The Heir The Arceneaux family has a long history of falling victim to circumstance--madness, embezzlement, even murder--but when the last of the unmarried females inherits the family plantation, she is determined their unfortunate legacy will end with her. After her father is imprisoned in New York, she embarks on a new life in New Orleans with what is left of all the hope she can muster. What she finds is an abandoned house, a fractured family, and an oppressed people. Determined to find her own way, she confronts the challenges head on, and soon realizes change is not something needed only for her, but for many. People of Color In the decades before the Civil War, Louisiana was the most advanced state on the topic of freedom. People of color were successful in business and owned property--some of which they acquired through the gifts or wills of white fathers whose black and mulatto wives and mistresses exacted better lives for their children. A Step Backward The Civil War brought change--any black lineage became cause for discrimination, even in Louisiana--and many blacks and mixed-race persons were relegated to occupations not unlike those of their ancestors. Women, though white, were expected to be hostesses and leave business to men--especially the business of voting. A Family Reunited Willows Plantation, still worked by the descendants of the slaves who built it, becomes the anchor to affect change and in a historical fiction story spanning five generations, author Cyndie Shaffstall, takes you on a journey through abolition and suffrage efforts of the 1700s and 1800s. A Voodoo priestess, a French artist, the first woman presidential candidate, and the world’s fair shed light on issues and provide opportunities to reunite and strengthen an entire family.Each book of The Delegate series reads as though you've come across someone's journal. While you read, the saga envelopes you, and it becomes your journal, and your story, as you are transported through time.

    Born in a home for fallen women, at the age of eight the barefooted and waiflike Harry is sent out to work. After years of unpaid toil and hunger, he runs away and is cajoled into believing that the Army is his only option. He joins a battalion that is sent to Africa’s Slave Coast where disease is the biggest killer of men. When the much-thinned battalion returns to England and is disbanded, he drifts into smuggling in order to survive. All goes well until he is betrayed and forced back on the run. Leaving the West Country behind, he enlists in a Sussex regiment which is sent to quell rioting in the north where he faces danger from the angry Mob, and from the rage of a sadistic young ensign who is out for Harry’s blood. Published by The Electronic Book Company www.theelectronicbookcompany.com

    Uncle Walter seems emotionless, exhibiting little feeling towards the young lad. If it wasn't for some of the staff at Huntington Hall, Archie's life would be a complete misery. There's a dark secret that Cook hints at as to why Archie's mother left her lavish lifestyle behind and ended up settling in the East End of London, scraping a living selling cakes and confectionery from the back of a barrow in the marketplace. Archie's never known his father and wonders who he is. Just as he's settling in at the house, someone comes along and seizes the opportunity to kidnap Archie, forcing him to work as a chimney sweep, navigating searing hot chimney breasts in an inferno of hell. As if life couldn't get much harder for boy, he cries himself to sleep at night praying for the angels to take him so he can finally see his mother once again in heaven... Will Archie finally find the love he's looking for? A heartwarming saga, perfect for fans of Dilly Court and Maggie Hope.

    Enticed by promises of work with good pay, people flock to textile mills in the South. Many leave their beloved mountains for what they hope is a step up from their grinding poverty. It’s guaranteed pay and housing. Being the sighted sister of the Hooper/Watson family, Lottie is grieved by a dream that sorrow will come to her home. Yet, she leaves Cocke County, Tennessee, with Beck Radford, her new husband, and her four children from a previous, abusive marriage, and goes to Clifton, South Carolina. Lottie is a stranger to village life and close neighbors. Life is harder than any of them imagined. In spite of hard work, widespread poverty remains a fact of life for everyone in the mill town. Lottie’s “gift” of second sight into the future is not an ability she would’ve chosen. One event she didn't see coming, yet someone else did, rips apart their life, as well as everyone’s around them.

    

     In Sarah's Valley, Patrick Smithson meets Frank Lawdry. Frank, who prefers his Abenaki name, Winnipesaukee, spends the night recalling his life story. He and his sister, Sarah, were left orphans when everyone on a wagon train died in a horrific tragedy. It was their story of survival. Return to Sarah's Valley continues where Sarah's Valley leaves off. Now an old man in his nineties, Patrick meets Michael Lawdry, one of Winnipesaukee's descendants, and tells him how two Lawdry men influenced his life. This is a story of life during the Great Depression, struggles and heartache, but also the deep love that a man has for one woman.

