Soul’s Cry by Cara Luecht

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soulscrySoul’s Cry

1892 – Illinois

Ione has everything she’d wanted with her busy shop filled to the brim with sumptuous fabrics, gossiping debutantes, and a neatly increasing profit margin. Not to mention the unexpected attention of a man who doesn’t know her past.
And then the letter dropped from the mail slot onto to lush carpet. He was back. And the abuse, the shame, rushes in, reminding her of how unworthy she really is.

Miriam also has everything she’d wanted—and with a baby on the way, for the first time in her life, she has everything to lose. When she’d been alone, the future had held promise, but now with her life full, it also holds fear. Unwilling to risk a vision of loss, Miriam stops painting what will be…right before Ione needs it most.

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Hester Takes Charge by Linda Byler

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Colonial Pennsylvania

Hester, the startlingly beautiful Native American who was rescued as an infant by an Amish couple, now lives in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She shares a house with Bappie King, another Amish woman, living their independent lives in the fast-growing mid-18th-century city. Bappie runs a highly successful stand at the downtown farmers market; Hester is Bappie’s assistant when she isn’t out in the city nursing desperately sick children and their impoverished parents with her tinctures, teas, and rubs.

And then one day, Noah comes back; Noah, the first child born to Hans and Kate Zug, the Amish couple who had welcomed Hester during their childless years.

Both Hester and Noah are refugees from this Amish family gone awry. Both were victims of Hans’ deep attraction to the lovely Hester. Two hurt souls, they have each had their own adult troubles. Noah left his family and the Amish to join the War. Hester is the widow of William King, an Amish man who was determined to possess his wife and dictate her life.

When Noah invites Hester to join him on a visit to their childhood home, Hester can no longer ignore her buried anger at her adopted father or her bitterness toward Annie, his second wife. Nor can Hester deny the tempting thrill of spending time with the steady but sensitive Noah, who since childhood showed special care for Hester.

Hester and Noah both know that the visit home will force them to face blistering questions: Can they possibly forgive their ill father, Hans, for his misplaced love for Hester and his utter neglect of Noah? Can Hester and Noah risk marriage, especially if they can’t forgive Hans? Can Hester trust herself—and Noah—enough to marry again after her failed marriage to William?

In the Land of White Nights by Bonnie Leon

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1869 – Alaska

Anna or rivers of gold–which will captivate his heart?

The lure of the nineteenth-century gold rush calls to Erik, a civil-war veteran. He and Anna, his Aleutian bride, set sail for a new life together in Sitka.

Anna stands strong against the adversities of the new land with its unfamiliar culture and fearsome challenges. She fights the prejudice of others, while growing her newfound faith in the white man’s God.

When forced to move farther north and begin again, Anna refuses to give up, allowing nothing to stand in the way of her family’s happiness. They discover joy as well as heartache in the Alaskan wilderness. But will Erik’s love of gold put all they’ve worked so hard for in jeopardy?

A Flight of Arrows by Lori Benton

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A Flight of Arrowsaflightofarrows

1777 – New York and Canadian Territory

Twenty years past, in 1757, a young Redcoat, Reginald Aubrey stole a newborn boy—the lighter-skinned of Oneida twins— during the devastating fall of Fort William Henry and raised him as his own.
 
No one connected to Reginald escaped unscathed from this crime. Not his adopted daughter Anna. Not Stone Thrower, the Native American father determined to get his son back. Not Two Hawks, William’s twin brother separated since birth, living in the shadow of his absence and hoping to build a future with Anna. Nor Lydia, who longs for Reginald to be free from his self-imposed emotional prison and embrace God’s forgiveness— and her love.
 
Now William, whose identity has been shattered after discovering the truth of his birth, hides in the ranks of an increasingly aggressive British army. The Redcoats prepare to attack frontier New York and the Continentals, aided by Oneida warriors including Two Hawks, rally to defend it. As the Revolutionary War penetrates the Mohawk Valley, two families separated by culture, united by love and faith, must find a way to reclaim the son marching toward them in the ranks of their enemies.

