Showing results by author "Kathleen Shoop" in All Categories

It’s Christmastime and twenty-four-year-old Socialite, Wrenly Hawthorne, is teetering between the comfort of family wealth and her risky drive for independence. Feeling estranged from friends and at odds with her parents, she is searching for “something more.” With keen interest in the freedom that the women’s right to vote should have brought, she studies the stock market and plans to attend school. She is sure she can build the life she wants, but will she risk everything to do it?

It’s the week before Christmas, and the historic McFarland home is buzzing with the return of four adult children and their young families. Pop made sure this was the year they all came back to town. Newly married and postpartum Ivy, a TikTok famous bus-life wanderer, struggles with the best way to parent her teen son with special needs. Ava’s seemingly perfect life and marriage are wearing thin. Oliver’s accidental wealth makes the perfect breeding ground for doubts about his professional abilities.

Despite the lingering Depression, Albany, Oregon, is lit up for Christmas. The entire town is bright with hope ushered in by the holiday season. But Jane Scott's dream for the perfect Christmas is ruined. Feeling as though everything she had counted on is fading away, she flounders for an anchor. Little by little, the Scott family Christmas traditions and a benefactor's encouragement remind her of what the season is all about.

Bella Darling lives in a cozy barn at Maple Grove, an estate owned by industrialist Archibald Westminster. The Westminster family is stranded overseas and have sent word to relieve all employees of their duties except Margaret, the pregnant maid, James the butler, and Bella. Content with borrowed books and a toasty home festooned with pine boughs and cinnamon sticks, she coaxes the old hens to lay eggs—extraordinary eggs. Bella yearns for just one thing—someone to share her life with. Always inventive, she has a plan for that.

Jupiter is rising when Stanisław Franciszek Musiał is born on November 21, 1920, and the midwife predicts he will live an extraordinary life. Young Stanley’s physical talents show themselves at the Polish Falcons and on the baseball field. When the Depression hits and the mills close, tension grips every Donora household. Meanwhile, as Stan matures, he draws attention from the press, college coaches, and professional baseball scouts. Suddenly his singular dream is set against options he’d never imagined. Even with the talent to achieve his goals, doubt creeps in.

Jacob Gusky wakes up hoping Santa has arrived. And he has...but not for Jacob, one of two Jewish boys living at the Boys’ Home of Manhattan. When a friend gifts him a tin whistle, Jacob learns the power of giving, the joy in receiving, and hears what he considers to be the sound of happiness.

Two days before Christmas, ornery Elliot Ebberts is tasked with school drop-off even though distracted by an important real estate transaction. In the holiday carpool chaos his extravagant, lucky coat goes missing. In a panic, he searches for it, tracing its path as it passes through the hands of good people in dire situations. Meanwhile, his plan to wow his wife Libby with an ostentatious gift reveals Elliot’s shallowness to the world and mortifies his entire family. Is it too late for him to rediscover the meaning of Christmas?

Katherine Arthur and her family are back and it’s time to collect the money Mrs. Mellet left them in her will. The tidy sum will allow the family peace of mind and a future that’s stable and fulfilling. But when things don’t go exactly as planned, Katherine steps up to do more than her share. Hired as a kitchen mistress, her intuition (with the help of a mysterious recipe book), cooking prowess, and work ethic make her the perfect partner for the enigmatic, wealthy woman next door. Then Aleksey Zurchenko arrives.

Meet Tilly Rabel, a proud oyster-woman, and Landon Lockwood, the troubled son of one of the wealthiest men in America. The two could not be less suited for love. But when an old legend draws Landon to a hidden river cove, Tilly and he find each other, are lured by growing attraction, and repelled by competing desires to control Tilly’s waters. The hidden pool is replete with valuable mussel beds and the source of everything that makes Tilly who she is. Landon sees the illustrious treasure as the path to proving to his parents he is worth their love and worthy of the Lockwood name.

2019: Donora, Pennsylvania: Ninety-one-year-old Patryk Rusek hides in his attic, hoping the searchers think he’s escaped. When Lucy finally bursts in, she discovers her beloved grandfather clutching a fat, hand-drawn, antique book. In it is the story of Donora, the town that shaped America, its people, and Patryk himself. 1910: Donora, Pennsylvania: Mary Lancos lives in a home on the hill overlooking town and its mighty Monongahela River. Shy Pole Lukasz Musial arrives in Donora seeking the clear blue skies, green lawns, and better life he’d seen pictured on a postcard.

1891: Living separately for three years, 14-year-old twins Katherine and Tommy Arthur have done their best to make each boarding house feel like home. But unrest grows as they are driven to questionable actions just to survive. Meanwhile, their desperate mother is confronted with breaking yet another promise to her children. Then a miracle descends. Hope rises on a cold, rainy night and changes everything. If Jeanie could just get word to Katherine and Tommy, she knows she can set their lives right again.

In the summer of 1905, Katherine Arthur's mother arrives on her doorstep, dying, forcing her to relive a past she wanted to forget. When Katherine was young, the Arthur family had been affluent city dwellers until shame sent them running for the prairie, into the unknown. Taking her family, including young Katherine, to live off the land was the last thing Jeanie Arthur had wanted, but she would do her best to make a go of it. For Jeanie's husband, Frank, it had been a world of opportunity. Dreaming, lazy Frank.

Sweet Romance - Fresh off their whirlwind nuptials and unexpected, but joyous pregnancy, April and Hale Abercrombie are gleeful about their life together. But, while Hale is serving his country in Vietnam, he receives news of the loss of their newborn daughter. Back home on leave, Hale can barely wait to hold his wife. Their reunion is passionate and their physical connection, strong and soothing. His embrace, his touch, and his love are just as perfect as April remembered.

Set on the shores of the Albemarle Sound, April Harrington has fond memories of summers at her family home, Bliss. After her fairytale wedding disintegrates, it becomes her refuge - the one place where she can attempt to pull the unraveling threads of her life back together. Unbeknownst to April, the stately house has been neglected in recent years. The once-sturdy roof is leaking in a few dozen places, and the wharf is rotting. Nothing is the same as she remembers.

In the mill town of Donora, Pennsylvania, site of the infamous 1948 "killing smog", headstrong nurse Rose Pavlesic tends to her family and neighbors. Controlling and demanding, she's created a life that reflects everything she missed growing up as an orphan. She's even managed to keep her painful secrets hidden from her loving husband, dutiful children, and large extended family.

Holly and the Christmas Tree is a holiday collection of tiny stories. Set in various time periods, each tale draws the reader into all that is magical about the Christmas season. Wild New Year's Eve parties, the first Christmas trees sold at market, a little girl's dream present, an injured Santa Claus, and a family healing each other's broken hearts are just a glimpse of the touching, fun, bite-sized stories. There's something for everyone!