No good comes from this book. The story has magic, mayhem, theft, murder, sass talk, demons, animals committing felonies, gleeful revenge, and bad things happening to good people for no particular reason. It won’t encourage good habits and probably fine tune bad ones. The only lesson learned is don’t lie unless you know the rules. Teenager Peter Whistler lives at the Little Angels Home for Orphan Boys. Life in New Jersey is harsh in the Great Depression, but Peter has an exceptional ability to lie. He hones his talent, convinced it’s the ticket to easy fortune. He certainly doesn’t foresee the arrival of a murderous conjurer with mysterious designs on a little blind girl named Esther. Drawn into a nefarious plot to unleash a demon, Peter leads Esther and an enchanted terrier on a desperate escape to New Orleans and meets Amelie Marchand. Like all well-bred southern girls she’s trained in deadly martial arts, but with a murderous stepmother, Amelie has troubles of her own. Peter and Amelie’s one chance for survival is to head deep into the bayou and seek help from a mad shaman known as the Frog King. Welcome to an alternate 1930s where both jazz and magic fill New Orleans’ air. Can a little luck, mystical lies, and a dash of Cajun crazy help Peter harness the power to kill an immortal demon? If not, the Depression will be a picnic by comparison when hell arrives on Earth.

    This is an exciting new coming of age story with detailed world building and gritty action and fight scenes. The backstory has Norse or Scandinavian cultural and spiritual influences and overtones. His past was lost, only faded dreams and echoes of happier times remained. Sometimes he had a flash, a quick fleeting glimpse of a better place with friends, warmth and cheer below a silver sun in a twilight land. Those were rare though. Now, there is only the harsh brutal present, sweat stinging the eye and blood flowing from cracked bruised knuckles, a sword in his filthy callused hand and the hoarse shouts of the Sword Masters ringing in his ears. Exhaustion paints his partner's face like cheap mask. No doubt his own face looks just as bad. It is a never ending struggle, up before the sun, running, jumping, lifting and fighting, each day full of pain and injury. Training, always training, His country, Vesfalruk, needs warriors to defend their land and homes. And, this place makes the best warriors. There are none better with sword or ax in all the world. But there is a power and a sense of belonging in this place, this ancient Guild Hall and fortress lying in the shadow of the Eastern White Mountains. Being here comforts him in ways he does not understand and the cold winter winds are somehow less chill. His sword calls and he takes it up and trots out into the yard. Vesfalruk is a besieged place, an isolated mountainous land that has struggled against numerous foes and invaders, the Erhand. It is a land with a violent and bloody history and a kingdom without a king. There has been no king for over two-hundred years and relative peace, if it can be called that, has been the norm for most of that time. So trade flourishes, peace reigns and ancient traditions are openly questioned and sometimes mocked. Vesfalruk warriors are still renowned throughout Ellorhim and the Guild Halls continue to train them, against a rising popular opinion. Old enemies are stirring again, their armies gather, swelling and massing for another round of invasion and conquest. And, that is fine with him and it if the same for those he has grown up with in this Guild Hall. Let them come again. We will be ready. He vows this, to himself and to others.

    A woman returns to her West Virginia roots to resolve the ghosts of her childhood. In the tradition of Rebecca Wells, Sue Monk Kidd, Olive Ann Burns, and Dorothy Allison. TENDER GRACES by Kathryn Magendie is strong literary women s fiction written with exquisite style. The death of her troubled mother and memories of her abused grandmother lure a young woman back to the Appalachian hollow where she was born. Virginia Kate, the daughter of a beautiful mountain wild-child and a slick, Shakespeare-quoting salesman, relives her turbulent childhood and the pain of her mother s betrayals. Haunted by ghosts and buried family secrets, Virginia Kate struggles to reconcile three generations of her family s lost innocence.

    In the old world, home was only a quick hour and a half drive away. But now that cars and fuel are a thing of the past, nothing is quick, and it's certainly not easy.It's not even safe.Can Tamra and her children survive this dangerous journey? Was her hometown affected by these devastating attacks against the US? Are her parents even alive?Unending Havoc, Book 1 of Montana Mayhem, is the highly anticipated follow-up story to the bestselling Havoc in Wyoming Christian Futuristic series, which follows societal collapse from a small-town perspective. Featuring engaging scenarios, riveting action, and flawed yet strong and complex women, the Montana Mayhem series is perfect for fans of Mark Goodwin, Jamie Lee Grey, and Kyla Stone.Download today and discover why readers love this twist on the Post-Apocalyptic genre!The Montana Mayhem series can be described as “Cozy” Apocalypse and contains no profanity, gratuitous sex scenes, or overly detailed gruesome death scenes.

