It is then, at the young and vulnerable age of seventeen, when Lady Anna Maria Berezowska loses both of her parents and must leave the only home she has ever known. With Empress Catherine's Russian armies streaming in to take their spoils, Anna is quickly thrust into a world of love and hate, loyalty and deceit, patriotism and treason, life and death. Even kind Aunt Stella, Anna's new guardian who soon comes to personify Poland's courage and spirit, can't protect Anna from the uncertain future of the country. Anna, a child no longer, turns to love and comfort in the form of Jan, a brave patriot and architect of democracy, unaware that her beautiful and enigmatic cousin Zofia has already set her sights on the handsome young fighter. Thus Anna walks unwittingly into Zofia's jealous wrath and darkly sinister intentions. Forced to survive several tragic events, many of them orchestrated by the crafty Zofia, a strengthened Anna begins to learn to place herself in the way of destiny--for love and for country. Heeding the proud spirit of her late father, Anna becomes a major player in the fight against the countries who come to partition her beloved Poland. PUSH NOT THE RIVER is based on the true eighteenth century diary of Anna Maria Berezowska, a Polish countess who lived through the rise and fall of the historic Third of May Constitution. Vivid, romantic, and thrillingly paced, it paints the emotional and unforgettable story of the metamorphosis of a nation--and of a proud and resilient young woman.

    K. Chesterton's fiction, The Ball and the Cross is both witty and profound, cloaking serious religious and philosophical inquiry in sparkling humor and whimsy. Serialized in the British publication The Commonwealth in 1905-06, Chesterton's second novel first appeared in book form in America in 1909, delighting and challenging readers with its heady mixture of fantasy, farce, and theology.The plot of The Ball and the Cross chronicles a hot dispute between two Scotsmen, one a devout but naive Roman Catholic, the other a zealous but naive atheist. Their fanatically held opinions—leading to a duel that is proposed but never fought—inspire a host of comic adventures whose allegorical levels vigorously explore the debate between theism and atheism.Martin Gardner's superb introduction to The Ball and the Cross reveals the real-life debate between Chesterton and a famous atheist that provided inspiration for the story, and it explores some of the novel's possible allegorical meanings. Appraising the book's many intriguing philosophical qualities, Mr. Gardner alerts readers as well to the pleasures of its "colorful style . . . amusing puns and clever paradoxes . . . and the humor and melodrama of its crazy plot."

    This book's "secret underground society" is not Nazi war criminals, however-it's the persecuted Christian church. Yuri and Alexander Deyneko, separated as teens in postwar times, are reunited thirty-five years later in 1980s Bucharest. Now on separate sides of Nicolae Ceausescu's Iron Curtain, the secret life of one brother, a top army official and clandestine Christian, and the ambition of the other- now the American Ambassador to Romania-puts them on a collision course with each other. Fates hang on an issue of conscience. Great writing propels readers through the plot toward a gripping climax.

    The world weary warrior has never backed down from a just fight. Providing sufficient coin for the clan seems finally within his grasp. Until, in a collision between his honor and his purse, he is forced to rescue the English King's baseborn daughter at a bear baiting. Burdened by the sins of his profligate past, Titus feels compelled to protect the young innocent girl. The convent raised Mercy is eager to finally meet her royal father. She yearns to earn his love. Mercy is convinced her stark and lonely life can change. There will indeed be dramatic changes in her life, just not the ones she anticipates. Titus needs a wife. His ideal spouse would be a plain and practical woman. Whimsical Mercy is neither. Courtly Love is still a novel concept in Tenth Century England, but Mercy embraces it fully. The famous Scottish knight becomes the focus of her regard. He categorically rejects any idea of romantic love, especially the ridiculous Courtly Love. Opposites in every way Titus and Mercy navigate court intrigue, blood feuds, church assassins, life altering revelations, and annulled marriage vows. Titus the Norseman has never been defeated in a tournament. He has won every challenge issued. Now against almost insurmountable odds, somehow with God's help he must find a way to win 'Mercy's Heart'. ‘Mercy’s Heart‘is the first novel in a new Medieval Inspirational Romance series, 'The ChristKeepers'.

    Drawn home to Galveston Island, Brent knows it is likely he will face rejection from his father.On Saturday September 8, 1900, without warning, the citizens of Galveston Island are in for the fight of their lives when the hurricane of the century hits. In a single night of horror, more than 6,000 islanders lose their lives and countless others are left in devastation.Through the experience, Brent finally faces the truth of his own childhood and the stormy relationship he has with his parents. He finds the courage to write the story of his past and discovers a loving God.Click Here to Meet the Author Download the Readers' Guide.

    Haunted by war and wrestling with a troubled past, Matthew Hale pledges to protect the daughter of his former owner and bring her from England to her father’s plantation along the Chesapeake, an undertaking that challenges the depth of his courage, and the strength of his faith.Lara Carey will only wed for love, having kept the story of her parents’ unwavering devotion for each other in her heart. When she learns her guardian has promised her in marriage to a rich English lord in order to save the ancestral home, her hopes unravel, until she meets the heroic stranger that rescued her from the hands of a highwayman.

    Clinging to her battered faith, she heads west to escape her grief and runs headlong into the man who caused it. Tall and headstrong, Eliza expected to remain an "unclaimed treasure." Devastated in the wake of the war, she sets out for New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo mountains in search of peace and new purpose but finds that the western frontier is a wild place where former enemies--Yankees and Rebels, Freedmen and Indians--square off in the quest for land and gold. Eliza must confront her prejudices and fears, and Jacob Craig embodies that conflict. The mountain man wins her trust with his gentle strength, but he harbors a secret. As a Union sharp-shooter, he met her fiance on the field of battle and cost him his life. Eliza must learn that she will not find purpose or peace anywhere until she finds in God a faith more precious than gold. A real ghost town comes to life in this award-winning story of love, forgiveness, and the sovereignty of God.

