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Caribbee

(Doubleday, 1985)'Action-crammed, historically factual novel . . . is a rousing read, ably researched by Hoover”Publishers WeeklyBarbados and Jamaica 1648. The lush and deadly Caribbean paradise, domain of rebels and slaveholders, of bawds and buccaneers. Colonists fight a wishful war for freedom against England.Idea points: Slavery, slaves, Caribbean, sugar, sugar mill, buBarbados, 1648. The lush and deadly Caribbean paradise, domain of rebels and freeholders, of brigands, bawds and buccaneers. CARIBBEE is the untold story of the first American revolution, as English colonists pen a Declaration of Defiance ("liberty" or "death") against Parliament and fight a full-scale war for freedom against an English fleet -- with cannon, militia, many lives lost -- over a century before 1776.The powerful story line, based on actual events, also puts the reader in the midst of the first major English slave auction in the Americas, and the first slave revolt. We see how plantation slavery was introduced into the English colonies, setting a cruel model for North America a few decades later, and we experience what it was like to be a West African ripped from a rich culture and forced to slave in the fields of the New World. We also see the unleashed greed of the early Puritans, who burned unruly slaves alive, a far different truth from that presented in sanitized history books. Finally, we witness how slavery contributed to the failure of the first American revolution, as well as to the destruction of England's hope for a vast New World empire.We also are present at the birth of the buccaneers, one-time cattle hunters who banded together to revenge a bloody Spanish attack on their home, and soon became the most feared marauders in the New World. The story is mythic in scope, with the main participants being classic American archetypes -- a retelling of the great American quest for freedom and honor. The major characters are based on real individuals, men and women who came West to the New World to seek fortune and personal dignity.Reviews“This action-crammed, historically factual novel . . . is a rousing read about the bad old marauding days, ably reserarched by Hoover”Publishers Weekly“Meticulous . . . compelling.” Kirkus Reviews“It should establish Thomas Hoover in the front rank of writers of historical fiction."—MALCOLM BOSSE author of THE WARLORDTags: Slavery, slaves, Caribbean, sugar, buccaneers, pirates, Barbados, Jamaica, Spanish Gold, Spanish Empire, Port Royal, Barbados
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A Garland for Girls

Louisa May Alcott was both an abolitionist and a feminist. She is best known for Little Women (1868), a semiautobiographical account of her childhood years with her sisters in Concord, Massachusetts. Alcott, unlike Jo, never married: ""...because I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man."" She was an advocate of women\'s suffrage and was the first woman to register to vote in Concord, Massachusetts. "Being Boston girls, of course they got up a club for mental improvement, and, as they were all descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers, they called it the Mayflower Club. A very good name, and the six young girls who were members of it made a very pretty posy when they met together, once a week, to sew, and read well-chosen books. At the first meeting of the season, after being separated all summer, there was a good deal of gossip to be attended to before the question, "What shall we read?" came up for serious discussion." This book has a beautiful glossy cover and a blank page for the dedication.
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Warlord

In the third entry in bestselling author Mel Odom's Makaum War series, Master Sergeant Frank Sage struggles to defend against the Phrenorian threat as battle lines will be redrawn—and blood will spill... One step forward, two steps back sums up Frank Sage's day-to-day on Makaum. No sooner does he get the drug cartels under control than a major political assassination stirs civil unrest to a fever pitch. Makaumans never wanted to choose sides in the Terran/Phrenorian war, but frustration, fear, and resentment are turning the tide against peacekeeping efforts.As street skirmishes rage on, the Terrans' most powerful on-planet ally works with Sage's superior officer to isolate insurgent cells—and outmaneuver the general who wants to yank troops from Makaum before their job is done. Meanwhile, the assassin who's targeting powerful figures from all factions is still at large.Amidst the chaos, Sage must keep his eye on...
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Bride of Pendorric

Favel Farrington meets Roc Pendorric on the idyllic Mediterranean island of Capri, where she was raised and lives with her father. Roc sweeps her off her feet, taking her from her home by an emerald sea to the ancient family home of the Pendorrics, in Cornwall. His sister and her family await them with open arms, welcoming young Favel. She is the much anticipated Bride of Pendorric, a name that amuses and flatters her. The castle is beautiful in its way, but the atmosphere is foreboding. Roc’s twin nieces begin watching her carefully; even the stones in the courtyard seem to have eyes. On the walls hang portraits of two other Brides of Pendorric—one of them Roc’s mother—who died both young and tragically. Favel’s fear increases as Roc seems to be growing more and more distant. Has her courtship and marriage been just a deception? Soon Favel can no longer dismiss as accidents the strange things happening to her. Someone is trying to kill her and she must confront the very real dangers that surround her.
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No Laughing Matter

