Melanie Dobson

Reminiscent of Diane Ackerman's The Zookeeper's Wife, this stunning novel draws from true accounts to shine a light on a period of Holland's darkest history and bravest heroes. 1942. As war rips through the heart of Holland, childhood friends Josie van Rees and Eliese Linden partner with a few daring citizens to rescue Eliese's son and hundreds of other Jewish children who await deportation in a converted theater in Amsterdam. But amid their resistance work, Josie and Eliese's dangerous secrets could derail their friendship and their entire mission. When the enemy finds these women, only one will escape. Seventy-five years later, Ava Drake begins to suspect that her great-grandfather William Kingston was not the World War II hero he claimed to be. Her work as director of the prestigious Kingston Family Foundation leads her to Landon West's Ugandan coffee plantation, and Ava and Landon soon discover a connection between their families. As Landon's great-grandmother shares the broken pieces of her story, Ava must confront the greatest loss in her own life--and powerful members of the Kingston family who will do anything to keep the truth buried. Illuminating the story and strength of these women, award-winning author Melanie Dobson transports readers through time and place, from World War II Holland to contemporary Uganda, in this rich and inspiring novel.

Memories of Glass

A courageous young noblewoman risks her life to hide French resistance fighters; seventy years later, her granddaughter visits the family’s abandoned chateau and uncovers shocking secrets from the past. Gisèle Duchant guards a secret that could cost her life. Tunnels snake through the hill under her family’s medieval chateau in Normandy. Now, with Hitler’s army bearing down, her brother and several friends are hiding in the tunnels, resisting the German occupation of France. But when German soldiers take over the family’s château, Gisèle is forced to host them as well—while harboring the resistance fighters right below their feet. Taking in a Jewish friend’s baby, she convinces the Nazis that it is her child, ultimately risking everything for the future of the child. When the German officers begin to suspect her deception, an unlikely hero rescues both her and the child. A present day story weaves through the past one as Chloe Sauver, Gisèle’s granddaughter, arrives in Normandy. After calling off her engagement with a political candidate, Chloe pays a visit to the chateau to escape publicity and work with a documentary filmmaker, Riley, who has uncovered a fascinating story about Jews serving in Hitler’s army. Riley wants to research Chloe’s family history and the lives that were saved in the tunnels under their house in Normandy. Chloe is floored—her family isn’t Jewish, for one thing, and she doesn’t know anything about tunnels or the history of the house. But as she begins to explore the dark and winding passageways beneath the chateau, nothing can prepare her for the shock of what she and Riley discover… With emotion and intrigue, Melanie Dobson brings World War II France to life in this beautiful novel about war, family, sacrifice, and the secrets of the past.

A Novel

Chateau of Secrets

From the award-winning author of "Catching the Wind" comes another gripping time-slip novel about hidden treasure, a castle, and ordinary people who resisted evil in their own extraordinary way.

Hidden Among the Stars

In this gripping split-time novel, Grace Tonquin is an American Quaker woman who works tirelessly in Vichy France to rescue Jewish children from the Nazis. After crossing the treacherous Pyrénées, Grace returns home to Oregon with a brother and sister whose parents were lost during the war. Though Grace and her husband love Élias and Marguerite as their own, echoes of Grace's past and trauma from the Holocaust tear the Tonquin family apart. More than fifty years after they disappear, Addie Hoult arrives at Tonquin Lake, hoping to find the Tonquin family. For Addie, the mystery is a matter of life and death for her beloved mentor Charlie, who is battling a genetic disease. Though Charlie refuses to discuss his ties to the elusive Tonquins, finding them is the only way to save his life and mend the wounds from his broken past.

The Winter Rose

When Daniel Knight was thirteen, he and ten-year-old Brigitte Berthold escaped the Gestapo agents who arrested both their parents. They survived a harrowing journey from Germany to England, only to be separated upon their arrival. For more than seventy years he has vowed to find Brigitte. Now a wealthy old man, his final hope in finding Brigitte rests with Quenby Vaughn, an American journalist working in London. Quenby is wary at the idea of teaming up with Daniel's lawyer, Lucas Hough, but the lure of Brigitte's story is too much to resist. They follow a trail of deception, sacrifice, and healing that could change all of their futures.

