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Queenbreaker: Perseverance


Catherine McCarran - 2016
    No one in her family expects Mary to go far; she's the middle daughter, sharp-tongued, not the favorite, not pretty. But when her cousin, the new Queen of England, Anne Boleyn invites a Shelton daughter to serve her at court, Mary proves to her parents she's their best choice when she boldly spies on them. Mary needs her penchant for breaking the rules if she's to survive at court.Surrounded by girls desperate for the same prize: a grand marriage—Mary quickly outshines them all when she discovers her talent for flirtation and catches the eye of the reckless yet beguiling Lord John de Vere. Thrilled by his attentions, she falls headlong into a passionate game of Pass-the-Time that promises Mary the love she craves and the advancement her family desires. But Mary's dazzling success brings her dangerous enemies who scheme to ruin her life at court. Mary must win Queen Anne’s favor to escape their plots and win her future with Lord John. When Mary forgets that love at court is always a game, she finds herself used in a vicious revenge designed to destroy the most powerful noble in England. With her greatest enemy ready to reveal her worst secret, Mary has just one chance to save her herself from total ruin. It means lying to her family, deceiving Lord John, and defying the Queen. It’s the game Mary was born to play...if she dares.

Tomb of the Lost


Julian Noyce - 2011
    In four parts.Tomb of the Lost is an action/adventure novel that spans 2300 years.Babylon, Persia 323bc.On a bed a man lays dying. Alexander the great, King, the Lion of Macedon has a mysterious fever. He became king at twenty, dying at thirty three, having conquered the known world. Following his death his General and friend Ptolemy takes the body and inters it into a magnificent tomb in Alexandria, Egypt. The very city Alexander founded.Two thousand three hundred years later and the leader of Germany Adolf Hitler who is a great collector of antiquities orders the sarcophagus, lost two thousand years before by Julius Caesar's legionaries, to be found and brought to Berlin.Hitler assigns a team of his Wehrmacht commanded by a General and his Colonel and a team of SS led by a fanatical Major to locate it.With their mission a success the Germans descend on the port town of Gabes, Tunisia just as the town is about to be over run by the British and as the battle for North Africa reaches its brutal climax the sarcophagus is lost once again leaving only one man alive to tell the tale.That man is Alfred Dennis.Nearly seventy years later and marine archaeologist Natalie Feltham and her team with the help of Peter Dennis, a journalist and grandson of Alfred Dennis, make the greatest discovery in modern archaeology.Now it's a race against time for Natalie and her team as dark powers from Germany's Nazi past try to take what is rightfully hers.

A Bridge Apart


Joey Jones - 2015
    . . In the quaint river town of New Bern, North Carolina, at 28 years of age the pieces of Andrew Callaway's life are all falling into place. His real estate firm is flourishing and he's engaged to be married in less than two weeks to a beautiful banker named Meredith Hastings. But when Meredith heads to Tampa, Florida - the wedding location - with her mother, fate, or maybe some human intervention, has it that Andrew happens upon Cooper McKay, the only other woman he's ever loved. A string of shocking emails lead Andrew to question whether he can trust his fiancee, and in the midst of trying to unravel the mystery he finds himself spending time with Cooper. When Meredith catches wind of what's going on back at home, she's forced to consider calling off the wedding, which ultimately draws Andrew closer to Cooper. Andrew soon discovers he's making choices he might not be able, or even want, to untangle. As the story unfolds, the decisions that are made will drastically change the lives of everyone involved, and bind them closer together than they could have ever imagined.

Wagon Train Wife


Catherine Kennedy - 2021
    However, the death of her parents and the cruelty of her guardians leaves Eliza and her sister, Hannah, in a precarious situation. Thomas Flannagan has vowed never to love again after the death of his young wife shortly after their arrival in America. His need for a wife, and his desire to keep the Fairchild sisters safe motivate him to propose a marriage of convenience. Working together to create a home in the wild Kansas prairie brings Thomas and Eliza closer together, but the tender shoots of affection between them are threatened when her sister's past catches up with them. Wagon Train Wife is a Christian historical novel and the first in the brand new 'Walton Valley' series.