When the accountant of Riverview's hot new comedy club is sent to jail for embezzlement, Nancy is convinced that he has been framed, and she goes undercover at the club to catch the real crook.
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The Thick of the Fray at Zeebrugge, April 1918

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Captain Ravenshaw; Or, The Maid of Cheapside. A Romance of Elizabethan London

This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.
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The Institute

An academic looking for money finds a woman and trouble instead Professor Lloyd Palmer loves a good biography. His fantasy is to start an institute to teach young scholars the biographical arts, and it will take old money to make his dreams come true. Around Washington, the oldest money is found not in the District, but in Delaware, a land of wealth so astonishing that even the Du Ponts are considered nouveau riche. But when the professor goes to Wilmington, he comes away not with old money, but young trouble. Her name is Hortense Garrett. She is his benefactor’s wife, a twenty-something beauty trapped in an unhappy marriage, whose good looks conceal the most cunning mind this side of the Potomac. She needs a ride to Washington, and Lloyd offers to give her a lift. They’ve barely left Delaware before he falls for her. By the time they hit the Beltway, his biography will be in her hands.
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A New Prospect

Sam Jenkins never thought about being a fish out of water during the twenty years he spent solving crimes in New York. But things change, and after retiring to Tennessee, he gets that feeling. In true Jenkins style, Sam turns common police practice on its ear to insure an innocent man doesn’t fall prey to an imperfect system and the guilty party receives appropriate justice.Sam Jenkins never thought about being a fish out of water during the twenty years he spent solving crimes in New York. But things change, and after retiring to Tennessee, he gets that feeling. Jenkins becomes a cop again and is thrown headlong into a murder investigation and a steaming kettle of fish, down-home style.The victim, Cecil Lovejoy, couldn’t have deserved it more. His death was the inexorable result of years misspent and appears to be no great loss, except the prime suspect is Sam’s personal friend.Jenkins’ abilities are attacked when Lovejoy’s influential widow urges politicians to reassign the case to state investigators. Feeling like “a pork chop at a bar mitzvah” in his new workplace, Sam suspects something isn’t kosher when the family tries to force him out of the picture.
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Pray for Silence

The Plank family moved from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to join the small Amish community of Painters Mill less than a year ago and seemed the model of the Plain Life—until on a cold October night, the entire family of seven was found slaughtered on their farm. Police Chief Kate Burkholder and her small force have few clues, no motive, and no suspect. Formerly Amish herself, Kate is no stranger to the secrets the Amish keep from the English—and each other—but this crime is horribly out of the ordinary. State agent John Tomasetti arrives on the scene to assist. He and Kate worked together on a previous case during which they began a volatile relationship. They soon realize the disturbing details of this case will test their emotional limits and force them to face demons from their own troubled pasts—and for Kate, a personal connection that is particularly hard to bear. When she discovers a diary that belonged to one of the teenaged daughters, Kate is shocked to learn the girl kept some very dark secrets and may have been living a lurid double life. Who is the charismatic stranger who stole the young Amish girl’s heart? Could the brother—a man with a violent past, rejected and shunned by his family and the Amish community, have come to seek out revenge? As Kate’s outrage grows so does her resolve to find the killer and bring him to justice—even if it means putting herself in the line of fire.
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Now and on Earth

San Diego in the years before World War II. James Dillon is barely scraping by working a menial job in manufacturing, trying to raise a family and support his elderly mother and sister Frankie at the same time. He drinks too hard--just like his father and nearly everyone in his extended family. With so many people crammed into one home, sometimes there's so much fighting he can barely stand it. But if James can survive the chaos of everyday life long enough, maybe--just maybe--there's a chance it'll all get better. NOW AND ON EARTH, Jim Thompson's first novel, draws on personal experience to depict a hardscrabble life in the sun-soaked streets of mid-20th century California. Chronicling the birth of a writer and the plight of the working man, it prefigures the American classics that followed, in a deeply-felt, autobiographical tale that shows a writer just coming into his own.
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Penelope and Prince Charming