    When her best friend, Gemma, loses her parents in a tragic fire, Jessilyn's father vows to care for her as one of his own, despite the fact that Gemma is black and prejudice is prevalent in their southern Virginia town. Violence springs up as a ragtag band of Ku Klux Klan members unite and decide to take matters into their own hands. As tensions mount in the small community, loyalties are tested and Jessilyn is forced to say good-bye to the carefree days of her youth. Fireflies in December is the 2007 winner of the Christian Writers Guild's Operation First Novel contest.

    Once in America she awakens to the stark difference between her dreams and the disillusioning reality of an immigrant’s life. It is her new friends, flamboyant cousin and her new found love that make life in the big city an unforgettable adventure. In America she encounters her wildly flamboyant cousin Isabelle who just happens to be the “IT” actress of the moment and the girlfriend of a notorious dangerous gangster. Isabelle introduces her to the enticing, glamorous but ultimately empty and deceptive world of fame and fortune. Annie falls deeply in love with Jack an extremely successful stockbroker haunted by the ghost of his past which threatens their future. In the end it is the knot that ties family and friends together that helps her through great adversity and devastating loss.

    But when you don't even know your real name, the truth gets a little complicated. It can nestle so close to home it's hard to see. It can even flourish inside a lie. And as Chase Walker discovered, learning the truth about who you are can be as elusive—and as magical—as chasing fireflies on a summer night.A haunting story about fishing, baseball, home cooking, and other matters of life and death.

    He discovers a quiet village deep in the countryside and settles there. He makes new friends and finds a new love, but there are undercurrents; events that threaten his newfound peace. Then a murder occurs and he finds himself drawn into the investigation, unsure of who among his new friends he can trust. How will he overcome this without losing all he has gained?

    Which would you choose? After being exonerated for a crime he didn’t commit, Adam Wells leaves prison as the only living person who knows the location of a hidden cash fortune. Desperate to help a young friend who will soon die without an expensive and risky operation, Adam must weigh up the risk as he learns the money belongs to a drug syndicate who will stop at nothing to get their money back.

    Ruth Wyatt grew up in an orphanage after she lost her parents in a stage coach robbery. The family had thought she had also died in that robbery until 16 years later, someone told her cousin that they had seen a girl who could be his sister. From there, the family tracked her down and sent her a train ticket to come home. But it wasn't as easy as that.

     From NY Times Bestselling author, Win Blevins, the story of legendary mountain man, Sam Morgan, comes to a roaring climax, filled with narrow escapes, a search for peace, and a home for his mixed-race family. “Blevins has painted an epic saga of life in the early West on a huge canvas of vivid colors. –Tony Hillerman.” “Through clever storytelling, and the seamless insertion of important background information, Blevins has made sure that readers unfamiliar with the series can follow each book on its own.” – Booklist ….... HEAVEN IS A LONG WAY OFF Sam Morgan faces the most daunting task of his adventuresome life. It is 1827 and he, with the trapping brigade commanded by Jedediah Smith, has been expelled from Mexican California. Sam must make a trek to the Wind Rivers for the sake of his Crow wife and their infant daughter, Eperanza.Nursing a broken heart, and in need of income, Sam rides to Santa Fe—and there he meets a beautiful widow. Soon after leaving, the herd of horses belonging to Sam and his companions are sold for a healthy profit. He returns to California to reunite with his daughter only to learn she has been taken captive in an Indian raid.Sam's desperate mission to rescue his daughter, their escape in a frail craft down a rampaging river, and their long trek home, is a harrowing tale told by a master of the historical novel. "Win Blevins's novel about venturesome Sam Morgan, and the fur trade and mountain men, is both authentic and entertaining!" —Dallas Morning News. A LONG AND WINDING ROAD A decade has passed since Sam Morgan took up the rough-and-tumble life of a mountain man in the Far West. In those ten years, Sam has made his mark as a trapper, fighter, and survivor.Sam has also endured tragedy.Distraught, Sam finds a mission for himself when he determines to find and rescue two Mexican girls, Lupe and Rosalita. They have been kidnapped from their village by Navajo raiders and spirited off into the New Mexico wilderness.The search for the captive girls takes him deep into Navajo, Ute, and Blackfeet Indian territory, to Bent's Fort in Colorado, near death at the hands of a companion, and finally to a surprise at the end of the trail, involving the missing girls and a trapper called Pegleg Smith. “The glory years of frontier life, fresh and rich.” — Kirkus Reviews DREAMS BENEATH YOUR FEET Eighteen years have passed since Sam Morgan came West from Pennsylvania and learned the perilous business of trapping in the Rocky Mountain wilderness.Now, in 1840, the world has changed. The fur trade has played out, and he must find other means to make a living.Sam decides to return to California with his daughter Esperanza and start a new life. The great golden land holds a harsh memory, but friends convince him that his destiny, and that of his mixed-race family, lies on the Pacific shore.Meadowlark's uncle, Flat Dog, his family, and Hannibal MacKye, the half-Delaware Indian mountain man, join Sam and Esperanza for the journey west, where they hope to trade for a herd of Appaloosa horses to sell at a profit in California.

