A River For Gemma

Miracles abound in Sugar Creek, a small-town nestled near the horse trails and hazelnut orchards of Oregon's lush countryside. It is here, where twenty-six-year old Gemma Porter lives a vibrant life chasing her dreams. But Gemma is underestimated by a world that pigeonholes her as "intellectually disabled." While the naysayers and bullies only see Gemma's limitations, her beloved grandmother sees the heart of a genius—and a soul of divination. When Gemma's longing to be a mother collides with her grandmother's hidden past, three generations of Porter women are put in peril. A harrowing adventure unfolds into a heroic quest to save their lives. As Gemma's bravery is tested, she will need to prove that regardless of age or intellect, a mother's love knows no bounds.

When the story opens, Megan who is a foster mother, has two children in her charge: Anna a 12 year old who is, 'rather given to magical thinking' and Raymond who is 10 and never speaks to anyone. Both children have sad broken backgrounds; Anna (in her fourth foster home) fantasises that her debt-ridden, alcoholic mother is a famous actress and Raymond's totally unreliable mother rarely comes to see him. Sam, a frightened rabbit of a child, rejected by his family because of lameness and pebble specs is the next to join the foster family and then Brent arrives dramatically in the middle of the night - a tearaway teenager totally beyond the control of his unimaginative, intellectual father. All four of Megan's foster children have difficulties to overcome in the house high above the river, where each one of them becomes involved in some way with the mysterious river woman. It is impossible not to be totally drawn into the pattern of Brent, Anna, Raymond and Sam's lives in this imaginative and compassionate novel.

Gemma Goodeve, a young actress with a promising career, is involved in a terrible train crash in which many lives are lost and many people are injured. Gemma herself has to have her lower leg amputated before she can be freed from the wreckage. When she wakes from the anaesthesia she has to face the difficult truth, deal with a long and painful recovery and accept that she will not be able to act anymore. Her young doctor, Nick Quennell, becomes more than professionally involved in Gemma's care as he tries to protect her from the media circus that surrounds the rail accident and her own mother, who is far from being supportive. But is his care and romantic feeling really what Gemma needs and wants in this terrible moment in her life? In Gemma's Journey, first published in 1997, Beryl Kingston sets the romantic plot against the difficult issues of recovering from a life changing accident and with her characteristic interest in social problems she also explores the breakup of the rail network and gaps in the NHS system.

Zoe Archer’s BLADES OF THE ROSE series—featuring dashing men and fearless women—is finally together in one complete bundle! Warrior -- Book One The vicious attack Capt. Gabriel Huntley witnesses in a dark alley sparks a chain of events that will take him to the ends of the Earth and beyond--where what is real and what is imagined become terribly confused. And frankly, Huntley couldn't be more pleased. Intrigue, danger, and a beautiful woman in distress--just what he needs. Raised thousands of miles from England, Thalia Burgess is no typical Victorian lady. A good thing, because a proper lady would have no hope of recovering the priceless magical artifact Thalia is after. Huntley's assistance might come in handy, though she has to keep him in the dark. But this distractingly handsome soldier isn't easy to deceive... Scoundrel -- Book Two London Harcourt's father is bent on subjugating the world's magic to British rule. But since London is a mere female, he hasn't bothered to tell her so. He's said only that he's leading a voyage to the Greek isles. No matter, after a smothering marriage and three years of straitlaced widowhood, London jumps at the opportunity--unfortunately, right into the arms of Bennett Day. Bennett is a ladies' man, when he's not dodging lethal attacks to protect the powers of the ancients from men like London's father. Sometimes, he's a ladies' man even when he is dodging them. But the minute he sees London he knows she will require his full attention. The woman is lovely, brilliant, and the only known speaker of a dialect of ancient Greek that holds the key to calling down the wrath of the gods. Bennett will be risking his life again--but around London, what really worries him is the danger to his heart... Rebel -- Book Three Nathan Lesperance is used to being different. He's the first Native attorney in Vancouver, and welcome neither with white society nor his sometime tribe. Not to mention the powerful wildness he's always felt inside him, too dangerous to set free. Then he met Astrid Bramfield and saw his like within her piercing eyes. Now, unless she helps him through the harsh terrain and the harsher unknowns of his true abilities, it could very well get him killed... Astrid has traveled this path before. Once she was a Blade of the Rose, protecting the world's magic from unscrupulous men, with her husband by her side. But she's loved and lost, and as a world-class frontierswoman, she knows all about survival. Nathan's searing gaze and long, lean muscles mean nothing but trouble. Yet something has ignited a forgotten flame inside her: a burning need for adventure, for life--and perhaps even for love... Stranger -- Book Four Gemma Murphy has a nose for a story--even if the boys in Chicago's newsrooms would rather focus on her chest. So when she runs into a handsome man of mystery discussing how to save the world from fancy-pants Brit conspirators, she's sensing a scoop. Especially when he mentions there's magic involved. Of course, getting him on the record would be easier if he hadn't caught her eavesdropping... Catullus Graves knows what it's like to be shut out: his ancestors were slaves. And he's a genius inventor with appropriately eccentric habits, so even people who love him find him a little odd. But after meeting a certain redheaded scribbler, he's thinking of other types of science. Inconvenient, given that he needs to focus on preventing the end of the world as we know it. But with Gemma's insatiable curiosity sparking Catullus's inventive impulses, they might set off something explosive anyway...

In a mythical prehistoric version of Africa, ancient forces are awakening, yawning, stretching, and muttering sourly to themselves before deciding its time to get up and walk the earth again. An old evil is stirring, determined to reclaim the world it once lost, and the only ones with the power to stand against it have become too dim-witted to remember what theyre supposed to fight for, too dim-witted to even remember where they put their shoes. Or they would be, if theyd had any. A small group of people set out, not to save the world but to take care of whatever inane business they find important. With luck, they might just be scatterbrained enough to end up exactly where theyre needed. By pure accident, of course. With Scion, B. A. Seloaf has created an absolutely hilarious fantasy-comedy, where sheer stupidity might actually be what saves mankind in the end and where a womans underwear can determine whether shes a queen or a traitor. So lets roll the dice and see who ends up on top.

Would you give your first love a second chance? Justine Thomas and Maddie Kind met at university and were the couple most likely. Everybody said so. That is, until Maddie left without saying goodbye. Ten years later the pair are reunited at a friend’s funeral, and now Justine can’t shake Maddie from her life. But why is she back? Why did she disappear? And more importantly, is she interested in the whole cake, or just one last slice of Justine? Strap in for a novel that deals with life’s big topics: love, death & cake. Clare Lydon is the queen of British romantic comedy, and this stellar lesbian romance is guaranteed to give you all the feels. Quite simply, it’s unputdownable.