Book picks similar to
The Clock of Life by Nancy Klann-Moren


historical-fiction
fiction
first-reads
high-rating

Blue Mercy


Orna Ross - 2012
    Now, at the end of her life, she has completed a book about what really happened on that fateful night of Christmas Eve, 1989.The tragic and beautiful Mercy has devoted her life to protecting Star from her grandfather. His behavior so blighted her own life as a child – she never wanted it to touch her darling daughter.Yet Star refuses to read a word. Her contempt for Mercy is as painful as it is inexplicable. What has Mercy done? What is she hiding? Was her father's death, as many believe, an assisted suicide?Or something even more sinister?In this book, nothing is what it seems on the surface, and everywhere there are emotional twists and surprises.Set in Ireland and California, Blue Mercy is a compelling family mystery, combing lyrical description with a page-turning style. Praise for Orna Ross and Blue Mercy“A lyrical, gripping and heartbreakingly beautiful tale of love, loss and the ever-present possibility of redemption.” — WE Magazine for Women“Epic sweep...ambitious scope... an intelligent book”. — Sunday Tribune“A riveting story...vividly brought to life.” — Emigrant Online

The Doctor's Daughter: Journey to Justice


Belle Blackburn - 2012
    Determined to prove otherwise, Kate sets out on a fascinating and sometimes hilarious journey through antebellum law and medicine. Set in 1860s Nashville and told with a biting wit, determined Kate finally discovers the truth - but at what cost? Will she ruin her own life trying to defend the life of her dead father?

A Good-Hearted Man


Barbara Kaylor - 2013
    On her quest to find the safe place promised by God, she reluctantly trespasses onto private property with the notion she won’t be discovered. She just needs a good night’s sleep under a roof. In the morning, she’ll be long gone. At least that’s her plan. What happens next is straight out of her dreams, but quickly turns nightmarish.Jess Slinger, former wrestler turned farrier, desires a wife and family to share the fifty-five acre farm he inherited from the couple who took him in and led him to the Lord. When he discovers Sarina asleep in his garden shed, Jess knows in his heart it’s a divine act of God. Instead of calling the law, Jess extends a helping hand, a move that enrages locals not keen having strangers in their midst, especially the law breaking kind.Sarina suddenly finds herself a target of hate then accused of a crime she didn’t commit. Willing to risk it all, Jess vows to protect Sarina no matter what. The two are drawn to each other, but dark secrets they each carry endanger their chance for love and happiness. Only a strong faith in God can help them overcome the obstacles that keep them apart.

Untouchable


Scott O'Connor - 2011
    A year has passed since Lucy Darby's unexpected death, leaving her husband David and son Whitley to mend the gaping hole in their lives. David, a trauma-site cleanup technician, spends his nights expunging the violent remains of strangers, helping their families to move on, though he is unable to do the same. Whitley--an 11-year-old social pariah known simply as The Kid--hasn't spoken since his mother's death. Instead, he communicates through a growing collection of notebooks, living in a safer world of his own silent imagining.As the impending arrival of Y2K casts a shadow of uncertainty around them, their own precarious reality begins to implode. Questions pertaining to the events of Lucy's death begin to haunt David, while The Kid, who still believes his mother is alive, enlists the help of his small group of misfit friends to bring her back. As David continues to lose his grip on reality and The Kid's sense of urgency grows, they begin to uncover truths that will force them to confront their deepest fears about each other and the wounded family they are trying desperately to save.

Pam of Babylon


Suzanne Jenkins - 2011
    Pam and his two lovers discover secrets and lies, and each other. The first book in the series. Book #10 available for preorder.

Cicada Song


Bradford Combs - 2012
    The town of Anderson celebrates the coming of these insects with a festival that they call Cicada Song.In 1987 a young boy named Jacob Ramsey fell for a girl named Sara, whose family was visiting for Cicada Song. Little did they realize, however, that their young love would end ten years later during the most shocking moment of Anderson’s history.Time passes and the next Cicada Song begins. Self-published author Ellis Barnes is invited to Anderson as an attraction and there he meets the quick-witted but guarded Sara, now fully grown and quite lovely. He quickly falls for her but something from Sara's past prevents her from getting too close. Facing resistance from Jacob Ramsey’s best friend, Stan, and the town drunk, Phil, Ellis is determined to uncover exactly what Sara’s mysterious past is. What he finds will force Ellis to confront a faith-shattering tragedy from his own past, a tragedy that diminished his faith in the Christian church, but also one which might hold the key to overcoming Sara’s private barriers. And what secret does Phil, the town drunk, hold regarding the moment that shattered Sara’s life forever?Bradford Combs writes a love story full of mystery, suspense, and questions of faith that will stick with you long after its final page is turned.

A Lucky Day


Carlos J. Server - 2014
    What starts out as the happiest day in history for the local inhabitants soon turns into a race against the clock to find the lucky winner and cash in the lottery ticket. A priest with verbal incontinence, a sweet little old lady with secret sexual fantasies about the local butcher, a village mayor who's held power for thirty years, and a mailman in love with the wife of a villainous baker are just a few of the quirky characters who will make you laugh and occasionally bring a tear to your eye as you enjoy everyday situations taken to extremes. A Lucky Day is a heartwarming comedy peopled by a highly entertaining cast of characters. Truly a novel to be savored slowly, if possible.

