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Freedom (America, #2) by Mike Bond


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The Candle Room


Daniel K. Gentile - 2016
    His first client was a transient who just learned that he was the sole beneficiary of his estranged brother’s multi-million dollar estate. His brother was brutally murdered and the alleged killer was on trial in what appeared to be an open and shut case. Zach observed the riveting courtroom drama as the case unfolded and in the process, discovered a dark, deadly secret left by the murder victim. He soon learned that he was way over his head in his new practice and that his first case could cost him not only his career but his life.

The Words We Whisper


Mary Ellen Taylor - 2021
    So when her older sister asks her to help care for their ailing grandmother, Zara agrees—despite strained family relationships.Though pale and tired, Nonna has lost none of her sharp mind. She’s fixated on finding something long forgotten, and she immediately puts Zara to work cleaning out the attic. Unexpectedly, amid the tedium of sifting through knickknacks and heirlooms, Zara also reconnects with a man she’s attracted to but whose complicated past makes romance seem impossible.But then Zara finds what Nonna was looking for: a wooden chest, an emerald broach, a leather-bound journal. As she immerses herself in stories of heroism and loss set against the backdrop of war-torn Italy in 1943, Zara finds answers to questions she didn’t know she had. And they change everything she thinks she knows about love, regret, and seizing the day.

The Year of Counting Souls


Michael Wallace - 2017
    But with the enemy closing in, Louise is forced to flee with a handful of wounded soldiers to a field hospital deep in the mountains.Isolated in an unfamiliar country amid desperate conditions, Louise strikes up a friendship with Sammy Mori, an injured Japanese soldier with a secret. Deemed a traitor for reporting on the atrocities in Nanking, Sammy is being hunted by his brother, Yoshiko, a member of the feared Japanese military secret police.When Yoshiko discovers the hospital camp, Louise and her patients find themselves in even greater danger. Caught between new loyalties and old, Louise and Sammy must trust their unlikely bond to sustain them through deprivation and chaos. It’s a bond that inspires unexpected acts of courage and sacrifice—a light of hope shining through the darkness of war.

Circle Dance


Lynne Constantine - 2004
    Born into a prosperous Greek American family, sisters Nicole and Theodora have achieved the perfect balance between the old world rich in Greek tradition and the freedom of life in America. But when Theodora marries a rich and handsome man from outside the Greek community, events are set in motion that threaten to disrupt the enchanted “circle” of the sisters’ lives.Headstrong and independent, Nicole plunges into life head-first. Her talent and astute business acumen make her the perfect heir to her father’s empire, but his old world attitudes prevent him from giving the top spot to a woman. Nicole’s world spins out of control when she falls for a married senator who shares her heritage and her dreams. As the dramatic plot unfolds, the two young women must confront deceit and betrayal and the consequences of their personal choices – while they struggle to preserve the values they cherish.Set in Baltimore, Annapolis and the tiny island of Ikaria, Greece, Circle Dance gives the reader a view into the lives of a dynamic family that has successfully achieved the American dream without abandoning the customs and traditions handed down through their Greek heritage. Artfully intertwined plots bring generations together in a dance of rejoicing and mourning, loss and healing that will keep readers enthralled until the last frame.

Sweet Breath of Memory


Ariella Cohen - 2016
    It's been two years since her husband, John, was killed in Iraq and life has been a struggle. Her new job as a caregiver doesn't pay much, but the locals are welcoming. In fact, Cate has barely unpacked before she's drawn--reluctantly at first--into a circle of friends. There's diner-owner Gaby, who nourishes her customers' spirits as well as their bodies; feisty Beatrice, who kept the town going when its men marched off to WWII; wise-cracking MaryLou, as formidable as Fort Knox but with the same heart of gold; and, Sheila, whose Italian grocery is the soul of the place. As Amberley reveals itself to be a town shaped by war, Cate encounters another kindred spirit--a Holocaust survivor with whom she feels a deep connection. When revelations about John's death threaten Cate's newfound peace of mind, these sisters-in-arms' stories show her an unexpected way forward. And Cate comes to understand that although we suffer loss alone, we heal by sharing our most treasured memories.

The Secret Diaries of Juan Luis Vives: A Novel


Tim Darcy Ellis - 2020
    When England's Sir Thomas More offers him the role of tutor to Mary, daughter of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII, he eagerly accepts.While publicly navigating life as a 'New Christian,' Vives is quickly drawn into the secretive and dangerous world of London's Jewish community. With a foot in each world, he is torn between the love of two women.Inside the Tudor court, the king and queen separately seek Vives's assistance to support their opposed demands. He must betray one to help the other, knowing his decision could cost him his life. Whom will he choose? Will his wily skills allow him to manipulate them both? Not only his survival but that of his family and his entire people hang in the balance.

Spiritual Intercourse


Maximus Freeman - 2019
    Jump back into the passenger seat as you and Freeman navigate through a kaleidoscope of new trials, tribulations and joys of life. Buckle up!

The Rabbit Skinners


John Eidswick - 2017
    Until a child asks him to use his skills to find her missing friend.Nine-year-old Jophia Williams vanishes on a lonely country road, leaving behind only a blood-soaked dress and a headless teddy bear. Strait discovers the "murder" scene was faked and that other African-American children have also gone missing. As he chases down clues revealing an underworld of racist fanatics in his hometown, he needs to fight people who will go to any length to stop him, including an incompetent police chief, his conniving superiors at the FBI, and a mysterious stranger on a motorcycle trying to kill him.To find Jophia, Strait must also contend with the horrors of his disease and demons from his past. Can he win the race against time to rescue the girl? Can he save himself?