Mystic Mountains


Tricia McGill - 2005
    Isabella O'Shea is transported to New South Wales for wounding a member of the British aristocracy who raped her, so it is understandable that she loathes members of the upper class and the system that punished her; sentenced her to seven years transportation.Tiger Carstairs is rich, ambitious and English-so is it any wonder she is determined to hate her new master. Tiger dreams of making a new life beyond the aptly named Blue Mountains, so called because of the perpetual haze of blue surrounding them.Mystic Mountains is a story of courage and persistence-traits that were essential for the settlers who carved out a new life in a raw land where suffering and heartbreak were commonplace.Isabella and Tiger face tragedy and many hardships in their quest for a new life in this untamed land.Reviews:“Tricia McGill has written a sweeping love story of two people fighting for their places in an unfair world among the wild, untamed vistas of Australia. The strong plot reveals much about the early settlement days of the continent of Australia and is a history lesson in itself besides a sizzling romance. A job well done by Ms. McGill.” Lani Roberts 5 stars ***** Affaire de Coeur“Sometimes we in America forget that Australia is an equally young country, complete with tales of adventure about the settlement of the land. In this story of love adventure and hardship, we see a man and a woman work together to survive and overcome the harsh land that is Australia. A thoroughly enjoyable book, well-written and exciting.”Deborah Brent for Romantic Times book club **** four stars

BAD INTENT


Michael Tabman - 2013
    Douglas and his partner NYPD Detective Mark Zucarelli on the streets of New York City as they find themselves in the middle of raging drug wars.The Colombian Cartels are flooding the streets with cocaine. They are violent and ruthless criminals.The Mob has been cut out. What will they do?The FBI and the NYPD have an uneasy alliance.Who can be trusted?Does everyone have bad intent?Inspired by my years on the FBI-NYPD Drug Task Force, BAD INTENT will take you to the dark side of the drug wars.Peek into the hearts and minds of the FBI Agents and NYPD Detectives on the front lines.Do you have BAD INTENT?

The New Pastor


Sherman Cox - 2015
     When his roommate forced Elliot to find a job, he applied for the secretarial position at Bethel Community Church. But, in a case of mistaken identity, the ranking church officer thought Elliot was the perfect candidate for the open pastoral position. He must become a pastor in a hurry because the church is falling apart. The church needed a jolt and Elliot needed a job. Find out what happens when a novice minister finds himself in the driver’s seat of a church? Will the church find their perfect pastor, or will they send him packing?

This is Not for You


Venus Soileau - 2014
    This is Not for You is a memoir which vividly describes the memories of growing up in a dysfunctional environment and how these circumstances developed a spirit within the narrator. This is a story of resiliency and drive to overcome the extreme adversities that addiction and poverty can create in the life of a young child.

A Bad Place To Be


John Hansen - 2015
    Their dream of owning a ranch in Idaho's Salmon River country kept them going during those tough times in the Army. The dream, however, is derailed when Seth is murdered in the Bear Creek gold fields. In his quest to obtain justice for his friend, Josh is plunged into a quagmire of corruption and wickedness. And then, to complicate matters even more, enter Sarah, an outcast prostitute looking for a ticket to respectability. Is she friend, lover or just someone looking for a free ride out of Bear Creek? Josh has to decide - assuming he lives that long. However, staying alive might be difficult, given the character of the sheriff and his cronies. Few people trust them to uphold the law, yet no one dares to challenge them. The simplest solution to this entire mess would be to walk away, but Josh's conscience won't allow that. Only time will tell if he is to take his stubborn loyalty to the grave.

The Cedar Cutter


Tea Cooper - 2016
    When Roisin Ogilvie moves to Wollombi her thoughts are only of protecting her illegitimate son, Ruan, from the grasps of his powerful and dangerous father. Posing as an impoverished widow, she settles into a quiet existence as a local dressmaker. She doesn’t expect to catch the attention of Irish champion cedar cutter Carrick O’Connor, or any other man for that matter.Carrick O’Connor may have won the coveted Wollombi Wood Chop, but his mind is on the beautiful seamstress and her son. Or rather, on who they remind him of. Determined to exact revenge for the horrors of his past, Carrick plans to return to Ireland to seek revenge on the land agent who was responsible for the death of his wife and child, and his transportation. Then, hopefully, he can return to Wollombi to start life afresh.But a murder charge, a kidnapping, a growing attraction, and a past that refuses to stay silent will turn both his and Roisin’s lives upside down and will lead them to a hard choice. Redemption? Or cutters’ justice?

Patrick's Journey


Roy T. Humphreys - 2014
    Like many young men he is patriotic, adventurous and headstrong. He also feels assured of a bright future with his sweetheart Catherine. Patrick’s world comes crashing down around him when he becomes a pawn in the political aspirations of the United Irishmen under Wolfe Tone. He finds himself in prison sentenced to transportation to the penal colony of New South Wales and begins a downward spiral into rage and depression. Patrick’s saviour comes in the form of Father Michael O’Court, the chaplain of the prison ship Boddington. Over time Patrick is guided out of his depression and is able to accept the vastly different directions that his life’s journey has taken. He also finds an unlikely mentor in one Preston Balfour, a British Army officer who was originally his target for assassination, but who ultimately provides him with the means of restoring his life in a new land. Patrick’s life is complete when tragic circumstances eventually lead to him being reunited with Catherine for a new life in a new land. He comes to realise that the most important journey we travel is not measured in miles but by our changes within. Patrick’s Journey is a work of fiction, but is based on the real life history of the author’s great (6 times removed) grandfather.

