Amelie-Anaïs, buried on the Nebraska hilltop where the family home resides, tells this story of deceit, survival, and love from beyond the grave. Following Willow's life and Willow's incredible passion to paint despite loneliness, a physical handicap, and being raised by a father plagued with secrets, Amelie-Anaïs weaves together the lives of four enigmatic generations."Not since 'The Lovely Bones' have we experienced such a moving tale of love, suspense, and family secrets narrated by a ghost. Lukas creates a complex, moving story with brilliant lyricism and hard won realism. She is a rare writer who makes you devour her words. Readers of Alice Hoffman and Anita Shreve will love this novel...and stay up all night to finish it!" -Jonis Agee, author of "The River Wife"“Margaret Lukas has written a page-turner of a novel. 'Farthest House,' boldly narrated by an unsettled spirit, is part-ghost story and a full-out love story of a family coming to terms with its mysterious past, much of it lived in an ancestral home set within a gorgeously rendered Nebraska landscape. Above all, Farthest House is the story of Willow, a bewildered little girl who grows into a passionate painter. I can’t remember the last time I rooted so enthusiastically for a heroine.” –Anna Monardo, author of "The Courtyard of Dreams" and "Falling in Love with Natassia"“Haunting and eerily beautiful, Margaret Lukas' 'Farthest House' is like the family treasure chest one finds in the attic. It may seem inviting at first, but open at your own risk. An ode to both what we should and should never know about the generations that preceded us, 'Farthest House' is an unsettling, unforgettable book.” Holiday Reinhorn, author of "Big Cats: Stories"

    His only desire: collect a little beer money and enjoy his final summer before college. So he lands a job as a laborer on a construction crew. Working alongside two Vietnam vets, one suffering from PTSD, Vincent gets the education of a lifetime. Now forty years later, with his own son leaving for college, the lessons of that summer—Vincent’s last taste of innocence and first taste of real life—dramatically unfold in a novel about breaking away, shaping a life, and seeking one’s own destiny.

    But a discovery in the pocket of an old coat – a jewelled mechanical locket shaped like a bird – changes everything, and Alex discovers that things are not as they seem. From an old diary, to a handsome barrister, a mysterious clockmaker, and the darkest hours of the London Blitz, Alex must follow the trail of the jewelled bird to uncover the truth about the things she holds dearest – and someone is determined not to let sleeping dogs lie! Only by finding the secrets of the past can Alex find the keys to her future – and her heart.

    Now that my life is coming to an end, take your grandmother’s bracelet, unlock the secret of our family history, and discover who you are…Twenty-year-old Annie arrives on the Sicilian island of Galatea carrying nothing but grief for the father she just lost in her heart and the weight of the mystery she just inherited on her shoulders. All she knows about her grandmother is that she died in a concentration camp during World War Two. But when handsome local fisherman Salvo’s sea-blue eyes sparkle at the sight of the delicate gold band around her wrist, Annie knows she’s come to the right place.With Salvo as her guide – taking her hand along the twisting paths up to the cliffside villa her grandmother once called home – Annie doesn’t know if it’s his warm touch or the sun-kissed villa’s vine-covered splendour that takes her breath away. Inside, she finds a beautiful antique gramophone hidden beneath a dusty sheet. Setting the needle, she unlocks the secret of a sacred tradition known only to the women on the island, and with it, the story of her grandmother’s heart-shattering wartime sacrifice.With every day that passes, Annie is drawn deeper into the island’s rich and tragic history, and finally feels herself begin to heal. But as the past crashes into her present – and she realises the significance of the bracelet she wears and the devastating lengths her grandmother went to protect those she loved – will the truth about her grandmother’s identity have her running into Salvo’s strong arms, or getting on the next flight back to America?An absolutely heart-wrenching page-turner about how the catastrophic consequences of war can echo through generations, and the power that true love has to save us all. From the author of million-copy bestseller, Watch Over Me, and Amazon Number 1 bestseller, The Italian Villa, this is the perfect one-sitting read for anyone who adores Fiona Valpy, Victoria Hislop, or The Letter by Kathryn Hughes.What readers are saying about Daniela Sacerdoti:‘Mesmerising! I was totally hooked… absolutely perfect… I really can't praise this OUTSTANDING book enough!’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars‘I fell in love with this book! It was beautiful and captivating from start to finish… Absolutely loved!’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars‘I was hooked. This is a beautifully written story with characters that tug at your heartstrings… You can’t help but fall in love with them and the tiny village in Italy where it takes place… you feel as though you’re really there… I devoured this book in no time… you can’t wait to turn the page to find out what happens next… which is why I finished this book at 3 in the morning!… I was so enthralled from the very first page!’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars‘I really loved it… makes you want to curl up in a chair with a warm drink… It's emotional and empowering and the characters fill your mind completely long after you have finished the story.’ Crossroad Reviews‘Truly amazing. The story had many heart-warming moments and a few heart-wrenching… I was completely charmed and transported… You will be as well if you choose to read it. So read it!’ One Page At A Time, 5 stars

