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Unchained Hearts by Linda Ford


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Songs of Silence


Curdella Forbes - 2003
    Held together by the sure and simple voice of a child, this powerful collection is interspersed with the whisper of adult reflection, rendering the accounts at once sensuous and disarmingly honest.Inhabiting an elusive space between what is said and what is felt, what is conveyed and what is perceived, silence becomes a metaphor of rage and fear, of loneliness and contentment, confusion and clarification in these songs that explore social change and individual growth.Oscillating between Creole and Standard English, Songs of Silence is an accomplished piece of writing distinguished by an extraordinary sophistication of language and stylistic confidence. Relayed with a rare intimacy and detail, recollections are translated into a series of tales in which the narrator becomes a mouthpiece for a multiplicity of voices, each with their own story to tell.This novel comprises a series of eight linked episodes, all of which focus on different members of a rural community in Jamaica, seen through the eyes of a young girl growing up and remembered by the adult she became.

Our Lizzie


Anna Jacobs - 1999
    She makes an ill-advised marriage in order to escape her harsh home life. However, she quickly discovers that she has married a selfish and violent man. His beatings are ceaseless and she finds herself compelled to run away. With the help of some suffragettes, she escapes to Manchester, where she finds work in a munitions factory for a while. Sam manages to find her and drags her home. It is only when his violence causes her to lose their unborn baby that Lizzie really finds the strength to make things change, and to find happiness with a man who loves her.

Fortune's Rocks


Anita Shreve - 1999
    On a beach in New Hampshire at the turn of the last century, a young woman is drawn into a rocky, disastrous passage to adulthood. Olympia Biddeford is the only child of a prominent Boston couple--a precocious and well-educated daughter, alive with ideas and flush with the first stirrings of maturity. Her summer at the family's vacation home in Fortune's Rocks is transformed by the arrival of a doctor, a friend of her father's, whose new book about mill-town laborers has caused a sensation. Olympia is captivated by his thinking, his stature, and his drive to do right--even as she is overwhelmed for the first time by irresistible sexual desire. She and the doctor--a married man, a father, and nearly three times her age--come together in an unthinkable, torturous, hopelessly passionate affair. Throwing aside propriety and self-preservation, Olympia plunges forward with cataclysmic results that are the price of straying in an unforgiving era. Olympia is cast out of the world she knows, and Fortune's Rocks is the story of her determination to reinvent her broken life--and claim the one thing she finds she cannot live without. A meditation on the erotic life of women, an exploration of class prejudices, and most of all a portrayal of the thoughts and actions of an unforgettable young woman, Fortune's Rocks is a masterpiece of narrative drama, beautifully written by one of the most accomplished novelists of our time.

Picket Fence Pursuit


Jennifer Collins Johnson - 2007
    Now, with her accounting degree and the ideal job in sight, she will let nothing come between her and the goals she is sure God has given her. Especially not marrying some yahoo who doesn't even have a real job-no matter how cute he is! Ryan Watkins enjoyed unusual success early in life. But he's watched his money change those around him. Despite the powerful attraction he feels towards Kylie, he fears she, too, would only love him for his money. Can Kylie learn to let go of her plans and trust God for His perfect will? Will Ryan see beyond Kylie's need for security to the woman she truly is?

How to Catch an Earl with Ten Lies


Patricia Haverton - 2020
     When her uncle and legal guardian announces that her little sister is to marry a man of ill repute, Penelope does the one thing she can think of to spare her: she poses as Edith and takes her place. Recently returned to England after a long absence to open his father's will, Benjamin Gray, Earl of Newhorn, is in for an unpleasant surprise: in order to gain full access to his inheritance, he must find a suitable wife. He sees his chance in the face one Miss Edith Chapman...or not. As Benjamin challenges everything she has ever heard about him, the weight of her feelings for him coupled with her guilt push Penelope to her breaking point. With the inescapable truth of Penelope's identity looming over them like a bad omen, Benjamin's greatest mistake returns to haunt him: his sister's death. Penelope is not the only one who has been lying. And some lies are deadlier than others…

Kansas Home: Hearts Adrift Find a Place to Dwell in Four Romantic Stories


Tracey Victoria Bateman - 2005
    Cassidy Sinclair is alone with a niece to care for--"and extreme times call for daring measures. Tarah St. John's life changes drastically when she reaches out to two abused boys. The impetuous Laney Jenkins is determined to hold on to the reins of her destiny, regardless of any man. When Emily St. John jumps to buy the focal mercantile, she has no idea of the battle that will ensue. Can these determined women open their lives to new possibilities in faith and love?

If You Were the Only Girl


Anne Bennett - 2012
    But Hitler's troops are gathering and fate has something very different in store for both of them...

The Lonely Breed


Frank Leslie - 2007
    Now, he's become the girl's protector, and is on the run from a vicious bounty hunter.

