Showing 1–16 of 25 results
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A Song in My Heart
A Song in My Heart, book one of a trilogy, follows Alejandra Stanford, born into a privileged bicultural family in early-1900s Minneapolis. Immersed in American, Hispanic, and European influences amid turbulent national events, she discovers music as her calling. A gifted pianist and budding composer, she dreams of becoming a conductor. Chasing that ambition through the great cities of the U.S. and Europe, she encounters legendary music, formidable obstacles, and two intellectually matched suitors—each offering a different future—until love and passion shape her destiny.
flows softly and rhythmically
—Ana Luisa Fajer Flores, Consul General of Mexico, St. Paul, MN -
Black Dirt, Bright Stars
In Black Dirt, Bright Stars, Will Weaver continues the Haugen saga into the rugged Midwest of the 1940s. After loss, injustice, and the ruin of their farm, four siblings fight to survive. Jenny, the youngest, finds hard-won power at the county courthouse and becomes a leader no one can dismiss. But when revenge goes wrong, she binds the family to a vow of silence. As the Haugens rise to prosperity, their buried secret threatens everything.
A marvelous work of art… deserves to be read and celebrated.
—Larry Watson, Montana 1948 -
Circus Rex: A Novel
Doctor Buzz signs on as ringmaster of the one-ring Rex Terrestrial, Celestial & Nautical Circus—then steers a ragtag troupe from the Mississippi headwaters to New Orleans. Along the way: alcoholic camels, broken boats, chaotic cooks, and his own crisis of confidence—plus a shot at love if he chooses wisely. Loosely based on the author’s life, this comic novel blends poetic imagery, carny patter, and offbeat humor.
Enjoy the hell out of Loren’s brilliance as a storyteller.
—Hank Roubicek, Professor, Radio Personality, Storyteller and Author -
Deeper and Deeper
After a fatal crash during a pursuit, police officer Jamie Giles inexplicably returns to life—changed. A sinister presence now shares his body, and buried secrets inside his mind begin taking control, drawing dangerous attention. With only days to uncover what’s happening, Jamie must descend deeper into his own consciousness. The catch: the only way to end the haunting may be to die again.
It would be hard to imagine a better opening chapter to a novel
—Matt Eaton, verified review on Amazon -
Dorie Lavalle
Born on January 1, 1900, Dorie is trapped in poverty—childless, lovelessly married to Louie LaValle, and tied to a failing farm. Prohibition pushes her to make and sell moonshine, and she soon earns more than she imagined. With free-wheeling Victor building a hidden woodland still, danger escalates when he returns wounded from an ambush. Now Dorie must protect her future—and Victor—from neighbors, a zealous sheriff, and the Chicago mob.
In luminous prose and with a powerful sense of drama, Mary Desjarlais brings us a new kind of hero…
—Janis Agee, author of The River Wife -
Hand Me Down My Walking Cane
During the Great Depression, Faunce Ridge on the Minnesota–Canadian border is condemned as a New Deal “rural slum.” Emil Rousseau returns to photograph neighbors’ hardship to justify resettlement—but they refuse to leave. Narrated through Emil, his sweetheart Rose, madam Sadie, and bootlegger Magnus, this novel evokes the borderland’s harsh beauty, history, and mystical hold.
Her characters are fully realized; her descriptions of the landscape make you long for ‘up north’ and her dialogue is spot-on.
—Mary Ann Grossman, Pioneer Press -
John Ross
Thirteen-year-old John Ross leaves Scotland for Africa to earn money for his mother’s medical treatment. Shipwrecked, hunted, and captured by Zulu warriors, he is brought before Shaka—who offers respect instead of death. To survive, John must learn a new language, navigate unfamiliar customs, and prove his courage, forging friendships and discovering who he is in this true-based historical adventure.