    First it took his mother, then his father, and now it threatens to end his own life as well. Merciless killer Kip Lane found Brett and his sweetheart, Allie, while they were out for an afternoon ride. Now Allie is missing and Brett lies at the bottom of a deep hole carrying three bullet holes. He’s got to escape and then rescue Allie from Kip’s clutches, but first he’s got to survive the cold lonesome night. Kip Lane isn’t Brett’s only concern though. There’s another man lurking behind the dashing outlaw. A dangerous man with money, powerful friends, and more than one gunfighter on his payroll. He aims to be the territory’s biggest rancher and Brett’s ranch is the key. Brett has a few allies he can count on. Gideon Sweeney and his daughter Lisa at the local Mormon settlement along with Red Elk, an old Crow medicine man, and Mourning Song, a beautiful Cheyenne woman with her own tragic history. Will it be enough to take back Brett’s heritage or will young Rawlins find his end beneath the guns of his enemies? Either way there will be Blood on the Bighorns.

    A moving story of love and friendship with a wonderful sense of place' KATE MOSSE'A terrific story ... skilfully written and heart-rending' MIRIAM MARGOLYES'A virtual hug of a tale; warm, and engaging, and tender' JOANNE HARRIS'Romantic, evocative, and pulse racingly dramatic' WENDY HOLDEN'An emotional and moving read' FIONA VALPY ________ France, 1943.Forced to flee war ravaged Poland, Sara and her parents are offered refuge in a beautiful but dilapidated house in the French Alps. It seems the perfect hideaway, despite haunting traces of the previous occupants who left in haste.But shadows soon fall over Sara's blissful summer, and her blossoming romance with local villager Alain. As the Nazis close in, the family is forced to make a harrowing choice that could drive them apart forever, while Sara's own bid for freedom risks several lives . . .Will her family make it through the summer together?And can she hold onto the love she has found with Alain?By turns poignant and atmospheric, this is the compelling new novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Carol Drinkwater about the power of first love and courage in our darkest hours.________'An exciting, evocative and beautifully written romance' DAILY MAIL'I love Carol Drinkwater's writing . . . So evocative of the south of France - you can almost smell the maquis . . . Engrossing' Reader Review 'Carol skilfully draws us in to the beautiful Alpes Maritimes region of France to tell the story of Sara . . . the writing is evocative and Sara's story is both moving and inspiring' Sheila O'Flanagan, bestselling author of The Women Who Ran Away'Great storyline, great characters. A thoroughly enjoyable read' Reader Review 'I enjoyed it very much . . . it's her best' Elizabeth Buchan, author of The Museum of Broken Promises'A wonderful, enjoyable novel with courage and survival at its heart' Elizabeth Chadwick, author of The Wild Hunt series'One not to be missed ... tells a part of history that should never be forgotten' Shirley Dickson, author of The Lost Children Praise for Carol Drinkwater: 'I was hooked from the start' Dinah Jefferies 'Carol Drinkwater's writing is like taking an amazing holiday in book form' Jenny Colgan 'Beautifully woven and compelling' Rowan Coleman 'Secrets, tragedy, hidden pasts and family secrets - I loved this' Santa Montefiore

    Conor Rafferty joins the Confederate army as a young infantry officer against the wishes of his father who, in his Irish anger, is adamantly opposed to a war with the North. Conor soon finds himself in many of the war’s most consequential battles, leading from the front and risking all inside that deadly space. He serves with distinction in General Robert E. Lee’s celebrated Army of Northern Virginia as it seeks the crowning victory that will end the war and stop the carnage. Along the way, Conor becomes a protégé of fellow Georgian John B. Gordon who eventually rises to command a Confederate army corps. At the conclusion of each chapter, the narrative transitions to the now aged Conor who answers the probing questions of his grandson Aaron, himself a captain in the U.S. Army and scheduled for duty in Europe during World War I. The grandfather and grandson thus spend a week together—a week of sharing, learning, and bonding. That Deadly Space is a compelling tale that portrays the drama, heroism, romance, and tragedy of the Civil War.

