If I Were You

Geesje de Jonge crossed the ocean at age 17 with her parents and a small group of immigrants from the Netherlands to settle in the Michigan wilderness. Fifty years later, in 1897, she's asked to write a memoir of her early experiences as the town celebrates its anniversary. Reluctant at first, she soon uncovers memories and emotions hidden all these years, including the story of her one true love.

Is there a secret terrible enough that it should never be revealed, not even if it was tearing a family apart? For more than five decades, Emma Bauer has kept one - carefully guarding it with all her strength, and for more than five decades, that choice has haunted her life and also the lives of her daughters and granddaughter. Is it too late for wrongs to be righted? Does Emma even have the strength to let the healing power of truth work in her family?   

Six-time Christy Award winner Lynn Austin has won a loyal following for her inspiring historical fiction. In Wonderland Creek, young Chicago-area librarian Alice Grace Ripley is left heartbroken when her fiancé breaks up with her just as the Great Depression forces her out of a job. To escape the local gossip, Alice volunteers to deliver donated books to a library in rural Kentucky. There she discovers that God still has a plan for her after all.

Nothing in Abigail MacLeod's life as a wife, a mother, and a teacher has prepared her for what she will experience during her summer in Israel. At 42, her life is in chaos, even before she leaves home - her marriage is dissolving before her very eyes, and her faith is in shambles. This pilgrimage to Israel was supposed to be a new beginning for her. But by the end of the first day, she is forced to board an Israeli jetliner in spite of a bomb threat and watches helplessly as a kind, fatherly gentleman she befriended on the plane dies in her arms.  

In the city of Chicago in 1892, the rules for Victorian women are strict, their roles limited. But sisters Rebecca and Flora Hawes are not typical Victorian ladies. Their love of adventure and their desire to use their God-given talents has brought them to the Sinai Desert - and into a sandstorm. Accompanied by Soren Petersen, their somber young butler, and Kate Rafferty, a street urchin who is learning to be their ladies' maid, the two women are on a quest to find an important biblical manuscript.

In this sweeping saga, three Swedish sisters endure an 1890s Atlantic crossing, an Ellis Island detention, and various other trials as they struggle to find love, faith, and home. First came their mother's death. Then their father's suicide. For orphans Elin, Kirsten, and Sofia, life stretches on like an endless winter. When circumstances become unbearable, they write their Chicago relatives, desperate for a safe haven.

"Thank goodness you're such a plain child. You'll have to rely on your wits." So went the words of Grandma Bebe. And for all of my growing-up years, I scoffed at the beauty of my sister and what I saw as her meaningless existence. But my wits hadn't served me well in this instance, for here I was, in jail. And while I could have seen it as carrying on the family tradition (Grandma Bebe landed in jail for her support of Prohibition), the truth is, my reasons for being here would probably break her heart."

Raised on a South Carolina plantation as the house pet of her white master's daughter, Kitty never made a decision for herself. Now, as a young adult, she must preserve her faith while making the biggest decision ever: stay with her master and go south to avoid the Yankees or run away tonight to the North with Grady, the field slave she has come to love.

Two-time Christy Award winner Lynn Austin is hailed for her inspiring historical novels. As in Candle in the Darkness Austin transports us back to the turbulence of the Civil War.

Fresh from finishing school, Violet receives a double shock. Her dad announces his upcoming wedding and then confesses an old lie - her mom didn't really leave for a sanitarium 11 years ago. But why then did she leave? Under cover of visiting the World's Fair, Violet travels to the stately Chicago home of her saintly grandmother and three eccentric great aunts.

After being branded during the battle of Jericho, Moriyah has had no prospects for marriage - until now. She hopes to please the man, but things go horribly wrong and she is forced to flee for her life. Seeking safety at one of the Levitical cities of refuge, she is unprepared for the dangers she faces, and the enemies - and allies - she encounters on her way. Seven years ago, Moriyah was taken captive in Jericho and branded with the mark of the Canaanite gods. Now the Israelites are experiencing peace in their new land, but Moriyah has yet to find her own peace. Because of the shameful mark on her face, she hides behind her veil at all times.

Winner of the 2001 Christy Award, Lynn Austin captures the turmoil of the Civil War in this stirring novel. From vast plantations to the cramped closets of the Underground Railroad, it follows one young woman's inspiring journey of risk and sacrifice.

Come home to Hope Harbor - where hearts heal...and love blooms. Tracy Campbell never wanted to leave Hope Harbor, Oregon, or the idyllic three-generation cranberry farm where she grew up. But life - and love - altered her plans. Now she's home again - with a floundering farm to run...a tragic secret...and a wounded heart. Romance is not on her agenda. Nor is it on Michael Hunter's. The visitor from Chicago has daunting secrets and devastating regrets of his own.

Living in London's poorest slum, Mercy Wilkins has little hope of a better life. When she's offered an opportunity to join a bride ship sailing to British Columbia, she agrees. After witnessing so much painful heartache and loss in the slums, the bride ship is her only prospect to escape a bleak future, not only for herself but, she hopes, someday for her sister. Wealthy and titled Joseph Colville leaves home and takes to the sea - as ship's surgeon - in order to escape the pain of losing his family. When Mercy becomes his assistant, the two must fight against a forbidden love. 

Sold into slavery by her father and forsaken by the man she was supposed to marry, young Egyptian Kiya must serve a mistress who takes pleasure in her humiliation. When terrifying plagues strike Egypt, Kiya is in the middle of it all. Choosing to flee with the Hebrews, Kiya finds herself reliant on a strange God and drawn to a man who despises her people. With everything she's ever known swept away, and now facing the trials of the desert, will she turn back toward Egypt or surrender her life and her future to Yahweh?