Cécile loses her aunt's precious cameo necklace as she leaves a circus performance on a New Orleans showboat. Her search to find out who may have taken it leads her back to the wharf, to the French Market and Congo Square, to a high-society tea, and even into the cypress swamps outside the city. It also opens her eyes to the worsening challenges for people of color in the 1850s. Views: 48
Kate Evans and Paul Anderson are finally married, settling in, and starting a family. They rejoice when Kate finds she is pregnant, but soon it is clear that there are hurdles ahead. Should she continue in her dangerous profession as an Alaskan bush pilot? Can she really fall into the role of a wife? Then tragedy strikes, life begins to unravel, and Kate fears she may have lost Paul for good.Chock-full of high-flying adventure, romance, and the drama of life, Joy Takes Flight is the exciting conclusion to Bonnie Leon's Alaskan Skies series. Views: 48
Some fairytales are twistedAs the daughter of a duke, Lady Annalise Palmer should be living a charmed life. Appearances can be deceiving though—her father has ensured that her entire life has been filled with nothing but heartache and hardship. Happiness is an elusive emotion, and love nonexistent. She has no reason to believe she'll find either.Ryan Simms, the Marquess of Cinderbury has been alone nearly his whole life. After his father died, he was abandoned by his grandfather and left in the care of his wicked stepmother. From a young age he learned not to trust a lady, and especially, never to fall in love.They are two lost souls in search of salvation. Together they can help each other heal, if they can believe in the possibility of happiness, and escape the torment they've both suffered, and along the way discover an eternal love. Views: 48
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found...Now remembered as the author of the world's most famous hymn, in the mid-eighteenth century as England and France stand on the brink of war, John Newton is a young sailor wandering aimlessly through life. His only duty is to report to his ship and avoid disgracing his father—until the night he hears Polly Catlett's enchanting voice, caroling. He's immediately smitten and determined to win her affection.An intense connection quickly forms between the two, but John's reckless spirit and disregard for the Christian life are concerns for the responsible, devout Polly. When an ill-fated stop at a tavern leaves John imprisoned and bound, Polly must choose to either stand by his side or walk out of his life forever. Will she forfeit her future for the man she loves?Step back through the pages of history, to uncover the true love story behind a... Views: 48
When Vera decides to travel to an old house in the New England countryside for a month-long escape from some devastating news about her daughter, Cassie, she has no idea her life is about to change forever. It begins innocently enough—peeling the old wallpaper from the walls as a favor to the house’s owner. What she discovers underneath—written in India ink on the very walls of the house by a woman named Beth, in 1919—is the beginning of the reader’s unsettling crossing into the unknown world underneath the paper. The Writing on the Wall is a brilliantly realized journey into the connected lives of three women whose stories span a century, linked by the house they all briefly inhabit, and by the tragedies they've had to endure. And it's not just their own stories that reveal themselves. A brilliant schoolteacher, back from the war in the trenches, finds the pupils of his dreams. A young Vietnam draftee makes a stubbornly quirky separate peace. The moody, dangerously charismatic leader of a commune becomes the unlikeliest of heroes. An “ordinary” housewife's lonely battle propels her onto the national stage. A girl sent to Iraq tries making sense of the chaos and the pain. The Writing on the Wall is about stories that can't be told, but must be told—about secrets that can't be shared, but must be shared—and the surprising ways people find to confront the truth.From BooklistIn his latest novel, Wetherell (Hills like White Hills, 2009) finds a unique way to tell the stories of three women. Vera Savino retreats to the old New England house her sister owns in the wake of her daughter’s disgrace during a stint in the army. Vera insists on undertaking the remodeling project her sister planned, and she begins by stripping off the wallpaper. Underneath the many layers, she discovers a memoir of sorts written in tiny handwriting by Beth, a young woman who resided in the house in 1919. Vera becomes caught up in Beth’s confessions about her desire to continue her education after her marriage and her feelings for a charismatic teacher. As Vera strips the walls to follow Beth’s story, she discovers that another woman has followed suit. Dottie, a housewife who lived in the house in the 1960s, hid her son Andy, who went AWOL from the army. Beth’s and Dottie’s struggles help Vera find the courage to take her pen to the wall to recount the horrifying secret her daughter shared with her. --Kristine Huntley Review“W. D. Wetherell is a fearless acrobat with words and narrative structures. His work, filled with humor, warmth and wisdom, asks us to re-examine our recent history.” (Chicago Tribune )“W.D. Wetherell has a sharp, fresh eye and a complicated view of our dislocations, pains and dreams.” (New York Times ) Views: 48
As midwife and healer, Agatha Kyteler is regarded as a witch by her superstitious neighbours in the village of Wefford in Devonshire, yet she has no shortage of callers, from the humblest villein to the most elegant and wealthy in the area. But when Agatha's body is found frozen and mutilated in a hedge one wintry morning, there seem to be no clues as to who could be responsible. Not until a local youth runs away and a hue and cry is raised. Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King's Peace, is not convinced of the youth's guilt, and soon he manages to persuade his close friend Simon Puttock, bailiff of Lydford Castle, to help him continue with the investigation. As they endeavour to find the true culprit, the darker side of the village, with its undercurrents of suspicion, jealousy and disloyalty, emerges. And while Sir Baldwin becomes increasingly distracted by the beauty of a neighbouring merchant's wife, Simon finds himself wondering what happened to the foreigner who visited the normally sleepy area only to disappear shortly after Agatha's death, riding down towards the moors ... Views: 48
After the death of her parents, young Andrina Maldon has selflessly borne the responsibility not only for the running a household impoverished by her father's profligacy but also for the future happiness of her two sisters. Strikingly beautiful as they are, there is no hope of their finding a suitable suitor without someone to introduce them to the Social world. So she travels unchaperoned to London to seek the assistance of the Duke of Broxbourne, her father's friend and the Godfather she has never met.On the stagecoach journey Andrina has a frightening encounter with a gentleman at a Posting inn – and on arrival at Broxbourne House she is appalled to find that this man is none other than the Duke of Broxbourne himself. At first unwilling to help her, the Duke grudgingly agrees to her requests and although grateful, Andrina despises this arrogant and insensitive man – until, little by little, his true nature is revealed and a very different emotion begins to stir... Views: 48
1794. Lieutenant John Pearce, recently returned from the Atlantic, is caught between the constant feuding of two senior admirals. One puts him in a position of maximum danger while another asks him to undertake a hazardous commission, one he must accept in order to protect his friends, the Pelicans. They are his Achilles heel and those in power know it.Meanwhile, Pearce is also trying to construct a perjury case against Captain Ralph Barclay, whose nephew Toby Burns has become a reluctant pawn in the game, the objective of which is to finally silence the man who could bring about Barclay’s ruin: John Pearce.Highly charged, packed with historical detail and loaded with action The Admirals’ Game is a must-read for all nautical adventure fans. Views: 48
