Alex and Sasha are twin sisters, physically identical down to their freckles. But the resemblance is only skin deep—Sasha is profoundly autistic, while Alex is not. Sasha can’t communicate and acts bizarrely, and the family revolves around her and her intense needs. Yet the aged, wealthy, and mysterious Aunt Nana seems to have a particular interest in both girls. Offering a helping hand, she encourages the family to move to San Francisco to be near her. And when the young twins discover a tunnel in Nana’s tool shed, it leads them on a journey across the world and back 100 years in time. The tunnel is a pathway to the Firebird Estate, the home of their ancestors, located in rural Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Even more remarkable, through the effect that twisting time has on cognition, Sasha is not autistic when she’s at the Firebird Estate. Now, growing up in two strikingly different times and places, the twins must face their separate destinies among the ravages of the incipient Russian Revolution. Can they save their families on both sides of the tunnel? Can they simultaneously stay true to their own hearts, to each other, and to the people they left behind? Each sister must face her own personal challenge — but only together can they discover their own future within their family’s past.
Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called by Roger B. Burt
Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called by Roger B. Burt
Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power is the first book in the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy. It opens in the present day in a real world context. A fantasy element is revealed when we learn about a hidden population which has a mission of great importance for our future.
Wisely Gaia reserved a gifted population of women dedicated to safeguarding the future of humankind and Earth. The women called Progenitors lived in the sea and could transform to live on the land if they chose. Some of them came to land to form families and called themselves Primals. Among them were a defense force of women called the Andromeda. Collectively these people were called Tethyans.
Gaia foresaw a definitive epoch which is now upon us. Our planet is enveloped in environmental and social crises. Unless humankind serves as stewards for Earth and ourselves we may live on a despoiled planet as people held in bondage by a wealthy class of plutocrats. The empowerment of women holds the key to our future.
Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy explores if Gaia’s preparations will succeed. Is this story a myth, or like so many myths, does it reside on the cusp of reality?
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The Bellringer by William Timothy Murray
The Bellringer by William Timothy Murray
For centuries, the Great Bell was silent…
It remained undisturbed, nearly forgotten by history, hidden away in the ruins of an abandoned fortress. The enchantments within its iron slumbered, its secrets protected by silence. Until someone discovered how to ring the Bell, other secrets would remain safe.
One day, while running an errand, a young store clerk took a wrong turn, then another, until he found himself deep within the old fortress where the Great Bell waited.
It waited for him.
And when the hapless clerk rang the Great Bell and released its enchantments, his troubles began.
For he had become the Bellringer.
He claimed it was all an accident, that he did not mean to ring the Bell. Fate, it seemed, thought otherwise, and proof of the Bellringer’s destiny began to emerge just as the world spiraled into war. Revolt and treachery worked to break apart the Seven Realms. Armies were on the march. The faraway King, obsessed with his own power, seemed unwilling or unable to prevent the looming catastrophe.
Perhaps a new King was needed…if only someone could penetrate the secret of the King’s power and take the throne before it was too late. It was foretold that the person who discovered the True Name of the King would become the next King. But who was capable of such a thing?
The Bellringer.
– – – – About THE YEAR OF THE RED DOOR:
244 Days Remain.
That is all.
The Year of the Red Door has begun, and four months have already passed by.
This is the story of the final days of the Second Age.
Uncanny things are taking place in the world, mysterious powers are stirring, and there are signs of coming change. Like pieces on a game-board, ancient forces are moving into position, gathering strength. Many sense the portents and see the signs, but few know their meaning. Fewer still understand what must be done. But who is there to do it?
In only 244 days, six intrepid travelers must cross thousands of miles, to the far edge of the world, to find a place that may not even exist. A legendary place called Griferis where a new king may be prepared, trained, and judged for worthiness. It is their bid to find that place, to discover the secret Name of the King, and to make one of their companions the new King. But hope is thin, and time runs out. Can the Name be found? Can the Usurper use it to take the throne? And will it make any difference? It already seems too late.
In the spirit of J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Dickens comes a new heroic tale, a story of ageless love and brave determination, of tragic loss and the hope of redemption. During this quest, mythic powers arise from the ancient past, fate collides with destiny, and the world edges swiftly to its final destruction or to its ultimate fulfillment. Only the Bellringer can tip the balance of fate, but the world is almost out of time…
The Year of the Red Door
https://youtu.be/K-PyyZDJXXg
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Descendant by Nichole Giles
Seventeen-year-old Abigail Johnson is Gifted.
Blessed—or cursed—with Sight and Healing, Abby lives an unsettled life, moving from place to place and staying one step ahead of the darkness that hunts her. When she arrives in Jackson, Wyoming, she is desperate to maintain the illusion of normalcy, but she is plagued with visions of past lives mixed with frightening glimpses of her future. Then she meets Kye, a mysterious boy who seems so achingly familiar that Abby is drawn to him like he’s a missing piece of her own soul.
Before Abby can discover the reason for her feelings toward Kye, the darkness catches up to her and she is forced to flee again. But this time she’s not just running. She is fighting back with Kye at her side, and it’s not just Abby’s life at stake.
Dangerous Habits by Susan Hunter
Dangerous Habits by Susan Hunter
After receiving a mysterious message from a dead nun, journalist Leah Nash reopens the investigation into her teenage sister’s death. As she starts closing in on the answers, someone starts closing in on her. Leah races down dangerous paths in this twisting tale of hidden motives and long buried secrets—until she finds the stunning truth.
The Price of Justice by Vincent Green
The Price of Justice by Vincent Green
At sleepy Fort Leavenworth, Kansas the commanding general’s wife Bunny Harris is decapitated with the Arabic word for “dust” scrawled in her blood over the bed.
