Emerging from the hospital, he has lost an arm and a leg, and his face has been disfigured. He becomes a sideshow freak to support himself, traveling around England and even back to Galway, but he eventually returns to London, where he dies, down and out, in one of the city's parks.

    Sara, who knows no one in Northern Ireland, is jobless, carless, friendless—all but a prisoner in her own house. When a blood-soaked old woman beats on the door, insisting the house is hers before being bundled back to her care facility, Sara begins to understand the house has a terrible history her husband never intended for her to discover. Through the counterpoint voices of two women—one modern Englishwoman, one Northern Irish farmgirl speaking from half a century earlier—Stuart Neville offers a chilling and gorgeous portrait of violence and resilience in this truly haunting narrative.

    Determined to keep the family together, Zetta and their toddlers join Asa and her brothers at the Golden Gate coal camp just before Christmas 1922. She is eight months pregnant. During the first week in the dismal camp, Zetta suffers fearful nightmares of cut trees and fresh dirt--Appalachian signs of trouble. Asa dismisses his wife's pleas to return to their farm, insisting their three-month stay will provide the $400 they need to give their children better lives. Disappointed, Zetta draws strength from her plump red-haired neighbor, Dosha, and the strong willed granny woman, Clarie, who will deliver her baby. And each morning, she thanks the Lord they are one more day closer to home. Or are they?

    

    She knows God handed her a life of hardship, especially when her Dad gives her away in marriage to a man she doesn't know. However, she proves to be a true mountain girl with spirit, determination, feistiness and fiery spunk. Laine's unabashed account of events, before and during the first months of her marriage, draws the reader spellbound into a story that will linger like mists shrouding distant mountains.

    I am sure you’ve seen at least one, if not more of the 26 films made on fictional British spy 007. You may’ve also seen TV shows like The Americans, Blindspot, Chuck, Covert Affairs, Homeland, Nikita, Quantico, The Blacklist, and/or The Night Manager. I wrote this book after I realised that the average person may not know even one-sixth of what I know about spies and spying. Almost each of the Top 50 nations (by GDP, population or military power) has a spy agency/service. Many countries have more than one ‘secret service’ or ‘intelligence agency’. USA has 16. Some countries’ spy agencies are more powerful than entire smaller nations, with annual budgets larger than their GDPs. This books attempts to tell the story of 20 of the world’s largest and most powerful spy agencies, details their important missions, reveals their darkest secrets, and gives you an inside perspective of the often quite gory but thrilling ‘world of spies’. It gives you a 360º view of those spy agencies you only read about or see in a movie or TV show. With one chapter per agency, you can read only chapters you may be interested in. The life of most spies is not as glamorous as it is made out to be. You may think it is all about high-tech and guns and car chases and ‘hot’ women, but that’s not the case. In the real spy world, the techniques boil down to the interpretation of basic human psychology. Even though a spy learns several action techniques on how to get out of a dangerous situation, including how to withstand torture, if he/she is resorting to car chases, it means they’re doing something wrong. Spies don’t get paid very well. Gambling at a casino or flying on a private jet may be part of the job, but a spy doesn’t get to spend this kind of money on personal expenses. Spies cannot disclose the nature of their work to their family and friends, to maintain secrecy. Many have to live away from home for weeks, months, even years. Married life is a mess, as the spouse starts suspecting the spy of having an affair. Who can become a spy? Do you need a law enforcement (police) or military background? Not really. Spies have degrees as diverse as law, political science, finance, economics – even professional athletes have become successful spies.

     As an adult, she is armed with skills that most would covet, yet she lives in a boarding house, works as a waitress and struggles financially. Most single women in the area didn’t stay single long. Most, but not her. The one man she had said yes to was dragging his feet. The townspeople all agree she is in need of a husband. Even the young girls in her Sunday School Class have taken action and writing an ad for the paper. Wanted: Husband for Rebecca Mueller. **Must be handsome, nice, like children, and live within walking distance of Carrie Town School. Will her circumstances change and allow her to hold out for true love?

    In this stunningly unusual prose debut, Doireann Ni Ghriofa sculpts essay and autofiction to explore inner life and the deep connection felt between two writers centuries apart. In the 1700s, an Irish noblewoman, on discovering her husband has been murdered, drinks handfuls of his blood and composes an extraordinary poem. In the present day, a young mother narrowly avoids tragedy. On encountering the poem, she becomes obsessed with its parallels with her own life, and sets out to track down the rest of the story. A devastating and timeless tale about one woman freeing her voice by reaching into the past and finding another's.

    She sets up her medical practice there. One night she's called out to help a gang of outlaws that have been shot to pieces while trying to rustle cattle. One of the outlaws is a young man that she develops feelings for, but he's in and out of her life for months on end. The outlaw attempts to change his life and go straight. It's a challenge that Rose encourages. It's the tale of two people who grow to care deeply for each other, and when Rose is kidnapped, the outlaw, now her husband, rides out to save her. Another novel of the Old West from the pen of R. O. Lane.

