A Cup of Dust by Susie Finkbeiner

Ten-year-old Pearl Spence is a daydreamer, playing make-believe to escape life in Oklahoma's Dust Bowl in 1935. The Spences have their share of misfortune, but as the sheriff's family, they've got more than most in this dry, desolate place. They're who the town turns to when there's a crisis or a need―and during these desperate times, there are plenty of both, even if half the town stands empty as people have packed up and moved on.
Pearl is proud of her loving, strong family, though she often wearies of tracking down her mentally impaired older sister or wrestling with her grandmother's unshakable belief in a God who Pearl just isn't sure she likes.
Then a mysterious man bent on revenge tramps into her town of Red River. Eddie is dangerous and he seems fixated on Pearl. When he reveals why he's really there and shares a shocking secret involving the whole town, dust won't be the only thing darkening Pearl's world.
While the tone is suspenseful and often poignant, the subtle humor of Pearl's voice keeps A Cup of Dust from becoming heavy-handed. Finkbeiner deftly paints a story of a family unit coming together despite fractures of distress threatening to pull them apart.

The End of Law by Therese Down

Berlin, 1933: as Hitler rises to power; the law--designed to protect and serve--becomes twisted to the will of those who dream of a pure Aryan race.SS Officer Walter Gunther is intensely loyal to the Third Reich. His readiness to kill without question or remorse would seem to make him the ideal candidate to lead the T4 euthanasia programme. SS officer Karl Muller, a trainee doctor and engineer, is also brought into the programme, and assured that his work is consistent with the Hippocratic oath he's due to take.
Their mandate: to kill the "unworthies"--not just the Jews, but crippled children, the mentally ill, homosexuals. Hedda, Walter's wife and old acquaintance of Karl, has no idea of what their work entails. Until, that is, the fate of their families is at stake, and each must confront afresh the choices they have made.
This dark, tense novel is a compelling story of human tragedy, and man's potential to revel in, or fight against, the evil actions of a corrupted nation.

The Last Ride by Susan K. Marlow

Andi's newest adventure may be more than she can handle--even with her family's help

Andrea Carter is turning sweet 16 and life could not be better. She's about to finish school, her sister Melinda is getting married, and her older brother Justin has a new baby to spoil. There will be plenty of time to work with the colt of her treasured palomino horse, Taffy, and best of all, Andi will finally get to work full-time for the ranch she loves.
There s just one problem: a city-slicker cousin named Daniel. Left there by his father, with a cryptic warning that New York City life has done damage to the young man s character, Daniel wants nothing to do with the ranch. He ignores Andi's lessons, walks away from responsibility, wrecks valuable equipment, and even runs away to San Francisco.
The Carter family is in a frenzy trying to keep Daniel under control. When Andi discovers a horrifying secret about him, he forces her to stay silent. But all that changes when Daniel s actions put lives in danger. Andi s anger over her loss threatens to destroy not only Andi but her entire Circle C world. Can anyone break through the wall around Andi s bitter heart and help her find healing?
Loyal long-time readers of Susan Marlow's historical fiction will line up for an older Andi's newest adventure, and her discovery of how powerful love can be.

The Jazz Files by Fiona Veitch Smith

Introducing Poppy Denby, a young journalist in London during the Roaring Twenties, investigating crime in the highest social circles
It is 1920. Twenty-two year old Poppy Denby moves from Northumberland to live with her paraplegic aunt in London. Aunt Dot, a suffragette who was injured in battles with the police in 1910, is a feisty and well-connected lady.
Poppy has always dreamed of being a journalist, and quickly lands a position as an editorial assistant at the Daily Globe. Then one of the paper's hacks, Bert Isaacs, dies suddenly and messily. Poppy and photographer Daniel Rokeby (with whom Poppy has an immediate and mutual attraction) begin to wonder if Bert was pushed. His story was going to be the morning lead, but he hasn't finished writing it. Poppy finds his notes and completes the story, which is a sensation.
The Globe's editor, realising her valuable suffragette contacts, invites her to dig deeper. Poppy starts sifting through the dead man's files and unearths a major mystery which takes her to France--and abruptly into danger.

The Peaceful Wife by April Cassidy

What happens when a woman becomes the wife God desires her to be?

In today's world, women are often rewarded for having type A personalities. Driven, demanding women achieve higher positions, better salaries, and praise for their ambition. They learn to be confident, take-charge leaders who can handle anything on their own. Yet when it comes to their marriages, those same traits can backfire. After all, no one goes into marriage hoping for a promotion. What is a wife to do?
April Cassidy knows this struggle firsthand. She thought she was a great Christian wife and begged God to make her passive husband into a more loving, involved, godly leader. Instead, God opened her eyes to changes that she needed to make, such as laying down her desire for control and offering genuine, unconditional respect--not just love--to her husband. The Peaceful Wife focuses on Cassidy's experience and its life-changing properties, providing a template for others to follow.
Cassidy's conclusions may be as shocking to readers as they were to her, but she backs up her own tale with stories from her blog readers, and also includes recommendations for further study. She walks through baby steps on how to change, addressing questions such as:

• What is respect?
• How can you show respect?
• How is being respectful different from being loving?

In the end, The Peaceful Wife is a powerful path to God's design for women to live in full submission to Christ as Lord.

Unlikely Rebel by Kelli Gotthardt

No formulas, no pat answers. Just real life. Real questions. Real transformation. Approach many women in the church and if they re being honest, they ll tell you they
try hard to keep it all together;
are frustrated that being good doesn t deliver the perfect life;
feel trapped in expectations;
make decisions based on shoulds ;
feel selfish when they say no; and
are uncertain of their place in God s kingdom.

Between the desire to please God, the need to feel valued, and the compulsion to make everyone around them happy, women often find themselves denying their desires. It s safer to stay in the life of shoulds even if it means being spiritually and emotionally disconnected.

Kelli Gotthardt knows their pain. Always considered a good girl, she threw herself into every ministry, saying yes to every request her church family made. On the outside, her life looked completely together but she was drowning in self-doubt and shame. Unlikely Rebel is the story of how Kelly slowly shed shoulds and shame, learning to love God and love who He created her to be.

The journey from the comfort of doing everything expected of a perfect pastor s wife to the uncertainty of living authentically and true to her unique calling is equal parts exhausting and exhilarating. Many Christians condemned her, responding with fear or anger to her greater intimacy with God s calling when it didn t match their own vision. For others, though, her journey inspired courage to embrace God s path for their own lives.

Now Kelli invites other women to discover God s leading in their lives, learning that if they throw off the despondency of underserved shame, abundant life awaits.

Letters From My Father's Murderer

An extraordinary true story of grace, mercy, and the redemptive power of God 

 

 When her father was murdered, Laurie Coombs and her family sought justice―and found it. Yet, despite the swift punishment of the killer, Laurie found herself increasingly full of pain, bitterness, and anger she couldn’t control. It was the call to love and forgive her father’s murderer that set her, the murderer, and several other inmates on the journey that would truly change their lives forever. This compelling story of transformation will touch the deepest wounds and show how God can redeem what seems unredeemable.