Catching the Wind

As elegant as the Sacramento residence she operates, Isabelle Labrie keeps her past concealed, like the treasure she hides under the Golden Hotel. It's 1853, the heyday of the California Gold Rush. Isabelle is full of hope, staking her claim on the city's refined clientele and her future on a sweetheart's promise to marry her when he returns from the gold fields. Then, unexpected guests--fugitive slaves seeking safe passage to the North--force her to confront her past and reconsider her path. While Isabelle learns to trust God's provisions, a law student in Virginia must confront his father's cruelty and rescue a young slave from his family's tobacco plantation. As the two escape to freedom, and Isabelle risks everything to harbor runaway slaves, the past and present are set on an inevitable collision course--one that reveals hidden treasures of the heart.

Beneath a Golden Veil

Curator's Daughter

A new page-turning novel from an award-winning author! Melanie Dobson is back with a fast paced plot that skillfully weaves together history and suspense. This is a book you won't want to miss!

Refuge on Crescent Hill

An unlikely spy discovers freedom and love in the midst of the American Revolution. As the British and Continental armies wage war in 1781, the daughter of a wealthy Virginia plantation owner feels conflict raging in her own heart. Lydia Caswell comes from a family of staunch Loyalists, but she wavers in her allegiance to the Crown. On the night the British sail up the James River on a mission to destroy the new capital, Lydia discovers a wounded man on the riverbank near Caswell Hall. Fearing his identity but unwilling to leave him for dead, she secretly nurses him back to health. The man identifies himself as Nathan, a Patriot -- and an enemy. But Lydia's American sympathies grow, and when British officers return to the plantation, Lydia must help Nathan escape. Privy to conversation among the officers at Caswell Hall, Lydia begins delivering secret messages to the Patriots in Williamsburg. When she overhears a plot to assassinate General Washington, she must risk her life to alert Nathan before it's too late.

The Courier of Caswell Hall

A young girl, kidnapped on the eve of Word War II, changes the lives of a German archaeologist forced into the Nazi Party and--decades later--a researcher trying to overcome her own trauma. 1940. Hanna Tillich cherishes her work as an archaeologist for the Third Reich, searching for the Holy Grail and other artifacts to bolster evidence of a master Aryan race. But when she is reassigned to work as a museum curator in Nuremberg, then forced to marry an SS officer and adopt a young girl, Hanna begins to see behind the Nazi facade. A prayer labyrinth becomes a storehouse for Hanna's secrets, but as she comes to love Lilly as her own daughter, she fears that what she's hiding--and what she begins to uncover--could put them both in mortal danger. Eighty years later, Ember Ellis is a Holocaust researcher intent on confronting hatred toward the Jewish people and other minorities. She reconnects with a former teacher on Martha's Vineyard after she learns that Mrs. Kiehl's mother once worked with the Nazi Ahnenerbe. And yet, Mrs. Kiehl describes her mother as "a friend to the Jewish people." Wondering how both could be true, Ember helps Mrs. Kiehl regain her fractured childhood memories of World War II while at the same time confronting the heartache of her own secret past--and the person who wants to silence Ember forever.

The Curator's Daughter

Searching for a story to adapt for film, an aspiring screenwriter becomes captivated by a bestselling classic novel and the mysterious disappearance of the woman who wrote it. 1940. Via Belle's sweet romance novels made readers believe in happily ever after. But Via's reality was much more complicated. While her first husband was alive, her creativity thrived in a beautiful stone estate situated above a pristine lake and moonflower garden. After his tragic death and a whirlwind second marriage shrouded in secrets, Via vanished from public life, leaving behind a shadow of scandal . . . and her final story. 2006. Screenwriter Harper Rayne is desperate for a breakthrough, if only she can find the right story to tell. But when she digs into the life of her late mother's favorite novelist, she never expects it to become personal. Drawn to the quaint Pennsylvania town where both her mother and Via once lived, Harper discovers more than a mystery to solve--she finds echoes of her own longing for love, healing, and home. As long-buried secrets come to light, Harper must decide if she'll protect the past or rewrite this particular ending. Described as a "powerhouse in dual-timeline Christian fiction" (Library Journal), Melanie Dobson delivers another rich, atmospheric novel about the legacy of sacrificial love and the redemptive power of truth. Standalone dual-timeline historical mystery filled with drama, faith, and intrigue Clean, suspenseful historical fiction, perfect for fans of Susan Meissner, Lisa Wingate, or Patti Callahan Henry Includes discussion questions for book groups

