Book picks similar to
A Storm Hits Valparaiso by David Gaughran
historical-fiction
fiction
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This Magnificent Dappled Sea
David Biro - 2020
His only hope for survival is a bone marrow transplant. After an exhaustive search, a match turns up three thousand miles away in the form of a most unlikely donor: Joseph Neiman, a rabbi in Brooklyn, New York, who is suffering from a debilitating crisis of faith. As Luca’s young nurse, Nina Vocelli, risks her career and races against time to help save the spirited redheaded boy, she uncovers terrible secrets from World War II—secrets that reveal how a Catholic child could have Jewish genes.Can inheritance be transcended by accidents of love? That is the question at the heart of This Magnificent Dappled Sea, a novel that challenges the idea of identity and celebrates the ties that bind us together.
Liberty Boy (The Liberty Series #1)
David M. Gaughran - 2016
She accuses him of spying for the English, and he thinks she's a reckless troublemaker.All Jimmy wants is to earn enough coin to buy passage to America. But when the English turn his trading patch into a gallows, Jimmy finds himself drawn into the very conflict he's spent his whole life avoiding.
Reel to Real: The Video Store Murders
Joyce Nance - 2014
But in March 1996, the robbery of a Hollywood Video store went horribly wrong, ending in a hail of gunfire and the worst mass murder in the history of Albuquerque, New Mexico. This book is based on the true story of three ex-cons who met through the New Mexico Community Corrections early release program. One was obsessed with movies and guns, another was hopelessly in love, and the third double-crossed them both. Initially, all hoped for a new and better life, but in this modern tragedy, the ex-cons' self-destructive impulses ultimately led to their doom and that of their innocent victims. An entire city was left to mourn.
Heart of Gold
Lacy Williams - 2011
including their hearts.
The Garment Maker's Daughter
Hillary Adrienne Stern - 2016
It is the story of Lena Rothman, a shirtwaist-maker and active suffragette whose plans get derailed when she falls in love with her best friend’s boyfriend; Jake Brenner, a passionate labor organizer determined to lead the shirtwaist-makers on a high-stakes strike; and Daniel Cowan, a brilliant and ambitious night-school student hobbled by a shameful past. Fate draws them together. Emotions bind them to each other. But secrets will tear them apart. When a devastating blaze engulfs the shirtwaist factory, Lena must fight for her life. And in the chaos of the fire’s aftermath, mistakes will be made with consequences that continue into the next generation. Spanning the first half of the twentieth century, this is a story about unforgettable characters and the threads of friendship, love, betrayal, and redemption that form the fabric of their lives. FAns of Adriana Trigiani, Kristin Hannah, and Christine Baker Kline, will love The Garment Maker’s Daughter. It's that rare novel you’ll be thinking about long after you’ve finished it.
Altdorf
J.K. Swift - 2011
A Duke of the Holy Roman Empire, his cunning overshadowed only by his ambition. A young Priestess of the Old Religion, together with a charismatic outlaw, sparking a rebellion from deep within the forests... and an ex-Hospitaller caught between them all.At the end of the thirteenth century, five hundred orphans and second sons are rounded up from villages in the Alpine countryside and sold to the Hospitaller Knights of St John. Trained to serve as Soldiers of Christ, they fight in eastern lands they know nothing about, for a cause they do not understand.Thomas Schwyzer, released from his vows by the Grandmaster of the Hospitallers, returns to the land of his birth a stranger. Once a leader of men, and captain of the Order's most famous war galley, he now settles into the simple life of a ferryman. He believes this new role to be God's reward for years of faithful service fighting the Infidel in Outremer.Seraina, considered a witch by most, a healer by some, is a young woman with a purpose. A Priestess of the Old Religion, and the last Druid disciple of the Helvetii Celts, she has been gifted by the Great Weave to see what others cannot. Her people need her guidance and protection now more than ever. For Duke Leopold of Habsburg, in his efforts to control the St. Gotthard Pass, builds a great Austrian fortress in Altdorf. Once finished, the Habsburg occupation will be complete, but the atrocities visited upon her people will have just begun.