Welcome to Nvengaria, a land where magic happens, shape-shifters are real, and fairy tales come true. England 1819 Wallflower Penelope Trask believes nothing will ever happen in her village of Little Marching, Oxfordshire. Handsome princes only sweep in and carry off innocent maidens in the fairy tales she collects, never in real life. Prince Damien of Nvengaria is tired of living inside a fairy tale. His entire life has been ruled by prophecy, magic, and avoiding being assassinated by his mad father and the head of the Council of Dukes. When his father dies, he inherits a kingdom divided, his opposition led by Grand Duke Alexander, who will do anything to keep the monster's son from ruling Nvengaria. To make good his claim to the throne, Damien must fulfill a prophecy that reunites the lines of the original two princes of Nvengaria, best friends who'd carved a kingdom out of wild lands near the Transylvanian mountains. Damien's task—to bring back the Princess of Nvengaria, her line lost centuries ago. The price of disappointing the people, Alexander promises, will be Damien's execution. Damien tracks down the long-lost princess to the village of Little Marching in England, where nothing remotely interesting ever happens. He will have to convince the lovely Penelope that he is no charlatan, and that Damien's life and his kingdom depends on her facing danger with him. Along the way, the prophecy says, they will fall in love. And the prophecy is never wrong ... Note: The Nvengaria series is paranormal historical, the books loosely based on well-known fairy tales: Penelope and Prince Charming—Cinderella The Mad, Bad Duke—Beauty and the Beast Highlander Ever After—Snow White and the Seven … Highlanders The Longest Night—Little Red Riding Hood (and the Big, Bad Wolf)
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Spin Cycle: A Romantic Christmas Story

All Dana Devlin wanted was to get the stain out of her favorite shirt. Was it her fault the only other guy in the Laundromat on Christmas Eve just happens to be the most eligible bachelor in all of Snowflake, South Carolina?This 5,880-word short story is 36 pages long.The young elf Minervar has quite naively jumped at the opportunity of adventure. But what self-respecting, talented young novice wouldn’t? Especially if they had a muscle bound guardian and teacher called Jondris along for the ride. Whilst on her day off, enjoying a quiet ale in a tavern, Minervar has a chance meeting with a kinswoman, the stunningly beautiful, but mysterious God-fearing ranger from the wilds, an elf called Serinae and her business partner Teouso. This human stranger from the east badly in need of a dentist who is a man but has an uncanny knack fighting as a large canine. Well, events quickly start to take an interesting turn. They are joined by a wise-cracking, ale-swilling professional soldier, a vacationing dwarf called Łĩnwéé who has big attitude and a liking for freshly poached eggs and dragon scales. They find themselves rescuing Tnie from a lynch mob. They don’t know it at first but Tnie is a fugitive, on the run from the authorities after intentionally destroying part of his home city (the uninhabited part luckily!) to save it from an invading army, an ancient force that has already caused much destruction back inages past.The companions discover at a high-society dinner party, hosted by the last remaining member of an ancient elven guild of academics, that their world is under threat. Natural cataclysmic events are on the increase (some would call these ‘Twists of Eternity’). Not only that, but they also find out that some of their group are unintentional refugees and not from the world they live in at all. With more questions than answers, they set out to learn what they can from the elder races, for each has knowledge and skills necessary to rescue the planet from certain doom. The only problem is, they are missing a member. They need a representative from the murderous war-loving race of the ognods, a race of giants from the north that all the other races hate and fear, with good reason. If that’s not sufficient to put a damper on the proceedings, it becomes apparent that other unrelated dark forces are trying to hinder them, even stop them altogether. Dark forces that are uncomfortably linked to the history of the elven race and more personally to Serinae’s own mysterious past.Wrongs are righted, lessons are learnt, battles are fought. Strange lands are travelled both within the world and without. Strange creatures discovered and avoided, especially the ones that dig tunnels using their naturally generated atomic energy (good for instantly heating water for tea though!). The company perseveres. They must discover their own secret past to save their precarious future. Finally with the help of a gargantuan technological marvel that runs on ‘chips’, designed and installed by a mysterious and extinct race of beings with a history more ancient than the planet itself, they succeed. The companions, although changed by their epic discoveries and experiences forever, put the world to rights. As for Minervar, well, she may just learn many things about herself along the way.
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