Redeemed by a Rebel


Cynthia Woolf - 2014
    Now he's on the run, hunted by one of her murderers and tormented by the need for vengeance. Becky Finnegan will do anything to escape her drunken father's fists, including slave away at their mine. Her only hope is to strike gold and make a new life for herself somewhere far, far away from Deadwood. But then Jake arrives and does the unthinkable...forces her to feel, to hope...and to love. Jake would give his life to protect Becky, but all he can offer her is a broken heart, a criminal's life, and a past haunted by failure. How can he save her when he's already lost himself? Will he destroy everything, or can the beautiful rebel redeem Jake's lost soul?

Chasing China: A Daughter's Quest for Truth


Kay Bratt - 2011
    She is grateful for her life, but now that she is on the precipice of total independence, she feels she is missing something. Determined to learn more of her past, Mia hops a plane to the country of her birth. As she follows the red thread back through her motherland, she is enamored by the history and culture of her heritage, strengthening her resolve to find the truth of her beginnings, even as Chinese officials struggle to keep it buried. With an unwavering spirit of determination, Mia battles the forces stacked against her and uncovers a truth that will change her life.

Sea of Strangers


Amelia C. Adams - 2015
    His love is the only thing that sees her through the trials ahead. When the time comes to make the toughest decision of all, will she choose justice or mercy out of many shades of gray? From Amelia C. Adams, bestselling author of the Kansas Crossroads series, comes this novella about one girl's desire to follow her dreams and the man who encourages her from miles away.

Room 46


Helen McKenna - 2015
    But both Grace and Edith are desperate to escape its confines.Regardless of the word ‘Volunteer’ featured prominently on her official name badge, Grace doesn’t want to be there. The twenty-year-old’s life is enough of a mess without being obliged to front up every week and read to an elderly stranger.And Edith might have the most colourful room in the whole facility but her bright and bold surrounds mask a tragic past with which she is still coming to terms. Her trademark positivity is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain, particularly when she knows she will never truly belong at Rosehill.Everyone has a different story to tell and some of those stories are painful and difficult to communicate. But can the simple act of storytelling begin the process of healing for Grace and for Edith?

Love Thine Enemy


Nora Fountain - 1998
     Paris has always been one of her favourite places, but as she walks down the street on her first day and sees a tall stranger with cornflower blue eyes and hair the colour of wheat, she is hit by what the French call un coup de foudre, and her life is changed forever. Maximilian von Engelberg is a German, but despite being proud of Germany, he is against the Nazis, unlike his brother Herman, who is with the SS. He, too, hopes war can be averted, but knows it is a matter of time. He also knows he should stay away from Helen Latimer, but he can’t help himself. Christian Meursault is the Count of Clemenceau, and owns a chateau in Normandy. He has his friends for a weekend, including Helen and Max, and as they play in the pool and eat fabulous food, no one can imagine war. But soon, Hitler invades Poland, and war is inevitable. As Helen’s brother Charles calls her home, Max’s brother Herman insists he return to the Fatherland as well. But when Helen discovers she is pregnant, Max decides they will marry, and escape to Portugal, a country that is neutral. But fate has other plans for them, and Max ends up in Germany. Soon they are both married to other people, as war rages around them. But despite impossible odds, this is not the end of the story for Max, who ends up based in Normandy, and Helen, who starts to work for the French Resistance when her beloved brother Charles is shot down over the English Channel. With so much death, who knows who will survive, and at what cost? Rich in history and filled with the joy of life, Love Thine Enemy is a satisfying read brimming with romance and love during a very dark time. Praise for Nora Fountain ‘Love conquers all in this moving historical romance’ – Holly Kinsella Nora Fountain is a professional novelist and translator. Her short stories have been published in many magazines in the UK and abroad. She writes both contemporary and historical romance, and loves to paint. Nora has served on the committee of the Romantic Novelists Association and is a member of the Society of Authors and the Chartered Institute of Linguists. She lives in Dorset, where she finds Thomas Hardy country and the people who live there, an inspiration.