    To protect herself and her young brother from her violent and unstable husband, she flees north, finding anonymity and sanctuary as the cook in a Northwoods lumber camp. The camp owner, Robert Foster, wonders if the lovely woman he's hired has the grit to survive the never-ending work and harsh conditions of a remote pine forest in winter. Katie wonders if she can keep her past a secret from a man she is slowly growing to love.With grace and skill, Serena Miller brings to life a bygone era. From the ethereal, snowy forest and the warm cook-stove to the rowdy shanty boys and the jagged edges of the saw, every detail is perfectly rendered, transporting the reader back to the time when pine was king, men were made of iron, and rivers were choked with logs on the way to the sawmills. Readers will have a hard time leaving the Northwoods when they turn the last page.

    Standing on a comer of the Avenue no longer fashionable for residence, it looked upon the swelling tide of business with an expression of complacency and half-disdain. Van Dyke's Christmas story about a mansion that speaks "not of money squandered but of wealth prudently applied" - the companion story to The Other Wise Man.

    Bo is also a man of God and widower whose life is destined to change when he meets the proud and hard-hearted slave girl, Ruth.Ruth has known nothing but servitude and brutality since being separated from her mother at age thirteen. Purchased and sold primarily for breeding, her heart is filled with resentment and bitterness.  Ruth wants no part of Bo’s Godly devotion.  Yet Bo is unlike any man she’s known and her experiences with him will leave her forever changed.A gripping slave era novel, Ruth’s Redemption is a story of love, forgiveness, and redemption. Set against the backdrop of the Nat Turner Rebellion in Tidewater, Virginia, this novel shines the light of God’s unconditional love in the darkness of a culture’s cruel socially accepted inhumanity.

    Davis Bunn Song of Acadia series. Erica Langston's comfortable home and loving family living near Washington, D.C., carry no outward hint of the sorrows and fears faced by her Acadian forebears, but she will soon discover that similar determination and fortitude will be required of her. When the British once again invade the nation's capital and leave death and destruction in their wake, Erica is left to deal with the creditors circling around the crumbling family business. It seems her only recourse is to travel to England to collect on outstanding debts held in British banks. Arriving in London at the home of the United States ambassador, Erica is gradually immersed in a secret mission that brings her face-to-face with her most feared and reviled enemy. She discovers that Gereth Powers is part of a group of Christian activists headed up by William Wilberforce himself. Along the way, Erica comes to realize her faith has been more cultural than real, and her spiritual journey becomes far more signi?cant than her journey over the ocean.

    This faithful New Testament tale combines the events of the life of Jesus with grand historical spectacle in the exciting story of Judah of the House of Hur, a man who finds extraordinary redemption for himself and his family.A classic of faith, fortitude, and inspiration.

    She ran for the door, but someone grabbed her, twisted her arm behind her. Erin’s shriek was smothered by a cold, clammy hand. “Shhh—” Breath tickled her ear—“Just take it easy. . . .”Surrounded by the oppressive sand, heat, and tension of Operation Desert Storm, soldiers Erin Grayson and Christina McIntyre shared a special bond. But when an ugly secret from Chris’ past shattered their close friendship, they went their separate ways without even a goodbye.Four years have gone by since that day in the desert, but Chris has spent her entire life running from the past, hiding her deepest secrets from those who care for her most. And now tragedy has ripped apart her life. She sees no hope in tomorrow.It’s a good day to die. . . .Overcoming her own anger and doubt, Erin rushes to Chris’ Colorado cabin. When Chris’ fear of God and Erin’s faith in Him collide, they are involved in a different kind of war that only one of them can win. As Chris wrestles with grief, fear, and ghosts from the past, Erin fights to pull her from the brink of self-destruction. She will not lose Chris again.Chris’ life is at stake . . . as well as her soul.

    Leaving behind her only relative, her cousin Mordecai, and her first true love, Cyrus, she is thrown headlong into the unrestrained extravagance of palace living. Quick of mind and strong in spirit, she refuses to suffer the fate of her harem sisters and boldly challenges Xerxes to give of his heart before taking his pleasure, thus sealing her place beside him as queen. While conspiracy spins its diabolical web, Esther's mind and spirit waver, and she is forced to confront the past in order to save her future—and that of an entire nation.

    It’s pretty cozy.” Herra Björnsson is at the beginning of the end of her life. Oh, she has two weeks left, maybe three—she has booked her cremation appointment, at a crispy 1,000 degrees, so it won’t be long. But until then she has her cigarettes, a World War II–era weapon, some Facebook friends, and her memories to sustain her. And what a life this remarkable eighty-year-old narrator has led. In the internationally bestselling and award-winning Woman at 1,000 Degrees, which has been published in fourteen languages, noted Icelandic novelist Hallgrímur Helgason has created a true literary original. From Herra’s childhood in the remote islands of Iceland, where she was born the granddaughter of Iceland’s first president, to teen years spent living by her wits alone in war-torn Europe while her father fought on the side of the Nazis, to love affairs on several continents, Herra Björnsson moved Zelig-like through the major events and locales of the twentieth century. She wed and lost husbands, had children, fled a war, kissed a Beatle, weathered the Icelandic financial crash, and mastered the Internet. She has experienced luck and betrayal and upheaval and pain, and—with a bawdy, uncompromising spirit—she has survived it all. Now, as she awaits death in a garage in Reykjavík, she shows us a woman unbowed by the forces of history. Each part of Herra’s story is a poignant piece of a puzzle that comes together in the final pages of this remarkable, unpredictable, and enthralling novel.