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Stitching a Life in Persimmon Hollow by Gerri Bauer

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1888 – Florida

In At Home in Persimmon Hollow, readers’ hearts were captured by Agnes Foster as she built a new life for herself in a very special frontier town amid the Florida wilderness—and found love along the way. Now, in the second novel of the Persimmon Hollow Legacy series, we meet starry-eyed seamstress Josefa Gomez.

Living with her aunt and uncle, the housekeeper and caretaker at Agnes and Seth’s Taylor Grove compound, Josefa longs for the glamorous life of a fashion designer far beyond her small town. But her dreams of designing exquisite gowns for rich women in Paris and New York alarm her Tia Lupita, who fears that Josefa’s ambitions are unrealistic for a girl of her station. In late 19th century America, a Mexican woman’s best prospect may well be a suitable marriage and a position in the household of a kind employer. When Lupita announces a plan for Josefa to move away from Persimmon Hollow to live with distant relatives in Texas and prepare for an arranged marriage, the headstrong beauty knows she has to make an audacious choice.

Will Josefa follow her dreams of glamor or submit to her aunt’s plans for stability and security? Can she find a way to use her gifts in a truly productive way? And when a choice arises between two suitors, will she choose a rich man who could give her all the outward trappings she desires, or a quiet carpenter who has fewer material goods—but a bigger heart?

Which Way Home? by Linda Byler

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Which Way Home? whichwayhome

Colonial Pennsylvania

Born a Native American, but brought up Amish, Hester Zug, at age 20, flees her Amish home. Her father’s too-tender care of her has made her stepmother wildly jealous, and so Hester sets off, knowing only that she can’t stay. Hester’s natural instincts for navigating the forests in colonial Pennsylvania along with the book of medicines and remedies given to her by an aged Native American woman allow her to survive until she gets sick from drinking river water.

Twice rescued—first by matronly Indian women who find her unconscious in the woods, and then by a boy in downtown Lancaster, where she’d been left for dead by the dreaded Paxton boys—Hester finds herself in the kind, if rough, hands of Emma Ferree. Because of her wide heart, Ferree, a widow, offers her home to fugitives.

The dazzlingly beautiful Hester eventually marries an Amish man, who is more in love with the way she looks than with her heart and mind. And when that childless marriage falters, she is met one day in the fields by Running Bear, a Native American brave who has watched her for years. He asks her to marry him, giving her until wintertime to decide.

Belonging in part to two worlds, but experiencing a subtle yet clear rejection from both, Hester comes to wish that her Amish mother, Kate, had never rescued her.

Author Linda Byler shows the lovely and enduring Hester caring for others as the Amish do, with the use of Native American remedies and tinctures from the old woman’s book. Her practices raise accusations of witchcraft from the very people she sets out to help. Byler, an active member of the Amish, centers this second book in the Hester’s Hunt for Home series on two anguishing questions: Where is Hester’s heart most at home? And can she ever be married happily?

Hester on the Run by Linda Byler

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hesterontherunHester on the Run

Colonial – Pennsylvania

The setting is the beginning of an Amish settlement in colonial America in the forests of eastern Pennsylvania. There, a young Amish couple, Hans and Kate Zug, are in their ninth year of marriage, still waiting to have a child. Then, one April morning, Kate finds a Native infant, wrapped in deerskin and placed next to the spring where she went to fill her water bucket.

Kate and Hans cherish Hester, despite the pointed question of Hans’s mother—“What makes you think you can raise her Amish, with her Indian blood?”

Struck by his daughter’s unusual beauty, Hans insists on choosing the fabric for her handmade dresses. And when his and Kate’s first son is born a year later, Hans despairs of his homely face and nearly bald head. In fact, Hans continues to give his fullest attention and affection to Hester, even as eight more children are born to him and Kate.

Hester glows as she grows, an unmistakable beauty both inside and out, and charms her adopted Amish community. But then, an elderly Lenape woman hands Hester a package of medicinal herbs to rout an infection that is threatening Kate’s life. A trust passes between the wizened and the youthful Native women. In that moment, Hester recognizes that she belongs to two worlds, both intent on possessing her. When Amish Indian Hester realizes that she must leave her tension-filled home for her sake and her father’s, she takes only two possessions: the leather-bound book of remedies left for her by the old Lenape woman and her memories of the Amish ways.

