A Counterfeit Betrothal by Denise Weimer

Goodreads ~ Apple ~ B&N ~ Kobo ~ Amazon

1813 – Georgia

A frontier scout, a healing widow, and a desperate fight for peace.

At the farthest Georgia outpost this side of hostile Creek Territory in 1813, Jared Lockridge serves his country as a scout to redeem his father’s botched heritage. If he can help secure peace against Indians allied to the British, he can bring his betrothed to the home he’s building and open his cabinetry shop. Then he comes across a burning cabin and a traumatized woman just widowed by a fatal shot.

Freed from a cruel marriage, Esther Andrews agrees to winter at the Lockridge homestead to help Jared’s pregnant sister-in-law. Lame in one foot, Esther has always known she is secondhand goods, but the gentle carpenter-turned-scout draws her heart with as much skill as he creates furniture from wood. His family’s love offers hope even as violence erupts along the frontier—and Jared’s investigation into local incidents brings danger to their doorstep. Yet how could Esther ever hope a loyal man like Jared would choose her over a fine lady?

Managing Millie by Susan Pope Sloan

Goodreads ~ Apple ~ B&N ~ Kobo ~ Amazon

1864 – Georgia

In a time of war, love has to fight for a happily-ever-after.

Millie Gibson has loved Troy McNeil for years. So when he suddenly confesses his attraction to her, she’s ecstatic, even if their time together is limited as Troy must stay on the move to avoid the Confederate army. When Troy rescues her from an attacker, Millie begs him to replace the awful memory with one of love. But will that love last when he learns their time together produced lasting consequences?

Dodging the Rebel army has kept Troy apart from Millie for months, but he can’t forget their last hours together. The last thing he expects upon his return is to find her surrounded by Union soldiers, and now he’s been apprehended as a possible spy and sent to a Union prison. With his fate in the hands of others, only God can orchestrate hope from the chaos of war.

Swindler’s Daughter by Stephenia H. McGee

Goodreads ~ Author’s Store ~ B&N ~ Google Play ~ Kobo ~ Amazon

1912 – Georgia

A surprise inheritance. A cache of family secrets. A choice that will change her life forever.

Lillian Doyle has lived her entire high-society life with her widowed mother, believing her father died long ago. But when news arrives that her estranged father only recently passed away–in jail–Lillian is startled to find that the man has left a business and all of his possessions to her, making her a rather unusual heiress.

When she goes to take possession of her father’s house in a backwoods Georgia town, the dilapidated structure is already occupied by another woman who claims it was promised to her son, Jonah. In her attempts to untangle the mess, Lillian will discover not only a family she never knew she had but a family business that is more than meets the eye–and has put a target on her back.

To discover the truth and take hold of the independence she’s always dreamed of, she’ll have to make friends with adversaries and strangers–especially Jonah, the dusty and unrefined cowboy who has secret aspirations of his own.

Loving Lydia by Susan Pope Sloan

Goodreads ~ B&N ~ Kobo ~ Amazon

1864 – Georgia

Two Southerners thrown together by the Union army. He’s on a quest for vengeance. She’s determined to preserve her family.

Lydia Gibson’s life is overturned when the Union Army invades her hometown and burns down the cotton mill where she and her stepdaughter worked. Even worse, she and the other workers are arrested and sent to Marietta, where they wait for the army to send them north.

Confederate Sergeant Seth Morgan finally reaches Marietta to check on his family, but the last thing he expects is to meet a woman who sparks attraction he thought he’d never feel again. Unfortunately, she’s a Yankee prisoner and being sent north to Louisville, Kentucky.

Seth is forced to return to his unit in Virginia, and he never anticipated their next meeting would be when he’s taken to Louisville as a prisoner. While Seth searches the Confederate ranks for the man who murdered his wife, Lydia implores him to ask after her missing nephew. Neither one expects just how far the search will take them, or what they’ll discover along the way.

Rescuing Rose by Susan Pope Sloan

Goodreads ~ Apple ~ B&N ~ Kobo ~ Amazon

1864 – Georgia/Kentucky

His army destroyed her livelihood. She represents the people he scorns. How can they reconcile their differences when the whole country is at war?

When the Union Army marches into Roswell, Georgia, and burns down the cotton mill where Rose Carrigan worked, not only is her livelihood destroyed but she’s also taken prisoner and shipped northward with the other workers. Only the unlikely kindness of one of her guards makes the trip bearable.