This Child Is Mine


Mildred Colvin - 2005
    She rejoices until she sees the hospital has apparently made a mistake in recording Stevie’s blood type. A second test brings to light that Stevie cannot be her biological child. Where, then, is her baby?Jonathan McDuff, at first, doesn’t believe that his beloved baby, Lexie, isn’t his birth daughter. Then he determines to have both children in his home. Since Mrs. Carter won’t give Stevie up without a legal battle, he comes up with a plan. He’ll give her the care of both children as long as they all remain under his roof. An impossible situation, but with God’s help, healing and love may win over heartbreak and loss. Babies switched at birth.Contemporary Christian RomanceFormerly published by Barbour Publishing54,000 words

Helltown: A Horror Novel


Stephen Bentley - 2015
    It's nothing like the suburb you might live in . . . Unless, that is, an insane, Listerine-guzzling Realtor sold you your house? Or perhaps your postman happens to have a disturbing relationship with his claw hammer? A grieving Dan LaBarbara knows something is different in Helltown as soon as he comes back home. Yeah, sure, the town always been a little off. You can feel that about the place, like if you stepped into a house whose only occupants were freshly murdered corpses in an upstairs bedroom. But this is something else entirely. Standing in his little brother Barbie's basement workshop, holding one of those dioramas Barbie's been building since the accident, the ones that seem to move when you hold them, Dan can feel Barbie's terror. Barbie must know something is coming, something big, something evil. He's trying to warn Dan in the only way he knows. Why else would Barbie build a diorama depicting a man-sized version of a cartoon rabbit with bloody teeth about to devour a trembling teenager? Why else would he spend so much time crafting an intricate model of Death standing over a pimply teenager in the school library? And let's not even talk about that little model of the mob of undead surrounding the massive tower of vicious black spines behind the high school. Hilltown has a story to tell, and the lonely brain-damaged man who builds magical dioramas in his basement workshop has been telling it all along. As the evil closes in around them, Dan and his new love interest Jessica must do the impossible: save everyone one in Hilltown before it's too late.

Two For Three Farthings


Mary Jane Staples - 1990
    Slightly against his better judgement he took them in, fed them cocoa, and put them to sleep in his bed. A few days later he found that - somehow - he had become the unofficial guardian of Horace and Ethel. It was him, the orphanage, or separation for the gutsy little pair who would have to be farmed out to anyone who would take them, and Jim felt a sudden affinity for the two cheeky cockney kids. The first thing he had to do was find fresh lodgings for them all.Miss Rebecca Pilgrim was a woman of strict Victorian principles, eminently respectable, and determined to keep her privacy intact. She had reckoned without her new lodgers - Horace, Ethel and, above all, the irrepressible Jim Cooper. And thus began the humanizing of Miss Pilgrim, who turned out to be younger, prettier, and far gentler than any of them had suspected.

Snow Falling


Jane Gloriana Villanueva - 2017
    With these tumultuous events as inspiration, Jane’s breathtaking first novel adapts her story for a truly epic romance that captures the hope and the heartbreak that have made the television drama so beloved. Snow Falling is a sweeping historical romance set in 1902 Miami—a time of railroad tycoons, hotel booms, and exciting expansion for the Magic City. Working at the lavish Regal Sol hotel and newly engaged to Pinkerton Detective Martin Cadden, Josephine Galena Valencia has big dreams for her future. Then, a figure from her past reemerges to change her life forever: the hotel’s dapper owner, railroad tycoon Rake Solvino. The captivating robber baron sets her heart aflame once more, leading to a champagne-fueled night together. But when their indiscretion results in an unexpected complication, Josephine struggles to decide whether her heart truly belongs with heroic Martin or dashing Rake. Meanwhile, in an effort to capture an elusive crime lord terrorizing the city, Detective Cadden scours the back alleys of the Magic City, tracking the nefarious villain to the Regal Sol and discovering a surprising connection to the Solvino family. However, just when it looks like Josephine’s true heart’s desire is clear, danger strikes. Will her dreams for the future dissolve like so much falling snow or might Josephine finally get the happy ever after she’s been dreaming of for so long?

The Terrace


Maria Duffy - 2012
    . .In Number Eight he wants a baby, she doesn't. The guy a few doors down just wants to find love. Across the street a single mum struggles to cope. While the people next door might appear to have it all, their mortgage holder knows different.When the street syndicate wins the National Lottery, it seems that things are looking up. Enter a New York production company on a mission to document a 'quintessential' Dublin community - just as it becomes clear that the winning ticket is nowhere to be found.Facades begin to crumble in the scramble to uncover the missing ticket and, as the gloves come off for the once unremarkable residents of St Enda's, it's game on with everything to play for.

Mr Cavell's Diamond


Kathleen McGurl - 2014
    He is in possession of a large diamond, given to him in India, which he vows he will give to the woman he loves – when he finds her, that is. Jemima Brown, sixteen, good-hearted and hard-working, comes to work for him as a general maidservant. When Mr Cavell stands up for her against the unwanted attentions of some tradesmen working in his house, she sees at once that here is a man of high morals and integrity. But it is Caroline Simpson, daughter of Henry’s house-painter, who catches his eye. She may be socially his inferior, but she is good-looking, flirtatious and knows how to use her charms. She manipulates Henry into marrying her, and only the loyal Jemima knows he’s been tricked. How can Jemima fight her growing feelings for her master, maintain her morals and stay in Mr Cavell’s employment, despite her mistress’s increasingly erratic behaviour?

Chocolate Star


Sheila Copeland - 1997
    Then the way to fame was leading him toward a mistake that could send him straight to hell...She never looked back.Lies, drugs, too many men-- golden skinned singer Topaz Black would do anything to get a hit to the top of the charts, even walk away from her friends and family. But surrounded by greed and lust, the love the longed for seemed to be slipping away forever.He broke all the rules.Brought up in South Central L.A., movie producer Gunther Lawrence learned early how to get the wealth and women he wanted-- and to turn his back on his roots. Now, blinded by Hollywood's glitter, his illusions may shatter when he discovers who really controls his career.As their lives touch, ignite, and explode, three talented African-Americans pursue fame at any cost...and the price may be their happiness...or their lives..An alternate selection of the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club