Jane Peart – författare

"Niki''s heart was thrumming as the taxi stopped with a jerk in front of the gray, stone building behind tall, black iron gates. On a metal plaque was engraved Les Soeurs de Merci. Niki thrust several franc notes staring through the rungs of the gate. Years ago another young woman-perhaps her mother- had stood in the same place, a baby in her arms, the child she was going to give up. What emotions had run through her heart?" Niki had come to France to seek her true identity and to experience the richness of her French heritage. But what begins as a romantic, carefree summer holiday for Niki, her stepbrother Luc Montrose, and their friend Paul Duval, ends with the outbreak of war, changing their lives forever. As World War II ravages Europe, Niki wants desperately to serve her native country in its time of need. She finds herself making dangerous decisions and facing dramatic challenges, aware of- but unable to do anything about- the impact the war is having on her loved ones back at Montclair. Caught up in the firestorm of world conflict, this courageous young woman with an unknown past faces an uncertain future, with only her newfound faith to sustain her.

Craig Cavanaugh opened his briefcase and drew out the folder containing the manuscript. It was getting dark when he finished reading. No question, he thought, Kitty Traherne can write. Her face came back into his mind. He saw the pain in her eyes, heard the urgency in her voice, as he recalled the passion with which she had told him her reason for writing this highly controversial book. A slight flush had swept over her pale face as she said, "I think this country is in danger of being drawn into another foreign war, Mr. Cavanaugh." Kitty Traherne, who had been a field nurse in France during World War I, knew the madness of war firsthand and couldn’t bear to see it happen again. She had to risk doing whatever she could to prevent it, however the public might respond--and despite the bitter rift she was creating between herself and her family, the Camerons. She had to tell people about the horror of the last war, remind them of the awful price paid by the young men who were made to fight it. As an editor, Craig Cavanaugh dealt with writers all the time. But something about Kitty Traherne touched him in a different way. Craig would fight to publish her book--and in the process, he hoped to get to know its lovely author. . . .

Even while Randall was speaking, it was Pietro I saw, the tenderness in his dark eyes looking at me, the caress in his soft voice. In Randall''s voice there was not a shred of emotion; nor was there any in his expression. How should I respond? What should I say? I knew this was the hardest decision I would ever have to make. Either choice would demand a different price. Was I prepared to pay it? Was love enough in the one to bridge all the other differences of nationality, religion, and heritage? Was family loyalty, future security enough to decide for the other? What was my destiny? The heroine of Destiny''s Bride is Druscilla Montrose, who first meets Randall Bondurant when she is a bridesmaid at his wedding to her cousin Alair Chance. Eight years later, after Alair''s mysterious death, they meet again in a chance encounter. This leads to a strange series of events in which Druscilla debates, then accepts the position offered her by Alair''s widower. Against all advice, Dru becomes governess to her two motherless little cousins, a difficult decision because of the suspicions and accusations of family and friends that Randall might have been responsible for his wife''s death. She travels with the family to Italy. Here against the romantic background of nineteenth-century Europe, Druscilla receives two unexpected offers: One is a love that will mean giving up her heritage; the other requires a decision more important than any she has ever had to make before. Dru''s choices bring her into conflicts of loyalty, challenges of faith and duty, and threatened danger, as well as romance.

Blythe gazed into his eyes. It seemed as if she were looking into his very soul. Could she read genuine repentance there . . . or just regret that he had brought shame to himself, disgraced his family? Suddenly, she knew. This was the real Malcolm -- before the War, before Rose died, before his life became a wasteland. She saw the Malcolm who remained uncorrupted -- gentle, intelligent, gallant before tragedy and loss took their bitter toll. Could she help reclaim that man -- whole, healthy, with renewed vigor and pride in himself and his heritage? Hope stirred in Blythe''s heart. Yes! Yes, with God''s help, she could. In 1870, Blythe Dorman, the high-spirited daughter of a prosperous Western rancher, falls hopelessly in love with a mysterious stranger -- Malcolm Montrose, a man scarred with tragedy and defeat. A Virginian who has come to California gold fields in the hope of recouping his family fortune, Malcolm again meets with misfortune and disappointment. As part of a secret bargain made with her dying father, Malcolm takes Blythe as his bride back to his Virginian home, where instead of the happiness she anticipated, Blythe finds only disillusionment and loneliness. The unselfish commitment and undiscouragable love that Blythe expends in her gallant struggles to heal a star-crossed marriage frame the poignant plot of Gallant Bride.

