The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors


Dan Jones - 2017
    A band of elite warriors determined to fight to the death to protect Christianity’s holiest sites. A global financial network unaccountable to any government. A sinister plot founded on a web of lies.Jerusalem 1119. A small group of knights seeking a purpose in the violent aftermath of the First Crusade decides to set up a new order. These are the first Knights Templar, a band of elite warriors prepared to give their lives to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Over the next two hundred years, the Templars would become the most powerful religious order of the medieval world. Their legend has inspired fervent speculation ever since. In this groundbreaking narrative history, Dan Jones tells the true story of the Templars for the first time in a generation, drawing on extensive original sources to build a gripping account of these Christian holy warriors whose heroism and alleged depravity have been shrouded in myth. The Templars were protected by the pope and sworn to strict vows of celibacy. They fought the forces of Islam in hand-to-hand combat on the sun-baked hills where Jesus lived and died, finding their nemesis in Saladin, who vowed to drive all Christians from the lands of Islam. Experts at channeling money across borders, they established the medieval world’s largest and most innovative banking network and waged private wars against anyone who threatened their interests.Then, as they faced setbacks at the hands of the ruthless Mamluk sultan Baybars and were forced to retreat to their stronghold in Cyprus, a vindictive and cash-strapped King of France set his sights on their fortune. His administrators quietly mounted a damning case against the Templars, built on deliberate lies and false testimony. Then on Friday October 13, 1307, hundreds of brothers were arrested, imprisoned and tortured, and the order was disbanded amid lurid accusations of sexual misconduct and heresy. They were tried by the Pope in secret proceedings and their last master was brutally tortured and burned at the stake. But were they heretics or victims of a ruthlessly repressive state? Dan Jones goes back to the sources tobring their dramatic tale, so relevant to our own times, in a book that is at once authoritative and compulsively readable.

Lotus Land - The Secrets of Padma Kshetra


Bhuban Patra - 2020
    The kingdom of Kalinga though a maritime superpower remained secluded and reclusive to the other nations of Bharat. This was not by chance, but by choice, as this holy land was fulfilling a prophecy that could become the basis of existence for the entire humankind after the Kali Yuga ends. The first book of the Konark Secret Duology is the tale of Bishnu Maharana, the chief architect of the Konark Temple. This is his journey about how he became a master architect and the secrets he unravels while constructing this shrine. Was this temple just a grand monument or were there secrets behind its construction? Why was an unusual technique being used for its creation, when there were tried and tested methods? Did this monument hold some secret within itself? Was Bishnu Maharana an architect or a man of secrets?

Escapade


Jane Aiken Hodge - 1993
    There, Charlotte meets Beth Prior, friend of her mother, actress, and member of the demi-monde. Beth sees Charlotte as the perfect cover for her role as a spy, and the two set off for Palermo, Sicily. In Sicily, the two become embroiled in political intrigue, and Beth begins to question her involvement in British politics. Charlotte and Beth find adventure and romance in Palermo amid the glittering stage lights and hidden agendas of the aristocracy.

Love and War 1


John Jakes - 1984
    The young would clash on the bloody battlefields of Bull Run and Fredericksburg, while in intrigue-ridden Washington and Richmond strong-willed men and beautiful women would defend their principles with their lives...or satisfy illicit cravings with schemes that could destroy friends and enemies alike. This surging drama is the second part of the trilogy that includes NORTH AND SOUTH and HEAVEN AND HELL. "Craftsmanship nears artistry....A coherent and penetrating vision of the seamy underside of war." (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Treason: A Catholic Novel of Elizabethan England


Dena Hunt - 2013
    It brings to vivid and shocking life the age in which Shakespeare lived and in which the English martyrs died." Joseph PearceWriter-in-Residence, Thomas More College of Liberal Arts

Revolution


Jennifer Donnelly - 2010
    She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape. Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.

Year of the Flu: A World War I Medical Thriller


Millys Altman - 2017
    He was eager to begin his first practice, but it turned out to be more than he bargained for. In just two years, in September, 1918, the entire village was sickened in rapid succession in the flu pandemic that killed quickly and indiscriminately throughout the world. It was wartime, and Nixon was unable to find help., This story is an up close and personal account of what it was like to be sick with the HINI type virus in 1918. It is a tale of a dedicated doctor whose selflessness, compassion and courage helped the villagers survive in the pandemic that killed more people in a year than the Black Death killed in a century...

Voices


David Elliott - 2019
    Along the way it explores issues such as gender, misogyny, and the peril of speaking truth to power. Before Joan of Arc became a saint, she was a girl inspired. It is that girl we come to know in Voices.

Hope of the Pharaoh


Katie Hamstead - 2013
    The fearsome Commander Horemheb sees her courage, and knows she is exactly what he is looking for…The Great Queen Nefertiti despises Naomi instantly, and strips her of her Hebrew lineage, including her name, which is changed to Kiya. Kiya allies herself with Horemheb, who pushes her to greatness and encourages her to make the Pharaoh fall in love with her. When Akhenaten declares Kiya will be the mother of his heir, Nefertiti, furious with jealousy, schemes to destroy Kiya.Kiya must play the deadly game carefully. She is in a silent battle of wills, and a struggle for who will one day inherit the crown. If she does bear an heir, she knows she will need to fight to protect him, as well as herself, from Nefertiti who is out for blood.

