Read Chuck Driskell’s newest historical thriller, The Devil’s Garden, a sweeping saga following a team of women & men in WWII Occupied France. The team are known as Les Invalides—a squad hell bent on punishing sexual predators operating under the fog of war. Free on Kindle.
Free: The Devil’s Garden
Jane Digby’s Diary: To Begin, Begin
Here is your chance to read someone else’s diary – with her permission, of course. Jane Digby was a woman ahead of her time. Born in 1807 to wealth and privilege in Dorset, England, she sacrificed respectability to travel the world in pursuit of true love, all the while sampling contenders along the way! Any reader of her diary (and yes, it is written as an actual diary) should love history and language and have an appreciation of independent women who chart their own paths.
This volume is the first in a completed four-part series which chronicles Jane’s life from seventeen to sixty-six. Though a modern work of historical fiction, I strived to recreate the historical Jane Digby and her times as accurately as possible. I would love for you to read it. CR
The Consequence of Anna: An Epic Family Saga About Love, Friendship, Obsession, and Madness
“SHAMED BE THE WOMAN WHO ALLOWETH SUCH A SIN.” – The Amazon #1 Bestseller, inspired by a true story . . .
Two cousins share a deep, sisterly love for each other. And a man. One of them will be driven into madness.
It’s the year 1930, and Anna May Shahan’s world is about to change. The eccentric housewife from the small woop woop town of Esperance, Australia, lives on an isolated farm by the sea with her loyal husband James, and they lead a simple, hardworking life. That is until Anna’s beautiful widowed cousin Lottie returns from the States after being absent for over a decade. Lottie confesses to Anna her heart’s greatest desire to have a child, and Anna, in fear of losing her beloved cousin again, seeks to grant her wish by means of her own husband.
James knows his wife has some undiagnosed mental condition, blaming it for her salacious idea, and refuses to take part in it. But Anna is relentless, and finally one night successfully manipulates him into going along with her plan. She gets her way, but her choice to help her cousin soon brings devastating consequences for them all.
A literary achievement and the most emotionally gripping book of the year, The Consequence of Anna is a complex family saga, intertwined with the haunting mystery of Anna’s mental illness and the secrets, lies, and revelations revealed through the hidden passions of Lottie and James.
Kate Birkin and Mark Bornz have crafted a poetic story layered with lush romance, the frightening effects of altruistic intentions gone wrong, and the strong bond of female friendship. A provocative and powerful allegory, cutting through rules and boundaries, and proving the old adage that no good deed goes unpunished. $0.99 on Kindle.
Island Queen
“Riveting and transformative, evocative and immersive…by turns vibrant and bold and wise, discovering Dorothy’s story is a singular pleasure.”–The New York Times
A remarkable, sweeping historical novel based on the incredible true life story of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a free Black woman who rose from slavery to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful landowners in the colonial West Indies.
Born into slavery on the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat, Doll bought her freedom—and that of her sister and her mother—from her Irish planter father and built a legacy of wealth and power as an entrepreneur, merchant, hotelier, and planter that extended from the marketplaces and sugar plantations of Dominica and Barbados to a glittering luxury hotel in Demerara on the South American continent.
Vanessa Riley’s novel brings Doll to vivid life as she rises above the harsh realities of slavery and colonialism by working the system and leveraging the competing attentions of the men in her life: a restless shipping merchant, Joseph Thomas; a wealthy planter hiding a secret, John Coseveldt Cells; and a roguish naval captain who will later become King William IV of England.
From the bustling port cities of the West Indies to the forbidding drawing rooms of London’s elite, Island Queen is a sweeping epic of an adventurer and a survivor who answered to no one but herself as she rose to power and autonomy against all odds, defying rigid eighteenth-century morality and the oppression of women as well as people of color. It is an unforgettable portrait of a true larger-than-life woman who made her mark on history. $2.99 on Kindle.
Free: BLOOD OF ROSES
Richard Duke of York lies dead on the battlefield, lured to his death by a false Christmas truce.
The House of York has fallen…but not for long.
The Lancastrian army of Margaret of Anjou has reaped the whirlwind. Edward of March, Richard’s heir, is coming after them, tall, handsome, and a fearsome warrior…and he wants vengeance and a crown. Free on Kindle.
Breaking Point
1940, World War II. The Nazis have crushed Europe, and Hitler launches a massive aerial assault with the Luftwaffe against the heavily outnumbered British RAF. The fate of civilization teeters in the balance. Spitfire pilot Johnnie, and Eleanor, a brilliant Fighter Command mathematician confront danger together in this brilliantly written novel.
$0.99 on Kindle.
Free: The Reborn Prince
A poor, struggling young man in 1775 Paris is unaware he is a prince with amnesia, cursed by his Sorceress mother. His anger and beastly attitude drive him to despair until a humble young maiden reaches out to him.
A twist on ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ Book 1 in the ‘Mages in the Mundane’ historical fantasy trilogy. Free on Kindle.
One Night With Finnbar
It’s no surprise that Edmond Mattox is demanding payback for his loss of face, but how could Martin have known the price would be Finnbar’s innocence?
