Promise of Dreams


Cecelia M. Chittenden - 2017
    Her father has gone to bring home a son missing because of the war. Loyal servants give her support and comfort and are at her side when she learns of her father’s death. She promises to fulfill her father’s dream but someone doesn’t want her to, the one person she should be able to trust. He sets out to defeat her until another man, a Northern stranger, comes to her aid.

Heartland


Jenny Pattrick - 2014
    Heart - warming and compulsive reading, this is an entertaining, lively and moving novel from one of New Zealand's favourite authors.

The Carolina Heirlooms Collection: The Prayer Box / The Story Keeper / The Sea Keeper's Daughters


Lisa Wingate - 2016
    Hidden in the boxes is the story of a lifetime, written on random bits of paper—the hopes and wishes, fears and thoughts of an unassuming but complex woman passing through the seasons of an extraordinary, unsung life filled with journeys of faith, observations on love, and one final lesson that could change everything for Tandi.The Story Keeper (2015 Christy Award winner! 2015 Carol award winner!)When successful New York editor Jen Gibbs discovers a decaying slush-pile manuscript on her desk, she has no idea that the story of Sarra, a young mixed-race woman trapped in Appalachia at the turn of the twentieth century, will both take her on a journey and change her forever. Happy with her life in the city, and at the top of her career with a new job at Vida House Publishing, Jen has left her Appalachian past and twisted family ties far behind. But the search for the rest of the manuscript, and Jen’s suspicions about the identity of its unnamed author, will draw her into a mystery that leads back to the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains . . . and quite possibly through the doors she thought she had closed forever.The Sea Keeper’s Daughters (2016 Christy Award Winner!)From modern-day Roanoke Island to the sweeping backdrop of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains and Roosevelt’s WPA folklore writers, past and present intertwine to create an unexpected destiny.Restaurant owner Whitney Monroe is desperate to save her business from a hostile takeover. The inheritance of a decaying Gilded Age hotel on North Carolina’s Outer Banks may provide just the ray of hope she needs. But things at the Excelsior are more complicated than they seem. Whitney’s estranged stepfather is entrenched on the third floor, and the downstairs tenants are determined to save the historic building. Searching through years of stored family heirlooms may be Whitney’s only hope of quick cash, but will the discovery of an old necklace and a Depression-era love story change everything?

Home Is Where The Heart Is


Freda Lightfoot - 2015
    Finally, peace has been declared. Cathie hardly dares believe that Alex, the fiancé she has not seen for nearly two years, is coming home. And, finally, life can begin again for Cathie and the orphaned baby in her care.But the Alex who returns is not the kind, loving man Cathie remembers. He’s cold, selfish, sometimes even frightening. So Cathie has a choice: stand by him, and try to contain his violent temper? Or hold her tiny baby close…and run from the man she has yearned for. Home is Where the Heart Is is a heart-wrenchingly, poignant new saga from Freda Lightfoot, set in the aftermath of World War II.

Heart of Disaster: A Titanic Novel of love and loss


Rachel Wesson - 2019
    The legend says “Thursday’s child has far to go” but nobody knew just how troublesome this journey would prove. Four single friends, a newly married couple and a stoker who works in the belly of the gigantic ship meet that fateful night. When disaster strikes, not all survive. Even the ones who live, have lost something forever in the freezing Atlantic Ocean.

Looking for Jane


Judith Redline Coopey - 2012
    Well, what if you don’t have no people? Or any you know of? What then? Are you doomed?” This is the nagging question of fifteen-year-old Nell’s life. Born with a cleft palate and left a foundling on the doorstep of a convent, she yearns to know her mother, whose name, she knows, was Jane.When the Mother Superior tries to pawn her off to a mean looking farmer and his beaten down wife, Nell opts for the only alternative she can see: she runs away. A chance encounter with a dime novel exhorting the exploits of Calamity Jane, heroine of the west, gives Nell the purpose of her life: to find Calamity Jane, who Nell is convinced is her mother.Her quest takes her down rivers, up rivers and across the Badlands to Deadwood, South Dakota and introduces her to Soot, a big, lovable black dog, and Jeremy Chatterfield, a handsome young Englishman who isn’t particular about how he makes his way, as long as he doesn't have to work for it. Together they trek across the country meeting characters as wonderful and bizarre as the adventure they seek, learning about themselves and the world along the way.

