By the mid 1980's, having endured ten years of civil war, Lebanon found itself in the midst of a struggle for power and domination by the myriad of militia groups born during the chaos and instability of the time. Desperation for international recognition and for political leverage led several of the Iranian-backed militias to seize American and other Western hostages. Prisoners of Circumstance is a novel set in the turmoil of this period. It reflects on the kidnapping of men whose only crime was the accident of birth. It deals with the interaction of the hostages with their captors and the initiatives of their wives to focus international attention on their plight, and finally, on a CIA-led effort to forcibly secure their release. Assigned newly to the Embassy in Beirut as the CIA station chief, George Kowalski's task became to plan, sell, and execute a daring rescue of the hostages. Drawing from the elite units of all branches of the military, a dream team' is assembled to launch the rescue mission; a mission which was fraught with surprising and unexpected twists. The characters in the book are fictitious, but the historical and geographical references are accurate. Through dialogue between the characters, the author describes the motivations behind the actions of the various parties involved in the Middle East conflict; a conflict that has persisted for over fifty years and has defied resolution to this day.

Revisit a classic-Catherine Coulter's second novel. The #1 New York Times bestselling author has transformed her second novel from a Regency to full-fledged historical romance. Katherine Brandon is a hoyden who bewitches a powerful, sophisticated nobleman, but can't hide her terrifying secret from him...

"Once the reigning beauty of her social set, Celia--whom the newspapers dubbed Lady Infamous--has fallen on hard times and is practically destitute, her reputation in shreds. When Celia is forced to attend a society wedding as a companion to an elderly guest, she must confront the clique she once commanded; the gentleman she'd once hoped to marry--who is now wed to a girl Celia relentlessly taunted; and the powerful man who ruined her life a decade before--and is threatening to do so again. Then there is Richard, the studious boy Celia used to ridicule, who is now gorgeous, wealthy, and more-than-a-little famous. As a youth, Richard was infatuated with Celia. He still seems intrigued, but Celia has acquired a shocking secret along with her hard-won humility. Will it put an end to the love blossoming between them? Does she have the courage to find out?"--

Ambivalence towards kings, and other sovereign powers, is deep-seated in medieval culture: sovereigns might provide justice, but were always potential tyrants, who usurped power and 'stole' through taxation. Rebel Barons writes the history of this ambivalence, which was especially acute in England, France, and Italy in the twelfth to fifteenth centuries, when the modern ideology of sovereignty, arguing for monopolies on justice and the legitimate use of violence, was developed. Sovereign powers asserted themselves militarily and economically provoking complex phenomena of resistance by aristocrats. This volume argues that the chansons de geste, the key genre for disseminating models of violent noble opposition to sovereigns, offer a powerful way of understanding acts of resistance. Traditionally seen as France's epic literary monuments - the Chanson de Roland is often presented as foundational of French literature - chansons de geste in fact come from areas antagonistic to France, such as Burgundy, England, Flanders, Occitania, and Italy, where they were reworked repeatedly from the twelfth century to the fifteenth and recast into prose and chronicle forms. Rebel baron narratives were the principal vehicle for aristocratic concerns about tyranny, for models of violent opposition to sovereigns and for fantasies of escape from the Carolingian world via crusade and Oriental adventures. Rebel Barons reads this corpus across its full range of historical and geographical relevance, and through changes in form, as well as placing it in dialogue with medieval political theory, to bring out the contributions of literary texts to political debates. Revealing the widespread and long-lived importance of these anti-royalist works supporting regional aristocratic rights to feud and revolt, Rebel Barons reshapes our knowledge of reactions to changing political realities at a crux period in European history.

In this sequel to Yankee Earl, an opportunistic widow attempts to set her daughter up with a handsome AmeriCA man, only to become the object of his desires herself.

"Rebels against Tyranny" is the first book in the "Rebels of Outremer" series that describes the struggle between the autocratic Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen and the barons of Jerusalem led by John d'Ibelin, the "Old" Lord of Beirut, in the thirteenth century. This conflict between Beirut and Frederick II causes a civil war in the very heart of Christendom, in the Holy Land. It is the tale of an autocratic emperor, a defiant baronage, and three young people caught up in the game of emperors and popes. Set against the backdrop of the Sixth Crusade, "Rebels against Tyranny" takes you from the harems of Sicily to the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, from the palaces of privilege to the dungeons of despair. It is a timeless tale of youthful audacity taking on tyranny -- but sometimes courage is not enough...."Rebels against Tyranny" was named "Best Christian Historical Fiction 2019" by Readers Favorites and awarded Silver (2nd Place) for Historical Fiction by Feathered Quill Awards 2019. Kirkos Reviews noted: "The well-meaning but flawed Sir Balian is a great central figure-a bit like William Shakespeare's portrayal of the young Prince Hal ...."

The Offer You Can'T Resist...In A Great New Package A beautiful young woman is thrown together with a rakish Viscount by a twist of fate--and is caught off guard by her own yearning for love and passion...