Historical Romance
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Testament: The Trial by Edward V’Kanty
For the first time anywhere, Testament draws the reader into the New Yorke witch trials! Experience this 17th century horror firsthand and decide for yourself whether or not to condemn the accused for heresy and witchcraft.
Testament: The Trial It is a matter of public record (and public knowledge) that, in the year 1692, the infamous witch trials swept through the colony of Salem, Massachusetts. While precious little may be known about the witch trials of Salem and those witches that the good puritans of Salem persecuted, there is even less known about the witch trials that swept through the remainder of the Thirteen Colonies. For instance, in 1665, twenty-seven years before the Salem witch trials, the people of New Yorke believed themselves to be plagued by the devil’s works and so the New Yorke Court of Assizes was established to deal with this spiritual epidemic. The New Yorke witch trials began with a very unusual case of witchcraft and heresy: that of Ralph and Mary Hall.
The following fictionalized book is based upon the trial of Ralph and Mary Hall, accused of practicing witchcraft and sorcery against the family of Ann Rogers. This book takes a look at what may have happened and how New Yorke, like Salem, could have fallen prey to the fear of witchcraft.
There is but one catch: You, the reader must determine the path this colony is to follow. There can be no greater responsibility than to be called upon to serve as a juror in these witch trials. After reading the journal entries of apprentice magistrate Singent Straubb and the court documents regarding the trial of accused witches Ralph Hall and his wife Mary, how will you cast your verdict?
Testament Verdict: Guilty You have chosen to convict the Halls and condemn them to death as witches. Now read the remaining entries in the journal of Singent Straubb to learn what fate your verdict has had upon the entire colony of New Yorke…
Testament Verdict: Not Guilty You have chosen not to convict the Halls and they shall be released forthwith. Only the journal of Singent Straubb may tell what fate your verdict will have upon the entire colony of New Yorke…
A Woman of love by Marlow Kelly
When her dissolute husband insists that Lady Annabel Peters bed one of his villainous cohorts to repay a gambling debt, she is scandalized. But she is forced to agree because he controls every aspect of her life.
A physically and emotionally crippled war hero, James Drake has retreated from society. At the request of his brother, he manipulates events so he can interrogate Annabel, a woman he thinks may be part of a ring of thieves.
Neither of them count on an instant and overwhelming attraction. James may now believe Annabel but she suspects her husband plans to kill her. As one of her husband’s friends, James is not to be trusted.
Yet how can she escape a man who has the ability to control her with a gentle kiss?
Patrick’s Journey by Roy Humphreys
County Wicklow, Ireland 1790
It’s springtime and 17 year old Patrick Rourke has everything to live for. He’s young, strong and healthy, has a loving family and has won the affection of his sweetheart Catherine. Unfortunately, Patrick is also quick tempered and has an unfortunate tendency to use his fists to settle disputes. A relatively minor confrontation with the occupying British Redcoats escalates and Patrick’s world is torn apart as he becomes a pawn in the political aspirations of the United Irishmen and suffers the wrath of the British dominated Irish penal system.
With everything he holds dear seemingly lost Patrick finds himself thrust into an emotional and physical journey that will see him plummet into the depths of rage and despair as he is transported on the convict ship Boddington to the penal colony of New South Wales.
Will he ever see his family or his beloved Ireland again ? And Catherine – all his future revolved around Catherine – what can he hope to offer her now ?
Patrick’s Journey is an historical fiction novel based on the real life history of one of Australia’s early Irish convict settlers. It could be described as simply an entertaining “romance/adventure” novel, but the story goes deeper than that. The “Journey” in the story is twofold, there is the physical journey from one mode of existence in Ireland to a completely different one in Australia and the emotional/spiritual journey that accompanies such drastic changes in Patrick’s world.
The Miracle of Yousef by Goncalo Coelho
A man washes up more dead than alive on the shores of a sun-dazzled Aegean Isle. His memory has been wiped absolutely clean. Who is he? Where is he from? A battered man with no past, a survivor.