If It Ain't Love


Tamara Allen - 2011
    In the darkest days of the Great Depression, New York Times reporter Whit Stoddard has lost the heart to do his job and lives a lonely hand-to-mouth existence with little hope of recovery, until he meets Peter, a man in even greater need of new hope.

Ella Wood


Michelle Isenhoff - 2015
    War. Both equally destructive to Emily's ambitions.Though she left Charleston a spoiled daughter of the South, Emily returns from her stay in the North a changed young woman. Her assumptions about slavery have been shattered, and her secret dream of attending university has blossomed into fierce ambition. As the passions that are sweeping the North and South toward war threaten to envelop the city she loves, Emily must battle her father's traditional expectations in her own bid for independence. Meanwhile, the real fight may lie with her heart, in the form of a patient young man who is gently but steadily pursuing her.Four years ago I published The Candle Star, a stand-alone title among my collection of Civil War middle grade fiction. The book was well received by a general adult readership, and I began receiving emails asking questions like, "Why didn't you follow Emily's storyline?" and "What happens to Emily?" Ella Wood is my response.Parents of middle graders, please note that I have bumped Ella Wood into the young adult genre. Emily is now sixteen, standing at the edge of war and struggling with questions of morality, purpose, and love. Slavery, dealt with so carefully in my series for young readers, is shown in a much harsher light, and some themes are adult in nature. A "clean" read, Ella Wood is nevertheless intended for an audience of some maturity.You need not read The Candle Star to enjoy Ella Wood, though the Kindle edition is free.

The Question of Red


Laksmi Pamuntjak - 2012
    When she meets two suitors who fit perfectly into her namesake’s myth, Amba cannot help but feel that fate is teasing her. Salwa, respectful to a fault, pledges to honor and protect Amba, no matter what. Bhisma, a sophisticated, European-trained doctor, offers her sensual pleasures and a world of ideas. But military coups and religious disputes make 1960s Indonesia a place of uncertainty, and the chaos strengthens Amba’s pursuit of freedom. The more Amba does to claim her own story, the better she understands her inextricable bonds to history, myth, and love. Revised edition: This edition of The Question of Red includes editorial revisions.

Seductive Secrets


Carrie James Haynes - 2012
    Shunned from London society for being the daughter of England’s most notorious spy, Alyce Hythe desires only to clear her father’s name. For years, she has been hidden away from all prying eyes, given a new identity and told to forget who she was. But strange things have been happening causing old rumors to once more be whispered.Long has Lord Julian Casvelyn lived with guilt brought on when his brother was murdered by England’s most infamous traitor. But one eventful night has changed everything Lord Julian believed about his brother’s death. Never did he suspect the woman he has just saved from certain harm is the daughter of that man. Now Julian is caught in midst of a conspiracy and desire for that woman.Thrown together by fate, the two search for answers long denied them and along the way discover a love that can free them both.Previously published as Daughter of Deceit under Carrie James Haynes

Liberty Hill


Sonja Heisinger - 2013
    But in New York City, two young Irish immigrants are fleeing something else. For Evelyn Brennan, an impending marriage she doesn’t want. For Lucius Flynn, the burden of a life in business and trade under his tyrannical father. Brash and adventurous, Lucius decides the only way to be free of his doomed future as a bored tradesman is to risk everything on the burgeoning and dangerous gold fields of California. However, that “everything” that he plans on risking is in fact the dowry of his headstrong bride, Evelyn. The truth that they were once childhood friends is something Evelyn sorely tries to forget as her new husband drags her along the quickest but deadliest path to the California gold rush: the Panama Route. Under the pretense of honeymooning in New Orleans, Lucius and Evelyn board a steamship bound for California, where they bear each other’s company with little grace and frequent bickering. Evelyn’s contempt for Lucius’ adventure is soothed, however, when she meets an Australian named Brock Donnigan. Sharp, handsome, and heartless, Brock sets out to seduce Evelyn just as Lucius finds himself falling in love with her. Through their adventures and misadventures over land and sea, the two men try to win Evelyn’s affections. But as they draw nearer to Panama City, where a mass migration of Argonauts lies in wait for transportation to California, a battle of wits and wills escalates into a war where all fortunes, dreams, and innocence may be lost; where lust demands blood, and love inspires sacrifice.From the black cliffs of Ireland to the streets of New York, from the Spanish fortress of Havana to the beaches of Panama, Liberty Hill is a sweeping historical romance that combines what we love most about the West- guns, saloons, horses, and handsome outlaws- with the tropic heat of Central America.The first young adult fiction in her Western Tide series, Sonja Heisinger molds a fresh and epic literary experience from an old world setting. Liberty Hill awakens the past with the exciting elements of drama, comedy, and action, with the additional zests of forbidden pleasure and unrequited love. This adventure book takes you on a wild journey that anyone looking for an exciting historical fiction will love!

