FOUR AND A HALF STARS, Romantic Times

"All in all, A...My Name's Amelia is a fun reading experience for anyone wanting to know what it is like to deal with deafness in the 19th century."  DeafDigest~Barry Strassler  http://www.deafdigest.com

"Novel tells of girl deafened in frontier days...Library Journal praised the book for it's historical detail..."  deafweekly~March 14, 2007~vol 3 No14~Tom Willard, Editor

"Plentiful historical detail about the hearing impaired makes this a good choice for all fiction collections."  Library Journal

"Amelia and Aaron are both immensely appealing...I could not stop reading about these two people..."  Romance Reviews Today's Sandra Brill

“A…My Name’s Amelia is a beautiful story about two wounded people and the power of healing through communication and love.”  Alice Duncan ~ award-winning author  

"A wonderful read!  Poignant and endearing.  A...is for Amazing.  Don't miss it!"  Joan Johnston ~ NYT bestselling author

"...blossoms into a touching, poignant love story well worth reading.  Roberta Gellis ~ bestselling author

"A delightful historical, full of little known facts that's sure to engross and entertain the reader."  Karen Kay ~ bestselling author of Native American romance

Deafened at a young age, her natural-born means of expression taken from her, Amelia Anne Polley must learn to communicate all over again. More than her ability to hear was taken from her, on the fateful day she fell ill in 1874. Left to grow up in frontier territory, at the Colorado Institute for the Education of Mutes, Amelia is determined to live the life she’d dreamed for herself, before becoming deaf. Her dreams do not include becoming anyone’s mail-order bride, especially the handsome, roughened rancher Aaron Zachary’s.

Amelia has reasons enough not to marry Aaron, not the least of which she and the weathered cowboy are complete strangers. Different in ways that count, for any man and wife, Amelia and Aaron surely won’t suit. Why, they have nothing in common—except secrets—secrets neither wants to reveal to the other, and risk what might happen.

Beyond the language of speech and sign, of reading and writing, and informed expression, is another language, one speaking to emotion and passion, a language far more intimate, and oftentimes, harder to learn. Only if Amelia and Aaron can find their way out of their troubled pasts, overcoming hardship and heartache, will they find their way to each other, and learn to speak the same language—of love.

1st Place in April 2004, LERA/RWA "Rebecca Contest" - Series Historical

"Matchmaker, Matchmaker is a heartwarming story of grit, determination, and redemption through love."  Alice Duncan ~ award-winning author

"First time author Sundell creates a unique romance that dramatizes the hardships faced by Jewish immigrants and ambitious women in mid-nineteenth century America."  Booklist

"Ms. Sundell's portrayal of Zoe-Esther's struggle with religious differences and love is well done, never becoming a repetitive theme within the story."  Romance Reviews Today

A Jewish girl of nine, Zoe-Esther Zundelevich gives in to fancy and secretly visits the village matchmaker before leaving Russia with her papa, Yitzhak, for refuge in Amerika. The matchmaker gives Zoe-Esther the name of her promised match, when she is of age. Zoe-Esther dreams of him, carrying her dreams across the ocean and into womanhood.

Times are hard but Zoe-Esther manages the impossible and becomes one of the few women to graduate from medical school in 1867 Philadelphia. Afraid for her papa’s life when he’s stricken with tuberculosis, she moves him to the Colorado Territory in search of a cure. All she holds dear, Zoe-Esther can never jeopardize her papa’s health and happiness. That is precisely what she faces when rugged, handsome Jake Whiskey comes into her life. She must not give in to her attraction to a rake, a gambler, a non-Jew! It would kill her papa, who wants her to marry “nice Daniel Stein.” But the name given Zoe-Esther long ago wasn’t Daniel. It wasn’t Jake either, no matter how much she might wish it.

It’s not easy to find work, shelter, or enough food in Golden City, where people don’t want a woman doctor and can’t say too much good about Jews either. Zoe-Esther has faced hard times before, but never with so much at stake. When she at last meets her match, can she risk losing the man who now has her heart? Can she sacrifice her own happiness for her papa’s?

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Flap Blurb:  THE PARLOR HOUSE DAUGHTER

Bound by birth to the world of prostitution, Rebecca Rose is born in a pine shack, a crib, at the end of the line in Nevada City, Colorado Territory, in the mining town's red light district.  Bound by birth to uphold his family's good name and sizable fortune, Morgan Larkspur is born in Denver City with a silver spoon in his mouth and iron spurs on his heels.  Their lives intersect in 1880 Denver when Becca is seventeen and Morgan, twenty-five.  Immediately attracted, they've no idea of the high price they'll pay for this---the danger awaiting.

A child of four when "hell came calling," Becca determines to grow up and seek her own justice for what her mother suffered.  The law won't help a whore.  She'd do what she needed to stay alive, knowing she'd never live happily ever after as in fairy tales; yet, never ashamed of what she was.  When Morgan steps inside room number eight at the Palace behind the beautiful, untried prostitute, looking for nothing more than a pleasant distraction, he unwittingly sets in motion a series of events neither could have imagined in their worst nightmare.

The Parlor House Daughter is a suspenseful, romantic page-turner, set against the backdrop of hustle and bustle, gold and silver-rich Denver, where fortunes change hands often and misfortune befalls many, where the society elite hold themselves apart from the lower classes, and where the fine line between truth and lies easily covers over.

When Becca and Morgan discover they have nothing to hold onto but the love they once shared, will it be enough?  Will it be enough to withstand the impossible choice forced upon them?  A choice no one should ever have to make.