Back of the Yard

“Heart-wrenching moments of emotional struggle are presented with insight and compassion… a fascinating read that one will not soon forget.” –US Review of BooksSet during the Depression in the South Chicago neighborhood of Sinclair’s The Jungle, Betty O’Leary’s family struggles to scrape by in this harsh, foul-smelling, yet compassionate area. The youngest in her Irish Catholic family, Betty is overshadowed by her pretty sister, Maureen, and when tragedy threatens to shatter her world, Betty is sent away to stay with relatives.As grief and loss take its toll on family members, Betty eventually meets Phil, who offers hope for long-awaited happiness. But secrets begin to unravel, and depression gradually descends on Betty. Is a family history of asylums and madness the cause? And unlike her disturbed mother, will Betty ever find peace and fulfillment?The story gives voice to those struggling with emotional pain and shows how families can heal with love, courage, and promise. It tells of a unique neighborhood reflecting America’s cultural changes and how one’s childhood is forever present.

The Secrets of Nedworth Hall (Part 1)

Together for the first time in one box set…THE WICKED HEIREvery guest invited to the house party at Nedworth Hall has a secret.Lady Patience Wycombe has been sent to Nedworth Hall for the summer under protest. Why should she be prevailed upon to spend her summer conversing with people when she would much rather stay in London with her books for company? She is determined to ignore her mother’s wish that she find a husband……until the most notorious rake in London singles her out for sin.Arden Covington’s reputation was ruined from the moment he was born. He has always embraced his wickedness…and made it profitable. But few people know the reason he is constantly in need of money, or that he has a sentimental heart. So when Lady Patience shows no fear in the face of his attempts to seduce her, he falls for her hard and fast.But with everyone at the house party eager to discover the identity of Lord Carshalton’s mysterious heir, will Arden have the freedom to pursue Patience, or will another suitor with sordid intentions compromise her first?THE ENRAPTURED HEIRHe has sworn off women. She falls in love with him at first sight. But can they fight the attraction between them?After a single, spoiled season five years before, Lady Angeline O’Shea cannot believe she has been invited to a house party where matches are certain to be made. Everyone is scrambling to discover the identity of Lord Carshalton’s mysterious heir, but Angeline would rather solve the mystery of how to make Lord Rafe McAllister, the Marquess of Rothbury, smile again.But she has her work cut out for her where this wounded hero is concerned…Fresh off of a broken engagement in which his reputation was raked through the mud, Rafe wants nothing more than to hide away at Nedworth Hall for the summer, licking his wounds. He supposes he’ll have to marry eventually, but the last woman on earth that he could see as his marchioness is cheerful, angelic, innocent Angeline.But Angeline’s sweetness enchants him, and before Rafe can stop it, his reluctant fondness for the Irish angel turns into a passion that he cannot deny……until his former fiancée shows up at the house party.THE SURPRISE HEIRSometimes the right man comes along in what seems like the wrong package, and sometimes making the wrong decision turns out to be the right way to fall in love….American dollar princess Melanie Pennypacker has accepted the surprise invitation to join a matchmaking house party for the summer for one reason and one reason only—to find a partner. But not a marriage partner. Melanie is looking for a business partner to invest in her dream of opening a new department store of the sort that are taking London by storm. But no man wants to invest in a business-minded woman.Anyone with eyes can see that valet Frank Crymble is the illegitimate first-cousin of his employer, Lord Avery O’Shea, and like the rest of the O’Shea family, Frank has ambitions above his station and a penchant for scandal. When he catches Melanie behaving badly away from the other house party guests, the two of them instantly come up with a scheme that will get them both what they want.But a marriage of convenience might be harder to pull off than Melanie and Frank suspect when every one of their friends is against the match. And when Melanie’s father shows up at the house party to drag her home, both her and Frank’s dreams hang in the balance. Until they hatch a plan to convince everyone they are deeply in love…including themselves.

The Unseen Hour

Her country is cursed, her father is missing, and she’s falling for a ghost.In Emrys, no one celebrates the end of the year. They lock their doors and hide, hoping to escape the Unseen Hour with their lives intact. Celia knows she should hide with them, but when chance leads her to a long-forgotten journal, the author’s words awaken not only unfamiliar desire, but also the hope that she might finally find her father.Celia enters a realm of death expecting darkness and a vengeful god. What she finds is Orion, the author of the journal that stole her heart. The man is closed off, secretive, and surprisingly charming. What starts as an uneasy alliance between them soon develops into a romance Celia believed lived only in her fantasies.Trapped together in a dangerous but bewitching place, they must face threats hidden within their surroundings, the shadows of their past, and the power of warring gods if they want to break a curse and save their world.The Unseen Hour is a gothic-inspired fantasy romance for fans of forbidden realms, sacrificial love, and mortals standing against gods.

The Bonds of Starlight and Shadows

The stars chose them. The prophecy binds them.Twins Fadeya and Seraphina are bound by blood and starlight, named in a prophecy that promises they will either unite the fractured realms or sunder them forever. At Aestral Unison University, where bonds with magical creatures awaken power and the fae world presses against the human one, the sisters are set upon diverging paths.Long ago, fae twins tried and failed to heal the rift between the realms. Their story ended in ruin. Now the question remains: can human sisters succeed where the fae could not?Fadeya, bold and headstrong, believes her rise is inevitable. Seraphina, cautious and uncertain, dreads what the stars might demand. And no bond, not even the bond of sisters, is safe from the pull of destiny.

The Prisoner’s Wife

1720: Jack Hunter is about to be hanged for the murder of his neighbor. Jack knows he’s innocent, and the unscrupulous constables will seize his land when he’s dead. He asks Lucy Hamblin, the only girl he ever loved, to marry him in the jail. Her father broke them up four years ago, but now her father is dead. Will Lucy be willing to grant his last request and become the widow Hunter? This book won the short historical category of both the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Contest and ACFW’s Book of the Year Contest for 2007. It was favorite historical of the year among Heartsong readers for 2006.