Shades of Mercy by Anita Lustrea and Caryn Rivadeneira

shadesofmercy Shades of Mercy

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.

Sweet Dreams by Carla Stewart

1962 – Texas

It’s 1962, and Dusty Fairchild, daughter of a self-made millionaire and oilman, wants to go to college. Instead she is sent to a private finishing school in East Texas. Although she’s never wanted for material possessions, Dusty longs for independence and adventure. The only upside to attending Miss Fontaine’s is having her cousin and best childhood friend, Paisley, join her. Paisley has traveled the country with her bohemian mother, but she dreams of putting down roots and living a settled life. At Miss Fontaine’s, their loyalty to each other binds them, but when they fall in love with the same handsome young man, their relationship teeters on shaky ground. Only after a tragic accident do they learn where their true hearts-and dreams-lie.

Stardust by Carla Stewart

1952 – Texas

Shortly after burying her unfaithful husband, Georgia Peyton unexpectedly inherits the derelict Stardust motel from a distant relative. Despite doubts from the community and the aunt who raised her, she is determined to breathe new life into it. But the guests who arrive aren’t what Georgia expects: Her gin-loving mother-in-law; her dead husband’s mistress; an attractive but down-on-his-luck drifter who’s tired of the endless road; and an aging Vaudeville entertainer with a disturbing link to Georgia’s past.

Can Georgia find the courage to forgive those who’ve betrayed her, the grace to shelter those who need her, and the moxy to face the future? And will her dream of a new life under the flickering neon of the STARDUST ever come true?

The Mulligans of Mt. Jefferson by Don Reid

The Mulligans of Mt. Jefferson

1959 – Virginia

Cal, Harlan, and Buddy grow up together in a small Virginia town in the years before the second World War. United by age, proximity, and temperament, they get into—and out of—all the trouble that boys manage to find. They even earn a nickname from a local restaurateur who gives the boys their first jobs and plenty of friendly advice. “Uncle” Vic calls them the Mulligans, because they always seem to find a way through a thicket of trouble—family problems, girls, college, war—to success. Cal and Harlan and Buddy have been blessed with second chances.

Now it’s 1959, and police lieutenant Buddy receives an early-morning phone call: his friend Harlan, a store owner, has been shot in a break-in. Cal, now a preacher, meets Buddy at the hospital, and together, as professionals and as friends, they begin to unravel what might have happened to Harlan.

Stephanie by Donna Fletcher Crow

Stephanie: Days of Turmoil and Victory (Daughters of Courage)

1960s – Idaho

A representative in the Idaho State Legislature during the ’60’s young Stephanie Hamilton wants to change the world. She thinks her housing subsidy bill will help do just that. Unfortunately, the Attorney General disagrees, stonewalling her bill and their relationship, although she finds herself intrigued by this powerful and attractive man.

But David Fraser, a handsome woolgrower from Scotland, believes in her. Rather than clashing with her over every issue, he offers the support she desires. Stephanie is torn by her feeling for these men and must ultimately decide between the two. Seeking God’s guidance, she makes life-changing decisions and takes needed steps to strengthen her underdeveloped relationship with God.

Yesterday’s Tomorrow by Catherine West

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1967 – Vietnam

She’s after the story that might get her the Pulitzer. He’s determined to keep his secrets to himself.

Vietnam 1967.

Independent, career-driven journalist Kristin Taylor wants two things: to honor her father’s memory by becoming an award-winning overseas correspondent, and to keep tabs on her only brother, Teddy, who signed up for the war against their mother’s wishes.
Brilliant photographer Luke Maddox, silent and brooding, exudes mystery. Kristin is convinced he’s hiding something.

Willing to risk it all for what they believe in, Kristin and Luke engage in their own tumultuous battle until, in an unexpected twist, they’re forced to work together. Ambushed by love, they must decide whether or not to set aside their own private agendas for the hope of tomorrow that has captured their hearts.

