I am going way off script today in anticipation of my trip to the UK next week. We were supposed to have a planes, trains, and automobiles adventure, but learned that there will be an industrial action the days we were to get on board for two destinations. In the US that would be called a strike! At least they were polite about it and we were given a bit of a heads up. đ So it was to the car rental sites we went. We looked for a silver lining to having to drive on the wrong side of the road and navigate the roundabouts (on the wrong side), and found a few. Some train scenes from novels came to mind. You know the ones where orphans were transported across the country without their parent’s permission, the harrowing natural disasters, accidents, bombs, murders, and, of course, serial killers. Maybe planes and automobiles will be enough. đ Check out my list of novels with all the train vibes.
Memories of Glass is my new favorite from must-read author Melanie Dobson. It’s complex construction, fascinating historical details, captivating characters, and universal themes made this book a 5-star. If you liked it too, I have some more reading recommendations for you.
The Butterfly And The Violin by Kristy Cambron
AÂ Mysterious painting breathes hope and beauty into the darkest corners of Auschwitz — and the loneliest hearts of Manhattan.
Manhattan art dealer Sera James watched her world crumble at the altar two years ago, and her heart is still fragile. Her desire for distraction reignites a passion for a mysterious portrait she first saw as a young girl — a painting of a young violinist with piercing blue eyes.
In her search for the painting, Sera crosses paths with William Hanover — the grandson of a wealthy California real estate mogul — who may be the key to uncovering the hidden masterpiece. Together Sera and William slowly unravel the story behind the painting’s subject: Austrian violinist Adele Von Bron.
A darling of the Austrian aristocracy of 1942, talented violinist, and daughter to a high-ranking member of the Third Reich, Adele risks everything when she begins smuggling Jews out of Vienna. In a heartbeat, her life of prosperity and privilege dissolves into a world of starvation and barbed wire. As Sera untangles the secrets behind the painting, she finds beauty in the most unlikely of places: the grim camps of Auschwitz and the inner recesses of her own troubled heart.
Defy The Night by Heather and Lydia Munn
In the midst of war, one teenager is determined to make a difference
If no one will do anything, she’ll have to do it herself.
In 1941 France is still “free.” But fifteen-year-old Magali is frustrated by the cruel irony of pretending life is normal when food is rationed, new clothes are a rarity, and most of her friends are refugees. And now the government is actually helping the Nazis. Someone has got to do something, but it seems like no one has the guts â until Paquerette arrives.
Smuggling refugee children is Paquerette’s job. And she asks Magali to help.
Working with Paquerette is scary and exhausting, but Magali never doubts that it is the right thing to do. Until her brash actions put those she loves in danger.
The Girl from The Train by Irma Joubert
As World War II draws to a close, JakĂłb fights with the Polish resistance against the crushing forces of Germany and Russia. They intend to destroy a German troop transport, but Gretlâs unscheduled train reaches the bomb first.
Gretl is the only survivor. Though spared from the concentration camp, the orphaned German Jew finds herself lost in a country hostile to her people. When JakĂłb discovers her, guilt and fatherly compassion prompt him to take her in. For three years, the young man and little girl form a bond over the secrets they must hide from his Catholic family.
But she canât stay with him forever. JakĂłb sends Gretl to South Africa, where German war orphans are promised bright futures with adoptive Protestant familiesâso long as Gretlâs Jewish roots, Catholic education, and connections to communist Poland are never discovered.
Separated by continents, politics, religion, language, and years, JakĂłb and Gretl will likely never see each other again. But the events they have both survived and their belief that the human spirit can triumph over the ravages of war have formed a bond of love that no circumstances can overcome.
As Covid-19 news is everywhere, and people around the world are called to shelter in place, I have been giving more and more thought to what people endured during WWII. Talk about a world turned upside down overnight â Pearl Harbor, the invasion of Poland, Dunkirk, concentration camps, and D-Day. There are many excellent WWII novels from which to choose so it is hard to pick just 10, but I did my best to whittle the list down. I hope these novels inspire and encourage you with their messages of hope in a very dark time.
A mysterious painting breathes hope and beauty into the darkest corners of Auschwitzâand the loneliest hearts of Manhattan.
Manhattan art dealer Sera James watched her world crumble at the altar two years ago, and her heart is still fragile. Her desire for distraction reignites a passion for a mysterious portrait she first saw as a young girlâa painting of a young violinist with piercing blue eyes.
In her search for the painting, Sera crosses paths with William Hanover, the grandson of a wealthy California real estate mogul, who may be the key to uncovering the hidden masterpiece. Together, Sera and William slowly unravel the story behind the paintingâs subject: Austrian violinist Adele Von Bron.
A darling of the Austrian aristocracy, talented violinist, and daughter to a high-ranking member of the Third Reich, Adele risks everything when she begins smuggling Jews out of Vienna. In a heartbeat, her life of prosperity and privilege dissolves into a world of starvation and barbed wire.
As Sera untangles the secrets behind the painting, she finds beauty in the most unlikely of places: in the grim camps of Auschwitz and in the inner recesses of her own troubled heart.
Flame of Resistance by Tracy Groot
Years of Nazi occupation have stolen much from Brigitte Durand. Family. Freedom. Hope for a future, especially for a woman with a past like hers. But that changes the day American fighter pilot Tom Jaeger is shot down over occupied France. Picked up by the Resistance, Tom becomes the linchpin in their plan to infiltrate a Germans-only brothel and get critical intel out through Brigitte, a prostitute rumored to be sympathetic to the Allied cause.D-day looms and everyone knows that invasion is imminent. But so is treachery, and the life of one American pilot unexpectedly jeopardizes everything. He becomes more important than the mission to a man who cannot bear to lose another agent and to a woman who is more than just a prostitute, who finally realizes that her actions could change the course of history.
The Girl from The Train by Irma Joubert
As World War II draws to a close, JakĂłb fights with the Polish resistance against the crushing forces of Germany and Russia. They intend to destroy a German troop transport, but Gretlâs unscheduled train reaches the bomb first.
Gretl is the only survivor. Though spared from the concentration camp, the orphaned German Jew finds herself lost in a country hostile to her people. When JakĂłb discovers her, guilt and fatherly compassion prompt him to take her in. For three years, the young man and little girl form a bond over the secrets they must hide from his Catholic family.
But she canât stay with him forever. JakĂłb sends Gretl to South Africa, where German war orphans are promised bright futures with adoptive Protestant families â so long as Gretlâs Jewish roots, Catholic education, and connections to communist Poland are never discovered.
Separated by continents, politics, religion, language, and years, JakĂłb and Gretl will likely never see each other again. But the events they have both survived and their belief that the human spirit can triumph over the ravages of war have formed a bond of love that no circumstances can overcome.
Hidden Among The Stars by Melanie Dobson
The year is 1938, and as Hitlerâs troops sweep into Vienna, Austrian Max Dornbach promises to help his Jewish friends hide their most valuable possessions from the Nazis, smuggling them to his familyâs summer estate near the picturesque village of Hallstatt. He enlists the help of Annika Knopf, his childhood friend and the caretakerâs daughter, who is eager to help the man sheâs loved her entire life. But when Max also brings Luzia Weiss, a young Jewish woman, to hide at the castle, it complicates Annikaâs feelings and puts their entire planâeven their very livesâin jeopardy. Especially when the Nazis come to scour the estate and find both Luzia and the treasure gone.
Eighty years later, Callie Randall is mostly content with her quiet life, running a bookstore with her sister and reaching out into the world through her blog. Then she finds a cryptic list in an old edition of Bambithat connects her to Annikaâs story . . . and maybe to the long-buried story of a dear friend. As she digs into the past, Callie must risk venturing outside the safe world sheâs built for a chance at answers, adventure, and maybe even new love.
