Return to the American Revolution in this blistering conclusion to the trilogy that began with the bestselling National Book Award Finalist Chains and continued with Forge, which The New York Times called "a return not only to the colonial era but to historical accuracy."As the Revolutionary War rages on, Isabel and Curzon have narrowly escaped Valley Forge—but their relief is short-lived. Before long they are reported as runaways, and the awful Bellingham is determined to track them down. With purpose and faith, Isabel and Curzon march on, fiercely determined to find Isabel's little sister Ruth, who is enslaved in a Southern state—where bounty hunters are thick as flies. Heroism and heartbreak pave their path, but Isabel and Curzon won't stop until they reach Ruth, and then freedom, in this grand finale to the acclaimed Seeds of America trilogy from Laurie Halse Anderson.

2019 Donora, PennsylvaniaNinety-one-year-old Patryk Rusek hides in his attic, hoping the searchers think he's escaped. When Lucy finally bursts in, she discovers her beloved grandfather clutching a fat, hand-illustrated, antique book. In it is the story of Donora, the town that shaped America, its people and Patryk himself. Before long, Lucy and her son Owen lose track of their goal to get Grandpa Patryk somewhere "safe" as they're drawn into the book, back in time, into stories that read like real-life fairytales born of purpose, hard-work, and chance.1910 Donora, PennsylvaniaIn the early dawn of Donora, Pennsylvania, the mills make and shape the steel that builds America. Mary Lancos lives in a home on the hill overlooking town and its mighty Monongahela River. That tiny house bursts with her siblings and boarders. Wind whipping through the walls and windows makes Mary determined to marry well and create a better life.Shy Pole, Lukasz Musial, arrives...

A brand-new adventure set in the hugely popular A Natural History of Dragons universe – a delightful Victorian-esque fantasy. As the renowned granddaughter of Isabella Camherst (Lady Trent, of the riveting and daring Draconic adventure memoirs) Audrey Camherst has always known she, too, would want to make her scholarly mark upon a chosen field of study. When Lord Gleinleigh recruits Audrey to decipher a series of ancient tablets holding the secrets of the ancient Draconean civilization, she has no idea that her research will plunge her into an intricate conspiracy, one meant to incite rebellion and invoke war. Alongside dearest childhood friend and fellow archeologist Kudshayn, she must find proof of the conspiracy before it's too late.

A Flawed Scotsman (Clan Ross Book Four)

A battle-scarred father. A disillusioned daughter. Can a grieving widower rebuild his splintered family to find peace at last? South Dakota, 1949. WWII veteran John Smith longs for the life he lost after the tragic death of his wife during childbirth. But in the desperation to provide for his two small children, he is manipulated into an unsuitable marriage by a young woman with a dark neurosis. Tormented by his own grief and the ravages of war, John is blind to his children's turmoil and pain. Washington State, 1964. John's sixteen-year-old daughter Calla dreams of a life beyond her vindictive stepmother. Forced to care for her younger siblings with a list of household demands larger than she is tall, Calla knows it's only a matter of time until she can escape the abuse and begin anew at college. But her dreams crumble when her heartless stepmother claims the college fund for her own selfish purposes. As John fears he is too late to stop...

How does a virgin lady let her steady date know she has determined to marry him? That's all I'll tell you. Click the blue below to see why. Here it suffices to say that the story is short and free. Why read a summary when with little more effort you can read the whole thing? If you can't spare a moment more, you shouldn't be wasting time reading fiction anyway. Go back to work!"One can not judge a book by its cover." So we are told. But a cover is usually the only thing a reader has to base a judgment on. Smashwords tries to aid readers by providing summaries, one short, one long, for each book it distributes. For non-fiction this works well. But this, it seems to me, defeats the whole purpose of fiction. After all, one reads a story to find out what will happen. It’s the uncommon twists and turns that make a story interesting. But if a summary has told all this beforehand, what fun is to be had in the reading? Therefore, no summary of the present short story is given. It's short and it’s free! So read the whole thing and see if you like it.I ask you to do this because I think it is the best book judging method. To find fiction you like you must first read around enough to learn something of the style and stories of different authors. Then you can judge books, not by their cover, but by the your opinion of the writer. I'd like to help you do this. The present short story is one of several which I will make available free at Smashwords. Read a few (or all of them) and decide if you like them. It won't cost you a dime. If you like them, you can then purchase some of my not free (but still inexpensive) longer stories.All these stories are of one particular kind. To reflect this similarity all have the same cover picture, the Kitty & Rose shown above. So after you’ve read a few, you can, in fact, judge them by their cover.The common theme of the Kitty & Rose stories is human sexuality. This is not unusual. Most fiction concerns sex in one way or another; ranging from romances so sedate and demure an extraterrestrial could never know sex is at the root of everything described, to erotica so unrestricted even an extraterrestrial might blush. Kitty & Rose stories are in the middle of this range. All deal with human sexuality, but none do so explicitly. Rather, they are seemly.The dictionary gives three meanings for seemly: Attractive or agreeably fashioned; Decorous or conventionally proper; and Appropriate or suited to its purpose.With respect to appropriateness, seemly sex stories range from the humorous to the inspirational, but all concern human sexuality. So they are clearly appropriate.These stories are also seemly in the decorous and conventionally proper sense. For, while they treat sex candidly, they do not do so graphically. There is nothing pornographic nor erotic in any seemly sex story. Of course, different persons’ opinions about this may differ. A few consider frank pornography decorous. At the opposite extreme are those like the abbot of the monastery where the great biologist Gregor Mendel did his epochal research. This abbot thought Mendel’s studies were decidedly indecorous because they involved the sex of pea plants!Finally, there is the principal sense of seemly, attractive and agreeably fashioned. Like every author I exert my every effort and ability trying to make these stories seemly in this regard. But like every author, I must await your determination of the degree of my success. Since both of us will be pleased if you find them attractively seemly, I very much hope you do.Happy reading!BobbyB P.S. This story is being uploaded on 2-14-2017, Valentine's Day! Fourteen more short stories will be uploaded, one each weekday. Then four longer stories will be offered for sale.

