CrossReads Short Takes
Kiss Under the Lemon Tree
by Dianne Marie Andre
Sweet Romance Set in 1954
Sometimes, the path you planned isn’t the one you end up taking. Twenty-three-year-old Sonny Pace is a gifted photojournalist ready to begin his career traveling the world. But first, he must return home to sell his deceased mother’s house. He has no desire to settle down until he crosses paths with Addie Stevenson, the girl he secretly loved in high school. Addie lives with her grandmother, who took her in after being abandoned by her father then orphaned at a young age when her mother died. On the surface, Addie appears content with the lifestyle her grandmother has defined for her. Then Sonny captures her love…until family deceptions are revealed and she breaks his heart. Confronted with truths about mortality and faith, and caught in the middle of lies and confusion, Sonny makes the only decision he can.
The Telling of the Beads Book I
by Avellina Balestri
“I dreamt of a wily wolf and a swift stag blessing a sapling among the trees. It’s a sign you’ll make our people proud.” ~
Robin Locksley is the heir to the last Saxon noble house in Nottinghamshire. Since the time of William the Conqueror, his family has been beleaguered by those who seek to extinguish their lineage and seize their estate. Roger Cavendish is the son of the ruthless and power-hungry Norman lord whose property borders Locksley lands. For over a century since the conquest, the Cavendish family has sought to secure predominance in the region through any means necessary. Each raised to uphold opposing ancestral legacies, Robin and Roger find themselves crossing paths through their common bond to the land. They meet eye to eye, sky blue and hawk gold, catching glimpses of each other’s souls as they struggle under their own personal burdens. But while one is yet a child and the other hardly a man, a twist of fate intensifies the generational feud and kindles the first sparks of a raging fire that will one day consume their world. Destiny will immortalize them in story and song. Unfolding in an era dominated by feudal conflict and imbued with religious faith, this introspective drama puts flesh upon the bones of legend and takes an intimate character-driven approach to retelling one of the most famous heroic journeys in the annals of literature.