Friendship, competition, and unexpected love bring four families together, linking antebellum Georgia's mountains and coast in Sautee Shadows, Book One of the Georgia Gold Trilogy.  Riding the wave of America's economic expansion during the 1830s, Richard Randall's family moves from New York to Savannah, Georgia, to establish a shipping firm.  Richard's son Jack finds the southern city alien, his struggle to fit in only intensifying with the death of his mother.  Eventually the Randalls follow the example of many other coastal elite - like the rice-planter Rousseaus, customers of Richard's - by building a summer home in Habersham County's foothills.  Attracted by the possibility of future railroad tourism, Jack decides to purchase a hotel in Clarkesville, where he meets an unexpected competitor - young, lovely and spirited Mahala Franklin.  Mahala helps her grandmother manage The Franklin Hotel, but relationships have never been easy for Mahala, either.  Orphaned daughter of a man murdered for his gold and a Cherokee mother, Mahala was raised by a farm family in the Sautee Valley and torn from them by her paternal grandmother as a young teen.  Mahala's life has been focused on unraveling the clues left to her in her father's strongbox and wondering if her father's murderer is still living in the same town!  Separated by age and class boundaries, Mahala and Jack refuse to acknowledge their similarities and attraction.  But Mahala is constantly brought into Jack's circles, initially by competition, but eventually also by virtue of her unexpected friendship with Carolyn Calhoun, a wealthy but shy and unwilling socialite.  Carolyn's family exerts increasing pressure on her to overcome her awkward personality and choose a husband between two very different brothers: ridiculously handsome and self-assured Devereaux Rousseau, set to inherit his family's rice plantation and the upland farm in Habersham, and Dylan Rousseau, who follows the call to become a minister.  When the Calhouns visit in Habersham, the lives of these families intertwine with friendship and unexpected romance.  As the country hurtles toward division, Habersham's "summer people" must choose sides - and alliances that could sustain or destroy them in the coming decade.

Sautee Shadows

Literature & Fiction

Weimer, Denise

Genre Fiction

Presswork Publications

Sautee Shadows: Book One of the Georgia Gold Series is the sweeping saga of four families whose lives intertwine through romance, adventure and murder, linking antebellum Georgia's coast and mountains during the mid-1800s. Journey back to a time when the foothills of Northeast Georgia were scarcely more than a frontier, a summer retreat for the state's wealthy coastal elite, verdant watercolor vistas where the footprint of the Cherokee remained. Where one half-Cherokee, orphaned girl grows up in the shadow of a mystery. Who killed her father, and what happened to the gold he mined from the Sautee Valley? And with whom does she belong, the adoptive farm family who raised her, or her white inn-keeper grandmother? Forced from the only life she's ever known and molded into her grandmother's idea of a proper young lady, Mahala Franklin finds life in Clarkesville lonely and full of challenges. But there are at least pieces of the puzzle of her past to be fit together, and relationships that will shape her future ... with Clay Fraser, her Cherokee friend who wants to be so much more, with wealthy entrepreneur and competitor Jack Randall, with whom Mahala doesn't dare to dream of more, and with Carolyn Calhoun, unwilling socialite caught between her feelings for two very different brothers. As the lives of the coastal "summer people" mingle with those of Habersham's natives, a tapestry of love, friendship and intrigue unfolds, a tapestry laced with a brilliant thread that will lure you through all four books of The Georgia Gold Series.

Sautee Shadows: Book One of the Georgia Gold Series (The Georgia Gold, 1)

Literary

Canterbury House Publishing, Limited

In the halycon days of the 1850s, Georgia's coastal elite find a retreat in the foothills of Habersham County, where half-Cherokee Mahala Franklin goes nose to nose with arrogant rival hotel owner Jack Randall. Well aware she's not of his class -- as her Cherokee friend Clay Fraser jealously reminds her -- Mahala can't ignore her attraction to Jack any better than she can the clues about her father's murder and the missing gold left to her in his strongbox. Especially when her unlikely friendship with socialite Carolyn Calhoun constantly thrusts her into Jack's circle! Carolyn's life of privilege might seem a lark to Mahala, but Carolyn is expected to overcome her awkward personality and make a brilliant match by choosing between two very different men -- rice planter Devereaux Rousseau and his minister brother Dylan. Can she even be sure of the love of the one she chooses, or will she merely be a prize? Hidden loyalties are exposed and relationships threatened as Georgia seeks to become its own republic, only to be plunged into civil war. Faced with taking over his family's shipping firm, Jack must choose between his Northern convictions and his Southern family, while Devereaux tests himself and his feelings for Carolyn on the battlefields of Virginia.

The Gray Divide (Georgia Gold, 2)

United States

Canterbury House Publishing

With her husband Devereaux Rousseau now a captain commanding Savannah's elite Oglethorpe Light Infantry on the Civil War battlefields of Virginia, Carolyn Calhoun Rousseau must prove her own backbone as she operates the family's last functioning farm in the hills of Habersham County. She draws on the support of her best friend, Mahala Franklin, half-Cherokee granddaughter of a local inn owner. Mahala battles her own frustrations with Jack Randall, rival hotel owner and coastal shipping magnate. Jack's continued reluctance to commit threatens to drive Mahala into the arms of her Cherokee childhood sweetheart, Clay Fraser.Then, tragedy brings Mahala and Carolyn to Savannah just as Sherman advances on the city -- and forces everyone to confront their true feelings. Will Jack abandon his ship and its profits to the Yankees in Wilmington Harbor in order to guide them on a perilous wagon journey across Georgia, or will he abandon the woman he claims to love, but whom he now knows also has feelings for another? And even if Mahala reaches safety, could her discovery about her father's long-ago murder and missing gold prove far more dangerous than the war?

