It is a dark and cruel place for the workers on this farm. The master, Archie McLachlan, causes fear to run through the hearts of the slaves, except for one woman who speaks up deliberately and without fear whenever she wishes. Her name is Soola, and she fast becomes leader of the slaves and friend to the master's wife Gertrude. The friendship forms a triangle of competition, love, and hatred as "Massa Archie" becomes more and more dangerous, even towards his own son Robert and Soola's son John, even to a point where Soola begins to understand the meaning of fear. But, together, the leaders of the second generation can look for a future where hope might overcome fear.Thus, this story, Part One of a four-part series, not only recounts the family's beginnings at the Inveraray/Dogwood Plantation, but also introduces the second generation, who will appear again in the ensuing volumes. Slavery, the corruption caused by slavery, its close companions, race bigotry and injustice, and the laws and bitter politics that result from them, are featured and discussed throughout. While, in the foreground, the unique relationship between mistress and slave and their respective descendants triggers a wide-sweeping story of love, conflict, heartbreak, and forgiveness.

    They hoped it would be over by Christmas... Britain is at war and the proximity of the docks means that life in and around London's Turnbury Buildings is hard and dangerous. Chances are taken, people have secrets, hearts are broken. And feelings about foreigners are running high. Sixteen-year-old Freddie Jarrett is secretly seeing a girl from the local Chinese community - a relationship that would be frowned on by both families, despite the fact that they all support the fight for freedom from oppression. And his sister Grace has her own secret to hide. A secret that no one outside the immediate family must ever know. As the threat of the Luftwaffe looms over the docks, the community is threatened with being torn apart by prejudice, fear and separation, and the disturbing loss of stability that brings with it the feeling that it is only what happens today that counts for anything...

    The two sisters have their own secrets, hiding difficult childhoods yet still maintaining an air of superiority and righteousness with those around them. Living with them is their brother, Saville, an adult but with the mind of a seven year old. The little girl’s arrival soon turns their world upside down. Great plans are laid for their good-looking, headstrong niece. Harris is going to marry well. Everything changes when World War Two breaks out. Harris falls in love with a man who only has his own interests at heart. She scandalises and disgraces her family with her obsessive behaviour, making herself a laughing stock in the close-knit town. But Harris is not to be put down. She begins to build a successful business with the support of her aunts and her close friend, Bonny. She eventually meets and agrees to marry the respectable local solicitor to the happiness of her aunts, but at the altar, she hears her lost love enter the church…. And once again, she shows her true colours. When tragedy strikes, Harris fights to regain respectability in the eyes of those who care for her but has Harris learned any lessons from her obsessive past…?

    The war ends, and Lexie awaits his return. Other soldiers are making it home, but Reese is missing. She leaves New Orleans and travels back to Azalea Plantation in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to await his return, busying herself with restoring the plantation after the war. Lexie clings to faith and hope and refuses to give up on Reese even though she's heard the stories about prisoners-of-war and the explosion of the Sultana. The family decides to visit Azalea Plantation. Will it be for a funeral or a wedding? Reese has still not shown when they are all gathered together. Is it possible for a country to be restored like a plantation home?

    A compelling tale of one woman’s triumphs and tragedies which you will not be able to put down. Young peasant girl Nicole Berthois works hard to support her family in a wine-making village in Champagne. Her life changes forever when she falls in love with handsome aristocrat Philippe de Tramont. The young lovers marry despite his mother’s objections, and Nicole’s strength and determination help her husband to follow his dreams. But then tragedy strikes; Philippe is killed and Nicole must struggle to raise their two small children as a young widow. She faces many challenges as she tries to win her mother-in-law’s approval, and build her husband’s legacy into a great champagne dynasty. But will illicit passions, war and a shocking family secret destroy all she has worked to achieve? ‘Tessa Barclay always spins a fine yarn. Her novels are gripping and entertaining.’ Wendy Craig ‘Filled with fascinating historical detail and teeming with human passions.’ Marie Joseph ‘A red hot contender for the Romantic Novelist of the Year Award.’ Daily Mirror From the publishers of Hardacre and Hardacre’s Luck. Perfect for fans of Nadine Dorries, Margaret Dickinson, Lyn Andrews and Helen Forrester. Tessa Barclay is the author of many much-loved family sagas and historical romance novels, including the Wine Widow trilogy, the four-part Craigallan series, and the Corvill Weaving saga – all coming soon in new paperback editions and as ebooks for the very first time. Tessa began her writing career after being educated at the Miss Jean Brodie school, and has since written over 100 books.