Martin has to choose. Is he the man who steps into the breach when evil threatens the powerless, or is he just another aristocratic prat who puts his own needs first?
One Night With Finnbar is a tale of blackmail, betrayal, and murder set in 1767 London. $2.99 on Kindle.
Pianist in a Bordello
Pianist in a Bordello. What would happen if a politician decided to tell the truth—the whole truth? Richard Youngblood, aspiring Congressman, is about to find out. He’s running on a platform of honesty and transparency—and against the advice of his friends and advisers he’s decided to start with himself. His autobiography will lay his entire life bare before voters just days before the election.And what a life he’s had. Born in a commune and named Richard Milhous Nixon Youngblood as an angry shot at his absent father, Richard grows up in the spotlight, the son of an enigmatic fugitive and the grandson of a Republican senator. He’s kidnapped and rescued, kicked out of college for a prank involving turkeys, arrested in Hawaii while trying to deliver secrets to the CIA…Dick Nixon Youngblood’s ready to tell all. He’ll even tell his readers about the Amandas—three women who share a name but not much else, and who each have helped shape and define the man he’s become. Are voters really ready for the whole truth? Are you? Pianist in a Bordello is a hilarious political romp through the last four decades of American history, from a narrator who is full of surprises. $0.99 on Kindle.
The Seer
It’s February 1942. War grips the world. Asian hate runs rampant, and New Orleans is a dangerous place for Chinese-English scientist Thomas Ling as he collides with self-proclaimed psychic Beatrix Patterson. She’s a good liar with an excellent memory, which in truth is her only gift—well, that and conning the well-heeled out of their money and secrets.
Hired by the US Army to use her connections to expose Nazi saboteurs and sympathizers, Beatrix recruits the reluctant Thomas. Together, they pit their skills against a government conspiracy, terrorist cells, kidnappings, and murderous plots. As Beatrix grapples with the truth of her own past, she must come to terms with her ruse. Exposing the Nazi war machine about to invade the country could cost Beatrix everything she’s worked so hard to build. But the information she and Thomas uncover could change the outcome of the war.
The question remains: will anyone believe a liar and a suspected traitor? $0.99 on Kindle
Melanie: A Tale of Wonder
Aaron Jones, an elderly gentleman obviously down on his luck and badly in need of a shower, enters a talent contest to use the prize money to help a ten-year-old girl, Melanie, whose father is dying.
During the performance, the audience begins to realize his real identity.
Critics say this story is “The sweetest and most touching short story I have ever read.” Find out for yourself.
Mrs Morphett’s Macaroons
Take a canny kitchen maid, a pioneer suffragist; an idealistic playwright, a sceptical producer, two stroppy actresses, a demanding backer and a real-life suffragette gaolbird.
Mix them together and you have Mrs Morphett’s Macaroons, a trailblazing play about suffragettes that is set to light up London’s West End stage in 1905.
That’s if the ingredients can be made to gel. $1.99 on Kindle.
Free: Lost Child
A spellbinding tale of abandonment, rejection, and survival. An abandoned baby girl was raised in an orphanage and sent to the mid-west on an orphan train, where she was placed out as a farm laborer. Unwanted and unloved, she fought for survival in a lonely, abusive environment. A story of female triumph and perseverance. How did she survive? Free on Kindle.
The Last Sketch
Pianist in a Bordello
Pianist in a BordelloWhat would happen if a politician decided to tell the truth—the whole truth? Richard Youngblood, aspiring Congressman, is about to find out. He’s running on a platform of honesty and transparency—and against the advice of his friends and advisers he’s decided to start with himself. His autobiography will lay his entire life bare before voters just days before the election.And what a life he’s had. Born in a commune and named Richard Milhous Nixon Youngblood as an angry shot at his absent father, Richard grows up in the spotlight, the son of an enigmatic fugitive and the grandson of a Republican senator. He’s kidnapped and rescued, kicked out of college for a prank involving turkeys, arrested in Hawaii while trying to deliver secrets to the CIA…Dick Nixon Youngblood’s ready to tell all. He’ll even tell his readers about the Amandas—three women who share a name but not much else, and who each have helped shape and define the man he’s become. Are voters really ready for the whole truth? Are you? Pianist in a Bordello is a hilarious political romp through the last four decades of American history, from a narrator who is full of surprises. $0.99 on Kindle.
Road to the Breaking
Nothing survived “The Breaking” unchanged; lives and fortunes, love and hate, freedom and slavery …
An epic journey across a young nation seething with debauchery, brutality, corruption, and political intrigue, unwittingly on the brink of an unimaginable disaster; the American Civil War. Captain Nathaniel Chambers has left the violent army life behind in Texas, never imagining he’s on the very Road to The Breaking. $0.99 on Kindle.
