Grace Livingston Hill Books 53 Through 78

• 53. The Patch of Blue-Ever since the day Chris Walton, happy-go-lucky college youth, drove Natalie Halsey home in his new roadster the memory of her sweet smile and quiet manner clung to him. It was funny she hadn't made much impression on him before. She had always been just one of the girls in his class at school. But Chris' high school days had made a lasting impression on Natalie, and it was with much hidden enthusiasm that, after financial ruin came to the Waltons and Chris encountered his own "trial by depression," she could offer him a job in the same store with her. Then came the terrible moment when Natalie was in danger and Chris must be braver than he knew how to be. The treasure of love and happiness life holds in store for them makes one of Mrs. Hill's most heart-warming romances.
• 54. Rainbow Cottage-Shyly, half defiantly she lifted the latch, opened the gate and stepped within. Such loveliness made her gasp. This must be heaven on earth but to its owner, Grandmother Ainslee, it was just "Rainbow Cottage." Sheila's story of her father's cruel treatment and desertion was hard to believe, so Grandmother Ainslee promised herself she'd make it up to the girl. That day was the dawning of a new life for Sheila. But into this life came Jacqueline, the wild, selfish cousin who hated her. Then to offset Jacqueline's hatred came Angus' love, and all the while Buck's terrible figure lurked in the background, threatening Sheila.
• 55. Rose Galbraith-In a colorful, warm-hearted story flavored with the atmosphere of Scotland, Mrs. Hill traces Rose Galbraith's journey toward love, reconciliation and happiness. As the story opens, a cloud is shadowing Rose's life. Her mother's sudden death left her alone to make the long trip across the ocean to visit her mother's family. Her farewell to America would have been more than she could bear had it not been for an unexpected meeting with Gordon McCarroll, a friend from her school days. The studied coldness of her mother's estranged sister was her welcome to Scotland. But, though surrounded by the intrigues of Stirling Castle, Rose had courage and spirit. She had also the love of her father's delightful family, the Galbraiths. By keeping her loyalties unswerving, she eventually, after exciting adventure, won her way to serenity and fulfillment.
• 56. Silver Wings-Breathless Amory watched as Ted's plane started on the first lap of the hard trip across Alaska to Siberia. In Amory's hand were clutched his aviator's silver wings and the thought of them gave her courage in the trying days that followed as Mrs. Whitney's social secretary among that sophisticated crowd. It was a life which Amory could not understand--empty, soulless, typified by the beautiful Diana, in search of a new thrill, heartlessly planning to fascinate the unwanted minister-nephew. But the big, young minister surprisingly turned the tables on Diana; and his presence encouraged Amory in the dark days when Ted's plane was lost among the Arctic snows until new hope came to her most unexpectedly.
• 57. The Strange Proposal-John Saxon saw Mary Elizabeth for the first time as she walked up the church aisle at Jeffrey's wedding. John acted as best man and Mary Elizabeth made a very beautiful maid of honor. In fact, she was so lovely as she walked up the aisle that John fell in love with her, and told her how much he loved her as she held his arm on the way down the church aisle when the wedding was over. But John had to leave the city on the midnight train. Into the letter he poured the feelings which were in his heart. At home, Mary Elizabeth was tormented with the attentions of Boothby Farwell, who forced himself on her. Here is a new and enthralling romance, a book of mellow richness by a well-known novelist.
• 58. The Street of the City
• 59. The Substitute Guest-This romance by one of America's most beloved authors is about a number of young people gathered together at Christmas time, their happinesses and their sorrows, their trials and their triumphs. How significant that Christmas time came to be in the lives of these young people soon becomes apparent as Grace Livingston Hill tells the story of the substitute guest who found not only the old-fashioned Christmas he had secretly longed for, but a new life and a new love and a great happiness. Mrs. Hill writes again of the kind of people we meet in our daily life--human, everyday sort of people--and yet there is a magic glamor in her pen that takes us out of ourselves and into the very land of romance.
• 60. Sunrise-At half past ten on Wednesday morning young Jason Whitney came out of the bank and walked down Main Street, with a hard, set look upon his face. The books at the bank had been tampered with; suspicion had been cast on him; and now he was going away forever. His going would grieve his lovely sister Joyce, he knew, and Rose--the sweet young daughter of the minister--who had said that she believed in him. The assurance of this much loyalty was a source of deep consolation to him in the days that followed, when he and Rowan Parsons, who had gone at Joyce's tender bidding to fetch her brother home again, were carried further and more dangerously afield than they had ever imagined. How they are saved at last, how in the lives of both there comes a new dawn of understanding and a glorious new happiness, is related by Mrs. Hill with grace and imagination.
