Marie Ferrarella is a popular and prolific American writer of 272 romance novels that have been translated into at least seven languages. She has also written under the names Marie Nicole, Marie Michael, and Marie Charles.
Marie was born to Polish parents in West Germany, and moved to the United States when she was four. She has a Masters degree in Shakespearean comedy from Queens College in New York.
Her first romance was sold in 1981. Currently she’s releasing her three hard-to-find women’s contemporary novels written in the tradition of Danielle Steel, Nora Roberts and Debbie Macomber. Finally available again, these heart-tugging stories explore the tangled emotional lives of three women. The first, Sapphire and Shadow, tops today’s Buffet.
Marie and her husband live in Southern California, with their two children. Her hobbies include old movies, musicals and mysteries.
As usual, each book listed here has gone FREE within the past 24 hours (except for the “Bargain Books” at the bottom of this page). Warning: Kindle book promotions can end without notice, so before downloading click the link “See Kindle price at Amazon” to verify that the book is still free. (Prices and availability may differ outside USA.)
Sapphire and Shadow (A Woman’s Life Book 1)
They could have had it all.
Johanna Whitney does seem to have it all–beauty, intelligence, talent, and a rich husband whose genius has created stunning films. What she is desperately trying to cover up is just how tragically that life is coming unraveled. Her husband’s drug use, fueled by his fear of being unable to replicate his success, renders him incapable of showing her the love she once gave up everything for. Her closest friend is killed in a plane crash and even her daughter seems to prefer her husband’s latest young lover to her own mother. The harder Johanna works at trying to patch the holes of her life, the more things come undone.
It all comes to a head on location in London. Johanna watches happiness slipping away and turns for comfort to a young British artisan. He tries to teach her to love herself again, and to dare to reach for happiness. Though he manages to awaken her emotions, her husband’s drug arrest in Italy and her daughter’s sudden illness make her realize she needs to go home–not to Los Angeles, but to New York.
Leaving all the wealth and influence she’s been living with behind, she and her daughter feel like refugees as they search for a place to live and a way to make a living. Both needs are answered when they find shelter with an old friend and colleague in his art gallery. Johanna is back to her roots in the art world, but she’s been gone a long time and she searches to find ways to heal and blossom. Even more difficult is the struggle to release her heart from the chains of fear and learn to love again.
El Lazo – the lasso – A Clint Ryan Western
1840’s Alta California is on the verge of revolution. The Mexicans struggle to keep their gracious life-style, the Indians have sworn to defend their tribal heritage. Both are doomed by the inevitable war with the colossus to the east. America is determined to reach the shores of the Pacific.
In this turbulent land comes John Clinton Ryan, an adventurer, a seaman, a man who must learn the ways of the vaquero if he is to survive. For only then will he have a chance against cruel Mexican soldados and a brutal American captain who has sworn to see him hang. An exciting, historically accurate, western novel, full of horse leather and gunfights, set in la California at her best.
Double Happiness: One Man’s Tale of Love, Loss, and Wonder on the Long Roads of China
Tony Brasunas’s award-winning debut memoir is a fascinating portrait of life in China and a groundbreaking story of coming of age in today’s era of globalization.
In a classroom in sultry Guangzhou, having never before left the United States nor taught a class on anything, armed only with a beginner’s grasp of the language, Brasunas is confronted by thirty-seven ninth graders in uniform. Only his intrinsic curiosity about Chinese culture and about himself drives him on, to keep trying in the tense classroom, to trust his instincts in the
frenetic and dishonest street markets, and to make new friends from all walks of life.
When the school year ends, Brasunas sets off with just a backpack across the vastness of China, along the Silk Road in the north, and to the edge of ancient Tibet in the west. His rugged road brings daunting perils, unexpected romance, and wild twists of fate that transform his understanding of right and wrong, beauty and truth, suffering and happiness.
2076: A Revolutionary Tale: All Systems Have Failed
All systems have failed. The seas have risen, the skies have darkened and the American Midwest has become a desert. A handful of corporations own and operate the country and food is used as a means of oppression. The year is 2074. America is now a third-world nation and China, with its prosperous and burgeoning middle class, is the leader of the Free World.
Against this backdrop, a devastating raid by the wealthy ruling class on a stronghold of rebels fighting against the system inadvertently unites two enemies in a forbidden love that threatens to tear their worlds apart. Carlin Pheney, a decorated military pilot and member of the upper class, is captured by Aelena Hall, a veteran leader of the food wars. Together, they become fugitives on the run from a military industrial complex headed by Carlin’s father. Aided by strangers and betrayed by friends, they are swept up in an unstoppable global catastrophe.
When Aelena is captured and thrown into the Federal Torture Chamber on Guantanamo Island, Carlin devises a desperate plan for her impossible escape from the water-bound prison.
Set me free (Evans Trilogy Book 1)
Disastrous love life aside, Charlotte Evans is rather content with her life. Her quaint little art gallery is plodding along nicely, and her sister Emily’s artistic career is about to take off, thanks to her tireless promotion. She even gets to see her best friend every day and drink his delicious coffee in the café next door.
But when dastardly property developer Craig Carmichael comes along, threatening to demolish her gallery and take everything away, Charlotte has an unexpected fight on her hands. Not only is she battling to stop Craig’s development, she’s also struggling against the mysterious magnetic pull that has her on a collision course with Craig himself.
