A Saint in Graceland
the grace to forgive, the courage to love, the faith to risk it all
Grieving her mother’s death and yearning to see more of the world beyond her mountain home, Sally Beth sets out on a journey that leads her across the American Southwest and ultimately to a remote mission station in Tanzania, where she finds a new kind of freedom in the African plains and the people who dwell there. But when war comes to the mission gates, its horrors shatter her world. She must find a way to rebuild her life and choose whether or not to serve the people she’s grown to love—a choice that will shake the simple faith of her childhood and ignite her passion for a wounded man.
More info →A Sinner in Paradise
Jilted by her fiancé, Geneva watches her seemingly idyllic life suddenly fall apart. Bereft and desolate, she packs up her cats and leaves her home in Washington, DC, returning to her native hills of West Virginia to rest and heal from heartbreak. When Geneva’s ambition and machinations run up against rugged mountain ways, she's flung from one perilous adventure to another. After she falls for an unlikely suitor and finds herself facing a life-changing choice, Geneva realizes she must first make peace with herself before she is free to truly love and be loved. This multi-award-winning debut is a sure-fire hit with fans of inspirational romance and women’s fiction.
Set in 1977 West Virginia, A Sinner in Paradise is a heartwarming, uproarious affair with love in all its forms.
More info →In The Midst of Innocence
An endearing ballad of the struggle for existence and understanding." –Booklist
Ten-year-old Pearl Wallace is living in the mountains of rural Tennessee in the depths of the Great Depression and several years into Prohibition.
Pearl struggles with her moral dilemmas: What can she do to protect her best friend Darlene from an abusive stepfather? And, especially, how much does she need to tithe on the money she has earned from stealing her daddy’s moonshine and selling it?
Meanwhile, Emily Weston, a missionary, has come to “lift the poor hillbillies of the region out of their ignorance and misery.” Coming from a place of affluence and privilege, she is quickly overwhelmed by the social and racial issues facing her students and their families.
When murder, fire, and heartbreak threaten those they love, Pearl and Emily must confront the hate and bigotry of their neighbors. Emily’s time in the mountains will be one not of saving souls, but of personal reckoning.
More info →Lost Souls Recovered
"An expertly told tale of loss, love, and second chances." —Kirkus Reviews
One man's journey toward a better life.
When the wife of a plantation owner dies on a fateful night in 1887, John Billingsly makes the gut-wrenching decision to leave his mother and everything he knows to flee their slave cabin in Richmond, Virginia. Instructed by his mother to find a cousin in Mt. Hope, Alabama, John wends his way south in hope of a better life.
With the plantation owner shadowing him every step of the way, his journey is perilous. One misstep could cost him his freedom—and his life.
Inspired by a true story, Lost Souls Recovered is a mesmerizing historical family saga of loss and gain, survival and self-reinvention, and one family's fight for freedom in the midst of the post-Civil War American South.
More info →The Beatrix Patterson Mysteries Boxed Set: Books 1-3
For fans of World War II fiction and historical mysteries, the Beatrix Patterson Mysteries are sure to keep readers turning pages. Beatrix has a particularly gifted memory that often gets her into trouble while giving her the means to help others. Follow her through World War II and the following years.
More info →The Finder
Missing women, a disbanded cult, and a dodgy inheritance put Beatrix Patterson to the test.
Beatrix Patterson wanted to spend a morning organizing her thoughts over a nice cup of coffee and the local newspaper. But her carefully curated day is quickly interrupted when a friend of a friend asks for her help. Their friend is dead, and he wants to make sure there's no foul play. Cases keep piling in, as another family friend seeks his wife. Then a body is found at the base of local cliffs with no one to claim her.
Beatrix is good at finding things—people, the truth, missing evidence. As more Jane Does appear at the base of the cliff, each with similar ceremonial markings, Beatrix grows more passionate.
The deeper she digs, the less the pieces fit together. From a strange, disbanded cult to the drag queen desperate to claim an inheritance, Beatrix is soon stretched thin.
Surrounded by new neighbors with shadowed pasts, she has to wonder: will anyone believe her?
This historical mystery novel is packed with intrigue and beauty, set four years after World War II ends. Follow familiar characters Beatrix Patterson and Thomas Ling as they settle into a new life in Santa Barbara, California. The Finder is the second book in the Beatrix Patterson novels, however, each book can be read as a stand-alone or in order of publication.
More info →The Legend
Kate Tyler isn't sure she's living the life she was meant to live. Eden Springs has been wonderful, but she can't deny the wanderlust tugging at her heart. Desperate for a change of pace, she packs her bags and heads to the ancient town of Rye, England where she hopes she'll find inspiration for her new travel blog.
