Love's Faithful Promise

Love's Faithful Promise

Susan Anne Mason

Historical / Historical Fiction / Christian Fiction

A Stirring Story of Love and Faith and America's Great PromiseWhen her mother suffers a stroke, medical student Deirdre O'Leary makes the difficult choice to put her career on hold to care for her. Dr. Matthew Clayborne is renowned for his amazing results with patients, but when Deirdre approaches him about helping her mother, she finds him challenging and surly. Deirdre has had enough of complicated men in her life. After her fiancé left her, she vowed never to give a man that kind of power again.Widower Dr. Matthew Clayborne is devoted to two things: his work with wounded soldiers and his four-year-old daughter, Phoebe. He won't abandon either of these priorities to care for one older woman. However, when Phoebe suffers a health scare, they're offered respite at the Irish Meadows farm, where his daughter's weakened lungs can recover—but only if he cares for Mrs. O'Leary.Matthew intends to hate Irish Meadows, yet he immediately feels at home, and soon...
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Curse of the Spider King

Curse of the Spider King

Wayne Thomas Batson

Fantasy / Young Adult / Christian Fiction

The Seven succeeding Elven Lords of Allyra were dead, lost in the Siege of Berinfell as babes. At least that’s what everyone thought until tremors from a distant world known as Earth, revealed strange signs that Elven blood lived among its peoples. With a glimmer of hope in their hearts, sentinels are sent to see if the signs are true. But theirs is not a lone errand. The ruling warlord of Allyra, the Spider King, has sent his own scouts to hunt down the Seven and finish the job they failed to complete many ages ago.Now 13-year-olds on the brink of the Age of Reckoning when their Elven gifts will be manifest, discover the unthinkable truth that their adoptive families are not their only kin. With mysterious Sentinels revealing breathtaking secrets of the past, and dark strangers haunting their every move, will the young Elf Lords find the way back to the home of their birth? Worlds and races collide as the forces of good and evil battle. Will anyone escape the Curse of the Spider King?
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Her Family Wish

Her Family Wish

Betsy St. Amant

Romance / Christian Fiction / Contemporary

Taking pictures of other people's happiest moments is the perfect job for Hannah Hart. Secretly fearing that she won't ever have a family of her own, Hannah prefers to hide behind the camera. Until she meets assistant principal Jude Bradley, whose twelve-year-old daughter instantly bonds with Hannah. Jude might just be the man to give Hannah a reason to smile--if he can let go of the past. The more Hannah and Jude discover they have in common, the more Hannah wonders if there's a family in her future after all....
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Love Story

Love Story

Karen Kingsbury

Christian Fiction / Children's / Romance

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury comes a new book featuring everyone's favorite family—the Baxters.From the day they met, John and Elizabeth were destined to fall in love. Their whirlwind romance started when they were young college students and lasted nearly thirty years—until Elizabeth died of cancer. So when John Baxter is asked to relive his long-ago love story with Elizabeth for his grandson Cole's heritage project, he's not sure he can do it. The sadness might simply be too great. But he agrees and allows his heart and soul to go places they haven't gone in decades. Back to the breathless first moments, but also to the secret heartbreak that brought John and Elizabeth together. At the same time, Baxter family friend Cody Coleman is working through the breakup of his complicated relationship with Andi Ellison. He is determined to move on when a chance sighting changes his plans—and heart. Can Cody convince...
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The Healing

The Healing

Linda Byler

Amish / Christian Fiction / Romance

A hopeful story of unexpected love in the midst of illness, pain, and family conflict John is the youngest of seven boys and is constantly overshadowed by his big brothers who seem to all be stronger, smarter, and better looking than he is. As a teenager, he knows he's overweight and is sure he'll never be popular like his brothers are. But those struggles are nothing compared to the battle he is about to fight. After weeks of feeling exhausted, depressed, and achy, he has no idea what's wrong with him and begins to wonder if he'll be miserable for the rest of his life. By the time he is finally diagnosed with Lyme disease, his body is failing and his spirits are nearly at rock bottom. John's parents and brothers try to help him, but as weeks turn into months with no real sign of improvement, the illness begins to take its toll on all of them. Minor disagreements turn into angry fights and old hurts surface amidst uncertainty and exhaustion. The Amish family that...
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The Hawk and the Jewel (Kensington Chronicles 1)