    Casey Latimer is a wounded soldier in search of a new home and a new beginning. When Casey, battered and bruised, quite literally falls at Emma's feet, she is duty-bound to help him. What happens next is something Emma never expected."Hattie of Crooked Creek"Married three months before the war and now a widow, Harriett McBride can either give up and sell her ranch or fight for the life she and her husband came west to build. With the help of a friend and a stranger, she must stop the one who threatens all she holds dear. When Hattie is faced with an unexpected choice, will she bury her heart on the battlefield forever or find a way to love again?"Briley of Crooked Creek"Far from home and with no family left, Briley Donaghue answers an advertisement from a rancher seeking a wife in Montana Territory. She arrives in Crooked Creek to find an empty cabin, a letter from her fiancé, and too many unanswered questions. Alone and uncertain, Briley forges a new life in an unfamiliar land."Clara of Crooked Creek"No longer willing to allow society's opinion to influence her life, Clara Stowe sought a change, and what better place than the frontier. With her young daughter by her side, she embarks on an unexpected undertaking to the Montana Territory. With grit and determination, they arrive in Crooked Creek to shape the life Clara had always dreamed of and honor the memory of the one they lost.The war is over between the North and the South, but the battles at home are just beginning. If you love stories of bravery and courage with unforgettable women and the men they love, you'll enjoy The Women of Crooked Creek. MK McClintock delivers another extraordinary western series with more to come.

    

     It is the day before Empire Day – 4th July - the day each year when the British Empire marks the brutal crushing of the rebellion dignified by the treachery of the fifty-six delegates to the Continental Congress who were so foolhardy as to sign the infamous Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on that day of infamy in 1776. It is nearly two hundred years since George Washington was killed and his Continental Army was destroyed in the Battle of Long Island and now New England, that most quintessentially loyal and ‘English’ imperial fiefdom – at least in the original, or ‘First Thirteen’ colonies - is about to celebrate its devotion to the Crown and the Old Country, of which it still views, in the main, as the ‘mother country’. Yet all is not roses. Since 1776 in a world of empires the British Empire has grown and prospered until now, it stands alone as the ultimate arbiter of global war and peace. The Royal Navy has enforced the global Pax Britannia for over a century since the World War of the 1860s established a lasting but increasingly tenuous ‘peace’ between the great powers. Nonetheless, while elsewhere the Empire may be creaking at the seams, struggling to come to terms with a growing desire for self-determination; thus far the Pax Britannica has survived – buttressed by the commercial and industrial powerhouse of New England stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific North West - intact for all that barely a year goes by without the outbreak of another small, colonial war somewhere... This said, the British ‘Imperial System’ remains the envy of its friends and enemies alike and nowhere has it been so successful as in North America, where peace and prosperity has ruled in the vast Canadian dominions and the twenty-nine old and recent colonies of the Commonwealth of New England for the best part of two centuries. In Whitehall every British government in living memory has complacently based its ‘American Policy’ on the one immutable, unchanging fact of New England politics; that the First Thirteen colonies will never agree with each other about anything, let alone that the sixteen ‘Johnny-come-lately’ new (that is, post-1776) colonies, protectorates, territories and possessions which comprise half the population and eight-tenths of the land area of New England, should ever have any say in their affairs! New England is a part of England and always will be because, axiomatically, it will never unite in a continental union. Notwithstanding, in the British body politic the myths and legends of that first late eighteenth-century rebellion in the New World still touches a raw nerve in the old country, much as in former epochs memories of Jacobin revolts, Oliver Cromwell and the Civil War still harry old deep-seated scars in the national psyche. Empire Day might not have originally been conceived as a celebration of the saving of the first British Empire and but as time has gone by it has come to symbolise the one, ineluctable truth about the Empire: that New England is the rock upon which all else stands, an empire within an empire that is greater than the sum of all the other parts of the great imperium ruled from London. In past times a troubling question has been whispered in the corridors of power in London: what would happen to the Empire – and the Pax Britannica – if the British hold on New England was ever to be loosened? Generations of British politicians have always known that if the question was ever to be asked again in earnest it has but one answer.

    Readers are already enquiring about the promised sequel to this page turner. "It was the hour of five on a winter's morning. The distant toll of a factory bell echoed across the valley striking wakefullness and dread wherever it was heard. For the army of child slaves, compelled to work amongst the ceaseless whirring of a million hissing wheels, another day had begun. Tiny footprints in the snow showed where some had hurried and others had fallen behind sobbing, aware that the lash of the whip awaited them...." Recently orphaned, Jack and Beth flee east across the Pennines to escape the horrors of a Bradford mill in the 1830’s. Gripping, heart-rending and uplifting by turn, this fast-moving novel carries the reader through the subsequent twelve years as they struggle to survive and find fulfilment. Played out against a background of Yorkshire stately homes, chance encounters, forbidden loves, gypsy entanglements, asylums and even the Arctic North, their fortunes wax and wane until the very last page. Interwoven throughout are the inspirational efforts of early reformers such as Richard Oastler whose statue in Bradford, embracing two mill children, marks his achievements to this day. Scarborough Evening News review of The Mill Children, 15 April 2009: Winter 1830. A bedraggled army of beaten and hungry children stumbles to work in a Bradford wool mill. One child falls dead and lies forgotten in the snow. It’s a dramatic start to Scarborough author Suzanne Marshall’s tale of two cousins, Jack and Beth, who flee the mill to escape a miserable fate. A chance encounter with the aristocratic Henry Cunningham offers a safe haven. But Henry is fighting his own demons. A guilty liaison in a boat-house pitches Jack and Beth into fresh adventures and soon their path crosses that of Ramona, a beautiful and self-sufficient gypsy skilled in country lore. A born survivor, she knows how to interpret the warning chatter of birds and how to poach without getting caught. But a terrible secret makes her vulnerable.... With the writer weaving her plot strands like threads in a bolt of cloth, local colour continually drives the action. Seamer Horse Fair and Raincliffe Woods are the settings for life-changing events. Huge whaling ships in Scarborough harbour take the story into new and turbulent waters, the canvas billowing as they put to sea. The suffering of mill children re-enters the story via gossip overheard in a York inn. It concerns “Factory King” Richard Oastler and his campaign to improve their lives in the face of hefty political opposition – this is historical fact. Meanwhile, the Bradford mill Jack and Beth left behind still claims its victims and waits for more. The Mill Children will please its intended readership. The author’s lyrical style suits her material admirably and gives it the ring of authenticity. It’s a fireside book, combining the harsh truths about mill brutality with the sweetening honey of romance.