Athenian Steel
P.K. Lentz - 2015
She is Thalassia.In 425 BCE, the Athenian general Demosthenes comes into possession of a weapon from the stars. He fears to wield it against his city's bitter enemy Sparta, but he knows that he must, lest it be wielded by others. He knows, too, that it seeks to wield and possess him, for this weapon is human, or something like it, and as complex as the wider universe from which she fell. She is Thalassia. She is doom and madness. She has come for reasons all her own, and she did not come alone. Book II out 9/24!ATHENIAN STEEL is bloody, twisted mayhem in the ancient world and Book I in a centuries-spanning epic that will appeal to readers of Gene Wolfe, David Gemmell, David Drake, Michael Moorcock, & other classic SF/Fantasy authors of the 1970's to 1990's. Fans of Bernard Cornwell, Michael Curtis Ford, Steven Pressfield and similar will also find plenty to enjoy if they don't mind touches of cosmic SF, dark humor, and sex in their military historical fiction.
House of Rejoicing
Libbie Hawker - 2015
In the waning years of Egypt’s Eighteenth Dynasty, when female power can only come at an unsettling price, four royal women struggle against the shadowy influence of Akhenaten, the infamous heretic Pharaoh. Akhenaten wields control of a strange, emerging religion unlike anything Egypt has seen. His power can’t be denied, but whoever can maintain her grip on the unpredictable Pharaoh will hold all of Egypt in her hands—and better still, will remain mistress of her own fate. Tiy, once the undisputed might behind the throne, must choose to relinquish her hard-won influence, or manipulate the innocent in order to secure her hold on Akhenaten’s leash. Kiya, an idealistic foreign princess, will win Akhenaten with love—if he’s capable of feeling love at all. The celebrated beauty Nefertiti will use the Pharaoh for her own ends, turning the tables of a deadly political game to free herself from her ambitious father’s grasp. And Sitamun, kept imprisoned as the Pharaoh’s plaything, will defy the gods themselves to save her daughter from a similar fate. House of Rejoicing is the first part in Libbie Hawker’s new ancient Egyptian series, The Book of Coming Forth by Day. The story will continue in Part Two, Storm in the Sky, in July of 2015.
Hemlock
N.J. Layouni - 2014
Until then, Martha must attempt to fit into medieval society, avoid the Evil Earl and his minions, and learn how to trust her heart again.
30 Pieces of Silver
Carolyn McCray - 2010
John the Baptist's bones inscribed in ancient Greek. A dark secret carried from the foot of the crucifixion. Can science solve the world's greatest mystery?
Shipwreck (Jack Ferrell Adventures Book 6)
William Nikkel - 2016
William Nikkel definitely knows how to kick butt and take names. He’s a gifted storyteller.” —Steve Berry, New York Times Bestselling Author of “The 14th Colony” Jack Ferrell never expected to hook a body. When he embarks on a mission to catch and tag a great white plaguing Hawaiian fisherman, he is put to the test, physically and emotionally, in his most challenging adventure yet as he plunges into the treacherous water off the coast of Lanai in an area known as Shipwreck Beach. A mission that reunites him with a former lover, Dana Mores. As they head toward disaster, an unfortunate turn of events leaves Jack and his friends marked for death with “Shipwreck” exploding into one of the most dangerous and suspenseful adventures of his career. One that marks a major turning point in his life and leaves him a different kind of man. “ ‘Shipwreck’ is the perfect blend of mystery and adventure. An engaging, fast-paced thriller with a fascinating and fun hero.” —Allison Brennan, New York Times Bestselling Author of “Poisonous”
The Last Post
B.K. Duncan - 2014
May Keaps is a twenty-year-old ambulance driver stationed at The Front. As if transporting hideously wounded soldiers, sleep deprivation and constant shell bombardment weren’t enough, she becomes unwittingly entangled in the untimely death of a young captain, Tobias Fairfax.Newly-arrived in Northern France he was found with a discharged pistol by his side; rumours on the battlefield were that it wasn’t an accident and he had taken the coward’s way out, committing suicide.Whatever the explanation, Tobias left a dangerous legacy that puts May in the line of fire. But she is not the only one with a reason to want to uncover the truth. And in a world where life can be extinguished in the blink of an eye, May might regret her search for answers…The Last Post is the haunting introduction to the May Keaps series. The Last Post was previously published as Faith's Reward