The lake held special memories of her times with Jeff. Here they had spent hours talking, feeding the swans, and skipping pebbles across the smooth surface, creating circles within circles. One afternoon in particular Faith remembered. Jeff had kissed her. It was their first real kiss. In it were all Faith''s dreams, her longings, her hopes, her loyalty and love. "Don''t ever stop believing in me," Jeff begged. "I promise, I never will," she had whispered. Did Jeff remember that day? For Faith, that day, that kiss, that promise were a treasured memory, cherished as a special bond between them of mutual trust and love. Could he have forgotten? It was to be a very special summer, the summer of Queen Victoria''s Jubilee, the sixtieth year of the English monarch''s reign. It was the summer Faith Devlin had looked forward to with great anticipation--the pressures of her debutante year were over, Jeff Montrose was back in London, and her American cousins were coming for a family reunion at the beautiful country estate of Birchfields. It was the summer of unexpected encounters and romantic enterprises -- but it was not to be the summer of Faith Devlin''s dreams. . .

"Why, Cara, why did you do it?" "Maybe no one wants to see me as I really am. Maybe in this family it isn''t all right to be different. And I am different, Kitty, whether anyone wants to admit it or not." "But, Cara,--it just seems like tonight you set out deliberately to cause trouble." "Even you don’t understand, do you, Kitty?" "I do, I mean I''m trying to. You''re my twin, I want to understand!" "Yes, I know we''re twins, but who am I?" demanded Cara hotly. "We''re not like paper dolls cut out of the same cardboard!" Although identical in appearance, the Cameron twins were dramatically different in temperament. Cara, vivacious, adventurous. Kitty, sensitive, introspective. But these differences had never kept them from being each other''s best friend, confidante, and close companion; that is -- until one fateful summer -- the summer everything changed. It began as a carefree vacation at Cape Cod; a summer filled with sailing, swimming, shell-searching, dances, and parties. But slowly Kitty starts to suspect that her twin is keeping something from her. Puzzled, hurt, and more than a little resentful, Kitty longs to find out what it is. But something hidden in her own heart prevents her from doing so, because Kitty has her own secret she cannot share.

Johanna Shelby could never have anticipated where that "fateful encounter" would lead her. She could not have known then how love for the young, rough-hewn, mountain doctor would cause her to turn her back on her privileged lifestyle, threaten to estrange her from her family, and bring her to the wild mountains of Appalachia. If she had known . . . But no! Nothing could hold her back. Not her adoring, worried parents. Not her snooty, so-called "friends." Not even her own flashes of doubt and fear. No, this love would not be denied. It was part of a larger pattern -like the pattern of one of the family quilts her aunts and cousins met weekly to stitch. Into those quilts went not just fabric, but meanings and memories; and when they were finished, the were more than just quilts- they were life stories. Johanna did not know what the future held. But she trusted God. . . And she knew that he would cause her own family quilt to be rich and beautiful -a pattern like no other.

When Southern-born Adelaide Pride follows her Yankee employer to California, she faces a private civil war and re-examines her values of love and honor. Twenty-six-year-old Adelaide Pride stepped out of the horse-drawn buggy to gaze one last time at the charred remains of her childhood home. Six generations of Prides had lived and entertained there under warm Southern skies. That was before the Civil War- robbing Addie of her youth, her parents, and the man she would have married! Fortunately, an aunt and uncle had taken her in, but they could scarcely afford to feed themselves. Not wishing to remain a burden, Addie accepted a position as a companion to a Yankee spinster at a health spa in Napa Valley, California. Addie shivered with a mixture of fear and anticipation. Very soon she would journey by train to the remote land that was untouched be conflict and overflowing with financial prosperity and social opportunities. Did she dare to hope that her dreams of love and belonging were yet possible? Or would she become lost in the a world of the sick and aged, ending up a spinster like her employer, Mrs. Amberly?

