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All of Me by Venita Coelho


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COMING HOME TO BYLAND CRESCENT an absolutely heartbreaking and unputdownable historical family saga (The Cowgill Family Saga Book 3)


Bill Kitson - 2022
    

The Currans and The Quinns: The Currans, Book Three (The Manhattan Stories 7)


Donna Foley Mabry - 2017
     On the Manhattan, Kansas frontier of the 1870s, D’Arcy Curran, her adopted son, Dan, and her new husband, Royce Quinn, want nothing more than to raise a family and live in peace. Their plans are waylaid when the renegade Jayhawker who killed D’Arcy’s father returns from prison looking for revenge. Human treachery isn’t the only thing D’Arcy and Royce battle on their prairie home. As Dan grows from a boy to a man and more children arrive, they struggle against the forces of nature, animals that are not as tame as expected, and disease. When Dan meets Kathleen O’Malley, he’s only sixteen but is convinced she’s the girl for him. He sets out to win her heart, but he wonders, can the pampered daughter of a New York millionaire learn to love a rough-hewn cowboy?

THE DRIFTER'S CHRISTMAS


Cia Leah - 2014
    He never had a place to call home. While camping out one night, hoping to find the next town, he had a feeling he was being watched. He ignored his instincts and went to sleep to wake up in the morning with a splitting headache from being hit on the head, and his horse, food, and saddlebags stolen. Following the footsteps left behind by the thieves, he found it led to a cabin and to a patchwork family in dire need of help. Sadie Carman lost her pa and took in two boys and a little girl that needed her to care for them. The boys were a trial, but she loved them like her own children. When Stryker Steele showed up at her door and told her that someone stole his horse and belongings, she was worried the boys had something to do with it. She agreed to let him stay until he could figure out what to do, but she never figured that he would give them a Christmas like they never had and forgive the boys for what they did. She worried Stryker would leave and she wished he'd stay forever.

Naked Justice


Dallas Barnes - 2020
    Detective Sergeant Lee Hollister and his partner Max Baxter find themselves fighting a dual tsunami from the shock of a demanding media and police department brass pressing for answers. A puzzling trail leads to studio executives with ties to millions of dollars and a skilled assassin. It is a deadly mix that crosses oceans and continents putting the two detectives in a struggle to not only solve the case but save their own lives.

That Deadly Space: A Civil War Novel


Gerald Gillis - 2017
    Conor Rafferty joins the Confederate army as a young infantry officer against the wishes of his father who, in his Irish anger, is adamantly opposed to a war with the North. Conor soon finds himself in many of the war’s most consequential battles, leading from the front and risking all inside that deadly space. He serves with distinction in General Robert E. Lee’s celebrated Army of Northern Virginia as it seeks the crowning victory that will end the war and stop the carnage. Along the way, Conor becomes a protégé of fellow Georgian John B. Gordon who eventually rises to command a Confederate army corps. At the conclusion of each chapter, the narrative transitions to the now aged Conor who answers the probing questions of his grandson Aaron, himself a captain in the U.S. Army and scheduled for duty in Europe during World War I. The grandfather and grandson thus spend a week together—a week of sharing, learning, and bonding. That Deadly Space is a compelling tale that portrays the drama, heroism, romance, and tragedy of the Civil War.

The Problem with Pearls


Phyllis McManus - 2017
    She soon discovered her mama had been hiding secrets from her since she was a small child. These secrets start to unfold when she opens a box hidden in the back of a closet. Opening this box will create an entirely different world that Karlee never dreamed was waiting for her. Will Karlee have the strength and courage to face the secrets, or will she close the box keeping everyone from knowing the truth? If you like funny, heartwarming Southern stories with a touch of mystery, you will fall in love with the characters in The Problem with Pearls.

