New Releases by Ann Howard

It’s 1945, and Janey Nichol''s new engagement should be a dream, but memories of Cole haunt her. The sailor she pledged to marry, lost at sea, left only letters and unanswered questions. To find peace, Janey travels to his Gatlinburg home. There, she discovers his secrets, and a chance encounter with his cousin Luke ignites unexpected passion. Trapped by circumstance, Janey finds herself drawn to Luke, even as doubts arise. Can she trust him, or is history repeating itself? Torn between a safe future in the city with her Philadelphia fiancé and a love fraught with uncertainty in a totally different environment, Janey must make an impossible choice. Which life will she choose, and which heart will she break?

Inspired by the true story of the World War I American Women''s Hospital, Mercy Road is a novel about love, courage, and a female ambulance driver who risks everything. In 1917, after Arlene Favier''s home burns to the ground, taking her father with it, she must find a way to support her mother and younger brother. If she doesn''t succeed, they will all be impoverished. Job opportunities are scarce, but then a daring possibility arises: the American Women''s Hospital needs ambulance drivers to join a trailblazing, all-female team of doctors and nurses bound for war-torn France. On the front lines, Arlene and her fellow ambulance drivers work day and night to aid injured soldiers and civilians. In between dangerous ambulance runs, Arlene reunites with a childhood friend, Jimmy Tucker, now a soldier, who opens her heart like no one before. But she has also caught the attention of Felix Brohammer, a charismatic army captain who harbors a dark, treacherous secret. To expose Brohammer means risking her family''s future and the promise of love. Arlene must make a choice: stay in the safety of silence or take the greatest chance of her life.

Emily Orr was an upstanding and strictly religious woman in Evansville in the early 1900s. The daughter of Orr Iron magnate, she lived with her father and worked tirelessly in her church and in her community, along with two of her best friends, Albion Fellows Bacon and Lizzie Shanklin. When she was in her late 20s, a rich playboy by the name of George Clifford swept her off her feet. After she returned from a magnificent trip around the world, she succumbed to George''s wishes and married him. Leaving his philandering ways behind, and with Emily''s support, George became a prime mover and shaker in Evansville, especially during Mayor Benjamin Bosse''s tenure. Follow George and Emily through their sojourn as Evansville builds its Coliseum, buys the Tinker Memorial Organ, raises money for Evansville College, goes through World War I and helps to win the vote for women.

Honouring grandmothers and mothers in a superb account of women’s participation in the Services during World War II, and their ensuing battle for equal opportunity that set the foundation for the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 70s.

When Peach Blossom Village''s bridge disappears, Master Chen must solve the mystery! The Mystery of Dragon Bridge is an English-Chinese bilingual children''s fantasy story. The tale revolves around the inhabitants of Peach Blossom Village and the mysterious Dragon Bridge—the villagers'' only connection to the outside world—which suddenly vanishes in the middle of the night. The astonished villagers appoint a retired soldier, Master Chen, to investigate what has happened to their missing bridge. What he finds will surprise readers as much as it did the perplexed villagers! Both a satisfying mystery story and a lesson in working together for the community, preserving the environment, and appreciating what is often taken for granted, The Mystery of Dragon Bridge can be enjoyed by younger children and intermediate readers alike. The short, easy-to-read story is presented in both English and simplified Chinese, with vocabulary suitable for students aged 7 to 10, and features 12 beautiful watercolors painted by the author.

THE BEST MAN Strong, honorable, compassionate—Nathan Garner was a good man, and a man to be reckoned with. But somewhere along the way, he''d lost his faith. In himself...and in love. He''d returned home to find peace, but what he discovered there was the one woman who had the power to rattle his self-control and inflame a desire that hadn''t dimmed with time. The woman who should have been his wife.... In the past, like now, Rachel Holcomb stirred Nathan''s protective instincts...and his very soul. But Nathan had always believed Rachel deserved better—she deserved a hero. And now, with the fight of her life on her hands, Rachel had turned to him. Could he be Rachel''s hero, after all?

SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME Who was she? The sudden amnesia chilled her blood. Particularly since she was dressed as a prostitute, lying in a disreputable alley—and straddled by a devastating, leather-clad stranger. Had he just rescued her from harm? Or was Jake McAlister jeopardy himself? Jake''s granite shoulders proved tempting to lean on...but the man was even more mysterious than she. Without a past—and with peril at every turn—could she build a future with this dangerous male? Or would she merely make some fragile new memories...as time was running out?