The Lost Story of Via Belle

When Heather Toulson returns to her parents’ cottage in the English countryside, she uncovers long-hidden secrets about her family history and stumbles onto the truth about a sixty-year-old murder. Libby, a free spirit who can’t be tamed by her parents, finds solace with her neighbor Oliver, the son of Lord Croft of Ladenbrooke Manor. Libby finds herself pregnant and alone when her father kicks her out and Oliver mysteriously drowns in a nearby river. Though theories spread across the English countryside, no one is ever held responsible for Oliver’s death. Sixty years later, Heather Toulson, returning to her family’s cottage in the shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor, is filled with mixed emotions. She’s mourning her father’s passing but can’t let go of the anger and resentment over their strained relationship. Adding to her confusion, Heather has an uneasy reunion with her first love, all while sorting through her family’s belongings left behind in the cottage. What she uncovers will change everything she thought she knew about her family’s history. Award-winning author Melanie Dobson seamlessly weaves the past and present together, fluidly unraveling the decades-old mystery and reveals how the characters are connected in shocking ways. Set in a charming world of thatched cottages, lush gardens, and lovely summer evenings, this romantic and historical mystery brings to light the secrets and heartaches that have divided a family for generations.

Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor

After Katie Andrews stumbles into a magical world below Paris with glowing jewels and talking fireflies, she and her sister must work together to solve an ancient mystery and overcome the evil wizard who has stolen the kingdom's light.

The Magic Portal Series

River of Lights

Wanda E. Brunstetter

Susan Page Davis

Olivia Newport

Vickie McDonough

Janet Spaeth

Cathy Liggett

MaryLu Tyndall

Jennifer Rogers Spinola

Take the journey into the American west alongside nine women who are chasing their dreams—Cynthia, for security; Beryl, for a new family; Adeline, for freedom; Molly, for marriage; Beth, for a new start; Belinda, for a place to heal; Suzette, for adventure; Juliet, for peace; and Caroline, for a future for her children. Celebrate Christmas alongside these pioneers as love finds them in nine distinctly different romances penned by leading Christian fiction authors, including New York Times bestselling author Wanda E. Brunstetter.

9 Historical Romances Answer the Call of the American West

The Westward Christmas Brides Collection

In this gripping WWII time-slip novel from the author whose books have been called propulsive and a must-read (Publishers Weekly), Grace Tonquin is an American Quaker who works tirelessly in Vichy France to rescue Jewish children from the Nazis. After crossing the treacherous Pyrnes, Grace returns home to Oregon with a brother and sister whose parents were lost during the war. Though Grace and her husband love lias and Marguerite as their own, echoes of Graces past and trauma from the Holocaust tear the Tonquin family apart. More than fifty years after they disappear, Addie Hoult arrives at Tonquin Lake, hoping to find the Tonquin family. For Addie, the mystery is a matter of life and death for her beloved mentor Charlie, who is battling a genetic disease. Though Charlie refuses to discuss his ties to the elusive Tonquins, finding them is the only way to save his life and mend the wounds from his broken past.

Erinnerungen aus Glas

De ontroerende roman ‘De tragedie van Ladenbrooke Manor’ van Melanie Dobson speelt zich af op het Engelse platteland met zijn zachte zomeravonden, schattige cottages en weelderige tuinen vol vlinders. Midden in deze idyllische setting ontvouwt zich een mysterie dat zich uitstrekt over drie generaties vrouwen. Als Heather Toulson terugkeert naar het huisje waar ze opgroeide op het Engelse platteland, ontdekt ze lang verborgen geheimen over de geschiedenis van haar familie en stuit ze op de waarheid rond een moord van zestig jaar geleden. Libby, een vrolijke en vrije jonge vrouw, is bevriend met haar buurjongen, Oliver, de zoon van Lord Croft van Ladenbrooke Manor. Ze raakt in verwachting en wordt door haar vader op straat gezet. Niet veel later verdrinkt Oliver in een rivier. Hoewel zijn dood verdacht is, wordt een eventuele dader nooit gevonden. Zestig jaar later keert Heather Toulson terug naar het huisje waar ze opgroeide op het Engelse platteland, vlak bij Ladenbrooke Manor. Tijdens het uitzoeken van de spullen van haar overleden vader, heeft ze een ongemakkelijke ontmoeting met haar eerste liefde. Maar wat haar nog meer in verwarring brengt, is een ontdekking die de geschiedenis in een heel ander licht plaatst.

De tragedie van Ladenbrooke Manor

On Elise Friedman's eighth birthday, she lost her mother and any connection to her mysterious past. Now a young woman in college, Elise is traveling to her homeland of Germany to uncover her family's past, but what she finds is much more harrowing than she ever suspected.

Melanie Dobson

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