The Last Storyteller

“If we’re to live good lives, we have to tell ourselves our own story. In a good way.” So says Ben MacCarthy’s beloved mentor, and it is this fateful advice that will guide Ben through the tumultuous events of Ireland in 1956. The national mood is downtrodden; poverty, corruption, and an armed rebellion rattle the countryside; and although Ben wants no part of the insurrection, he unknowingly falls in with an IRA sympathizer. Yet despite his perilous circumstances, all he can think about is finding his former wife and true love, Venetia Kelly, who after many years has returned to Ireland with her brutish new husband, a popular stage performer. Determined not to lose Venetia again, Ben calls upon every bit of his passion and courage to win her back, while finally reconciling his violent past with his hopes for a bright future. Brimming with fascinating Irish history, daring intrigue, and the drama of legendary love, The Last Storyteller is an unforgettable novel as richly textured and inspiring as Ireland itself.
Views: 662

Footprints in the Snow

Julie and her young daughter, Emily, find themselves with no place to go on a blizzardy Christmas Eve. How will Julie keep Emily's innocence intact while fighting for their very survival?The last thing Denise Gasteaux expected was to be dumped by the man she was head over heels for. But that’s exactly what happened and now she’s left to pick up the pieces. So the last thing she’s looking for is R.J. McHansen when all she wants is to forget men even exist. She can't ignore the instant connection between them. But is Denise ready to allow another man into her heart so soon? Find out in Salvage, a States Trilogy short story. Approximately 10,000 words.
Views: 661

Mia

Mia St. Clair is a ten-year-old girl living in upstate New York. She has grown up playing ice hockey wit her three older brothers on the pond behind their house. Mia's got the skills and the scrappiness it takes to be a star hockey player, but she's tired of skating in her brothers' shadows and has decided to follow her heart and pursue figure skating instead. Does she have what it takes to grow and compete as a figure skaters? When a new coach arrives, Mia finds herself gently pushed by the coach at the same time that she's pulled by her brothers. Can she stay true to her heart and follow her own path? Can she hold her own in a world of competitive skating?
Views: 659

Instructions for a Heatwave

Sophisticated, intelligent, impossible to put down, Maggie O'Farrell's beguiling novels - After You'd Gone, winner of a Betty Trask Award; The Distance Between Us, winner of a Somerset Maugham Award; The Hand That First Held Mine, winner of the Costa Novel Award; and her unforgettable bestseller The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - blend richly textured psychological drama with page-turning suspense. Instructions for a Heatwave finds her at the top of her game, with a novel about a family crisis set during the legendary British heatwave of 1976. Gretta Riordan wakes on a stultifying July morning to find that her husband of forty years has gone to get the paper and vanished, cleaning out his bank account along the way. Gretta's three grown children converge on their parents' home for the first time in years: Michael Francis, a history teacher whose marriage is failing; Monica, with two stepdaughters who despise her and a blighted past that has driven away the younger sister she once adored; and Aoife, the youngest, now living in Manhattan, a smart, immensely resourceful young woman who has arranged her entire life to conceal a devastating secret. Maggie O'Farrell writes with exceptional grace and sensitivity about marriage, about the mysteries that inhere within families, and the fault lines over which we build our lives—the secrets we hide from the people who know and love us best. In a novel that stretches from the heart of London to New York City's Upper West Side to a remote village on the coast of Ireland, O'Farrell paints a bracing portrait of a family falling apart and coming together with hard-won, life-changing truths about who they really are.
Views: 658

The Mustangers

WESTERN WRITERS OF AMERICA HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE Champion cowboy Ben Smith is on trial for assault and battery, destruction of property, and intent to commit murder. His real troubles are just beginning. One of the last of the great American cowboys, Ben Smith is a three-time rodeo champion with one last chance to take a stand. Injured in a rodeo fall, he heads home at the age of forty to the Little Brawny Ranch, where he befriends the son of the Big Brawny's owner. Ben agrees to show little Jimmy the ropes: the rigors of ranching, the rewards of hard work, and the awe-inspiring beauty of the wild mustang herds running free. But when they learn the horses are being rounded up—for the slaughterhouse—the rawhide cowboy and skinny greenhorn strike back, each in his own way, to save the mustangs. But there is the inevitable, violent, historic showdown. Ablaze with action, humanity, humor, and a noble cause, The...
Views: 657

The Governess's Earl

Is the best role for a bluestocking a bride? Rejected by the man she loved, quick-witted bluestocking Rosemary Denby is determined to win the position of governess to the temperamental Lady Miranda, daughter of the Earl of Howland. Surely helping another young lady find the joy in learning is just what she needs to regain her confidence. Drake, Earl of Howland, is struggling to find his footing as a widowed father, new earl, and suddenly penniless owner of the castle near the cozy spa village of Grace-by-the-Sea. But the new governess has him even more off balance. He loved once and saw his wife die in childbirth. The more he learns about Rosemary, the more he begins to wonder whether he can open his heart again. As danger once more draws closer to the castle on the headland, he and Rosemary must work together to keep the village and his daughter safe. Could his bluestocking governess be the one to teach him a lesson, in love? If you love sweet, witty Regency romances with a touch of adventure, then you’ll love The Governess’s Earl, the fourth book in Regina Scott’s Grace-by-the-Sea series, where romance and adventure come home. “Oh, hooray! Another adventure series by Regina Scott.” Among the Reads Review Blog Continue the adventure today. **
Views: 656

Naughty, Naughty girl!