Union Captain Noah Griffin hates the part of his job that requires him to destroy the lives of innocent civilians, but at least he’s able to protect these women he’s been ordered to transport to Louisville, Kentucky. Especially the one whose quick wit and kindness draw him.

While they’re forced to wait in Marietta, two fugitives arrive to complicate matters between Rose and Noah. As Rose heads north and Noah returns to the battlefront, they each face fears and prejudices. With survival so tenuous, only faith can help them find love in the midst of so much tragedy.

By Way of the Moonlight by Elizabeth Musser

Goodreads ~ Apple ~ B&N ~ Google Play ~ Kobo ~ Amazon

1940s/Present Day – Georgia

Two courageous young women, tied together by blood and shared passion, will risk everything to save what they love most.

For as long as she can remember, Allie Massey, a gifted physical therapist, has dreamed of making her grandparents’ ten-acre estate into a trauma recovery center using equine therapy–a dream her grandmother, Nana Dale, embraced wholeheartedly. But when her grandmother’s will is read, Allie is shocked to learn the property has been sold to a developer.

Decades earlier, headstrong Dale Butler’s driving passion is to bring home the prized filly her family lost to the Great Depression, but with World War II looming, she’s called upon in ways she never could have imagined. And while her world expands to include new friends and new love, tragedy strikes close to home one fateful night during the Battle of the Atlantic, changing her life forever.

As Nana Dale’s past comes to light in Allie’s search for answers, Dale’s courage and persistence may be just what Allie needs to carry on her grandmother’s legacy and keep her own dreams alive.

Sharktooth Island Collection

Goodreads ~ B&N ~ Amazon

1830/1893/1937/Present – Georgia

Out of the Storm by Susan Page Davis

Laura Bryant sails with her father and his three-man crew on his small coastal trading schooner. After a short stay in Jamaica, where she meets Alex Dryden, an officer on another ship, the Bryants set out for their home in New England.

In a storm, they are blown off course east of Savannah, Georgia, to a foreboding island. Captain Bryant tells his daughter he’s heard tales of that isle. It’s impossible to land on, though it looks green and inviting from a distance. It has no harbor but is surrounded by dangerous rocks and cliffs.

Pirates outrun the storm and decide to bury a cache of treasure on this island and return for it later. On board is Alex, whom the cutthroats captured in Jamaica and forced to work for them. Alex risks his own life to escape the pirates and tries to help Laura and Captain Bryant outwit them. Beneath the deadly struggle, romance blossoms for Laura.

A Passage of Chance by Linda Fulkerson

Orphaned at a young age, Melody Lampert longs to escape the loveless home of the grandmother who begrudgingly raised her. Stripped of her inheritance due to her grandmother’s resentments, Melody discovers her name remains on the deed of one property—an obscure island off the Georgia coast that she shares with her cousin. But when he learns the island may contain a hidden pirate treasure, he’s determined to cheat her out of her share.

Ship’s mechanic Padric Murphy made a vow to his dying father—break the curse that has plagued their family for generations. To do so, he must return what was taken from Sharktooth Island decades earlier—a pair of rare gold pieces. His opportunity to right the wrong arrives when his new employer sets sail to explore the island.

After a series of unexplainable mishaps occur, endangering Padric and his boss’s beautiful cousin Melody, he fears his chance of breaking the curse may be ruined. But is the island’s greed thwarting his plans? Or the greed of someone else?

Island Mayhem by Elena Hill

Louise Krause stopped piloting to pursue nursing, but when money got too tight she was forced to give up her dreams and start ferrying around a playboy who managed to excel during the Great Depression. When a routine aerial tour turns south, Louise is unable to save the plane.

After crash landing, the cocky pilot is stranded. She longs to escape the uninhabited island, but her makeshift raft sinks, and she and her companions are in even worse trouble. Can Louise learn to trust the others in order to survive, or will the island’s curse and potential sabotage lead to her demise?

After the Storm by Deborah Sprinkle

Mercedes Baxter inherited two passions from her father—a love for Sharktooth Island, a spit of land in the middle of the ocean left to her in his will, and a dedication to the study of the flora and fauna on and around its rocky landscape.

