Do you believe animals have a soul and that following their physical death their soul is received into heaven? This twofold question is asked more often than not of our Christian clerics. It is a question which seriously befuddles many, amuses some, and irritates and mortifies still others. Following the death of dog handler Marine Corporal David Devonshire while on deployment in Iraq, his canine partner, a German shepherd, Sergeant Amicus, is adopted by the Corporal's young family. Spurred on by their adopted charge, the Corporal's widow, Kate Devonshire and son Luke, endeavor to find their own answer to this vexing question. Life is never the same for Kate and Luke after Amicus joins the Devonshire household. Through this endearing creature, the Corporal's family experiences a release from the constraints of their sorrow, allowing them to once again embrace God's promise of new beginnings. This story takes the reader full circle and Amicus serves as a reminder that though God's creatures may live but in the shadows of our busy lives, they never fail in their own unique way to make an indelible impression. Then, when the time comes for them to leave us, more often than not we are left, better people because of them. Jane Amelia Smith was born and raised on Long Island, New York. After earning an M.A. degree in Health Education from New York University, she worked in the field of health promotion. She holds a Public School Teacher, as well as a Registered Nurse license. In addition, she served ten years as a reservist in the U.S. Army Nurse Corp, receiving an honorable discharge at the rank of Major. Widowed in 2007, she currently lives at Smith Mountain Lake, in Virginia. This is her second novel.

An intriguing tale of faith, love, and death, that spans the generations. When fourteen year old, Amelia Morelli, loses her beloved father in the 9/11 terrorist attack, her near perfect world comes to a stand still.

In an attempt to rescue the melancholic Amelia, her Granny Lou, orchestrates a search for the girl's ancestral namesake. The family sleuths travel from their Connecticut home, to the tidewater area of Virginia. With dogged determination, they eventually uncover the truth behind the strange disappearance of the family 19th century matriarch, from her privileged, plantation home. Parallels are drawn between Amelia and her namesake, and lessons from the past speak to the young girl. With the continued support of her Christian family, Amelia begins to heal.

In the wake of the family quest, both heroine and reader, are left to ponder the impact our ancestors might have upon the living. In a strange twist, this story suggests that our forebearers never leave us at all, for better or worse, we leave them.

Longford Castle is a fine Elizabethan country house, home to a world-class collection of art built up in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the Bouverie family and still owned today by their descendants. Until now, it has been relatively little known amongst the pantheon of English country houses. This book, richly illustrated and based on extensive scholarly research into the family archive, tells a comprehensive story of the collectors who amassed these treasures. It explores the acquisition and commission of works of art from Holbein's Erasmus and The Ambassadors, to exquisite landscapes by Claude and Poussin, and family portraits by Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds. It explores how Longford, an unusual triangular-shaped castle that inspired Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia and Disney's The Princess Diaries, was decorated and furnished to house these works of fine art, and how the Bouverie family patronised the best craftsmen and furniture makers of the day. The book brings the story up to the present day, with an introduction and conclusion by the current owner, the 9th Earl of Radnor, himself a keen collector of art, to celebrate this remarkable house and collection in the tercentenary year of its purchase by the Bouverie family.

My father was the keeper of the Eddystone Light Slept with a mermaid one fine night. From this union there came three: A porpoise, a porgie and the other was me. Jack studies accountancy, lives with his maiden aunt in an upright Victorian household, and smells like a fish. The fishy smell drives girls away faster than they can be introduced. When Jack visits his lighthouse-keeper father on the Eddystone rocks, he meets his mother for the first time since he was a baby. She's a mermaid. Jack's mother sends him on a quest to find his two lost brothers, a porpoise and a porgie fish. Along the way, Jack falls in love, battles carnival hucksters, and is scolded by a porpoise... and that's before he meets the mermaids.

Hyacinth Grey has led a quiet life in Gibraltar, managing her father's household and tutoring her young half-brother. One day, a letter arrives informing her that she has inherited a small fortune from her grandmother, an infamous courtesan. Thomas Pently, alias Smithson, earned his own wealth in the East India Company. Then his mistress was murdered, and his aristocratic family summoned him home. He's now third in line to his uncle's duchy, after his aging father and one sickly cousin. Aboard the Whistler, they become friends, but can their fledgeling romance survive the whirl of London society, or their families' interference?

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.