A Cast of Stones
Patrick W. Carr - 2013
Eager for coin, Errol agrees to what he thinks will be an easy task, but soon finds himself hunted by deadly assassins. Forced to flee with the priest and a small band of travelers, Errol soon learns he's joined a quest that could change the fate of his kingdom. Protected for millennia by the heirs of the first king, the kingdom's dynasty nears its end and the selection of the new king begins--but in secret and shadow. As danger mounts, Errol must leave behind the stains and griefs of the past, learn to fight, and discover who is hunting him and his companions and how far they will go to stop the reading of the stones. 2014 Carol Award Winner for Speculative
The Last Jump: A Novel of World War II
John E. Nevola - 2010
Kilroy, a middle-aged divorced journalist, regrets ignoring his mother’s only deathbed request. Even her last letter, which exposed the existence of a dark family secret, could not motivate him to reconcile with the father who abandoned them thirty years ago. When he receives an invitation from the White House to attend a long overdue Medal of Honor awards ceremony, he also discovers his estranged father, an honoree, had recently passed away.Was the secret now lost forever? The only fragile links remaining to the past are four aging veterans who served with his father. His only hope of unraveling the mystery rests with the free-spirited Sky Johnson, a rough and tumble paratrooper, Frank West, the studious company commander, Harley Tidrick, Omaha Beach veteran and cousin of his father’s best wartime friend and Lincoln Abraham, the only living black honoree at the African-American Medal of Honor ceremony.Kilroy reaches out to them in an effort to uncover the truth but soon discovers the four men not only know the secret, they all took a solemn oath never to reveal it. Undaunted, and with the aid of Cynthia Powers, an alluring Army press liaison, he accepts the challenge to engage the veterans and cajole them into revealing the truth by any means necessary. Their conversations become a verbal odyssey and flashback to the racially charged attitudes in America during the War. Kilroy learns about the altruism and contributions of Americans on the Homefront, the plight of women volunteer pilots and factory workers and the extraordinary dedication and self-sacrifice of the average citizen. He is taken back in time to a country in grave danger but a country as united as never before or since. But the old warriors stubbornly resist.One by one the aging men begin to pass on. As the last one dies, Kilroy’s hopes are dashed. But one reaches from beyond the grave to identify the only other living person who has the answer and Kilroy races death to reach her. His ardent wish is that the revelation will finally relieve his guilt and assuage the soul of his beloved mother.Redemption is possible…if only he can get there in time!Stars and Flags Best Historical Fiction Book - 2011 IAN Book Of The Year - Historical Fiction – 2015Book Excellence Award Winner - Military – 2017
The Garden on Sunset
Martin Turnbull - 2011
The lush grounds soon become a haven for Hollywood hopefuls to meet, drink, and revel through the night. George Cukor is in the pool, Tallulah Bankhead is at the bar, and Scott Fitzgerald is sneaking off to a bungalow with Sheilah Graham while Madame Alla Nazimova keeps watch behind her lace curtains.But the real story of the Garden of Allah begins with its first few residents, three kids on the brink of something big.Marcus Adler has a lot to prove after his father catches him and the police chief’s son with their pants down. He flees Pennsylvania for Hollywood with his mouth shut and his eyes open, and begins to write the lines all those starlets will say out loud. Can a smart, sensitive guy find his own voice in a town that’s just learning to talk?Kathryn Massey’s childhood was a grinding routine of auditions, but she couldn’t care less about being a movie star. When she takes off with her typewriter, determined to become a newspaper reporter, she finds that breaking into the boys’ club is tougher than breaking free of her bossy mother. To make it in this town, she’ll need some serious moxie.Gwendolyn Brick is a sweet Southern beauty who’s come a long way to try her luck on the big screen. She’s hoping the same succulent lips the guys want to kiss will land her more than a bit part on a casting couch. She’s going to need some help keeping everyone in line.Nobody gets a free pass in Hollywood, but a room at the Garden on Sunset can get your foot in the door.