For the last five years, since graduating from college, Mercy led a peaceful, simple life on the island with only her cat, Hawkeye, for company. Through grant money she obtained from a conservancy in Savannah, she could live on her island while studying and writing about the plants and animals there. Life was perfect.

But when a hurricane hits the island, Mercy’s life changes for good. Her high school sweetheart, Liam Stewart, shows up to help her with repairs, and ignites the flame that has never quite died away. And if that’s not enough, while assessing the damage to the island, they make a discovery that puts both their lives in danger.

By the Sweet Gum by Ane Mulligan

Goodreads ~ Amazon

1929 – Georgia

She’s bound by duty. He’s tethered to a dream.

In the beleaguered mill town of Sweetgum, Georgia, Genessee Taylor dreams of a life beyond running the mill-owned hotel with her family. Though the work is honest, the owner of the mill is not. Genessee and her father long to see stronger labor laws passed to protect the innocent children who are injured and dying in the mill. When the owner learns of their activity, he will stop at nothing to silence them.

Tommy Mack works at the mill and dreams of playing professional ball and marrying Genessee. When he’s contracted by a big-league team, his dreams are within grasp. Just as Tommy and Genessee’s wedding is on the horizon, tragedy strikes Sweetgum. Tommy can’t stay and Genessee can’t leave.

Is there any way for them to battle through loss, deception, and sacrifice to find their way back to each other?

The Washerwomen’s War by Piper Huguley

Goodreads ~ Amazon

1881- Georgia

Mamie Harper, a new teacher at Atlanta Female Baptist Seminary, hears of mistreatment from her washerwomen students and tells them to strike. She re-encounters summer pastor Gabriel Harmon, who has other ideas to help the washerwomen. Will these combatants be able to win in the war of love?

Gold Rush Bride: Hannah by Linda Shenton Matchett

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

1800s – Georgia

A brand-new widow, she’s doesn’t need another man in her life. He’s not looking for a wife. But when danger thrusts them together, will they change their minds…and hearts?

Hannah Lauman’s husband has been murdered, but rather than grief, she feels…relief. She decides to remain in Georgia to work their gold claim, but a series of incidents makes it clear someone wants her gone…dead or alive. Is a chance at being a woman of means and independence worth risking her life?

Jess Vogel never breaks a promise, so when he receives a letter from a former platoon mate about being in danger, he drops everything to help his old friend. Unfortunately, he arrives just in time for the funeral. Can he convince the man’s widow he’s there for her protection not for her money?

On Sugar Hill by Ane Mulligan

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

1929 – Georgia

To make ends meet, the Fitzgerald women must open their home as a boardinghouse, but will the secrets they uncover prove their undoing?

The day Cora Fitzgerald turned sixteen, she fled Sugar Hill for the bright lights of New York City, leaving behind her senator father’s abuse. But just as her career takes off, she’s summoned home.

The stock market has crashed. The senator is dead. Her mother is delusional, and her mute Aunt Clara pens novels that expose the town’s secrets. Then there’s Boone Robertson, who never knew she was alive back in high school but now manages to be around whenever she needs help.

And the Fitzgerald women need a lot of help, indeed. They are forced to find a way to make ends meet, whether it’s mining for gold or doing what Southern women have done for generations in times of need—turning their home into a boardinghouse.

But will the people of Cora’s past keep her from returning to a brilliant future?

Dreams of Savannah by Roseanna White

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

1861 – Georgia

Cordelia Owens can weave a hopeful dream around anything and is well used to winning the hearts of everyone in Savannah with her whimsy. Even when she receives word that her sweetheart has been lost during a raid on a Yankee vessel, she clings to hope and comes up with many a romantic tale of his eventual homecoming to reassure his mother and sister.

But Phineas Dunn finds nothing redemptive in the first horrors of war. Struggling for months to make it home alive, he returns to Savannah injured and cynical, and all too sure that he is not the hero Cordelia seems determined to make him. Matters of black and white don’t seem so simple anymore to Phin, and despite her best efforts, Delia’s smiles can’t erase all the complications in his life. And when Fort Pulaski falls and the future wavers, they both must decide where the dreams of a new America will take them, and if they will go together.

Sacred Honor by Lori Bates Wright

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

1865 – Georgia

Her heart is shattered. Her home is left in shambles.
And she is forced to give up the only man capable of putting the pieces back together.