The Lost Son


Matt Shaw - 2013
    When newly weds Jason and Emily moved into their first home together they thought they had the perfect start to their new life together; a quiet house in the middle of the country away from the hustle and bustle of everyday city life.Unfortunately for them, things take a supernatural turn when they realise the house isn't quite as empty as they first believed it to be...From Matt Shaw - the author behind the novellas "The Cabin", "Smile" and "Buried" - comes his first full length supernatural novel.

The Footman


A. O'Connor - 2015
     What the Footman saw . . . In 1930s Ireland, Joe Grady becomes the footman at the stately home Cliffenden, owned by the glamorous Fullerton family. Joe is enthralled by the intrigue and scandal above stairs, and soon becomes a favourite of the daughter of the house, Cassie. There is mounting pressure on Cassie to marry American banker Wally Stanton. But Cassie is having a secret affair with the unsuitable Bowden Grey. What the Footman did . . . When Cassie and Bowden’s affair is discovered in disgraceful circumstances, the lovers are banned from seeing each other. Joe risks his position at Cliffenden, becoming a messenger between them, until he finds himself making a choice that will change the lives of everyone at Cliffenden forever. Decades later, Joe has achieved great success as a barrister. When suddenly Cassieis arrested for a sensational crime, he sets out to discover what happened to her in the intermittent years. He realises his actions at Cliffenden set off a chain of events that led to murder. But is Cassie guilty? Innocent or guilty, can Joe ever make amends for his part in her downfall?

The Ice Cream Shop Detective: An Art Mystery


Ronnie Levine - 2014
    Twenty miles up the Hudson River from Manhattan and the contemporary art scene Lissa wants to avoid, Tarrytown has a charming Main Street where she can set up her easel and paint, immersed in her subject, the way her beloved French Impressionists did. Charismatic cop Nick Bellini, whose family owns the ice cream shop she's painting, soon notices her expertise and asks her to be on the lookout for phony masterpieces he's heard are being made in town. She hesitates, afraid of being sued by unhappy art collectors, but takes the plunge after seeing a questionable Monet in the home of a local power couple. The danger goes from professional to personal when, responding to a vague request for help from another artist, she walks into his studio and finds him dead. Is there a link to the forgeries? Is someone in the arts community a murderer? Will Lissa be the next target?

Medicine Ground (Louis L'Amour)


Louis L'Amour - 1998
    Complete with original music and sound effects.

A Whisper To The Living


Ruth Hamilton - 1989
    When the doctor finally got through the nine-foot drifts of snow, mother and daughter were in a pretty bad way, but both the new-born Annie and her exhausted mother - a spinner in the cotton mill - were fighters, tough and determined not to let the world knock them down.They needed to be tough, for when Annie's father was killed in the war, Nancy married again. And Eddie Higson - once he'd courted and won Nancy Byrne - turned into a nightmare of a man, terrorizing the young girl with one secret evil after another.She had two friends who helped her through these bad years. Martin Cullen, rough, uneducated, loyal, who knew he wasn't good enough for her, and David Pritchard, the doctor who had supported her through the worst times and who had bad problems of his own.Together they watched her grow into a beautiful young woman, desperately fighting the legacy of her childhood.

