From hunting in the woods to killing enemies, she was the pride of her father, but the pain of her mother. When she is sent to France to find a suitable match, Madeleine attracts the eye of the most desirable bachelor. James II of Crussol is the ideal man for every woman, but he is not the one that wakes up her passion... Fyn Stewart never imagined that in a court filled with French roses he would find a Scottish thistle. From the first moment, Madeleine steals his heart, haunts his dreams and fuels his desires. But the road to everlasting love is long and there are many secrets that the dashing Fyn must find the courage to reveal. Like his true name...

    Olivia, Nick, their two little girls, and Charlie still live in the old boarding house. It has been nine years since Mourning left Olivia. Nine years since the last time she saw him – though he has always arranged to have Charlie with him for a few weeks each year.But today Olivia is anxiously awaiting Mourning’s arrival. Yesterday he sent a message with Michelle – he needs to talk with Olivia. Why now? What will he say? Does he intend to take Charlie for good?On this already emotionally-charged day, a cryptic telegram from Missouri arrives. It will take Olivia, Mourning, and Nick on a different kind of journey together.Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction, Literary Fiction

     “I climbed into this book and lived its plot. I read it at every spare moment.” Margaret “Beautifully written and engaging.” Ratana 1895, SCOTLAND Emma Greig is almost fourteen when her father announces she will be sent to be a maid at Bonnybrae Farm. She has never left her village so she is terrified of the change, especially when she realises she must learn to milk cows. PERFECT FOR FANS OF NADINE DORRIES, GLENDA YOUNG, DILLY COURT OR SHEILA NEWBERRY. Emma goes to work for the Sinclair family. Maggie Sinclair, the oldest of the Sinclair children, is kind and gentle. Her brothers, Jim and William, are friendly and tease Emma, but their mother offers no welcome. Mrs Sinclair is a proud woman with a secret in her past which has left her bitter and without compassion. She is angry when friendship blossoms between a mere maid and her own family. As the bond between Emma and her son strengthens, she dismisses Emma without notice or a reference. And William is banished from the farm he loves and sent away to Yorkshire to make his own way in the world. WILL THIS DESTROY THEIR LIVES AND BURGEONING ROMANCE? DISCOVER A ROMANTIC AND HEART-WARMING TALE ALSO BY GWEN KIRKWOOD SINCLAIR FAMILY SAGA SERIES Book 1: Moorland Mist Book 2: Moorend Farm

    No nation can stand against his legions but even the Empire has its limits. The brooding forests across the Rhine hold warriors who will not submit and the Suevi are the mightiest of them. With only their hatred of each other in common, the Romans and the Germans cross the river to raid and slaughter but neither of them has the force to take the other’s territory and hold it. This does not prevent them trying. Otto of the Suevi, son of the Chieftain and war counsellor Badurad, lives freely among the woods and glades on the far side of the river, hoping to live the same life as his father and become a respected warrior in his turn but that is not to be. He visits a wise woman with his father and her shocking, prophetic vision of his future sets him on a different path than he could never have imagined. Fate is not to be defied so Otto accepts what she has told him as absolute truth and lets it guide him through blood and fire to his personal destiny far from his own people.

    Sampson, S.J. Parris and Rory Clements."A superb, page-turning debut. The author balances gimlet-eyed research with narrative drive and clever reveals... Danforth is a strong yet torn central character... I look forward to reading the second book in the series." Richard Foreman.Steven Veerapen was born in Glasgow and raised in Paisley. Pursuing an interest in the sixteenth century, he was awarded a first-class Honours degree in English, focussing his dissertation on representations of Henry VIII’s six wives. He then received a Masters in Renaissance studies, and a Ph.D. investigating Elizabethan slander. The Abbey Close represents his first foray into fictional writing. Steven is fascinated by the glamour and ghastliness of life in the 1500s, and has a penchant for myths, mysteries and murders in an age in which the law was as slippery as those who defied it.

    two wounded souls are forced on a journey neither wants, resulting in tragedy and disaster. Battle-hardened, untrusting and son of a Scottish Chieftain. Duncan MacThomas wants only to see his country free from English rule. Honor-bound to ensure his clan's financial future, Duncan reluctantly travels to England to wed a woman he doesn't want. Wealthy and pampered. Catherine Gillingham anticipates a marriage to a Duke's son and is dismayed when her king decrees she must wed a Scotsman, the sort of man all of London despises. Can these two opposites find love amidst war and lower their barriers to find the peace they seek within their countries and themselves?