• 61. Time of the Singing of Birds-This is the story of Lt. Barney Vance, invalided home to rest, bearing trophies of brave deeds and valiant daring, and of the problems and difficulties he found in adjusting himself again to the life he had left behind him. For a gulf widens between the soldier at the front and the civilians who can know only indirectly of his experiences and the profound changes wrought in a man by combat. Again Mrs. Hill has taken a timely and significant theme and developed around it a vital, living story which will appeal to her multitude of readers. You will like meeting Lt. Vance's gay [happy], strong pal, Stormy Applegate, and his horde of young hero-worshipping boy friends. You will get to know his attractive group of former girl friends and enjoy figuring out just which one he is going to marry. You will be interested also in studying just how he made clear to all of them what a difference the war had made in his life. And of special interest are the ways in which Lt. Vance contrived to give the war a special significance in their lives also, and to bring them a new viewpoint from which to work out their daily difficulties.
• 62. The War Romance of the Salvation Army
• 63. The Unwilling Guest
• 64. Where Two Ways Met-When Paige Madison returns to his hometown after years in a soldier's uniform, he considers himself lucky to land a good job with Harris Chalmers, the president of the town's most prominent real estate firm. But he soon finds himself confronted by problems that threaten to undermine his faith in human nature and in his own standards of right conduct. Harris Chalmers is an unscrupulous man who takes no interest in the personal problems of his tenants. His motto is "Pay or get out," and he forces Madison to carry out his flinty-hearted policies. Reva Chalmers, the boss's daughter, further complicates the situation by determining to win his affection--or to ruin him. In this period, when he is beset by doubts and threats from all sides, when his fundamental faith and beliefs are under fire, Paige Madison finds strength in the friendship of June Culbertson. Together, they work to correct the injustices caused by Chalmers. And in the end, his confusion is resolved. He comes to understand what decisions he must make about his own life, about Chalmers, and about June-- in an exciting climax to one of Mrs. Hill's most absorbing stories.
• 65. White Orchids-A rich and appealing romance by the beloved author of many charming novels that portray the trials and triumphs of young people in love. Camilla Chrystie, the beguiling girl whose love story Mrs. Hill tells in this book, is one of the most likable girls in modern romance fiction. Camilla has no expensive, fashionable clothes, but when the millionaire's son, Jeffrey Wainwright, gives her orchids to wear she is transformed. The author makes all her characters our friends --they are people everybody knows. White Orchids is the story of Camilla's love and of her trials while the course of true love is not running at all smoothly. It is a rich and courageous novel that stirs the heart and the imagination and will long be remembered by every reader.
• 66. All Through the Night-Dale Huntley's life changed dramatically when her precious grandmother died. All alone, Dale had to face the bitterness and greed of her relatives who were trying to claim her home. But Dale's greatest sorrow was that her beloved was at war--and he might never return. Then Dale's deep faith and gentle love begin to change her self- centered family, and a hope starts to build in her heart that love truly can triumph over all.
• 67. Amorelle-George Horton was handsome and wealthy, and he had all but swept lovely Amorelle Dean off her feet with his unexpected marriage proposal. Amorelle accepted, but as time passed she became more doubtful. Could they really be happy when George, for all his words of love, didn't seem to know or care about Amorelle's thoughts, beliefs, or innermost feelings? Then, as if in answer to her prayers for guidance, Amorelle unexpectedly found herself sharing a wonderful day with another man. A man who seemed to speak the language of her heart. Now she knew what true love could be--and what she must do. But was it too late to change her mind?
• 68. The Angel of His Presence
• 69. April Gold
• 70. Astra-When the distinguished young man walked into the day coach and asked if there were anyone present who could take some important dictation from a dying man, Astra responded with her usual generosity. Through her skill and tenderness she succeeded in sweetening the man's last moments. This incident, as it developed, was the first chapter in Astra's new life. When she had boarded the train after fleeing from her cousin's house, she had had a few moments of misgivings about returning to her childhood home, but the friendship begun that snowy day on the train was culminated when Charles Cameron spoke his heart on Christmas, and Astra realized anew that through all her adventures and unhappiness a supreme wisdom had guided her.
• 71. Beauty for Ashes-Gloria is busying herself with preparations for her wedding, just a week away, when the horrible news is brought to her that her fiance has been shot to death by the lover of a dancing girl with whom he was found. In order to forget, Gloria, accompanied by her father, retreated to the place of her father's birth. Soon after she met Murray McRay and before long she began to feel like a real person again. Vanna, Gloria's sister, visited her and gradually began to realize a new "something" which had come to Gloria and which made Murray and his friend, Robert Carroll, so different from any of her acquaintances, and which finally opened a new world for her also.