This Fine Life by Eva Marie Everson

1964- Georgia

It is the summer of 1959 and Mariette Puttnam has just graduated from boarding school. When she returns to her privileged life at home, she isn’t sure where life will take her. More schooling? A job? Marriage? Nothing feels right. How could she know that the answer is waiting for her within the narrow stairwell of her father’s apparel factory, exactly between the third and fourth floors? In this unique and tender story of an unlikely romance, popular author Eva Marie Everson takes readers on a journey through the heart of a young woman bound for the unknown. Readers will experience the joys of new love, the perseverance of true friendship, and the gift of forgiveness that comes from a truly fine life.

Songbird Under a German Moon by Tricia Goyer

Songbird Under a German Moon

1945 – Germany

The year is 1945. The war is over and 21-year-old Betty Lake has been invited to Europe to sing in a USO tour for American soldiers who now occupy Hitler’s Germany. The first night’s performance is a hit. Betty becomes enthralled
with the applause, the former Nazi-held mansion they’re housed in and the attention of Frank Witt, the US Army Signal Corp Photographer. Yet the next night this songbird is ready to fly the coop when Betty’s dear friend, Kat, turns up missing. Betty soon realizes Frank’s photographs could be the key to finding Kat. Betty and Frank team up against post-war Nazi influences and the two lovebirds’ hearts may find the answers…in each other. But will they have a chance for their romance to sing? The truth will be revealed under a German moon.

Copper Fire by Suzanne Woods Fisher

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1945 – Germany

On a summer day in 1945, Louisa Gordon receives a telegram from the International Red Cross Tracing Service. Her young cousin, Elisabeth, has just been released from Dachau, a concentration camp, and Louisa is her only remaining relative.

Determined to go to war-torn Germany to retrieve her cousin, Louisa is also on a mission to discover the whereabouts of Friedrich Mueller, a Nazi sympathizer who fled Copper Springs, Arizona. What Louisa never expected was to meet the man she had once loved. And now hated.

To Love Somebody by Lyn Cote

To Love Somebody (formerly titled Leigh)

1963 – Maryland

A child of the sixties, Leigh Sinclair always knows what she wants. So why does her mother Bette always try to hold her back? Leigh senses there must be something behind her mother’s inclination to overprotect her. But her mother will not let go and it builds a wall between them.

When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, sets in motion his March on Washington in 1963, no one least of all, Leigh, could have predicted how this would impact her life especially when she meets handsome but forbidden Frank Dawson III.

Leigh faces all the challenges of the 1960’s, the Cold War, Vietnam, a turbulent time in the US and the world. With the change in women’s rights, she confronts so many new possibilities and choices her grandmother Chloe never faced. Falling for the wrong man brings her consequences she never envisioned. Falling in love with the right man proves heart-breaking too. Will she never get it right? Then one day the worst she could imagine happens. Who can help her make this come right?

The Color of the Soul by Tracey Bateman

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1860s/1948 – Georgia

A Pandora’s box opens when reporter Andy Carmichael, too light skinned for acceptance by blacks and too dark skinned for acceptance by whites, is sent to Georgia to interview Miss Penbrook, an icon of Southern literature. From her deathbed, the mysterious Miss Penbrook gives Andy journals that reveal a surprising twist – her story and his own meld into one.

All the Way Home by Ann Tatlock

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1930s/1960s – California/Mississippi

From a rough section of Los Angeles during the late Depression years, to the civil rights struggles of the 1960s in the South, this novel is a searing portrayal of one family trapped by alcoholism and another living the typical middle class life. A true American story told through the eyes of two girls, best friends, separated by the internment camps of World War II.

The Key to Zion by Bodie and Brock Thoene

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1948 – Israel

Is this the hour of destiny promised by the ancient prophecies or the time of destruction?

Rabbi Lebowitz of Jerusalem’s Old City has waited a lifetime for this moment. No Jew has held the key to the Gate of Zion since AD 70. Yet on May 14, 1948, the day of Israel’s statehood, the British will turn that key—the symbol of his hope for the nation—over to him.

But even before the British evacuate, full-scale fighting breaks out between the Arabs and Jews. Five Middle Eastern nations gather around the tiny country to divide it up among themselves. Caught in the middle, the native Palestinians flee, clogging the roads in front of the incoming armies.

Is there any hope for peace? for stopping the bloodshed? Haganah leader Moshe Sachar must make a bold move—one that could cost him his life but means life or death for his people.