The Hawk and the Jewel (Kensington Chronicles 1)

Lori Wick

Historical Fiction / Christian Fiction

Product DescriptionThe first in the newly repackaged Kensington Chronicles series, The Hawk and the Jewel  sweeps readers from the tapestried halls of Victorian England to the alabaster courts of Arabia.Everyone thought little Sunny had perished with Lady Gallagher in storm–tossed seas off the Arabian coast, but the beautiful toddler had been found, taken to the palace of Darhabar, and raised as the ruler’s own child. Now the emir, Ahmad Khan, is sending her home, and Sunny’s uncertain, new life is completely in God’s hands.This classic series, which has sold more than 375,000 copies, has a fresh, new look sure to please Lori Wick’s longtime fans and readers just discovering the treasure of a great story.
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Dark Crossings

Dark Crossings

Marta Perry

Romance / Mystery / Christian Fiction

The Covered Bridge by Karen HarperWhen Benjamin Kline returns to the fold after eight years, Abigail Baughman welcomes him with an open heart. But all is not well in their Amish village. Mysterious happenings put Abby in harm's way, forcing Ben to run to her rescue. He's vowed never to let anyone hurt her, and suddenly everything is at risk—their community, their way of life…and their future together.Fallen in Plain Sight by Marta PerryChildhood friends Sarah Weaver and Jacob Mast see each other in a different light when violence shatters their peaceful society. Now a series of accidents put their faith—and newfound love—to the ultimate test.Outside the Circle by Patricia DavidsIsaac Bowman is an outsider, but Lena Troyer makes the widower and his daughter feel like part of the community. So when a deer-poaching ring divides the town, Isaac vows to keep this gentle woman safe from harm…in spite of the danger to his heart.Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.A strange, shrill voice dragged Abigail from deep sleep. No, it was two voices, one low-pitched, one high. She huddled under her sheet and quilt, then thrashed against them. Dreams had haunted her again—of a couple running through a cornfield, whooping in delight, with Ben leading the way. Ben laughing, knocking over the stalks…running in crazy circles… Had she been dreaming of Ben and Liddy? No. The voices were real. She could hear them right now.Clutching the covers, Abby sat bolt upright. At least the people weren't outside her house. Maybe down by the creek, or on the covered bridge. That often funneled sounds her way. Probably rumspringa kids, maybe some she knew. Drinking beer, staying out late, just as she had during her running-around time. Or maybe it was outsiders telling ghost tales on the old bridge where, if you shouted loud enough, your voice echoed. Ja, scaring someone about the Amish girl and Englische boy who hanged themselves there years ago because their love was forbidden.Despite the fact she was sweating, Abby shivered. She didn't believe in ghosts but she knew the story: the Amish girl had argued with her lover, saying it was wrong to take a life, but he had convinced her to put the noose around her neck and jump with him into the darkness….Abby stopped breathing and strained to listen to the high-pitched voice again. Ja, it was a woman's, strong and strident. Land sakes, couldn't they quiet down and let a body sleep?Trying to keep calm, Abby fumbled on her bedside table for her flashlight, clicked it on and shot its beam toward her battery-run clock. It was 4:14 a.m.! Now she'd never get back to sleep. She had to get up before dawn to make more mushroom chutney and relish for the saturday farmers' market. And she wanted to take a loaf of friendship bread over to her new neighbors across the creek, plus harvest more mushrooms.Her feet hit the rag rug on the floor, and she found her slippers by feel. Though her place was six miles out of town, and the nearest Amish farm was two miles away, she'd lived here for years, first with both grandparents and then just with Grossmamm. She'd never felt afraid here, she told herself, and she didn't now. She knew Wild Run Woods behind the house, Killibuck Creek—really a river—and the old bridge better than anyone. And people had better learn to be quiet at night!As she wrapped a shawl around her flannel nightgown, another thought hit her. Maybe the folks who had taken over the old Hostetler house across the creek had gone down to the bridge and were arguing. If she were the woman who had just moved into that run-down place, she might be shouting, too.By now her curiosity was as awake as she was. In the front room, she knelt by the window she'd left cracked in the crisp September air, and raised the sash a bit higher. The woman's voice wasn't Amish in tone or rhythm. Abby couldn't be sure, but the man must be a modern, too. This part of Eden County had folks who weren't Amish, but they all had the good sense not to be disturbing the peace this time of night.A light shone from one of the windows on the bridge everyone called "the Hanging Bridge," partly because it was suspended from the rocks above the rapids but also because of the double suicide that had happened there. She couldn't imagine taking one's own life for love. Sad that two young folks couldn't see there was so much to live for, even apart. Why, she'd turned down Elam garber's proposal a few months ago, and she felt she had plenty to live for.It wasn't that she didn't sympathize about true love, Abby told herself. She'd seen her older sister, Liddy, as well as friends and cousins, fall in love and get married. But she'd given up on passion and desire ever since she'd been silly and stupid enough to have a huge crush on Liddy's eighteen-year-old come-calling friend, their neighbor Ben Kline. That had been about ten years ago, when she was a mere kid of