Aurora Haverwood has loved Zachery Saberton for as long as she can remember. Her dreams of being his wife are cruelly dashed when the American Civil War draws to a close with news that Zach is missing and presumed dead. Refusing to believe he will never return to her, she sets out to find the truth.

Captain Zach Saberton, notorious blockade runner for the Confederate Navy, has outfoxed the Yankee War Department once too often. In order to save his neck, Zach agrees to go undercover in London to help the Union recover a million dollars’ worth of gold bullion missing from the failed Confederate Treasury.

When Aurora discovers Zach Saberton is alive and well in England, attending one social affair after another, she decides to pay a visit to her uncle, the Earl of Kendal, in hopes of finding some answers. The journey from her devastated homeland to elegant London society plunges her into a web of danger.

Zach, desperately trying to avoid another civil rebellion, soon comes to realize that it’s Aurora who holds the key to their survival.

But in accepting her help, he risks losing her forever.

In High Cotton by Ane Mulligan

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

1929 – Georgia

While the rest of the world has been roaring through the 1920s, times are hardscrabble in rural South Georgia. Widow Maggie Parker is barely surviving while raising her young son alone. Then as banks begin to fail, her father-in-law threatens to take her son and sell off her livelihood—the grocery store her husband left her. Can five Southern women band together, using their wisdom and wiles to stop him and survive the Great Depression?

The Key to Everything by Valerie Fraser Luesse

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

1947 – Georgia

Peyton Cabot’s fifteenth year will be a painful and transformative one. His father, the heroic but reluctant head of a moneyed Savannah family, has come home from WWII a troubled vet, drowning his demons in bourbon and distancing himself from his son. A tragic accident shows Peyton the depths of his parents’ devotion to each other but interrupts his own budding romance with the girl of his dreams, Lisa Wallace.

Struggling to cope with a young life upended, Peyton makes a daring decision: He will retrace a journey his father took at fifteen, riding his bicycle all the way to Key West, Florida. Part declaration of independence, part search for self, Peyton’s journey will bring him more than he ever could have imagined–namely, the key to his unknowable father, a reunion with Lisa, and a calling that will shape the rest of his life.

Through poignant prose and characters so real you’ll be sure you know them, Valerie Fraser Luesse transports you to the storied Atlantic coast for a unique coming-of-age story you won’t soon forget.

Sadie’s Dream by Patti Jo Moore

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

1900 – Georgia

After being deceived by her beau the previous year, library worker Sadie Perkins feels she’s meant to remain single and serve as a missionary to orphans in Africa. Her plan is to return home to Riverview after a year, and open an orphanage in a lovely house she’s admired since childhood. She didn’t plan on losing her heart to someone who intends to demolish the house.

Widower Shaun O’Leary of Savannah yearns to make his father proud, and hopes to accomplish that by overseeing a hotel project in the town of Riverview. But first he must have a house demolished before hotel construction can begin. After meeting lovely Sadie Perkins in Riverview, he’s puzzled why she seems upset when he mentions his plans. He’s also saddened that she’s leaving for Africa soon, because he’s fallen in love with her.

As Sadie prepares to board a ship, she finally has peace and realizes what she should do, yet still feels sad that the house she loves is to be demolished. When Shaun suddenly has an idea to save the house Sadie loves, he rushes to the Savannah port to tell her, but the ship has sailed. When things seem hopeless, can dreams still come true?

Field of Redemption by Lori Bates Wright

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

1864 – Georgia

They say confession is good for the soul.
But, revealing too much could prove deadly.

When devoted governess, Abigail McFadden, discovers her charge has run off to join the Union army on his fourteenth birthday, her impetuous decision to go after him catapults her behind enemy lines and into a life-changing fight for survival.

Failing to locate the boy, Abby is stranded in Confederate Georgia with no means to get home. After taking a nursing position in Macon’s confederate hospital, she comes under suspicion as a union spy. Her only consolation is the work she does outside of the hospital walls in a shanty town of unwanted orphans.

Confederate Officer, Ian Saberton, a theological graduate of Yale, is thrust into war and forced to choose sides. His greatest struggle becomes a fight for his soul as his faith and deep convictions are put to the test.

When Sherman advances on Atlanta, Ian is sent to prepare his home state for enemy invasion. Headquartered in Macon, he encounters a town full of civilians oblivious to the imminent danger bearing down on them. He and his men must see the city secured, while avoiding a passel of matchmaking socialites determined to see him married.

