Bøker av Mary Lou Cheatham

What if your husband doesn't come home after work...or the next day...or the next?In rural post-Civil War Mississippi, the virgin woods offer cover for bands of outlaws. Underdeveloped roads provide limited transportation for the settlers. Most farmhouses stand miles apart. All Her Dreams of Love weaves tension into an inspirational romance set in a harrowing struggle to survive.When Nancy O'Reilly lies in bed at night, the cries of bobcats, panthers, and owls in the nearby Cohay Swamp remind her how lonely her life is. She doesn't know how she can manage their remote farm while she takes care of her little son. Because she has a baby on the way, she experiences tender feelings, and she needs the gentle touch that her husband has provided. Without the man she loves, Nancy doesn't know how she can carry on. Where will she find the strength?If you liked The Dream Bucket, don't miss this absorbing tale of the power of love.Join Nancy on her journey to resilience. Buy your copy now of All Her Dreams of Love.

Lana Jacobs dreams of becoming a professional photographer. She loves to take pictures of the beauty surrounding her. Scenes of nature, such as hummingbirds and landscapes, challenge her to find the most interesting angles for her camera lens. Instead of spending her time looking at the world through a camera, Lana sits in an office, where she works at a profession she detests. Why? She tries to please her father.She's single. During her college years, guys took her on scary dates, and she learned not to trust men. Now she has given up on meeting someone. She needs a vacation spent in peace. Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas will provide plenty of scenery and solitude.The last thing she wants is to meet a guy, but on the first evening at Petit Jean, an intriguing man catches her eye...and her heart. Kyle Bankston, an attractive, lonely man recovering from a failed romance with a gold digger, drives to Petit Jean Mountain every evening to enjoy dinner in the quaint lodge. He doesn't want to become involved with anyone else, but he finds himself drawn to Lana.Lana has hoped she could leave the baggage of her miserable past. In a new location for one week, she hopes to sleep through the night without the nightmares that have plagued her, but the dreams have come with her. After spending a night at the lodge, a despicable man gropes her. Something about him reminds her of a guy who ruined her college social life.Her sinister past emerges when she least expects it. Lana needs courage and strength to combat the evil forces she encounters. The hazards of her life can cause her to shrivel into a passive person, or she can benefit from her experiences so she can let her love shine.

It is the 2020's when Casey, an environmental expert who is an ambassador at large, goes with her husband Logan to rescue her mother and stepfather from a nation that has seceded from the United States. She receives assignments to save the nation from a demented Air Force General, who wants to create a utopia where only the perfect people may live. He fights the U S by using drones to distribute diphtheria bacteria throughout the country. Casey finds the assignment frightening. She gains the courage she needs by reading Granny Lena's journals along with saved letters from Uncle Joe. Her grandmother in the early 1900's lives a life of hardships, including being forced to drop out of high school, fighting diseases, and marrying a man she doesn't love. When her life seems impossible, she finds ways to cope. Casey realizes that she, like Granny Lena, can overcome her life's difficulties.How will Granny Lena survive her loveless marriage? Will Casey find a way to restore the United States to its integrity? Courage Is A Redhead calls to mind what is most important to pass from one generation to the next.

The book, Covington Chronicles III and IV, contains two works -- The Dream Bucket and Manuela Blayne -- in one volume.The Dream Bucket: Ten-year-old Trudy loves Papa more than anybody else until she hears him slap Zoe, her mother. She is so angry at him she wishes he'd die. When he accidentally sets fire to the family mansion and dies in the fire, she is not prepared for the shock. William has cautioned Zoe not to pry into his financial arrangements. She wants to know where he keeps his money in case his life should end. How will she survive as a widow? The family has nowhere to call home except a sharecropper's shack. Manuela Blayne: This novella is the fourth book in the Covington Chronicles. It is a complete story that stands alone. To understand some of the characters fully, however, it would be beneficial to read The Dream Bucket first. Manuela Blayne is the story of one suffering for another. A new day dawns for Trudy Cameron. She develops a heightened sensitivity to others around her who endure the hurts brought on by circumstances she tries to influence. Trudy starts to realize she cannot change everything, she cannot fix all the bad in her world. At the same time she develops a streak of mischief. Sometimes she is shocked by her own behavior. As she grows up fast, she finds emotions within herself she didn't expect.