    In the spring of 1665, England is recovering from a terrible winter, yet the country has other severe problems to face as the sun finally returns. The King, Charles II, had been welcomed back as a saviour on his restoration five years before, but is now resented by increasing numbers of his own people. And in March, the King declares war on the Dutch, England’s great seagoing trade rivals… Worse news comes to Restoration London, though, when there is an outbreak of the plague in April. This is terrible news in particular for the wealthy young physician and merchant Henry Raven, who believes that the outbreak is not natural but has been caused by an old enemy plotting his revenge against the city of London. Henry Raven, together with his friends from the Royal Society, Dr William Croone and Robert Hooke, organize the city’s fight against the spread of the disease. Raven’s delectable young mistress, Molly Titchen, is a precocious seventeen-year-old actress at the new King’s theatre in Drury Lane who is torn between her devotion to Henry Raven, and her love of strutting the stage in breeches parts. When Molly gives a bed for the night to one sick young actor, her kind action is misunderstood by Raven who believes that she has been unfaithful to him. Then Molly falls on hard times herself, and is aided not by her jealous lover, but by a strange Moorish apothecary, and a mysterious Frenchman, Philippe Desargues, Comte de Mésanger... Henry Raven has other problems to trouble his mind too, apart from his fight against the plague and his wish to save his relationship with Molly. Firstly, a close childhood friend, Esther Linney, has disappeared from her cottage on the estate of Raven’s family home in Dorset, Salwayash Manor, and gone to London. Raven’s sister Catherine asks her brother to find Esther in London, and discover why she left Dorset in such mysterious circumstances. Raven also has to deal with the fact that his sister has clearly fallen in love with their wealthy neighbour, the recently widowed Ralph Warboys, who is a handsome man yet one with a haunted past. And then strange events unfold in the quiet Dorset countryside when two young girls are found dead in suspicious circumstances... As the plague rages through London, Raven finds himself having to defend Esther Linney against a charge of witchcraft, while also trying to save Molly from an implacable enemy. But his greatest challenge is to discover the secrets of an old family curse, and to unmask a cruel murderer…

    An essential flight from France crash lands in the North Sea, leaving the four remaining crew members of the RAF Hudson stranded on a dinghy.One man is critically injured, and another, a rocket expert, is carrying a briefcase stuffed with vital war secrets, that could prove devastating if allowed to fall into the wrong hands.As the days begin to stretch out, they can only pray that the rescue team can locate the dinghy in time, before exposure kills them, or worse, the enemy finds them… A novel which charts the daring and courage of four castaways, and the men who rescued them in a breathtaking mission with the most awesome of consequences, perfect for fans of Alexander Fullerton, David McDine and Alan Evans.

    Bryan Hale and Bluebird Squadron fight on into the autumn of 1940, chasing down the new threat of ‘Jabo’ hit-and-run raids by bomb-laden enemy fighters over the capital’s rooftops.Bryan’s chance encounter in a London pub with Jenny, an acquaintance from his school-days, starts them both down the road to a relationship that neither wants or can afford. But the deadly perils of London’s Blitz ignite a passion that neither can resist.Bluebird Squadron rotates out of the front-line to Scotland. Bryan transfers to night-fighters, partly to sate his desire for combat, but also to stay close to Jenny.Struggling with fledgling radar technology, Bryan and his operator, Tommy Scott, eventually become calculating hunters of the night, stalking and slaying Nazi raiders in a chilling, deadly game of cat-and-mouse in England’s pitch-black winter skies.The stresses of combat, the loss of friends and the daily grind of mortal danger weigh ever more heavily. As the new year dawns on the battered, bohemian streets of the blitzed capital, Bryan’s life begins to fray and unravel.

     The Western Front is waking from a bitter winter that has locked the land in ice for months. With the promise of spring looming on the horizon the allied armies once again plan to go on the offensive. At Arras the British forces will attack, pitching themselves against the German lines in a bid to break the stalemate once and for all. After the failures of Nineteen Sixteen there is a chance, a hope, that this time they will end the deadlock on the Western Front. Threatening the British flank, Vimy Ridge stands like a rock above the Douai plain. The enemy has held it since the first months of the war and have turned it into a fortress that has defeated all attacks made against its network of trenches, bunkers and tunnels. The Germans are confident that it will hold out again. Nonetheless, the Canadians are determined to take the six miles of ridge. In the face of a fierce blizzard they will attack and win a place in history. Temporarily attached to a company of engineers tasked with seizing the tunnels that lie hidden beneath Vimy Ridge, Harry and his section will find themselves caught in the grip of the storm as they battle their way onto the ridge and below it, fighting with the Canadians to take a position the Germans consider impregnable.

    From Dakota’s Black Hills to the gold and diamond fields of Southern Africa, Jim O’Rourke and his daughter, Kathleen step from the sailing ship Eudora and take their covered wagon deep inside a vast and ancient wilderness. The land is raw-boned and unforgiving – the men and women who search its heart for wealth, love and adventure, even more so. Smoke from a thousand fires clung to a broken landscape and towering above it, churned from a vast and open wound in the earth’s crust, were those billowing clouds of powdered Kimberlite; as yellow, ochrous fingers they reached upwards for over a thousand feet, deep inside the heart of that darksome Colesberg sky.