He is excited and afraid; he wants to recapture the love he knew with his parents before they died and become a doctor like his father. But in his new home of celebrities, crooks, untrustworthiness, and excessively wealthy deviants, lust and want thwart his search for selfless caring love, and in his quest to become a doctor, he discovers the altruism of health care and scientific discovery riddled with profit motivation and deficient moral standards. A finalist in the 2012 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition.

    This is the story of two of those young women who became known as furlough brides.Much to the dismay of her haughty mother, nineteen-year-old Elizabeth Buchanan marries her high school sweetheart, Carlo DeLuca, during Carlo's brief furlough following Marine Corps boot camp before he departs for infantry training...and then the bloody islands of the Pacific Theater.One week later, Elizabeth's high school acquaintance Angela Antolini marries Carlo's older brother Tony while Tony is home on furlough following his U.S. Army basic training. As with Carlo - and their other two brothers - Tony will soon be off to war.Elizabeth and Angela - the DeLuca furlough brides - form a bond that carries them through the World War II homefront years. Both young women find jobs as government agency secretaries to help them cope with one lonely day after another. Katherine Buchanan, Elizabeth's meddling mother, refuses to accept her daughter's marriage to someone that Katherine considers to be beneath her daughter. Elizabeth's black market-dealing brother and father present her with even more problems, even as she worries day after day about Carlo's well-being.Come spend the war years with Elizabeth and Angela as they each struggle with the same monumental question:How can a wartime marriage survive years apart from each other, amidst constant fear and many other trials?

    

    After the horrors of a cavalry charge against machine guns he transfers to the R.F.C where he becomes a gunner and observer. Eventually he becomes a pilot and shows a flair for aerial combat. Set against the backdrop of England in 1914 it shows the contrast between life in England and the brutal war in Flanders.

    It is the still innocent year of 1962, and twelve-year-old Paige Noble awakens in a hospital room in Chicago. She has no memory of the random act of gang violence that has left her injured and orphaned. As she waits for her famous uncle to come for her, Paige develops a bond with Gladys, a comforting black nurse’s aide, unaware that Gladys’s son was involved in the crime. Soon, the charismatic Maxwell Noble, a celebrated photographer, is located in Europe and rushes to her side. Although he has led a globetrotting bachelor life, he surprises Paige by embracing his new responsibility. He reveals to her a family legacy in the headlines, beginning with the 1915 Eastland disaster on the Chicago River. But Maxwell struggles to hide his long-time obsession with Paige’s mother, his enchanting French sister-in-law. When Paige discovers her mother’s hidden diary, the secrets of the past begin to surface. Paige and her uncle embark on a journey to France, retracing events of WWII and the Holocaust, in an effort to find the one remaining family member they could claim. Her parents were always intent on protecting Paige, but Maxwell allows her to embrace the Jewish history and heritage that she was denied. A beautiful and moving story about a young girl’s coming-of-age and a man’s quest for a lost love, Protecting Paige combines family drama and fascinating historical detail to create a rich, thought-provoking world.

     A few days before Noble Norfleet's eighteenth birthday, his family suffers a violent catastrophe. The sole survivor, Noble throws himself into a reckless affair with his Spanish teacher, whose husband is fighting in Vietnam. When Noble graduates, he enlists as well and, while serving as an army medic, experiences a mysterious vision that seems tied to uncanny events in his recent past. Not until thirty years later -- after a life short on friends and troubled by a compulsion to worship women's bodies -- is Noble challenged to rethink the decades-old mystery of his family tragedy. Faced with an ominous choice, Noble finally comes to accept an enormous duty he's long tried to ignore. Soon, perhaps for the first time, his future seems hopeful.

