Damaris Tilghman loses everything when her father gambles away their home and then commits suicide. She is resigned to becoming a servant to a distant relative, but when she receives an unexpected marriage proposal from wealthy planter Matthew Pope, she wagers her future on the outcome. At first, as their love grows, she thinks she has won the toss.
     She soon discovers she has a rival in Zoe, who has convinced her fellow slaves that she is a conjure woman, and it is her orders that must be obeyed. Damaris tries to refute her claim, but the slaves believe Zoe's lies and her so-called spells.
     When her husband puts her aside for the beautiful slave, Damaris wonders if he, too, is under Zoe's spell--and if her love is strong enough to break it.

     When her suitor drowns in the Pee Dee River, Morven McAllister accepts the village's condolences, hiding her true feelings. She hated Breen Tarlton, knowing that he was not the "up and comer" they admired, but a bully, cheat, and thief. She also keeps silent about her role in Breen's death—that she may have pushed him off the slippery dock in self-defense.
     Morven bargains with God as she struggles to make amends. Her guilt leads her to reject a proposal from Luke Forester, the man she loves. When he leaves Anson County, she accepts this as God's punishment along with any other burdens He adds to her penance.
     Then Luke returns, having been trapped in England during Mr. Madison's War. Their love has survived the intervening years and Luke resumes his courtship. Morven realizes the time has come to confess what she did that rain-swept day. Will Luke understand, or will he leave again—this time for good?

     Seventeen-year-old Bethann nearly loses her life attempting to trace her birth family, and becomes resigned to helping her adopted sister raise her children and occasionally helping Colin McKay at the local mercantile. Life is not all work, however. McKay encourages her writing and Matty Pope, her neighbor on nearby Riverbend plantation, become a close friend.
     Matty's half-brother, Henry, arrives in North Carolina and Bethann is instantly attracted to his dark good looks and cosmopolitan air. Henry's determination to prove he is the rightful owner of Riverbend forces Matty to reveal the truth about Henry's parentage and Henry flees to England.
     Bethann pens a scathing account of the evils of slavery that is serialized in a Boston newspaper. When she realizes she has unwittingly put her adopted family in danger, Bethann faces an agonizing choice.

Caroline trusts Nathan with her life -- but can she trust him with her heart?

     By 1895, the United States is in the 80th year of the isolation imposed by King Thomas I and upheld by his successors. But, some are chafing under the shortages and restrictions, and when inventor Dr. Featherstone declares he has found a way to override all borders, there are those who applaud the discovery and those who fear it.
     When Dr. Featherstone fails to return home for an important scientific gathering, his daughter Caroline enlists the help of the Member of Parliament from Charlotte, Nathan Llewellen. As the two search for the kidnappers, Caroline is plunged into a world where travel to other realities is possible in the blink of an eye, and people can assume the forms of fearsome as well as familiar animals -- and where love comes at the most unexpected times and places.
     Nathan's peculiar gift might cost Caroline her life, but she has already lost her heart.

A promise of the heart can never be broken.

     When the border between Floriana and the United States is opened after 80 years, Nathan and Caroline visit as official tourists and unofficial spies. Escorted around picturesque turn-of-the-century New Orleans, they quickly realize they are being prevented from seeing the real city -- and evidence of an incipient revolution.      After two assassination attempts, Nathan begins to question his loyalty to a king who may have deliberately placed them in harm's way. The pair are determined to find out who is trying to kill them and why.      A hurricane interrupts their search, and Nathan believes Caroline has drowned in the raging waters. Grief-stricken, he joins the revolution where he must face his deepest fears. Meanwhile, Caroline refuses to believe her rescuers when they tell her Nathan fell in the battle of New Orleans. Penniless and alone, she falls desperately ill.      For once, Nathan and Caroline's paranormal abilities fail to help. Will their love for each other be enough to reunite them?

In time, there are a number of places to hide a king.

