Once Upon A Gypsy Moon

Michael Hurley watched his world unravel in the wake of infidelity, divorce and failure. In August 2009, he was short of money, out of a job, and seeking to salvage a life that had foundered. Deeply in need of perspective, he took to the open seas in a 32-foot sailboat, Gypsy Moon. The story of his 2-year outward odyssey, deterred by rough weather and mechanical troubles, combines keen observation, poignant thoughts, and deeper introspection with glorious prose. Once Upon a Gypsy Moon also presents a rare and much-needed point of view on the familiar spiritual-journey narrative. It offers a star-crossed love story wrapped inside a rollicking good sea tale, but it also has something important to say to the reader about relationships, faith and disbelief, life and death, love and marriage, and what really matters.

Unfolding within the narrative of a long-distance ocean voyage, the story begins as Hurley leaves Annapolis, Maryland, aboard an ageing, 32-foot sloop, the Gypsy Moon. After the end of his 25-year marriage, Hurley is short of money, out of a job, and seeking to salvage a life that has foundered. Woven through the compelling prose are gems of insight on such diverse topics as faith and disbelief, life and death, love, marriage and the difference between dreams and delusions. As the voyage brightens in surprising and sometimes humorous ways, the reader is guided to geographic and spiritual harbours that seemed unattainable at the start. This book tells a salty, wave-swept tale in the time-honoured tradition, but it also offers a message of hope that will resonate with anyone who has had to pick up the pieces after failure and loss.

"Michael Hurley, an experienced attorney and former professional sailor, returns to the sea to give us a thought-provoking memoir of a man's yearning for redemption and renewal in the wake of infidelity, divorce, and failure" --Provided by the publisher

Dr. Gabrielle Winslow joins the Underground in Holland to help smuggle Jews out of the country, but she is stunned when the new commander of the Nazi occupation forces turns out to be Col. Erik Raeder, a man she had nearly agreed to marry when she spent time with her uncle in Berlin. Gabrielle teams up with a handsome OSS agent to rescue her uncle.Will they succeed in bringing him out of Germany only to be trapped in Holland by the jilted Nazi colonel? House of Winslow Book 35.

When Renzo Cappi and Lionela Karina met, they fell head over heels in love. She belonged to a wealthy family. He was a nomadic gypsy, a traveler who could offer her nothing, only his unconditional love. She was still a minor, but they dreamed of living happily ever after at “Gypsy Moon”, the ranch that Renzo promised one day to buy for her. Lionela’s family opposed and separated them in the most infamous way, trying to kill Renzo, and forcing her to marry the one she did not love, sending her far, too far away... They both shed bitter tears. Renzo almost went irrational not knowing anything about her; he presumed she was happy with another man. Lionela was forced to live a life that did not belong to her; she presumed he was dead as they made her believe that. But, 18 years passed and Lionela returned. Did Renzo wait for her? Did Lionela come back alone? Could it be that their love had endured and survived through distance and time?

“Beautifully lyric . . . [Lawrence Thornton’s] prose is finely honed and his touch sure.”—Chicago Tribune The year is 1936. The tide of fascism is overwhelming Europe. In Spain the Guardia Civil wages war on the citizens. Spanish-German novelist Joaquín Wolf leaves his adopted home in Paris for a short visit to Spain, where he will spend an evening that will change his life. For there he meets the great Spanish poet Federico García Lorca and in two brief hours they forge a close friendship. Within days Lorca is dead, executed by the civil guard, an event that sets Wolf on an irrevocable course as he joins the struggle against Franco. Wounded, Wolf returns to France to find German fascism threatening the city he loves. Banding together with a fiercely political group of writers named the Lorca Club, he again becomes a soldier of the resistance—this time using his most potent ammunition: words. Through the Lorca Club he meets Ursula Krieger, another exiled Berliner living in Paris, a survivor not only of war but of the bloodless horrors of postwar life. Though the scars of her past keep her from reaching out to him, Wolf’s quiet, steadfast love vanquishes shame and pain. And while Lorca taught Wolf what must be fought against, even to the death, it is Ursula who teaches him what is worth fighting—and living—for.

I'm not all that special, really. Or uncommon. I'm sure there are a lot of girls with old gypsy blood who see the dead, have killer cults hunting their family, and turn into something that gets scary when they panic. Yep. Completely unoriginal, if I do say so myself.Move along. Nothing to see here. Nope. I'm just an ordinary girl.I wish people would believe that.I've been labeled as one thing or another for most of my life:Death Girl.Crazy Gypsy Girl.Gothic Chick.Monster...It took my mother's death for me to finally start getting answers about what's really been going on. Unfortunately, most of the answers come from men...who aren't just men. Somehow, I've gone and landed myself in a world truly filled with monsters, and I'm starting to think this is where I should have been all along.Only...I don't understand what's going on. I'm walking into the middle of a story that's thousands of years old, and I'm the new girl on the block who doesn't have a clue how this world even works. My only guides happen to be the most lethal of the bunch.They decide who lives or dies. They decide who gets stabbed or tortured.Yeah...I've gone and drawn attention to myself, and the ones paying attention are the ones everyone else seems to fear.How do these things always happen to me?**Reverse Harem**Language warning**Sexual content**Dark Humor