When Abby is brought up on false charges and scheduled to be hanged, she has no choice but to trust the handsome Confederate officer who offers the only way of escape.

But will deep secrets pitting them on opposite sides destroy the fragile bond between them?

True Nobility by Lori Bates Wright

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

1860 – Georgia

Alone in an unfamiliar country where her noble title is useless. Everything she believes in is shattered. Driven by desperation, she risks it all to return to the one man whose love promises to be true.

Lady Victoria Haverwood, beloved daughter of a widowed Earl, has spent years at a fashionable boarding school longing for the day she can come home to finally take her place as mistress of Wrenbrooke. But when she becomes the target of a murderous plot, her idyllic plan is swiftly turned upside down. Nicholas Saberton, an accomplished American Naval Captain, is commissioned to escort the earl and his daughter safely across the ocean to the lively shores of Savannah, Georgia. Pledged to protect her with his life, Nicholas is determined to remain immune to Victoria’s innocent charm. Focused on building his shipping empire, the Haverwood heiress and her quirky relatives become an irresistible diversion. Danger shadows them. Soon the repercussions of her father’s past ensnare Victoria in a web of deception that threatens to consume her. Only her love for Nicholas will give her strength to discover the truth. But will it be too late?

Engraved on the Heart by Tara Johnson

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

1861 – Georgia

Reluctant debutante Keziah Montgomery lives beneath the weighty expectations of her staunch Confederate family, forced to keep her epilepsy secret for fear of a scandal. As the tensions of the Civil War arrive on their doorstep in Savannah, Keziah sees little cause for balls and courting. Despite her discomfort, she cannot imagine an escape from her familial confines—until her old schoolmate Micah shows her a life-changing truth that sets her feet on a new path . . . as a conductor in the Underground Railroad.

Dr. Micah Greyson never hesitates to answer the call of duty, no matter how dangerous, until the enchanting Keziah walks back into his life and turns his well-ordered plans upside down. Torn between the life he has always known in Savannah and the fight for abolition, Micah struggles to discern God’s plan amid such turbulent times.

Battling an angry fiancé, a war-tattered brother, bounty hunters, and their own personal demons, Keziah and Micah must decide if true love is worth the price . . . and if they are strong enough to survive the unyielding pain of war.

Trail of Fears by Sara Turnquist

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

1830s – Georgia

He’s a steadfast missionary. She’s a proud Cherokee. Can their love survive the brutal Trail of Tears?

Thomas Greyson believes God had called him to spread the gospel. He leaves his sheltered world behind to live among the native peoples and teach in their school. But as the government tightens its grip, not everyone is ready to listen to the gospel’s message of love… least of all the stubborn beauty who stole his heart.

Adsila resists bending her knee to the white man’s God when Thomas seemingly tries to steal away the last remaining shreds of her heritage. Is she prepared to fight him tooth and nail? But when he stands with her people in the face of hardship, her soul begins to long for the curious stranger and his unshakeable faith.

Against impossible odds and staggering loss, can Thomas and Adsila find the strength to follow their hearts’ true path?

The One True Love of Alice-Ann by Eva Marie Everson

1trueloveofaliceann The One True Love of Alice-Ann

1941 – Georgia

Living in rural Georgia in 1941, sixteen-year-old Alice-Ann has her heart set on her brother’s friend Mack; despite their five-year age gap, Alice-Ann knows she can make Mack see her for the woman she’ll 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—having lost her fiancé in the Great War. As their correspondence continues over the next three years, Mack and Alice-Ann are drawn closer together. But then Mack’s 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 friend’s war-torn brother, Carlton. As time passes and their friendship develops into something more, Alice-Ann wonders if she’ll 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?

Save

The Baby Barter by Patty Smith Hall

babybarter The Baby Barter

1945 – Georgia

Home from the war, army nurse Thea Miller is determined to adopt her late sister’s baby and begin a new life. But someone else has the same intentions—the town sheriff and Thea’s old friend, Mack Worthington. Now, in order to keep her niece in the family, Thea must reach an agreement with him.

Mack isn’t sure Thea—whose actions once hurt him badly—is committed to baby Sarah. And a judge may never approve a single-parent adoption for either of them. But what if they got married? It would be a marriage in name only. Yet the more time Mack spends with Thea, the more he begins to believe their pretend family can become the real one they’ve both been longing for.