     Caroline and Nathan's former enemy Rasmussen reappears as a magician calling himself The Great Manzini. As Manzini, he kidnaps King Thomas Jefferson the Fourth during a magic show at Ford's Theatre and demands an impossible ransom. A time-traveler himself, Nathan understands how the trick was done, but when he confronts the villain. Manzini sends Nathan sixty years into the future.
     Nathan returns, unable to explain his absence, and is arrested as an accomplice to the kidnapping and possible murder. In vain he tries to explain the kidnapping was a ruse to deflect attention from a greater threat to the nation. Caroline must rescue the missing monarch'but will she find Thomas in time to prove her husband's innocence and right a hundred-year-old wrong?

     Church organist Marcie Wicker is the only person, including the police, who doesn't believe her husband, Stan, is sunning himself on a tropical beach somewhere after withdrawing every cent from their joint savings account. She refuses her father's advice to seek a divorce and her mother's advice to move on, and grieves that her college-age twins are letting their anger sully the memory of their father.
     With the arrival of the new pastor, Adam Shepherd, Marcie realizes that she is ready to love again, but as neither wife nor widow, she is torn between accepting that Stan left her or stubbornly clinging to her belief that he has come to harm. Adam, divorced, is struggling with regaining the confidence of his rebellious 13-year-old daughter and wonders if he is ready for another relationship.
     Will Marcie and Adam's faith be enough bring healing to their fractured families?

     Lily can't forgive her younger sister for stealing her fiance, but when Jill leaves Paul and shows up on her doorstep one rainy night, Lily takes her in.
     Lily secretly hopes that when Paul is free he will come back to her. But as details of Jill's marriage are revealed, Lily begins to see that the man she thought she loved was an ideal she only imagined--and that the real Paul doesn't deserve the love of either sister.
     Free of her infatuation, Lily realizes that her best friend and boss, Grady, is the one she truly cares for. When Grady hints that he is inl ove with someone who isn't free, Lily has to wonder--is that person her sister, Jill?
     And will Jill once again win the man Lily loves?

     Harriet, Melody, Beth and Jane Ann have been friends since their kids were in kindergarten. But with life comes change, and now none of them wants to admit that she is struggling with a personal crisis. That is, until Melody announces she was scammed by the handsome rascal she met on an Internet dating site.
     When Harriet sees Melody's humiliation, she forgets her frustration at having to recover from a fall at a nursing facility and she decides to track Melody's con artist down. Beth and Jane Ann are skeptical, but the search takes their minds off their own problems: the dire predictions made at Jane Ann's May- December marriage are coming true and Beth's husband refuses to cut back on his lifestyle even though his pension has disappeared and their marriage is unraveling.
     Working together, the four women find strengths they didn't know they had...and learn what friendship really means.

     I believe people come into our lives just when we need them. They offer an encouraging word, a shoulder to lean on, or are just there to listen. We call them friends. Kat calls them her angels.

      Sandra Z. Bruney was the "one" in "one of eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer ..." Her journal, begun as a practical way to keep track of treatments, describes what to expect from surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. She also raised questions that aren't answered in medical books, such as: How do you tell your family that you have cancer? How do you decide in whom and how much to confide? How do you deal with depression when everyone assumes you must be happy now that your treatment is over? As she explored these questions, the author embarked on a journey of self-awareness that led to physical, emotional and spiritual wellness. Cancer is a life-altering experience, but it can be a life-affirming one as well. Even if we cannot be cured, with God's help, we can be healed.

Cover photo by Raymond Griffith
rgriffith8@carolina.rr.com

     Sally Redfern and Phae Lewis, poets and partners, are leisurely driving from Murphy to Manteo when their vacation takes an unexpected detour. When the two set up camp next to Emerson Chadwick at Jordan Lake, the chance meeting at first seems fortuitous: Phae wants a baby to complete their family and Emerson, a fellow writer on the run from his unhappy marriage, is an ideal candidate. The women devise a scheme whereby Emerson can assume a new identity and go on his way. The plan works--too well. The fake crime scene is accepted at face value by the local police and Sally and Phae are quickly arrested. Reporters Evan Parris and Norma Rae Smithers believe that the women's innocence can be proved if they find the elusive Emerson.They take off for Myrtle Beach, where the women swear they left Emerson alive and well. But Emerson is a chameleon, changing his name and appearance as he sinks deeper into the anonymity of the resort town. Will Norma Rae and Evan find him before the women are condemned? Or will Emerson, reading of the women's ordeal, reveal himself at the risk of being forced back into his hated former existence?