Train Through Time Books 1-3


Bess McBride - 2013
     The first three bestselling time travel romances of the Train Through Time Series are now available in a boxed set at a discounted price! Book 1: A Train Through Time Book 2: Together Forever Across Time Book 3: A Smile in Time A TRAIN THROUGH TIME: College teacher Ellie Standish thinks she's on a sleek modern train heading to a conference on women's studies in Seattle, but she awakens from a night's doze to find herself on a bizarre historical train full of late Victorian era reenactors who refuse to come out of character. When the leader of the group—one handsome, green-eyed Robert Chamberlain—finally convinces her the date is indeed 1901, a skeptical Ellie rejects any eccentric theories of time travel and presumes she is smack dab in the middle of a very interesting historical dream. She turns the directorial reins of her dream over to one smitten and willing Robert, only to realize that dreams cannot last forever. Someday, she must wake up to reality, though Ellie no longer has any idea what reality is. She only knows that Robert must play an important part in her future. But how can he...if he's only a figment of her imagination or worse yet...a man who belongs to an era long past? TOGETHER FOREVER ACROSS TIME: Stephen Sadler reluctantly attends the Seattle wedding of Robert Chamberlain to Ellie Standish, the woman who had captured his interest. There he says goodbye to the woman he thought he had fallen for. Only a few weeks later while traveling on a train, Stephen is confronted by the vision of a strange wild-haired woman in a pair of snug-fitting trousers called “jeans” who claims she doesn’t know where she is or how she came to be on his train—until she sees the date on the newspaper, that is. Dani Douglas cannot travel through time! Her mother in Montana is ill, and she has to get back to her. But the crystal clear blue eyes of handsome Stephen Sadler hold her captive in 1901, and she doesn’t know how to leave him...perhaps forever. Stephen realizes that Dani and Ellie have much in common, but where Ellie simply captured his interest, Dani has captured his imagination and his heart. Unlike Ellie though, Dani cannot stay, her mother is ill. Stephen doesn’t know how he can let her leave him...perhaps forever. As the train hurtles back and forth across the rails, Stephen and Dani struggle to find a way to be together forever across time. A SMILE IN TIME: Annie St. John and her sister, Marie, decide that the three-day train ride from Chicago to Seattle to catch their Alaskan cruise was a bit too much, and they swear that next time, they’ll fly. But “a bit too much” doesn’t begin to describe what they find when they wake up from a short doze on their sleek modern train. Over a hundred years before, Rory O’Rourke heads back to Seattle from a photo shoot in Montana on the Oriental Limited. When a young woman in tight clothing called ‘capris’ falls into his arms, Rory finds his hands full with not one, but two young women who claim they must have traveled back in time. Rory scoffs at the idea, but his innate chivalry will not allow him to resist the pleas of the young women for help. Available Now as Single Books: Finding You in Time, Book 4 of the Train Through Time Series A Fall in Time, Book 5 of the Train Through Time Series Coming Soon: A Summer in Time, Book 6 of the Train Through Time Series

Glittering Images / Glamorous Powers


Susan Howatch - 1994
    Now in one volume, the first and second in Susan Howatch's acclaimed series of novels; compelling, searching, wise and witty, they have gained her a huge following.

Skylarks At Sunset


Rita Bradshaw - 2007
    And so when she meets and falls in love with Daniel Fallow, son of a successful businessman, she's quick to accept his proposal of his marriage. His family, though, are against the match, and so the young couple marry in secret. Grudging acceptance follows, and as the Depression worsens Daniel is persuaded to join the family business, unaware of his father's dodgy dealings. Tragedy is just around the corner, and worse is to come when war is declared in 1939: as Daniel leaves to fight and her children are evacuated, Hope wonders if she will ever have all her family around her again...

Past the Headlands


Garry Disher - 2001
    The fall of Malaya and Singapore and the bombing of Darwin—what looked like the invasion of Australia—ebb and crash over a man’s long search to find a home and a woman’s determination to keep hers, connected by old memories and new betrayals. It is a thriller and a romance, a story of earth and water, air and metal—an unforgettable ride through the most precarious time in our region's recent history. Garry Disher writes: ‘Past the Headlands came from the same World War 2 research as The Stencil Man. I was struck by the power of two documents. The first was a letter written by a woman alone on a cattle station near Broome in 1942, at the time the Japanese were overrunning Malaya and Singapore and bombing areas of northern Australia. One day she found herself giving shelter to Dutch colonial officers and their families, who were fleeing Sumatra and Java ahead of the Japanese advance (many people like them lost their lives when Japanese planes shot up their waiting seaplanes in Broome Harbour in March, 1942). This woman stuck in my head (the isolation, the danger, the efforts to communicate, her bravery, etc). The second document was a war diary written by an Australian army surgeon who escaped Singapore ahead of the Japanese and was stuck in Sumatra, trying to get out. Here he treated many of the civilians (and Australian Army deserters) fleeing from Singapore. He was captured by the Japanese, but survived the war. But his last few diary entries detail how he and a mate were waiting for a plane or a ship to take them out, then one day he wrote, “Davis [his mate] left last night without telling me”. So much for mateship. I spent years trying to find my way into their stories. At one stage I spent a year writing 40,000 words before realising it wouldn’t work. I put it aside, then realised one subplot didn’t belong, so extracted it and turned it into a separate novel The Divine Wind, which has sold 100,000 copies around the world, won a major award and been published as both a young adult and a general market novel. But cutting it out like that freed me up to write about the woman and the man betrayed by his mate, in Past the Headlands.’