    Caleb Bender and his neighbors are arrested for neglect, with the state ordering the children be placed in an institution. Among them are Caleb's teenage daughter, Rachel, and the boy she has her eye on, Jake Weaver. Romance blooms between the two when Rachel helps Jake escape the children's home.Searching for a place to relocate his family where no such laws apply, Caleb learns there's inexpensive land for sale in Mexico, a place called Paradise Valley. Despite rumors of instability in the wake of the Mexican revolution, the Amish community decides this is their answer. Since it was Caleb's idea, he and his family will be the pioneers. They will send for the others once he's established a foothold and assessed the situation. Caleb's daughters are thrown into turmoil. Rachel doesn't want to leave Jake. Her sister, Emma, who has been courting Levi Mullet, fears her dreams of marriage will be dashed. Miriam has never had a beau and is acutely aware there will be no prospects in Mexico. Once there, they meet Domingo, a young man and guide who takes a liking to Miriam, something her father would never approve. While Paradise Valley is everything they'd hoped it would be, it isn't long before the bandits start giving them trouble, threatening to upset the fledgling Amish settlement, even putting their lives in danger. Thankfully no one has been harmed so far, anyway.

    What she doesn’t expect is to fall in love with the U.S. Marshal whose life she saves on her way to town. Federal Marshal Grayson Dutton spent his career protecting pioneers, chasing down bandits, settling disputes before they erupted into gunfire, and returning fire when needed. None of it prepared him for dealing with a feisty lady doc who can’t see when she’s in over her head. When Grayson hears the gang of outlaws that attacked the stagecoach that brought Lisette to Willow Wood have targeted the lady doc, he’ll stop at nothing to protect her. Lisette doesn’t want to give the lawman the reins to her life. She came west to serve the people of Willow Wood, not hide under her bed in fear at the first sign of danger. She certainly didn’t plan to fall for a long-legged lawman whose kisses make her dream of marriage, babies, and happily-ever-after, all the things that conflict with her call to medicine. Can she find a place in her life and her heart for love? Can Grayson tame the wild filly before she gets both of them killed?

    Vince Glasser, an overworked federal agent and single father with a troubled past, already has enough on his plate when he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. He deals with it the only way he knows how--by fighting the illness with everything he has in him. Along his path toward a certain end, he mends relations with his estranged brother, reexamines his faith, prepares his son to live life without his parents, and finds room for romance with his longtime partner, Angela Hawkins.Angela finds herself falling in love not only with Vince, but also with his young son, Charlie. In caring for both of them, she sees that despite decades-old mistakes that have left her in a pattern of empty relationships, she can still find redemption and have the family she's always wanted. But a nagging feeling tells her that death isn't the only thing that threatens to tear her new family from her grasp.Amidst the struggles of a family with an expiration date, between the medicine and the meltdowns, Angela and Vince learn the true meaning of grace. See what other readers are talking about as two lost people find each other and God - just in time.

    Trouble is, no one gets my jokes. And Breaks-it isn’t helping. Ha! You get it, don’t you? Brexit means everyone’s falling out and breaking up.Huxley is growing up in the suburbs of London at a time of community tensions. To make matters worse, a gang of youths is targeting isolated residents. When Leonard, an elderly newcomer chats with Huxley, his parents are suspicious. But Huxley is lonely and thinks Leonard is too. Can they become friends?Funny and compassionate, this contemporary novel for adults explores issues of belonging, friendship and what it means to trust.“Read this and feel young again” – Joe Siple, author of THE FIVE WISHES OF MR. MURRAY McBRIDE 'Moving and ultimately upbeat” – Christopher Wakling, author of WHAT I DID“A joy of a novel, with a wonderfully exuberant character in Huxley” – Sara Gethin, author of NOT THOMAS