But when she arrives, mysteries follow her everywhere she goes. Strangers seem to know her, a book of ancient legends contains her mirror image, and Virginia Calloway is insistent that Kate come over to discuss the Legend of Arabella Courbain. Hoping to solve one of the many mysteries of this spontaneous trip, Kate agrees.
But the deeper Kate digs into the truth of what happened to Arabella back in 1766, the more she learns that the present may not hold the answers she needs. When legends cross with reality, Kate must find the truth before history repeats itself.
More info →The Light of a Cuban Son
"Chavez is an exciting new voice in our LGBTQ and Latinx literary community.” –Emanuel Xavier, author and activist
In this semi-autobiographical novel set in mid 20th century Cuba, Lorenzo Chavez reveals the moving story of a boy determined to stay true to who he is and find happiness against all odds.
Told in a series of first-person vignettes, Martín's story covers a wide swath of the Cuban landscape and people, taking us from the lush greens and fertile soils of the countryside to the dark underbelly of a Havana as full of depravity as it is neon lights.
After suffering a series of heartbreaking abuses, Martín struggles to find his way and claim his identity as a young gay man in an impoverished neighborhood. When the Revolution slowly begins to claim everything Martín holds dear, he takes a desperate leap of faith—one that could cost him his life.
Martín's coming of age story is one of courage and the rebirth of a brave young man who refuses to hide his light.
This novel is perfect for fans of Achy Obejas, Cristina Garcia, and Carmen Maria Machado.
More info →The Lyre and the Lambs
A feast of family can be a plate load of problems! It’s the Sixties. Modernity and tradition clash as two newlywed couples set up house together.
Dee and her daughter Valerie move with their husbands into a modern glass house Valerie built in a proudly rural Los Altos, California, neighborhood. When their young relatives start showing up and moving in, the neighbors get suspicious. Then a body is found in the backyard and the life they are trying to build comes undone.
Father Mike is back to guide Dee through a difficult time with humor and grace, even as his own life is unraveling. Now he’s going to have to take some of his own advice about love. The sequel to The Sheep Walker's Daughter,
The Lyre and the Lambs explores the passions that draw people together and the faith it takes to overcome trauma.
More info →The Particular Appeal of Gillian Pugsley
"exuberantly readable...recommended"
– Historical Novel Society
"memorable—feisty, unexpected"
– Kirkus Reviews
From the shores of The Great Lakes to the slums of Bombay and a tiny island in between, this love story takes the reader on an intimate journey to unravel a family secret that’s lain hidden for generations.
To satisfy her wandering feet, eighteen-year-old Gillian McAllister is sent from Ireland to Canada in the summer of 1932.
She arrives with her Irish ways intact, determined not to let the wiles of crop duster Christian Hunter woo her into submission. Yet as the summer unfolds and the sweet taste of love grows, Gillian’s appeal lures more than she anticipates, shattering the life they’ve built.
Fourteen years, a Great Depression, and a World War later, Christian sets out to discover why Gillian was ripped from his life. What he discovers on the Isle of Man will change them both forever. Not even a thatched cottage by the sea, a spritely Gillian, or memories sprinkled on a page can mask the secret that has been buried for too long. But it isn’t until a set of poems is given to Gillian’s granddaughter that the real mystery—Gillian’s true secret—is freed.
The Pursuer
The War may be over, but secrets linger.
While World War II has been over for two years, its horrors linger within society, and chance encounters expose the still-festering wounds. Like most Americans, Beatrix Patterson and her husband Thomas Ling are trying to accept the past in order to focus on the future and a family.
Despite her desire for a quiet life, Beatrix must become a pursuer of truth once again when asked to expose suspected war criminals who may have killed thousands, a diabolical scheme to rob Indigenous Americans of their relics, and a person practicing voodoo as a means to murder a respected member of the Santa Barbara religious community.
Who can she trust to speak the truth when everyone involved seems to be hiding something that could ruin their lives?
Each book in the Beatrix Patterson Mysteries is written as a stand-alone. Readers do not need to read every book in the series to follow along.
More info →The Seer
It’s February 1942. War grips the world. Asian hate runs rampant, and New Orleans is a dangerous place for Chinese-English scientist Thomas Ling as he collides with self-proclaimed psychic Beatrix Patterson. She's a good liar with an excellent memory, which in truth is her only gift—well, that and conning the well-heeled out of their money and secrets.