    Between debate about the fate of a vacant property, and the rush to open the community center, new ideas are taking root all around town.But it’s a season of secrets, too. Someone seeks a chance to start over, while others are too proud to ask for a helping hand. And as Melinda searches for answers to a long-held rumor, she discovers that the past is never far away from the present.No matter how she tries, there’s never enough time to do it all. And when Uncle Frank and Aunt Miriam take off on a much-needed vacation, Melinda suddenly finds herself at the helm of her family’s business. As the weather slowly warms and the challenges pile up, can she find a way to stay afloat?

    Phoebe cannot understand why she is treated so harshly by her uncle, but she does not know the guilty secret from his past that casts its shadow on his feelings.

    There, in a cottage in the woods, she looks for peace and renewal as she heals from the loss and alienation of her former life in Vermont. But her new home and the man who owns it are shrouded in mystery. And Lucy must learn to live without certainty. Follow Lucy as she navigates a fresh start for herself and her family in regard to matters of home, loss, love, and hope.

    She inherits their house while her twin brother Mark is left the family steel works. When World War I breaks out, Mark joins the RAF, and the management of the business is left in Isabel's hands, which is not welcomed by the town's industrialists. She makes many enemies and has to struggle to keep her business alive. After much unhappiness, she finally finds love with the manager of a local foundry as well as the identity of her real father.

    Love, passion and romance are reserved for daydreams.But then into Lizzie’s quiet world comes two men – one reliable and kind-hearted, the other heartbreakingly handsome. Just as Lizzie’s made her choice, the ominous call of war sounds, and her life changes again.Will Lizzie get her chance at happiness, or has it gone forever?

    Just a down home girl, she enjoys driving her truck, listening to country music and, oh yes, the occasional brew.This witch just wants to enjoy the quiet life. When her no-good, hipster husband cheats on her with a trombone player, she moves back to take over the family farm in rural Eastern Kentucky. Here, she's expecting some peace, content to play in her garden, restore the dilapidated farmhouse, and throw her money away at the town auction house every Friday night.But the town of Kudzu Valley just won't let a witch rest. From the high school basketball coach looking for a charm to help the team win the big game to Lola Ellen Pearson who wants to hex the local Pizza Hut for giving her food poisoning the night before her fourth wedding, everyone wants SOMETHING from the town's resident witch!When Cotton Hashagen's dead body is found, though, all eyes turn to Liza Jane. After all, hadn't she JUST accused the local librarian of a terrible crime? With the townspeople and police turning their eyes to Liza Jane, it's going to take a lot for her to prove that she didn't put a "whammy" on him AND solve the mystery to find the real culprit!

    

    Perfect for the fans of Jo Cox and Rosie Goodwin. The boom years immediately after the Great War bring nothing but happiness for wealthy industrialist Wigmore Stratfield-Whyte and his wife Clarissa – until tragedy robs them of their greatest treasure. Many years later, an horrific fatal accident brings young Meg Chandler, a spirited farmer's daughter, into their lives. Meg wants nothing to do with them, but Clarissa is drawn irresistibly towards the bereaved girl and will move heaven and earth to help her. Will Meg allow Clarissa into her own shattered life, and can the two share a future happiness together? And will Meg's new acquaintances bring her the contentment she craves – or seek to destroy her? Set in the Kent countryside in the years leading up to the Second World War, this compelling saga tingles with drama, tension and an overwhelming sense of love.

    She’s on a charitable mission, by damn, and that rowdy cantina next door is drowning out her gospel singing. The clash with the sexy-as-hell man who runs the cantina hits with enough force to burn down the small Mexican town. What happens in Mexico… Is supposed to stay in Mexico but Hunter can’t get that blonde with the ice blue eyes out of his mind when he goes home to Texas. Finding her isn’t the problem. Convincing her that he’s interested—well, that’s another story. Mercy tried to get over Hunter, especially when she found out about his past. She had two choices: move on or give him one more chance because no other man should have to live in an old love’s shadow. If you liked Carolyn Brown’s books, Love Is, Trouble in Paradise, The Wager or The Yard Rose, you will love An Old Love’s Shadow.