About the Night


Anat Talshir - 2014
    Elias is a Christian Arab living on the eastern side of the newly divided city, and Lila is a Jew living on the western side. A growing conflict between their cultures casts a heavy shadow over the region and their burgeoning relationship. Between them lie not only a wall of stone and barbed wire but also the bitter enmity of two nations at war.Told in the voice of Elias as he looks back upon the long years of his life, About the Night is a timely story of how hope can nourish us, loss can devastate us, and love can carry us beyond the boundaries that hold human beings apart.

The Five Sisters


Leen Elle - 2013
    Having lost both their parents and being left practically destitute, the girls have no money to secure passage on a cruise ship. Fortunately, an old school friend of their father's, Charlie, owns a small ship and offers the sisters free passage on his ship, in exchange for light cooking and housekeeping duties. The girls gloomily embark on the small ship for a 3-month voyage along with Charlie, 16 sailors, and an invalid, changing their lives forever.

Promise Me This


Cathy Gohlke - 2012
    Determined to carry out his promise to care for Owen's relatives in America and his younger sister, Annie, in England, Michael works hard to strengthen the family's New Jersey garden and landscaping business. Annie Allen doesn't care what Michael promised Owen. She only knows that her brother is gone--like their mother and father--and the grief is enough to swallow her whole. As Annie struggles to navigate life without Owen, Michael reaches out to her through letters. In time, as Annie begins to lay aside her anger that Michael lived when Owen did not, a tentative friendship takes root and blossoms into something neither expected. Just as Michael saves enough money to bring Annie to America, WWI erupts in Europe. When Annie's letters mysteriously stop, Michael risks everything to fulfill his promise--and find the woman he's grown to love--before she's lost forever.

Discern


Andrea Pearson - 2014
    In fact, she seems to be the only student at Katon University who fails at magic. That doesn’t stop magic from finding her. It starts with possessed books and cursed spiders before moving quickly to freaky shadows and magical currents. Nicole turns to her best friend for help, along with fellow student Austin Young, who is considered by all a magical rarity. He also happens to be the hottest guy on campus and just might be interested in her. Nicole soon finds herself competing to be included on a university-led expedition to Arches National Park. She is determined to show everyone, but mostly herself, that she does belong. Yet, to qualify for the trip, she must produce at least a speck of Wind magic, and that appears to be impossible. As the competition progresses, Nicole wonders if she’s making the right choice—especially when she learns that the strange fossils they’ll be studying in Arches might not be as dead as everyone thinks. Suggested Reading Order: Discern, Katon University Book One The Focus (A Katon University Novella) The Manor (A Katon University Novella) The Angel (A Katon University Novella)

The House of Closed Doors


Jane Steen - 2012
    Yet Nell is determined to elude the duties and restrictions of matrimony. So when she finds herself pregnant at the age of 17, she refuses to divulge the name of the father and even her childhood friend Martin is kept in the dark.Nell's stepfather Hiram sends Nell to live at the Poor Farm of which he is a governor, to await the day when her baby can be discreetly adopted. Nell is ready to go along with Hiram's plans until an unused padded cell is opened and two small bodies fall out.Nell is the only resident of the Poor Farm who is convinced that the unwed mother and her baby were murdered, and the incident prompts her to rethink her decision to abandon her own child to her fate. But the revelations to which her questions lead make her realize that even if she manages to escape the Poor Farm with her baby, she may have no safe place to run to.