Hired by the US Army to use her connections to expose Nazi saboteurs and sympathizers, Beatrix recruits the reluctant Thomas. Together, they pit their skills against a government conspiracy, terrorist cells, kidnappings, and murderous plots. As Beatrix grapples with the truth of her own past, she must come to terms with her ruse. Exposing the Nazi war machine about to invade the country could cost Beatrix everything she's worked so hard to build. But the information she and Thomas uncover could change the outcome of the war.
The question remains: will anyone believe a liar and a suspected traitor?
More info →The Sheep Walker’s Daughter
Does it really matter where you come from?
In 1953, a war widow’s difficult mother dies before revealing the identity of her daughter’s father and his cultural heritage. As Dee sorts through what little her mother left, she unearths puzzling clues that raise more questions: Why did Leora send money every month to the Basque Relief Agency? Why is her own daughter so secretive about her soon-to-be-published book? And what does an Anglican priest know that he isn’t telling?
All of this head-spinning mystery breaks a long, dry period in Dee’s life and leads her to embark on an odyssey. She might just as well lose her job and see where the counsel of her new spiritual advisor and the attentions of an enigmatic ex-coworker lead her.
The Sheep Walker’s Daughter pairs a colorful Basque immigrant history of loss, survival, and tough choices with one woman’s search for identity and fulfillment. Dee’s journey will take her through the Northern and Central California valleys of the 1950s and reach across the world to the Basque Country.
Can Nellie rescue her broken-hearted daughter, and give badly needed direction to her headstrong granddaughter who is on a path to disaster?
More info →The Trials of Nellie Belle
We labor in the dark, not knowing how close we come to tapping gold or triggering disaster. Only God knows.
When her parents marry off Kansas-born Nellie Belle to the ranch foreman, she never questions that motherhood will follow. But at the dawn of the progressive era, dissatisfied Nellie seizes an opportunity to move west and start a new life. Desperate to find a sense of self-worth, Nellie leaves behind her husband and son and takes her two daughters to the Northwest. She charges forward to become the first woman court reporter to travel the circuit in the region. But in the process she loses her daughters, one to death, and one to vaudeville.
In small-town makeshift courtrooms and growing cities boasting new halls of justice, Nellie touches many lives, independent-minded lawmen, enterprising women, hard-working immigrants, a senator, a number of cads, and a cross-dresser. She earns the respect of a tight legal community with their own ideas of early twentieth-century justice. But when her prodigal youngest returns home with a babe in arms, she must do what she can to pull together the remains of her scattered family.
Can Nellie rescue her broken-hearted daughter, and give badly needed direction to her headstrong granddaughter who is on a path to disaster?
More info →The Women of Jacob’s Mountain Boxed Set
From multi-award-wining author Deborah Hining come two novels about The Women of Jacob's mountain who have a strength and sense of adventure unknown even to themselves.
Two book boxed set of the award winning titles A Sinner in Paradise and A Saint in Graceland
More info →Lucky Duck
Recent college graduate Joel Howard, former bench warmer for his small town college team, is optimistic about his future with his out-of-his-league girlfriend and a job prospect with a local insurance agency. But things don't work out the way he plans when his girlfriend dumps him and he remains stuck at his unfulfilling position at the local shoe store in the mall.
Joel has always been lucky in the past, and despite the current string of bad luck he sees an opportunity at his job at the mall—because the mall has a bank.
Desperately seeking a change of pace from his father's unrelenting nagging, Joel hatches a plan to rob the mall's bank on the night of Black Friday, 1987. He must depend on his lucky streak to get him out of trouble time and again, or face the life-altering consequences of his actions.
Lucky Duck is a comedic crime novel perfect if you’re looking for something with the flavor of a John Hughes film from those 80s and 90s tomes like Risky Business or Breakfast Club.
More info →The Gift
A turbulent telling of one woman’s immersion in her faith, and one man’s journey to acceptance.
Seeking comfort in the isolation of the western landscape, young single mother Pansy Blackwell brings her son Butch to the Siskiyou Mountains. Fully engulfed in the Jehovah’s Witnesses assurances for a soon-to-arrive end of the world, Pansy raises her son to conform to the constrictive requirements of their religion. But as Butch discovers the wonders of the world around him with an endlessly patient and kindhearted rancher, he embraces the cowboy culture and struggles to live as his authentic self.
In the late 20th Century, rural communities in America were often hostile to the rising-awareness of LGBT people, and Butch is soon cast aside by his church for homosexuality. In The Gift, Scott Terry crafts a memorable and historically-accurate tale of religious extremism and the struggle for acceptance, before the truth of those times are swept under the forgotten rug of history.
More info →