Book picks similar to
A Quiet Strength by Embassie Susberry
historical-fiction
christian-fiction
slavery
tbr-romhr
The Sweetness of Water
Nathan Harris - 2021
In the waning days of the Civil War, brothers Prentiss and Landry—freed by the Emancipation Proclamation—seek refuge on the homestead of George Walker and his wife, Isabelle. The Walkers, wracked by the loss of their only son to the war, hire the brothers to work their farm, hoping through an unexpected friendship to stanch their grief. Prentiss and Landry, meanwhile, plan to save money for the journey north and a chance to reunite with their mother, who was sold away when they were boys. Parallel to their story runs a forbidden romance between two Confederate soldiers. The young men, recently returned from the war to the town of Old Ox, hold their trysts in the woods. But when their secret is discovered, the resulting chaos, including a murder, unleashes convulsive repercussions on the entire community. In the aftermath of so much turmoil, it is Isabelle who emerges as an unlikely leader, proffering a healing vision for the land and for the newly free citizens of Old Ox. With candor and sympathy, debut novelist Nathan Harris creates an unforgettable cast of characters, depicting Georgia in the violent crucible of Reconstruction. Equal parts beauty and terror, as gripping as it is moving, The Sweetness of Water is an epic whose grandeur locates humanity and love amid the most harrowing circumstances.
The Producer's Unlikely Bride
Lorana Hoopes - 2019
She's a romance writer. When they are thrown together at a cottage on the beach, will love bloom or sparks fly? Justin Miller is one of the producers and host of the reality dating show Who Wants To Marry a Cowboy, but he's tired of helping others find love. He's tired of love in general. Why can't it just be a little business arrangement, like everything else in his life? His business partner sends him on a little vacation to clear his head, and cheer him up. It was just supposed to be a week at a cottage on the beach. Until he meets Ava.Romance writer Ava McDermott believes in love even though she has yet to find the one for her. However, after struggling with her current book, she decides to take a few days off and recharge at a cottage by the sea. She expected some time alone, but when a strange man shows up, she finds herself in a romance of her own.Justin and Ava must decide if it's time to create their own fairy tale ending, even if it's not real. A fictional relationship for two people who are ready to escape reality sounds like the perfect plan, until it isn't. Real feelings can get hurt, even when you're fake dating someone. Image isn't everything, and Ava and Justin have to choose. Is love real, or make believe?
A new inspirational Christian romance by Amazon best selling author Lorana Hoopes, this story focuses on second chances and trusting God to bring the right people into your life at the right time. Though titled the sixth book in the series, this is Lorana's third book in the Blushing Brides series and follows The Cowboy's Reality Bride and The Reality Bride's Baby. Book includes a free bonus short story. Details inside. Book also includes discussion questions for book groups. Follow the journey by clicking the button above.
Somewhat Saved
Pat G'Orge-Walker - 2008
Pat G'Orge-Walker yet again sends up church life, with a cast of parishioners who battle their worst vices, the funny and serious sides of aging, and each other! She is also the author of 'Mother Eternal Ann Everlastin's Dead' and 'Cruisin' on Desperation'.
The Five Shilling Children
Lindsey Hutchinson - 2019
Adam and Polly Fitch face a bleak future after being sold for just five shillings to Miss Reed's orphanage by their bullying father. Missing their mother Minnie, and their three brothers still at home, they know they must stick together to survive. But the orphanage does have one advantage – a merry band of children who soon form their own kind of family – and they're all determined to escape the clutches of the wicked Miss Reed. Adam decides to survive he'll need to fight, so he sneaks out to have boxing lessons with the famous pugilist Billy Marshall. Lessons he needs sooner than he expects when his beloved sister Polly is sold to the rich Bellamy family, and Adam decides to go to her rescue.
Can Adam, Polly and their band of friends survive life with only each other to rely on, and will they ever have the happily ever after they so long for...
Oaklayne, A Civil War Saga
Maurine R. McCullah - 2010
Conflict threatens to dissolve the country in bitter strife if North and South cannot peacefully settle their differences. The calm serenity of life at Oaklayne Plantation near Richmond, VA is suddenly replaced with passionate friction between family members, as each person struggles through perilous situations encountered by each of them during a very difficult time in our nation’s history. Colonel Adam Layne is devastated but remains strong in his loyalty to the Union, despite being banished from the plantation by his father and deserted by his fiancée. The balance of his family stands strong with their father's Southern allegiance. "Oaklayne, a Civil War Saga" is a historically accurate portrayal of a man struggling to serve both his family and his nation in a time when those things are in conflict. The sequel to this book entitled "Oaklayne, The Reconstruction", is now available for purchase in print or e-book version!