To Capture Her Heart by Rebecca DeMarino

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tocaptureherheartTo Capture Her Heart

1653 – New England Area

It is 1653 and Heather Flower, a princess of the Montaukett tribe, is celebrating her wedding feast when a rival tribe attacks, killing the groom and kidnapping her. Though her ransom is paid by an Englishman, she is bound by her captors and left to die–until she finds herself rescued by handsome Dutch Lieutenant Dirk Van Buren.

Still tender from her loss, Heather Flower begins to heal in the home of the Hortons, English friends of her people. Torn between her affection for Dirk and her longtime friendship with Ben Horton, Heather Flower must make a difficult choice–stay true to her friend or follow her heart.

 

 

The Representative’s Revolt by Piper Huguley

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1871 – Georgia

Someone has tried to assassinate Virgil Smithson. The Georgia State Legislature is not a safe place—if it ever was. To protect her growing family, Amanda wants to go home to Milford. Virgil is willing to serve out his term and return to life as a blacksmith, but first he has to know…who is trying to have him killed?
Meanwhile, Amanda works to resolve Milford College’s everlasting financial woes by starting a fund raising campaign to finish the school building. Her efforts require her absence from home and the many pressures influence the marriage of the Milford College founders.

Then, a missive arrives from Ohio and Amanda receives an offer she feels she cannot refuse.

When all they want is what they had in the first place, a quiet life in Milford, Virgil and Amanda must strengthen their faith to negotiate these difficult days of the Reconstruction Era.

Someone is trying to put an end to the dream of Milford College and Virgil Smithson’s life. In this, the finale of the “Founder’s Trilogy” the Representative and his wife have to find a way to figure it all out…before it’s too late.

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

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1800s – Charleston

Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.

As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.

Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.

The Wood’s Edge by Lori Benton

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1757 – New York

At the wood’s edge cultures collide. Can two families survive the impact?
 
The 1757 New York frontier is home to the Oneida tribe and to British colonists, yet their feet rarely walk the same paths.
 
On the day Fort William Henry falls, Major Reginald Aubrey is beside himself with grief. His son, born that day, has died in the arms of his sleeping wife. When Reginald comes across an Oneida mother with newborn twins, one white, one brown, he makes a choice that will haunt the lives of all involved. He steals the white baby and leaves his own child behind. Reginald’s wife and foundling daughter, Anna, never suspect the truth about the boy they call William, but Reginald is wracked by regret that only intensifies with time, as his secret spreads its devastating ripples.
 
When the long buried truth comes to light, can an unlikely friendship forged at the wood’s edge provide a way forward? For a father tormented by fear of judgment, another by lust for vengeance. For a mother still grieving her lost child. For a brother who feels his twin’s absence, another unaware of his twin’s existence. And for Anna, who loves them both—Two Hawks, the mysterious Oneida boy she meets in secret, and William, her brother. As paths long divided collide, how will God direct the feet of those who follow Him?

My Heart Stood Still by Lori Copeland

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myheartstoodstillMy Heart Stood Still

1860s – Texas

The three wily and beautiful McDougal sisters can swindle a man faster than it takes to lasso a calf. But their luck is running out, and they’re about to be hauled off to jail. When the wagon carrying them falls under attack, each sister is picked up by a different man.

Anne-Marie, the middle sister, is saved by Creed Walker, a Crow warrior. It’s loathing at first sight, but with bandits on their tail and a cache of gold to hide, Creed and Anne-Marie need each other. Will they learn to put aside their differences and trust each other—and God? And can their growing faith turn their lives around?

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Under the Silk Hibiscus by Alice Wisler

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WWII – Wyoming

During World War Two, Nathan and his family are sent to Heart Mountain, an internment camp in Wyoming for Japanese-Americans. Nathan’s one desire is to protect the family’s gold pocket watch, a family heirloom brought over from Japan. He fails; the watch is stolen. Struggling to make sense of his life in “the land of freedom,” Nathan discovers truths about his family, God, and the girl he loves.