The Magdalen Laundries: a novel inspired by true events


Lisa Michelle Odgaard - 2017
     Concerned at the level of intimacy developing between Maren and the boy who helps her father with his farm work, the village priest takes it upon himself to remove her from school and bring her to one of the convent laundries, where he delivers her into the care of the nuns. Now, alongside many other "Magdalens" - named for Mary Magdalen - Maren must spend her days washing dirty linens, symbolically cleansing herself of her sins while repeating endless penance to a God that she soon comes to feel is no longer listening to her. Only the presence of Ceara, a young pregnant girl who befriends her inside the institution, gives Maren strength to continue through abuse, humiliation, beatings and near-starvation. Set in Ireland in 1961, The Magdalen Laundries is based on the true stories from one of the most shameful chapters in Ireland's history, and tells of the redemptive power of faith, friendship and forgiveness. NEW EDITION now includes pronunciation guide. Recent Reviews: If you began reading this book without seeing the cover or knowing what it was about, you would guess that you were reading a future dystopian fantasy about a horrific, oppressive torture prison. However, you are not reading fantasy, you are reading a novel based on a true story. It doesn’t take place in the future, instead the sad pitiful events took place in Ireland, and other English-speaking countries, including America, for over 100 years. “There is hope in Christ, not despair.” Author Odgaard’s story is set in 1961 at [a convent] near Dublin. Young and pretty, Maren grows up on her family farm, loved and cherished. Maren begins to awaken to feelings of love, when a hired farm hand catches her eye. Her innocent feelings lead her parish priest to commit her, without her family’s knowledge, to what were called the Magdalen Laundries. These laundries were ostensibly places for “fallen” girls and women to redeem themselves. But too many ended as victims of a system of torture and deprivation. At times slow-moving at the beginning, most of the book is compelling and engrossing. Maren and her best friend at the laundry are described with love and compassion by Author Odgaard. While not sugar-coating or endorsing the practices at the laundry, the author also extends this same understanding to the Catholic Church. The story features a heartfelt affirmation of the Gospel message. While, many elements of this book are difficult to read about, overall there is a message of hope. I am grateful to the Author for opening my eyes to the Laundries and the plights of the young girls. In the afterward of the book, the Author presents more information about the Laundries and encourages readers to research more on the internet. I did look up some information about the history. “She felt a joy in her heart and knew that her journey to find peace had ended here, In Glasvenin cemetery.” – Jena C. Henry, Readers Review Room

The Long Journey Home


Wendy Robertson - 2003
    However the advancing Japanese army soon leads to a mass evacuation of the island but, as Sylvie's family begins to board their ship, there is no sign of Sylvie. Somehow, in the confusion, Sylvie finds refuge with her governess, Virginia Chen. But neither Virginia nor her family believe they will escape the Japanese internment camps, where Virginia may have to pay the ultimate price for Sylvie's survival.For ten-year-old Sylvie Sambuck, Singapore seems a long way from the fighting of the Second World War. However the advancing Japanese army soon leads to a mass evacuation of the island but, as Sylvie's family begins to board their ship, there is no sign of Sylvie. Somehow, in the confusion, Sylvie finds refuge with her governess, Virginia Chen. But neither Virginia nor her family believe they will escape the Japanese internment camps, where Virginia may have to pay the ultimate price for Sylvie's survival.

The Claymore (Courtenay)


Brian Withecombe - 2014
    There he begins to learn the duties and responsibilities, together with the hardships, of a life at sea in one of His Majesty's ships. He is quickly introduced to the fight against slavery and privateers...and also how to kill in the name of the King. Ultimately commissioned as a Lieutenant, Courtenay is involved in the reverses of Toulon and Corsica, and in 1794 takes part in the major sea-battle known as the Glorious First of June. Also, he meets the first member of the family with whom he will have a feud during his career as a sea officer.