Like A River from Its Course by Kelli Stuart
An epic novel exposing the ugliness of war and the beauty of hope.
The city of Kiev was bombed in Hitlerâs blitzkrieg across the Soviet Union, but the constant siege was only the beginning for her citizens. In this sweeping historical saga, Kelli Stuart takes the reader on a captivating journey into the littleâknown history of Ukraineâs tragedies through the eyes of four compelling characters who experience the same story from different perspectives.
Maria Ivanovna is only fourteen when the bombing begins and not much older when she is forced into work at a German labor camp. She must fight to survive and to make her way back to her beloved Ukraine.
Ivan Kyrilovich is falsely mistaken for a Jew and lined up with 34,000 other men, women, and children who are to be shot at the edge of Babi Yar, the âkilling ditch.â He survives, but not without devastating consequences.
Luda is sixteen when German soldiers rape her. Now pregnant with the child of the enemy, she is abandoned by her father, alone, and in pain. She must learn to trust family and friends again and find her own strength in order to discover the redemption that awaits.
Frederick Hermann is sure in his knowledge that the FĂźhrerâs plans for domination are right and just. He is driven to succeed by a desire to please a demanding father and by his own blind faith in the ideals of Nazism. Based on true stories gathered from fifteen years of research and interviews with Ukrainian World War II survivors, Like a River from Its Course is a story of love, war, heartache, forgiveness, and redemption.
Maggie Bright by Tracy Groot
England, 1940. Clare Childs knew life would change when she unexpectedly inherited the Maggie Brightâa noble fifty-two-foot yacht. In fact, sheâs counting on it. But the boat harbors secrets. When a stranger arrives, searching for documents hidden onboard, Clare is pulled into a Scotland Yard investigation that could shed light on Hitlerâs darkest schemes and prompt America to action.
Across the Channel, Hitlerâs Blitzkrieg has the entire British army in retreat with little hope for rescue at the shallow beaches of Dunkirk. With time running out, Churchill recruits civilian watercraft to help. Hitler is attacking from land, air, and sea, and any boat that goes might not return. Yet Clare knows Maggie Bright must answer the callâpiloted by an American who has refused to join the war effort until now and a detective with a very personal motive for exposing the truth.
The fate of the war hinges on this rescue. While two men join the desperate fight, a nation prays for a miracle.
The Medallion by Cathy Gohlke
For fans of bestselling World War II fiction like Sarahâs Key and The Nightingale comes an illuminating tale of courage, sacrifice, and survival, about two couples whose lives are ravaged by Hitlerâs mad war yet eventually redeemed through the fate of one little girl.
Seemingly overnight, the German blitzkrieg of Warsaw in 1939 turns its streets to a war zone and shatters the life of each citizen â Polish, Jewish, or otherwise. Sophie Kumiega, a British bride working in the cityâs library, awaits news of her husband, Janek, recently deployed with the Polish Air Force. Though Sophie is determined that she and the baby in her womb will stay safe, the days ahead will draw her into the plight of those around her, compelling her to help, whatever the danger.
Rosa and Itzhak Dunovich never imagined they would welcome their longed-for first child in the Jewish ghetto, or that they would let anything tear their family apart. But as daily atrocities intensify, Rosa soon faces a terrifying reality: to save their daughterâs life, she must send her into hiding. Her only hope of finding her after the war â if any of them survive â is a medallion she cuts in half and places around her neck.
Inspired by true events of Polandâs darkest days and brightest heroes, The Medallion paints a stunning portrait of war and its aftermath, daring us to believe that when all seems lost, God can make a way forward.
My Dearest Dietrich by Amanda Barratt
A staggering love illuminating the dark corners of a Nazi prison
Renowned German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is famous for his resistance to the Nazi regime and for his allegiance to God over government. But what few realize is that the last years of his life also held a love story that rivals any romance novel.
Maria von Wedemeyer knows the realities of war. Her beloved father and brother have both been killed on the battlefield. The last thing this spirited young woman needs is to fall for a man under constant surveillance by the Gestapo. How can she give another piece of her heart to a man so likely to share the same final fate? Yet when Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an old family friend, comes to comfort the von Wedemeyers after their losses, she discovers that love isnât always logical.
Dietrich himself has determined to keep his distance from romantic attachments. There is too much work to be done for God, and his involvement in the conspiracy is far too important. But when he encounters a woman whose intelligence and conviction match his own, heâs unprepared for how easy it is to give away his heart.
With their deep love comes risk â and neither Dietrich nor Maria is prepared for just how great that risk soon becomes.
Based on detailed historical research, this true love story is at once beautiful and heartrending. My Dearest Dietrich sheds new light on a world-famous theologian . . . and the woman who changed his life.
The Plum Blooms in Winter by Linda Thompson
A Prostitute Seeks Her Revenge
In 1942, Miyako Matsuura cradled her little brother as he died on the sidewalk, a victim of the first U.S. bombing raid on Japan. By 1948, the war has reduced her to a street-hardened prostitute consumed by her shame.
A WWII Hero Finds His True Mission
Dave Delham makes military aviation history piloting a B-25 in the audacious Doolittle Raid. Forced to bail out over occupied China, he and his crew are captured by the Japanese and survive a harrowing P.O.W. ordeal.
In 1948, he returns to Japan as a Christian missionary, determined to showcase Christâs forgiveness. Convinced that Delham was responsible for the bomb that snuffed out her brotherâs life, Miyako resolves to restore her honor by avenging him â even if it costs her own life. But the huntress soon becomes hunted in Osakaâs treacherous underworld. Miyako must outmaneuver a ruthless brothel owner, outwit gangs with competing plans to profit by her, and overcome betrayal by family and friends â only to confront a decision that will change everything.
Sunrise at Normandy series by Sarah Sundin
In 1944, American naval officer Lt. Wyatt Paxton arrives in London to prepare for the Allied invasion of France. He works closely with Dorothy Fairfax, a âWrenâ in the Womenâs Royal Naval Service. Dorothy pieces together reconnaissance photographs with thousands of holiday snapshots of Franceâincluding those of her own familyâs summer homeâin order to create accurate maps of Normandy. Maps that Wyatt will turn into naval bombardment plans.
As the two spend concentrated time together in the pressure cooker of war, their deepening friendship threatens to turn to love. Dorothy must resist its pull. Her bereaved father depends on her, and her heart already belongs to another man. Wyatt too has much to lose. The closer he gets to Dorothy, the more he fears his efforts to win the war will destroy everything she has ever loved.
The tense days leading up to the monumental D-Day landing blaze to life under Sarah Sundinâs practiced pen with this powerful new series.
Thief of Glory by Sigmund Brouwer
A boy coming of age in a time of war . . . the love that inspires him to survive.
For ten year-old Jeremiah Prins, the life of privilege as the son of a school headmaster in the Dutch East Indies comes crashing to a halt in 1942 after the Japanese Imperialist invasion of the Southeast Pacific. Jeremiah takes on the responsibility of caring for his younger siblings when his father and older stepbrothers are separated from the rest of the family, and he is surprised by what life in the camp reveals about a woman he barely knowsâhis frail, troubled mother.
Amidst starvation, brutality, sacrifice and generosity, Jeremiah draws on all of his courage and cunning to fill in the gap for his mother. Life in the camps is made more tolerable as Jeremiahâs boyhood infatuation with his close friend Laura deepens into a friendship from which they both draw strength.
When the darkest sides of humanity threaten to overwhelm Jeremiah and Laura, they reach for Godâs light and grace, shining through his people. Time and war will test their fortitude and the only thing that will bring them safely to the other side is the most enduring bond of all.