A Light in the Wilderness by Jane Kirkpatrick

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A Light in the Wildernessalightinthewilderness

1844 – Missouri

Letitia holds nothing more dear than the papers that prove she is no longer a slave. They may not cause white folks to treat her like a human being, but at least they show she is free. She trusts in those words she cannot read–as she is beginning to trust in Davey Carson, an Irish immigrant cattleman who wants her to come west with him. Nancy Hawkins is loathe to leave her settled life for the treacherous journey by wagon train, but she is so deeply in love with her husband that she knows she will follow him anywhere–even when the trek exacts a terrible cost. Betsy is a Kalapuya Indian, the last remnant of a once proud tribe in the Willamette Valley in Oregon territory. She spends her time trying to impart the wisdom and ways of her people to her grandson. But she will soon have another person to care for. As season turns to season, suspicion turns to friendship, and fear turns to courage, three spirited women will discover what it means to be truly free in a land that makes promises it cannot fulfill.

The Preacher’s Promise by Piper Huguley

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The Preacher’s Promisepreacherspromise

1866 – Ohio

Devastated by her father’s death days after her triumphant graduation from Oberlin College, Amanda Stewart is all alone in the world. Her father’s unscrupulous business partner offers her an indecent proposal to earn a living. Instead, to fulfill a promise she made to her father, she resolves to start a school to educate and uplift their race. Sorting through her father’s papers, she discovers he had carried on a mysterious correspondence with a plantation in Milford, Georgia. She determines to start her teaching work with the formerly enslaved. However, when she arrives, the mayor tells her to leave. There’s no where for her to go. Virgil Smithson, Milford’s mayor, blacksmith and sometimes preacher man with a gift for fiery oratory, doesn’t want anything to do with a snobby schoolteacher from up North. On top of everything else, the schoolteacher lady has a will hard enough to match the iron he forges. He must organize his fellow formerly enslaved citizens into a new town and raise his young daughter alone. Still, his troubled past haunts him. He cannot forget the promise he made to his daughter’s mother as she died–that their child would learn to read and write. If only he didn’t have secrets that the new schoolteacher seems determined to uncover.

To keep THE PREACHER’S PROMISE, Amanda and Virgil must put aside their enmity, unite for the sake of a newly-created community in a troubling age, and do things they never imagined. In the aftermath of the flood that was the Civil War, God set his bow upon the earth to show love and understanding for humankind. To reflect God’s promise, these combatants must put aside their differences and come together–somehow.

The Lawyer’s Luck by Piper Huguley

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The Lawyer’s Lucklawyersluck

1844 – Ohio

Lawrence Stewart is a rare man. Raised with his grandmother’s Miami Indian tribe, he’s a Negro with brown skin, and has consistently walked between two worlds most of his life. He devotes his time and study to becoming a lawyer, fully intending to obtain justice for the ousted Miami Indians. No Negro man has accomplished these things before, but he is not daunted. He studies for his exams as he rides circuit through the backwoods of Ohio, handing out justice to people who cannot easily reach a courthouse. His life is perfectly set until one June day…. Aurelia “Realie” Baxter made her way from enslavement in Georgia to the free land Lake Huron in Ohio. Far from happy as a slave doing the bidding of a woman cooped up in a house all day, Realie is a bona fide tomboy with a special gift with horses. Now, she is so close to freedom in Canada, she can smell it, but her plans are interrupted when Lawrence shoots her…by mistake…. Lawrence cannot study encumbered with the care of an enslaved woman, but he’s responsible for her injury… Realie wants to get to Canada, but Lawrence won’t let her get away in trying to help her…

The Mayor’s Mission by Piper Huguley

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1868 – Georgia

Milford College is in trouble. The mission to create teachers and preachers for the recently freed populations is on a shaky course because of problems between the married founders.
Mayor Virgil Smithson has been away to the constitutional convention in the newly established state capitol in Atlanta for almost five months. He’s late in getting back home. Worried about her husband, Amanda Smithson manages the crowded and growing school by herself. How they will pay the taxes on the school property if Virgil doesn’t return from Atlanta?

More problems: The Milford daughters-in-law arrive in town, determined to wrest what they see as their rightful inheritance from the Smithsons.

