Finding purpose…together Calico Christmas at Dry Creek When influenza claims her husband and baby, Elizabeth O’Brian doesn’t know if she can go on. Then Jake Hargrove approaches her with a plea she can’t ignore. He’s been left in charge of his two nieces, and the baby desperately needs Elizabeth’s help to survive the harsh winter. A marriage of convenience seems the only answer. With a new purpose in life, dare Elizabeth hope for the gift of love this Christmas? Redeeming Gabriel Spying for the Union army has taken a heavy toll on Gabriel Laniere. Though the cause is noble, he can never risk getting close to anyone—not even God. Yet Camilla Beaumont, daughter of the Confederacy, might be the exception. Camilla has a secret that rivals Gabriel’s—she works for the Underground Railroad. When the two forge an unlikely partnership, it could be the key Gabriel seeks to a truth larger than any conflict—love.
Spying for the Union army has taken a heavy toll on Gabriel Laniere. With deception a constant in his life, he can't get close to anyone--not even God. Yet Camilla Beaumont, a daughter of the Confederacy, just might be the exception. Original.
Delia Keller goes from a penniless preacher's granddaughter to a rich young heiress overnight. Building a house by Christmas is her first priority. That is until former Civil War chaplain Jude Tucker challenges her plans--and her heart. Original.
Adam Newman once had it all. But then he lost it. Now Adam yearns to reunite with his estranged wife, Evelyn, and recapture the Edenic life they once had running Paradise Dogs, the roadside hot-dog restaurant now legendary throughout central Florida. He has a few obstacles along the way. For starters, there's his impending marriage to Lily. There's also the matter of a quarter million dollars' worth of diamonds that he mislaid, along with what appears to be a shadowy conspiracy that is buying up land around the Cross-Florida Canal (and which may or may not be a product of Adam's alcohol-infused imagination). Despite his own troubles---and a brief stay in Chattahoochee---Adam looks to mentor his son, Addison, in the ways of love. Awkward, unsure, and employed as the world's least accurate obituary writer, Addison pines for a beautiful and painfully earnest linguistic student but must compete for her attention with his older and more sophisticated half brother from Evelyn's first marriage. But if anybody can set these worlds in order, it is Adam, who has an uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time and allowing others to believe he's someone he's not. Whether it's delivering a baby, rescuing a marriage, or exposing a Communist conspiracy, our protagonist is up for the job. Paradise Dogs, from Georgia Author of the Year Award winner Man Martin, is a farcical tale of paradise lost, the American Dream, and the true measures of love
New York Times Bestseller • Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize • An Oprah's Book Club Selection “Powerful . . . [Kingsolver] has with infinitely steady hands worked the prickly threads of religion, politics, race, sin and redemption into a thing of terrible beauty.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review The Poisonwood Bible, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, established Barbara Kingsolver as one of the most thoughtful and daring of modern writers. Taking its place alongside the classic works of postcolonial literature, it is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in Africa. The story is told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it—from garden seeds to Scripture—is calamitously transformed on African soil. The novel is set against one of the most dramatic political chronicles of the twentieth century: the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium, the murder of its first elected prime minister, the CIA coup to install his replacement, and the insidious progress of a world economic order that robs the fledgling African nation of its autonomy. Against this backdrop, Orleanna Price reconstructs the story of her evangelist husband's part in the Western assault on Africa, a tale indelibly darkened by her own losses and unanswerable questions about her own culpability. Also narrating the story, by turns, are her four daughters—the teenaged Rachel; adolescent twins Leah and Adah; and Ruth May, a prescient five-year-old. These sharply observant girls, who arrive in the Congo with racial preconceptions forged in 1950s Georgia, will be marked in surprisingly different ways by their father's intractable mission, and by Africa itself. Ultimately each must strike her own separate path to salvation. Their passionately intertwined stories become a compelling exploration of moral risk and personal responsibility.
A novel full of twists, surprising turns, and suspense, Dying for Christmas is Tammy Cohen's most disturbing psychological thriller yet. Out Christmas shopping one December afternoon, Jessica Gould meets the charming Dominic Lacey and impulsively agrees to go home with him for a drink. What follows are Twelve Days of Christmas from hell, as Lacey holds Jessica captive, forcing her to wear his missing wife’s gowns and eat lavish holiday meals. Each day he gifts her with one item from his twisted past—his dead sister’s favorite toy, disturbing family photos, a box of teeth. As the days pass and the “gifts” become darker and darker, Jessica realizes that Lacey has a plan for her, and he never intends to let her go. But Jessica has a secret of her own . . . a secret that may just mean she has a chance to make it out alive.
Following her dream The Preacher’s Wife by Cheryl St.John There is nothing romantic about widowed father Samuel Hart’s marriage proposal. Yet Josie Randolph says yes. The Lord has finally blessed the lonely widow with the family she’s always dreamed of. Surely during their long journey to his new post, her husband will grow to love her. Samuel doesn’t seem ready to open his heart again. But Josie is determined to be not just the preacher’s wife, but Samuel’s wife. Crescent City Courtship by Elizabeth White Abigail Neal dreams of escaping her life in the slums of New Orleans. But how can a woman alone ever fulfill her dreams of becoming a doctor? Then young medical student John Braddock comes to pay a call on a neighbor, and an unlikely friendship develops between the two. But when Abby’s past comes back to haunt her, will she call upon her faith to help right a wrong and make a new life with her very own Prince Charming?
There was nothing remotely romantic about widowed father Samuel Hart's marriage proposal. Yet Josie Randolph said yes. The Lord had finally blessed the lonely widow with the family she'd always dreamed of. And she was deeply in love with the handsome preacher, whose high ideals inspired everyone. Surely during their long journey across the western plains to his new post her husband would grow to love her. Each mile brought them closer to home, yet drove them further apart. Samuel didn't seem ready to open his heart again. But Josie was determined to be not just the preacher's wife, but Samuel's wife.