I started blogging about books 10 years ago — November 2009. That was also when I started keeping track of the books I read and deliberately listing the books that had the greatest impact. (You can find pages for the best books of every year in the blog’s header.) When best of the decade lists began to pop up, I thought that I could do that too, but what a daunting task! I have been fortunate to read so many wonderful books. The list below is, of course, subjective, but these are the books I continue to think about and recommend wholeheartedly. The list includes many different genres, so there is something for everyone. If you have read any of them, I would love to know what you thought. If you haven’t, well, you now have a great TBR list! đ
2010
For Time And Eternity by Allison Pitman
All Camilla Deardon knows of the Mormons camping nearby is the songs she hears floating on the breeze. Then she meets one of themâa young man named Nathan Fox. Never did she imagine he would be so handsome, so charming, especially after Mama and Papaâs warnings to stay away. Though she knows she should obey her parents, Camilla canât refuse her heart. But even Nathanâs promises cannot prepare her for what she will face in Utah.
2011
City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell
Will Kiehn is seemingly destined for life as a humble farmer in the Midwest when, having felt a call from God, he travels to the vast North China Plain in the early twentieth-century. There he is surprised by love and weds a strong and determined fellow missionary, Katherine. They soon find themselves witnesses to the crumbling of a more than two-thousand-year-old dynasty that plunges the country into decades of civil war. As the couple works to improve the lives of the people of Kuang P’ing Ch’engâ City of Tranquil Light, a place they come to loveâand face incredible hardship, will their faith and relationship be enough to sustain them?
Told through Will and Katherine’s alternating viewpointsâand inspired by the lives of the author’s maternal grandparents â City of Tranquil Light is a tender and elegiac portrait of a young marriage set against the backdrop of the shifting face of a beautiful but torn nation.
2012
The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck
Four brides. One Dress.
A tale of faith, redemption, and timeless love.
Charlotte owns a chic Birmingham bridal boutique. Dressing brides for their big day is her gift . . . and her passion. But with her own wedding day approaching, why canât she find the perfect dressâŚor feel certain she should marry Tim?
Then Charlotte discovers a vintage dress in a battered trunk at an estate sale. It looks brand-newâshimmering with pearls and satin, hand-stitched and  timeless in its design. But where did it come from? Who wore it? Who welded the lock shut and tucked the dog tags in that little sachet? Who left it in the basement for a ten-year-old girl? And what about the mysterious man in the purple vest who insists the dress had been âredeemed.â
Charlotteâs search for the gownâs history â and its new bride â begins as a distraction from her sputtering love life. But it takes on a life of its own as she comes to know the women who have worn the dress. Emily from 1912. Mary Grace from 1939. Hillary from 1968. Each with her own story of promise, pain, and destiny. And each with something unique to share. For woven within the threads of the beautiful hundred-year-old gown is the truth about Charlotteâs heritage, the power of courage and faith, and the timeless beauty of finding true love.
2013
Invisible by Ginny Yttrup
When an overweight woman who’s hidden from romance discovers a handsome doctor is in love with her, will she finally risk her heart?
Ellyn — chef, cafe owner, and lover of butter — is hiding something behind her extra weight. While she sees the good in others, she has only condemnation for herself. So when a handsome widower claims he’s attracted to Ellyn, she’s certain there’s something wrong with him.
Sabina — tall, slender, and exotic — left her husband, young adult daughters, and a thriving counseling practice to spend a year in Northern California where she says she’s come to heal. But it seems to Ellyn that Sabina’s doing more hiding than healing. Why?
Twila has come out of hiding and is working to gain back the pounds she lost when her only goal was to disappear. When her eating disorder is triggered again, she’s tempted to go back into hiding.
As these women’s lives intertwine, will they dare to come out of hiding?
2014
Burning Sky by Lori Benton
Abducted by Mohawk Indians at fourteen and renamed Burning Sky, Willa Obenchain is driven to return to her familyâs New York frontier homestead after many years building a life with the People. At the boundary of her fatherâs property, Willa discovers a wounded Scotsman lying in her path. Feeling obliged to nurse his injuries, the two quickly find much has changed during her twelve-year absence: her childhood home is in disrepair, her missing parents are rumored to be Tories, and the young Richard Waring she once admired is now grown into a man twisted by the horrors of war and claiming ownership of the Obenchain land. Â When her Mohawk brother arrives and questions her place in the white world, the cultural divide blurs Willaâs vision. Can she follow Tames-His-Horse back to the People now that she is no longer Burning Sky? And what about Neil MacGregor, the kind and loyal botanist who does not fit into in her plan for a solitary life, yet is now helping her revive her farm? In the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, strong feelings against âsavagesâ abound in the nearby village of Shiloh, leaving Willaâs safety unsure. Â As tensions rise, challenging her shielded heart, the woman called Burning Sky must find a new courage — the courage to again risk embracing the blessings the Almighty wants to bestow. Is she brave enough to love again?
2015
The Girl from The Train by Irma Joubert
As World War II draws to a close, JakĂłb fights with the Polish resistance against the crushing forces of Germany and Russia. They intend to destroy a German troop transport, but Gretlâs unscheduled train reaches the bomb first.
Gretl is the only survivor. Though spared from the concentration camp, the orphaned German Jew finds herself lost in a country hostile to her people. When JakĂłb discovers her, guilt and fatherly compassion prompt him to take her in. For three years, the young man and little girl form a bond over the secrets they must hide from his Catholic family.
But she canât stay with him forever. JakĂłb sends Gretl to South Africa, where German war orphans are promised bright futures with adoptive Protestant families â so long as Gretlâs Jewish roots, Catholic education, and connections to communist Poland are never discovered.
Separated by continents, politics, religion, language, and years, JakĂłb and Gretl will likely never see each other again. But the events they have both survived and their belief that the human spirit can triumph over the ravages of war have formed a bond of love that no circumstances can overcome.Â
2016
Annabel Lee by Mike Nappa
Fourteen miles east of Peachtree, Alabama, a secret is hidden. That secret’s name is Annabel Lee Truckson, and even she doesn’t know why her mysterious uncle has stowed her deep underground in a military-style bunker. He’s left her with a few German words, a barely-controlled guard dog, and a single command: “Don’t open that door for anybody, you got it? Not even me.”
Above ground, a former Army sniper called The Mute and an enigmatic “Dr. Smith” know about the girl. As the race begins to find her, the tension builds. Who wants to set her free? Why does the other want to keep her captive forever? Who will reach her first?
Private investigators Trudi Coffey and Samuel Hill need to piece together the clues and stay alive long enough to retrieve the girl — before it’s too late.
With its stunning writing and relentless pace, Annabel Lee will captivate readers from the first page.
2017
Stars in The Grass by Ann Marie Stuart
Nine-year-old Abby McAndrews has just experienced her greatest loss, and in its wake, her family is unraveling with guilt, grief, and anger. Her father, Reverend McAndrews, cannot return to the pulpit because he has more questions than answers. Her older brother Mattâs actions speak louder than the words he needs to confess, as he acts out in dangerous ways. Her mother tries to hold her grieving family together, but when Abbyâs dad refuses to move on, the family is at a crossroads. Â Stars in the Grass, set in a small Midwestern town in 1970, is an uplifting novel that explores a familyâs relationships and resiliency. Abbyâs heartbreaking remembrances are balanced by humor and nostalgia as her family struggles withâand ultimately celebrates â life after loss.
2018
Hidden Among The Stars by Melanie Dobson
The year is 1938, and as Hitlerâs troops sweep into Vienna, Austrian Max Dornbach promises to help his Jewish friends hide their most valuable possessions from the Nazis, smuggling them to his familyâs summer estate near the picturesque village of Hallstatt. He enlists the help of Annika Knopf, his childhood friend and the caretakerâs daughter, who is eager to help the man sheâs loved her entire life. But when Max also brings Luzia Weiss, a young Jewish woman, to hide at the castle, it complicates Annikaâs feelings and puts their entire plan â even their very lives â in jeopardy. Especially when the Nazis come to scour the estate and find both Luzia and the treasure gone.