Free: The Unwanted Dead: The Shocking End of Zorba’s Heretical Author
Along with her husband’s legacy, Helen Kazantzakis, inherits his arch enemies: The Greek State and the Church. The days after his passing, she will face insults and disrespect. Her only consolation is the loving and adventurous memories with him: Her initial dislike of Kazantzakis, his unconventional flirting, his scandalous proposal to live together in Moscow out of wedlock,the Pope Pius XII’s decision to censor his book, the Greek government’s attempts to prevent him from winning a Nobel Prize, the efforts of the Greek Church to excommunicate him. Meanwhile, in Athens, the ambitious reporter Freddie Germanos is assigned his first significant reportage: to cover the funeral and expose the authorities’ machinations to disparage the dead thinker.
Unfortunately, he will have plenty to report. Free on Kindle.
Chains of Time
Amara knows what’s going to happen. Even as she prepares for her wedding, she can see him in her visions: Van Owen – the slaver who will raid her village, steal her power, and pursue her across time. He will hunt her from the shores of West Africa in 1859 to the battlefields of the Civil War to the streets of modern day Harlem. But Amara also knows that the only hope of defeating him is to find her descendants and help them understand who she is, who they are, and how to fight an immortal! $0.99 on Kindle.
Free: Lost Child
A spellbinding tale of abandonment, rejection, and survival. A baby girl abandoned at birth and raised in a Catholic orphanage in New York City was never adopted. At the age of 13, she was sent to the Midwest on an orphan train and placed out as a housekeeper and farm laborer. Unwanted and unloved, she fought to survive in a lonely, abusive world. A story of female triumph and perseverance. How did she survive? Free on Kindle.
The Munich Girl
Anna Dahlberg grew up eating dinner under her father’s war-trophy portrait of Eva Braun. Fifty years after WW2, she discovers what he never did—that her mother and Hitler’s wife were friends. Plunged into the dangerous years of Nazi Germany, she uncovers a web of long-buried family secrets. “Hard to put down. … Harder to forget.” Ink Drop Reviews.
$0.99 on Kindle
Jessup
Jessup is a broken man, scarred physically and emotionally, by what he witnessed during World War 2, and now cleans the toilets of prisoners to make money to buy alcohol. When not arguing with his best friend, Marlow, he broods in his room and contemplates suicide as the only way to escape his pain.But when he is offered the chance of a better job, he must choose between a new start and turning his back on the one person who treats him with respect: a man whose life is in danger. A dark, sweeping tale from the battlefields of France and Northern Africa to the East End of London… It is 1950 and Jessup has one last chance to turn his life around. A harrowing, gripping novel, Jessup will linger long in the reader’s memory. $2.99 on Kindle
Greetings from Asbury Park
We celebrate the Greatest Generation for their courage and honor.
This is how they loved.
Fifteen-year-old Mariella yearns for a new life. Since the Germans arrived in Rome, food has been scarce, and danger lurks around every corner. On top of that, she’s haunted by a childhood tragedy and weighed down with the responsibility of caring for her siblings. Everything feels impossible. But when she meets Jack, a handsome American soldier with a crooked smile, her future doesn’t seem so dark. She gives him a tour of the famed Colosseum, then takes him to dinner with her family. Despite the language barrier, their connection is undeniable. They share the same scars. The following day, Jack has to ship off to Japan. Neither wants to say goodbye, but they exchange addresses and promise to keep in touch. Over the following years, they try to move on while sharing snippets of their lives via airmail. But when Mariella goes quiet, Jack can’t ignore his feelings any longer.
This book takes the reader on a journey from war-torn Rome, Italy, to the sandy beaches of Asbury Park, New Jersey, in search of answers to the question – how much is too much to sacrifice for love?
$2.99 on Kindle
A Savage Kultur
Set in the early days of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and present-day England, A Savage Kultur follows Ava, an art student at Oxford University, who inherits her beloved grandfather’s London art gallery after his death. He leaves her a letter with one last wish—that she recover a treasured Vincent van Gogh painting deemed degenerate and looted by the Nazis in 1937. Throughout this daunting task, she unravels her grandparent’s harrowing struggle in Nazi Germany. As her search for the lost art deepens, her emotions and beliefs are tested. She faces conflict with her German boyfriend who is hiding a grim past, as well as confronts tribulations in Switzerland as she gets closer to justice and to discovering the dark history of World War II still haunts the present. $2.99 on Kindle.
The Munich Girl
The past may not be done with us. What family secrets is a portrait of Eva Braun hiding? Fifty years after WWII, Anna is plunged into the treacherous world of the Munich girl who was her mother’s confidante — and Hitler’s lover — and finds her every belief about right and wrong shattered. “Historical fiction that reads like memoir.” $0.99 on Kindle.
Free: Every Form of Malice: A Short Story (The Collaborative Story Project Book 1)
No one knows what killed Henry Whitelock. People say he just dropped dead from a heart attack, but not everyone believes that story.
No one knows what happened to Gideon Aloways, either. Rumor has it he died years ago. So it’s a shock when he shows up at Henry’s funeral to tell an old story that no one wants told. A story that will unearth a fifteen-year-old secret known by only two people in the world.
Henry’s widow, Amity, and her sister, Theo.
People talk. If they hear Gideon’s tale, Amity and Theo could lose everything. Their reputations, their wealth, the life they’ve shared for fifteen years.
Because nothing is more fragile than the truth. Free on Kindle.