fourteen. Thanks to Ben messing up his life, he hadn't married Liddy, and had left here for good, jumped the Amish fence to the big city of Cincinnati. Until she found someone who swayed her head and heart like he had, she was content to run her business and her life, Amish to the core and yet a bit on her own, too."You're an idiot!" she heard the woman screech, followed by something she couldn't catch. Despite the constant rustle of white water over rocks below the bridge, the female voice carried.That's all she could take, Abby decided. She was going to go out, shine a light their way, then hustle back here and lock herself in.She hurried into her kitchen, banging her shin on a log plugged with oyster mushroom spawn, and got her big flashlight. She'd needed both lights to gather the mushrooms after dark last night, then pack and store them in the cellar for sale at the market. She went out the back door, which faced her mushroom beds and the forest beyond, then hurried around the side of the house onto the river path. She knew each step in the dark, so she'd wait to use the large flashlight until she was on the old, now-deserted road that led to the bridge.Once she was there, she aimed at the black throat of the bridge and turned on the big beam.Ach! Even pointed away, the brilliance almost blinded her. The shaft of light illuminated a woman dressed in black and wearing an Amish prayer kapp, so it must be one of her people. The figure turned toward the light, threw up a hand to shield her eyes and hissed, "Someone's coming. Get down!"The voice was Englische!And get down from what? Surely someone wasn't drunk enough to jump out a window into the rapids, even though the river was up with all the rain. They'd be smashed on the rocks below, maybe drowned.Abby heard something clatter, then a man's low voice. Not wanting a confrontation, she clicked off her flashlight, turned and fled, losing one slipper, but not turning back. In the house, she locked the door and peered out the kitchen window. Nothing now. No light, no sound. About ten minutes later she saw red taillights on the far side of the bridge disappear, as if a wild animal were backing away into the blackness.After breakfast, Abby searched hard for her lost slipper and couldn't find it. So she fed her buggy horse, Fern, let her out to graze in the small meadow, then had a hearty breakfast of a honey mushroom frittata and herbal tea before going to work.Her wood ear mushrooms—"They are listening!" Grossmamm always used to say since they looked like human ears—seemed perfect as she used her sharpest harvesting knife to cut them from the stacked logs she'd inoculated with their spawn last year. After she finished, she'd take that loaf of bread over to the new couple she'd caught a glimpse of moving in. She couldn't see them that well through the autumn trees, but she could tell they were Englische.Abby prayed they would be good neighbors, as she intended to be. A shame they were moderns, but she didn't mind her half-hour buggy rides into town for market and church on her own. Unlike most Amish maidals with many siblings, Abigail Baughman had only one sister, who now lived in Pennsylvania. A baby brother born too early in a bad birth had taken their mother with him. Because her parents were forty when she was born, and Liddy seemed so much older, more like a second mother, Abby had always felt like an only child. She had lots of friends from her school days, and many cousins, but she had to admit she'd become a bit of a loner, especially after her mamm died and daad still traveled so much with his construction team.Many Amish girls were married by twenty-four, Ab-by's age. She knew she'd find the right Amish man one day and rear her own family. But he'd have to live out here where she could pursue the wildcrafting, gathering and overseeing of the mushroom crops that were, as Grossmamm also used to say, "our bread and butter."About ten o'clock, after making a kettle of mushroom chutney, left on the stove to cool, Abby changed her work apron and shoes, donned her bonnet over her prayer kapp and packed up the loaf of friendship bread. It wasn't quite hunting season yet for deer or wild turkey, only for squirrel, but she locked the door behind her. Last year two Englische hunters had scared her to death. She'd come back from gathering precious morels in the woods and walked into her kitchen to find them getting drinks of water.As she set out, still skimming her gaze across the ground for her lost slipper, she jerked to a stop. Two sets of tracks—and hers—marred the mud by the path where she'd watered her ever-thirsty shaggy mane mushrooms yesterday. One print was smaller than the other, but they could have belonged to either sex. The mud was so wet that only the shape of the shoe was there, not tread marks.Abby followed the footprints toward her house and around the edge of the bed of wood chips that boasted her big parasol mushrooms, then lost them where the sawdust trail began. In the meadow behind the fence, Fern was cropping grass. The gentle mare looked up at Abby as if to ask, "What? What's wrong?""Nothing," Abby answered, and headed down the path toward the bridge again. Just someone passing through? Squirrel hunters? She'd heard some distant rifle shots yesterday. Had Elam come to pester her again, maybe with Ruth Yutzy, the new girlfriend he'd been showing off? Or maybe the tracks belonged to the people who had been on the bridge? But she hadn't seen or heard anyone follow her last night. Keeping an eye on the woods, she continued down the path.Several covered bridges in this area drew occasional visitors, but none were used much anymore. The Hanging Bridge, once called the Homestead Bridge after the nearby town, had been b...
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Whatever Tomorrow Brings (The Californians 1)

