. . where history has a tendency to repeat itself.Ever since Margot was born, it’s been just her and her mother. No answers to Margot’s questions about what came before. No history to hold on to. No relative to speak of. Just the two of them, stuck in their run-down apartment, struggling to get along.But that’s not enough for Margot. She wants family. She wants a past. And she just found the key she needs to get it: A photograph, pointing her to a town called Phalene. Pointing her home. Only, when Margot gets there, it’s not what she bargained for.Margot’s mother left for a reason. But was it to hide her past? Or was it to protect Margot from what’s still there?The only thing Margot knows for sure is there’s poison in their family tree, and their roots are dug so deeply into Phalene that now that she’s there, she might never escape.

    But innocence can't last forever... The only family Ruby Landry has ever known are her loving guardian, Grandmère Catherine, a Cajun spiritual healer, and her drunken, outcast Grandpère Jack. Although thinking about her dead mother and mysterious father sometimes makes her feel as mournful as the wind sighing through the Spanish moss, Ruby is grateful for all she has. Her life is filled with hope and promise...especially when her attraction for handsome Paul Tate blossoms into a mysterious, wonderful love. But Paul's wealthy parents forbid him to associate with a poor Landry, and Grandmère urges her to follow her dream of becoming a great painter, foreseeing a time when Ruby will be surrounded with riches in the dazzling city of New Orleans! Yet she cannot know how close that uncertain future looms.... In a faded photograph, Ruby glimpses for the first time the image of her father -- and learns of a shameful deception and a shocking scheme of blackmail that now must come to light. Stunned by these revelations, she is devastated when Grandmère dies, leaving her to seek out her father in his vast New Orleans mansion. There, in a house of lies, madness, and cruel torment, Ruby clings to her memories of Paul to keep her heart alive. For only their love can save her now....

    "It took years with all the appeals and stays of execution, but I've never forgotten the date. It was the 19th of March, 1977."Sarah looked up, stunned. Once again her eyes met Matt's."The day you were born," he said.

    He spun the steering wheel, and the nose of the car dipped as it went off the shoulder. When Jimmy lands in the wooded ravine below, he is slightly injured--and he is trapped inside his mangled car. For two weeks he keeps himself alive. He figures out how to haul in water from a nearby stream, how to pick berries, and how to signal for help. But help does not come. In the end, Jimmy knows he can depend on nobody but himself. Can he escape? "Trapped!", an incredible story of survival, is based on a true incident.