When Moshe rescues an injured Arab girl, Rachel, his wife, must decide: Should she risk revealing the secrets of her past to reach an enemy’s heart? Especially one who says she hates all Jews?

A Light in Zion by Bodie and Bock Thoene

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1948 – Israel

The situation is desperate. Only a miracle can save them now. But will it come too late?

It’s Passover eve, and the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem is being starved into submission. Arab forces hold the only road into the Old City—the village of Kastel and the narrow, twisting, rocky pass of Bab el Wad.

If Haganah leader Moshe Sachar and his men can’t capture and hold the pass tonight, long enough for the Jewish Agency’s food convoy to get through, people will die.

As Moshe approaches Kastel, he has no idea that his beloved Rachel will have to make her own dangerous journey—through the Arab stronghold of Sheikh Jarrah. Or that their baby, Tikvah, will be fighting for her life at Hadassah Hospital. As the Mufti vows to drive all Jews into the sea, David and Ellie Meyer search the Mediterranean for a freighter loaded with weapons for the Muslim Jihad. But will this last-ditch effort come in time to save the Jewish nation?

The Return to Zion by Bodie and Brocke Thoene

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1948 – Israel

A nation will stand or fall . . . and it’s all up to one World War II fighter ace.

The Old City of Jerusalem is under siege in February 1948. Food and fuel are scarce. Weapons with which to defend the Jewish Quarter are even more so. The U.S. arms embargo against the Jews is still in effect, even though the British openly sell weapons to the Arabs. The Jewish nation needs a miracle.

David Meyer is given a dangerous assignment—to hire pilots and buy war-surplus planes that could fly to Palestine the instant statehood is declared. It could cost him his U.S. citizenship, and it would mean leaving Ellie, his bride, in harm’s way.

Worse, the British and the Arab secret operative Montgomery seem to know his every move. Even Haganah leader Moshe Sachar, who has just wed the beautiful Rachel Lubetkin, becomes the target of an evil conspiracy.

When David signed up for the war, he hadn’t signed up to carry the weight of a nation. Especially when betrayal swirls in the very air. . .

A Daughter of Zion by Bodie and Brock Thoene

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1948 – Israel

She survived the Holocaust at great personal cost. But will her past now destroy her?

It’s January 1948. After suffering the horrors of years in a Nazi concentration camp, Rachel Lubetkin has at last come home to Jerusalem . . . and the family who thought she was dead. But the mark on her arm has also marked her heart. Will her secrets, if revealed, discredit her among her own people? And at a time of great danger, when she so desperately wants to help?

British soldiers stand idly by while Arabs attack Jewish transports in the besieged Old City. Moshe Sachar, archaeologist by day and secret blockade runner by night, determines to fight for the ancient promises. But he can’t shake the vision of the beautiful young woman he rescued from the sea.

The very same Jewess that Gerhardt, a former Nazi, vows to find . . . to make her pay.

The Gates of Zion by Bodie and Brock Thoene

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1947 – Middle East

Evil circles closer, threatening even those who survived the Holocaust.

It’s November 29, 1947. The streets of Jerusalem ring with celebration as the British Mandate of Palestine is carved into Arab and Jewish states. Politicians promise peace, but those who remember the prophecies know the truth.

When photojournalist Ellie Warne snaps pictures of some ancient scrolls, she unwittingly becomes the target of a sinister plan. Whom can she trust? David Meyer, a decorated American war pilot, who seems more comfortable among the stars than on earth with her? Or the scholarly Jew, Moshe Sachar, who hides from commitment behind his studies but says he loves her?

As everything she believes is challenged, Ellie must decide whether to risk her life—and her heart—for a people she has just met.

Romey’s Place by James Calvin

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1950s – Wisconsin/Michigan

“What’s it like having an old man who’s a saint?” The question came from the depths of Romey Guttner’s troubled soul. It was as honest as the hot sun that beat down on him and his best friend, Lowell, as they picked beans that unforgettable summer in the late fifties. They were just boys, one the son of the town’s pillar of faith and one the neglected child of a man whose anger spilled onto everyone in his path. Despite their disparate upbringings, Romey and Lowell were like brothers, inseparable in their pursuit of adventure. But events were brewing that would force them to confront the reality of their differences for the first time.