Book picks similar to
The Orphan in the Blue Satin Dress by Jessica Weir
feel-good-fiction
historical-novels
stephanie-s
Friar Tuck and the Christmas Devil
Steven A. McKay - 2015
Strange thefts; cloven hoof-prints in the snow; a house burned to the ground. Something evil stalks the icy streets of Brandesburton and former mercenary Tuck must find out what, before it's too late. As he sets out to solve the mystery the friar prays his faith will protect him. His faith AND his great quarterstaff, for he knows full well – the Devil makes no deals... This brand new novella from the best-selling author of the Forest Lord series will delight and entertain historical fiction fans looking to escape the madness of Christmas shopping for a little while. Grab a mince pie, warm some mulled wine, and join Friar Tuck on this snowy adventure! "...a heart warming tale, wrapping the deep meaning of Christmas in amongst a clever little mystery...” Parmenion Book ReviewsIncludes a foreword by Phil Rose, the legendary Friar Tuck from TV's Robin of Sherwood.
Little Bighorn
John Hough Jr. - 2014
Colonel George Armstrong Custer hires her eighteen-year-old son Allen Winslow as an aide for his 1876 campaign against the Sioux and Cheyenne. Traveling west against his will, Allen finds himself in the company of Addie Grace Lord, sixteen, sister of one of Custer’s regimental surgeons. The two fall in love, and it is with foreboding that Addie Grace watches Allen and her brother George ride out with Custer’s Seventh Cavalry. Weeks later in Montana, hundreds of miles to the west, the Seventh brings its quarry to bay beside the river called the Little Bighorn.Beautifully written and filled with unforgettable characters, Little Bighorn brings to life the American West and its heartbreaking history, brilliantly portraying the flawed and tormented Custer.
The Greek Persuasion: A Novel
Kimberly K. Robeson - 2019
At thirty-one, she spends a summer in Greece; there, alone on a tranquil island, she begins writing stories about her grandmother’s experiences in 1940s Egypt, her mother’s youth in 1960s Greece, and finally, her own life in contemporary America—trying to make sense of her future by exploring the past. Spanning Thair’s life from thirty-one to thirty-six, The Greek Persuasion explores human sexuality, the complexity of mother-daughter relationships, and the choices women of different generations make when choosing—or settling—for “Mr. (or Ms.) Good Enough.” Will Thair ever find that missing part of her that Zeus chopped off with his magic sword? Or is the concept of The One just one big fairy tale that has left her searching for someone who doesn’t exist?
The Power of Two: A Twin Triumph Over Cystic Fibrosis
Isabel Stenzel Byrnes - 2007
But for twin girls with the disease, what began as a family’s stubborn determination grew into a miracle. The tragedy of CF has been touchingly recounted in such books as Frank Deford’s Alex: The Life of a Child, but The Power of Two is the first book to portray the symbiotic relationship between twins who share this life-threatening disease through adulthood. Isabel Stenzel Byrnes and Anabel Stenzel tell of their lifelong struggle to pursue normal lives with cystic fibrosis while grappling with the realization that they will die young. Their story reflects the physical and emotional challenges of a particularly aggressive form of CF and tells how the twins’ bicultural heritage—Japanese and German—influenced the way they coped with these challenges. Born in 1972, seventeen years before scientists discovered the genetic mutation that causes CF, Isabel and Anabel endured the daily regimen of chest percussion, frequent doctor visits, and lengthy hospitalizations. But they tell how, in the face of innumerable setbacks, their deep-seated dependence on each other allowed them to survive long enough to reap the benefits of the miraculous lung transplants that marked a crossroads in their lives: “We have an old life—one of growing up with chronic illness—and a new life—one of opportunities and gifts we have never imagined before.” In this memoir, they pay tribute to the people who shaped their experience. The Power of Two is an honest and gripping portrayal of day-to-day health care, the impact of chronic illness on marriage and family, and the importance of a support network to continuing survival. It conveys an important message to both popular and professional readers as it addresses key psychosocial issues in chronic illness throughout the sufferer’s lifespan and illuminates the human side of advances in biotechnology. Even as gene therapy and stem cell research increase the chances for eradicating CF, this stirring account portrays its effects on one family that refused to give up. These two remarkable sisters have much to teach about the power of perseverance—and about the ultimate power of hope.
The Virgin and the Whale
Carl Nixon - 2013
Elizabeth Whitman is working as a nurse in the local hospital, waiting for her husband to return from war, though he is missing in action, 'presumed dead'. She keeps him alive for their four-year-old son, Jack, by telling the story of a man she calls The Balloonist, who went away in a hot-air balloon and has adventures in exotic countries. When she is asked to nurse a returned soldier whose head injury has reduced him to an animal-like state with no memory, Elizabeth starts telling stories to him. It is through them that she manages to engage his interest and offer him a new life . . . in more ways than one.
Silver Nutmeg
Norah Lofts - 1947
Evert Haan, grown wealthy on black-market trading, sent to Holland for Annabet. When she arrived racked by rheumatic fever, he ordered her killed. But Annabet lived to recover her health and beauty and to find a dangerous love with an Englishman.
Feud
Derek Birks - 2012
Young Ned Elder, a Yorkshire knight, finds himself caught up in the wars when his family is brutally attacked by a local rival, Lord Radcliffe. For the Elders, nothing will ever be the same again. Ned's sisters, Emma and Eleanor, are abducted and he must find a way to rescue them. With only a few loyal companions, Ned is hounded across the land by the Radcliffes. Ned and his sisters fight back, but they are young and they make mistakes. They will need help if they are to survive, for once the Feud begins, no-one is safe... Ned, his sisters and the girl he loves struggle for survival whilst the brutal civil war rages across the snow-covered battlefield of Towton, where all will be decided. "From the eye-catching cover to the last page, Feud is an exciting story of survival through personal upheaval during a vicious war, where the outcome is not always certain." Historical Novel Society.
