The Nutcracker’s Suite by Chautona Havig

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1926 – New York

“Time to dance, sugarplum.”

A painter at the Meyer’s Toys factory, Clarice Stahl, knows something is strange about the way so many men come and go through Mr. Meyer’s office, especially one in particular.

Then murder strikes a little too close to home and uncorks a barrel of secrets.

When mob king, Mario Topo’s, enforcer goes missing the race is on to prove he’s behind the murder. Police and mobsters alike are after Milo Natale, and he who finds Milo first might determine the enforcer’s fate.

A race through the city, a new friend… or more… a new life in the offing. Milo and Clarice must find who killed Topo’s man and why before the police arrest him for murder or Topo’s men bump him and Clarice off, too.

As Dawn Breaks by Kate Breslin

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1918 – England

Her daring bid for freedom could be her greatest undoing.

Amid the Great War in 1918 England, munitions worker Rosalind Graham is desperate to escape the arranged marriage being forced on her by her ruthless guardian and instead follow her own course. When the Chilwell factory explodes, killing hundreds of unidentified workers, Rose realizes the world believes she perished in the disaster. Seizing the chance to escape, she risks all and assumes a new identity, taking a supervisory position in Gretna, Scotland, as Miss Tilly Lockhart.

RAF Captain Alex Baird is returning home to Gretna on a secret mission to uncover the saboteur suspected in the Chilwell explosion, as Gretna’s factory is likely next. Fearing for his family’s safety, he’s also haunted by guilt after failing to protect his brother. Alex is surprised to discover a young woman, Miss Lockhart, renting his boyhood room, but the two eventually bond over their mutual affection for his family–until Alex receives orders to surveil her.

Rose squirms beneath Alex’s scrutiny while she struggles to gain her workers’ respect. But when her deception turns to danger, she and Alex must find a way to put their painful pasts behind them and together try to safeguard the future.

Echoes Among the Stones by Jaime Jo Wright

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1946/Present Day – Wisconsin

After Aggie Dunkirk’s career is unceremoniously ended by her own mistakes, she finds herself traveling to Wisconsin, where her grandmother, Mumsie, lives alone in her rambling old home. She didn’t plan for how eccentric Mumsie has become, obsessing over an old, unsolved crime scene–even going so far as to re-create it in the dollhouse.

Mystery seems to follow her when she finds work as a secretary helping to restore the flooded historical part of the cemetery. Forced to work with the cemetery’s puzzling, yet attractive archeologist, she exhumes the past’s secrets and unwittingly uncovers a crime that some will go to any length to keep quiet–even if it means silencing Aggie.

In 1946, Imogene Flannigan works in a local factory and has eyes on owning her own beauty salon. But coming home to discover her younger sister’s body in the attic changes everything. Unfamiliar with the newly burgeoning world of criminal forensics and not particularly welcomed as a woman, Imogene is nonetheless determined to stay involved. As her sister’s case grows cold, Imogene vows to find justice . . . even if it costs her everything.

Your Heart’s Desire by Melody Carlson

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1945 – California

It’s almost New Year’s 1946, a perfect time for Caroline Marshall to start a new chapter in her life. Widowed three years ago when she lost her husband in the war, she has decided to move with her nine-year-old son to join her sister’s family in sunny California. Her sister’s new house has a basement apartment for Caroline to rent, and though jobs for women are scarce with so many veterans returning from the war, it seems the local chocolate factory is hiring. The apartment turns out to be rather dingy, and the job may be working the assembly line — a step down from Caroline’s office job as a secretary back in Minnesota. But Caroline is determined to make a great new life for herself and her son. As she goes about making that happen, she keeps running into a handsome stranger — at the diner, at church, and he even works for M.G. Chocolates. With a New Year, a new home, and a new job, is Caroline ready to find new love?

Michigan Brides by Amber Stockton

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Industrial Revolution – Michigan

Within the industrial boom during the Turn of the Century, three Michigan women react differently to their rapidly changing worlds. Felicity Chambers trades her society gowns for poor rags, swapping lifestyles with a sick woman in the factory district. But when she meets Brandt Lawson from the copper refinery, will her noble deed lead to heartache? Annabelle Lawson takes food to the potato pickers in her father’s field and meets William Berringer, a victim of the 1893 financial crash. Can they break through society’s stigma when romance blooms? Shannon Delaney’s belief industrial progress is doomed to fail is confirmed by the sinking of the Titanic and when Jacob Berringer’s Model-T almost runs her down. Will Shannon be willing to embrace change and welcome love with it? Can each woman find the faith and strength to weather their times and invite love into their hearts?

These Tangled Threads by Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller

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1833 – Massachusetts

Timid yet alluring Daughtie Winfield finds herself in a precarious position when the new doctor casts his favor upon her. Though flattered by his attention, she is drawn to Liam Donohue, a local Irish artisan. As Daughtie and Liam work together to help runaway slaves, their friendship blossoms. But her work in the mills is threatened when a downturn in profits causes the Associates to decrease wages–resulting in plans for a strike. With the fate of the textile industry in an upheaval, will her hopes for love be thwarted as dissention infiltrates life in Lowell?

Daughter of the Loom by Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller

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1828 – Massachusetts

The mill town of Lowell, Massachusetts, comes to life with intrigue and drama from the creative writing team of Judith Miller and Tracie Peterson. Young women of the 19th century seek employment from driven men intent on transforming America’s textile industry. Daughters of the Loom features Lilly Armbruster, who is forced to work in the mills as her only means for survival. But Lilly’s resentment runs deep against the “lords of the loom”–the men she believes have stolen her father’s farm and caused his premature death. Her animosity happens to include Matthew Cheever, her childhood friend and one-time betrothed. Though separated by their opposing views about the future of the mill and the community that surrounds it, the emotions of their hearts still bind them. Will their dreams for the future allow their fragile love to survive?