Now eighteen, Lorna Cunningham is eagerly awaiting the day when she can leave the Newcastle house in which she's known only heartache. The Arabian ancestry of the father she has never known has meant that she has been nothing more than an unwelcome guest in her grandmother's home, forced to take second place to her spoilt cousin, Rose, who has wanted for neither love nor material comforts.Lorna takes comfort from her growing friendship with bookseller Edwin Randall, who shares her love of reading and inspires her with his passion to improve the terrible conditions of the Newcastle slums. But their relationship is overshadowed by Lorna's infatuation with the handsome and charismatic Maurice Haldane - the man Rose is determined she herself will marry and who has the power to change all their lives for ever...

    She arrives in town to be greeted by her future father-in-law with her betrothed nowhere to be found. When it becomes obvious her reluctant groom-to-be has no intention of showing up at the family ranch where she’s staying, Cora Lee must decide if she’ll follow her head or heart.Jace Coleman has loved trains since the first time he rode on one as a boy. Now, he spends his days as an engineer driving the Holiday Express line on a new engine named Hope. When a mail-order bride turns up at his father’s ranch to wed his brother, Jace has an idea his meddling father has tried his hand at matchmaking. The longer Cora Lee stays at the ranch, the harder Jace works to keep from falling for his brother’s intended bride.Will Jace and Cora Lee discover the gift of hope? Find out in this sweet holiday romance full of memorable characters, warmth, and Christmas cheer.Holiday Hope is the first book in the Holiday Express series, a collection of heartwarming, wholesome, holiday romances brimming with the spirit of the season.

    Misty Bell Stiers set out on a spiritual path to find a faith that worked for her, and accidentally became a witch. She knew the Bible well, and got to know the Torah and Koran. She studied Eastern philosophies, even the stories of the Egyptians and Greeks. Finally, after overcoming an immediate prejudice (“Um, no,” she writes as her initial reaction), she found Wicca.Witch, Please reveals what makes this mysterious religion so desirable for more than a million Americans. In her witty, direct, and heartfelt text, Misty explores spirituality, perseverance, and finding oneself. She shares what she uses her spell book, cauldron, and broomstick for; the significance of Wiccan holidays, many about new beginnings; the surprising history of Wicca; and what kinds of witches there are. She explains how in her busy New York City life, as a mother and a creative director, her faith grounds and sustains her. Her uplifting, you-too-can-find-what-works-for-you voice speaks like a best friend: relatable, honest, and encouraging. This unusual and beautifully written memoir explores life and death and everything in between. It’s candid, but it’s also threaded with magic and has a warming, light-hearted playfulness to it. Bewitching original drawings by Misty are throughout, and Misty even shares ten original recipes for her Wiccan holiday treats (including the likes of her cinnamon rolls and roasted garlic rosemary bread, sprinkled with magic and seasoned with love, laughter, and healing).

    One phone call unravels that tidy world when she is summoned to the bedside of her critically ill mother, whose dying declaration stuns her. She is the adopted daughter of a murdered prostitute with an entire family she’s never met. After her mother’s funeral, Joal decides to stay in Indiana to figure out who she really is and poke around the edges of her birth family. As an investigative reporter, Joal has unraveled hundreds of sordid business deals and personal relationships. Eventually someone reveals the truth, but her mother’s murder isn’t the cliché “prostitute killed by pimp.” The answer may lie with the only witnesses. Her grandmother, the matriarch who tries to keep the family together. Her two brothers, one now a supremely optimistic minister and the other an overly pessimistic doctor. Or the murderer himself, now incarcerated in an Indiana prison.From the homey heartland of Indiana to the humid jungles of Vietnam, Joel follows two stories riddled with criminal acts and hidden agendas. Her work sends her overseas to follow a homebuilder Ponzi scheme while at home she widens the net to include some more colorful members of her family. Unwittingly, they all provide little pieces to a puzzle that begins to come together revealing a conspiracy of silence that has been suppressed for over three decades.Shooting Star is first and foremost the story of a woman trying to reclaim her shattered identity. Only by uncovering the essential truths about the mother she never knew can she put some kind of stability back into her life. Solving a thirty year old murder and finding her place in a family she never knew existed are just added bonuses.