Amanda has hired an old school chum from Oberlin to teach the older students. And he’s a tad too affectionate with Amanda for Virgil’s liking.

Just when it all seems impossible to resolve, the Smithsons must endure another crisis that threatens to tear them, and the dream of their school, apart.

When life becomes difficult, it will take all of God’s love and mercy for the Smithsons to come together to fight within the bonds of holy matrimony that united them less than two years before. It will be the mission of the mayor, and his wife, to do what it takes to keep the new and coltish educational tradition that they began together going–to keep their love alive.

Gunmen of Nicodemus by Marlene Banks

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1887 – Kansas

Resolving for different reasons to abandon lifestyles relying on their guns, four men with well-earned reputations settle quietly outside the African American town of Nicodemus, Kansas. Payment being cash and ownership of land, the men are commissioned to protect the town from an unscrupulous land baron’s attempted takeover. They face challenges from unwelcoming townsfolk, a devious adversary, and powerful corporate greed, along with their personal and spiritual struggles and budding romances. This novel has something for everyone; interesting characters, romance, strong spiritual insight, an attention holding multilayered plot, and western action.

Gideon McCoy, Caleb Cain, Joshua Boudreaux and David ‘Boone’ Tennyson are immediately attracted to the charming Nicodemus women: Sugar, a beautiful farm girl, Louise the talkative daughter of a general store owner, Liberty a sassy saloon owner and the newly arrived schoolmarm, Polly.

While Nicodemus residents enthusiastically anticipate the advent of the Pacific Union Railroad, a scheming Lucas Hitchcock, the cultural mentality of greed, shady government dealings, and ingrained racism work against a potentially beneficial arrangement. Yet the Godly presence in Lucas’ most despised enemy, Geoffrey Abington, foils his vicious bid for control. Nicodemus becomes pawn in a tug of war between the railroad company only concerned with expansion and profit, Lucas Hitchcock’s power play and the godly team of Geoffrey Abington and his friend Harlan Colby. Harlan, a loving family man and longtime railroad executive is fed up with his company’s trend of unethical business practices. He takes a bold stand for what he believes is God’s standard in business, society, and humanity as a whole. People are being harassed, run from their land and even killed. The four gunmen are hired to protect the town’s citizens but encounter obstacles both spiritual and natural they did not foresee. Sides are drawn culminating into a tragic showdown and only God can deliver victory to Nicodemus.

A Cowboy Unmatched by Karen Witemeyer

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1893 – Texas

Neill isn’t sure who hired him to repair Clara’s roof–he only knows Clara desperately needs his help. Can he convince this stubborn widow to let down her guard and take another chance on love?

The Journey of Eleven Moons by Bonnie Leon

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1868 – Alaska

A successful walrus hunt means Anna and her beloved Kinauquak will soon be joined in marriage. But before they can seal their promise to one another, a tsunami wipes their village from the rugged shore … everyone except Anna and her little sister, Iya, who are left alone to face the Alaskan wilderness.

A stranger, a Civil War veteran with golden hair and blue eyes, wanders the untamed Aleutian Islands. He offers help, but can Anna trust him or his God? And if she doesn’t, how will she and Iya survive?

Under a Blackberry Moon by Serena Miller

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underablackberrymoonUnder a Blackberry Moon

1868 – Michigan

Just a few days after she gives birth alone in the Northwoods, a recently widowed young Chippewa woman stumbles into a nearby lumber camp in search of refuge and sustenance. Come summer, the camp owner sends Skypilot, his most trusted friend, to accompany Moon Song and her baby on the long and treacherous journey back to her people. But when tragedy strikes off the shore of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula wilderness, Moon Song and Skypilot must depend on each other for survival. With every step they take into the forbidding woods, they are drawn closer together, until the tough questions must be asked. Will she leave her culture to enter his? Will he leave his world to enter hers? Or will they walk away from a love that seems too complicated to last? With evocative descriptions of a breathtaking landscape, Under a Blackberry Moon will sweep readers into a wild realm where beauty masks danger and only the truly courageous survive, even as the sweet love story along the way tightly grips their hearts.