Twelve Years a Slave
Solomon Northup - 1853
It is a slave narrative of a black man who was born free in New York state but kidnapped in Washington, D.C., sold into slavery, and kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana. He provided details of slave markets in Washington, D.C. and New Orleans, as well as describing at length cotton and sugar cultivation on major plantations in Louisiana.
My Heart Belongs in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Clarissa's Conflict
Murray Pura - 2018
Journey into Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, of 1863 where Clarissa Avery Ross lives a full life. By day she is the daughter of a respectable shoemaker being courted by seminary student Kyle Forrester. But by night she is a conductor on the Underground Railroad, working with a mysterious man called Liberty. She would like to share her work with Kyle, but he refuses to enlist when the war breaks out. How can she remain true to a man being labeled a coward? When the war comes to her back door in an epic battle, the greatest challenges to her faith and love are yet to come.
Till The End Of Time
Belle Calhoune - 2015
Once as thick as thieves, the friendships among the girls have been splintered by life events, secrets and deceptions. Now, brought together again by an inheritance of an historic Bed & Breakfast on Tybee Island, the women must set aside their differences in order to restore their beloved Savannah House. As each woman finds her special talent and develops it through the renovation of the inn, they also find romance—each of them with an unforgettable hero. The princess: Callie Duvall was raised in the lap of luxury in Savannah, Georgia after being adopted by the Duvall family at the age of five. When she discovers that her biological brother, Mac Donahue, is alive and well, despite having been told as a child that he was deceased, Callie realizes her life as a Duvall has been built on a foundation of lies. Seeking to distance herself from her father and his deception, Callie moves to the guesthouse of Savannah House, the famous resort where she worked summers as a teenager. On the brink of a whole new life, Callie begins spending time with her childhood friend, Jax Holden. Jax is funny, tender and sweet. But Callie isn’t sure she can deal with her growing feelings for him. Life has taught her that love is a dangerous emotion and she can’t help but fear that falling for Jax will make her world unravel. Businessman Jax Holden has been in love with his childhood friend, Callie Duvall, for as long as he can remember. For many years, Callie has viewed Jax as nothing more than a thorn in her side. Now, he’s determined to win the love of the one woman who owns him heart and soul. As the two begin a relationship, Jax begins to feel Callie thaw toward him. But when Jax’s employment with Duvall Investments, the company Callie’s father owns, places him at odds with Callie, he’ll have to fight to win Callie’s love. Can Jax convince Callie to give their love the chance it deserves?
Ain't Nothing Like A Brooklyn Bitch
Kellz Kimberly - 2015
At Seventeen years of age and fresh out of high school, Royal has had to work at a local strip club to make sure that she and her sister have whatever they need in order to maintain. Royal is all about making money and looking for a way out. There isn’t anyone that she has her eyes set on until she ends up meeting Pharaoh while returning home one night. At first, she downplays their blossoming relationship letting it be known that they’re just friends. Pharaoh plays along and figures that she’s just not your average chick, but he quickly switches things up on her and starts dating a girl name Bia. Just like Pharaoh knew she would, Royal shuts that relationship down and claims Pharaoh as her own. With a Love so unique and seemingly everlasting, one would think that things would be smooth sailing for the two of them. However, with a scorned ex-lover and a jealous best friend, the outcome will not turn out pretty. Join Royal as she carries the weight of the world on her shoulders and does what only a Brooklyn Bitch can do to make it out alive.
Grace Like a River Flows
R. Marshall Wright - 2019
Glencoe, by another name, is real and I pastored there for five years. Many characters are based on real people I knew. But the great story? It's all made up. Well, almost. ”The tracks have separated this town for a hundred years, but one day God's grace began flowing like River. And, like a mighty, raging river, you can't control it and you can't stop it. God's grace goes where He wants. Grace Like a River Flows is about very flawed people who live on both sides of the tracks which run through Glencoe. Lives are changed. Families are transformed. And an old mainline church is renewed. Come meet the cast of characters who will be touched by God. Charlotte (featured on the cover) has seen the tracks. Will God’s grace touch her life? Look for the surprise ending! You’ll never see it coming.
