GREAT INDIE READS

John Reuther offers a deeply personal and historically rich account of a life spent striving for mutual respect between two superpowers. His fluency in the language and culture earned him trust on both sides of the divide. This is the untold story of an American who dared to build bridges where others saw walls.

Margaret Stone appears to be the perfect military spouse-supportive, resilient, and respected as the wife of Brigadier General George "Rocky" Stone. But beneath her carefully composed exterior lies a past shadowed by tragedy and one fateful night that could destroy everything she's built.

When a blackmail letter signed "Swimbuddy1980" arrives, Margaret is forced to confront the truth about what really happened during a late-night swim at Coronado Beach nearly thirty years ago. As the threats escalate and her husband faces a career-defining deployment to Afghanistan, Margaret must navigate the complex loyalties of military life while fighting to protect the life she's crafted from the ashes of her troubled youth.

From a San Diego tattoo parlor to the formality of Marine Corps ceremonies, Margaret's journey reveals the resilience of the human spirit and the unique bonds forged through shared sacrifice in the military community.

In this compelling narrative of love, betrayal, and redemption, one woman discovers that while the past shapes us, it need not define us-and that true strength comes from facing the most painful truths of all.

At last the women speak. While the crucifixion/resurrection event is traditionally told through men's eyes, The Day After His Crucifixion brings Yeshua the Nazarene's story alive through the testimony of women who knew him and followed his teachings.

Shocked by his brutal execution, these New Testament eye witnesses gather to comfort one another and remind themselves of how Yeshua set them free, bringing them life abundant.

Peter's mother-in-law, the woman with the flow of blood, the crippled woman bent double, the bride whose wedding feast was saved by Yeshua playfully changing water into wine, and several others gather to share food and tender memories of their beloved Promised One.

Through their words familiar gospel stories spring to life.

The Day After His Crucifixion is packed with the inspiring, heart-felt accounts of New Testament women he healed and helped and drew into his circle. Their personal reports reveal Yeshua's ministry of love, his message of God's kingdom come, his courageous, life-affirming actions, and his eternal victory.

A soldier fights for his soul in the trenches of France. A field hospital nurse battles death every day. When duty and honor are not enough of a reason to go on in the hell of a world at war, love gives purpose to their lives.
 

"The Great Dane is both literary and approachable, a modern love story distinguished by its literary prose and comedic dialogue. Laqueur has crafted an unusual love story with heart, humor, and enough narrative mystery to keep readers turning the pages."

-Kirkus Reviews

From the award-winning author of An Exaltation of Larks comes a chimerical novel of romance, drama, identity, power and hope, woven with art and folklore to make a magical journey of human emotion. Through the vehicle of a video game mystery, two queer men negotiate their individual grief in the aftermath of profound loss.

After the sudden death of his only child, Liko Greenman is adrift, killing time until a mystery hidden inside his son's favorite video game, Three Hares, gives him a reason to move forward. When a cryptic clue from the game's maker leads him from the digital world to a secluded farm in rural New York, Liko meets Danelaw Strong, an intersex man with a layered past and a life shaped by love that defied convention.

As Dane guides Liko through the game's unanswered questions, the search becomes something deeper: a journey through grief, identity and the ways people find belonging when traditional labels fall short. Set against legends, folklore and the evocative symbolism of the Three Hares triskelion, The Great Dane is a luminous exploration of connection, chosen family and the healing power of love. Blending romance and drama with psychological and philosophical depth, Suanne Laqueur shows us that while we view the most profound human connection in pairs, three is often love's most magical number. Perfect for fans of John Irving, Fredrik Backman, Matt Haig, John Boyne, and lovers of emotional, thought-provoking fiction.

"A realistic, gripping portrayal of family, trust, and the value of self-improvement."-Kirkus

A single mother's desperate attempt to protect her daughter from potential danger draws them into a web of secrets and hidden identities-raising the haunting question: how far is too far when a parent is fighting to keep their child safe?

When Laura first fell for Steven, she believed she'd finally found the life she'd always longed for. But after an unexpected pregnancy, the distant, simmering anger she'd once brushed aside in him becomes impossible to ignore. The birth of their daughter Amanda is a dream come true for Laura-until a violent outburst sends her fleeing to the safety of her affluent parents' home.

As Laura navigates a tense and uneasy co-parenting arrangement, subtle changes in her daughter's behavior suggest that Steven's connection to Amanda may not only be strained, but sinister. Consumed with the need to protect her child, Laura flees across the border into Canada after a court disagrees with her suspicions-leaving the FBI and a grieving father in pursuit.

A mother's love and a father's anguish have left a trail of frayed lives and fractured hearts. But the devastating consequences of a young child's attempt to take matters into her own hands reunites her parents as they struggle to make their daughter whole again.

The transformation of Penelope Brigid Goode begins after a near-death experience on her 30th birthday while skiing on a mountain in Maine. She wakes up in recovery and the world around her is more vibrant, vivid, and intense. Strange visions begin to creep up on her like a dream—the spirits of her recently deceased dog and the mother she hardly knew. Ghost owls cast shadows of premonition.

When the number three occurs and reoccurs, Pennie fears for her sanity, especially while she and her uncle survey a graveyard near the former Home for the Feeble-Minded. Here she senses her first vibrations—spirits of the Malaga Island settlement reinterred on these very grounds after a forced exile over a century ago by the State of Maine, a chapter of racism and eugenics in Maine’s history.

Despite warning signs and against her best instincts, she rushes headlong into a relationship with the developer who is excavating near the graves. She begins to realize the signs all around her, listen to her intuition, and awaken to her visions. Through a slow unearthing, Pennie uncovers the past and recognizes the power of her dreams, the haunting history of Malaga Island, and her fight for justice and the truth.

When Candida Pugh fell in love with a friend's giant poodle, she decided to find one for herself. But the poodle she found at a Fremont, California, shelter resembled the other dog only in his keen intelligence and outgoing personality. In fact, she was advised not to adopt Henry because "he's a biter." If that had summed up his defects, it would've been bad enough, but his tendency to bite the hand that fed him proved merely the tip of the iceberg.

Her struggles with this maddening, adorable, astute animal foreshadowed a series of impulsive acquisitions of dogs with issues. In this memoir, she details how her love for difficult dogs resulted in frustration, determination, and ultimately jubilation. The unwavering devotion she won from each gave her the courage to overcome her own troubled past.

In 1938, Congressman Lyndon Baines Johnson hires the 24-year-old, multi-lingual Rosalind Fisher to accompany his good friend, Jim Novy, on a hazardous trip to Poland. Rosalind is responsible for easing 40 visas for Novy’s family to leave Poland through the US Embassy—a nearly impossible job on its own.

During the trip on the Queen Mary, Rosalind encounters German spies just returning from New York with secreted documents, and a handsome British undercover agent, with consequences for American security. At the embassy, Rosalind finds no one willing to help and must use her own skills, make her own compromises, and risk her safe return to the US, to secure the signed visas. At the same time, can she help her own cousins, also trapped in Warsaw?