Shades of Mercy by Anita Lustrea and Caryn Rivadeneira

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1954 – Maine

It’s 1954 and the world-even the far Northwoods of Maine-is about to change. But that change can’t happen soon enough for fourteen-year-old Mercy Millar. Long tired of being the “son” her father never had, Mercy’s ready for the world to embrace her as the young woman she is-as well as embrace the forbidden love she feels. When childhood playmates grow up and fall in love, the whole community celebrates. But in the case of Mercy and Mick, there would be no celebration. Instead their relationship must stay hidden. Good girls do not date young men from the Maliseet tribe. At least, not in Watsonville, Maine. When racial tensions escalate and Mick is thrown in jail under suspicion of murder, Mercy nearly loses all hope-in love, in her father, and in God himself.

Burning Sky by Lori Benton

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Burning Skyburningsky

Late 1700s – New York

Abducted by Mohawk Indians at fourteen and renamed Burning Sky, Willa Obenchain is driven to return to her family’s New York frontier homestead after many years building a life with the People. At the boundary of her father’s 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. When her Mohawk brother arrives and questions her place in the white world, the cultural divide blurs Willa’s 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 “savages” abound in the nearby village of Shiloh, leaving Willa’s 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 courage–the courage to again risk embracing the blessings the Almighty wants to bestow. Is she brave enough to love again?

Return to Shirley Plantation by Carrie Fancett Pagels

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Return to Shirley Plantationreturntoshirleyplantation

Civil War – Virginia

Abducted against his will, Matthew Scott is conscripted into the Confederate army because of his Copperhead father’s political leanings. Injured at Malvern Hill, Matthew is taken by the Union army to Shirley Plantation in Virginia where he is tended by seamstress Angelina Rose, a freed slave. Given an opportunity to leave the South and start a new life for herself, Angelina remained for the sake of her sister’s orphaned twins who are still enslaved. Will Matthew’s return to Shirley Plantation settle a mystery concerning his father’s past? And help Matthew find the family he longs for.

Gideon’s Call by Peter Leavell

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Gideon’s Callgideon'scall

1860s – South Carolina

Author Peter Leavell forges an unprecedented tale of tragedy and triumph amid the backdrop of the Civil War through the story of Tad, a very clever slave boy who comes of age as America’s war reaches the sea islands of South Carolina. Tad’s desire to better himself is obstructed by the color of his skin, until Northern soldiers force the evacuation of white plantation owners, setting 10,000 slaves free in a single day. These circumstances seem like a dream, except that the newly freed slaves have no money, no education, and little hope for the future—unless someone rises up to lead them. Based on true events, Gideon’s Call is the dramatic tale of a young man who battles the shame of his past and faces the horrors of war and unimaginable prejudice to become the deliverer of thousands of freed slaves.

Crucible of War by J. M. Hochstetler

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Crucible of Warcrucibleofwar

1776 – New York, Pennsylvania

Returning from the Shawnee, Brigadier General Jonathan Carleton rejoins General George Washington’s army to find the patriot cause on the verge of extinction. In a daring gamble the American force crosses the Delaware on Christmas night 1776, to defeat outposts at Trenton and Princeton before vanishing into the mountain bastions around Morristown. When she returns to New York, Elizabeth Howard is drawn ever deeper into the intrigues that swirl around British General William Howe. She and her Aunt Tess, move to Philadelphia in summer 1777 to gather intelligence while waiting for a rumored British attack. Ambushed and almost captured as the Americans dig in at Brandywine Creek, Carleton is transferred to General Horatio Gates’s army in the upper Hudson Valley where his old nemesis, British General John Burgoyne, closes in on Saratoga. With decisive battles looming on both fronts, Elizabeth and Carleton face a crucible of war that tests their mettle, faith, and love to the very limits—and beyond.

Veil of Pearls by MaryLu Tyndall

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Veil of Pearlsveilofpearls

1811 – South Carolina

Be swept away to Charleston of 1811, a city bustling with immigrants like Adalia, who is a runaway slave so light-skinned that no one guesses her past. Terrified her secret will be discovered, she settles into a quiet life making herbal remedies for a local doctor. But when Morgan, the handsome son of a prominent family, sweeps her into his glamorous world—a world in which the truth about Adalia’s heritage would ruin them both—suspicions and petty jealousies are aroused. What will Morgan do when he discovers that the woman he has fallen in love with is a runaway slave?

