Flower Life

Every day, Cole Roberts reminds himself that life wasn’t always this bleak. He was once passionately in love with Erin. Sam used to be an artistic and lively kid. That was before Brenna disappeared. Every day it gets worse. Erin drinks wine out of the bottle and spends her days with a tormented expression, searching the web for signs of their daughter. Sam hides in his room and rarely speaks. And Cole works himself to a stupor for a paycheck a fraction of the size of his old salary. Until one day, a phone call changes everything.

Martha Pfeiffer, age 19, was one of 844 persons who perished when a ship chartered for the Western Electric annual picnic capsized in Chicago in 1915. Martha's surviving family members never recovered from their grief. The Eastland Disaster has been mostly overlooked in recent years. In 1997, Pearl Pospisil, a third-generation Pfeiffer, composed a family history and delivered it to her niece, Zara Vrabel, who was completely unfamiliar with its contents. Pearl had one request: "Do something with this." Learning of her great-aunt's death on the Eastland Disaster made Zara's heart sink.

Brooke King has been asked over and over what it's like to be a woman in combat, but she knows her answer is not what the public wants to hear. The answers people seek lie in the graphic details of war - the sex, death, violence, and reality of it all as she experienced it. In her riveting memoir War Flower, King breaks her silence and reveals the truth about her experience as a soldier in Iraq.

When a New England Christmas reunites two lifelong friends, romance blooms. From the author of Christmas in Vermont. Miracles are like snowflakes - no two are alike, but each one is precious and beautiful. This Christmas, Dr. Beth Harding could use a few miracles. The hospital she runs in River Dale, New Hampshire, is being shut down, unless she can convince the Scrooge-like board to save it. At least her closest friend, firefighter Logan Mitchell, is home for the holidays to offer a broad shoulder to lean on.

Book-smart Melissa Fletcher lives a predictable life in her hometown, working behind the scenes for her charismatic father in a financial career that makes perfect sense. But when her dad is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, Missy is forced to step up and take over as his primary caregiver and the principal of the firm. After her father's death, Missy finds a letter from him in which he praises her for being a dutiful daughter but admonishes her for not taking any risks in life.

Three years have passed since Joelle Gordon came home to Landon, Minnesota, following her heart back to her family of women and their little café on Flickertail Lake. Joelle, her sister Jillian, and her daughter Camille have grown closer through the shared heartaches and passionate loves they experienced since that first summer. Now the Shore Leave Café is again basking under the brilliant June sunshine, and this summer promises to be hotter than ever.

1934: Lizzie Flowers has been mother and protector to her East End family, the Allens of Langley Street, since she was 15. Even when her doomed marriage to Frank Flowers collapses, she sacrifices her own happiness to keep the family united. But when Lizzie buys the infamous dockland's pub the Mill Wall, she discovers she's bitten off more than she can chew.

Fifteen-year-old Nina Perez is faced with a future she never expected. She must leave her Garden of Eden, her lush island home in Samana, Dominican Republic, when she's sent by her mother to live with her brother, Darrio, in New York, to seek out a better life. As Nina searches for some glimpse of familiarity amid the urban and jarring world of Washington Heights, she learns to uncover her own strength and independence. She finds a way to grow, just like the orchids that blossom on her fire escape.

Staid, responsible Elodie Buchanan is the eldest of 10 sisters growing up in a small English market town in 1861. The girls barely know their father, a plant hunter usually off adventuring through China, more myth than man. Then disaster strikes: Mr. Buchanan reneges on his contract to collect an extremely rare and valuable orchid. He will be thrown into debtors' prison while his daughters are sent to the orphanage and the workhouse.

Twelve-year-old Anna has come to stay with her grandmother, Mim, hoping to forget her worries about her parents' troubled marriage. She'll be busy with the town's annual Flower Festival, a celebration with floats and bands that requires weeks of preparations.But before long, Anna finds herself involved in a very big problem. When she observes a girl her own age who seems to be being held against her will, Anna can't forget the girl's frightened eyes and she is determined to investigate.