Whatever Tomorrow Brings (The Californians 1)

Lori Wick

Historical Fiction / Christian Fiction

Product DescriptionLori Wick’s bestselling series The Californians (more than 500,000 copies sold) has a fresh new cover design to delight avid Lori Wick fans and readers just introduced to Lori’s beloved fiction.In the midst of fresh grief and unfamiliar surroundings, Kaitlin, the Donovans’ oldest daughter, must face life in rugged California. Will the men of this restless country take advantage of her innocence? Will she recognize God’s unexpected gift of love? Can she keep her family safe until her father returns? Grief turns to triumph and innocence to maturity as Kaitlin lifts her heart to God for the strength to face whatever tomorrow brings.
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Venom and Song

Venom and Song

Wayne Thomas Batson

Fantasy / Young Adult / Christian Fiction

Now in the strange realm of Allyra, the Seven young lords confront a traitor in their midst, a creature–infested forest, teenage fears and doubts, inexplicable mysteries...and the Spider King himself.In a rigorous training program that makes boot camp look like Disneyland, the Seven must quickly learn to harness their own powers, work as one, and elude the Spider King's spies. But as the ancient Berinfell Prophecies are revealed, the Seven soon discover their training might not be enough. To stop the Spider King they must also unravel the secrets of the Rainsong, travel to a creepy, trap–infested fortress to find the legendary keystone, and lead the Berinfell Elves in an attack on the Spider King's own turf. An epic adventure with powerful messages about true strength, forgiveness, and working together as one body that will grab the attention of intermediate readers.Learn more about The Berinfell Prophecies at www.heedtheprophecies.com.
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Her Surprise Sister

Her Surprise Sister

Marta Perry

Romance / Mystery / Christian Fiction

Imagine her shock when Violet Colby discovers she has an identical twin sister she never knew existed. Why her family was torn apart remains a secret no one can answer—yet.Hoping to develop a sisterly bond, Violet invites her sophisticated city twin to the Colby Ranch in tiny Grasslands, Texas. But when her sister's former fiancé arrives with questions of his own, country girl Violet finds herself drawn to handsome businessman Landon Derringer. And learns that true love requires faith—and a heart as big as Texas.
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Escapement

Escapement

Rene Gutteridge

Fiction / Christian Fiction / Mystery

In each installment of 7 Hours, a character is visited by the enigmatic Thomas Constant, who makes a heart-stopping statement: "You are about to die. But you may choose from one of three options: Live seven more hours, travel back in time and relive seven hours, or accept the inevitable and die now."Mattie Bigham has lost his job, is losing his wife, and is not losing any weight. At just under four hundred and fifty pounds, he figures his doctor's prediction that he's going to drop dead any second is about to come true. He is right.When Thomas Constant appears, Mattie chooses murder—to carry out revenge on the bully who tormented him all through school. Except when he arrives for the showdown, he's shocked to find this man in a scenario not unlike his own. Things get complicated quickly, and time is running out.The clock is ticking. What will you do with the time you have left?
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