Publisher: Alien Ebooks
A long-lost city of medieval origin, ‘Sungan’, lies in the trackless waste of the Gobi desert. It harbours the ‘Wusan’, descendants of white crusaders.
Jim Yarrow, a wounded World War II vet, sees his luck change when he finds work as a police officer. He now thrives in his beloved hometown on the Merrimack River. Content with his job, his long-term friendships, and his wife and kids, he never expected the girl he loved in high school to reappear in his life. Becky Bivens fled Riverbend, Massachusetts, in 1941, after her mother’s crimes were exposed. She’s lived a hardscrabble life ever since, and those struggles now help her understand her mother’s troubling choices. In 1951, Becky returns, intent on building a simple produce stand on the land where she once lived. She intends to raise bees, sell honey, and restore her shattered life, while also helping other displaced women. Riverbend, like many small towns, is entering a period of great economic expansion, while still recovering from a war that wreaked death and havoc on soldiers and families. However, the town’s growth comes with strict social rules and crippling class divisions. The war widows and homeless people who find refuge at Becky’s farm become social outcasts who face unsettling choices. Becky turns a blind eye to the "services" some of them offer as they squat on her property. Local Honey is a story of America’s haves vs have-nots. It’s part love triangle, part class struggle, and part dreamy window into the lost New England of the 1950s. The backdrop includes seashore towns, rural farms, the gritty slums of Boston, and brief flashbacks of battlefields. In a community that should be basking in the “winner’s aftermath” of a terrible war, all should be good for everyone. But it isn’t. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Shawn P. McCarthy is a Massachusetts-based author who explores the history of New England’s mountains, lakes, rivers, and seashores.Show book
Hello, my name is Nick Seider, and I am the creator of Green Valley Radio, an emulated radio experience that takes you back and time and tunes you in to the news, music, and culture of the past. In this audio book series, we share our original news, fashion, & Homefront pieces that give you a taste of what the world was like in January 1941 from the perspective of a fictional town called Green Valley. In our first broadcast, January 1941, you will meet three of our key characters in this fictionalized exploration of the past. One of those characters is Catalina Jack, who runs the Green Valley Radio station, and covers domestic news. Then there is Hannah Bourbon, fashion correspondent full of ambition & full of accessories. Finally, in this first broadcast we also meet Walter Klondike, who serves as the World News correspondent and is a veteran of the Spanish Civil War. In this series of audio books, these characters (and many others along the way) will give you a glimpse into the past, and take you on a journey through time. Catalina Jack is voiced by Nick Seider. Hannah Bourbon is voiced by Hannah Marks. Walter Klondike is voiced by Garrett Fritz. I hope you find some enjoy this series!Show book
Inspired by real life stories of the Windrush Generation and her mother’s own experiences as a nurse coming to Britain from the Caribbean, Sarah Lee’s debut novel An Ocean Apart is a must for fans of Call the Midwife.It’s 1954 and, in Barbados, Ruby Haynes spots an advertisement for young women to train as nurses for the new National Health Service in Great Britain. Her sister, Connie, takes some persuading, but soon the sisters are on their way to a new country – and a whole new world of experiences.As they start their training in Hertfordshire, they discover England isn’t quite the promised land; for every door that’s opened to them, the sisters find many slammed in their faces. And though the girls find friendships with their fellow nurses, Connie struggles with being so far from home, and keeping secret the daughter she has left behind in search of a better life for the both of them . . .Show book
Tensions are rising but Harriet refuses to backdown . . . As Mr. Wetherby's wealth and power increase, he won’t tolerate interference in his affairs . . . From anyone. But Harriet isn't 'just anyone' and when she sees him involved in a serious incident, she stores the information away. Maybe one day she can use it to get the future Mr Wetherby is intent on denying them. Biding her time, she finally gets her chance. But facing the wrath of Mr. Wetherby, she soon discovers she has more to worry about than her own ambitions . . . Inspired by a true story, When Time Runs Out continues the epic saga of one family's trials, tragedies, and triumphs as they seek their fortune in Victorian-era England.Show book
‘Fascinating’ Choice‘This well-researched novel draws you straight into the heart of this engaging story’ My Weekly’A stunning evocative novel… I was completely captivated’ Clare Marchant, author of The Queen’s SpyCan she tread a dangerous line between love and duty? Raven-haired and fiercely independent, Joan Guildford has always remained true to herself. As lady-in-waiting and confidante to Queen Elizabeth, wife of Henry VII, Joan understands royal patronage is vital if she and her husband, Sir Richard, are to thrive in the volatile atmosphere of court life. But Tudor England is in mourning following the death of the Prince of Wales, and within a year, the queen herself. With Prince Henry now heir to the throne, the court murmurs with the sound of conspiracy. Is the entire Tudor project now at stake or can young Henry secure the dynasty? Drawn into the heart of the crisis, Joan’s own life is in turmoil, and her future far from secure. She faces a stark choice – be true to her heart and risk everything, or play the dutiful servant and watch her dreams wither and die. For Joan, and for Henry’s Kingdom, everything is at stake…Praise for Joanna Hickson: ‘Intriguing… told with confidence’ The Times ‘Rich and warm’ Sunday Express ‘Bewitching’ Woman & Home ‘Evocative’ Woman’s Weekly ‘A great tale’ Conn Iggulden ‘Thoroughly engrossing’The Lady Joanna Hickson's The Queen's Lady is a top historical fiction that delves into the heart of the Elizabethan era, a time of political upheaval and personal trials. The romance that unfolds amidst the backdrop of 1485-1603 Britain is as captivating as the rich history that it is steeped in. For fans of Elizabeth Chadwick (The Royal Rebel), Carol Mcgrath (The Lost Queen), Annie Garthwaite (Cecily), Alison Weir (The Cardinal), and Anne R. Bailey (The Lady Ursula). HarperCollins 2022Show book
“The drug can make a man the exact opposite of what he is…” John Sturman has everything except the one thing that matters: the creative spark that would win the heart of Sylvia March, the woman who believes her soul can only mate with genius. But when his brother returns from India addicted to hashish, a doctor’s offhand remark reveals the drug’s most terrifying property: it can unlock a hidden self, a doppelgänger of brilliance, a spectre of pure artistic fire. Long before Limitless imagined a pill that could unleash the mind’s full potential, George Chetwynd Griffith penned this haunting 1898 tale of a man who discovers the ultimate cognitive enhancer. Griffith was the Victorian era’s most popular writer of Scientific Romances, the genre that would eventually become known as science fiction. Each night, under the drug’s spell, Sturman’s alter ego writes the exquisite fiction his waking self could never produce. Overnight, fame and love are his…. but there is a terrible cost to pay. In the lineage of the divided-self nightmare of Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and anticipating everything from Flowers for Algernon to the The Dark Fields and Limitless, this is a chilling, proto-science-fictional fable of chemically borrowed brilliance, and the Faustian price it exacts.Show book