A Respectable Actress by Dorothy Love

respectableactress A Respectable Actress

1870 – Georgia

India Hartley, a famous and beautiful actress, is now alone after her father’s death and embarks upon a tour of theaters across the South. Her first stop is Savannah’s Southern Palace. On the eve of the second night’s performance, something goes horribly wrong. Her co-star, Arthur Sterling, is shot dead on stage in front of a packed house, and India is arrested and accused of the crime.

A benefactor hires Philip Sinclair, the best—and handsomest—lawyer in Savannah to defend India. A widower, Philip is struggling to reinvent his worn-out plantation on St. Simons Island. He needs to increase his income from his law practice in order to restore Indigo Point, and hardly anything will bring him more new clients than successfully defending a famous actress on a murder charge.

Because India can’t go anywhere in town without being mobbed, Philip persuades the judge handling her case to let him take her to Indigo Point until her trial date. India is charmed by the beauty of the Georgia lowcountry and is increasingly drawn to Philip. But a locked room that appears to be a shrine to Philip’s dead wife and the unsolved disappearance of a former slave girl raise troubling questions. Piecing together clues in an abandoned boat and a burned-out chapel, India discovers a trail of dark secrets that lead back to Philip, secrets that ultimately may hold the key to her freedom. If only he will believe her.

Save

The Representative’s Revolt by Piper Huguley

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

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 Bracelet by Dorothy Love

1858 – Georgia

Celia Browning dreams of the day when her childhood sweetheart Sutton Mackay comes home to Savannah after two years in Jamaica managing his family’s shipping interests. Sutton has all but proposed, and their marriage will unite two of the city’s most prominent families. But just as Sutton returns, a newspaper reporter arrives in town, determined to pry into twin tragedies that took place at the Browning mansion on Madison Square when Celia was a child. While the journalist pursues his story, someone is trying to frighten Celia. When she receives a series of anonymous notes, and a bracelet imbued with a chilling message, Celia realizes that her family’s past has the power to destroy her future. As the clouds of war gather over Savannah, and her beloved father’s health worsens, Celia determines to uncover the truth about what really happened all those years ago. Inspired by actual events in one of Savannah’s most prominent 19th-century families, The Bracelet is the story of a young southern woman whose dreams fracture under the weight of her family’s tragic past.

The Preacher’s Promise by Piper Huguley

The Preacher’s Promise

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 Mayor’s Mission by Piper Huguley

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

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.

Yankee in Atlanta by Jocelyn Green

Yankee in Atlanta

1863 – Georgia

When soldier Caitlin McKae woke up in Atlanta after being wounded in battle, the Georgian doctor who treated her believed Caitlin’s 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, Sherman’s 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?

Hearts in Flight by Patty Smith Hall

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

1943 – Georgia

Serving her country as one of the Women’s Army Special Pilots is Maggie Daniels’s dearest wish. But there are obstacles to overcome above and beyond the enemies in the Pacific, including her overprotective family, skeptical fellow pilots—and handsome, distant squadron leader Wesley Hicks. Whatever it takes, Maggie will prove herself to Wesley, until she succeeds in winning his admiration…and love.

Wesley can see that Maggie’s a first-class pilot. She’s also too fearless by half. The war has cost Wesley so much already. Can he let go of his guilt for a chance at happiness—and can he learn to trust in God…and Maggie…enough to believe in love for a lifetime?

The Sentinels of Andersonville by Tracy Groot

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

1864 – Georgia

Near the end of the Civil War, inhumane conditions at Andersonville Prison caused the deaths of 13,000 Union soldiers in only one year. In this gripping and affecting novel, three young Confederates and an entire town come face-to-face with the prison’s atrocities and will learn the cost of compassion, when withheld and when given.

Sentry Dance Pickett has watched, helpless, for months as conditions in the camp worsen by the day. He knows any mercy will be seen as treason. Southern belle Violet Stiles cannot believe the good folk of Americus would knowingly condone such barbarism, despite the losses they’ve suffered. When her goodwill campaign stirs up accusations of Union sympathies and endangers her family, however, she realizes she must tread carefully. Confederate corporal Emery Jones didn’t expect to find camaraderie with the Union prisoner he escorted to Andersonville. But the soldier’s wit and integrity strike a chord in Emery. How could this man be an enemy? Emery vows that their unlikely friendship will survive the war—little knowing what that promise will cost him.

