"Take some water," one of them said. Catherine shoved the cup aside, afraid she'd be sick. The floor rocked. The air smelled of the sea. She clambered to her feet, staggering, and fought the panic threatening to overwhelm her. He'd put her aboard a ship. Unlike the other women aboard ship, Catherine de Villeroy had assumed Fate intended her to live an aristocratic life of ease and luxury. Instead she is transported to a fetid jungle to be tied to a secretive stranger who reeks of pigs. Catherine's shipmate Marie Claude has had few expectations in life, and even they have been disappointed. When her only options become prostitution or starvation, Fate decrees she will become the wife of a stranger in a strange land. Even if her new husband is a cruel man, how can life not be better in this rough paradise of alligators and wild orchids? Agnes expected a life spent in her father's bookstore, perhaps married to a gentle, scholarly man. Betrayed and ruined, Agnes retreats into herself and hardly notices when she is transported to Louisiana. Married to a stranger who desires only an amenable bed partner, Agnes strives to stay present in her new life and to explore what more Fate allows a ruined woman.

    This fast moving novel shows the battles, the raids and the strategy which led to the capture of this vital port.

    His three freedmen, Narcissus, Pallas and Callistus, must find a way to manufacture a quick victory for Claudius - but how? Pallas has the answer: retrieve the Eagle of the Seventeenth, lost in Germania nearly 40 years before. Who but Vespasian could lead a dangerous mission into the gloomy forests of Germania? Masters of RomeRome, AD 51: After eight years of resistance Vespasian captures Rome's greatest enemy, the British warrior Caratacus. But even Vespasian's victory cannot remove him from politics. Emperor Claudius is a drunken fool, his wife Agrippina rules in his absence and Narcissus and Pallas, his freedmen, are battling for control of his throne. Separately, they decide to send Vespasian east to Armenia to defend Rome's interests. In Armenia, Vespasian is captured. Immured in the oldest city on earth, how can he escape? And is a Rome ruled by Agrippina any safer than a prison cell? Rome's Lost SonBritannia, 45 AD: Vespasian's brother is captured by druids, who want to offer a potent sacrifice to their gods - not just one Roman Legate, but two. They know that Vespasian will come after his brother and they plan to sacrifice the siblings on Midsummer's Day. Meanwhile in Rome, Claudius' three freedmen remain at the focus of power. As Messalina's time as Empress comes to a bloody end, the three freedmen each back a different mistress. Who will be victorious? And at what price for Vespasian? BOOKS 4-6 IN THE VESPASIAN SERIES

    Gripping, emotional and uplifting, the Trilogy is inspired by Catherine Cookson, her mother and grandmother.The Jarrow Lass: Brought up on her parents' smallholding in Jarrow in the harsh years of the 1870s, selling vegetables to poverty-struck Irish labourers such as the unruly McMullens, Rose dreams of the world beyond the grime of the town, a world she glimpsed at a fairytale wedding on the Ravensworth Estate as a child. Capturing the heart of handsome and respectable steelworker William Fawcett, it seems her wish for a better life is finally within reach. But tragedy strikes, and to save her young family from destitution, Rose must turn to wild John McMullen. The Jarrow Lass is the first novel in the Jarrow Trilogy and is inspired by Catherine Cookson's grandmother.A Child of Jarrow: To escape her possessive and drunken step-father, Kate is sent away from teaming Jarrow to work on the Ravensworth Estate. She is soon attracting the attention of charming, headstrong Alexander and dares to dream of a future with him. But when Kate discovers herself pregnant and alone she must return to face the wrath of her step-father. Yet she refuses to give up hope that one day Alexander might return to claim her and their love child. Poignant and compelling, A Child Of Jarrow is the second in the Jarrow Trilogy.Return to Jarrow: Rebellious Catherine (Kitty) McMullen, resentful of her mother’s new husband and yearning to escape impoverished Jarrow, determines to educate herself. Soon streetwise Kitty is a ghost of the past and the well-spoken, well-read Catherine leaves the north-east to follow her dreams. But this plucky and romantic heroine encounters hardship and heartbreak on the road to self-discovery. Return To Jarrow concludes the bestselling trilogy.

    She’s Black. He’s white. They’re sister and brother… but they’re not. Will they ever be?Eliza Coldbrook, proud and privileged graduate of all-Black Atlanta University, hasn’t seen her white half-brother since the end of Reconstruction. When Matt returns to Atlanta, she refuses a reunion. She now lives in a progressive and prosperous new South. She doesn’t want to be reminded of the past that she and Matt share.Her half-brother Matthew Kaltenbach hasn’t lived in Georgia since he was seven years old. But he has vivid memories of the past, and he has unfinished business with it. He wants to rebuild a relationship with the man who is his father as well as Eliza’s. And he wants to reconcile with the half-sister he loved when they were children, but who has become a stranger since.Amanda Gardiner, born a slave in Georgia, now lives in an Atlanta reborn after the Civil War. But she doesn’t share in the bounty that is the New South. As a washerwoman, she’s underpaid and badly treated by her white employers. Until she decides to say no, and all the washerwomen of Atlanta join her in a strike…When the Black washerwomen of Atlanta go on strike, Eliza and Matt, Black half-sister and white half-brother, are both swept into their cause. Will the strike let them heal the wounds of the past—and forgive each other?