In a heavenly awakening he meets the lovely and beguiling Nefise, and instantly falls hopelessly in love. Through a series of idyllic and tumultuous encounters on the shores of this Turkish island the two grope towards the threshold of a new life together… until suddenly one bright morning hell opens up beneath them.
Meet Yousef Al-Khaled, a lover, a man of profound tenderness, sensitivity and passion … and the world’s most wanted terrorist.
In a kaleidoscopic odyssey through the darkest moments of our era, from bomb-smashed caves in the Afghan mountains to the hot streets of Jeddah, from London’s glitter to the sorrows of New York, from frenzied Balkan escapes to the wild labyrinth of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar and a desperate standoff beneath the murky waters of the Bosporus, Yousef races unstoppably towards his fate – until it seizes him once and for all.
A thriller entwined in a spiritual journey, historical novel, and all-encompassing love story, this is the tragic tale of a great sinner, “the happiest man in the world,” in a pilgrimage beyond fundamentalist violence and hatred to discover another Islam, the Islam we seldom if ever hear about.
Colorado Promise by Charlene Whitman
Greeley, Colorado, in 1875 is a town built on a promise . . .
. . . but to Emma it is a desert prison in the middle of a hostile and dusty prairie. Emma had hoped to go to Vassar College, to pursue her dreams of becoming a botanical illustrator. But when her father, struck with “Western fever” moves the family out West, Emma’s dreams are shattered. Her only consolation is that her childhood friend, handsome Randall Turnbull, has moved to Greeley to work for his railroad baron father. Her heart sparked by his comforting presence, she hopes Randall will fall in love with her and marry her.
But promises often turn bitter . . .
. . . as Lucas Rawlings, veterinarian and horse lover, well knows. Lucas has lived on the Front Range for three years at Sarah Banks’s horse ranch, after stumbling down from the Rockies consumed with grief. Since losing his precious wife and baby in childbirth, he doesn’t think his heart can bear ever loving again. But Sarah, a half-Cheyenne with a medicine woman for a grandmother, has a vision showing it’s time Lucas married again. He scoffs until he rescues Emma in a sudden hailstorm and their lives become intricately entwined.
Emma must choose—and fight—for the man she loves, at the risk of all she loves . . .
Emma yearns for the comfort and familiarity of Randall’s company, but Lucas’s easy confidence and gentle ways snag her heart. Facing a new life beset by grasshoppers, drought, and blizzards is hard enough. But when murderous ranchers try to force Sarah off her land, and her brother takes up dangerous company, the lives of her family and the man she’s come to love are threatened. It will take a miracle—and the strength and promises of true love—to come through unscathed in this untamed land.
Rise to Power by Uvi Poznansky
Here is the story of David as you have never heard it before: from the king himself, telling the unofficial version, the one he never allowed his court scribes to recount. In his mind, history is written to praise the victorious—but at the last stretch of his illustrious life, he feels an irresistible urge to tell the truth. In the first volume, Rise to Power, David gives you a fascinating account of his early years, culminating with a tribal coronation. Rooted in ancient lore, his is a surprisingly modern memoir.
In an era of cruelty, when destroying the enemy is deemed a sacred directive, the slayer of Goliath finds a way to become larger than life. His search for a path to power leads him in ways that are, at times, scandalous. Notorious for his contradictions, David is seen by others as a gifted court entertainer, a successful captain in Saul’s army, a cunning fugitive, a traitor leading a gang of felons, and a ruthless raider of neighboring towns who leaves no witnesses behind.
How does he see himself, during this first phase of his life? With his hands stained with blood, can he find an inner balance between conflicting drives: his ambition for the crown, his determination to survive the conflict with Saul, and his longing for purity, for a touch of the divine, as expressed so lyrically in his psalms and music?
An Intimate Acquaintance: desire Awakened by Gwendoline Lacey
It is the year 1811, and Miss Emilia Hurlstone’s girlish dreams of marrying a handsome and gallant knight are forever shattered when her social-climbing parents force her to accept the offer of Lord Farnley of Foxdene Hall, a man many years her senior, and with few physical qualities to recommend him.
Beneath the respectable veneer of marriage lurks a world of previously unimagined depravity.