Worthy McGuire


Tim McGee - 2013
    Time is not on the side of the gruff World War II veteran racing to fulfill a promise he made amid the horrors of the D-Day invasion in Normandy. As he plans a pilgrimage from Michigan to the site of both his best and worst day, Worthy now must rely on those he trusts the least-his family. With no one else to help him meet the physical demands of the trip, Worthy grudgingly includes his grandchildren, David and Shannon, who are each battling their own insecurities. His controlling son, Ted, and his manipulative daughter-in-law, Angela, follow Worthy and his grandkids to France, and they have one goal: to drag the aging war vet back to Michigan where they hope to take command of his finances and place him in a nursing home. As Worthy searches for a family from his past, only time will tell if he can patch the crumbling relationships with his family before it is too late. In this historical tale, a World War II veteran takes a journey of honor and courage as he sets off to complete the most important mission of his long life.

Finding Faith (Love's Compass #4)


Melanie D. Snitker - 2016
    Moving away from her family support system so Gideon can attend a special school seems like the right choice, even if it means her entire life is about to change. The satisfaction of helping children and being a part of their lives is one reason Aaron Randall loves his job as a music therapist. When Hope Academy instills a dating policy, he doesn't give it a second thought. Until the new coworker who'd caught his attention turns out to be the parent of one of his students.A love they never expected is just out of reach. With Aaron's job and Gideon's education hanging in the balance, they'll have to rely on faith to find their way.

The Undertaker's Daughter


Kate Mayfield - 2014
    It was thrilling, because it was an unthinkable act.After Kate Mayfield was born, she was taken directly to a funeral home. Her father was an undertaker, and for thirteen years the family resided in a place nearly synonymous with death. A place where the living and the dead entered their house like a vapor. The place where Kate would spend the entirety of her childhood. In a memoir that reads like a Harper Lee novel, Mayfield draws the reader into a world of Southern mystique and ghosts.Kate's father set up shop in a small town where he was one of two white morticians during the turbulent 1960s. Jubilee, Kentucky, was a segregated, god-fearing community where no one kept secrets, except the ones they were buried with. By opening a funeral home, Kate's father also opened the door to family feuds, fetishes, and victims of accidents, murder, and suicide. The family saw it all. They also saw the quiet ruin of Kate's father, who hid alcoholism and infidelity behind a cool, charismatic exterior. As Mayfield grows from trusting child to rebellious teen, she begins to find the enforced hush of the funeral home oppressive, and longs for the day she can escape the confines of her small town.In The Undertaker's Daughter, Kate has written a triumph of a memoir. This vivid and stranger-than-fiction true story ultimately teaches us how living in a house of death can prepare one for life.

Heath, Cliffs & Wandering Hearts


Laura Barnard
    Her Mum’s business has failed and they’re forced to move into a maisonette in the rough end of town. She doesn’t want anyone to know her dire situation, not even her besties. So when the rest of the money for the school ski trip is due she can’t be seen not to attend. Everyone is going! She just needs to find a job. Add that to the list of getting a boyfriend and losing her pathetic virginity. But working every spare hour in a job she hates on top of school work and mounting secrets doesn’t prove easy. Soon she’s keeping so many she’s not even sure herself what’s true and what’s not. The only person she can lean on to tell the truth is her best friend Heath. Only…did he get hot recently? That won’t make things awkward between them…right?

Grow Old With Me


Melinda Evaul - 2010
    Benjamin Pruitt plans to repair the town’s buildings before retiring to a solitary life. Sarah Campbell longs for freedom since her long task as caregiver has ended.Can Benjamin and Sarah piece the tattered remnants of their lives into a beautiful design to warm their waning years?Melinda Evaul and her husband enjoy traveling the back roads of North Carolina and Tennessee where rural culture and history are preserved through a unique art form—Quilt Barn Squares.Come follow her adventures along the Quilt Trails of America in this series of novels.

The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte


Lesley Truffle - 2017
    and pastry. The witty new novel from the author of Hotel du Barry, for fans of Jonas Jonasson.In the winter of 1912 on the wild West Coast of Tasmania, Wolfftown's most notorious heiress and murderess, Sasha Torte, tells the tale of her own spectacular downfall.Forsaken by her parents and raised by criminals and reprobates, Sasha becomes a world-famous pastry chef at the tender age of seventeen. Entanglement with the disreputable Dasher brothers leads to love, but also to a dangerous addiction.Behind bars in Wolfftown's gaol, Sasha sips premium champagne as she recalls a life of seduction, betrayal, ghosts, opium and an indiscreet quantity of confectionary - and plots her escape.The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte: revenge, redemption and pastry, is a novel of dastardly deeds, intrepid protagonists, dark villains, wild gangs, luxurious hotels … and murder.

The Comet Seekers


Helen Sedgwick - 2016
    And everything changes.While Róisín grew up in a tiny village in Ireland, ablaze with a passion for science and the skies and for all there is to discover about the world, François was raised by his beautiful young mother, who dreamt of new worlds but was unable to turn her back on her past.As we loop back through their lives, glimpsing each of them only when a comet is visible in the skies above, we see how their paths cross as they come closer and closer to this moment.Theirs are stories filled with love and hope and heartbreak, that show how strangers can be connected and ghosts can be real, and the world can be as lonely or as beautiful as the comets themselves.

Meet Me Halfway


Javan - 1981
    For those who are searching, reaching, holding, and especially for those who are remembering, Javan presents not simply poetry, but a journey through the experience of being human in "Meet Me Halfway." 0-935906-01-0$5.00 / Javan Press