Walks Alone by Sandi Rog

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Walks Alonewalksalone

1864 – Colorado

A Cheyenne warrior bent on vengeance.
A pioneer woman bent on fulfilling a dream.
Until their paths collide.

After fleeing her abusive uncle, Anna is determined to reach the city of her dreams. But White Eagle and his fierce warriors take her prisoner. Anna attempts a harrowing escape, but her savage captor is determined to have her at all costs and forces her to be his wife. Has God forgotten her, or does He have plans of His own?

A man with a boot in one world and a moccasin in the other, White Eagle is disillusioned with his faith after a minister leads a massacre on his peaceful tribe. Where is his God? He s definitely not with the white men who are slaughtering his people. But White Eagle also can t give in to the idolatry practiced by his fellow tribesmen. Only the Truth can set him free.
And it’s found in beautiful Anna’s carpetbag.

Native Son by J. M. Hochstetler

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Native Son nativeson

1775-6 – Massachusetts, New York, Ohio Territory

Brigadier General Jonathan Carleton has pledged his allegiance to newly elected commander of the rebel army, General George Washington. But his heart belongs to fiery Elizabeth Howard, who charms British officers by day and by night delivers their secrets to the Sons of Liberty. Their plans to marry are put on hold, however, when Washington orders Carleton to undertake a perilous journey deep into Indian territory, while Elizabeth continues spying on the British. Within weeks she learns that Carleton has been captured by the Seneca. Despite all attempts to find him, his fate remains shrouded in mystery. Enslaved by the Seneca, Carleton is finally rescued by a band of Shawnee and taken into Ohio Territory, where he is adopted as the warrior White Eagle and rises to become war chief. Drawn into a bitter war against white settlers who threaten to overrun Shawnee lands, he must walk a treacherous tightrope between a rival who will stop at nothing to destroy him, the seductions of a beautiful widow . . . and the longing for Elizabeth that will not give him peace. Abandoning Boston, British General William Howe prepares to unleash an overwhelming invasion force against the badly outmatched American army at New York City. With battle looming, reports filter in that a new Shawnee war chief named White Eagle is leading devastating raids against British and American outposts in Ohio Territory.

A Love Forbidden by Kathleen Morgan

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loveforbiddenA Love Forbidden (Heart of the Rockies)

1879 – Colorado

Moved by the desire for adventure and a yearning to help the Ute Indians, twenty-year-old Shiloh Wainright impulsively accepts a teaching position at the White River Indian Agency in northwestern Colorado. The new job, however, isn’t what she imagined it would be, and Shiloh soon finds herself caught in the cross fire between the Utes, their unyielding Indian Agent, and the unrealistic demands of the US government. Her unexpected encounter with Jesse Blackwater, an embittered half-breed Ute and childhood friend, only complicates matters as they battle their growing feelings for each other amidst the spiraling tensions threatening to explode into a catastrophic Indian uprising.

Set amongst the wilds of the Colorado Rockies in 1879, this is a tale of a forbidden love and a faith tested in the cauldron of intolerance and the harsh realities of life on the untamed frontier. Bestselling author Kathleen Morgan deftly explores themes of mercy, fidelity to one’s beliefs despite what others think or do, and compassion for those different from oneself as she plumbs the depths of the human heart and the healing power of God’s love.

Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

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Caleb’s Crossingcalebscrossing

1660s – Massachusetts

A New York Times bestselling tale of passion and belief, magic and adventure from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author

Bethia Mayfield is a restless and curious young woman growing up in Martha’s vineyard in the 1660s amid a small band of pioneering English Puritans. At age twelve, she meets Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a secret bond that draws each into the alien world of the other. Bethia’s father is a Calvinist minister who seeks to convert the native Wampanoag, and Caleb becomes a prize in the contest between old ways and new, eventually becoming the first Native American graduate of Harvard College. Inspired by a true story and narrated by the irresistible Bethia, Caleb’s Crossing brilliantly captures the triumphs and turmoil of two brave, openhearted spirits who risk everything in a search for knowledge at a time of superstition and ignorance.