The second book in a series. Lisa is going to her Gran's house, but is terribly naughty. But when she finds out a secret about her Gran, a talking snake and a snake catcher, she changes her mind!How many lights do you see when you die? What do Jean, Maggie May, Susannah, Lucille, Caroline, Georgia, Sylvia, Maria, Virginia, and Mrs Brown's lovely daughter have in common? Where do Texas bluebonnets come from? What does Sallie lace her apple pies with? Do angels drive blue vans in New England? Why does every town in Paradise and Heaven have a pond? How fast can an armadillo run? And, can someone tell me, please, why do fools really fall in love? And what's with all those dandelions? For a glimpse into the damp cycle of existence, read Kit Duncan's Dandelions in Paradise. Life, and eternity, as you've never imagined before!
Views: 653

Artie Conan Doyle and the Scarlet Phantom

One day Arthur Conan Doyle will create the greatest detective of all — Sherlock Holmes. But right now, Artie Conan Doyle is a twelve-year-old Edinburgh schoolboy with a mystery of his own to solve.Artie and his best friend Ham are investigating the strange case of the Scarlet Phantom, an invisible jewel thief who seems to walk through walls and disappear at will. But there's a rival detective on the case, a paranormal investigator who claims that only he can capture this 'ghost'.With the help of their new friend, girl scientist Peril Abernethy, Artie and Ham follow a trail of baffling clues and impossible dangers, but can they catch the Phantom before the invisible fiend pulls off the greatest robbery in history?Robert J. Harris, author of The World's Gone Loki series and Will Shakespeare and the Pirate's Fire, brings the young Conan Doyle to life in the third instalment of this ingenious detective series full of twists, turns and clever...
Views: 650

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

Maggie O’Farrell takes readers on a journey to the darker places of the human heart, where desires struggle with the imposition of social mores. This haunting story explores the seedy past of Victorian asylums, the oppression of family secrets, and the way truth can change everything. In the middle of tending to the everyday business at her vintage clothing shop and sidestepping her married boyfriend’s attempts at commitment, Iris Lockhart receives a stunning phone call: Her great-aunt Esme, whom she never knew existed, is being released from Cauldstone Hospital - where she has been locked away for over sixty years. Iris’s grandmother Kitty always claimed to be an only child. But Esme’s papers prove she is Kitty’s sister, and Iris can see the shadow of her dead father in Esme’s face. Esme has been labeled harmless - sane enough to coexist with the rest of the world. But Esme’s still basically a stranger, a family member never mentioned by the family, and one who is sure to bring life-altering secrets with her when she leaves the ward. If Iris takes her in, what dangerous truths might she inherit? Maggie O’Farrell’s intricate tale of family secrets, lost lives, and the freedom brought by truth will haunt readers long past its final page.
Views: 646

Green River Rising

On the day Dr. Ray Klein wins his parole, the disciplinary perfection of Green River Penitentiary in Texas is torn apart by riot - more a tribal war - of unimaginable ferocity. As the inmates take over, the River sucks all inside further toward the abyss. Klein must choose. He must either claim his freedom and abandon his friends and the woman he loves to die, or he must risk all and fight. "Green River Rising" is a thriller that grabs you at the outset and imprisons you in the iron grip of its headlong plot until the final page. It is also an intelligent, literate, philosophical novel about choice, courage, and love - the dark, violent, sexy story of one man's moral choices in the amoral maelstrom.
Views: 643

Half Moon Street

Leo Stanhope dreams of making a home with Maria, the prostitute he loves, and he dreams of a world where no one cares what is tucked between his legs. Because Leo has a secret, and in Queen Victoria's England, that secret could get him locked up for life or killed. But it's a prostitute who's killed instead, and Leo who becomes the prime suspect. To clear his name, will he give up his secret?
Views: 642

Calum's Exile

Clan: Season 2, Episode 1. Calum’s Exile A Bitesize 1 hour Read. Season 2 kicks off at a cracking pace!Cumberland’s army, fresh from their easy victory at Culloden, is running amok right across the Highlands.And against the systematic slaughter ordered by the king, our heroes Calum Maclean and Big John Mackintosh must make a dash for Glasgow to find passage to the New World, or die tryingClan: Season 2, Episode 1. Calum’s Exile A Bitesize 1 hour Read. Season 2 kicks off at a cracking pace!Cumberland’s army, fresh from their easy victory at Culloden, is running amok right across the Highlands.And against the systematic slaughter ordered by the king, our heroes Calum Maclean and Big John Mackintosh must make a dash for Glasgow to find passage to the New World, or die trying.Their 150 miles journey is through a country swarming with English soldiers, murdering men, women and children and plundering anything of value.Every day they remain in their beloved Scotland, they’re in mortal danger, but they can’t just ride by and let the innocent perish. Colonel York is dead, but his hand reaches from the grave for one last act of vengeance. The assassin sent to kill Calum is the best of the worst. Unstoppable, and without mercy.The new journey has begun.
Views: 638