** National Independent Publisher Historical Fiction Book Award Winner! ** 
Rose – a precocious young girl in 1930s Wisconsin – runs away from home to avoid going onto high school and what she sees as a certain path to marriage and motherhood. What she seeks is adventure. What she finds is much more. 
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Rose is thrown into the lives of the varied people and towns of the Mississippi while working on river boats, going to a prep school in St. Louis where she lives with a black family in the Ville and working in a bordello in New Orleans (not as a call girl, of course. She is a Catholic girl from the Midwest after all). What she doesn’t anticipate are the close relationships that develop with many of the women she encounters. She also discovers the harshness of the world far away from the security of home. Ultimately, Rose realizes what is most important in her life. 
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Rosebloom takes place at a time in history that buffets Rose between the great depression and the coming wave of World War II. She gets herself into situations through her naiveté and also just by chance that test her resolve and teach her not only about herself but about the world of others which she would have never know if she hadn’t left her small farm in Southwest Wisconsin.

Rosebloom (Rose series)

Literature & Fiction

Keleny, Christine

Genre Fiction

CK Books

Today women have a glass ceiling. In the 1930s that ceiling was made of wood, so following your dream only took you so far-especially if you went against societal norms and what your friends and family told you you should or should not do. This is the story told in A Burnished Rose, the much-anticipated sequel to the award-winning Rosebloom.Rose Krantz, a soon-to-be eighteen-year-old, has just come home to the family farm in southwest Wisconsin after running away from home two years earlier to follow her dream. She's home because her mother has been ill, but Rose is not looking to stay. Despite the objections of her family and a new man who comes into her life, Rose makes it back to her second home, New Orleans, and her boyfriend, Malcolm.Then, early one morning on December 7, 1941, bombs explode on the small, distant island of Hawaii. This incident pushes Rose, who is in Baton Rouge training to be a nurse, into a global conflict that ironically will come to be known as "The Good War."A Burnished Rose entertains, inspires, and reminds us what life was like for women of that era, and for the nurses who, right along with the men, made significant sacrifices for their country. Book Discussion Questions Included.A percentage of the profits of each book sold will be donated to help in the education of disadvantaged children, because Christine believes that knowledge is a powerful tool.

A Burnished Rose: Book I (Rose series)

CKBooks Publishing

Rose had wanted to do her bit for the war effort, help the boys who were risking their lives fighting the Germans and the Japanese, and maybe see a little of the world along the way. But there was no way she could have predicted the horrors she would encounter and the difficult choices she would have to make. Rose Krantz has made it through nursing school and much to everyone's dismay, most notably her boyfriend, Malcolm, she joins the Army Nurse Corps. Her first assignment is at Camp Crowder, Missouri. There she meets three nurses who see her through three years in a tent evacuation hospital, four foreign countries, and more human misery than they could have imagined. What they encounter shakes even Rose's resolve to see it through. These women, and a corpsman by the name of Alfred, form bonds that will last a lifetime. When the war in Europe is finally over, Malcolm surprises Rose with a romantic trip to Salzburg, Austria, where Rose finally realizes what is truly important in her life only days before she was to lose it. A Burnished Rose entertains, inspires, and reminds us what life was like for women of that era, and for the nurses who, right along with the men, made significant sacrifices for their country.

A Burnished Rose: Book II (Rose series)

Shell shock, battle fatigue, post traumatic stress disorder, it all means the same thing to veterans who have served their country by putting themselves in harm’s way. But for women veterans of WWII like Rose Krantz, it also meant coming back to a country that, even during the war, hadn’t given them the rights that the lowest-ranking male soldier enjoyed, barely acknowledged the sacrifices they had all made, and, in some cases, chastised them for even participating.So in 1945, when Rose came home to bury her husband only to find out she was pregnant with his child, her nightmares, her daily anxieties, and the two men who wanted to protect her, had to be put aside until Rose was finally forced to come to terms with it all.Rose From the Ashes is the third and fitting end to the Rose series.