• 72. Bright Arrows-This romance of Eden Thurston tells the story of a delightfully human young girl, orphaned by the loss of her parents, who faces life's sudden complications armed with a great faith. The world is not kind to Eden, left alone with Janet, her old nurse, and Tabor, the aging family butler. She is at once in difficulties with her relatives, especially scheming Aunt Lavira and Ellery Fane, a grasping cousin who robs her of her jewels. Unsuitable suitors pursue her and add to her emotional problems. But Eden brightens the arrows of her fortitude and aided by Lance Lorrimer, an upright and reverent young lawyer, smooths] out the tangles in the pattern of her life and can look forward to full and happier days. How she wins through to her heart's desire is told with the special charm which has made Grace Livingston Hill one of America's most popular novelists.
• 73. By Way of the Silverthorns-Among the young men and women gathered for Sydney Hollis' wedding, McRae Silverthorn and her brother Lincoln were quietly outstanding. When Lincoln took the burden of Minnie Lazarelle's unwelcome presence on himself, his grave words first stirred in Minnie a longing for a better life. It was McRae, whose sweetness and grace touched the hearts of her worldly friends, who later changed the course of several lives. Ranging from the gaiety of wedding parties to the dreariness of Minnie's loveless home, from the security of easy suburban life to the dismal byways of the town where the mission did its work of redemption, this heart-stirring novel draws the inspiring pictures of men and women facing life's problems with faith and courage.
• 74. The Challengers-Phyllis held the candle high above her head. The cellar lay below her in an inky pool of shadow. Outside a cold rain swept down in torrents. Her sister, pretty Melissa, was out in it looking for work. Her mother, too, was away visiting her sick husband at the hospital. Soon Bob and Rosalie would be back from school. There was no food and their landlady had callously left them without heat. So Phyllis built a fire herself and almost lost the cuckoo clock with its precious secret to the wrathful Mrs. Barkus. Mrs. Hill has written a splendid new story of the five Challenger children who met their plight with fine courage, which carried them through Steve's accident and Melissa's harrowing adventures, until that day when a lawyer knocked at the door and delivered a strange message.
• 75. The Christmas Bride-Gregory Sterling, now a wealthy man, has just returned to his home from the West. He had no relatives whom he could count on, not even Alice Blair, the little girl he had thought he loved until the day she ran away with another man. Greg's life in the East would have been a lonely one had he not seen Margaret slump and then slide off the park bench in a dead faint. Her sweet face and poverty stricken appearance aroused Greg's ardent sympathy so he had her cared for in a hospital until she was forced from the place by the insulting remarks of the head nurse. But Margaret could not have gone out of his life for good. Would he ever find her again?
• 76. Crimson Mountain-Beautiful Laurel Sheridan, once wealthy and sheltered, is now orphaned and nearly destitute. Undaunted, Laurel gets a job teaching in the little town of Carrollton, near beautiful Crimson Mountain. Then she encounters handsome Phil Pilgrim, who is home from the army to sell his family homestead to the government for a munitions plant. Thrown together by a freak accident in which Phil saves Laurel's life, the two discover a deep friendship that quickly blooms into much more. And though Phil must return to his army duties, Laurel is secure in the knowledge of his love. Then one night she overhears a group of men plotting to blow up the new munitions plant! Unsure who she can trust in the small town, Laurel desparately tries to contact Phil, seeking his aid and counsel. But will he be able to save her from the web of deceit and danger that is slowly closing around her, threatening her life and her country?
• 77. The Esselstynes
• 78. Mary Arden-Begun by GLH before her death in 1947, the manuscript of this book was completed by her daughter along discussed plot lines. It is the story of a girl who rebelled instinctively against the shallowness of society life, determined to break away from it, and found romance in the course of finding herself. A refreshing, wholesome novel in the best vein of America's most beloved author. Mary Arden, only daughter of a wealthy family, finishes college and feels an urge to get away from hectic social life and gay parties. Against her mother's wishes, she decides to pay a visit to the old family homestead in Ardenville where as a child she spent wonderful summers with her grandparents. She enjoys seeing the village people again, especially her childhood friend Laurie Judson who had returned from the war and is serving as the village minister in the time left over from his studies and his job in a nearby radar factory. But Mary's mother and Brooke Haven, Mary's socialite suitor, never cease their efforts to bring her back. They stop at nothing, including trickery, and they try to interrupt the deep spiritual love that has grown between Mary and Laurie. Can Mary withstand pressure from all sides? Will she find strength to follow her heart and mind? It is not until the action-packed climax that the answer comes.