A. Merritt Books

Laura Talbot leaves England to avoid a scandal after bing jilted by her fiance. She is strong, confident and vows never to be hurt by another man again. She joins her father Beau, a Shipping businessman, in New Orleans. She soon takes over the command of their large sugar plantation on which they live. Clay Sutherland is owner of a sucessful gambling saloon and wants Laura the minute he sees her at a society ball. Laura tries to fight the attraction but fails. Clay gets involved in spying for the U.S. when trying to help out a friend. Several French and Creole men want Laura's land in order to help Napoleon and try several ways to cheat her out of it. Clay and Laura want to marry and she tells her father. Beau is outraged because Clay isn't part of their aristocracy and challenges Clay to a duel. Beau is killed and Clay is seriously injured by unknown men who've hidden in the bushes at the duel. Laura nurses him back to health but can't marry him because she believes he killed her father. Laura is kidnapped, learns the truth about her fathers death and who the "bad guys" are. She escapes and Clay finds her in the swamps.
This story was suspensefull and the tension between the two lovers was great.

AFRAID TO LOVE...

Laura Talbot-Harrow was an expert in hiding her emotions. No one -- not even her only sister -- knew that her coldness protected a heart that could not bear to be broken again. Laura meant to stay away from society, away from men . . . until she met Clay Sutherland. Though one look from the dangerously handsome gambler shook her to her very core, she struggled to keep her distance. Then, as he wooed her with wonderous kisses, she began to change her plans. She would sample the forbidden pleasures aroused by his delicious caresses, let herself savor the bitter sweetness of his love . . . then escape before he devoured her very soul!

DETERMINED TO CONQUER...

Clay was one step ahead of his luscious Laura . . . and if she thought he would settle for a woman who would allow him to warm her bed but not her heart, she was sadly mistaken. His auburn-haired temptress was about to learn how to really please a man. He would melt her icy reserve with the heat of his body, tame her wild spirit with the warmth of his passion . . . and prove his love throughout a lifetime of sultry New Orleans nights!

Also... don't miss the unforgettable story of Judith, Laura's beautiful, passionate sister, and tempestuous love of a dashing privateer in MASQUE OF SAPPHIRE by Deana James!

MR. AUGUST - The Montana Man: He'd lived for his son and the land--until she came into his life...

His Mystery Woman: She was called Sierra. She was beautiful and vulnerable, and he felt an immediate connection to her.

All rancher Clint Barrow knew was her name. But from the first he'd needed to stake his claim. He'd brought her hometo heal, but as the days stretched into long, hot nights, Clint wanted the woman herself. And just when their denied desire exploded into full-blown passion, Sierra's past began to come clear. Would she soon have to leave her Montana man behind?

Initially I was put off by the cover - pretty bad! However, the story and characters are WONDERFUL and very well written! I highly recommend this one - ignore the ugly cover!

This is a brand new year 2001 book with more than 400 large, full color, sharp photos of every type of advertising thermometer. Values are year 2001. There's not a lot of text in this softbound, small format book, but it's loaded with beautiful pictures of this popular collectible. Major topics include: agriculture, automotive, beverage, food, funeral and ambulance, healthcare, industry, and tobacco. The smaller size makes it handy to take with you when you shop for these items. Collectors will find it of value.

ISBN 037382274x - Cute; better than the average romance novel, which makes it good, but not great. And, in my quest for really bad lines in romance novels, Wrangler's Lady gives us "His warmth drew her as a magnet did iron filings." Iron filings? Where did that come from??

Spoiled rich boys Chance, Cash and Rush Saxon (whose parents had exceedingly boring names, which might explain how they named their children) are informed, when their grandfather dies, that they are nearly penniless. The family fortune has dried up and all that remains are three failing businesses in three separate states. Each takes a business and the men set out to see what they can do to rebuild the Saxon empire - or least earn an honest living, for the first time in their lives. Chance gets the ranch in Montana.

His first problem is the state of the business, his second is his foreman - Cleo, a woman. His response to a female running a ranch takes a back seat, however, to his response to this female in particular. Cleo, single mother of Rosie, doesn't trust men and doesn't want to turn into Chance's mistress, so she does her best to keep her distance. It isn't easy, though, because she finds him every bit as attractive as he finds her. Of course, it's a romance novel - they end up together, one happy family. The only surprise was that Rosie's father never did appear to stake a claim, but it was a pleasant surprise! As for future surprises, I don't know if I'll ever read the stories of Cash and Rush, but I'd be shocked if the whole "near penniless" thing wasn't a ploy by their grandfather to turn his grandsons into more than playboys.