Indigo
Beverly Jenkins - 1996
When one of her fellow conductors brings her an injured man to hide, Hester doesn't hesitate even after she is told about the price on his head. The man in question is the great conductor known as the "Black Daniel" a vital member of the north's Underground railroad network, but Hester finds him so rude and arrogant, she begins to question her vow to hide him.When the injured and beaten Galen Vachon, aka, the Black Daniel awakens in Hester's cellar, he is unprepared for the feisty young conductor providing his care. As a member of one of the wealthiest free Black families in New Orleans, Galen has turned his back on the lavish living he is accustomed to in order to provide freedom to those enslaved in the south. However, as he heals he cannot turn his back on Hester Wyatt. Her innocence fills him like a breath of fresh air and he is determined to make her his, but traitors have to be found, slave catchers have to be routed and Hester's refusal to trust her own heart have to be overcome before she and Galen can find the freedom only love can bring.(back cover)
Freeman
Leonard Pitts Jr. - 2012
Upon learning of Lee's surrender, Sam--a runaway slave who once worked for the Union Army--decides to leave his safe haven in Philadelphia and set out on foot to return to the war-torn South. What compels him on this almost-suicidal course is the desire to find his wife, the mother of his only child, whom he and their son left behind 15 years earlier on the Mississippi farm to which they all "belonged."At the same time, Sam's wife, Tilda, is being forced to walk at gunpoint with her owner and two of his other slaves from the charred remains of his Mississippi farm into Arkansas, in search of an undefined place that would still respect his entitlements as slaveowner and Confederate officer.The book's third main character, Prudence, is a fearless, headstrong white woman of means who leaves her Boston home for Buford, Mississippi, to start a school for the former bondsmen, and thus honor her father’s dying wish.At bottom, Freeman is a love story--sweeping, generous, brutal, compassionate, patient--about the feelings people were determined to honor, despite the enormous constraints of the times. It is this aspect of the book that should ensure it a strong, vocal, core audience of African-American women, who will help propel its likely critical acclaim to a wider audience. At the same time, this book addresses several themes that are still hotly debated today, some 145 years after the official end of the Civil War. Like Cold Mountain, Freeman illuminates the times and places it describes from a fresh perspective, with stunning results. It has the potential to become a classic addition to the literature dealing with this period. Few other novels so powerfully capture the pathos and possibility of the era particularly as it reflects the ordeal of the black slaves grappling with the promise--and the terror--of their new status as free men and women.
The One Who Waits for Me
Lori Copeland - 2011
At a plantation in North Carolina, three young women are determined to leave everything behind for an unknown future without an evil uncle or cousin.But Beth Jornigan, her sister, Joanie, and their friend Trella encounter trouble from the very start. A fire racing through dry cotton fields almost ends their journey before it has a chance to begin. Fortunately, soldiers on their way home rescue them just in time. Only these brave young men don't want the trouble that lovely, defenseless women will surely bring. They are more than ready to do nothing but put the war behind them, eat fresh-baked pie and drink sweet tea surrounded again by their families. And yet both the men and women discover that God sometimes has othe rplans than the ones we hold dear, and embracing those plans just may be an adventure and a chance for all of their dreams to come true.
Valley of Promises
Bonnie Leon - 2001
However, the colonists meet resistance from earlier homesteaders in the Valley and their leader, Ray Townsend. Laurel, Will’s daughter, who put aside her own desires and dreams to follow her family to Alaska, finds herself torn between two men vying for her love—Adam, a reporter writing a story on the colony’s experiences, and Robert, a colonist who can offer Laurel the stability she needs. For the colony to survive, they must all learn to trust God’s promises.
Conjure Women
Afia Atakora - 2020
Spanning eras and generations, it tells of the lives of three unforgettable women: Miss May Belle, a wise healing woman; her precocious and observant daughter Rue, who is reluctant to follow in her mother's footsteps as a midwife; and their master's daughter Varina. The secrets and bonds among these women and their community come to a head at the beginning of a war and at the birth of an accursed child, who sets the townspeople alight with fear and a spreading superstition that threatens their newly won, tenuous freedom.Magnificently written, brilliantly researched, richly imagined, Conjure Women moves back and forth in time to tell the haunting story of Rue, Varina, and May Belle, their passions and friendships, and the lengths they will go to save themselves and those they love.