The Crimson Bloom (Georgia Gold, 3)

Contemporary

In the fourth and final installment of The Georgia Gold Series, the Randalls and Rousseaus rebuild their lives following The War Between the States. Reconstruction-era Georgia tests the mettle of half-Cherokee Mahala Randall, newly married into Jack's shipping family in shattered but proud Savannah; and Dylan and Carolyn Rousseau, who battle the memory of Dylan's brother, the debt and drought-cracked earth of their upland farm, and the lure of lost Confederate gold.

Bright as Gold: Book Four of the Georgia Gold Series (Georgia Gold, 4)

In White: The Restoration Trilogy, Book One, as historic preservationist Jennifer and brooding bachelor Michael restore his ancestors' historic doctor's residence in a rural Georgia community, they uncover the 1920s-era prejudice and secrets that caused Michael's branch to fall off the family tree. Jennifer is determined to fulfill her first professional position with integrity even if her employer lacks a proper appreciation of history. Far more challenging -- and sinister -- than the social landscape of Hermon are the strange accidents hinting that someone doesn't want them on the Dunham property. Yet Michael's and Jennifer's own pasts pose the biggest obstacles to laying a fresh foundation of family and community. Genre: Contemporary, with a prominent historical back story. Expectfriendship that grows into romance and a spiritual journey that includes touches of the supernatural, suspense and mystery.

White: The Restoration Trilogy 1

In book two of The Restoration Trilogy, Jennifer Rushmore has overseen the restoration of brooding bachelor Michael's ancestors' doctor's house long enough to work through their initial differences. They've begun applying the lessons of family and community learned from the past. Now the apothecary shop discloses a heart-breaking tale circa 1870 Georgia, shaking loose Jennifer's own carefully suppressed past. She fears that when Michael sees beyond her facade, her tentative steps toward trust and love may disintegrate into rubble. On her journey to forgiveness, Jennifer draws on her new faith and friendships, even as the mysterious accidents clouding her first preservation job escalate into imminent danger. Genre: Contemporary, with a prominent historical back story. Expect abudding romance and a spiritual journey that includes touches of thesupernatural, suspense and mystery.

Widow: The Restoration Trilogy 2

Religion & Spirituality

Having restored Michael Johnson’s ancestors’ house and apothecary shop and begun applying the lessons of family and forgiveness unearthed from the past, Jennifer Rushmore expects to complete her first preservation job with the simple relocation of a log home. But as her crew reconstructs the 1787 cabin, home to the first Dunham doctor, attacks on those involved throw suspicion on neighbors and friends alike. And while Jennifer has trusted God and Michael with the pain of her past, it appears Michael’s been keeping his own secrets. Will she use a dream job offer from Savannah as an escape, or will a haunting tale from a Colonial diary convince her to rely on the faithfulness of his love?

Witch: The Restoration Trilogy 3

Dudley Court Press, LLC

Can Hope Resurface After Evil Tries to Drown It? &nbsp; Introducing a series of 6 exciting novels featuring historic American disasters that transformed landscapes and multiple lives. Whether by nature or by man, these disasters changed history and were a day to be remembered. &nbsp; The Civil War has taken everything from Lily Livingston--her parents, her twin brother, her home. Now she works at her uncle's inn and keeps her head down. Speaking up for her beliefs proved too costly in a part of Arkansas split by conflicting loyalties and overrun by spies and bushwhackers. &nbsp; Emaciated in body but resilient in spirit, Lieutenant Cade Palmer is crowded onto the Sultana with other paroled Andersonville and Cahaba POWs for the journey north. But a fiery explosion on April 27, 1865, rends the steamer and empties two thousand men into the frigid Mississippi River. &nbsp; Recovering from wounds that might end his career as a surgeon but clinging to his faith, Cade threatens both Lily's defenses and her heart. How can she tell him she might've prevented the tragedy if only she'd reported a suspected saboteur's claims? And when the man returns to town and encoded messages pass through the hotel, will Lily follow her convictions to prevent another tragedy? Also available in the A Day to Remember series: When the Waters Came by Candice Sue Patterson When the Flames Ravaged by Rhonda Dragomir

When Hope Sank: April 27, 1865 (Day to Remember, 3)

Christian Books & Bibles

Barbour Pub Inc

To gain his wife, he must break her heart. Past betrayal has turned John Kliest’s passion to his work as a builder and surveyor in the Moravian town of Salem, North Carolina. Now, to satisfy the elders’ edict and fulfill his mission in Cherokee Territory, he needs a bride. But the one woman qualified to record the Cherokee language longs for a future with his younger brother. Clarissa Vogler’s dream of a life with Daniel Kliest is shattered when she is chosen by lot to marry his older brother and venture into the uncharted frontier. Can she learn to love this stoic man who is now her husband? Her survival hinges on being able to trust him—but they both harbor secrets.

The Witness Tree

Romance

Paranormal

Smitten Historical Romance

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