    She hopes this foreboding feeling won’t overshadow her upcoming eighteenth birthday or the annual Founder’s Day celebration in just a few weeks. As hard as she works in the home of the widow Miss Peggy, Opal enjoys having something to look forward to.But when the Ku Klux Klan descends on Opal’s neighborhood of Colored Town, the tight-knit community is shaken in every way. Parsons’s residents—both Black and white—are forced to acknowledge the unspoken codes of conduct in their post-Reconstruction era town. To complicate matters, Opal finds herself torn between two unexpected romantic interests, awakening many new emotions. She never thought that becoming a woman would bring with it such complicated decisions about what type of person she wants to be.In When Stars Rain Down, Angela Jackson-Brown introduces us to a small Southern town grappling with haunting questions still relevant today—and to a young woman whose search for meaning resonates across the ages.

    Let the people of West Mills say what they will; the neighbors’ gossip won’t keep Knot from what she loves best: cheap moonshine, nineteenth-century literature, and the company of men. And yet, Knot is starting to learn that her freedom comes at a high price. Alone in her one-room shack, ostracized from her relatives and cut off from her hometown, Knot turns to her neighbor, Otis Lee Loving, in search of some semblance of family and home. Otis Lee is eager to help. A lifelong fixer, Otis Lee is determined to steer his friends and family away from decisions that will cause them heartache and ridicule. After his failed attempt as a teenager to help his older sister, Otis Lee discovers a possible path to redemption in the chaos Knot brings to his doorstep. But while he’s busy trying to fix Knot’s life, Otis Lee finds himself powerless to repair the many troubles within his own family, as the long-buried secrets of his troubled past begin to come to light.Set in an African American community in rural North Carolina from 1941 to 1987, In West Mills is a magnificent, big-hearted small-town story about family, friendship, storytelling, and the redemptive power of love.

    Now, with his brilliant portrait of Luce, a young woman who inherits her murdered sister's troubled twins, Frazier has created his most memorable heroine.Before the children, Luce was content with the reimbursements of the rich Appalachian landscape, choosing to live apart from the small community around her. But the coming of the children changes everything, cracking open her solitary life in difficult, hopeful, dangerous ways.Charles Frazier is known for his historical literary odysseys, and for making figures in the past come vividly to life. Set in the twentieth century, Nightwoods resonates with the timelessness of a great work of art.

    Fannie’s New Orleans house is like no place Ibby has ever been—and Fannie, who has a tendency to end up in the local asylum—is like no one she has ever met. Fortunately, Fannie’s black cook, Queenie, and her smart-mouthed daughter, Dollbaby, take it upon themselves to initiate Ibby into the ways of the South, both its grand traditions and its darkest secrets. For Fannie’s own family history is fraught with tragedy, hidden behind the closed rooms in her ornate Uptown mansion. It will take Ibby’s arrival to begin to unlock the mysteries there. And it will take Queenie and Dollbaby’s hard-won wisdom to show Ibby that family can sometimes be found in the least expected places. For fans of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt and The Help, Dollbaby brings to life the charm and unrest of 1960s New Orleans through the eyes of a young girl learning to understand race for the first time. By turns uplifting and funny, poignant and full of verve, Dollbaby is a novel readers will take to their hearts.A Top Ten Finalist for Best Historical Novel, Goodreads Choice Awards, and a LibraryReads and Okra PickA big-hearted coming-of-age debut set in civil rights-era New Orleans—a novel of Southern eccentricity and secrets