The Last Goodbye


Fiona Lucas - 2020
    I Love You about two people learning to love again after great loss, perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes and Josie Silver.How can you move on if you can’t let go?Spencer was the love of Anna’s life: her husband, her best friend, her rock. She thought their love would last forever.But three years ago, Spencer was tragically killed in an accident and Anna’s world was shattered. How can she ever move on, when she’s lost her soulmate?On New Year’s Eve Anna calls Spencer’s phone number, just to hear his old voicemail greeting. But to her shock, someone answers…Brody has inherited Spencer’s old number and is the first person who truly understands what Anna’s going through. As her and Brody’s phone calls become lengthier and more frequent, they begin opening up to each other—and slowly rediscover how to smile, how to laugh, even how to hope.But Brody hasn’t been entirely honest with Anna. Will his secret threaten everything, just as it seems she might find the courage to love again?

A Slow Ruin


Pamela Crane - 2021
    Women’s rights activist Alvera Fields mysteriously vanishes from her home one night, leaving her newborn baby and husband behind, the case never solved.April 2021. On the anniversary of her great-great-grandmother’s disappearance, Alvera’s namesake Vera Portman vanishes in an eerily similar manner. Six months later, the police recover a girl’s body. While the family waits in the horror of finding out if it’s Vera, Felicity Portman clings to hope that her missing teenage daughter is still alive. Despite all odds, Felicity senses a link between the decades-apart cases—a mother feels such things in her bones. But all suspicion points to the last person who saw Vera alive: Felicity’s sister-in-law, Marin.Marin, with her troubled past.Marin, the poor woman who married into the rich family.Marin, the only one who knows Felicity’s darkest secret.As Felicity makes a shocking discovery in Vera’s journal, she questions who her daughter really is. The deeper she digs, the more she’s ensnared in the same mysteries that claimed their ancestor in a terribly slow ruin.

Einstein's Beach House


Jacob M. Appel - 2014
    In eight tragi-comic stories, Einstein's Beach House: Stories features ordinary men and women rising to life's extraordinary challenges.

Lights Out


Natalie Walters - 2021
    Now one of them, Egyptian spy Remon Riad, is missing.Jack Hudson has been working for the Strategic Neutralization and Protection Agency (SNAP) for almost nine years and takes the lead in hunting down the missing spy. But he isn't at all pleased to find out Brynn is involved. It's hard to trust a woman who's already betrayed you.Every lead they follow draws them dangerously deeper into an international plot. Kidnapping, murder, explosions, poisoning--the terrorists will do anything to accomplish their goal of causing a digital blackout that will blind a strategic US military communications center and throw the world into chaos.Can Brynn surrender control to a man who doesn't trust her? And can Jack ever get over what she did to him? The fate of the world--and their hearts--hangs in the balance.

Brief, Horrible Moments: A collection of one sentence horror stories


Marko Pandza - 2017
    Murder, death and the dead. Family, friends, love and relationships. Food and eating. Fear, dread, and the unknown. Crime and punishment. The human body. Lock the doors, turn up the lights, and take a deep breath. A series of brief, horrible moments await.

Yonder


Jabari Asim - 2022
    Their owners call them captives. They are taught their captors’ tongues and their beliefs but they have a language and rituals all their own. In a world that would be allegorical if it weren’t saturated in harsh truths, Cato and William meet at Placid Hall, a plantation in an unspecified part of the American South. Subject to the whims of their tyrannical and eccentric captor, Cannonball Greene, they never know what harm may befall them: inhumane physical toil in the plantation’s quarry by day, a beating by night, or the sale of a loved one at any moment. It’s that cruel practice—the wanton destruction of love, the belief that Black people aren’t even capable of loving—that hurts the most. It hurts the reserved and stubborn William, who finds himself falling for Margaret, a small but mighty woman with self-possession beyond her years. And it hurts Cato, whose first love, Iris, was sold off with no forewarning. He now finds solace in his hearty band of friends, including William, who is like a brother; Margaret; Little Zander; and Milton, a gifted artist. There is also Pandora, with thick braids and long limbs, whose beauty calls to him. Their relationships begin to fray when a visiting minister with a mysterious past starts to fill their heads with ideas about independence. He tells them that with freedom comes the right to choose the small things—when to dine, when to begin and end work—as well as the big things, such as whom and how to love. Do they follow the preacher and pursue the unknown? Confined in a landscape marked by deceit and uncertainty, who can they trust? In an elegant work of monumental imagination that will reorient how we think of the legacy of America’s shameful past, Jabari Asim presents a beautiful, powerful, and elegiac novel that examines intimacy and longing in the quarters while asking a vital question: What would happen if an enslaved person risked everything for love?

The Wives of Billie's Mountain


Kelly L. Simmons - 2014
    Second families must go into hiding or be arrested. There is even a finder's fee for those who turn in their own. Ten-year-old Mary's father, a poor farmer, abandons Mary, her nearly-blind mother, and six brothers and sisters in the hills of the Wasatch Mountains to live in a shallow dugout not much better than a cave. Close to starving, the family is rescued by a nearby polygamist. As the much older man's intentions become more threatening, Mary finds it harder and harder to resist his proposal of marriage. Her family and friends, even her own mother, turn away from her. During the six-year period, from Mary's childhood to a forced marriage at sixteen, Mary must first survive, and then choose her fate. This is the story of survival, love, and compassion in a sometimes heartless existence. It is also the story of Mary's deep conflict with the Church's teachings on plural marriage, and with her father, who has abandoned them. Based on a true story."...filled with rich description that makes its early 20th-century setting and people come alive." -The Salt Lake Tribune"...an emotionally wrenching narrative out of U.S. history."-Kirkus Reviews