"I won''t lose you now!" said Cam in a voice ragged with emotion. The moon moved across the sky from behind the sheltering trees, and suddenly the two of them were enveloped in moonlight. "I love you, and yet I know I have no right to speak to you of this. I''m not free. I’m engaged--" "Oh, Cam, don’t!" she begged. "It cannot be. It is too late. There is no way--" A tremor coursed through her -- a premonition of danger. This was madness, she knew. The two were as much star-crossed lovers as Romeo and Juliet, theirs as forbidden a love by all the same barriers of family, church, and honor. "There has to be a way. There must be. We''ll find a way!" Cam declared as he drew her into his arms. "Cam, let me go. We must forget this ever happened." "How can we?" he asked in anguish. Ransomed Bride is a historical romance that brings to life a young couple''s choice between duty and love.

"End of the line!" The stagecoach driver''s shout sent a chill down Holly Lambeth''s spine. What an ominous sound! Was Riverbend, Oregon, to be the end of the line for her? She had come West to escape the swirling gossip about her broken engagement. She had come to escape the humiliation of being jilted. She came here to find a welcome new life, but her cousin''s chilly reception tells her she has made a terrible mistake. Here in Riverbend, 2,000 miles from Kentucky, in a town barely more than a mining camp, Holly faces the fact that she is unwanted and unwelcome. Knowing this unhappy truth, Holly reaches another conclusion. Only she can change her situation. Both the sophisticated editor of the local newspaper, as well as the town''s dedicated doctor, are attracted to the pretty newcomer. But Holly has more than romance on her mind. An unforeseen opportunity presents a challenge that brings Holly to a decision that will not only change her, but alter her own vision of her future.

"Have you any plans for the rest of the day?" he asked. "Plans?" she echoed. "Whatever they were, cancel them." He grinned. Crystal nodded, dazed, knowing somehow that if he had proposed a trip to Mars she would have been helpless to refuse. She had come to Virginia to work, not to fall in love -- certainly not with someone like Kip Montrose. Both Kip and his ancestral mansion, Montclair, had captured her imagination. The history of the house intrigued her as much as its master. Even ten years after the end of WWI, the families of Mayfield, VA, still feel its destructive effects. With his days as a dare-devil flying ace behind him, Kip Montrose is having a hard time settling down in the small Southern town and finding a new direction for his life. At the same time, the twins, Cara and Kitty Cameron, are also trying to rebuild their lives shadowed by loss. Then, the arrival of Crystal Kirk, an attractive young career woman, to rent Eden Cottage, and the return of Garnet with Bryane, and her English companion, Jill, sparks excitement, romance, as well as unexpected problems. The era of the Roaring Twenties brings new challenges to the younger members of the Montrose and Cameron clans, as they search for new purpose for their lives, face their inherited destiny, and hope for lasting love. Suddenly, a senatorial campaign tears the families apart and plunges old friends into a bitter political battle in which both winners and losers attain unexpected results.

For Rod it was a moment out of a thousand dreams. Yet the reality was more than he could have imagined. "Blythe!" He said her name and in his voice was all the hope he''d thought was lost. The woman he saw was even lovelier than the girl he remembered. She was still as beautiful -- tall, slender, the glorious auburn hair, the soft, vulnerable mouth and peachbloom skin -- as when he had first met her at Montclair. At sixteen, Blythe had been shy, eager to be accepted and loved, now she was poised, fashionably dressed, self-confident. But in those same velvety brown eyes Rod saw what he was searching for -- that she still loved him. Would it be possible to bridge all the silent years that had separated them? Or had they changed too much? Had too much happened to make them different from the people they had been when they had fallen in love? Was it too late? Shadow Bride continues the story of the gallant bride of Malcolm Montrose, Blythe Dorman, who struggled so unselfishly to save a marriage that should never have been, that ended tragically before her son''s birth. After heartbreak, despair, and sorrow, Blythe gathers up the fragments of her life and builds a new one for them both in England. Before she can find lasting happiness, Blythe must come to terms with her past, confront her heart''s truth, and search for her own heritage. To find her real identity and true love, she has to meet these challenges and choices as the woman she has become, not as the girl she once was.