    The guard who would lay down his life for her. The proposal that will alter their relationship forever. A powerful tale of unrequited love in Medieval Scotland.Lady Drew MacKinnon doesn't belong anywhere. A widow who has never remarried, she decides that the time has come for her to do as society expects and take the veil. But as Drew is neither pious nor obedient in nature, she knows her new path won't be an easy one.Carr Broderick has served the MacKinnon clan loyally for years. And unbeknown to Drew, he's been in love with her for just as long. He offers to escort Drew to her new life at a priory on the Scottish mainland, but this last mission will cost him. He longs to tell her how he feels, yet she is a lady, and he is a warrior without lands, riches, or title.But when Lady Drew approaches Carr with a shocking proposal halfway through their journey, he might just have the chance he's always longed for. Or will he?CLAIMED is the epilogue novella to The Sisters of Kilbride series set in 14th Century Isle of Skye, Scotland.

    Taught to shoot in the rough logging camps of the North Carolina swamps, Wes Ross remembers his lessons well. Dodging hostile gunfire with dozens of other young Marines, he storms a remote Pacific island as one of Carlson's Raiders in the first commando-style attack of World War II. He blasts several Japanese snipers from their palm-tree hideouts with buckshot before an enemy bullet sends him home. The Carolina homefront includes a new girlfriend and a new occupation, learning to be a rural lawyer in his uncle's law office, including courtroom intrigue and what goes on behind the scenes. Wes, like his uncles, is a good man, the kind who takes up for the poor and downtrodden, looking out for those who are easy prey for bullies. Frog Cutshaw is the storekeeper in the Caney Fork backwoods, a swaggering ex-moonshiner who is deadly with his ever-present .45 auto pistol. Frog's daylight rape of a married woman and the brutal killing of her husband bring on Bible Belt vigilante justice, an eye for an eye, a life for a life. Wally Avett is a retired newspaperman. He lives in North Carolina.

    Christianity has swept unstoppably across Scandinavia, leaving few enclaves of the old ways clinging on to their fading world as King Olof of Sweden works to convert his people.A young warrior, Halfdan, has witnessed the ‘mercy’ of the Christian lords, watched his people attacked, his village burned and the Odin stone toppled as heretical. Watched his father cut down by an ambitious Christian jarl and his zealous priest. Among the ashes of his world he vowed an oath of vengeance before all the gods.That oath will bring together an unlikely band of allies and carry them to the very edge of the world, fighting giants, dragons and wraiths, in pursuit of his father’s killer: Yngvar. The jarl is powerful, and the weaving of Fate difficult, but the blood price must be paid.

    She wants cheerful fires, snow-filled landscapes and pleasant company, all of which seems entirely possible. But her dreams of a perfect Christmas are thrown into chaos with the arrival of Sylvia Morwell, a girl who is universally disliked by everybody who knows her. Unfortunately, that includes most of Harry's guests and suddenly, the atmosphere could could be cut with a knife! As uncomfortable as this may be, things take a turn for the worst when her unwelcome house guest is murdered, done to death with a poisoned plum pie. Once again Harry, Aubrey, Charlie and Darcy must delve deep to discover the killer that lurks in their midst. And they must move fast before Harry's Christmas is entirely ruined!

    At the battle of Mons Graupius the Roman army led by Governor Agricola destroys the Caledonian confederation that has formed to oppose the Roman invasion.In the aftermath of the battle a Caledonian boy reveals a secret that has the potential to change Roman strategy in the north forever.Marcus, an auxiliary Roman cavalry soldier is ordered to investigate andpromptly disappears into the remote trackless wastes of the north.In Rome his estranged father and retired Legionary, Corbulo sets out to find his only son and bring him home. So starts an adventure that will take Corbulo to the remotest parts of Caledonia and plunge him into the low intensity conflict that is raging between the scattered Caledonian war bands and the Roman forts and garrisons of Agricola's occupying army. Corbulo will need all his wits, courage and experience to fend off hostile and proud Barbarian warriors, a gang of murderous mercenaries and the lure of a dazzling prize."

    Queenie Bonner is only two years old and oblivious to the dirt and squalor of the slums she lives in. She is the youngest of ten children and is happy with her brothers and sisters. Harry, the eldest, is the one she loves the most.One day when they are all having a rough and tumble in the street, with Queenie right in the middle laughing with joy, a posh carriage arrives. While they all watch in awe at such a sight, Queenie's mum and dad put her in the coach with a strange man and woman. As they drive away a terrified little girl leans out of the window calling to Harry to help her. They arrive at a large house in the country and the little girl begs to be taken home. Albert and Mary Warrender tell her this is now her home, and rename her Eleanor.Over the years she forgets about her other family and loves Albert and Mary, believing they are her parents. Fifteen years later Mary dies and Albert tells her about her past and what her real name is.Albert helps her to trace her brothers and sisters. They find them all except Harry. There is no trace of him, and Queenie knows she must find this special brother to complete her forgotten family. But where is he?