Helpmate Knight is home from the hospital, so everything should be back to normal, right? Things are never that easy, though, and the men of Chess must fight to get their lives back. Knight has returned home from the hospital, but is far from recovered. Things seem to be going well, but depression slowly winds its way around Knight, and he spends all his time in bed sleeping, slipping farther and farther away from his lovers and life. Rook just wants everything to go back to normal now that their lover is home and Bishop is out of his depth when it comes to Knight's depression. Can Jason figure out what's wrong and take the steps needed to help Knight find himself again? The struggle has just begun in Knight's recovery—are the men of Chess up to the task? Find out in this fourth instalment of the Chess series. End Game Things are changing again for the foursome. Can they weather these changes as they do...

George MacDonald Fraser was famed for his legendary Flashman series, featuring the incorrigible knave Harry Flashman. In the colorful standalone novel Captain in Calico, which has never been published, Fraser introduces another real-life anti-hero: Captain John Rackham, called “Calico Jack,” an illustrious eighteenth-century pirate who marauded the Caribbean seas. On a tranquil evening in the Bahamas, Calico Jack, long wanted on counts of piracy, makes a surprise appearance at the Governor’s residence and asks for a pardon. A deal is brokered after Jack reveals the motive for turning himself in: love. When he last set sail from the Bahamas two years ago, Jack left behind a beautiful fiancée, and he hopes to win her back. But while Jack was off pirating, his beloved has become betrothed to a new man—the governor himself. It doesn’t take long for this truth to come to light, and after embarking on a new romance with famous Irish pirate Anne Bonney, Jack is quickly transformed back into a thieving captain in calico. With his trademark picaresque style, Fraser draws readers into the wild west of the British empire, where black sails prowl the waters and redemption can be found in the most unexpected places.

In 10,000 BC, the Shadow approaches and destroys the mighty empire of Atlantis, leaving not trace of it other than vague legend. Only a handful of survivors, priestesses and warriors survive, knowing they must pass their legacy down, so that the next time the Shadow comes, mankind will be better prepared.Now it has come back. But it wants the entire planet. Across parallel dimensions, the Shadow has consumed Earth after Earth, but one Earth has repeatedly stopped it: ours.The Shadow's latest assault on the planet left millions dead worldwide, a widening gap in the ozone layer, and a cloud of radioactive gas poisoning the atmosphere. Former Green Beret Eric Dane believes his visions are messages instructing him on how to save the world from complete annihilation. Now, Dane and the crew of a U.S. Navy research vessel embark on a dangers quest across space and time in a desperate gamble to change the fate of the earth...If you enjoyed LOST, you'll love this book and be...

When a financial disaster wipes out their family savings, the Renshaw family looks to start over. Maori and Settler: The New Zealand Wars, by G.A. Henty tells the story of young Wilfrid Renshaw and his family, as they emigrate to New Zealand in the 1860\'s in hope of a better life. Embarking on an arduous journey from London aboard the Flying Scud, they make new friends, including the affable and knowledgeable Mr. Atherton, with whom they share adventures as they sail to the other side of the globe. The Renshaws find life in New Zealand to be tough, but rewarding - until trouble begins to brew. Will Wilfrid and his family lose all for which they have worked when the strange Pai Marire religion inspire many, otherwise peaceful natives, towards violence against the settlers? In this book you will learn about the life of the early settlers of New Zealand, as well as, the events surrounding the New Zealand Wars.This book includes more than one hundred geographical, historical, and explanatory footnotes to aid the modern reader.

Published to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, this beautiful anthology collects favourite extracts, poems and images from some of the UK’s leading cultural, political and literary figures. Poems, short stories, personal letters, newspaper articles, scripts, photographs and paintings are just some of the elements of this astonishing collection, with cover and artwork by renowned illustrator, Ian Beck. Among the many contributors are Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall, Sir Andrew Motion, Miranda Hart, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Anthony Horowitz, Eoin Colfer, Antony Beevor, Emma Thompson, David Almond, Dr Rowan Williams, Richard Curtis, Joanna Lumley, Raymond Briggs, Shami Chakrabarti and Sir Tony Robinson. Royalties from the publication will be spilt between the Royal British Legion and projects for soldiers' children and families at SSAFA.

In talking about this novel, Haggard later said he was inspired to write the book while living in Norwood. He and his wife were attending a Church service when they saw sitting near them "a singularly beautiful and pure-faced young lady --- Afterwards we agreed that this semi-divine creature — on whom to the best of my knowledge I have never set eyes again from that day to this — ought to become the heroine of a novel. So then and there we took paper, and each of us began to write the said novel. I think that after she had completed two or three folio sheets my wife ceased from her fictional labours. But, growing interested, I continued mine, which resulted in the story called 'Dawn,'" Haggard never found out who the girl was but was sufficient inspired to write the first draft at Norwood in 1882, while studying for the Bar. The novel was originally called Angela, which was the first name of the heroine of the story; Angela was also the name of Haggard's eldest daughter.