Anonymous

Together we were explosive. Apart we were miserable. I know he wants more, but he denies himself. His gaze burns with desire when he looks at me. But the wall he has built keeps me out. I sense he’s hiding something. But, then, so am I. To guard our hearts, we’ve kept our secrets locked away. But secrets are like love - one way or another, they find a way.

In this tale of 1886 Texas, a caring young woman can heal the physical and emotional wounds of others but can’t mend her own hurting heart. As Deborah Vandermark pursues medicine under the tutelage of her beau Dr. Christopher Clayton, she soon realizes her West Texas lumber town isn’t ready for a woman doctor. Yet she has reason to hope - until Christopher abruptly breaks off their blossoming relationship and rushes back home to his family. When truth emerges and Deborah’s dream fades, she fears she must turn back....

When Connor Larkin boards a late-night bus in downtown LA, he's not sure where he's going or what he's looking for. Putting his acting career - and his fiancée - on hold, he's searching for something he can't define, a part of himself he lost on the road to success. Once he dreamed of being a singer in the classic style of Sinatra and Bennett. But his lean good looks soon landed him in movies as the sexy bad guy - and in the arms of a famous young heiress. Now, with his wedding day approaching, Connor finds himself stepping into the sleepy seaside town of Miramar Bay.

Six-time Christy Award winner Lynn Austin has won a loyal following for her inspiring historical fiction. In Wonderland Creek, young Chicago-area librarian Alice Grace Ripley is left heartbroken when her fiancé breaks up with her just as the Great Depression forces her out of a job. To escape the local gossip, Alice volunteers to deliver donated books to a library in rural Kentucky. There she discovers that God still has a plan for her after all.

Merrill Krause longs for a family of her own, but she's bound by a promise to her dying mother to care for her father and older brothers until they no longer need her. She enjoys being part of the family business, harvesting ice during the brutal Minnesota winters. Merrill actively takes part, possessing a keen ability to work with the horses - despite the advice of her good friend, who disapproves of her unladylike behavior. When Rurik Jorgenson arrives in their small town to join his uncle doing carpentry, he soon crosses paths with Merrill.

Award-winning author William Kent Krueger has gained an immense fan base for his Cork O’Connor series. In Ordinary Grace, Krueger looks back to 1961 to tell the story of Frank Drum, a boy on the cusp of manhood. A typical 13-year-old with a strong, loving family, Frank is devastated when a tragedy forces him to face the unthinkable - and to take on a maturity beyond his years.

Indoors are servants, meals, and furniture. There, too, is The Man of Wrath, her upright Teutonic husband, inspiring in Elizabeth a mixture of irritation, affection, and irreverence. But outside she can escape domestic routine, read favorite books, play with her three babies and garden to her heart's content. Through Elizabeth's eyes we watch the seasons, from May's "oasis of bird-cherries and greenery" to the time when "snow carpets her Pomeranian wilderness".

Anne and Nicole are together again at the Harrow estate in England, but they find themselves facing divergent futures. While Anne comfortably settles into British life, Nicole once again searches the far horizon. Despite the raging War of Independence, she sets sail for the American colonies to manage her uncle's landholdings.

The bittersweet reunion of the Robichaud family and the Harrows in the land of the Acadians has brought two mothers and two daughters full circle. They rekindle those early bonds and experience restoration of those lost years, but time and tragedy have left their indelible imprints on all who have endured the decades of separation and uncertainty. Moving forward with their lives now means further farewells - not as devastating as the one long ago but no less heart-wrenching.

In Acadia, two young mothers, one British and one French, have become good friends, despite the enmity between their peoples. The French woman's baby girl becomes critically ill. Since the British woman has access to medical care denied to the French, they exchange infants. But, suddenly, the French are expelled from Acadia, and the women are unable to meet again.