Abigail Neal dreams of someday escaping her life in the slums of New Orleans. But how can a woman alone and unprotected ever fulfill her dreams of becoming a doctor? Then, young medical student John Braddock comes to pay a call on a neighbor. Though the scars left on her heart have taught her never to trust anyone, Abby is drawn to John's caring nature. Soon an unlikely friendship develops between the son of privilege and the poor daughter of missionaries. But when Abby's mysterious past comes back to haunt her present, will she call upon her faith to help right a wrong and make a new life with her very own Prince Charming?

Following her dream The Preacher’s Wife by Cheryl St.John There is nothing romantic about widowed father Samuel Hart’s marriage proposal. Yet Josie Randolph says yes. The Lord has finally blessed the lonely widow with the family she’s always dreamed of. Surely during their long journey to his new post, her husband will grow to love her. Samuel doesn’t seem ready to open his heart again. But Josie is determined to be not just the preacher’s wife, but Samuel’s wife. Crescent City Courtship by Elizabeth White Abigail Neal dreams of escaping her life in the slums of New Orleans. But how can a woman alone ever fulfill her dreams of becoming a doctor? Then young medical student John Braddock comes to pay a call on a neighbor, and an unlikely friendship develops between the two. But when Abby’s past comes back to haunt her, will she call upon her faith to help right a wrong and make a new life with her very own Prince Charming?

What was it like to grow up black and female in the segregated South? To answer this question, LaKisha Simmons blends social history and cultural studies, recreating children's streets and neighborhoods within Jim Crow New Orleans and offering a rare look into black girls' personal lives. Simmons argues that these children faced the difficult task of adhering to middle-class expectations of purity and respectability even as they encountered the daily realities of Jim Crow violence, which included interracial sexual aggression, street harassment, and presumptions of black girls' impurity. Simmons makes use of oral histories, the black and white press, social workers' reports, police reports, girls' fiction writing, and photography to tell the stories of individual girls: some from poor, working-class families; some from middle-class, "respectable" families; and some caught in the Jim Crow judicial system. These voices come together to create a group biography of ordinary girls living in an extraordinary time, girls who did not intend to make history but whose stories transform our understanding of both segregation and childhood.

Finding purpose…together Calico Christmas at Dry Creek When influenza claims her husband and baby, Elizabeth O’Brian doesn’t know if she can go on. Then Jake Hargrove approaches her with a plea she can’t ignore. He’s been left in charge of his two nieces, and the baby desperately needs Elizabeth’s help to survive the harsh winter. A marriage of convenience seems the only answer. With a new purpose in life, dare Elizabeth hope for the gift of love this Christmas? Redeeming Gabriel Spying for the Union army has taken a heavy toll on Gabriel Laniere. Though the cause is noble, he can never risk getting close to anyone—not even God. Yet Camilla Beaumont, daughter of the Confederacy, might be the exception. Camilla has a secret that rivals Gabriel’s—she works for the Underground Railroad. When the two forge an unlikely partnership, it could be the key Gabriel seeks to a truth larger than any conflict—love.

The importance of New Orleans in American culture has made the city's place in the American imagination a crucial topic for literary scholars and cultural historians. While databases of bibliographical information on New Orleans-centered fiction are available, they are of little use to scholars researching works written before the 1980s. In The New Orleans of Fiction: A Research Guide, James A. Kaser provides detailed synopses for more than 500 works of fiction significantly set in New Orleans and published between 1836 and 1980. The synopses include plot summaries, names of major characters, and an indication of physical settings. An appendix provides bibliographical information for works dating from 1981 well into the 21st century, while a biographical section provides basic information about the authors, some of whom are obscure and would be difficult to find in other sources. Written to assist researchers in locating works of fiction for analysis, the plot summaries highlight ways in which the works touch on major aspects of social history and cultural studies (i.e., class, ethnicity, gender, immigrant experience, and race). The book is also a useful reader advisory tool for librarians and readers who want to identify materials for leisure reading, particularly since genre, juvenile, and young adult fiction—as well as literary fiction—are included.

An explosive novel of the Civil War about one man’s escape from a notorious Confederate prison camp---and his dramatic return to save his men. July 1864. Union officer Nathan Parker has been imprisoned at nightmarish Andersonville prison camp in Georgia along with his soldiers. As others die around them, Nathan and his men hatch a daring plan to allow him to escape through a tunnel and make his way to Vicksburg, where he intends to alert his superiors to the imprisonment and push for military action. His efforts are blocked by higher-ups in the military, so Parker takes matters into his own hands. Together with a shady, dangerous ex-soldier and smuggler named Marcel Lafarge and a fascinating collection of cutthroats, soldiers, and castoffs, a desperate Parker organizes a private rescue mission to free his men before it’s too late. Exciting, thoroughly researched, and dramatic, Escape from Andersonville is a Civil War novel filled with action, memorable characters, and vividly realized descriptions of the war’s final year.

“Well written, fascinating, rich in plot and characters . . . presents [not only an interesting story, but] a portrait of the Jewish community in the 19th-century South.”—Newark Sunday Star-Ledger She was the exquisite daughter of a wealthy Jewish merchant. From a charmed girlhood in opulent New Orleans, she would be swept into the cataclysm of the Civil War. Forced to choose between her duties as a Southern wife and mother and her love for a forbidden man, a forbidden cause, Miriam Raphael is at the center of the whirlwind in a spellbinding novel of divided loyalties and divided hearts. “Seductive . . . moves along briskly through the kind of territory her avid readers most appreciate.”—Publishers Weekly “As a romance, Crescent City can’t miss!”—The New York Times Book Review

A guide to series fiction lists popular series, identifies novels by character, and offers guidance on the order in which to read unnumbered series.