Emilia’s innocence vanishes at the same moment as her maidenhood when Ralph begins instructing his young bride in all of her wifely duties, educating her in ways she had never envisaged… Carnal acts… and not always confined to the privacy of their bedchamber.
As Emilia begins to appreciate the physical aspects of marriage, she finds herself increasingly drawn to a younger man.
Tom is tall, blond, and muscular, a man at the peak of his manhood, the very epitome of how a handsome knight should be. Unfortunately, he is also Ralph’s stablehand.
Overwhelmed by her lustful desires, Emilia tries to master herself and resist Tom’s sexual lure.
If discovered, she might lose everything. Her marriage and her good name would hang in tatters.
Or is surrendering to Tom a risk worth taking?
Favorite Daughter, Part One by Paula Margulies
Set in the time of the Jamestown settlement and the English explorer John Smith, Favorite Daughter, Part One recounts the story of Chief Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas, as she prepares to take her place as one of our nation’s earliest leading women. Pocahontas invites readers to experience her native world when strangers appear on the shores near her village. From forging a relationship with the charismatic Smith, to experiencing love for the first time and creating a role for herself in her father’s plans for peace, this young girl takes us on a poignant and harrowing journey through the turbulent events of her life. Eventually betrayed by all of the men she loves, Pocahontas matures into a heroine of tremendous nobility, courage, and heart.
Told in first person, in a voice brimming with compassion and wisdom, Favorite Daughter, Part One provides a compelling look at the early days of one of the most remarkable legends in American history.
Editor’s Choice Award Winner, 24th Annual San Diego State University Writers’ Conference
Colorado Hope by Charlene Whitman
1875 ~ Beset by a sudden spring storm on the Front Range, newlywed Grace Cunningham watches in horror as her husband, Monty, is swept downriver. Pregnant and despairing, she stumbles into Fort Collins and tries to make a life for herself, praying that one day the man she loves will walk into town and back into her life.
Montgomery Cunningham wakens on the bank of a river with no recollection of who he is or how he got the gash on his head. A woman named Stella, who claims to be his fiancée, nurses him back to health. Plagued by images of a faceless woman who he is certain is the key to his past, Monty concedes to Stella’s pressure to marry him and move to Fort Collins, but he quickly regrets his actions.
A year after Grace’s tragic loss, Monty walks into the dress shop where she works–with a woman on his arm. Shocked that Monty has no recollection of her, Grace is determined to win back his heart. Somehow she must help him regain his memories and his buried love for her–and not just for her sake but for the sake of their infant son, Ben.
Monty, miserable in his marriage to a woman he hardly knows, is inexplicably drawn to Grace. Every time he’s near her, memories surface, but they are hazy and troubling. He’s torn between his vows and the desires of his heart, for he cannot stay away from Grace.
Grace’s hope is sparked when Monty starts recalling glimpses of his past. But when murderous outlaws come to town, she is thrust into grave danger. Monty risks his life to rescue her, only to face even greater perils in the treacherous mountains. Can she truly hang on to hope when she is about to lose all she loves?
This new full-length Historical Western Romance novel takes readers on a heart-wrenching journey of love, loss, and hope amid the dangers and challenges in Colorado Territory’s wild frontier.
The Edge of Revolt by Uvi Poznansky
Struggling to find the right balance between loving his sons and upholding justice, David is silent when Amnon rapes his daughter, Tamar, and when Absalom lures Amnon to his death. These crimes go unpunished, because a mysterious change has come upon the king, which his court scribes note even before he does. In the past he had to explain his actions, such as the affair with Bathsheba, to them. Now, they want to understand the opposite thing: his lack of action.
In families other than his, such matters may be a mere matter of gossip. Yet when assault, incest, and murder occur in the king’s family, they affect matters of the state. David is toppled from his throne, and must escape from the son he adores, Absalom.
Even as he finds a way to quell the revolt and come back to the City of David, the road ahead seems unclear. How will he find the right successor amongst his remaining sons, the one who will connect to him and continue his legacy?
This is volume III of the trilogy The David Chronicles, told candidly by the king himself. David uses modern language, indicating that this is no fairytale. Rather, it is a story that is happening here and now.
