Altsheler, which describe the American civil war (1861-1865) from the beginning to the end. The novels can be also read as independent works:THE GUNS OF BULL RUN (A STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR'S EVE)THE GUNS OF SHILOH (A STORY OF THE GREAT WESTERN CAMPAIGN)THE SCOUTS OF STONEWALL (THE STORY OF THE GREAT VALLEY CAMPAIGN)THE SWORD OF ANTIETAM (A STORY OF THE NATION'S CRISIS)THE STAR OF GETTYSBURG (A STORY OF SOUTHERN HIGH TIDE)THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA (A STORY OF THE WESTERN CRISIS)THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS (A STORY OF LEE'S GREAT STAND)THE TREE OF APPOMATTOX (A STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR'S CLOSE)

    

     Shy country girl, Rosie, only wants one thing ~ which is to be exactly like her well-loved mother. That is until the truth begins to emerge and her dream threatens to become her inescapable destiny. Upon discovering a family secret, Rosie finds herself drawn into a world of deceit and betrayal, and soon faces the decisions of how many morals she is willing to sacrifice, how much cruelty she is willing to tolerate, and how many lies she is willing to tell to prevent her family from being torn apart. Reaching her lowest ebb, whilst training at the local hospital, the confident and brash Teddy Miller falls off the back of a motorbike and into her life. Teddy proves to be the only person who is willing to stand up for Rosie, but being a slave to his emotions it seems he loves her too much to be the saviour she so desperately craves. Rosie's struggles continue as she lives a paradoxical double-life. Domestically she’s a timid mouse under the constant shadow of her tormentors. Yet, in her work life, she excels in whatever she sets her mind to, from a hardworking trainee nurse to a machine operative in a male-only working environment, where she not only defies the gender conventions of the times but turns them on their head. However, as her domestic struggles weigh heavy upon her, they begin to seep into her professional life and threaten to undo everything she was worked so hard to achieve. As she loses her delicate grip on her true identity, she begins to slide down the slope of despair. And so begins a seemingly endless journey to set herself free

    He only stops travelling when he reaches Kent and there his life is dramatically altered, when he is adopted by a loving old lady and her roguish son Tom.

    

     The Heir The Arceneaux family has a long history of falling victim to circumstance--madness, embezzlement, even murder--but when the last of the unmarried females inherits the family plantation, she is determined their unfortunate legacy will end with her. After her father is imprisoned in New York, she embarks on a new life in New Orleans with what is left of all the hope she can muster. What she finds is an abandoned house, a fractured family, and an oppressed people. Determined to find her own way, she confronts the challenges head on, and soon realizes change is not something needed only for her, but for many. People of Color In the decades before the Civil War, Louisiana was the most advanced state on the topic of freedom. People of color were successful in business and owned property--some of which they acquired through the gifts or wills of white fathers whose black and mulatto wives and mistresses exacted better lives for their children. A Step Backward The Civil War brought change--any black lineage became cause for discrimination, even in Louisiana--and many blacks and mixed-race persons were relegated to occupations not unlike those of their ancestors. Women, though white, were expected to be hostesses and leave business to men--especially the business of voting. A Family Reunited Willows Plantation, still worked by the descendants of the slaves who built it, becomes the anchor to affect change and in a historical fiction story spanning five generations, author Cyndie Shaffstall, takes you on a journey through abolition and suffrage efforts of the 1700s and 1800s. A Voodoo priestess, a French artist, the first woman presidential candidate, and the world’s fair shed light on issues and provide opportunities to reunite and strengthen an entire family.Each book of The Delegate series reads as though you've come across someone's journal. While you read, the saga envelopes you, and it becomes your journal, and your story, as you are transported through time.

    Born in a home for fallen women, at the age of eight the barefooted and waiflike Harry is sent out to work. After years of unpaid toil and hunger, he runs away and is cajoled into believing that the Army is his only option. He joins a battalion that is sent to Africa’s Slave Coast where disease is the biggest killer of men. When the much-thinned battalion returns to England and is disbanded, he drifts into smuggling in order to survive. All goes well until he is betrayed and forced back on the run. Leaving the West Country behind, he enlists in a Sussex regiment which is sent to quell rioting in the north where he faces danger from the angry Mob, and from the rage of a sadistic young ensign who is out for Harry’s blood. Published by The Electronic Book Company www.theelectronicbookcompany.com

    Enticed by promises of work with good pay, people flock to textile mills in the South. Many leave their beloved mountains for what they hope is a step up from their grinding poverty. It’s guaranteed pay and housing. Being the sighted sister of the Hooper/Watson family, Lottie is grieved by a dream that sorrow will come to her home. Yet, she leaves Cocke County, Tennessee, with Beck Radford, her new husband, and her four children from a previous, abusive marriage, and goes to Clifton, South Carolina. Lottie is a stranger to village life and close neighbors. Life is harder than any of them imagined. In spite of hard work, widespread poverty remains a fact of life for everyone in the mill town. Lottie’s “gift” of second sight into the future is not an ability she would’ve chosen. One event she didn't see coming, yet someone else did, rips apart their life, as well as everyone’s around them.

