
The story and its direct and innocent style crosses the boundaries of personal inner space, allowing every reader to look at the Giant and Dwarf within them, along with their strengths and weaknesses, through the eyes of both a child and an adult alike.
The book ‘refuses’ to move in a set path of any one genre and walks a fine line between a sweet-fluffy children’s tale and a painfully biographical spiritual guide.
This fuzziness enables the reader to devote themselves unreservedly to the story with judgment of neither the story nor themselves, instead of experiencing the journey to the fullest.
The meaning of the relationship between Giant and Dwarf unfolds growth processes and expands awareness.
We are all part of this voyage to Self Growth, which demands a connection with pain and weakness, as well as with innocence and positive attitude.
˃˃˃ From the book
He felt a blend of lightness and sadness; lightness for having less of the Dwarf on his shoulders, and sadness for being less of a Giant.
“You said there were Giants without Dwarfs on their shoulders,” he blurted at the old man, again. “How can one be a Giant without a Dwarf on their shoulders?”
“For that you’ll have to grow the Giant within you,” answered the Wisest of the Wise.
“How does one do that? How does one grow the Giant within?”
˃˃˃ Grow the giant within
The main message:“Grow the giant within” raises essential life questions touching us all, both as individuals and as societies:
- Can one be a Giant with no Dwarfs around?
- Is our ability to feel Able and Great forever dependent on the person facing us?
- What is the secret behind authentic and indefinite Magnitude that relies solely on its ability to exist and grow within one?
And, like any other children’s tale, do all heroes in the story have an equal chance for a happy ending?
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