Historical Family Saga

On a blistering day in the 26th year of Augustus Caesar's reign, a young chef, Thrasius, is acquired for the exorbitant price of 20,000 denarii. His purchaser is the infamous gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius, wealthy beyond measure, obsessed with a taste for fine meals from exotic places and a singular ambition: to serve as culinary adviser to Caesar, an honor that will cement his legacy as Rome's leading epicure.

William Warwick, now a Detective Inspector, is tasked with a dangerous new line of work, to go undercover and expose crime of another kind: corruption at the heart of the Metropolitan Police Force. His team is focused on following Detective Jerry Summers, a young officer whose lifestyle appears to exceed his income. But as a personal relationship develops with a member of William’s team, it threatens to compromise the whole investigation.

For the sake of her daughter Belle, Harriet did something unspeakable never imagining the price her crime would exact. Now Belle is left fighting for what remains. In a busy lying in hospital, Harriet and her twenty year-old daughter Belle work side by side as midwives. With Belle’s father presumed dead, the women are dependent for employment on the goodwill of the smug and licentious Dr. Morrow. Harriet is guarding an unspeakable secret and is horrified to encounter the one person who could reveal everything, and force her, and Belle, onto the streets. But her own troubles are forgotten ...

***FREE WITH KINDLE UNLIMITED*** Lily Webb was mean, tough and feared. It was the only possible way she could survive. Born to a poor but loving family, Lily’s life changed forever when a deadly disease took her family and Lily was sent away. Now alone and frightened in a wretched workhouse, Lily faces life with daily bullying and near starvation until she grows harsh and cold, rising to the most feared inmate. The only light in her life is the one small child Lily takes pity on. But when an act of revenge causes ravaging damage, Lily is thrust from her queenly position in the workhouse ...

The path to progress is never smooth. Winkler is changing from a company-owned town to one with new private homes and businesses. Among these are a hospital, a newspaper, a movie theater, and the Eat and Sleep, now owned by May Rose and her husband, Barlow. But just as the town seems to be moving forward, May Rose’s eyes are opened to unjust practices she’s never thought about. To do what’s right, she’ll need the solidarity of friends both old and new. The Meaning of Us is the eighth book in the Mountain Women Series, bringing to life the struggles, triumphs, friendships and loves ...

The final book in the Pelgrave Trilogy Summer 1817 Thomas, having purchased the nearby Scolton Estate, has moved the family into the Hall, a much larger establishment at 15 bedrooms, with increased servants, all overseen by the redoubtable butler, Brookes. The move was a wrench for Charlotte, now a loved and respected leading light of the County, championing good causes including being Patron of the newly established St. Peter’s Church School for boys and girls. Now fresh challenges await her as the children are nearing adulthood with Charles at seventeen about to start his last year at ...

After a grizzly bear kills Antonia Valleau's trapper husband, she packs her few worldly possessions, leaves her home in the mountains of Montana, and treks to nearby Sweetwater Springs, seeking work to provide for her two young sons.

Betty Slight has never known such misery in the whole of her life. Losing both her parents in the same week, the landlord forces her from her home only days later. At just 17, and with nowhere to go and no hope for a future, she sets off to make her way to London where she prays she can find work, anything to survive now that she’s suddenly on her own. But Simon Bleath, a horrible and miserable man and the landlord’s partner, catches up to her outside the village and takes the last of her innocence in a vile act, leaving her beaten and broken inside and out. But Betty is a fighter. And ...

Dashing and dangerous Andre Raveneau is the Revolutionary War's most reckless privateer captain when Devon Lindsay stows away aboard his ship after her Connecticut town has been burned by the British. Raveneau sardonically agrees to deliver her to her childhood sweetheart in Virginia but doesn't count on his own potent attraction to the enchanting, courageous Devon. Through high adventure, swashbuckling sea battles, and the colorful history of America's revolution, the couple battles the fiery passion that binds them together.

London 1917. As the Americans enter the war, there is renewed energy in the war effort. With husbands and sons fighting for freedom, the women of Harpers are left to tackle the day-to-day affairs at home and work. With Ben Harper away, Sally fears she is being followed by a mysterious woman. Who is she, and what does she want? Maggie Gibbs collapses seriously ill in the frontline hospitals and is brought back to England close to death. Can she be saved, and what does the future hold for her and her broken heart?