    Will love bring them closer together as they fight to protect what they’ve worked so hard to make? Montana Westward Brides reading order: #0 The Rancher's Fiery Bride #1 The Reckless Doctor's Bride #2 The Rancher's Unexpected Pregnant Bride

    When someone else’s greed costs her everything—including her groom—she does the only thing she can in a new town with no money or friends. She asks a stranger to marry her. Cattleman Cade Parker stops at the bank to withdraw cash for his sister, not find himself a wife. But that’s exactly what happens after a bank robbery leaves a farmer dead and his headstrong bride-to-be making a desperate business proposition. Convinced he’s gone loco, Cade accepts the spirited young woman’s offer, and they stop by the church before heading to the ranch, his horses, and the herd. He’s soon adding to Mae Ann’s fine cooking skills by teaching her to ride, shoot, and do what he tells her. She manages the first two fairly well, but gets her back up at the third. Cade struggles to keep his emotional distance from the stubborn gal whose gentle ways start drawing him in. But when a greedy neighbor challenges Mae Ann’s inheritance of her former intended’s run-down farm, Cade and Mae Ann drive to court at the county seat and into the jaws of a deadly storm. Not only must Cade fight to keep his new bride safe, he’s got to keep his heart from stampeding out of control. Taking on snakes, scoundrels, and second chances is one thing, but falling in love wasn’t part of the deal.

    A doormat from Target. Twenty-three tubs of fabric. Somehow it comforts Lily to list the things she lost when a wildfire engulfed the Santa Barbara avocado ranch she shared with her husband, Tom. He didn't make it out either. His last act was to save her grandmother's lace from the flames--an heirloom she has never been able to take scissors to, that she was saving for someday...As she negotiates her way through her grief, mourning both the tangible and intangible, Lily wonders about her long marriage. Was it worth all the work, the self-denial? Did she stay with Tom just to avoid loneliness? Should she have been more like her mother, Eleanor-- thrice-married and even now, approaching eighty, cavalier about men and, it seems, even about her daughter's emotions?It is up to Lily to understand what she could still gain even when it seems that everything is lost. Someday has arrived...*Publishers Weekly**Book Club Classics

    Devastated that Shanice was kidnapped, will she be able to make it out alive? While Truth is trying to rescue his love, Shanice, trouble halts his search and he is now in for the fight of his life. Will he make it out to save Shanice, or is he facing a life sentence in jail? Only time will tell. Gabe and Gia never saw the enemy lurking until gunfire erupted on their car. Gia gets shot in the process will she be strong enough to pull through, and grow old with Gabe? She has a secret to tell Gabe that would change their life. Will she be able to reveal her secret and make Gabe a very happy man? In the end, everyone will have to make hard decisions that they never saw coming. Shanice and Gia will be forced to admit that they fell for a real one but is that a good or bad thing?

    A man willing to put up with her drunken brother, and run the farm. She couldn't stand the abuse from her brother when he was in one of his drunken rages. She had bruises that marred her skin and also her soul. If she didn't find a husband to take things in hand, she'd have to sign over her farm and let her brother sell it to drink and gamble away. She couldn't let that happen. She'd promised her Pa on his death bed. Colt Elders never thought he'd ever marry, but the letters written to his cousin, who sought a mail order bride, about broke his heart. Carrie's letters screamed for help and touched his heart like no other woman ever had. He knew what it was like to deal with a drunken relative, his Pa, and he knew deep in his heart he had to help this woman. If marrying her was the way to do it, then so be it. He didn't think about love, but hoped they could build a life together.

    With mounting disbelief, Regan Trent realises that the death of her beloved mother has left her totally at her stepfather's mercy. But mercy is a foreign concept to Sherwyn Huntley. To this ruthless man, Regan is simply an obstacle between him and the Trent fortune. Denied a place at her mother's funeral, cruelly separated from her younger brother, promised in marriage to a sadistic pervert, Regan prefers to take her chance in the wide world. But Huntley will stop at nothing to achieve his cruel ambitions . . .

    

    

    Despite her engagement to local boy Arnold, Clara is feeling trapped in her dead-end job and longs to return to the countryside. An unexpected meeting with old flame Charlie Fenner leads to a temporary job at his family's orchard in Kent. Clara is finally content, but the longer she spends with the Fenners, the more she begins to suspect that all is not what it seems. What is the dark secret that hangs over them all? As Clara's feelings for Charlie grow, she realises she has an enemy on the farm who wants her gone at any cost...