Eighty years later, Callie Randall is mostly content with her quiet life, running a bookstore with her sister and reaching out into the world through her blog. Then she finds a cryptic list in an old edition of Bambi that connects her to Annikaâs story . . . and maybe to the long-buried story of a dear friend. As she digs into the past, Callie must risk venturing outside the safe world sheâs built for a chance at answers, adventure, and maybe even new love.
2019
The Plum Blooms in Winter by Linda Thompson
1942. Pilot Dave Delham sees his Japanese bombing mission as an act of heroism. But his naive view turns grim when he’s caught and endures years of imprisonment at the hands of cruel captors. Despairing that he’ll survive, Dave vows if he escapes, he’ll answer God’s calling.
Osaka, Japan, 1948. Miyako Matsuura longs to restore her family’s shattered honor. After watching her little brother die in a horrific American air raid, she’s been reduced to prostitution to survive. When the pilot whose bomb stole her brother’s life returns as a missionary, her thirst for revenge consumes her.
Two damaged people race along a collision course that could bring their souls eternal change. Can Dave and Miyako transform their tragic histories and surrender to compassion and faith?
The Plum Blooms in Winter is the first book in the inspiring Brands From the Burning historical Christian fiction series. If you like pulse-pounding AND heart-warming tales of redemption drawn from life, brimming with deeply drawn characters and taut suspense, then you’ll love Linda Thompson’s powerful novel.
What were some of your favorite books from the past decade?
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday challenge fromThat Artsy Reader Girl is a list of favorite books from the past ten years. Only 1 per year!? That really is a challenge. My  10 year blogging anniversary is coming up in October, and in the course of reading 1000+ books, I have read many that were truly excellent. Whittling the list down was a daunting task, but here is my list. I hope you find one that you too must read.
Top Books from Each Year I Have Been Blogging
2010
Almost Heaven by Chris Fabry
Billy Allman is a hillbilly genius. People in Dogwood, West Virginia, say he was born with a second helping of brains and a gift for playing the mandolin but was cut short on social skills. Though heâd gladly give you the shirt off his back, they were right. Billy longs to use his life as an ode to God, a lyrical, beautiful bluegrass song played with a finely tuned heart. So with spare parts from a lifetime of collecting, he builds a radio station in his own home. People in town laugh. But Billy carries a brutal secret that keeps him from significance and purpose. Things always seem to go wrong for him.
However small his life seems, from a different perspective Billyâs song reaches far beyond the hills and hollers he calls home. Malachi is an angel sent to observe Billy. Though it is not his dream assignment, Malachi follows the man and begins to see the bigger picture of how each painful step Billy takes is a note added to a beautiful symphony that will forever change the lives of those who hear it.
2011
The City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell
Will Kiehn is seemingly destined for life as a humble farmer in the Midwest when, having felt a call from God, he travels to the vast North China Plain in the early twentieth-century. There he is surprised by love and weds a strong and determined fellow missionary, Katherine. They soon find themselves witnesses to the crumbling of a more than two-thousand-year-old dynasty that plunges the country into decades of civil war. As the couple works to improve the lives of the people of Kuang Pâing Châengâ City of Tranquil Light, a place they come to loveâand face incredible hardship, will their faith and relationship be enough to sustain them?
Told through Will and Katherineâs alternating viewpointsâand inspired by the lives of the authorâs maternal grandparentsâCity of Tranquil Light is a tender and elegiac portrait of a young marriage set against the backdrop of the shifting face of a beautiful but torn nation. A deeply spiritual book, it shows how those who work to teach others often have the most to learn, and is further evidence that Bo Caldwell writes âvividly and with great historical perspectiveâ (San Jose Mercury News).
2012
The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck
Charlotte Malone is getting married. Yet all is not settled in the heart of Birminghamâs chic bridal boutique owner. Charlotte can dress any bride to perfection-except herself. When she discovers a vintage mint-condition wedding gown in a battered old trunk, Charlotte embarks on a passionate journey to discover the women who wore the gown before her.
Emily in 1912. Mary in 1939. And Hillary in 1968. Each woman teaches Charlotte something about love in her own unique way. Woven within the threads of the beautiful hundred-year-old gown is the truth about Charlotteâs heritage, the power of faith, and the beauty of finding true love.
2013
Invisible by Ginny Ytrrup
Ellyn – chef, cafe owner, and lover of butter–is hiding something behind her extra weight. While she sees the good in others, she has only condemnation for herself. So when a handsome widower claims he’s attracted to Ellyn, she’s certain there’s something wrong with him.â¨â¨
Sabina – tall, slender, and exotic–left her husband, young adult daughters, and a thriving counseling practice to spend a year in Northern California where she says she’s come to heal. But it seems to Ellyn that Sabina’s doing more hiding than healing. Why? â¨â¨
Twila has come out of hiding and is working to gain back the pounds she lost when her only goal was to disappear. When her eating disorder is triggered again, though she longs to hide, she instead follows God and fights for her own survival.â¨â¨
As these women’s lives intertwine, their eyes will open to the glory within each of them as they begin to recognize themselves as being created n God’s image.â¨â¨
2014
Burning Sky by Lori Benton
Abducted by Mohawk Indians at fourteen and renamed Burning Sky, Willa Obenchain is driven to return to her familyâs New York frontier homestead after many years building a life with the People. At the boundary of her fatherâs property, Willa discovers a wounded Scotsman lying in her path. Feeling obliged to nurse his injuries, the two quickly find much has changed during her twelve-year absenceâher childhood home is in disrepair, her missing parents are rumored to be Tories, and the young Richard Waring she once admired is now grown into a man twisted by the horrors of war and claiming ownership of the Obenchain land.
When her Mohawk brother arrives and questions her place in the white world, the cultural divide blurs Willaâs vision. Can she follow Tames-His-Horse back to the People now that she is no longer Burning Sky? And what about Neil MacGregor, the kind and loyal botanist who does not fit into in her plan for a solitary life, yet is now helping her revive her farm? In the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, strong feelings against âsavagesâ abound in the nearby village of Shiloh, leaving Willaâs safety unsure.
Willa is a woman caught between two worlds. As tensions rise, challenging her shielded heart, the woman called Burning Sky must find a new courageâthe courage to again risk embracing the blessings the Almighty wants to bestow. Is she brave enough to love again?
2015
The Girl from The Train by Irma Joubert
As World War II draws to a close, JakĂłb fights with the Polish resistance against the crushing forces of Germany and Russia. They intend to destroy a German troop transport, but Gretlâs unscheduled train reaches the bomb first.
Gretl is the only survivor. Though spared from the concentration camp, the orphaned German Jew finds herself lost in a country hostile to her people. When JakĂłb discovers her, guilt and fatherly compassion prompt him to take her in. For three years, the young man and little girl form a bond over the secrets they must hide from his Catholic family.
But she canât stay with him forever. JakĂłb sends Gretl to South Africa, where German war orphans are promised bright futures with adoptive Protestant familiesâso long as Gretlâs Jewish roots, Catholic education, and connections to communist Poland are never discovered.
Separated by continents, politics, religion, language, and years, JakĂłb and Gretl will likely never see each other again. But the events they have both survived and their belief that the human spirit can triumph over the ravages of war have formed a bond of love that no circumstances can overcome.
2016
Annabel Lee by Mike Nappa
Fourteen miles east of Peachtree, Alabama, a secret is hidden. That secretâs name is Annabel Lee Truckson, and even she doesnât know why her mysterious uncle has stowed her deep underground in a military-style bunker. Heâs left her with a few German words, a barely-controlled guard dog, and a single command: âDonât open that door for anybody, you got it? Not even me.â
Above ground, a former Army sniper called The Mute and an enigmatic âDr. Smithâ know about the girl. As the race begins to find her, the tension builds. Who wants to set her free? Why does the other want to keep her captive forever? Who will reach her first?
