No matter what the Unified States Navy officials said, Mercer considered the vivid memory of watching Bradshaw’s parachute drift toward the uncharted landmass definitive proof Connor could have survived. He had replayed that memory multiple times each day in the ten months since the crash, and he would continue to keep the memory alive until he found that land and Connor Bradshaw. Among the many scenarios he often mentally directed was a fantasy of storming the land’s uncharted shore, covertly slicing through its dangerous jungle, and finding Connor imprisoned in an enemy camp. He imagined freeing Connor, and together they would annihilate the enemy and claim the land. For months Mercer’s fantasy ended with praise from his once-doubtful superiors for finding such a plentiful land. He used to imagine they would attribute the salvation of the remaining world population to his tenacity. But now his fantasy segued into conquering that land, not for the good of his country but for the establishment of his new life.
Mercer tapped a screen to open his computer files and connected to the live image feed being relayed from the last functional satellites orbiting earth. After selecting the image options for the Southern Hemisphere, he touched a screen requesting coordinates and entered thirty-five degrees south, twenty-five degrees west. With both hands moving over multiple screens, Mercer zoomed in on the wide, blue swath of ocean and fixed his eyes where he anticipated making a home.
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Thank you for reading my book! I hope you enjoyed our adventure. Our journey in the Land continues with Levi and Mandy’s story in Uncharted Redemption, book two of the Uncharted series. Here is a little about the story…
Mandy Foster spends her days building musical instruments and her nights avoiding the discontent that plagues her after sundown. She’s learned how to guard her heart with skillfully played songs and flirtatious smiles.
Levi Colburn is building his house outside the village—across the road from Mandy to be exact. Though he’s been in love with Mandy since childhood, she rejected him once and has been unattainable to every man in the village ever since. When Mandy’s life is in danger, it’s up to Levi to rescue her.
But will she accept the tender care of the one man who truly loves her?
Meanwhile outside the Land…
After an unsuccessful year of trying to convince the Unified States Navy that an uncharted land exists in the South Atlantic Ocean, Justin Mercer teams up with a world-renowned hacker to locate the Land. The closer their stolen icebreaker gets to the Land’s coordinates, the more crewmen they lose to the tuberculosis plague that has decimated the world’s population. Even if Justin has to pilot the ship himself, he is determined to find the Land before the Unified States military finds him.
Join me for this exciting journey by downloading Uncharted Redemption now.
See you in the Land!
Keely
More books by Keely Brooke Keith
Uncharted Redemption
Book Two in the Uncharted series
Mandy Foster spends her days building musical instruments and her nights avoiding the discontent that plagues her after sundown. She’s learned how to guard her heart with skillfully played songs and flirtatious smiles.
Levi Colburn is building his house outside the village—across the road from Mandy to be exact. Though he’s been in love with Mandy since childhood, she rejected him once and has been unattainable to every man in the village ever since. When Mandy’s life is in danger, it’s up to Levi to rescue her.
But will she accept the tender care of the one man who truly loves her?
Uncharted Inheritance
Book Three in the Uncharted series
As Bethany Colburn completes her apprenticeship and dodges unwanted suitors, a mysterious man arrives in her village. He brings charm Bethany has never encountered and illness the Land has never known. She will need more than her heightened intuition to uncover the truth about life in the Land.
Just when Everett Foster finds the courage to confess his love for Bethany, a stranger threatens his future with her—and their whole society. Everett must protect the Land, run a farm, and win back Bethany’s heart.
Christmas with the Colburns
Book Four in the Uncharted series
It’s Christmastime in Good Springs, and Lydia Bradshaw is eager for the light at the end of her year—the Colburn family’s big holiday gathering. When she discovers none of her siblings are coming back to the village this year, she believes Christmas will be ruined. As Lydia faces a gloomy holiday in the Colburn house, an unexpected discovery brightens her favorite season. Will it be enough to rekindle the light of Christmas?
Spend Christmas with the Colburns in this inspirational holiday novella. Holiday recipe included!
Uncharted Hope
Book Five in the Uncharted series
Sophia Ashton’s new medical assistant job comes with the perks of living on the Colburn property, which include being surrounded by a loving family—something she’s never known. During the job’s trial period, a patient puts Sophia in a questionable position. Now she must prove her competence or lose her job and home.
Nicholas Vestal is working on a sheep farm to earn a starter flock, but before his contract is up, he inherits a house in the village. While fixing up the old house, he pursues Sophia Ashton, believing she is the woman God wants him to marry. But when Sophia’s difficult past blocks Nicholas’s plan, he must find a way to her heart.
Meanwhile, outside the Land...
When plant biologist Bailey Colburn is offered a research job, she knows Justin Mercer is playing her somehow. Working for the former naval flight officer sounds better than her other options in post-war Norfolk, even though Justin says he once met her long lost relatives. But when Justin introduces Bailey to the mysterious gray leaf tree, his unbelievable claims change her world.
