Shoshana is the daughter of Bella, a black house slave at Tanner Plantation. After Shoshana turned sixteen years of age, her owner, Eli Tanner, made arrangements to sell her to a neighbor plantation owner. His wife, Clara, a staunch abolitionist, makes arrangement for Shoshanna to be taken to Florida until the underground railroad opens up again, and she can get to Philadelphia, to freedom. Flying Eagle, a young Seminole warrior, steals her heart, and she happily settles into life with the Seminoles. Meantime, Eli has offered a large bounty for Shoshana's return. Whitey, a slave bounty hunter, and his partners kidnap Shoshana and take her back to the plantation in Georgia. In 1835, the Second Seminole War begins and after many heartbreaking years of death and hunger, Flying Eagle leads Seminole women, children, and old men deep into the Pahay-okee. (Florida Everglades). Chickees are built, and the women scratch for food much like the wild animals that share the harsh, wet wilderness. Their lives are hard, but they know it is the only way to survive and remain on their homeland. In Pahay-okee, the children would be safe and learn to laugh again. They could teach them to respect the Great Breath Giver's gift of earth, and they could hear the beat of the drums and dance. There, in the swamps of South Florida, where the white man was afraid to venture, they survived, and they never surrendered to the United States.

'Laura is a masterful writer, her deliciously gothic stories so skilfully woven that you can't get them out of your head even if you wanted to' Stacey Halls, author of The Familiars

'The Corset is a contender for my Book of the Year. Beautifully written, intricately plotted, a masterpiece' Sarah Hilary

Is prisoner Ruth Butterham mad or a murderer? Victim or villain?

Dorothea Truelove is young, wealthy and beautiful. Ruth Butterham is young, poor and awaiting trial for murder.

When Dorothea's charitable work leads her to Oakgate Prison, she finds herself drawn to Ruth, a teenage seamstress - and self-confessed murderess - who nurses a dark and uncanny secret. A secret that is leading her straight to the gallows. As Ruth reveals her disturbing past to Dorothea, the fates of these two women entwine, and with every revelation, a new layer of doubt is cast...

Can Ruth be trusted? Is she mad, or a murderer?

What cost the price of bigotry? We are about to find out. When Captain Seth Walker returns home after the Civil War, he finds that his parents have been killed and his Georgia plantation home burned. To escape the heartache, he and his bride head west to begin a new life in Arkansas. Problems with the Klan develop, and years later a local ruffian attacks their mulatto servant girl. In a rage, Walker kills the attacker, but young Rob Stevens takes the blame--and the hanging. Rob's wife takes their daughter, Janell, away from Midvale, never to return.

In 1835 Lea Hammond arrives with her married sister and two nephews at the isolated outpost of Fort Brooke, Florida to join Rachel's husband, Captain Ben Carson. Unlike her sister, Lea is drawn to the wild, tropical beauty of the country. She plans to return north but instead, the violent outbreak of the Second Seminole War and an unexpected marriage tie her to the territory she has come to love.

As pioneer settlers, Lea and her husband work the unforgiving land and survive the dangers of building a home in the wilderness. Eventually they return to the growing village of Tampa, only to find they must overcome more challenges by man and nature before they can fully realize their love for each other. Only then can they face the future.

At the height of World War I, two sweethearts face impossible odds in this powerful tale of courage, duty, and heartbreak. In the summer of 1918, Captain Marcus Weatherford arrives in Russia on a secret mission, with a beautiful ballerina posing as his fiancee. He's there to find the Romanov tsarina and her son and glean information about a plot to assassinate Lenin. As the danger intensifies, Marcus's sense of duty battles with his desire to return home to Clare, the woman he truly loves, before it's too late. Military hospital orderly Clare Danner still suffers from Marcus's betrayal after learning he's engaged to another woman. Clare also fears losing her daughter, Daisy, to the heartless family who took her away once before. Only Marcus can provide the critical proof needed to save Daisy, but when an injury leaves him powerless to help, Clare's fate--and the fate of the top-secret mission--hangs in the balance. "In Love's Time is an exceptional story of courage and sacrifice, fidelity and love against all odds, set amid the intrigue and danger of 1918 Europe. Riveting!"--Laura Frantz, Christy Award-winning author of The Rose and the Thistle

Although born into privilege, Ayna Landau marries Karl Adler in 1924 and opens the door to a world of opportunities that propel her husband's company to the height of success in the porcelain doll industry of interwar Germany. As she basks in the glory of her triumphs, her idyllic life is interrupted by Adolph Hitler's meteoric rise to power in the 1930s as head of the Nazi Party. While the chaos the Nazis create throughout Europe culminates in World War II, Ayna and her family risk everything they have worked for to secure the safety and freedom of not only their family and friends, but strangers who seek their help, as well. Struggling to survive the depths of personal tragedy that befall her by the war's end, she abandons the Adler Doll Works and their beautiful villa to flee Germany mere days ahead of the approaching Russian army, determined to be reunited with her children in Switzerland. Ayna's perseverance and resolve to restore the Adler name to the prominence it once held becomes her final mission, in an effort to bequeath its legacy to her children, grandchildren, and all future Adlers.