Historical Homes

Finn I had to leave her. Then, for reasons I can’t explain even to myself, I’ve had to stay away. Now, twenty years later, I’m back, staring into deep, brown eyes I could drown in. I can’t do it. I can’t give in to the love I have for her. She doesn’t know what I’ve done. Mellie He stands in front of me, lines around his eyes that weren’t there when he was 18 and left me to run away from the accusations surrounding him and toward war. Still, he is my Finn, and I want him in my life forever, just like I’ve longed for him every day these past two decades. Neither of us is ...

Gallipoli, 1916. Lovat Scout soldier Donald Peter Gillies lies in hospital, blinded by the Turks. There he falls in love with his Queen Alexandra Corps nurse, Louise. The story moves back and forth from their time at the field hospital to the west highlands of Scotland where Donald grew up. As they talk in the quiet hours he tells her the stories of the coast and glens. Louise in turn tells her own story of growing up in a Welsh coal mining valley. They get cut off from the Allied troops and are forced to make an escape, but there is still another tragic twist to their story....

Desperate to forget her past, sixteen-year-old CC arrives on her grandparents’ North Louisiana farm and asks, ‘will I ever feel normal again?’ She brushes aside her family’s attempts to break through her isolation and angst and hides her darkest secret from her beloved Gran. Even CC’s vivacious new friend, Addy, and a summer romance with steely eyed Eric can’t persuade her to reveal what happened last winter in New Orleans. It’s 1964 and as Beatlmania and Motown captivate America’s youth, this young woman encounters small town racial tension, erupting sexual assault, and ...

An orphan boy named Billy performs with a traveling medicine show with Angus and Doctor C.F. Noble, Discoverer of the Elixir of the Incas. Billy is planning to run away when Doc is suddenly taken ill. Will Billy stay and help the Doc or run away?

A New York City private detective in 1943 must figure out how a murder and a suicide are connected to a menace by Nazi spies. This historical thriller tells the story of Jack Ryder, who calls himself a fixer. A lonely widower, Ryder is driven to help people but struggles to help himself, especially when he is arrested for murder. Ryder’s world is filled with suspense, death, and the dark shadows of Greenwich Village. Can Ryder figure out who the Nazis plan to assassinate?

When Katie Steury hires her old friend Harley Lambright to remodel her rundown old house into a charming bed and breakfast, she does so with trepidation. Though they are longtime friends, they’ve always had a rocky relationship, thanks to her being partly responsible for his most recent breakup. But while they may not always get along, she needs someone to trust with her secrets, and Harley is nothing if not trustworthy and loyal.

Jessica Layton left her Oregon hometown - and her longtime love - for medical school with one thing on her mind: saving lives. Her frontier dreams were filled with more than rural domestic life, even if that life was with the man she was supposed to marry.… Now, years later, Cole Braddock is not pleased to see Dr. Jessica Layton back in Powell Springs. He’s never forgiven her for choosing her career over him. Cole knows that Jess can save their town, but will he let her heal his heart?

In this beautiful collection of memories, Tom Brokaw speaks of growing up in the American heartland during the central decades of the 20th century, and reflects on what has brought so many Americans to lead lives that are a long way from home.

(Disclaimer: This is not a new title. It was originally published by Ulysses Press as "The Scandal of Lady Eleanor.") The men of the REALM have served their country, while ignoring their responsibilities to home and their estates and love, but now that Bonaparte is defeated, they each mean to claim their portion of a new and prosperous England. However, their long-time enemy Shaheed Mir has other plans. The Persian warlord believes one of the Realm has stolen a fist-sized emerald, and the Baloch intends to have its return or his revenge. JAMES KERRINGTON, the future Earl of Linworth, left ...

Susannah Braddock’s worst nightmare has come true: her husband, Riley, has been killed in WWI. Devastated, she turns to her hired hand Tanner Grenfell for support. As Susannah’s grief ebbs, her friendship with Tanner deepens into love. But their newfound happiness is short lived…. Riley Braddock cannot remember his life before the war. All he knows are the two years he has spent with Véronique, the French woman who rescued him from the battlefield and nursed him back to health. When Riley returns to the Braddock farm, both he and Susannah know he’s a different man.