Private investigators Trudi Coffey and Samuel Hill need to piece together the clues and stay alive long enough to retrieve the girl â before itâs too late.
2017
Long Way Gone by Charles Martin
At the age of eighteen, musician and songwriter Cooper OâConnor took everything his father held dear and drove 1,200 miles from home to Nashville, his life riding on a six-string guitar and the bold wager that he had talent. But his wager soon proved foolish.
Five years after losing everything, he falls in love with Daley Cross, an angelic voice in need of a song. But just as he realizes his love for Daley, Cooper faces a tragedy that threatens his life as well as his career. With nowhere else to go, he returns home to the remote Colorado mountains, searching for answers about his father and his faith.
When Daley shows up on his street corner twenty years later, he wonders if itâs too late to tell her the truth about his pastâand if he is ready to face it himself.
A radical retelling of the prodigal son story, Long Way Gone takes us from tent revivals to the Ryman Auditorium to the tender relationship between a broken man and the father who never stopped calling him home.
2018
Hidden Among The Stars by Melanie Dobson
The year is 1938, and as Hitlerâs troops sweep into Vienna, Austrian Max Dornbach promises to help his Jewish friends hide their most valuable possessions from the Nazis, smuggling them to his familyâs summer estate near the picturesque village of Hallstatt. He enlists the help of Annika Knopf, his childhood friend and the caretakerâs daughter, who is eager to help the man sheâs loved her entire life. But when Max also brings Luzia Weiss, a young Jewish woman, to hide at the castle, it complicates Annikaâs feelings and puts their entire planâeven their very livesâin jeopardy. Especially when the Nazis come to scour the estate and find both Luzia and the treasure gone.
Eighty years later, Callie Randall is mostly content with her quiet life, running a bookstore with her sister and reaching out into the world through her blog. Then she finds a cryptic list in an old edition of Bambithat connects her to Annikaâs story . . . and maybe to the long-buried story of a dear friend. As she digs into the past, Callie must risk venturing outside the safe world sheâs built for a chance at answers, adventure, and maybe even new love.
Do you ever click on the FB links that promise adorable, unique, vintage, or clever baby names. Yeah, me neither đ . Well, maybe sometimes, once in a while, always. I love those click-bait posts and always hope for the best. This week Top 10 Tuesday is talking bookish names, so I came up with my top picks for baby names you just have to use. Most are very unusual and won’t occur ten times on your kids class roll. I have tried to find the meaning of each name; in some cases it is very subjective. Let me know what you think of my picks.
This week’s prompt for Top 10 Tuesday — Books Set in Other Countries — could go a lot of different ways. I decided to feature historical fiction because even if time travel was a thing, I wouldn’t want to take the risks involved in traveling to foreign countries as they experience turmoil, war, disease, persecution, etc. You get the picture. đ Books, in this case, really are the only safe and realistic way to visit another time and another place! There’s a little something for everyone in these books — history, romance, suspense, and mystery. I hope you enjoy the trip!
Make sure you travel over to That Artsy Reader Girlto discover other bloggers and their favorite books.
In 1910 Toronto, while other bachelor girls perfect their domestic skills and find husbands, two friends perfect their sleuthing skills and find a murderer.
Inspired by their fascination with all things Sherlock Holmes, best friends and flatmates Merinda and Jem launch a consulting detective business. The deaths of young Irish women lead Merinda and Jem deeper into the mire of the cityâs underbelly, where the high hopes of those dreaming to make a new life in Canada are met with prejudice and squalor.
While searching for answers, donning disguises, and sneaking around where no proper ladies would ever go, they pair with Jasper Forth, a police constable, and Ray DeLuca, a reporter in whom Jem takes a more than professional interest. Merinda could well be Torontoâs premiere consulting detective, and Jem may just find a way to put her bachelor girlhood behind her forever â if they can stay alive long enough to do so.
Itâs 1943 and Anna Zadok, a Jewish Christian living in Prague, has lost nearly everything. Most of her family has been deported, and the Nazi occupation ended her career as a concert violinist. Now Anna is left to care for her grandmother, and sheâll do anything to keep her safeâa job that gets much harder when Nazi officer Horst Engel is quartered in the flat below them.
Though musical instruments have been declared illegal, Anna defiantly continues to play the violin. But Horst, dissatisfied with German ideology, enjoys her soothing music. When Anna and her grandmother face deportation, Horst risks everything to protect them.
Anna finds herself falling in love with the handsome officer and his brave heart. But what he reveals might stop the music forever.
Anippe has grown up in the shadows of Egyptâs good god Pharaoh, aware that Anubis, god of the afterlife, may take her or her siblings at any moment. She watched him snatch her mother and infant brother during childbirth, a moment which awakens in her a terrible dread of ever bearing a child. Now she is to be become the bride of Sebak, a kind but quick-tempered Captain of Pharaoh Tutâs army. In order to provide Sebak the heir he deserves and yet protect herself from the underworld gods, Anippe must launch a series of deceptions, even involving the Hebrew midwives â women ordered by Tut to drown the sons of their own people in the Nile.
When she finds a baby floating in a basket on the great river, Anippe believes Egyptâs gods have answered her pleas, entrenching her more deeply in deception and placing her and her son Mehy, whom handmaiden Miriam calls Moses, in mortal danger.
As bloodshed and savage politics shift the balance of power in Egypt, the gods reveal their fickle natures and Anippe wonders if her son, a boy of Hebrew blood, could one day become king. Or does the god of her Hebrew servants, the one they call El Shaddai, have a different plan â for them all?
France, 1685. Catherine Gillet knows her brother, Jules, wants to protect her from the sinister threats of the French crown. But Jules is involved in a potentially deadly enterprise, one connected with an encoded document. When his actions put the whole family at risk, will Catherine find a way to save them?
Virginia, present day. Renee Talbot, a direct descendant of Catherineâs, is fascinated by the document thatâs been part of her family legacy for more than three centuries. Certain its pages hold hidden secrets, she takes a closer look â and makes a shocking discovery. But when memories of a childhood trauma are rekindled, sheâs forced to seek answers of a different kind. Inspired by the faith and bravery of Catherine, can Renee find the truth and face her deepest fears at last?
From the authors of the Christy Award-winning The Amish Midwife comes an epic story of two women, centuries apart, each discovering her own hidden bravery, standing for what she believes in, and finding love in unexpected places.
If there is a way into madness, logic says there is a way out. Logic says. Tallis, a philosopherâs servant, is sent to a Greek academy in Palestine only to discover that it has silently, ominously, disappeared. No one will tell him what happened, but he learns what has become of four of its scholars. One was murdered. One committed suicide. One worships in the temple of Dionysus. And one . . . one is a madman.
From Christy Awardâwinning author Tracy Groot comes a tale of mystery, horror, and hope in the midst of unimaginable darkness: the story behind the Gerasene demoniac of the Gospels of Mark and Luke.
Viking warrior. Dauntless leader. Protective mother. Determined to rise above her rank as the illegitimate âforest childâ of Eirik the Red, Freydis launches a second voyage to Vinland to solidify her power and to demand the respect she deserves. She will return home with enough plunder to force her brother, Leif, to sell her the family farm in Greenland. But nothing can prepare her for the horrors she must confront in Vinland . . . and nothing can stand in her way when her family is threatened. In her race to outrun the truths that might destroy her, Freydis ultimately collides with the only enemy she cannot silence â her own heart. Historically based on the Icelandic Sagas, Forest Child brings the memorable, conflicted persona of Freydis Eiriksdottir to life.
In 1772 England, Lady Keturah Banning Tomlinson and her sisters find themselves the heiresses of their fatherâs estates and know they have one option: Go to the West Indies to save what is left of their heritage.
