Book picks similar to
The Spoils of Eden by Linda Lee Chaikin


historical-fiction
christian-fiction
fiction
christianfiction

For Time & Eternity


Allison Pittman - 2010
    Then she meets one of them—a young man named Nathan Fox. Never did she imagine he would be so handsome, so charming, especially after Mama and Papa’s warnings to stay away. Though she knows she should obey her parents, Camilla can’t refuse her heart. But even Nathan’s promises cannot prepare her for what she will face in Utah.

The Ultimatum Bride


Leah Atwood - 2014
    Find yourself a respectable wife, stop the brawling and be the man I know you can be. Otherwise, I will tell Darrel to expect a wedding for his daughter soon.” “And if I refuse to marry Elsie?” George West’s eyes narrowed into tiny slits. “Then you will be written out of my will.” Jesse West is faced with an ultimatum. Unwilling to marry Elsie and steadfast against losing his right to inherit the Circle W, he must think quickly. His best option seems to be sending away for a mail-order bride. Faith Donovan vowed never to marry. Years of witnessing her parents' abusive marriage soured her against such a union, but when she can't find employment, she answers an advertisement for a mail-order bride and hopes for the best. When she discovers her new husband has a reputation for the very things she feared, her hopes are crushed. Yet, something about Jesse draws Faith to him. Can they look beyond their pasts and forge a future filled with love?

Liberty Belle


Patricia PacJac Carroll - 2012
    A jilted bride, a wayward sheriff, a small boy, outlaws, and a gallows provide plenty of action, romance, and hope. Liberty Longstreet was left at the altar, but that wasn’t the worst of her day. She awakens to the fact that she needs to declare independence from her controlling mother. Wanting her freedom and to find a man of her choosing, Libby leaves home for faraway Denver. She just doesn't count on being robbed, falling for a wayward sheriff, or being accused of murder. Sheriff Wade Calder throws down his badge in a quest for revenge. Instead, he takes responsibility for his enemy’s young son. Wanting only to be free, Wade runs into Libby, and she wins what is left of his heart. Unfortunately, he has nothing to offer her until he picks up his badge. His honor is restored, but it may cost Libby her life. Together they learn the cost of freedom and the wealth of forgiveness.

Truth Stained Lies


Terri Blackstock - 2013
    When she finds a threatening note warning her that she’s about to experience the same kind of judgment and speculation that she dishes out in her blog, Cathy writes it off as mischief . . . until her brother’s wife is murdered and all the “facts” point to him. The killer has staged the crime to make the truth too far-fetched to believe. Working to solve the murder and clear her brother’s name, Cathy and her two sisters, Holly and Juliet, moonlight as part-time private investigators. Juliet, a stay-at-home mom of two boys, and Holly, a scattered ne’er-do-well who drives a taxi, put aside their fear to hunt down the real killer.Stakes rise when their brother’s grieving five-year-old son is kidnapped. As police focus on the wrong set of clues, the three sisters and their battered detective friend are the only hope for solving this bizarre crime, saving the child, and freeing their brother.

Goodness and Mercy


Patti Hill - 2013
    And sometimes, mercy comes at the worst possible moment. At least, Lucy thinks so.After the death of her parents, sixteen-year-old Lucy Richter struggles to keep a promise to her father--to save what remains of her family. Lucy fails tragically but won't allow her dwindling family to disappear. She shanghais her twin siblings, Goody and Mercy, from a Wisconsin orphanage to a Colorado peach ranch and an aunt who is a less-than-welcoming stranger. Lucy is prepared to keep the peace with her aunt, but will her sister's gifts draw unwanted attention and crush Lucy's dream of family?And World War II rages on. Absent men strain the running of Honey Sweet Ranch and force alliances of the most intriguing and unlikely kind, including German POWs. Within these relationships, Lucy is given the chance to discover an unfamiliar and healing faith.With her defining style, Patti Hill tells a story of love and loss with one of America's darkest times as a backdrop. Hill's characters resonate, and her descriptions draw the reader into a drama that is perfectly paced and infused with a wondrous hope.

When Twilight Breaks


Sarah Sundin - 2021
    To do so, she must walk a thin line. If she offends the government, she could be expelled from the country—or worse. If she does not report truthfully, she'll betray the oppressed and fail to wake up the folks back home.Peter Lang is an American graduate student working on his PhD in German. Disillusioned with the chaos in the world due to the Great Depression, he is impressed with the prosperity and order of German society. But when the brutality of the regime hits close, he discovers a far better way to use his contacts within the Nazi party—to feed information to the shrewd reporter he can't get off his mind.As the world marches relentlessly toward war, Evelyn and Peter are on a collision course with destiny.

Song of Erin


B.J. Hoff - 1997
    In this tale of struggle and love and uncompromising faith, Jack Kane, the always charming but sometimes ruthless titan of New York's most powerful publishing empire, is torn between the conflict of his own heart and the grace and light of Samantha Harte, the woman he loves, whose own troubled past continues to haunt her.Originally published to strong sales nearly a decade ago, this new edition combines two of BJ's best novels into one saga-length volume."The Song of Erin contains some of my favorite characters. This story--and its people--hold a very special place in my heart." BJ Hoff

Michal


Jill Eileen Smith - 2009
    When Michal falls for young David, the harpist who plays to calm her father, she has no idea what romance, adventures, and heartache await her. As listeners enter the colorful and unpredictable worlds of King Saul and King David, they will be swept up in this exciting and romantic story. Against the backdrop of opulent palace life, raging war, and desert escapes, Jill Eileen Smith takes her fans on an emotional roller-coaster ride as Michal deals with love, loss, and personal transformation as one of the wives of David. A sweeping tale of passion and drama, listeners will love this amazing story.