Black Douglas
Nigel Tranter - 1968
The death of young Will Douglas's father plunged him into a world where might prevailed and the end justified the means.
Хамамът Балкания
Vladislav Bajac - 2008
It is extremely important, that is true, but the way Vladislav Bajac performs his little literary alchemy trick by turning a grand, totalizing narrative into something personal, and thus giving it credibility, zest and liveliness, is truly amazing. The Ottoman empire and its subjects in Southeastern Europe, East and West, Sokollu Mehmed Pasha and Koca Mimar Sinan, destruction and creation, are the crucial elements of this meticulously organized story. One of the two lines of the story starts with an unprecedent human drama of young men born and raised in one faith and nation who are forcefully taken to serve in the other; the line of the plot that takes place in the contemporary world, with Orhan Pamuk, Allen Ginsberg and Juan Octavio Prenz among others, is seemingly independent but strongly connected to the historical one. In a story of a friendship, of unique soul-searching and redemption, we are offered a picture of the world that gently warns us to be careful, patient and wise when forming opinions both of the things we know well, and of those that reached us through history.Hamam Balkania received the Balkanika Award for the best novel in the Balkans for 2007/2008, the "Isidora Sekulić" Award for the best book in 2008 and the "Hit Liber" Award for the bestselling book in the same year. At the moment it is being translated into ten languages.
The Bloodstone Saga: The Complete Collection
Courtney Cole - 2011
She is reborn time and time again into tragic lives with tragic ends. Time and time again, she loses her soul mate. Until finally, she comes face to face with who she really is and the earth-shattering realization changes everything. Every Last KissFatedWith My Last BreathMy Tattered BondsIn these four books, one girl is confronted with lies, happiness, treachery, magic and myth. She learns how strong she really is and what sacrifices she is truly prepared to make for those that she loves. Heartbreaking, poignant and emotional, these books will tug at your heart-strings and leave you breathless for more.What would you do if you held fate in your hands?
A Store at War
Joanna Toye - 2019
But her burgeoning friendship with young salesman Jim draws her into a swirl of secrets within the store. And with the war progressing to crisis point, Cedric Marlow and his staff must battle nightly bombings and the absence of loved ones to keep going.From a former writer of The Archers comes a novel that weaves together a powerful sense of community and a vivid evocation of a time when every man, woman and child was doing their bit.
'Jo writes with a sure hand and a light touch…It's a real page-turner with a spirited heroine who will worm her way into readers' hearts. A sparkling new voice in fiction.' Sunday Times bestseller Veronica Henry
Japanese Roses
Theresa Lorella - 2013
After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, their lives would change forever. Kimiko Miramoto must find a way to survive alone in Japan, the enemy’s country, without being a traitor to her own. In America, Maggie, Akio, and Akio's Caucasian wife, Rose Marie, are labeled enemies of the United States. Taken from their homes, imprisoned, and separated in different internment camps, their hopes, dreams, and loyalty to their beloved country are put to the ultimate test. Japanese Roses tells the story of one Japanese-American family’s incredible struggle to survive, caught in the tides of World War II and conflicted by national loyalty, forced to endure unspeakable betrayal and injustice. Spanning the years of the war for the Pacific, Japanese Roses tells the story not only of one family, but of the struggles of all Japanese Americans during a time when they were labeled the enemy both in their own country and the country of their parents. Alternating between the eyes of Maggie, Rose Marie, and Kimiko, the story moves from the streets of Seattle as the bombs are dropped in Pearl Harbor, to the prison camps that lined America's West Coast, to the devastation of Hiroshima as the war drew to a close. While all three women are separated by the war, they share one goal: They want to go home. But will their homes even exist in the aftermath of the of the war? And will they all reach that place once the last bombs are dropped?
Lilith
Jean Plaidy - 1954
Uneducated Lilith Tremorney is irrepressible, refusing to settle for the degrading subservience life offers people of her class. Amanda and Lilith form a lifelong friendship.
Lessons from Ducks
Tammy Robinson - 2015
Once, she had everything she could ever want, but now she rattles away in her big old house where the silence doesn't just echo, it bounces off the rafters, slides down the window panes, rolls across the bench tops and skids across the floor. With a job she hates and a manager who hates her, Anna divides her time between work, home and the cemetery. It's not much of an existence, even Anna can admit that. But then, she's spent a fair amount of time plotting ways to not exist at all, so it's the least of her worries. Enter some ducks, a handful of eggs, an eight year old boy named after a Sesame Street character and his father who can't seem to keep his shirt on, and things are about to change. Whether Anna likes it or not.
The Bright Side of My Condition
Charlotte Randall - 2013
After escaping from the Norfolk Island penal colony on a whaling ship, Bloodworth and his three fellow convicts are left on a remote southern island by a captain who promises to pick them up in a year's time.It will be many years before they see another ship.Durign that time four men, with nothing in common but a desire to escape and a need to survive, live together in cramped and freezing isolation. Slangam believes hard work will see them though, Toper puts his faith in the divine, Gargantua leans on his learning and Bloodworth watched – both his fellow felons and the inhospitable environment.Based on the true story of four convicts who spent more than nine years on the Snares Islands in the early years of the nineteenth century, Charlotte Randall's latest novel is a riveting, intelligent and powerful work of fiction.