Did you know your thoughts can create disease? The good news is that our thoughts can also heal disease. My book reveals answers for parents raising children with mysterious conditions, and the related devastating consequences, resulting from autoimmune diseases and gastrointestinal disorders. I'm a mind-body psychotherapist, author, researcher and lecturer, with my focus on healing the somatic effects of stress, trauma, and anxiety. A product of my own methods, I once suffered from multiple sclerosis (MS). With MS in remission, now I spend my life empowering others to heal themselves.

One small town. One magical Christmas. Connor Norton returns to his childhood home for the holidays, still grieving after his mother’s recent death. Tom, her orange tabby cat, is with him. He runs into Alana, the estranged daughter of his next-door neighbor Dottie who is struggling to come to terms with the devastating secret that tore her family apart. Mary Ann has everything she wants...except for that special someone. Now Connor’s back in town, but is he too late? Hope, love, and the power of forgiveness. Anything can happen - when you least expect it.

Tormented at school, ten-year-old Jane wants a best friend more than anything. Her wish is answered when Acacia moves in next door and a carefree summer break beckons. Yet as their friendship blossoms and secrets are shared, Acacia remains stubbornly guarded about her home life, especially when it comes to her mother’s new boyfriend, Daryl, a Harley-riding ladies’ man. At a neighborhood party, Jane stumbles onto a disturbing scene involving Daryl and is coerced into silence.

From Katie Vaz, author of Don’t Worry, Eat Cake, the beloved Make Yourself Cozy, and The Escape Manual for Introverts, comes My Life in Plants. Her newest book tells the story of her life through the thirty-nine plants that have played both leading and supporting roles, from her childhood to her wedding day. Plants include a homegrown wildflower bouquet wrapped in duct tape that she carried on stage at age three, to a fragrant basil plant that brought her and her kitchen back to life after grief.

Connor Norton returns to his hometown, following the death of his mother, knowing that he will have to confront personal feelings of guilt and regret. It is a place he has barely set foot in for the past 20 years. Caught in the period of his life where the vibrancy of youth has diminished and the prospect of becoming middle-aged is looming, Connor finds that he is suddenly alone in the world and must, somehow, reshape his future and face his own mortality.

She must return to the place that twice brought her shame. She’ll have one final chance to save someone else. Tennessee, 1982. Wildflower McAllister thought she’d put the past behind her. But when she learns her mother is dying, she digs deep and returns to the small mountain town that stole her innocence and cast her out. And she has no choice but to pull her thirteen-year-old granddaughter Daisy right back into the ghosts of her painful history.

A year after the kiss that brought them together, Maya and James are embarking on another journey - this time around the world. The trip starts promisingly, with an opulent and romantic Indian wedding. But as their travels continue, Maya fears that 'love at first sight' might not survive trains, planes and tuk tuks, especially when she realises that what she really wants is a baby. Trouble is, James doesn't feel the same.

Sixteen-year-old Bird Barrett has grown up on the road, singing backup in her family's bluegrass band, and playing everywhere from Nashville, Tennessee to Nowhere, Oklahoma. One fateful night, Bird fills in for her dad by singing lead, and a scout in the audience offers her a spotlight all her own. Soon Bird is caught up in a whirlwind of songwriting meetings, recording sessions, and music video shoots. Her first single hits the top twenty, and suddenly fans and paparazzi are around every corner.

Kara Hart suffered overwhelming heartache when she lost her mother and husband, and her father’s sudden death might be the blow that breaks her - unless she turns her grief into purpose. She’ll finish renovating his Victorian mansion in rural Virginia, but with her own twist. She’ll turn the old house into a creative retreat for artists and writers.

Kara Hart was scarred by loss - first the loss of her mother and now her husband. She feels broken, with no will to move forward, until her father does the unexpected: he moves to the Virginia countryside to restore an old Victorian mansion. Kara decides to go with him, telling herself that it will only be temporary. The huge house is neglected and derelict, but Kara discovers its breathtaking field of wildflowers and is stunned by their beauty.