    But for Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge, recently returned from the battlefields of France, there is no peace. Suffering from shell shock, Rutledge plunges into his work to save his sanity. But his first assignment is a case certain to spell both personal and professional disaster.A Long Shadow—A story that immerses readers in the sights and sounds of post-war Great Britain, as the damaged policeman pursues answers to a constable’s slaying and the three-year-old mystery of a young girl’s disappearance in a tiny Northamptonshire village.A False Mirror—A love triangle turned deadly sends Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge to a small town simmering with secrets.A Pale Horse—A body found in the ruins of an ancient abbey sends Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge off to find a killer, in another superb atmospheric mystery by Charles Todd.

    . . Cambridge on the morning of a day in April, the year of Our Lord 1569.And Christopher Radcliff, Doctor of Civil Laws at Pembroke Hall and recruiter of clever young men to the service of the Earl of Leicester, is amongst a crowd of excited townsfolk and university scholars gathered on a field to watch a game of foot ball. It is to be played between the apprentices of the town and pupils of the colleges and it is hoped it will reconcile differences between town and gown. Bets are placed, wagers made. On the field long-standing animosities surface and violence breaks out but not before the college team is victorious, thanks to the skill of a Pembroke Hall man, John Groom.Later that day, Radcliff is summoned to the senior tutor’s rooms. It transpires that John Groom has been locked up on a serious charge of assault – he’d nearly caused a cobbler’s apprentice to drown. If found guilty, Groom would be expelled from college and face imprisonment. But Christopher smells a rat. He believes the charge to be the fabrication of someone with a serious grudge against the young man, and yet it does seem as if Groom is hiding something. Enlisting the help of his friend Edward Allington and his wife Katherine, Dr Radcliff knows the truth lies somewhere within the infamous den that is Slegge’s gaming house…

    In the constantly shifting world of clan conflicts she knows it will bring an important alliance for her clan but she strives to be mistress of her own destiny. A brutal clan war brings upheaval and uncertainty into her world and Ailsa finds herself humiliated and at the mercy of wild and handsome rival clansman Duncan Campbell, who would bend her to his will and claim her for his own. Ailsa must pretend to submit to him as she fights to win her freedom. But can her growing attraction to him be conquered and does danger still lurk where she least expects it? Duncan Campbell is a fierce, forbidding man with a dark and troubled past. A consummate survivor he moves in a world of intrigue and violence and when the Highlands explode into armed conflict he suddenly finds himself in possession of the spoils of war, defiant beauty Ailsa MacLeod, who utterly hates him. Duncan must do battle once more against the hunger that starts to grow in him. Does he want to protect her or possess her? Either way she is his to do with as he pleases though a bitter upbringing and the brutality of the life he is forced to lead have long since closed his heart to the fairer sex. But as he forces her into submission he begins to realise that love is something earned not taken and if he is to hold this prize he must fight one last battle against enemies who would tear down everything he holds dear. Extract:For a minute Ailsa let the disloyal thoughts in. His mouth on hers, hungry and insistent, strong hands holding her against a hard body, the smell and taste of him and the longing to feel that way again. The shame of it turned her face to fire. He surely thought her nothing more than a foolish girl, easy to take advantage of with too much whisky in her belly, a salve for his lust and instantly forgotten. She was sure Duncan Campbell had never given her a second thought. And now he was a sworn enemy of her clan so all thoughts of him must be pushed aside for her own sake. She must be true to her birthright and never ever tell anyone what had happened that night on the battlements. Suddenly the door to her chamber crashed open and she was confronted with a maidservant, white faced and breathless. ‘Lady we are lost,’ she shouted in panic. ‘The battle is done and we were defeated. The Campbells slaughtered them all.’ Ailsa grabbed her arm to steady her. ‘What of my brother?’ ‘There’s no news of him lady, only that there was a massacre.’ Ailsa’s legs weakened and she slumped onto the bed. Bile rose in her throat at the shock of it. No one had expected this, they were sure of their victory and now Robert’s talk of glory had turned to ashes. Was he lying bloody and cleaved in a ditch somewhere? Had she brought this doom down upon them with her sinful thoughts? ‘Lady all the servants are fleeing and we must go too’. ‘Why?’ ‘Duncan Campbell and his men are on their way here to claim Cailleach and everything in it’.