In The Dream Bucket, Trudy Cameron, lives in an elaborate Mississippi home with her hypocritical father William, withdrawn mother Zoe, and mischievous older brother Billy Jack. It is the spring of 1909. The last session ever at Gravel Hill School comes to a close, as Trudy looks forward to her tenth birthday. She adores Papa until she hears him slap her mother for asking him where he hides his cash. Soon afterwards, Billy Jack tells Trudy that Papa ridicules her behind her back. On the last day of school, Papa gives the schoolmarm a noisy smack of a kiss, overheard by all the pupils in the one-room schoolhouse. All she has heard leaves her so angry she wishes Papa would die. When he accidentally sets fire to the family mansion and dies in the fire, she is not prepared for the shock. She believes her anger caused her father's death. Zoe also feels she caused William's death by prodding him to meet her demands. He's cautioned Zoe not to pry into his financial arrangements. He has withdrawn his money from the Taylorsburg bank because he distrusts the fraudulent bank president. She needles him to tell her where he stores his twenty-dollar gold pieces in case his life should end one day. Two men load William's body into a farm wagon. How will Zoe survive as a widow? The sudden horror causes her to forget who her children are. First Trudy and Billy Jack run after the death wagon, but they turn back to the pile of ashes, where they plan their future. On the day Papa died, they will milk the cows and begin making arrangements for the funeral. Trudy and Billy Jack make a pact never to leave the farm. Regaining her orientation, Zoe bounces back. She moves her family into a shack that needs so many repairs the sharecroppers have abandoned it. When it rains, they run with cooking pots from one leak to another. The kitchen floor has rotted into nonexistence. The cabin offers little protection from heat and cold, bears and rattlesnakes, or human predators. Samuel Benton, the Camerons' best friend, lives with his two children down the road. He tries to help Zoe, but she rejects him. She's busy harvesting the garden, milking the cows, sewing for hire, and caring for her children. She makes no plans for the future. In a hopeless situation, Trudy, Zoe, and Billy Jack fight outside forces to survive. The Bentons and the Camerons fill their bucket and empty it and fill it again. Sometimes in horror and sometimes in joy, Trudy Cameron always dreams big.

She rescues others. Who'll rescue her? Ava discovers an unwelcome surprise in the apartment selected for her by a church leader. Resisting the urge to leave before she even meets the congregation, she must pray and make difficult decisions. But when she's followed all over the county, where can she go?Ava Molino, an overweight millennial minister who has pastored churches in Mississippi, moves to Flat Rock, Texas, to serve at Grace and Peace United Methodist Church. Flat Rock, a small town southwest of Laramie, is in transition from a once prosperous farming community to a low-income town, predominately Hispanic. The first person Ava meets is Ray Austin, the attractive youthful music minister. She fears he may be under eighteen years of age. Except for Ray, the church gives her a cool reception. The apartment selected for Ava by the church is a smelly run-down dump with a homeless drunk living in it. After demanding to receive cash for her housing allowance, she finds a desirable house to rent. She has dinner with Jack Perry, who oversees the church finance committee. He sends her mixed signals. Her instincts tell her not to trust him. She meets him at a restaurant on business. After dinner, he chases her through the countryside until she drives to a police station. Her high-minded quest becomes a question of survival. Ava moves her books into the church office and prepares for Sunday. Grace and Peace Church meets in a magnificent old building in ill repair. The roof is falling in. While she checks out the sanctuary, Ray shows up to work on the sound equipment. Because she assumes he is a teenager, she talks to him as an adult to a child. As she begins her new ministry, she feels awkward, and the sparse congregation gives her an icy response. She starts conversations in the city park with Hispanics. During lunch at a picnic table, a mature woman shames her about her careless nutritional habits. Ava keeps a notebook of memories about her assignment at the church. As an honest woman, who communicates details about her intimate relationship with her Heavenly Father, while she strips away the garments of her emotions, Ava reveals all that is in her heart. She makes new friends in the community and cultivates the programs of the church. Some Spanish people she meets start to attend Grace and Peace. Someone eggs her car. She takes it to be washed and encounters Jack, who owns the carwash. Her fears increase because Jack continues to stalk her and thwart her efforts to serve Flat Rock. His bizarre actions convince her he is deranged, yet she senses she cannot confront him because he has earned respect in the church and community. Will Ava find happiness? Will she find love? Will she escape the ominous forces that are mounting against her?