Belvoir's Promise


Susanna M. Newstead - 2017
    A young nobleman. And death stalks them both.... The date is 1191 Aumary Belvoir is seventeen. Seventeen, and bound by an oath so holy, he dare not break it.
 Unexpectedly thrust into the position of the Warden of the Savernake; a woodland of one hundred and fifty square miles in Wiltshire, will Aumary succeed in stamping his authority on the forest? He has also acquired a half brother he did not know he had. With the help of his experienced staff and his willing family, things go well. The surprise brother, Robert proves a worthy assistant. Then the deaths begin. Are they accidents as they seem or is there something more sinister happening in the forest? Seventy year old Aumary is dictating his story to a scribe. He can no longer write for himself and wishes to set down for all time, the truth of two mysteries; the death of Arthur Duke of Brittany, King John's nephew and rival, and other more disturbing deaths closer to home. Aumary Belvoir sets off to uncover a plot so dastardly and deadly, so patient and well planned that it takes thirteen years to lay bare.

Mystic Sweet Communion


Jane Kirkpatrick - 1998
    Ivy is disliked by tribal leaders in spite of her obvious love for their children, yet she eventually overcomes their resistance and serves as their spokesman in negotiations with the U S government. Already scarred by her mother's tragic death in childbirth, Ivy overcomes her husband's suicide and other devastating disappointments to share her faith with her adopted people and eventually earn their love.In 1900, Ivy Cromartie Stranahan gives up a promising teaching career to join her husband at the remote New River trading post in south Florida - but she doesn't give up her love for learning or her passion for righting wrongs. In this remarkable story of God's faithfulness and one woman's commitment, Ivy becomes a friend to the Seminole people, their teacher of forbidden English and the Christian faith, and finally, their spokesperson in a time of turmoil. Like all of us who search for meaning, Ivy yearns to experience the power of faith, understand the limitation of human protection, and learn the importance of perseverance in caring for those we love. She finds them in Mystic Sweet Communion.

Return Once More


Trisha Leigh - 2015
    Science has not only made the leaps necessary to allow time travel, but the process engineered a strange side effect—predicting your one true love.If you could save your one true love from an untimely death, would you be able to resist?Sixteen-year-old Kaia Vespasian is an apprentice to the Historians—a group charged with using time travel to document the triumphs and failures of the past—and she can’t resist a peek at her long-dead soul mate in Ancient Egypt. Before she knows it, she’s broken every rule in the book, and the consequences of getting caught could destroy more than just her new romance.Or would you have the strength to watch him die?But when Kaia notices a fellow classmate snooping around in a time where he doesn’t belong, she suspects he has a secret of his own—and the conspiracy she uncovers could threaten the entire universe. If her experience has taught her anything, to changing history means facing the consequences. The Historians trained her to observe and record the past, but Kaia never guessed she might have to protect it— in a race across time to save her only chance at a future.

Mary Magdalene


Ellen Gunderson Traylor - 1985
    She became a woman every man feared. Enter the world of the favored mistress of Magdala Inn. Her profession was her shame, her past a nightmare...until the Lord of life gave her hope. This gripping novel sweeps into the psyche of the Magdalene, promising hope and healing for all wounded hearts.

Ireland Rose


Patricia Strefling - 2011
    Rose's father finds a suitable husband, Captain Camden Lovell, twenty-seven years her senior. Captain Lovell takes his bride to Charleston, provides her with a beautiful home on the Battery and good standing in Charleston Society.Three years later Rose is a widow. Captain Wyatt, her husband's trusted employee is now in charge of her affairs. Rose senses he does not like her. One day he brings a young woman with child to her - and a secret that must be kept. A little girl is born, and Rose becomes a mother. Captain Wyatt offers to marry her in name only to protect her from Charleston society gossip, but she is determined she will not marry a second time for protection. She will marry for love or live alone.Just three months later, August 31st, 1886 the city of Charleston suffers the worst earthquake of the century. Her beautiful home is in shambles. Rose has no choice but to return to her parents' birthplace in Ireland. The only record she has of her Irish ancestry is in her mother's Bible. She and her infant daughter take the next ship to Ireland. She has begun to hope she has finally found happiness when Captain Wyatt comes with news that shatters her heart.Every person Rose loves is taken away. Her faith in God is shaken. There is a plan for her, but she can't see it. Captain Wyatt breaks her heart, not once but twice.

Katharina Luther: Nun, Rebel, Wife


Anne Boileau - 2016
    Nine young nuns, intoxicated by Luther's subversive writings, became restless and longed to leave their convent. On Good Friday 1523 a haulier smuggled them out hidden in empty herring barrels. Five of them settled in Wittenberg, the very eye of the storm, and one of them - Katharina von Bora - scandalised the world by marrying the revolutionary former monk. Following a near miscarriage, she is confined to her bed to await the birth of their first child; during this time, she sets down her own story. Against a backdrop of 16th Century Europe this vivid account of Katharina von Bora's early life brings to the spotlight this spirited and courageous woman.