She survived the wreck that claimed her father. Now she must face the lighthouse that holds both her refuge and her reckoning. When thirteen-year-old Lydia Rowe washes up on Cornwall's treacherous coast, the sole survivor of a devastating shipwreck, she finds herself at the mercy of the stern lighthouse keeper and his withdrawn son, Benedict. Offering to work for her keep, Lydia faces suspicion from the villagers and cold acceptance from her reluctant guardian. In quiet moments away from watchful eyes, Benedict secretly teaches her to read, kindling dreams of education and possibility. As ...

Dashing French pirate Jean-Philippe Beauvisage revels in a life of complete freedom...until the night at a ball in Georgian London, when a Russian beauty quietly steals his heart. Heartbroken Antonia Varyshkova, who has lost her parents and her home in a St. Petersburg fire, stops in London en route to a new life with her brother in America. When her arrogant ship's captain, Tobias Ormond, insists that she attend a ball with him, Antonia reluctantly agrees.

He was named Don John Blackthorn, but his family call him Black Jack (although not within earshot), because of his mysterious ways, yes, but mostly because he allows no one close to him, reveals nothing of himself. But Jack has a problem, and her name is Tess Fonteneau. She's the daughter of his mentor in the fine art of clandestine adventure, and she sees him all too well. Now his mentor, his friend, this man who knows too many dangerous secrets, has disappeared, and it will take Jack and Tess both to find him, save him, before it is too late. Even if they both believe it's already too ...

Desperate to escape their stepfather’s house, sisters Amy and Lillian stow away aboard a train full of children being evacuated from London and the threat of Hitler’s bombs. Arriving in the seaside town of Worthing, they are taken in by kindly Norah and her husband, Jim. With their future now entrusted to strangers, can the girls finally find a safe harbour in these dark days of war? And will they find the strength to confront what they have been running from, when their past finally catches up with them?

When sixteen-year-old Sally is evacuated to the English south coast, she is terrified by what lies ahead of her. All she knows are the sights and sounds of London's East End – but Sally swallows her tears as they leave the familiar landmarks behind, knowing that she has to be a Grown-Up Girl and play mother to her six-year-old brother Ernie. Playing mother is nothing new for Sally – their real mother Florrie, a good-time girl, hasn't even come to the station to wave them off and Ernie, crippled at an early age by polio, is used to depending on his older sister.

The timeline for Crucible is 1775 – 1778. I decided to split the Revolutionary War into two books, mainly because there is so much more action as opposed to The French & Indian War…and because as I was writing, my characters insisted on some scenes I hadn’t previously thought of.  The three Mallory siblings, Daniel, Liza, and Liam play important parts in CoR, but it is their children who begin to make their marks on the saga. Their youngest son, Ethan, and their daughter Abigail, of Daniel and Deborah travel with their parents to Boonesborough and reside there with Daniel Boone. ...

Caught in the middle... What begins as a quiet summer turns hectic and unsettling as May Rose is burdened by the troubles of the preacher, rivalries among friends, and the potential loss of dear ones. Though discontent and unhappiness abound, she’s uplifted by the blooming of other hearts and encouraged by the return of two people she never thought she’d see again. Hearts and Souls is the ninth book in the Mountain Women Series, bringing to life the struggles, triumphs, friendships and loves of women in a small West Virginia town in the early 1900s. ––––––––––––...

When newlywed Dolly Magnuson moves to 1950s Pine Rapids, Wisconsin, she discovers that making marriage work is harder than it looks in the pages of the Ladies Home Journal. As she adapts to her new life, her restless imagination is seized by an abandoned Victorian house which, she learns from quilting-circle gossip, belongs to the once prominent Mickelson family.

"There are times when reading that I know why I love books. Luzo's story is heart-wrenching, relevant to the times and enlightening!" -Taneka (Reading Bug) There are wars between men in fancy suits and polished shoes. They are ruthless soldiers. When they kill, battlefields are bloodied to protect family. 'Men of Honor,' are their whispered titles. Salvatore Giacanti wears the crown of mafia royalty. When Salvatore's famiglia is murdered while he studies abroad, he returns to the shores of Italy focused on revenge. Under the assumed identity, Luzo Palazzo, he rebuilds his family's empire ...

In 1895, a Northumbrian island welcomes two new residents. Clara and Jimmy are born on the same night, to families poles apart. Clara is an islander through and through; content to live among the rhythms and barren beauty of Holy Island. Jimmy's future is set in stone; fishing with the father he despises on the family boat. When tragedy forces them from their island and each other, they join the herring season in a bid to survive. Jimmy strikes out for Seahouses, where he joins a Scots herring crew.