    Each carries private wounds and powerful secrets as they head for Texas, following dangerous roads rife with ruthless vigilantes and soldiers still fighting a war lost a decade before. For Lavinia and Juneau Jane, the journey is one of inheritance and financial desperation, but for Hannie, torn from her mother and eight siblings before slavery's end, the pilgrimage westward reignites an agonizing question: Could her long-lost family still be out there? Beyond the swamps lie the seemingly limitless frontiers of Texas and, improbably, hope.Louisiana, 1987 For first-year teacher Benedetta Silva, a subsidized job at a poor rural school seems like the ticket to canceling her hefty student debt--until she lands in a tiny, out-of-step Mississippi River town. Augustine, Louisiana, seems suspicious of new ideas and new people, and Benny can scarcely comprehend the lives of her poverty-stricken students. But amid the gnarled oaks and run-down plantation homes lies the century-old history of three young women, a long-ago journey, and a hidden book that could change everything.

    She wishes she could make friends with her beautiful neighbour Oksana. She longs for a new group of friends. Welcoming neighbours to visit. Coffee dates and dinner parties.But life here feels so closed. Then Beth runs into Oksana’s garden one day to fetch her runaway dog, and she sees something shocking that makes her wonder who her new neighbours really are.A girl in the window.A pale desperate face.A hastily scribbled sign bearing only two words.HELP ME.Who is the girl? What are the neighbours hiding?Sometimes, it’s the most perfect neighbours that hide the most terrible secrets.

    Yet few can see past the thick hair that covers her: she is both the fascinating toast of a Governor's ball and the shunned, revolting, unnatural beast, to be hidden from children and pregnant women. But what is her wonderful and terrible link to Rose, collector of lost treasures in an attic room in modern-day south London? In this haunting tale of identity, love and independence, these two lives will connect in unforgettable ways.

    This unknown legacy, now Merritt’s, will change and define her as she navigates her new life—a new life complicated by the arrival of her too young stepmother and ten-year-old half-brother.Soon, in this house of strangers, Merritt is forced into unraveling the Heyward family past as she faces her own fears and finds the healing she needs in the salt air of the Low Country.

    "The narrative is fast-paced and immersive."When Elizabeth, a young English nurse, falls in love with one of her American patients, her whole world changes. When Peter, the American soldier, is suddenly shipped home to the U.S. at the end of WWI, he does his best to alert Elizabeth to what’s happening but fails, leaving her with no idea where he is and no way to contact him — now oceans away. For 27 years, Peter yearns for Elizabeth, regretting the actions that led him into a long-drawn-out loveless marriage. But now, with the help of his son, he locates the only woman he’s ever loved. The question is, will she give him a second chance?

    Unable to conceive, she’s trying desperately to adopt but her destiny is quickly altered by a young woman she’s never met.Fearless thirteen-year-old Carla Trujilio is being raised by her grandmother in Honduras along with her four year old twin brothers. Her mother is sending money home from Texas where she’s trying to make a better life for her family, but she only has enough to bring one son to her. When Carla’s grandmother dies, Carla decides to take her fate into her own hands and embarks on a dangerous journey across the border with Junior, the twin left behind.Two powerful journeys intersecting at a pivotal moment in time: Alice and Carla’s lives will be forever and profoundly changed. Heartbreaking, emotional, and arresting, this novel is about finding the courage to trail blaze your own path in life with faith, hope and love, no matter the struggle or the tragedy.

    Gertrude, a mother of four, must make an unconscionable decision to save her daughters from starvation or die at the hands of an abusive husband. Retta is navigating a harsh world as a first-generation freed slave, still employed by the Coles, influential plantation proprietors who once owned her family. Annie is the matriarch of the Coles family and must come to terms with the terrible truth that has ripped her family apart.These three women seemingly have nothing in common, yet as they unite to stand up to the terrible injustices that have long plagued the small town, they find strength in the bond that ties women together. Told in the pitch-perfect voices of Gertrude, Retta and Annie, Call Your Daughter Home is an audacious, timeless story about the power of family, deep-buried secrets and the ferocity of motherhood.