Rose From the Ashes (Rose series)

As a child in 1980s, Chicago Willie stole to help feed his brothers, sister, and himself. In grade school his teacher told him to have his parents help him with his homework, but his mother, the only parent around, didn’t know how. As a young man Willie started smoking pot, which easily turned into harder drugs. This eventually led Willie to a life under someone’s front porch, two prison sentences, numerous trips to jail, and various recovery programs.    Living in the House of Drugs is the story of Willie Lee Triplett, a recovering addict and alcoholic. It tells of Willie’s life in the suburbs of one of Chicago’s poorer neighborhoods, his chance trip to Wisconsin, and his struggle for sobriety. It’s a no-holds-barred account of Willie’s life on the street, in prison, and the roller coaster ride of recovery that many addicts know well. The story is unique in its telling, following not only Willie’s interesting life story but also the author’s interactions with Willie as she learns of his sometimes sordid past, seeing beyond the story and into the man.

Living in the House of Drugs

Biographies & Memoirs

Willie, Triplett Lee

Community & Culture

Will the Real Carolyn Keene Please Stand Up is a fresh take on one of America’s most popular characters—Nancy Drew. Keleny offers readers a behind-the-scenes look at the dedicated and determined creators of the series. She also reveals the competing—and often conflicting—visions each author had for Nancy. This novel is entertaining, smart, and exceptionally well researched. It is certain to interest anyone who is curious about the surprising mystery behind the Nancy Drew mysteries. ~ Jenna Nelson, PhDIf you didn’t already know, Carolyn Keene, of the famous Nancy mystery series, is not a real person. Neither is the Hardy Boys’ Franklin Dixon or Laura Lee Hope of the Bobbsey Twins. They are all the brain child of one of the country’s most prolific writers for children and young adults to date: Edward Stratemeyer. Edward was so prolific, in fact, that he had to eventually hire ghostwriters to help him flesh out his story ideas, which was not an issue until a series he created just before his death became a cult classic. “Will the Real Carolyn Keene Please Stand Up” tells of the lives of the three primary creators of the Nancy mystery series and how the plucky, intelligent, resourceful, and famous girl sleuth came to life, along with the controversy that still rages on about who really created the Nancy that millions of readers across the globe have come to know and love.

Will the Real Caroyln Keene Please Stand Up

Arts & Literature

If you didn’t already know, Carolyn Keene, of the famous Nancy Drew mystery series, is not a real person. Neither is the Hardy Boys’ Franklin Dixon or Laura Lee Hope of the Bobbsey Twins. They are all the brain child of one of the country’s most prolific writers for children and young adults to date: Edward Stratemeyer. Edward was so prolific, in fact, that he had to eventually hire ghostwriters to help him flush out his story ideas, which was not an issue until a series he created just before his death became a cult classic. “Will the Real Carolyn Keene Please Stand Up” tells of the lives of the three primary creators of the Nancy mystery series and how the plucky, intelligent, resourceful, and famous girl sleuth came to life, along with the controversy that still rages on about who really created the Nancy that millions of readers across the globe have come to know and love. “Will the Real Carolyn Keene Please Stand Up” is a fresh take on one of America’s most popular characters—Nancy Drew. Keleny offers readers a behind-the-scenes look at the dedicated and determined creators of the series. She also reveals the competing—and often conflicting—visions each author had for Nancy. This novel is entertaining, smart, and exceptionally well researched. It is certain to interest anyone who is curious about the surprising mystery behind the Nancy Drew mysteries.” Jenna Nelson, PhD

Will the Real Carolyn Keene Please Stand Up

United States

Intrigue in Istanbul: An Agnes Kelly Mystery Adventure

The Award-winning Intrigue in Istanbul: An Agnes Kelly Mystery Adventure is set in 1961, a time of the cold war and space race. But that isn’t on Agnes’ radar. Her dad has died and during a trip with her grandmother to Istanbul, she accidentally finds out it was under suspicious circumstances, but that’s just the beginning!
Agnes Kelly is the 1960s American version of Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce. Agnes has a propensity for books and words, and she entertains middle grade readers and adults alike.
“She is a Scout Finch from the Upper Midwest, a little older, but with the same qualities of curiosity, courage, and boldness of heart.”

Intrigue in Istanbul: An Agnes Kelly Mystery Adventure (Agnes Kelly Mystery Adventure Series)

Children's Books

Rosebloom: Large Print Edition

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Books by Keleny, Christine