The New South


Sabra Waldfogel - 2021
    She’s Black. He’s white. They’re sister and brother… but they’re not. Will they ever be?Eliza Coldbrook, proud and privileged graduate of all-Black Atlanta University, hasn’t seen her white half-brother since the end of Reconstruction. When Matt returns to Atlanta, she refuses a reunion. She now lives in a progressive and prosperous new South. She doesn’t want to be reminded of the past that she and Matt share.Her half-brother Matthew Kaltenbach hasn’t lived in Georgia since he was seven years old. But he has vivid memories of the past, and he has unfinished business with it. He wants to rebuild a relationship with the man who is his father as well as Eliza’s. And he wants to reconcile with the half-sister he loved when they were children, but who has become a stranger since.Amanda Gardiner, born a slave in Georgia, now lives in an Atlanta reborn after the Civil War. But she doesn’t share in the bounty that is the New South. As a washerwoman, she’s underpaid and badly treated by her white employers. Until she decides to say no, and all the washerwomen of Atlanta join her in a strike…When the Black washerwomen of Atlanta go on strike, Eliza and Matt, Black half-sister and white half-brother, are both swept into their cause. Will the strike let them heal the wounds of the past—and forgive each other?

Rescued Love (Love on the Western Trail Book 2)


Linda Ford - 2021
    

The Sea Shall Not Have Them (WWII Naval Thrillers, #1)


Max Hennessy - 2019
    An essential flight from France crash lands in the North Sea, leaving the four remaining crew members of the RAF Hudson stranded on a dinghy.One man is critically injured, and another, a rocket expert, is carrying a briefcase stuffed with vital war secrets, that could prove devastating if allowed to fall into the wrong hands.As the days begin to stretch out, they can only pray that the rescue team can locate the dinghy in time, before exposure kills them, or worse, the enemy finds them… A novel which charts the daring and courage of four castaways, and the men who rescued them in a breathtaking mission with the most awesome of consequences, perfect for fans of Alexander Fullerton, David McDine and Alan Evans.

The Asylum Daughter


Rosie Darling - 2020
    An inconsequential inconvenience.After eight years of dreaming of an unknown mother rescuing her from the workhouse, Beth is unexpectedly liberated to become an apprentice in Mr Whitaker's tailor's shop. Against all the odds, Mrs Whitaker becomes a maternal figure to the young girl who shows all the signs of a gifted seamstress.But fate's cruel hand had not finished denying Beth the comforts of a family.Lady Caroline comes into Beth's life as a godsend. A wealthy patron in need of beautiful dresses to be made. But there is more to her appearing at the tailor's shop at first apparent. Two lives from different classes become intertwined in the worst of conditions.Is having a family worth such suffering? Should the women deny each other and be relieved of the tortures beset upon them in the name of greed and a family name? Was the madness real? Would the answers be found along the unforgiving corridors of the asylum?

Dugan Holler (The Revenge Series Book 4)


Ann Robbins-Phillips - 2014
    The family names change with marriage, but difficulties have followed. Settled now in Tennessee with their youngest daughter, Norabell, they move near their oldest daughter, August. There is one secret that could tear their family apart. Is truth the best answer, even when it means breaking promises? Old acquaintances of Lottie and her family are sworn enemies from an old incident in Cocke County, Tennessee. They now find themselves neighbors once again. They have learned neither the lessons that come from seeking revenge nor its cost.

A Spice of Madness (The Inspector Lazarus Mysteries #2)


Suzanne Downes - 2017
    She confides in her husband, but Inspector Lazarus is busy chasing a daring jewel thief and has no time to worry about unfounded accusations levelled at Clement Foxcroft, no matter how odious he is. He is forced to reconsider when he discovers that Elspeth has apparently left behind her new born baby son without a second thought. When his superior also orders him to stay away from the family, his suspicions are roused – if there is nothing to hide, why are the two men so determined to keep him at bay? He and Sergeant Stonier are about to defy them both and begin a search for the missing Elspeth when a brutal murder intrudes and Lazarus suddenly finds himself caring for a soon-to-be-orphaned young family. Will he and Stonier ever untangle all the threads and reunite the missing woman with her son? Or is it already too late to save her?