Matador


Stewart Matthews - 2018
     Experience the gripping first entry in the action-packed Barrett Mason Thriller series! Barrett Mason’s mission was simple: help an Iranian biochemist defect. Extract him to the States then learn the darkest secrets of the Ayatollah’s weapons programs. Iran's deadliest spies would try to kill them along the way, but Barrett never shied away from a fight. Everything was going fine until Barrett was caught in a spy’s worst nightmare: his own side tried to kill him. Trapped between two sides full of expertly trained, cold-blooded killers means standing his ground is suicide. And running will only get him so far. But Barrett Mason never lays down. Not when failure means unleashing the deadliest weapons known to man. He'll fight to get his revenge, or he’ll die trying. Fans of Clancy's Jack Ryan, Child's Jack Reacher, Ludlum's Jason Bourne, and LT Ryan's Jack Noble will be hooked by the heart-pounding, life-or-death adventures of Barrett Mason. Other books in the Barrett Mason Thriller series Book 0: The Lost Son Book 1: Matador Book 2: Tyrant

The Warrior Chronicles Books 1-3 (The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman, The Lords of the North)


Bernard Cornwell - 2013
    This is The Warrior Chronicles books 1-3.The beginning of the tale of Uhtred. Uhtred is born into the aristocracy of 9th Century Northumbria, but orphaned at ten, adopted by a Dane and taught the Viking ways. Yet Uhtred’s fate is indissolubly bound up with Alfred, King of Wessex, who rules over the last English kingdom when the Danes have overrun Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia. So ends The Last Kingdom.The Pale Horseman takes place right afterwards in the fateful year in which the Danes capture Alfred’s kingdom and drive him as a fugitive into the marshes of Athelney. It seems that Wessex, and England, are destroyed, but Alfred is determined to make one desperate gamble that might save his kingdom.The Lords of the North sees Uhtred, having helped Alfred secure Wessex an independent Saxon kingdom, returns north to find his stepsister. Instead he discovers chaos, civil war and treachery in Northumbria. He takes the side of Guthred, once a slave and now a man who would be king, and in return expects Guthred’s help in capturing Dunholm, the lair of the dark Viking lord, Kjartan.

Big Jack Is Dead


Harvey Smith - 2013
    Controlled and calculating, his world begins to splinter when he learns - in the middle of a corporate meeting - that his father has committed suicide. Returning home to the Gulf Coast, Jack struggles with a host of unresolved feelings as he buries the man he hated most. Interwoven throughout the novel, chapters set in the 1970s depict Jack as a boy, chronicling his relationships with a storm-tossed mother and a menacing father, living in the shadows of the petrochemical plants scattered along the Gulf Coast. The novel highlights the differences between life in California at the end of the Dot-Com era and life in blue collar Texas during the 1970s, contrasting Jack as a man and as a child, and showing how the people who bring us into the world shape us forever.

The Violinist of Venice: A Story of Vivaldi


Alyssa Palombo - 2015
    But she refuses to let that stop her from living her dreams and begins sneaking out of her family's palazzo under the cover of night to take violin lessons from virtuoso violinist and composer Antonio Vivaldi. However, what begins as secret lessons swiftly evolves into a passionate, consuming love affair.Adriana's father is intent on seeing her married to a wealthy, prominent member of Venice's patrician class-and a handsome, charming suitor, whom she knows she could love, only complicates matters-but Vivaldi is a priest, making their relationship forbidden in the eyes of the Church and of society. They both know their affair will end upon Adriana's marriage, but she cannot anticipate the events that will force Vivaldi to choose between her and his music. The repercussions of his choice-and of Adriana's own choices-will haunt both of their lives in ways they never imagined.Spanning more than 30 years of Adriana's life, Alyssa Palombo's The Violinist of Venice is a story of passion, music, ambition, and finding the strength to both fall in love and to carry on when it ends.

Reaching Rocky Mountain Jim: A Novel Based on the True Life Stories of James Nugent and Isabella Bird


Kari August - 2014
    Scarred not only physically from a vicious grizzly bear attack, but emotionally from previous war experiences, he now lives alone in his cabin. When strong-willed Englishwoman, Isabella Bird, visits the area, and Jim acts as her guide in a treacherous ascent up Longs Peak Mountain, an unlikely but undeniable attraction develops between them. Complicating Jim’s life further is powerful Lord Dunraven, who schemes to turn the region into his own private game preserve. Jim struggles to keep Estes Park safe from Dunraven’s greed while fighting for a commitment from Isabella. Reaching Rocky Mountain Jim is historical fiction that recounts the compelling relationship between Jim and Isabella, told amidst a stunning, rugged landscape and a frontier just beginning to learn its potential.

The Docklands Girls


June Tate - 2016
    Working as a supervisor on a production line for planes, Hildy believes she is doing her part to help with the war effort. But troubles at home, with her dependent and overly-protective mother, make it harder for her to findhappiness as she hides her relationship with an American GI.Meanwhile, Cora has lost both her parents in the Blitz and is still reeling from the devastating loss. Along with her friend, Belle, the two young women turn to the dark streets of Southampton to work on the game, wishing to raise enough money for a new beginning elsewhere and put their pasts behind them.For all three women, the war provides challenges and hardships that they will only emerge from by maintaining courage, strength and, above all, hope.

Daughters of the Lake


Wendy Webb - 2018
    Tucked in the folds of the woman’s curiously vintage gown is an infant, as cold and at peace as its mother. No one can identify the woman. Except for Kate. She’s seen her before. In her dreams…One hundred years ago, a love story ended in tragedy, its mysteries left unsolved. It’s time for the lake to give up its secrets. As each mystery unravels, it pulls Kate deeper into the eddy of a haunting folktale that has been handed down in whispers over generations. Now, it’s Kate’s turn to listen.As the drowned woman reaches out from the grave, Kate reaches back. They must come together, if only in dreams, to right the sinister wrongs of the past.

The Unexpected Earl


Philippa Jane Keyworth - 2012
    With her heart still hurting and, more importantly, her pride, Julia must chaperone her younger sister, fend off fortune hunters, orchestrate a fake engagement, and halt an elopement--all whilst keeping the man who jilted her at arm's length. But what Julia doesn't know is that this time, the Earl has no intention of disappearing, and this time, he has more than an explanation to offer....

The Archer


Martin Archer - 2014
    This is very good read - the exciting first book in Martin Archer's epic saga of what happens to the survivors of a company of English archers after they fight their way back to cruel and brutal medieval England.