I haven't read the phrase "monthly visitor" in any book written after 1970, so that was a little weird, especially in a genre that doesn't shy away from sexual topics. There was one bad edit, a record for the romance novels I've read, with the word "somethin'" breaking at the end of a line as "so-methin'", so high praise to Silhouette's editor on this one. Romance isn't my thing, but Jackie Merritt/Carolyn Joyner is one author I wouldn't mind reading more from.

As a youngster, Joel Biggs, accompanied by his friends Mark and Billy, traveled back in time to 1811 Tennessee. Joel always regretted that he couldn't save Mark from a raging river. He and Billy were able to get back to their own time but Billy died young and Joel became an alcoholic. He is drying out at his friend's house when he decides to go back to the past and find Mark. When he makes his move, his friend's seventeen year old daughter Rachel follows; they end up in the 1830's.

They end up staying at a farmhouse teaching the father and his son to read and write. When Jarrett Cotten's men steal two of the farmer's slaves, Joel goes after them; when they meet Cotten takes a shine to him. He tells him that he has a following called the Mystic Clan and their goal is to have the slaves revolt in the south so that he and his followers can steal the plantation owners blind. Joel realizes he is playing the role of Mathew Crenshaw who wrote about Cotten and his plans in order to stop it from happening. He gets a lot of Intel from Cotten before they part ways and he sets out to write the book he read in his own century hoping that this and another plan will break the back of the Mystic Clan.

Although Joel is an adult, this is a great coming of age story. Joel leaves a piece of himself back in the eighteenth century and his need to go back is understood by the audience. Readers will like the tortured hero who meets up with Mark and others who made an impact on his young life when he traveled back to the past the first time (see THE BLOOD OF FATHER TIME BOOK 1). Though Cotton's rambling seems too bodacious bragging, readers will enjoy the continuing adventures of Joel Briggs, past and present, and past.

Harriet Klausner

A revision of the classic reference covering all important principles and techniques needed by practicing civil engineers. The new Edition incorporates changes in design and construction practices, especially in design specifications for construction materials, buildings and bridges, safety and health concerns, and the most current codes changes including ACI, AISC, ASTM, NDS for wood structures, etc. The Handbook covers systems design, community and regional planning, the latest design methods for buildings, airports, highways, tunnels and bridges. It includes sections on construction equipment, construction management, materials, specifications, structural theory, geotechnical engineering, wood, concrete, steel design and construction.

A nice Biography of Isaac Singer, his Sewing Machine, and the Company that made him wealthly.
When Henry Ford was in diapers, Isaac Singer was starting the company that revolutionized not just sewing, but the retailing of manufactured products.
Singer created the first installment purchase plan, and created the first nationwide distribution system via traveling salesmand, and stores - in virtually every town in America. This book tells how it happened. From the pre-civil war inventions, through the vicious patent battles of the 1880s, the book lays out Singer's role in the manufacturing of the sewing machine. Singer's revolution allowed women to add hours of time to their lives, distilled from the former drudgery of hand sewing of clothing - and all household linens... Women instantly recognized the freedom inherent in the use of the machine, and Singer made it accessible by inventing the installment plan. For pennies a month, a woman could purchase what was then, and incredibly expensive item (The first machines sold for $100.00 and more - ). By the 1890's, over a million machine had been sold. Shortly after the turn of the century, Singer built the tallest building in the world (at the site of the World Trade Center), but his private pecadillos made him pariah in New York, where he had many mistresses, children, and, even more than one wife at one time! He moved to Paris to avoid the publicity, and died overweight, and still a reprobate!
An interesting, and little known (today) history of a company that had a huge impact on the history of this country - and especially the lives and development of women!
It's not the best written work, but a good quick read, and interesting!

This is a really enjoyable romantic adventure type story. When the aliens, or lost race snake people or women, or whatever you want to call them are more human and nicer than the average blokes running around, the writer has a good thing going.

There is of course a young, attractive female to go with the young bloke good guy adventurer, and an evil Dark Lord, and a battle. Lots of fun if you like that sort of thing.

Longmans, 1953, 1st; 220 pp. Juvenile hardback. Adventures with Roger's Rangers who spied for the British Troops around Lake Champlain during the French and Indian War.

This is not a study of Proverbs but a study of Christian fatherhood issues for men who have chosen or considering that worldview. In that case FFF would be a great tool for a young men's discipleship study or a father - son study. A hardback copy would be an excellent gift idea. The book is filled with fun, colorful illustrations that make reading easy. The author deals with the usual social ills of words, sex, temper, alcohol, money, work and friends. The strategy of the outline should not be overlooked: What is fatherhood? What are the issues? What will you do? As a father, leader and discipler of four (now seven) children and grandfather of five, this will certainly be a top shelf reference in my library. Men who understand and are in the game should strongly consider this book. If the cover picture doesn't hook you, don't buy it.