Although it flies against all the conventions, theyâre determined to make their own way in the world. But once they arrive in the Caribbean, conventions are the least of their concerns. On the infamous island of Nevis, the sisters discover the legacy of the legendary sugar barons has vastly declinedâand thatâs just the start of what their eyes are opened to in this harsh and unfamiliar world.
Keturah never intends to put herself at the mercy of a man again, but every man on the island seems to be trying to win her hand and, with it, the ownership of her plantation. She could desperately use an ally, but even an unexpected reunion with a childhood friend leaves her questioning his motives.
To keep her family together and save the plantation that is her last chance at providing for them, can Keturah ever surrender her stubbornness and guarded heart to God and find the healing and love awaiting her?
Feya Broon, a Scottish half Gypsy, knows what it is to go hungry. Trapped in the Edinburgh tenements with a father lost to his past and only the faded memory of her motherâs faith, Feya is desperate to provide for her siblings. When an ill-conceived plan leads to thievery, she finds herself in the last place sheâd ever want to beâcaptured by a palace guard. But thereâs something about this man that tears at every preconceived notion sheâs ever had about the haughty English.
Alasdair Cairncross never dreamed heâd be forced to transport a Gypsy woman halfway across the wilds of Scotland. The timing is disastrous, considering his fiancĂŠeâs imminent arrival and his fatherâs political goals. Not only that, but the fiery young woman threatens to lay bare secrets Alasdair would rather keep hidden. And yet the farther they travel together, the less concerned he finds himself with dutyâboth to the crown and to the plans his family has for him.
As their walls begin to crumble, Feya and Alasdair must fight to survive a decades-old feud, a Highland kidnapping, and the awakening of their own hearts.
As World War II draws to a close, JakĂłb fights with the Polish resistance against the crushing forces of Germany and Russia. They intend to destroy a German troop transport, but Gretlâs unscheduled train reaches the bomb first.
Gretl is the only survivor. Though spared from the concentration camp, the orphaned German Jew finds herself lost in a country hostile to her people. When JakĂłb discovers her, guilt and fatherly compassion prompt him to take her in. For three years, the young man and little girl form a bond over the secrets they must hide from his Catholic family.
But she canât stay with him forever. JakĂłb sends Gretl to South Africa, where German war orphans are promised bright futures with adoptive Protestant familiesâso long as Gretlâs Jewish roots, Catholic education, and connections to communist Poland are never discovered.
Separated by continents, politics, religion, language, and years, JakĂłb and Gretl will likely never see each other again. But the events they have both survived and their belief that the human spirit can triumph over the ravages of war have formed a bond of love that no circumstances can overcome.
The city of Kiev was bombed in Hitlerâs blitzkrieg across the Soviet Union, but the constant siege was only the beginning for her citizens. In this sweeping historical saga, Kelli Stuart takes the reader on a captivating journey into the littleâknown history of Ukraineâs tragedies through the eyes of four compelling characters who experience the same story from different perspectives.
Maria Ivanovna is only fourteen when the bombing begins and not much older when she is forced into work at a German labor camp. She must fight to survive and to make her way back to her beloved Ukraine.
Ivan Kyrilovich is falsely mistaken for a Jew and lined up with 34,000 other men, women, and children who are to be shot at the edge of Babi Yar, the âkilling ditch.â He survives, but not without devastating consequences.
Luda is sixteen when German soldiers rape her. Now pregnant with the child of the enemy, she is abandoned by her father, alone, and in pain. She must learn to trust family and friends again and find her own strength in order to discover the redemption that awaits.
Frederick Hermann is sure in his knowledge that the FĂźhrerâs plans for domination are right and just. He is driven to succeed by a desire to please a demanding father and by his own blind faith in the ideals of Nazism. Based on true stories gathered from fifteen years of research and interviews with Ukrainian World War II survivors, Like a River from Its Course is a story of love, war, heartache, forgiveness, and redemption.
By The Book read Missing Isaac by Valerie Fraser Luesse and loved it! This coming-of-age novel set in Alabama of the 1960s, was a quiet novel that had a dramatic backdrop, yet was more about ordinary people’s actions and reactions rather than the headlines of the time. In coming up with a list of books to recommend for further reading, I kept that in mind. Each of the following books are set in turbulent times, but have at their heart people struggling to make sense of the times in which they live and to make a difference in small ways. I hope you enjoy these novels as well.
A compelling coming of age story with an unlikely and utterly memorable heroine, Child of the River is a timeless tale of heartbreak and triumph set in South Africa at the dawn of apartheid.
Persomi is young, white, and poor, born the middle child of illiterate sharecroppers on the prosperous Fourie farm in the South African Bushveld. Persomiâs world is extraordinarily small. She has never been to the local village and spends her days absorbed in the rhythms of the natural world around her, escaping the brutality and squalor of her family home through the newspapers and books passed down to her from the main house and through her walks in the nearby mountains.
Persomiâs close relationship with her older brother Gerbrand and her fragile friendship with Boelie Fourieâheir to the Fourie farm and fortune â are her lifeline and her only connection to the outside world. When Gerbrand leaves the farm to fight on the side of the Anglos in WWII and Boelie joins an underground network of Boer nationalists, Persomiâs isolated world is blown wide open. But as her very small world falls apart, bigger dreams become open to her â dreams of an education, a profession, a native country that values justice and equality, and of love. As Persomi navigates the changing world around her â the tragedies of war and the devastating racial strife of her homeland â she finally discovers who she truly is, where she belongs, and why her life â and every life â matters.
Ten-year-old Pearl Spence is a daydreamer, playing make-believe to escape life in Oklahomaâs Dust Bowl in 1935. The Spences have their share of misfortune, but as the sheriffâs family, theyâve got more than most in this dry, desolate place. Theyâre who the town turns to when thereâs a crisis or a needâand during these desperate times, there are plenty of both, even if half the town stands empty as people have packed up and moved on.
Pearl is proud of her loving, strong family, though she often wearies of tracking down her mentally impaired older sister or wrestling with her grandmotherâs unshakable belief in a God who Pearl just isnât sure she likes. Then a mysterious man bent on revenge tramps into her town of Red River. Eddie is dangerous and he seems fixated on Pearl. When he reveals why heâs really there and shares a shocking secret involving the whole town, dust wonât be the only thing darkening Pearlâs world.
âI believed it would have been a sin to stay inside when God had sent us such fine weather. According to Pastor Ezra Anderson, sin was the reason weâd got in the dusty mess we were in. The way I saw it, that day was Godâs way of letting us know He wasnât mad at us anymore. Just maybe Heâd seen fit to forgive us.â
Pearl Spence has been through more in her young life than most folks could handle. But through it all, her family has been by her side. They may not be perfect, but they love her and they all love each other, come what may. Thatâs one thing Pearl no longer questions.
But the end of her beautiful day signals the beginning of the end of her secure life.
Now her family is fleeing their Oklahoma wasteland. Pearl isnât sure sheâll ever see home or happiness again. Are there any crumbs powerful enough to guide her back to the dependable life she once knew?
The strong narrative voice of Finkbeinerâs young protagonist from A Cup of Dust returns in this gritty yet hopeful sequel, sure to please her many fans.
Pearl Spence has finally settled into a routine in Bliss, Michigan, far from her home in Red River, Oklahoma. Like all the other kids, she goes to school each day, plays in the woods, and does her chores. But thereâs one big difference: Mama is still gone, and doesnât seem to have a thought for the family sheâs left behind.
Escaping from her worries is another part of Pearlâs new routine, whether thatâs running to Aunt Carrieâs farm, listening to the radio with Ray, or losing herself in a book. In fact, a chair in the stacks, surrounded by books, might be her favorite place on earthâuntil she discovers swing dancing. The music transports Pearl to a whole other world.