BRAINSTORM
What if a small American town is secretly replicated, populated with kidnapped scientists and psychically talented civilians, and then used as a proving ground while training psychic assassins? Political and military leaders of the Free World are the targets of these psychic warriors, and Project Brainstorm’s goal is world domination.
Gold Rush seems to be just another sleepy little Colorado community full of friendly, caring citizens, quaint cottages, and a sort of quiet peace, held gently by the picturesque mountains that surround it. However, something isn’t right in Gold Rush, and early on a Monday morning Robert Weller awakens with a cautioning and insuppressible voice inside his head. He soon finds a secret behind every door, a motive with every glance, and a lie beneath every spoken word.
The Boys of ’67: Charlie Company’s War in Vietnam
When the 160 men of Charlie Company (4th Battalion/47th Infantry/9th ID) were drafted by the US Army in May 1966, they were part of the wave of conscription that would swell the American military to 80,000 combat troops in theater by the height of the war in 1968. In the spring of 1966, the war was still popular and the draftees of Charlie Company saw their service as a rite of passage. But by December 1967, when the company rotated home, only 30 men were not casualties—and they were among the first vets of the war to be spit on and harassed by war protestors as they arrived back the U.S.
In his new book, The Boys of ’67, Andy Wiest, the award-winning author of Vietnam’s Forgotten Army and The Vietnam War 1956-1975, examines the experiences of a company from the only division in the Vietnam era to train and deploy together in similar fashion to WWII’s famous 101st Airborne Division.
Wiest interviewed more than 50 officers and enlisted men who served with Charlie Company, including the surviving platoon leaders and both of the company’s commanders. (One of the platoon leaders, Lt Jack Benedick, lost both of his legs, but went on to become a champion skier.) In addition, he interviewed 15 family members of Charlie Company veterans, including wives, children, parents, and siblings. Wiest also had access to personal papers, collections of letters, a diary, an abundance of newspaper clippings, training notebooks, field manuals, condolence letters, and photographs from before, during, and after the conflict.
I Am Livia
Her life would be marked by scandal and suspicion, worship and adoration…
At the tender age of fourteen, Livia Drusilla overhears her father and fellow aristocrats plotting the assassination of Julius Caesar. Proving herself an astute confidante, she becomes her father’s chief political asset—and reluctantly enters into an advantageous marriage to a prominent military officer. Her mother tells her, “It is possible for a woman to influence public affairs,” reminding Livia that—while she possesses a keen sense for the machinations of the Roman senate—she must also remain patient and practical.
But patience and practicality disappear from Livia’s mind when she meets Caesar’s heir, Octavianus. At only eighteen, he displays both power and modesty. A young wife by that point, Livia finds herself drawn to the golden-haired boy. In time, his fortunes will rise as Livia’s family faces terrible danger. But her sharp intellect—and her heart—will lead Livia to make an unbelievable choice: one that will give her greater sway over Rome than she could have ever foreseen.
The Eternal Wonder: A Novel
The Eternal Wonder tells the coming-of-age story of Randolph Colfax (Rann for short), an extraordinarily gifted young man whose search for meaning and purpose leads him to New York, England, Paris, a mission patrolling the DMZ in Korea that will change his life forever—and, ultimately, to love.
The Cats that Chased the Storm (The Cats that . . . Book 2)
It’s early spring in Erie, Indiana, and the weather has turned most foul. We find Katherine “Katz” Kendall, heiress to the Colfax fortune, living in a pink mansion, caring for her three Siamese and Abby the Abyssinian. Severe thunderstorms frighten the cats, but Scout is better than any weather app. A different storm is brewing, however, with a discovery that connects great-uncle William Colfax to the notorious gangster John Dillinger.
Why is the Erie Historical Society so eager to get William’s personal papers? Is the new man in Katherine’s life a fortune hunter? Will Abra mysteriously reappear, and is Abby a magnet for danger? A fast-paced whodunit, the second book in “The Cats that . . . Cozy Mystery” series involves four extraordinary felines that help Katz unravel the mysteries in her life. Author of Amazon’s Bestselling Cozy Animal Mystery “The Cats that Surfed the Web.” Third book, “The Cats that Told a Fortune” now available at http://amzn.com/B00MAAZ3ZU .
Finding Rebecca: A Novel of Love and the Holocaust
Christopher would always be there for Rebecca no matter what it took, from the beaches of Jersey to the hell of the holocaust and Auschwitz.
The prisoners in Auschwitz called it Canada, the land of unimaginable riches, where the last possessions of those who perished in the gas chambers were gathered and counted. Christopher is the new head of Canada, the ‘Dollar King.’ He is the one who controls the river of dirty money flowing through the camp. But Christopher is on a different mission. He is not in Auschwitz to serve the Reich, but to find Rebecca, lost somewhere inside the sprawling system of concentration camps set up to murder the innocent victims of the holocaust.
They were six years old when they meet on the island of Jersey in 1924. Christopher, recently arrived from Germany with his sister, and grieving father, and Rebecca, born and raised on the island, the daughter of an abusive father and alcoholic mother. Their lives would never be the same.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2