Past the Headlands


Garry Disher - 2001
    The fall of Malaya and Singapore and the bombing of Darwin—what looked like the invasion of Australia—ebb and crash over a man’s long search to find a home and a woman’s determination to keep hers, connected by old memories and new betrayals. It is a thriller and a romance, a story of earth and water, air and metal—an unforgettable ride through the most precarious time in our region's recent history. Garry Disher writes: ‘Past the Headlands came from the same World War 2 research as The Stencil Man. I was struck by the power of two documents. The first was a letter written by a woman alone on a cattle station near Broome in 1942, at the time the Japanese were overrunning Malaya and Singapore and bombing areas of northern Australia. One day she found herself giving shelter to Dutch colonial officers and their families, who were fleeing Sumatra and Java ahead of the Japanese advance (many people like them lost their lives when Japanese planes shot up their waiting seaplanes in Broome Harbour in March, 1942). This woman stuck in my head (the isolation, the danger, the efforts to communicate, her bravery, etc). The second document was a war diary written by an Australian army surgeon who escaped Singapore ahead of the Japanese and was stuck in Sumatra, trying to get out. Here he treated many of the civilians (and Australian Army deserters) fleeing from Singapore. He was captured by the Japanese, but survived the war. But his last few diary entries detail how he and a mate were waiting for a plane or a ship to take them out, then one day he wrote, “Davis [his mate] left last night without telling me”. So much for mateship. I spent years trying to find my way into their stories. At one stage I spent a year writing 40,000 words before realising it wouldn’t work. I put it aside, then realised one subplot didn’t belong, so extracted it and turned it into a separate novel The Divine Wind, which has sold 100,000 copies around the world, won a major award and been published as both a young adult and a general market novel. But cutting it out like that freed me up to write about the woman and the man betrayed by his mate, in Past the Headlands.’

Dark Homecoming


William Patterson - 2016
    Their honeymoon was idyllic and Liz is blissfully happy—at first. But she feels increasingly uneasy in her lavish new home. Huntington House and its staff still seem to be in the thrall of David’s first wife. In fact, the housekeeper, Mrs. Hoffman, has made it clear that Liz can never measure up to the stunning, sophisticated, deceased, Dominique. Though Dominique drowned in a yachting accident, Liz still senses her spirit in the house. She hears unexplained noises…sees shadowy figures vanishing down the long corridors. The scent of Dominique’s favorite flowers fills the air. But Liz’s fears are more than insecurity. Two young women connected to Huntington House have already met terrible deaths. More will die—and soon. Because behind the house’s polished façade is an unimaginable secret and a love turned to twisted, unnatural obsession…Praise for William Patterson’s The Inn "The Conjuring meets The Shining in William Patterson's deliciously creepy thriller.  Fast-paced, horror-filled, clever and impossible-to-predict, this heart-pounding tale will leave you breathless." --Kevin O’Brien, New York Times bestselling author

Hello, Goodbye


Emily Brewin - 2017
    A profoundly moving story of love during a time of great social change, with an ending that will leave you cheering. May Callaghan is seventeen years old and on her own. At least that’s how it feels.Her devoutly religious mother and her gentle but damaged father are fighting, and May's boyfriend, Sam, has left their rural hometown for Melbourne without so much as a backward glance.When May lies to her parents and takes the train to visit Sam at his shared house in Carlton, her world opens wide in glorious complexity. She is introduced to his housemates, Clancy, an indigenous university student, and Ruby, a wild bohemian. With their liberal thinking and opposition to the war in Vietnam, they are everything that May's strict Catholic upbringing should warn her against.May knows too well the toll that war has taken on her father, and the peace movement in the city has a profound effect on her. For a while, May’s future burns bright. But then it begins to unravel, and something happens to her that will change her life forever.

Whispers from the Cove


Jeanne Hardt - 2017
     Her beautiful home in Cades Cove, Tennessee, lies deep in the Smoky Mountains. For decades, her family has farmed and lived peacefully, until the soldiers came and made every day a struggle to survive. Whether they wear gray or blue, the men in uniform arrive unexpectedly and take whatever they want. Not only do they steal food and livestock, but some believe they can help themselves to anything they desire. Lily now has something to fear. Caleb Henry is running from his own battles, bleeding and broken. He seeks refuge in the cove and literally runs into Lily. Because he’s injured, she shows compassion and sneaks him into her cabin, trusting her folks to tend him. But there’s more to Caleb than they see on the surface. His arrival changes their lives, and what happens going forward can never be undone.