When Mama unexpectedly returns, it isnât the happy occasion Pearl had imagined. Mama is distant and Pearl canât figure out how to please her. And the horrible way she treats Daddy is more than Pearl can bear. Seems life would be better if Mama would just stay away.
Stunning coming-of-age drama set during the Great Depression and Prohibition
When Eve Marryatâs father is laid off from the Ford Motor Company in 1931, he is forced to support his family by leaving St. Paul, Minnesota, and moving back to his Ohio roots. Eveâs uncle Cyrus has invited the family to live and work at his Marryat Island Ballroom and Lodge.
 Eve canât wait to leave St. Paul, a notorious haven for gangsters. At seventeen, she considers her family to be âgood people,â not lawbreakers like so many in her neighborhood. Thrilled to be moving to a âsafe haven,â Eve soon forms an unlikely friendship with a strange young man named Link, blissfully unaware that her uncleâs lodge is anything but what it seems.
When the reality of her situation finally becomes clear, Eve is faced with a dilemma. Does she dare risk everything by exposing the man whose love and generosity is keeping her family from ruin? And when things turn dangerous, can she trust Link in spite of appearances?
Once upon a time I re-read books. You know those books that speak to the heart, that make their way deep inside a reader. But once I became a book blogger, I rarely had time for anything other than the latest shiny book that made its way into my mailbox or Kindle. I can’t say no to the new books, so I have no time to savor yet again the old. But that doesn’t mean I don’t take them out and look at them. So here is a short list of Books That Should Be Re-read (this list is not exhaustive; we are limited to 10, don’t you know). Do you agree? If you haven’t read them yet, put them on top of your TBR List. That way they’ll make their way to your Re-Read List quicker. đ
It is so very hard to come up with a list of the best books I’ve read in a year. In 2017, I read 108 books — the majority of which I recommended. How do I take that many books and come up with a list of 10, 15, 20 Â . . . ? The list I have compiled for 2017 are books that spoke to my heart, changed my viewpoint, challenged me, taught me. They include a variety of genres and writing styles. Some were written years ago, but 2017 was my first reading. Most are newer, having been published in the last year or two. All are excellent and are highly recommended. If you are looking for a great reading experience, you can’t go wrong with any on the list. Enjoy!
Persomi is young, white, and poor, born the middle child of illiterate sharecroppers on the prosperous Fourie farm in the South African Bushveld. Persomiâs world is extraordinarily small. She has never been to the local village and spends her days absorbed in the rhythms of the natural world around her, escaping the brutality and squalor of her family home through the newspapers and books passed down to her from the main house and through her walks in the nearby mountains.
Persomiâs close relationship with her older brother Gerbrand and her fragile friendship with Boelie Fourieâheir to the Fourie farm and fortune â are her lifeline and her only connection to the outside world. When Gerbrand leaves the farm to fight on the side of the Anglos in WWII and Boelie joins an underground network of Boer nationalists, Persomiâs isolated world is blown wide open. But as her very small world falls apart, bigger dreams become open to her â dreams of an education, a profession, a native country that values justice and equality, and of love. As Persomi navigates the changing world around her â the tragedies of war and the devastating racial strife of her homeland â she finally discovers who she truly is, where she belongs, and why her life â and every life â matters.
The train taking nineteen-year-old teacher Christy Huddleston from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, might as well be transporting her to another world. The Smoky Mountain community of Cutter Gap feels suspended in time, trapped by poverty, superstitions, and century-old traditions.
But as Christy struggles to find acceptance in her new home, some see her â and her one-room school â as a threat to their way of life. Her faith is challenged and her heart is torn between two strong men with conflicting views about how to care for the families of the Cove.
Yearning to make a difference, will Christyâs determination and devotion be enough?
Josiah Chamberlainâs lifeâs work revolves around repairing other peopleâs marriages. When his own is threatened by his wifeâs unexplained distance, and then threatened further when sheâs unexpectedly plunged into an unending fog, Josiah finds his expertise, quick wit and clever quips are no match for a relationship that is clearly broken.
Feeling betrayed, confused, and ill-equipped for a crisis this crippling, he reexamines everything he knows about the fragility of hope and the strength of his faith and love. Love seems to have failed him. Will whatâs left of his faith fail him, too? Or will it be the one thing that holds him together and sears through the impenetrable wall that separates them?
Wealth and etiquette can hide a lot of things in the South, as the esteemed Harlan family of sleepy Bay Spring, Alabama, knows. But behind the gentle facade of white pillared porches and acres of cultivated pecan orchards, family secrets smolder.
Young Anniston Harlan cares little for high society and the rigid rules and expectations of her grandmother, Princella. She finds solace working the orchards alongside her father and grandfather, and relief in the cool waters of Mobile Bay.
Annistonâs aunt, Comfort Harlan, has never quite lived up to the family name, or so her mother Princellaâs ever-apparent scowl implies. When she gleefully accepts the proposal of her longtime boyfriend, Solly, a flood tide of tragedy ensues that strips Comfort of her innocence and unleashes generations of family secrets, changing the Harlan family forever.
While Comfort struggles to recover, Anniston discovers an unlikely new friend from the seedy part of town who helps her try to make sense of the chaos. Together, they and the whole town of Bay Spring discover how true love is a risk, but one worth taking.
After the mysterious death of her father, Miss Gillian Young takes a new job as the principal costume designer at the renowned Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. But while she remembers her father as a kind, well-respected man of the Police Force, clues she uncovers indicate heâd been living a double life: a haunting photograph of a young woman; train stubs for secret trips just before his death; and a receipt for a large sum of money. Are these items evidence of her fatherâs guilty secrets? His longtime police partner thinks so.
Then Gillian meets the dashing Viscount Thomas Lockwood. Their attraction is instant and inescapable. As their romantic involvement grows, Gillian begins to suspect even Lockwoodâs motives. Does Lord Lockwood truly love her? Or is his interest a front for the desire to own her newly inherited property? And what should she make of her friendâs suggestion that Lockwood or men like him were involved in the murder of her father?
Soon Gillian is convinced that her father has left evidence somewhere that can prove his innocence and reveal the guilty party. But someone wants to stop her from discovering it. The closer she comes to uncovering it, the more menacing her opposition grows. With her life on the line, Gillian takes on an ingenious disguise and takes on the role of a lifetime to reveal the true killerâbefore itâs too late both for her and for those that she loves.
At the age of eighteen, musician and songwriter Cooper OâConnor took everything his father held dear and drove 1,200 miles from home to Nashville, his life riding on a six-string guitar and the bold wager that he had talent. But his wager soon proved foolish.
Five years after losing everything, he falls in love with Daley Cross, an angelic voice in need of a song. But just as he realizes his love for Daley, Cooper faces a tragedy that threatens his life as well as his career. With nowhere else to go, he returns home to the remote Colorado mountains, searching for answers about his father and his faith.
When Daley shows up on his street corner twenty years later, he wonders if itâs too late to tell her the truth about his pastâand if he is ready to face it himself.
A radical retelling of the prodigal son story, Long Way Gone takes us from tent revivals to the Ryman Auditorium to the tender relationship between a broken man and the father who never stopped calling him home.
In 1774, the Ohio-Kentucky frontier pulses with rising tension and brutal conflicts as Colonists push westward and encroach upon Native American territories. The young Inglesby family is making the perilous journey west when an accident sends Philip back to Redstone Fort for help, forcing him to leave his pregnant wife Clare and their four-year old son Jacob on a remote mountain trail.
When Philip does not return and Jacob disappears from the wagon under the cover of darkness, Clare awakens the next morning to find herself utterly alone, in labor and wondering how she can to recover her son . . . especially when her second child is moments away from being born.
Clare will face the greatest fight of her life, as she struggles to reclaim her son from the Shawnee Indians now holding him captive. But with the battle lines sharply drawn, Jacobâs life might not be the only one at stake. When frontiersman Jeremiah Ring comes to her aid, can the stranger convince Clare that recovering her son will require the very thing her anguished heart is unwilling to do â be still, wait and let God fight this battle for them?