Uncharted Journey
Book Six in the Uncharted series
Young widow Eva Vestal assumes loneliness is God’s permanent plan for her life. She keeps busy by raising her son and co-managing the Inn at Falls Creek with her elderly father, but her heart yearns for more.
Solomon “Solo” Cotter has spent his life working with horses, but he secretly wants to write a book of the children’s stories his grandfather told him as a boy. He barters with Eva’s father for a 40-night stay at the inn, a needed respite from work to get his stories on paper.
Once Eva discovers the barter, she believes Solo is taking advantage of her father’s failing memory. But when tragedy strikes and Solo works hard to save the inn, Eva sees his true nature. As her heart stirs with feelings for Solo, she wrestles with the guilt of loving someone new.
Meanwhile, outside the Land...
Bailey Colburn arrives at the coordinates of the Land on the autumn equinox and finds nothing but ocean. The sun sets, ending Bailey’s dream of a safe and simple life with the family she’s never known. Just when she decides Justin Mercer lied about visiting a hidden land in the South Atlantic Ocean and meeting Bailey’s distant relatives, the atmosphere around the boat changes and ushers her into an uncharted world, but her entrance into the Land comes at a devastating price.
Uncharted Destiny
Book Seven in the Uncharted series
Bailey Colburn is safe in the Land, but her father figure, Professor Tim, never made it to Good Springs. When Bailey discovers Tim is lost in the Land’s dangerous mountain terrain and out of his life-saving medication, she sets out to rescue him. Even with the help of intriguing native Revel Roberts, Bailey faces an impossible journey to save Tim. The mountains are shrouded in dark folklore and full of deadly surprises.
Revel Roberts never stays in one place too long. No matter where he travels in the Land, he avoids the Inn at Falls Creek, his boyhood home and the business he will inherit. But when fearless newcomer Bailey Colburn needs Revel’s help to find her friend, he joins the mission and is forced to return to the place he’d rather forget.
Bailey and Revel’s friendship strengthens as they
need each other in ways neither of them imagined. But nothing can prepare them for what awaits in the Land’s treacherous mountains.
Uncharted Promises
Book Eight in the Uncharted series
Sybil Roberts uses the warmth of delicious meals to lift the spirits of road-weary travelers at The Inn at Falls Creek. Her life at the inn would be perfect if she could just get her brothers and mother to move back home.
And if she could see Isaac Owens again.
He visited the inn once when he interviewed for the farm manager job, and she’s dreamed of his return to Falls Creek ever since.
Isaac Owens knows how to run a farm. His family might not have faith in him, but if he succeeds at Falls Creek, he’ll prove them wrong. He arrives at the inn thinking the job is his, but the inn’s senile owner offered the position to another man too. Isaac must spend the winter competing if he wants to win the job… and Sybil’s heart.
It will take more than warm meals on cold nights for Sybil and Isaac to find love while working at the isolated inn.
The Uncharted Beginnings Series
Aboard Providence
Book One in the Uncharted Beginnings series
In November 1860, Marian Foster joins a group of Virginia families who are sailing away from America to form a new settlement off the coast of Brazil. As an amateur botanist, Marian eagerly anticipates exploring a new land. During the voyage, her heart is drawn to Jonah Ashton, the ship’s handsome physician.
When family obligation forces Jonah Ashton to escort his family to their new settlement, he plans to return to medical school in Philadelphia immediately. But while sailing, he is beguiled by Marian’s optimistic spirit and finds himself in uncharted waters.
And an uncharted land.
The mysterious island is all Marian has ever dreamed of.
Soon Jonah makes a startling discovery that changes everything, but will it change his heart?
Above Rubies
Book Two in the Uncharted Beginnings series
It’s 1863, and Olivia Owens believes education should be a top priority in the new settlement of Good Springs. Between planning lessons and helping on her family’s homestead, Olivia doesn’t have time for Gabriel McIntosh’s charming advances. When the council denies her request to build a schoolhouse, Olivia must challenge their ruling while hiding frequent bouts of word blindness (dyslexia).
If the council knew the new teacher couldn’t always read, they wouldn’t allow Olivia to teach anymore.
As a carpenter, Gabe McIntosh is working hard to help build the settlement of Good Springs, and once his land is granted, he begins constructing his own house. When Olivia discovers he plans to share it with her, she guards her heart from him. But Gabe is determined to win her affection and to discover what she’s hiding.
All Things Beautiful
Book Three in the Uncharted Beginnings series
He is the last person she wants reading her story…
And the first person to awaken her heart.
It’s 1868 in the settlement of Good Springs, and Hannah Vestal is passionate about writing fiction and keeping her stories to herself. By lantern light she slips into her story world and dreams the adventures she’ll never experience. When her father asks to read her work, she decides to have it printed secretly for his 50th birthday. Hannah tries to arrange the printing with the settlement’s pressman, but the witty and dapper Henry Roberts won’t make it easy for her to prove her writing is worthy of his ink.