JACK GARRETT (40s), a Los Angeles entertainment lawyer and former special ops soldiers reports for reserve duty at the fort and finds his orders are changed and he is working for CAMERON WELLS (40s), an ambitious attorney who began her career in military intelligence.
Two days later military judge FRANK O’CONNOR (50’s) is charged with the rape and murder of Bunny. He requests that Garrett defend him, and Garrett is placed on active duty.
Wells is put on O’Connor’s trial to spy on Garrett. O’Connor admits to an affair with Bunny and that she enjoyed rough, painful sex including whipping and strangulation.
The CIA brings in PHILLIP RUBIE (50s) and his daughter SIMONE (20s). The pair kidnap Garrett’s son then release him with a message to back off the case. Garrett and Wells are drawn closer over this incident and start to have a romantic relationship.
Evidence points to the general’s involvement in war crimes by killing Iraqi POWs with a nerve agent called “dust.” A reporter tells Garrett that he believes Bunny was killed with this nerve agent. Bunny’s body is exhumed and she melts out of her casket.
The trial begins and the prosecutor receives a CD with Bunny and O’Connor at an S&M club where O’Connor pretends to cut off her head with a machete. O’Connor is offered a deal and refuses.
Simone tells Wells she has evidence of O’Connor’s innocence. Rubie attempts to kill Garrett and Wells at the meeting, but Wells fights and subdues Rubie. Garrett tortures Rubie and he says that Wells knows who the real killer is.
Rubie is left to die but Simone finds him when he activates a GPS chip. His dying request is to kill them all. Simone decapitates the general and leaves a message written in Arabic: “Dust to Dust.” O’Connor is released from jail, since it appears Bunny’s killer is still at large. At a press conference with O’Connor, Wells and Garrett, Simone, disguised as a reporter, attempts to shoot Garrett and Wells. Simone is killed and authorities claim she is Bunny’s killer.
Wells and Garrett return to California and start a new life. Garrett’s son finds a sword in Wells’ footlocker with blood and hair on it. The sword belonged to Wells’ father and was given to him by Bunny. Wells confesses to the killing because the general discovered Bunny was having an affair with her father, and general sent him on a secret mission where her father was killed. Wells tells Garret to forget about what was found and go on, but Garrett can’t
Garrett turns his back and walks out of the house.
The Princelings of the East by Jemima Pett
The Princelings of the East by Jemima Pett
The first book of the Princelings of the East series introduces us to Princelings George and Fred. Imagine them scurrying around the castle using secret passages, carrying out scientific experiments that occasionally blow up in their faces, or quaffing ale at their favourite tavern.
But there is trouble in their world. They may not use much energy, but when they do, it is usually for important occasions. Energy draining to a halt to ruin the King’s Birthday celebrations is enough to send the king at Castle in the Marsh into a rage, and demand that everyone cease and desist from using it. George’s latest machine is destroyed; their world looks to be falling apart. So who better to go and solve the problem of this energy drain than the Princelings themselves?
Leaving the security of their Castle is a big step into the unknown for these boys, and they soon meet strangers, some of whom are stranger than others. Who to trust? Prince Lupin, so suave and sophisticated, with so many hangers-on fawning at his feet? The businessman, Hugo, who seems so smooth and worldly, yet has an air of deceit about him? The young barkeeper, Victor, always bustling around and never bothering to string a sentence together when three words will do, unless for royalty? And that’s just Fred’s problem, since he has irritatingly lost touch with George in the darkness of the strange tunnel that appeared from nowhere in the corner of their room.
Meanwhile George seems to have been transported to another world, full of hustle, bustle and shining towers. Where, or when, is he? How come these strangers know so much more about his reputation than he does himself? And will he manage to escape being thrown into a dungeon or killed by an assassin?
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The Captain and the Cheerleader by Elaine Cantrell
The Captain and the Cheerleader by Elaine Cantrell
Susan English can’t stand Robin Lanford! She’s so full of herself she irritates everyone on the faculty of Fairfield High. When Robin bets Susan fifty dollars that she can’t get a date with Kurt Deveraux, the head football coach, Susan jumps at the chance to put the little heifer in her place. She had no idea that teaching Robin a lesson would irrevocably change her life, strain treasured friendships, and throw two families into chaos.
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Visiting Lilly by Toni Allen
Why should a man at a Surrey police station go ballistic because someone tries to visit Lilly, his elderly grandmother?
Detective Inspector Jake Talbot is intrigued, and this little puzzle might serve to distract him from sorrows of a Christmas past. Soon he is entangled with Frankie, an odd young man who claims to have met Lilly in her youth. Talbot dismisses the notion of time travel, but then discovers the Ministry of Defence has been monitoring Frankie since his friend disappeared ten years previously. Forced to work with the MOD, Talbot unearths family secrets and betrayals. The families act ruthlessly to prevent him from discovering the facts, colluding to ruin him.
If Frankie is innocent, Talbot won’t let him be victimised. An uneasy understanding grows between them as they follow the evidence, for only the truth will allow Frankie to visit Lilly.
A Master Passion by Juliet Waldron
A Master Passion by Juliet Waldron
A MASTER PASSION is the story of the marriage of our brilliant first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, and his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler. It begins with a whirlwind Revolutionary War courtship at Washington’s headquarters. Conflict, however, is built into this marriage.
“…And hence one Master Passion in the breast
Like Aaron’s serpent, swallows up all the rest…”
Betsy’s passion is Alexander. Hamilton adores his wife and children, but, sometimes, he loves America more.