When Natalie Mitchell learns her beloved grandfather has had a heart attack, sheâs forced to return to their family-owned winery in Sonoma, something she never intended to do. Sheâs avoided her grandparentsâ sprawling home and all its memories since the summer her sister diedâthe awful summer Natalieâs nightmares began. But the winery is failing, and Natalieâs father wants her to shut it down. As the majority shareholder, she has the power to do so. And Natalie never says no to her father.
Tanner Collins, the vintner on Maoilios, is trying to salvage a bad season and put the Mitchell familyâs winery back in business. When Natalie Mitchell shows up, Tanner sees his future about to be crushed. Natalie intends to close the gates, unless he can convince her otherwise. But the Natalie he remembers from childhood is long gone, and heâs not so sure he likes the woman sheâs become. Still, the haunted look she wears hints at secrets he wants to unearth. He soon discovers that on the night her sister died, the real Natalie died too. And Tanner must do whatever it takes to resurrect her.
But finding freedom from the past means facing it.Â
Living in rural Georgia in 1941, sixteen-year-old Alice-Ann has her heart set on her brotherâs friend Mack; despite their five-year age gap, Alice-Ann knows she can make Mack see her for the woman sheâll become. But when they receive news of the attack on Pearl Harbor and Mack decides to enlist, Alice-Ann realizes she must declare her love before he leaves.
Though promising to write, Mack leaves without confirmation that her love is returned. But Alice-Ann is determined to wear the wedding dress her maiden aunt never had a chance to wear â having lost her fiancĂŠ in the Great War. As their correspondence continues over the next three years, Mack and Alice-Ann are drawn closer together. But then Mackâs letters cease altogether, leaving Alice-Ann to fear history repeating itself.
Dreading the war will leave her with a beautiful dress and no happily ever after, Alice-Ann fills her days with work and caring for her best friendâs war-torn brother, Carlton. As time passes and their friendship develops into something more, Alice-Ann wonders if sheâll ever be prepared to say good-bye to her one true love and embrace the future God has in store with a newfound love. Or will a sudden call from overseas change everything?
The summer of 1972 was the most pivotal of Matt Plumleyâs childhood. While his beloved Pirates battle for back-to-back World Series titles, Mattâs family moves from Pittsburgh to Dogwood, West Virginia, where his father steps into the pulpit of a church under the thumb of town leader Basil Blackwood. A fish out of water, Matt is relieved to forge a fast bond with two unlikely friends: Dickie Darrel Lee Hancock, a mixed-race boy, and Jesse Woods, a tough-as-nails girl with a sister on her hip and no dad in sight.
As the trio traipses the hills and hollers, Matt begins to fall for Jesse, and their promises to each other draw him deeper into her terrifying reality. One night, the wrath of the Blackwoods and the secrets of Jesseâs family collide, and Matt joins Jesse in a rescue that saves one life and ends another . . . and severs the bond of their friendship.
Years later, Matt is pulled back to Dogwood and to memories of that momentous summer by news of Jesseâs upcoming wedding. He could never shake the feeling that there was more to the story of that fateful night, and heâs determined to learn the truth behind the only promise Jesse Woods ever broke.
Nine-year-old Abby McAndrews has just experienced her greatest loss, and in its wake, her family is unraveling with guilt, grief, and anger. Her father, Reverend McAndrews, cannot return to the pulpit because he has more questions than answers. Her older brother Mattâs actions speak louder than the words he needs to confess, as he acts out in dangerous ways. Her mother tries to hold her grieving family together, but when Abbyâs dad refuses to move on, the family is at a crossroads. Â Stars in the Grass, set in a small Midwestern town in 1970, is an uplifting novel that explores a familyâs relationships and resiliency. Abbyâs heartbreaking remembrances are balanced by humor and nostalgia as her family struggles with â and ultimately celebrates â life after loss.
âI believed it would have been a sin to stay inside when God had sent us such fine weather. According to Pastor Ezra Anderson, sin was the reason weâd got in the dusty mess we were in. The way I saw it, that day was Godâs way of letting us know He wasnât mad at us anymore. Just maybe Heâd seen fit to forgive us.â
Pearl Spence has been through more in her young life than most folks could handle. But through it all, her family has been by her side. They may not be perfect, but they love her and they all love each other, come what may. Thatâs one thing Pearl no longer questions.
But the end of her beautiful day signals the beginning of the end of her secure life.
Now her family is fleeing their Oklahoma wasteland. Pearl isnât sure sheâll ever see home or happiness again. Are there any crumbs powerful enough to guide her back to the dependable life she once knew?
The strong narrative voice of Finkbeinerâs young protagonist from A Cup of Dust returns in this gritty yet hopeful sequel, sure to please her many fans.
After a devastating heartbreak three years ago, genealogist and historical village owner Nora Bradford has decided that burying her nose in her work and her books is far safer than romance in the here and now.
Unlike Nora, former Navy SEAL and Medal of Honor recipient John Lawson is a modern-day man, usually 100 percent focused on the present. But when heâs diagnosed with an inherited condition, heâs forced to dig into the secrets of his past and his adoption as an infant, enlisting Nora to help him uncover the identity of his birth mother.
The more time they spend together, the more this pair of opposites suspects they just might be a perfect match. However, Johnâs already dating someone and Noraâs not sure sheâs ready to trade her crushes on fictional heroes for the risks of a real relationship. Finding the answers theyâre seeking will test the limits of their identity, their faith, and their devotion to one another.
What options does a Christian woman have after sheâs brutally assaulted by a stranger . . . and becomes pregnant? Thatâs the heartrending situation Claire Holland faces. Happily married and the mother of two when she is attacked, Claire begins an incredible journey on the painful pathway to trusting God âin all thingsâ.
When Claireâs husband, Dan, confesses he canât be a father to the expected child, Claireâs decision to put the baby up for adoption creates a sense of tremendous loss for Claire. Later, unexpected circumstances turn this seeming loss into victory.
This wonderful first novel isnât a love story . . . but a life story, presenting the twin themes trusting God in tragic circumstances and reaping the rewards that eventually come with sacrificial loving.
When soldier Caitlin McKae woke up in Atlanta after being wounded in battle, the Georgian doctor who treated her believed Caitlinâs only secret was that she had been fighting for the Confederacy disguised as a man. In order to avoid arrest or worse, Caitlin hides her true identity and makes a new life for herself in Atlanta.
Trained as a teacher, she accepts a job as a governess to the daughter of Noah Becker, a German immigrant lawyer, who enlists with the Rebel army. Then in the spring of 1864, Shermanâs troops edge closer to Atlanta. Though starvation rules, and Sherman rages, she will not run again. In a land shattered by strife and suffering, a Union veteran and a Rebel soldier test the limits of loyalty and discover the courage to survive. Will honor dictate that Caitlin and Noah follow the rules, or love demand that they break them?
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Canada, 1910s
Czechoslovakia, WWII
Ancient Egypt
France, 1600s
The Galilee, Palestine, 1st Century AD
Greenland And Iceland, 900-1000s 
Nevis, 1770s
Scotland, 1800s
South Africa, post-WWII
Ukraine, WWII
Child of The River 
A Cup of Dust 
A Trail of Crumbs
A Song of Home
Sweet Mercy
 10 Books That Should Be Re-Read 
Child of The River
Christy
A Fragile Hope 
How Sweet The Sound
A Lady in Disguise 
Long Way Gone 
Many Sparrows
The Memory of You 
The One True Love of Alice-Ann 
The Promise of Jesse Woods 
Stars in The Grass
A Trail of Crumbs 
True to You 
Why The Sky is Blue 
Yankee in Atlanta 
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