The Hope of Shridula by Kay Marshall Strom

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The Hope of Shridula: Blessings in India Book #2thehopeofshridula

1946 – India

The Blessing in India series is a saga set in India’s heartbreaking history and breathtaking present that points toward a future of hope.  Along the way, name-only Christianity collides with Hinduism, and then is confronted by an entirely new understanding of the call to follow Christ.

India: 1946. For forty-eight years, Ashish and his family toiled as slaves in the fields of the high-caste Lal family, and all because of one small debt. At fifty-four, Ashish was old and worn out. Every day was a struggle to survive for his family including his only daughter.  

His wife had named the girl Shridula—Blessings. “Perhaps the name will bring you more fortune than it brought me,” Ashish told his daughter. His words proved to be prophetic in ways he could never have imagined. And when the flames of revolt brought independence to India, they seared change into the family of Ashish.

The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part 2: The Testimony by Sharon Ewell Foster

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The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part 2: The Testimonytheresurrectionofnatturner

1831 – Virginia

They were all heroes . . . Sparked by an indigo sun, Nat Turner stormed into history with a sword in one hand and a Bible in the other. Thirty years before the advent of the Civil War—in the predawn hours of August 22, 1831, commanding a small army of slaves, Nat Turner led a bloody fight for freedom that shined a national spotlight on slavery and left more than fifty whites dead.

In The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part 2: The Testimony, as Harriet Beecher Stowe seeks to learn the truth of the man his people called Prophet, Nat Turner shares the faith, triumph, tragedy, and hope of his fight for liberty, brotherhood, and self-determination.
For 180 years, the truth of Nat’s story has been tainted. Award-winning author Sharon Ewell Foster reinterprets history to offer a new American story of one man’s struggle for freedom and the redemption of his people. Based on actual trial records, interviews with descendants, official documents, and five years of research, The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part 2: The Testimony is a story of the quest for truth and the true meaning of liberty.

Ruth’s Redemption by Marlene Banks

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Ruth’s Redemptionruth's redemption

1830 – Virginia

Set in the 1800s, Ruth’s Redemption, is an unusual depiction of the lives of slaves and free blacks in pre-Civil War America. Bo, was educated while a slave. He was given his freedom and now owns a farm buying slaves for the sole purpose of giving them their freedom. Bo is also a man of God and widower whose life is destined to change when he meets the proud and hard-hearted slave girl, Ruth.Ruth has known nothing but servitude and brutality since being separated from her mother at age thirteen. Purchased and sold primarily for breeding, Ruth struggles to adjust to life outside of bondage. She wants no part of Bo’s Godly devotion. Yet Bo is unlike any man she’s known and her experiences with him will leave her forever changed.A gripping slave era novel, Ruth’s Redemption is a story of love, forgiveness, and redemption. Set against the backdrop of the Nat Turner Rebellion in Tidewater, Virginia, this novel shines the light of God’s unconditional love in the darkness of a culture’s cruel socially accepted inhumanity.

The Loom by Shella Gillus

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The Loomloom

1835 – Maryland

A slave owner’s wife harbors a secret that threatens to unravel her marriage and the lives of those around her.
Caroline Whitfield lives in the world she dreamt of as a child. Married to Jackson, a plantation owner, in the quiet hills of 1835 Montgomery County, Maryland, she enjoys a simple life, until new slaves, seven-year-old Sadie and her father, arrive.

When Sadie’s daddy is taken from her, the young girl is forced to serve the master and mistress she holds responsible for her loss. With her grandmother, fellow slaves in the “Loom Room,” and a young man bent on obtaining his freedom, Sadie struggles to make sense of God’s will in the midst of pain.

But Caroline harbors a secret that could bring her world crashing down, and her love for Sadie, the daughter no one knows she had, threatens to tear it all apart. Meanwhile, Caroline draws closer to an old friend, an empathetic and dependable married man. Now she must douse the raging flames of a jealous husband and fight to keep her perfect world intact. The Loom is a colorful tale of three families linked by a lie and their discovery that the truth is not always black and white.