“The House of Sever” is a light-hearted historical romance novel, following the journey of Rhema de Frees, a tomboy baroness living in fictional 19th century Gallia. Though Rhema would like nothing better than to remain happily obscure with her family and her childhood crush, Jonathan, circumstances beyond her control thrust her into the world of society, politics, revolution, and love. . . .
Five dollars to mail a letter seems like a lot of money to shy farmgirl Lily MicMillian. And when she’s hired by Old Man Lynch as a cook for his stagecoach and Pony Express station, she finds out why it’s so expensive. Dropped into a whirlwind of rowdy men and boys, fast horses, and frightening conflict, and she . . .
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“Sentence of Marriage” is the first book in the three-volume “Promises to Keep”. The entire work covers twenty-five years; this first volume takes Amy from the ages of twelve to sixteen. Amy is a bright and imaginative girl who dreams of an exciting life in the world beyond the farming valley where she lives. But in nineteenth century New . . .
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Maia and her step-brother Cilo were raised in an opulent villa in the Seine Valley, by their vile step-mother. Cilo enlisted in the army in Britannia at fifteen. Lucius, Luc, is commander of an auxiliary cavalry unit of Legio XX, Valeria Victrix. The son of a Caledonian mercenary who joined Rome, he and his four brothers are renowned . . .
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By AD83 the Romans in Caledonia held a line of glen-blocking forts, (now known as the Gask Ridge forts, from Glasgow to Perth) and the three active legions, XXth, IXth and IInd, were split along this defensive line. Calgacus was one of a number of first century Pictish barons; part of a landed class in northern Celt society with . . .
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First century Spain was divided into three provinces: Lusitania and Baetica in the south, and Tarraconensis in the north. While the southern and central areas were quickly Romanized, the northern areas, up into the Pyrenees, maintained a ‘seething’ peace. The Celtiberian tribes maintained their heritage of warrior elites, and their hatred of Rome. They accepted the comforts, infrastructure and . . .
As the story opens, Maia, born a slave but adopted by a well-off provincial villa owner, is in the odd position of being married to her stepbrother, which is apparently legal, but not to either of their liking. Maia is an innocent, a painfully anxious, downtrodden girl, but fiercely determined NOT to be left behind in the clutches of her [more . . .]
This novel is filled with foolish choices, betrayed trust, selfishness, and failed confidences; all set in a well-written historical epoch.
The pivotal episode (warning spoiler) is a case of old-fashioned serial date rape. Not old fashioned in the sense of ‘used a lot’ but old-fashioned in the sense of ‘how they [more . . .]