If Henry Roberts did nothing else for the rest of his life but print and bind books, he would die a satisfied man. In order to secure settlement support for his printing press, the elder council says Henry must print an error-free copy of the New Testament before the settlement’s 8th anniversary celebration. He is determined to meet their challenge, but when the enigmatic Hannah proves to be a beguiling distraction, Henry longs for something more than a life at the letterpress.
The first chapter of Uncharted Redemption, book two in the Uncharted series…
Chapter One
Levi Colburn hammered a nail into the frame of a house that would end seven generations of family tradition. He straightened his back and surveyed the four completed wall frames—all of which lay flat on the ground, begging to be raised. Ready to see the frame of his house upright, he tied a rope to the top of each wall. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he glanced at the angle of the morning sun and then at the road through the clearing at the front of his property. Everett was late.
Levi dropped his hammer onto the building site’s leveled ground and stared at the road. He needed Everett’s help to raise the frame but loathed the thought of waiting any longer. As he paced the subfloor, he calculated the logistics of completing the task by himself. If he could get the frame up and the roof on, he could be sleeping in the small house in a matter of days.
He walked across his cleared property to the road to look for Everett. Stagnant air left the usually rustling gray leaf trees still. Without a steady ocean breeze, he found the gray leaf’s pleasant but medicinal aroma potent. He intended to complete his house before the end of the austral summer, so he had to continue the job with or without help—or a breeze. After a quick glance toward the Fosters’ sheep farm, he decided Everett was either too busy or had simply forgotten his promise to help lift the heavy frames. Either way, Levi couldn’t wait another day.
The Fosters’ dog scampered down from its place on the front steps of their farmhouse and bounded to Levi with its tail wagging. He ignored the dog’s giddy greeting and looked down the road toward the village of Good Springs. After confirming his solitude, he turned and walked back to the wall frames on his property.
He surveyed the pieces that would soon form the skeleton of his long-awaited home. Then he looked at the muddy dog licking his boots. “Well, Shep, if I’m meant to live here alone, I can raise the frame alone.” The dog stopped following him and whimpered. He took it as a challenge and marched toward the wall frames. Determined to see his house built, he snatched his hammer from the dust and slipped it through his belt loop. He drew two long planks from a high stack of lumber and carried the wood to the first wall. With a row of nails trapped between his lips, he bent to the grounded frame and hammered the support boards into place.
Confident in his bodily strength, he slid his hands into a pair of leather work gloves and gathered the ropes attached to the top of the wall’s frame. He wrapped the left rope around his left hand and the right rope around his right hand. Gripping the ropes, he walked backward in incremental steps and pulled with steady force until the wall was upright. He moved quickly to the center of the skeletal wall and drove nails through the frame and into the subfloor below. Then he reinforced the wall from the other side.
His pride at conquering the first wall added a slight swagger to his gait as he walked to the lumber stack. He repeated the process on the opposite wall of his new home. While raising the second wall, the muscles in his shoulders burned in protest of such a great demand. He stopped his work after securely bolstering the second wall and stretched his neck deep to one side and then to the other.
As he caught his breath through parted lips, he studied the long wall that would be the back of his house. He mentally gauged its weight while he drew a handkerchief from his trouser pocket. Wiping his face, he looked at the road again and hoped to see Everett Foster.
Still alone—and still determined—Levi secured four pieces of support lumber to the long wall. With his back to the road, he wrapped the ropes around his gloved hands. He imagined the house’s frame complete and conjured every ounce of strength he could to lift the wall from the ground. His muscles strained and trembled as the wall inched away from the dirt. The ropes squeezed tighter around his hands. The wall barely climbed halfway to an upright position when the rope in his right hand snapped. The skewed weight on the other rope jerked it from his hand, pulling the glove off and ripping a chunk of his palm along with it.
He clut
ched his torn hand to his chest and blew out a growl of pain. The wall frame bounced once when it hit the ground and sent dirt flying into the air. Blood flowed from his hand and dripped between his fingers. He pulled his shirt over his head and wrapped it around his bloody hand. The cloth of the shirt immediately absorbed the warm sticky blood. He stepped off the subfloor and moved toward the road; his stiff breath was stunted by the shock of searing pain.
As he approached the clearing, he saw Mandy Foster standing on the road in front of his property. Shep raced to her, but she didn’t look at the dog. Her mouth gaped and her green eyes protruded as she stared at his blood-soaked bandage. “Levi!”
Mandy was the last person Levi wanted to see in his current condition. He groaned and wondered if she had witnessed the actions that led to the injury, but he was too preoccupied with physical pain to feel embarrassment. No doubt the barbed blanket of humiliation would be waiting to cover him when the pain subsided.
The Land Uncharted (The Uncharted Series Book 1) Page 23