    The First Phone Call from Heaven is a compelling, emotional read with a mystery that will keep readers intrigued and eager to see the story to its finish. Albom wraps the story up in a surprising way, giving readers a satisfactory yet thought-provoking conclusion. The novel is more sentimental than it is intellectually stimulating, but it does lead readers to question what makes a miracle, and question the importance of faith. Although it deals primarily with Christianity, people of all faiths will find that the story resonates with them. The First Phone Call from Heaven features relatable characters, each coping with the loss of a loved one. As you will learn in this review, Albom's writing style is simple and to the point, making it an easy read that will appeal to anyone looking for an inspirational novel. This review also gives you commentary from literary experts to help you understand where this novel succeeds, as well as where it falls short.

    She no longer lives in her family home, but remains at the very centre of village life, surrounded by friends including carefree, irresponsible Catha, Lady Rollo, just back from India and setting up lavish housekeeping nearby with her husband and children—socialist Tony, perfect Crispin, and Elizabeth who’s preparing to be presented at Court. Then there’s Marcelle, Mary’s widowed sister-in-law, and her challenging daughter Rosemary, who may soon be planting themselves with her to escape London bombs, Miss Rosanna Masquerier, a historical novelist who might just be a wry self-portrait of the author, and an array of other Sirs and Ladies who rely on Mary’s sympathy and practicality. And perhaps there’s just a hint of romance as well . . .Known for her bestselling historical fiction, in Nothing to Report Carola Oman delightfully evokes E.M. Delafield’s Provincial Lady in her portrayal of an English village cheerfully, hilariously, and sometimes bumpily progressing from obliviousness to the war’s approach to pulling together for king and country. Dean Street Press and Furrowed Middlebrow have also reprinted Oman’s Somewhere in England, a sequel to Nothing to Report.

    Warren Neale is a brilliant civil engineer who is constantly confronted with construction problems. He is sided by Larry Red King, a Texas gunfighter and friend. Allie Lee, who is heading east from California on a wagon train, is the sole survivor of an Indian raid in the Black Hills. Neale and a small company of US cavalry find Allie hidden at the scene and nearly out of her mind in terror. Al Slingerland, a trapper and buffalo hunter, has a cabin in a nearby valley, and Allie is taken there to recover.Benton is the wild town set up overnight to service the vices of the multitude of railroad workers. The only law is that which the soldiers impose, but their concern is not really in enforcing law in Benton, but in protecting the men laying the tracks and the supply trains. In addition to the natural obstacles that impede the building of the Union Pacific, workers must contend with the equally great weight of constant graft and corruption, against which Larry Red King’s guns can afford no protection.In this magnificent panorama of constant danger and adventure, the many lives involved, including ruthless gamblers and women of the evening, and the slow but monumental progress of the laying of the track through the wilderness, Zane Grey vividly brings to life a lost time and society in a grand novel, now published as he had first written it.Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction that takes place in the old West. Westerns—books about outlaws, sheriffs, chiefs and warriors, cowboys and Indians—are a genre in which we publish regularly. Our list includes international bestselling authors like Zane Gray and Louis L’Amour, and many more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

    Early in their travels, it seems as though Brewer’s greatest challenge will be evading the wrath of a tyrannical captain who has taken an active dislike to him. But when a hurricane sweeps away the captain, the young lieutenant is forced to assume command of the damaged ship, and a crew suffering from low morale. Brewer reports their condition to Admiral Hornblower, who orders them into the Caribbean to destroy a nest of pirates hidden among the numerous islands. Luring the pirates out of their coastal lairs will be difficult enough; fighting them at sea could bring disaster to the entire operation. For the Defiant to succeed, Brewer must rely on his wits, his training, and his ability to shape a once-ragged crew into a coherent fighting force.