As these three young Rebels cross paths, Emery leads Dance and Violet to a daring act that could hang them for treason. Wrestling with God’s harsh truth, they must decide, once and for all, Who is my neighbor?

Hearts Rekindled by Patty Hall Smith

Goodreads ~ Purchase

1945 – Georgia

She never thought she’d see John Davenport again. Merrilee Daniels Davenport’s former husband has returned to their small Georgia town after fighting in the Pacific. And now the soldier is bearing a letter from the little girl he didn’t know he had. Merrilee wishes that she and her daughter could lean on John’s able shoulders, but her new assignment as a homeland informant won’t allow it. Twelve years have only made Merrilee more beautiful in John’s eyes. Back then, he was the proud fool who walked away. Now all he wants is to prove he can be the husband she deserves, and the daddy his daughter needs.

An Unexpected Wife by Cheryl Reavis

An Unexpected Wife

Post Civil War – Georgia

Giving up her out-of-wedlock son was the only right choice. Still, Kate Woodward aches that she isn’t part of his life. She can’t heal herself, but she can help former Confederate soldier Robert Markham rebuild his war-shattered life. But helping Robert is drawing them irresistibly close—even as Kate fears she can never be the one he deserves.… Battlefield loss and guilt rekindled Robert’s faith and brought him home to Atlanta. And Kate’s past only makes him more determined to show this steadfast, caring woman that she deserves happiness. Now, with her secrets revealed and her child in danger, Robert has only one chance to win her trust—and embark on the sweetest of new beginnings.…

To Honor and Trust by Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller

To Honor and Trust (Bridal Veil Island)

1913 – Georgia

Callie DeBoyer is unsettled as she arrives at Bridal Veil Island with the Bridgeport family. She’s just received a letter from her parents, missionaries in coastal Africa, stating they are in dire need of more personnel. Should Callie give up her governess job and join her parents in their important work? Is God calling her to the mission field, or does she just want to escape the emotional scars of being jilted by her former beau?

When she enrolls young Thomas Bridgeport in golf lessons, Callie meets Wesley Townsend, who urges Callie to take lessons, as well. During their time at the golf course, Callie comes to care for Wesley–until she discovers hidden secrets about his past.

Then expensive jewels go missing from various homes on the island, and suspicion is aimed in Callie’s direction. As the investigation continues, Callie wonders if she should escape it all by going to Africa. After the secrets he kept about his past, will Wesley ever be a man she can honor and trust for the rest of her life?

To Love and Cherish by Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller

To Love and Cherish (Bridal Veil Island)

1898 – Georgia/Ohio

When Melinda Colson’s employer announces they’ll be leaving Bridal Veil Island to return to their home in Cleveland, Melinda hopes her beau, Evan, will propose. But Evan isn’t prepared to make an offer of marriage until he knows he can support a wife and family. Evan works as the assistant gamekeeper on Bridal Veil but hopes to be promoted soon.

Letters strengthen their love, but Melinda remains frustrated at being apart from the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with. Then she learns of a devastating hurricane in Bridal Veil and knows she must give up her position as a lady’s maid and make her way back to Evan.

The destruction on Bridal Veil is extensive, meaning every available person is needed to help with cleanup and repairs. Melinda finds a new job on the island, but Evan seems even busier than before, meaning she still never gets to see him. Has she given her heart to the wrong man?

And when Melinda overhears a vicious plot against President McKinley, who is scheduled to visit the island, is Evan the one she should turn to? Will Melinda and Evan ever get the chance to stand at the front of a church and promise “to love and cherish”?

Hearts in Hiding by Patty Smith Hall

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

1944 – Georgia

Engineer Edie Michaels loves her life—she has a good job, close friends, even a chance at romance with former soldier Beau Daniels. But she could lose everything if her secret comes out…that she’s the German daughter of a devoted Nazi.

And when her father sends spies to force her loyalty, everything Edie values is at risk.

Time in a Nazi POW camp changed army medic Beau Daniels. When he discovers a letter of Edie’s written in German, he can’t help his suspicions. Is she truly the woman he’s started to love? Or has she been the enemy all along? With Nazis on Edie’s trail, the pair must fight for truth, for survival—and for love.

Save