Akron Public Library

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted. Their first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city's placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway,...

Priscilla knew God wanted her to be a missionary, not a wife. The missionary board declares the only way she can serve is to be married, and so she embarks on a marriage in name only... a marriage that will test her spirit... and the new longings of her heart.

Thomas McNulty, having fled the Great Famine in Ireland and now barely seventeen years old, signs up for the US Army in the 1850s and with his brother in arms, John Cole, goes to fight in the Indian Wars--against the Sioux and the Yurok--and, ultimately, in the Civil War. Orphans of terrible hardships themselves, they find these days to be vivid and alive, despite the horrors they see and are complicit in.

"Washington, DC, 1870s: At a glittering White House gala, Abigail Cabot discovers the man of her dreams. Only, he's not interested--yet. So the gifted lady astronomer, whose passion for measuring stars has left her woefully lacking in social graces, seeks someone to educate her...someone who is a master at the art of seduction. Jamie Calhoun's handsome looks and easy charm have made him as popular on the Senate floor as he is with the capital's...

In Reconstruction-era America, vampire Henry Sturges is searching for renewed purpose in the wake of his friend Abraham Lincoln's shocking death. It will be an expansive journey that will first send him to England for an unexpected encounter with Jack the Ripper, then to New York City for the birth of a new American century, the dawn of the electric era of Tesla and Edison, and the blazing disaster of the 1937 Hindenburg crash.

The compelling, hidden story of Cathy Williams, a former slave and the first woman to ever serve in the US Army. "Here's the first thing you need to know about Miss Cathy Williams: I am the daughter of a daughter of a queen and my Mama never let me forget it." Cathy Williams was born and lived a slave until the Union army came and destroyed the only world she had ever known. Separated from her family, she makes the impossible decision: to fight with...

"Tom Candy Ponting was no ordinary trail boss. He didn't smoke, chew, cuss, or even carry a gun. Unlike his competitors, he learned how to herd cows on a farm back in England - and how to handle cowboys in bareknuckle prizefights. But his skills and know-how were really put to the test when he accepted a bet he might live to regret: lead a cattle drive from Texas to New York City. Not one to back down on a dare, Ponting assembles the motliest crew...

"She's finally claimed her independence . . . how far will she go to keep it? A brilliant engineer, Jilly Stiles has been educated since childhood to help run her father's lumber dynasty. With the company safe from her stepfather after the marriages of her two sisters, Jilly can now focus on her dream of building a mountaintop railroad--and never marry.Nick Ryder came into Jilly's life when he saved her mother from her no-good stepfather, and he's...

"Seattle, Washington. Larkin Bennett has always known her place, whether it’s surrounded by her loving family in the lush greenery of the Pacific Northwest, or riding on a dusty convoy in Afghanistan. But all that changed the day tragedy struck her unit and took away everything she held dear. Soon after, Larkin discovers an unexpected treasure: the diary of Emily Wilson, a young woman who disguised herself as a man to fight for the Union in the...

"A general's wife and a slave girl forge a friendship that transcends race, culture, and the crucible of Civil War. Mary Anna Custis Lee is a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, wife of Confederate General Robert E Lee, and heiress to Virginia's storied Arlington house and General Washington's personal belongings. Born in bondage at Arlington, Selina Norris Gray learns to read and write in the schoolroom Mary and her mother keep for the slave...