In the summer of 1910, Trudy Cameron witnesses the aftershock of an event that will disturb her for the rest of her life. It is more than the consequences of the crime that concern her. Cruelty dominates the evolving social system of the South, the only home she knows. Manuela Blayne is the story of one suffering for another. Never will she comprehend all the hurt suffered by her friend Manuela, but Trudy wants to understand. She witnesses, firsthand, what forgiveness can be. She observes hardships she has never imagined. Trudy is always honest with herself about her emotions. She speaks about her story from the eyes of a child who has not been poisoned by social constructs of racial inequality. But in a world that denies mercy to her friend, will Trudy's faith shrink or blossom? In this poignant and gripping novella, a new day dawns for Trudy Cameron. She develops a heightened sensitivity to others around her who endure the hurts brought on by circumstances she tries to influence. Trudy starts to realize she cannot change everything; she cannot fix all the bad in her world. At the same time, she develops a streak of mischief. Sometimes she is shocked by her own behavior. As she grows up fast, she finds emotions within herself she didn't expect. Manuela Blayne is the fourth book in the Covington Chronicles. It is a complete story that stands alone. To understand some of the characters fully, however, it would be beneficial to read The Dream Bucket first. Come spend some time with the Bentons and Camerons. Delight in the parenting skills of Samuel Benton, as he tries to distract Trudy from her anguish over Manuela Blayne. Have a dish of ice cream in the Covington and float on a watermelon in the swimming hole at Hot Coffee. Witness the mischief Trudy dares not confess to her parents.

Rivka Smith plans to enjoy her three-week vacation in a lake resort lodge, but as the pandemic begins to spread throughout the nation, her family members are called abruptly back to work. She is left alone with the resort's owner as her sole companion. For years, Rivka has wanted a meaningful relationship. Is it possible that love, a force stronger than death or any pandemic, may slip up on her to claim her unsuspecting heart when she least expects it?

Jessica Boudreaux Hays, a retired music professor, has recently moved to Rousseauville to open a bed and breakfast in her grandparents house. An attractive and talented fifty-five-year-old widow, Jessica loves to cook, entertain, and play the piano. Her life is filled with problems. Emmie, her younger sister who lives with her, cannot be left alone. The sisters recently lost their parents in an automobile accident. The residents of the village are charitable but superstitious. For some mysterious reason, they refuse to go near her or the bed and breakfast. Another frustration in Jessicas life is her cyber romance with a mysterious stranger. Dale Bonnier, a fifty-five-year-old widower, pastors two small churches in rural south Louisiana. He inspires the people in Rousseauville with his compelling sermons. He is considerate and approachable but at times disorganized and impetuous. His parishioners, especially Jessica, find his preaching inspiring. Dale has a recurring problem with his past. In the 1980s, when he was an intense young man, he destroyed his home and family as he sought to satisfy his cravings for illicit drugs. Thirty years have passed. God has forgiven him, but the past has left indelible scars. Can Dale forgive himself? He cannot turn his past around, but he hopes it will be used to influence and inspire others. Jessica tries to start over in Rousseauville, but she encounters unpredicted stormy times. Can she find acceptance? Will she ever find a man she can love and trust?