Book picks similar to
To Catch a Dream by Mary Wood


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HIDDEN


Linda Gillard - 2020
    A death. Hidden for a hundred years. The new novel from the author of Kindle bestseller THE MEMORY TREE “Lady, fiancé killed, will gladly marry officer totally blinded or otherwise incapacitated by the war.” In 1917 a sense of duty and a desire for a child lead celebrated artist Esme Howard to share her life and home – 16th-century Myddleton Mote – with Captain Guy Carlyle, an officer whose face and body have been ravaged by war. But Esme knows nothing of the ugliness that lurks within Guy’s tortured mind, as he re-lives the horrors of the trenches. As a child grows within her, Esme fears Guy’s wrath will be turned on them both. A prisoner in her own home, she paints like one possessed, trusting that one day someone will hear her silent cries for help. A century later, Miranda Norton inherits Myddleton Mote and its art collection from a father she never knew and decides to move on after the end of an unhappy marriage. Inviting her extended family to join her, Miranda sets about restoring the house and turning it into a thriving business. When the moat is drained for repairs, a skeleton emerges. Then someone from Miranda’s past returns to torment her and an appalling act of vandalism reveals the Mote’s dark secrets, hidden for a hundred years. Praise for HIDDEN "An ancient moated house, a shell-shocked war hero, a female artist caught between the desire to honour her husband's sacrifice and her own free spirit - the ingredients for a page-turning read. Linda Gillard always delivers." CLARE FLYNN, author of The Gamekeeper’s Wife and The Pearl of Penang. “A powerful and atmospheric dual-time story. The way the secrets of the past and the central mystery are resolved had me breathless. So original, quite unexpected, the pages turning faster and faster, the ending wholly satisfying… HIDDEN is story-telling at its very best. I loved every moment.” ANNE WILLIAMS, Being Anne book blog ~ Praise for Linda Gillard's other novels "The emotional power in these novels makes this reviewer reflect on how Charlotte and Emily Brontë might have written if they were living and writing now." NORTHWORDS NOW "STAR GAZING was a joy to read from the first page to the last... Romantic and quirky and beautifully written." www.lovereading.co.uk "HOUSE OF SILENCE is one of those books you'll put everything else on hold for." CORNFLOWER BOOKS blog EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY - "A love story filled with passion and paint-stripping honesty." HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS ARTS JOURNAL

Man of the House


Joan Jonker - 1995
    Eileen Gillmoss, a colourful character with a smile forever lighting up her face was the life and soul of the party. Today was the day she'd prayed for and dreamed about. After five long, lonely years, her prisoner-of-war husband Bill would be coming home, back to the open, loving arms of his wife and children. But the man who comes back from the war is a complete stranger to her. It isn't only that Bill's appearance has changed. It's his remoteness, his flinching from her touch that Eileen can't cope with. Now, Eileen, who is always there to lend a shoulder to cry on, is the one in need. But who can she turn to? No one can give her what she craves most... her old husband back. She wants him back where he belongs, as the man of the house.

Spies Of Jerusalem


Colin Smith - 2013
    A land of conflict. And a land of spies.As World War One rages on the killing fields of Flanders, another battle is playing out in the Holy Land.British forces invade a stronghold of the Ottoman Empire, fighting German officers, Arab conscripts and Turkish troops.But as the British armies advance, the Germans suspect they have a traitor within their ranks.An agent - code-named Daniel - is transmitting messages to the British from the heart of the German headquarters.If they can't stop him, the war will be lost.But as the Germans dig deeper, they discover an espionage ring called Nili made up of Zionist Jews supporting the British.They begin close in on the ring.But will they ever unearth the true identity of Daniel?And what is the true purpose of the organisation known as Nili?In this gripping novel, Colin Smith interweaves the stories of British Tommies, German officers and Jewish nationals.In a tale of intrigue and espionage the hunt for Daniel turns into a race against time, as the British prepare to meet the Austrian troops on the brutal battlefield at Huj.'Spies of Jerusalem' brilliantly blends fact with fiction in a novel that will appeal to fans of Alan Furst and and John Le Carre.