    Partly an ideological tale, dealing with the inherently colonial mindset of Puerto Rico (and thus the perennial theme of Puerto Rican pride against the Northamerican influence), partly a violent and heartrending family saga, and partly a coming-of-age tale, this novel still reverberates in today's urban Puerto Rico, where the rural pastures depicted in this novel (with René Marqués's stunning prose) have largely been forgotten.

    Kate Bratton dreams of more. It’s 1914, and her life is mapped out ahead of her: continue working as a maid in the beautiful Woodicombe House, settle down with Luke the gardener and, of course, start a family.Desperate to run away in search of adventure, Kate’s plans are curtailed by the arrival of the Russell family at Woodicombe House. Tasked with becoming a ladies-maid for their daughter, Naomi, Kate gets a glimpse of the other side of life. Little does she know that all families have secrets, no matter their standing.Will Kate return to the safety of her life before the Russell’s departure? Or will the handsome Ned Russell turn her head? The Woodicombe House Sagas The Housekeer’s Daughter A Wife’s War (Coming March 2019) Praise for The Housekeeper's Daughter: ‘I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and found the story to flow well. There were many twists and turns that built up to the final conclusion. Very enjoyable and definitely recommended’ 5* Reader review

    The action of this period romantic mystery takes place in the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne two years after the end of the war, as Britain is caught in the grip of the worst winter in a thousand years. As blizzards rage and the country grinds to a frozen standstill, on Tyneside a young German woman, Elsa Platten, goes on trial for her life, accused of deliberately burning a man to death... Alexander Galbraith is the lawyer hired to defend her, a man undergoing a personal crisis of his own, since his vengeful wife, Virginia, has discovered evidence of a homosexual affair and is threatening to ruin him... Jack Raisbeck is the owner of the Tyneside shipyard where the murdered man, a Dutchman called Jeroen van Rijn, worked. Jack is a physically scarred and cynical survivor of the war in the North Atlantic but his developing romantic relationship with Elsa in the months before the murder has rejuvenated him. Yet, as Elsa begins her trial, Jack is also struggling to keep his shipyard business alive, beset with a rebellious workforce led by union leader Ernie Wilmot, and with the financial future of his yard hanging in the balance after a recent arson attack and an act of embezzlement by his former chief accountant, George Hetherington. As the evidence against Elsa unfolds in the course of the trial, she re-lives her past life in Germany and Holland: the rise of the Nazis and the invasion of Holland, her subsequent betrayal and deportation to the East, and her escape and struggle to survive the fall of Berlin. Jack and Alexander Galbraith both believe in Elsa’s innocence but that belief is strongly tested as the evidence against her grows. The trail to find the truth leads both men in unexpected directions. For Jack it leads to a confrontation with his brother-in-law on a frozen cliff top, and to other disturbing family revelations. For Galbraith it is something even worse - he has to make the ultimate choice between preserving his own career and reputation, or saving his client from the hangman...

    Discovered by the police, Bincy is taken to an orphanage, where she learns that Mama is not the only person who doesn't want her. In truth, nobody wants her, and Bincy is forced to cling to the orphanage bully Mae for comfort. As the years pass, Mae forces Bincy to do everything she demands, from picking on the younger girls to giving up her meager allotment of food. When Bincy is betrayed by Mae, she's sent to work in a manor house as a scullery maid. That's where Bincy meets two young men: Judd, the street urchin who comes into the cellar to scavenge for food, and Henry, the charismatic young master of the house. Despite Judd's warnings, Bincy finds herself falling for Henry. But when Henry demands more from her than she's willing to give, Bincy has to make a choice: give herself to him or face her greatest fear of being alone and discarded once more.

    But when Celia, her natural mother, re-enters her life, her world is turned completely upside down.Tormented by her divided loyalties, Katie is plagued by a question Celia refuses to answer – who is her real father? (Note: Originally published as Somebody Else's Girl)

    When an enigmatic stranger steals her heart, can she know he wants her for the right reasons?London 1808: Widowed at the age of twenty, Ann has no optimism for the future. At the beck and call of her domineering mother she longs to make a new life for herself with the legacy left by her late husband. But it's not that easy. Not when it means leaving her sisters behind. Her world is turned upside down when a curious gentleman stops to speak to her. Chas is new to the area, but he seems to know a lot about her … and he certainly looks well-to-do. Could he be her saviour? With newfound hope Ann dares to dream again, but Chas has a secret. Something he refuses to share. As their friendship grows, there are those who want to keep them apart … but when Ann stumbles upon Chas’s past, she realises that only she can decide what their future holds. Inspired by the compelling family history of author V L McBeath, The Young Widow is a standalone story in The Ambition & Destiny Series. Set in Georgian-era London, forty years before the start of this historical family saga, The Young Widow adds another dimension to this epic series. Get your copy today. Please Note: The Young Widow is written in UK English. Other books in The Ambition & Destiny Series: Prequel: Condemned by Fate Part 1: Hooks & Eyes Part 2: Less Than Equals Part 3: When Time Runs Out Part 4: Only One Winner Part 5: Different World