Tilly Loves Johnny


Book Description

Newlywed Tilly Miner turns a deaf ear to rumors and gossip her husband, Johnny, is running parties where “complimentary” hooch loosens lips as well as pocketbooks for those looking to gamble. Some nights he crawls into their bed, smelling of sour rye mash; others, not even making it home until early morning. But her loyalty remains unwavering. And then, the unspeakable happens. A few days before Christmas, Tilly discovers a bloody atrocity dumped on their kitchen table. A warning from the Ku Klux Klan? Johnny laughs it off as a joke. But, when he goes missing one cold night in February, 1929, Tilly is convinced someone or something prevents his return. Her undying faith in Johnny is tested by righteous attitudes from her best friend’s mother and a too cruel mother-in-law, while a recalcitrant sheriff is convinced the man merely ran off.




Booze at Breakfast


Book Description

Booze at Breakfast is a family portrait of the disease of alcoholism. Stories take us to the heart of life’s deep truths, and this one hits us from all the characters’ perspectives—the abusive self-loathing alcoholic, his wife and the children’s experience, and especially his son, Peter. It is charmingly interspersed with an Irish neighbor’s spiritual wisdom and the youth priest’s friendship with the alcoholic’s wife and son. The redemption herein is hard-won, funny, and sweet. Engrossing, loving, and wise, this story will provide understanding for anyone who has puzzled about an alcoholic or his/her family’s choices and challenges.




All About Evie


Book Description

Set against the natural beauty of the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest, acclaimed author Cathy Lamb’s latest novel tells the emotionally compelling story of one woman’s life-changing discovery about her past . . . As a child, Evie Lindsay was unnerved by her premonitions. As an adult, they have become a simple fact of life—sometimes disruptive but also inescapable, much like her quirky, loveable family. Evie’s mother, Poppy, and her aunts, Camellia and Iris, are well known on San Orcanita island for their free-spirited ways and elaborately decorated hats. Their floral shop and Evie’s bookstore draw streams of visitors all summer long. This season promises to be extra busy: Evie’s sister, Jules, is getting married on the island. As Jules plans her unconventional wedding, she arranges to do a DNA test with her mother, sister, and aunts, to see how much accepted lore about their heritage holds true. The results blow apart everything Evie has grown up believing about herself and her family. Spurred on by the revelations, Evie uncovers the real story of her past. But beyond her feelings of shock and betrayal, there are unexpected opportunities—to come to terms with a gift that has sometimes felt like a curse, to understand the secrets that surrounded her childhood, and to embrace the surprising new life that is waiting for her . . .




She Wore a Hat in Prison


Book Description

The charge is Mayhem. Locals in the small village of Cedartown cry out for harsh judgment by finding her guilty of the horrific act and making her pay for her sins. How could a woman so egregiously harm her husband, especially one so admired as Narcisco Boronza? Zerelda Boronza is caught in the middle, between defending and saving herself. When she awoke one humid morning in the fall of 1907, splayed on the hardwood floor, she was covered in blood not knowing if it was someone else’s or her own. Eyes gritty and hard-to-focus, palms sticky on the floor, and a blood-soaked spread covering an empty bed—her memory offered no clue of how this all came about. And now, as she sits next to her attorney, the judge pounding his gavel for silence, her mind swirls with confusion. What happens during the week-long trial and after is unthinkable.




THE STOLEN YEARS


Book Description

Spanning three generations and a century of love, loss and longing, The Stolen Years is a stunning tale of secrets and betrayals, of an empire forged from the seeds of revenge…and the legacy that withstood it all. On the battlefields of World War I, twin brothers Gavin and Angus MacLeod are torn apart in one horrific instant that changes their lives forever. Believing his brother dead, a shattered, tormented Angus returns home to Scotland and takes his place as heir to the family title and husband to his brother's fiancée. But Gavin has survived. Believing he was betrayed by his twin, he creates a new identity for himself in America. And as he helms an elite china empire through decades of war and turbulence, peace and prosperity, he nurses a bitter obsession for revenge. Fate and one remarkable woman will unite the brothers' lives in astonishing unforeseen ways. Yet the children of these men will bear the sins of their fathers. And as the twenty-first century dawns, the secrets that have shaped their destinies will finally be revealed.




Punch


Book Description




Punch


Book Description




Salted Tops of the Tasty Bakery


Book Description

Small town America in the summer of 1946, three veterans plan on re-opening a family bakery that closed during the Great Depression. Youth who’ve been using the building take issue to the bakery opening. Two decide they’ll burn the place down. Their failed arson attempt ends up with 12yr old Jonathon getting caught and put to work, by the veterans and his war widowed mother, Clair. The day of labor turns into a paying summer job for Jonathon and Clair. Causing mixed feelings amongst Jonathon’s friends that lead to gossip, vandalism, a fight, further arson and eventually murder. A coming-of-age story full of distinct, realized characters. Reminding us to value honor and integrity over appearance and perception.







Hush, Little Baby


Book Description

Five heart-stopping true stories of terror and triumph, told by the man who tried to make life better for these troubled children ... Clive, a thirteen-year-old victim of terrifying demonic visions, tells frightening stories of abuse and imprisonment. Could they be genuine? Patrick, twelve, bravely setting out to find the truth about his birth family - however painful it may be ... Six-year-old Johnny, tiny and undernourished, desperately tries to recover from a brain-injury inflicted by his drunken and violent father ... At fourteen, Katie is so aggressive that the authorities have put her in special care, away from other children. What could be the cause of such fury? And in a grim island prison, a lumbering bully ponders his crimes against his twin children, Larry and Francey - while his sadistic and conniving wife, the real monster behind his actions, tries to fool the state into returning the traumatised boy and girl to her care.