The Calgary Chessman


Yvonne Marjot - 2011
    To Cas, torn between Scotland and her New Zealand home, the object seems as odd and out-of-place as herself. Intrigued, she begins to search for its origins, thinking it will bring a brief respite from isolation. Instead, the Calgary chess piece opens the door to friendships and new hope. Her son, meanwhile, brings home his own revelation to shake her world.

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?

Submarine U93


Charles Gilson - 2012
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

The Sphinx Scrolls


Stewart Ferris - 2016
     Mayan legends tell of a location where the secret to surviving the end of the world may be found. One part of that legend is recorded on a stone tablet in the dusty attic of Lord ‘Ratty’ Ballashiels’ crumbling manor. The other twin part disappeared from a Berlin museum when the Nazis took power. When Ratty seems about to sell his tablet to the adopted son of Josef Mengele, his friend, the archaeologist Ruby Towers, is appalled. Soon it is clear that more than archaeology is at stake. The quest to rescue historic Central American artefacts becomes a race to prevent an apocalyptic threat when Ruby discovers that the ancients have set in motion something that will threaten the world today.

The Earl's Marriage of Convenience: A Sweet Regency Romance


Kelly Anne Bruce - 2018
    Her fortune makes her popular among the eligible men in London. The whole courtship process is distasteful at best for her. Knowing she has no choice makes everything worse. Lord Abraham Coyle, Earl of Glasgow and Baron of Ross, grew up next door to the Adair family when the family was in London. After finding out his father had played a nasty trick on him and his brother, he has come up with a plan to keep his title and the family fortune. His father's will stipulated that the son who married first would get the family fortune including the castle in Scotland and the townhouse in London. Bram proposed a marriage of convenience to Catherine and hoped she would accept to preserve inheritances for each of them. What he did not count on was Catherine's memories of how he had teased her mercilessly when they were younger. And more than that, he had spurned her sincere declaration. She had never forgiven him for that. Would their rocky history keep them both from getting what they both deserved? More importantly, would they come to recognize that love could come even after broken dreams and lingering hurt?

The Docklands Girls


June Tate - 2016
    Working as a supervisor on a production line for planes, Hildy believes she is doing her part to help with the war effort. But troubles at home, with her dependent and overly-protective mother, make it harder for her to findhappiness as she hides her relationship with an American GI.Meanwhile, Cora has lost both her parents in the Blitz and is still reeling from the devastating loss. Along with her friend, Belle, the two young women turn to the dark streets of Southampton to work on the game, wishing to raise enough money for a new beginning elsewhere and put their pasts behind them.For all three women, the war provides challenges and hardships that they will only emerge from by maintaining courage, strength and, above all, hope.

White Knight (The Oxford Pact #1)


Kate Harper - 2014
    In truth, he is inclined to believe marriage itself is a dreary hoax dreamed up to nail a young man down in the prime of his life. With his two best friends - St Giles and St Severn - he enters into a pact before leaving the hallowed halls of Oxford behind. Together, they swear to help each other approach the unpalatable business of marriage with cool common sense, for if there is one thing they are all well aware of, it is that losing one's heart is akin to losing one's sanity and is best avoided at all costs.In the interests of serving his country - and annoying his father's peers - Merrick occasionally spies for England. It's an entertaining pastime, until he learns that his latest task is to track down and kill a woman who has ahead full of stolen secrets and the heart of a conniving schemer. Even so, Merrick has no stomach for killing a female but a traitor is... well, a traitor is unacceptable and he knows he must stop her from returning to France at all costs.His resolution is unwavering, right up until he meets the beautiful Elena. Then he finds himself in a quandary, for how can he kill a woman whom he wants to protect from any ill-wind that blows her way? And, more to the point, who is going to protect Elena from his own reckless desire...