City of Tranquil Light


Bo Caldwell - 2010
    . . A beautiful, searing book that leaves an indelible presence in the mind." --Patricia Hampl, author of "The Florist's Daughter "Will Kiehn is seemingly destined for life as a humble farmer in the Midwest when, having felt a call from God, he travels to the vast North China Plain in the early twentieth-century. There he is surprised by love and weds a strong and determined fellow missionary, Katherine. They soon find themselves witnesses to the crumbling of a more than two-thousand-year-old dynasty that plunges the country into decades of civil war. As the couple works to improve the lives of the people of Kuang P'ing Ch'eng-- City of Tranquil Light, a place they come to love--and face incredible hardship, will their faith and relationship be enough to sustain them?Told through Will and Katherine's alternating viewpoints--and inspired by the lives of the author's maternal grandparents--"City of Tranquil Light" is a tender and elegiac portrait of a young marriage set against the backdrop of the shifting face of a beautiful but torn nation. A deeply spiritual book, it shows how those who work to teach others often have the most to learn, and is further evidence that Bo Caldwell writes "vividly and with great historical perspective" ("San Jose Mercury News").

Hills of Nevermore


Janalyn Voigt - 2017
    Shane lands face-down in the mud for his trouble, and there’s talk of shooting him. America intervenes and finds herself in an unexpectedly personal conversation with the blue-eyed preacher. Certain she has angered God in the past, she shies away from Shane. Addie Martin, another widow, invites America to help in her cook tent in Virginia City, the new mining town. Even with Addie’s teenage son helping with America’s baby, life is hard. Shane urges America to depart for a more civilized location. Neither Shane’s persuasions nor road agents, murder, sickness, or vigilante violence can sway America. Loyalty and ambition hold her fast until dire circumstances force her to confront everything she believes about herself, Shane, and God. Based on actual historical events during a time of unrest in America, Hills of Nevermore explores faith, love, and courage in the wild west.

A Light on the Hill


Connilyn Cossette - 2018
    Atttempting to avoid the scorn of her community, she's spent the last seven years hiding behind the veil she wears. Underneath her covering, her face is branded with the mark of the Canaanite gods, a shameful reminder of her past captivity in Jericho and an assurance that no man will ever want to marry her.When her father finds a widower who needs a mother for his two sons, her hopes rise. But when their introduction goes horribly wrong, Moriyah is forced to flee for her life. Seeking safety at one of the newly established Levitical cities of refuge, she is wildly unprepared for the dangers she will face and the enemies—and unexpected allies—she will encounter on her way.

Valeria's Cross


Kathi Macias - 2010
    She sends him off to battle, where he suffers under the schemes of a notorious pagan general with an ambition for power and a lust for Valeria. In a scene based on true events, the evil Galerius kills Mauritius and his entire legion for their Christian faith. And in a shocking turn of events, the grieving Valeria is forced to become Galerius' wife against her will. Never has a marriage been set up for such failure. Valeria loathes her new husband, but he seems to undergo a change of heart, adopting a child for her and giving her power and authority, and even love. She struggles with the commitment she knows she must keep, and the love she knows she will never find again.

The Seven Sisters


Lucinda Riley - 2014
    Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue to her true heritage—a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Once there, she begins to put together the pieces of her story and its beginnings.Eighty years earlier in Rio’s Belle Epoque of the 1920s, Izabela Bonifacio’s father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into the aristocracy. Meanwhile, architect Heitor da Silva Costa is devising plans for an enormous statue, to be called Christ the Redeemer, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor to complete his vision. Izabela—passionate and longing to see the world—convinces her father to allow her to accompany him and his family to Europe before she is married. There, at Paul Landowski’s studio and in the heady, vibrant cafes of Montparnasse, she meets ambitious young sculptor Laurent Brouilly, and knows at once that her life will never be the same again.In this sweeping, epic tale of love and loss—the first in a unique, spellbinding series of seven novels—Lucinda Riley showcases her storytelling talent like never before.

Loving Liza Jane


Sharlene MacLaren - 2007
    But her contract implicitly states that she is to have no improper contact with the opposite sex. Liza has a lot to learn about God and His plan for her life. Whitaker Distributors

A Sapphire Season


Lynn Morris - 2015
     Lady Mirabella Tirel, the beautiful daughter of the Marquess of Camarden, takes a practical approach to love since a dashing captain broke her heart at age 17. Now at almost 22 years old, she has decided to endure one last London season to secure a suitable engagement and begin a simple life in the country. Sir Giles Knyvet is Mirabella's oldest friend and her most dependable ally, and he is also secretly in love with her. Yet he knows the prospect of a relationship is doubtful: Besides being a mere baronet, he aims to settle a large family debt before sharing his feelings with her. But as Mirabella draws close to a suitable match, Giles may need to interfere to buy himself more time.