    An inconsequential inconvenience.After eight years of dreaming of an unknown mother rescuing her from the workhouse, Beth is unexpectedly liberated to become an apprentice in Mr Whitaker's tailor's shop. Against all the odds, Mrs Whitaker becomes a maternal figure to the young girl who shows all the signs of a gifted seamstress.But fate's cruel hand had not finished denying Beth the comforts of a family.Lady Caroline comes into Beth's life as a godsend. A wealthy patron in need of beautiful dresses to be made. But there is more to her appearing at the tailor's shop at first apparent. Two lives from different classes become intertwined in the worst of conditions.Is having a family worth such suffering? Should the women deny each other and be relieved of the tortures beset upon them in the name of greed and a family name? Was the madness real? Would the answers be found along the unforgiving corridors of the asylum?

     In the midst of a deteriorating war in 1967 a senior CIA operative seeking to rearm the Mekong Delta’s anti-communist Buddhists in the hopes of transforming a failing military strategy is killed under mysterious circumstances. This changes everything for Navy Commander Michael Teague who was about to work with the Buddhists who’d been disarmed over a decade ago by Saigon. Within hours of the death of the CIA operative, Teague is recruited to lead the clandestine mission, code named The Third Force, knowing the secret operation to rearm the Buddhists is opposed by Saigon and MACV. By taking the assignment he accepts that it could cost him his career and might well trigger a major, bloody war-within-the-war in the jungles of the Mekong Delta. With the support of the powerful young female Buddhist leader, Thi Xam, the operation grows and spreads. It success triggers an explosive conflict between the CIA backed Buddhists and Saigon’s Special Forces who are supported by the American military command led by Colonel Stennride, to put an end to the Buddhist rebellion and continue with a strategy of body count.

    

    Following an emotional and traumatic escape from the advancing German forces they arrive in England. As a result of their experiences, and the manner that they combated the Nazi regime, the three sisters, all civilians, are seconded, along with the survivors of their group, into the intelligence section of General De Gaulle’s newly formed Free French Force. After extensive training in England they return to occupied France living in fear of betrayal and capture.

    She confides in her husband, but Inspector Lazarus is busy chasing a daring jewel thief and has no time to worry about unfounded accusations levelled at Clement Foxcroft, no matter how odious he is. He is forced to reconsider when he discovers that Elspeth has apparently left behind her new born baby son without a second thought. When his superior also orders him to stay away from the family, his suspicions are roused – if there is nothing to hide, why are the two men so determined to keep him at bay? He and Sergeant Stonier are about to defy them both and begin a search for the missing Elspeth when a brutal murder intrudes and Lazarus suddenly finds himself caring for a soon-to-be-orphaned young family. Will he and Stonier ever untangle all the threads and reunite the missing woman with her son? Or is it already too late to save her?

    

    

     Sabine always minded her own business, closing her eyes to the sinister events engulfing Germany. War is always ugly, and it's best to simply stay out of harm’s way. That changes the moment the Gestapo needs information from her. With her husband held captive, his very life depends on her willingness to cooperate in this evil enterprise. Soon, she’s thrust into the midst of the resistance, smuggling people out of Nazi Germany. Her task? Find the leader and hand him over to torture and certain death. If she does as she is asked, she betrays her own people. If she does not, her husband will be executed by Hitler's forces. Can she silence her conscience and save her husband? Read Reluctant Informer now - a WWII tale of love, courage, and impossible choices. Previously published as part of the USA Today Bestselling Anthology, The Darkest Hour – Tales of Resistance, this standalone novella will keep you on the edge of your seat, wondering what Sabine will do next.

    

    From Dakota’s Black Hills to the gold and diamond fields of Southern Africa, Jim O’Rourke and his daughter, Kathleen step from the sailing ship Eudora and take their covered wagon deep inside a vast and ancient wilderness. The land is raw-boned and unforgiving – the men and women who search its heart for wealth, love and adventure, even more so. Smoke from a thousand fires clung to a broken landscape and towering above it, churned from a vast and open wound in the earth’s crust, were those billowing clouds of powdered Kimberlite; as yellow, ochrous fingers they reached upwards for over a thousand feet, deep inside the heart of that darksome Colesberg sky.