Mary was born in New York City and due to the Spanish Influenza, her father realized she needed a special gift to distract her from loneliness. Mary cherished this gift, but it was tragically destroyed in an accident. Mary never forgot her favorite gift, and 80 years later, when she retired to Alabama, Mary experienced culture shock as well as a Christmas miracle. This is a humorous and sweet story that everyone in the family will love.

A heartwarming story from the author of the Mountain Women Series In a remote mountain town, an extended family looks forward to gathering at Christmas. But one of them is missing–Charlie, a deputy sheriff. Though loved and admired, Charlie is not well understood, and because he leads a solitary life, he often goes away without telling anyone. Still, he promised to be with the family Christmas day. Charlie has been a devoted family member, but he is a poor communicator. No one knows if he’s somewhere enforcing the law or buying horses, his favorite pursuit. As Christmas day approaches, ...

It is 1944, and Anne Black is making the best of a new life in Somerset, but bringing up her daughters so far from their father; her mother, Peggy; and their real home of Cliffehaven isn't easy. The safety of Somerset makes separation bearable until danger strikes and rocks Anne's world. Back in Cliffehaven Peggy Reilly is running the Beach View Boarding House with her usual love and warmth. The war is taking its toll, however, and Peggy longs to have her scattered family home again.

Norma Hayes has always tried to make Christmas special for her family, but 1944 will make that more difficult with money being tight and wartime rationing making everything hard to come by. Aware of his mother's hardships and the worry from having her eldest son at war, Norma's second son, Dennis, is determined to buy his mother a special gift this Christmas: a lavender blue dress he hopes will bring her comfort.

Between 1854 and 1930, more than 200,000 orphaned or abandoned children were sent west on orphan trains to find new homes. Some were adopted by loving families; others were not as fortunate. In recent years, some of the riders have begun to share their stories. Andrea Warren alternates chapters about the history of the orphan trains with the story of Lee Nailling, who in 1926 rode an orphan train to Texas.

While other adolescent girls are listening to grunge rock or swooning over boy bands and movie stars, Loretta knows little of life beyond the Home for Wayward Girls, the secluded ranch where her parents run a program designed to “correct” teen girls’ “bad behavior.” Some new residents arrive with their moms and dads, while other are accompanied by transporters—people paid to forcibly deliver these “problem” teens—girls caught swearing, smoking, drinking, or kissing.

When Amy Layton’s family learned she planned to steal her sister’s fiancé, Amy left home in disgrace. But in 1922, she returns to Powell Springs to escape the violent man she married. Despite the town’s gossip, Amy is determined to rebuild her shattered life with the boardinghouse she inherited…and little else.

Jaded from her years in the music business, perpetually hungover, and diagnosed with career-ending vocal problems, Lillian cobbles together a nationwide farewell tour featuring some old hands from her early days playing honky-tonk bars in Washington State and Nashville, plus a few new ones. She yearns to feel the rush of making live music one more time and bask in the glow of a packed house before she makes the last, and most important, stop on the tour: the farm she left behind at age ten and the sister she is finally ready to confront about an agonizing betrayal in their childhood.

Heading west in search of a new beginning, Lily Harmon loses her heart to little Maddie Cullinan, an orphan whose father was presumed killed in a bloody battle of the War Between the States. Lily adopts Maddie, so the young widow and the bereft little girl begin to make a new home together in frontier Wyoming, unaware that Maddie's father, former Union Army Major Luke Cullinan, is very much alive. An angry, determined man who has sworn to reclaim his cherished daughter, Luke is hot on Lily's trail. Nothing, and no one, had better stand in his way. An evocative, poignant story of the healing...

From renowned author Lindsey Davis, creator of the much-loved character, Marcus Didius Falco and his friends and family, comes the second novel in her all-new series set in Ancient Rome. We first met Flavia Albia, Falco's feisty adopted daughter, in The Ides of April. Albia is a remarkable woman in what is very much a man's world: Young, widowed and fiercely independent, she lives alone on the Aventine Hill in Rome and makes a good living as a hired investigator.