At fourteen, Melissa King has more than her share of teenage troubles. Sandwiched between her mother''s lewd live-in boyfriend and an insensitive math teacher, she struggles to find an outlet for her pain. Even her best friend fails her. Turning her anger inward leads her to counseling. With the help of psychologists, both public and private, Melissa finds not only herself, but a cute and lovable guy along the way.

Stories relating to Dangar Island on the Hawkesbury River.

TALES OUT OF SCHOOL features Sandra Scott, a first year English teacher in search of self and love in an unclear world. She faces the challenge of teaching reading, writing, and respect to a hundred fifty marginally receptive teenagers beset with issues of drugs, personal relations, and domestic abuse. She has a passionate relationship with her wealthy, sexy boyfriend, a Ph.D. candidate in biochemistry at Boston University. The intimacy they enjoy is precious and beautiful, yet fraught with many tensions as well. She has a very ill father and an opinionated mother. By teaching others Sandy learns to deal with her insecurity, her career, and the people in her life. Follow her through her tales of joy, misery, confusion, and adventure both in and out of school.

Ten-year-old Nicki Fleming is about to start fifth grade. She has spent the summer on her Colorado ranch working with Sprocket, the service dog she has been training, and helping her mother, who is expecting twins. In addition, Nicki''s best friend Becca was away all summer, and Nicki has gotten to be close friends with Kris, one of the new girls at their school. The start of a new school year is usually an exciting time for Nicki, but this year it''s laced with sadness because it means that Sprocket will soon leave for advanced training and eventual placement with a person with special needs. Starting school is also more challenging this year because it means trying to maintain close friendships with both Kris and Becca, who don''t know each other very well. Can Nicki find a way to let Sprocket go AND to keep both Kris and Becca close?

When ten-year-old Nicki agrees to take over the training of Sprocket, a service dog, it is just one more thing in her overly full schedule, but much to her surprise, dog training teaches Nicki a valuable skill--how to stand up for herself. Includes photographs and essay on training service dogs.

When Madolen accepts the offer of a Mormon family to adopt her, the fifteen-year-old''s world opens up as she leaves the isolated life she has led with her father in a remote part of Utah at the end of the nineteenth century.

''Undoubtedly you write well...your work reminds me of Di Morrissey...your best writing reminds me of Delia Falconer (The Service of Clouds) at her best...'' - Kate Llewellyn

After being forced to leave her village and forget her true love, Echo is given as a bride to one of the high priests in her community, but when the crops begin to fail, she finds herself becoming a leader of her people.

This textbook is for students in Years 7-10 who are studying Commerce Elective Option 3, E-Commerce. The textbook provides an introduction to using the Internet for researching commercial and legal information and buying and selling goods and services.

The inspiration for the beloved film that became a TikTok sensation An extraordinary tale of one woman’s journey of resilience, courage, and self-discovery amidst the turmoil of World War II. Olivia Dunne, a studious minister’s daughter who dreams of becoming an archaeologist, never thought that WWII would affect her quiet life in Denver. But when an exhilarating flirtation reshapes her life, she finds herself in a rural Colorado outpost, married to a man she hardly knows. Overwhelmed by loneliness, Olivia tentatively tries to establish a new life, finding much-needed friendship and solace in two Japanese-American sisters from a nearby internment camp. When Olivia unwittingly becomes an accomplice to a crime that tests her beliefs about trust and love, she must confront her own desires and reconcile them with the harsh realities of the world around her.

This book brings alive the stories of children sent to Australia under the Barnado scheme, by personal reminiscences, official reports, letters, speeches and photographs.

In 1949, Rosamond Halsey Carr, a young fashion illustrator living in New York City, accompanied her dashing hunter-explorer husband to what was then the Belgian Congo. When the marriage fell apart, she decided to stay on in neighboring Rwanda, as the manager of a flower plantation. Land of a Thousand Hills is Carr''s thrilling memoir of her life in Rwanda—a love affair with a country and a people that has spanned half a century. During those years, she has experienced everything from stalking leopards to rampaging elephants, drought, the mysterious murder of her friend Dian Fossey, and near-bankruptcy. She has chugged up the Congo River on a paddle-wheel steamboat, been serenaded by pygmies, and witnessed firsthand the collapse of colonialism. Following 1994''s Hutu-Tutsi genocide, Carr turned her plantation into a shelter for the lost and orphaned children-work she continues to this day, at the age of eighty-seven.

When her family moves from Florida to the Colorado prairie to raise alpacas, twelve-year-old Laney must leave behind the ocean she loves and accept the new landscape and life ahead of her.

In a series of letters and journal entries, twelve-year-old Vivien describes being abandoned by her mother and struggling to survive on the streets of a big city while searching for her family.