Touching and exciting at the same time
—Gabriel Rio -
King’s Bishop
Once inseparable, Henry II of England and his chancellor Thomas Becket become bitter enemies after Henry forces his favorite to also serve as Archbishop of Canterbury—and Becket shifts allegiance from crown to church. Was their quarrel driven by politics, pride, position, or jealousy? In a fresh retelling of this famous 12th-century conflict, Judith Koll Healey reframes the legend as intimate historical fiction, exploring king and bishop as complicated humans rather than untouchable icons.
brings Henry, Eleanor and Becket to life in vivid color
—Motime, verified review on Amazon -
Mothers Hurling Bricks
After his first novel, Crude, Bill Nemmers turns to a different absurdity: the US Army’s Cold War occupation of West Germany. In Heidelberg, an expatriate Czech rock band—the Mothers Hurling Bricks—memorializes the Prague women who flung paving stones at Soviet tanks during the 1968 invasion. Narrated by a US soldier who knew the musicians, the novel becomes a darkly comic, humane tribute to mothers—including his own—driven to defy mechanized war.
a fascinating story of military intrigue and humanitarian daring
—Marge on Amazon -
Muskeg
In 1922 Savannah, Hazel and Theda’s love is shattered by a speakeasy raid. Forced apart, Hazel flees to a remote Lake of the Woods island. By 1937 she is running a fishing resort when Theda arrives with her twelve-year-old son—hunted by an enraged husband and detectives—forcing Hazel into a perilous, life-changing choice.
A story of forbidden love that resonates even a hundred years later.
—Sarah Stonich, author of Laurentian Divide -
Ollie’s Cloud
In the fervent years before 1844, two Persian boys vow to be first to recognize Islam’s Promised One. Ali is torn away—smuggled to London, renamed “Ollie,” and raised Christian—then hardened by tragedy into a bitter persecutor of faith. Meanwhile, his boyhood friend helps ignite a new, persecuted religion. Their paths collide on opposite sides of a climactic battle.
Great historic fictional journey
—Jacqueline M. Piepenhagen -
Power & Light
In 1906, a Norwegian emigrant family arrives in North Dakota dreaming of land and a better life. Tragedy—and a powerful man’s crime—threatens to destroy them. Seventeen-year-old Jenny Haugen becomes an unlikely hero, leading her siblings on a generational march toward agency, justice, and power. Power & Light, first in a two-book saga, echoes America’s hard-won ascent and Weaver’s signature themes.
A consuming work of profound poetical depth and moral power.
—KIRKUS REVIEWS -
Prisoner of Hope
In 1993, Ashley Cooper and his daughter Annie arrive in post-Soviet Moscow, continuing their quest to become ‘Of the Iskandarov’ after The Hidden One. Set in the newborn Russian Federation and ending in a wild, magical Arctic scarred by Stalinism, the second People of the Blood novel follows Ashley—alongside the love of his life—through deadly Iskandarov trials in a demonic realm as he hunts his father’s gulag diary, proof of the “Iron Cage.”
wild ride with well-developed characters… and loads of adventure
—B.C., review on Amazon -
Ring of Lions
When one stone lions in the Alhambra’s famed fountain begins gushing water each evening—after five hundred years of silence—an ancient rupture opens. Ring of Lions entwines the last Moorish kings of Spain with a string of modern deaths at the castle of Granada’s final Emir. Moving across timelines, folktales, and generations, the story follows seekers drawn by cultural, religious, and academic motives. Shadowing it all is an animal fable adapted from the “Story of the Ring Dove,” linked to the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’ tradition.
Dalglish writes her characters vividly as she weaves the history of the Alhambra and the Moors’ influence into her plot so carefully a reader doesn’t realize how much knowledge she absorbs.
—Mary Ann Grossman, St. Paul Pioneer Press -
Sons of Zadok
CCN correspondent Charlotte Ansari has enraged a clandestine society of assassins—and her Asperger’s son now leads it. Worse, he assigns their top killer to “solve” her. In this second Charlotte Ansari Thriller, Charlotte and her unwitting allies race from New York to Ireland and the Turkish desert, chasing a conspiracy that reaches far beyond the first book—and may cost her everything.
Thrilling, educational, entertaining
—Reader on Amazon -
The Cutter’s Widow
Set in 1915 Saint Paul amid urban poverty, The Cutter’s Widow follows Ella Byrne, a young widow struggling to survive grief and destitution. She becomes a milliner’s apprentice, a baby broker, and a partner to a local pickpocket—until she’s drawn into a murder investigation led by one of Saint Paul’s first female police officers. A heartrending tale of hardship and purpose.
reminds us that the issues women face today are not new
—Ann Bauer, author of The Forever Marriage