    Uncle Walter seems emotionless, exhibiting little feeling towards the young lad. If it wasn't for some of the staff at Huntington Hall, Archie's life would be a complete misery. There's a dark secret that Cook hints at as to why Archie's mother left her lavish lifestyle behind and ended up settling in the East End of London, scraping a living selling cakes and confectionery from the back of a barrow in the marketplace. Archie's never known his father and wonders who he is. Just as he's settling in at the house, someone comes along and seizes the opportunity to kidnap Archie, forcing him to work as a chimney sweep, navigating searing hot chimney breasts in an inferno of hell. As if life couldn't get much harder for boy, he cries himself to sleep at night praying for the angels to take him so he can finally see his mother once again in heaven... Will Archie finally find the love he's looking for? A heartwarming saga, perfect for fans of Dilly Court and Maggie Hope.

    

    It is the story of Skeeter, a young boy growing up in a family poor in material goods but rich in the appreciation of their natural surroundings. The river they live on is the source of life—and death.

     In Sarah's Valley, Patrick Smithson meets Frank Lawdry. Frank, who prefers his Abenaki name, Winnipesaukee, spends the night recalling his life story. He and his sister, Sarah, were left orphans when everyone on a wagon train died in a horrific tragedy. It was their story of survival. Return to Sarah's Valley continues where Sarah's Valley leaves off. Now an old man in his nineties, Patrick meets Michael Lawdry, one of Winnipesaukee's descendants, and tells him how two Lawdry men influenced his life. This is a story of life during the Great Depression, struggles and heartache, but also the deep love that a man has for one woman.

    First it took his mother, then his father, and now it threatens to end his own life as well. Merciless killer Kip Lane found Brett and his sweetheart, Allie, while they were out for an afternoon ride. Now Allie is missing and Brett lies at the bottom of a deep hole carrying three bullet holes. He’s got to escape and then rescue Allie from Kip’s clutches, but first he’s got to survive the cold lonesome night. Kip Lane isn’t Brett’s only concern though. There’s another man lurking behind the dashing outlaw. A dangerous man with money, powerful friends, and more than one gunfighter on his payroll. He aims to be the territory’s biggest rancher and Brett’s ranch is the key. Brett has a few allies he can count on. Gideon Sweeney and his daughter Lisa at the local Mormon settlement along with Red Elk, an old Crow medicine man, and Mourning Song, a beautiful Cheyenne woman with her own tragic history. Will it be enough to take back Brett’s heritage or will young Rawlins find his end beneath the guns of his enemies? Either way there will be Blood on the Bighorns.

    The action of this exciting historical mystery romance takes place in the lively and pulsating world of Restoration London, with its bear-baiting and dog-fighting pits, with its taverns and bawdy houses, its libertines and Puritans, its fops and its society beauties. In the cold winter of 1664, the Thames has frozen over, and a great comet has appeared in the skies above the city of London. The comet seems a portent of disaster because England is in a deeply troubled and divided state. The King, Charles II, had been welcomed back as a saviour four years before, but is now resented by increasing numbers of his own people. And war too is looming with the Dutch, England’s great seagoing trade rivals… Molly Titchen is a precocious 16-year-old orange seller at the new King’s Theatre in Drury Lane who dreams of becoming an actress, and strutting the stage in breeches parts. Yet being an actress in the King’s company seems to be a dangerous choice of profession at present as a succession of young actresses die in mysterious circumstances. The leader of the company, Sir Thomas Killigrew, asks a wealthy young physician and merchant, Henry Raven, to investigate the deaths of the actresses. Raven and his lawyer friends Anthony Mawdsley and Adam Strange are regular theatregoers and the three soon become drawn into the mysterious affairs at the King’s theatre. Yet Mawdsley is also chief secretary to the Lord Chancellor, the 1st Earl of Clarendon, and the King’s chief minister, and therefore has his hands full with affairs of state. When a mysterious masked man threatens the life of the King, Mawdsley is forced to turn to his friend Henry Raven for help. Raven in turn needs the help of the aspiring actress Molly, which brings them together in their search for a wicked murderer and a scarred madman with an evil plan for London on his mind...