The attacker, unimaginably, is her trusted parish priest. Terrified, Kathleen never tells her pious Catholic mother, and when she discovers she is pregnant, she pays a terrible price for her silence. Her mother believes Kathleen to be a fallen child and sends her to have her ill-begotten baby in Ireland. Kathleen toils in a notorious Magdalene Laundry, where heartless nuns dole out merciless penance on shamed girls. Kathleen never recovers from her trauma, and years later she’s become the overprotective, paranoid mother of a second child. Meanwhile, Faye, a widowed mother of three worries about her teenage son, Tim. He’s increasingly withdrawn, but when several parcels are mysteriously delivered the shocking truth about what is going on in his life is slowly revealed. She turns to an old flame believing he is at the root of Tim’s problems and as the couple rekindles their love, Tim’s troubles deepen. Faye pours out her sorrows in letters to a friend, and slowly, shocking family secrets and interwoven relationships reveal themselves. As it turns out, Kathleen isn’t the only fallen one in this story of love, forgiveness, and powerful family ties. Every Family Has One is the anticipated sequel to The Catholic Woman’s Dying Wish. It can be read as a stand-alone sequel.

    He is about to retire from the game with the beautiful Lisa, a sista he loves and adores. She feels the same for Slim but that love is put to the test when an old flame steps back into her life and he is also rich--seven figure professional athlete rich. Will she succumb to the old flame that's burning or will she stay loyal?Finally there is Myte--a sexy Latina who is conniving and out to get paid. She beds one of Slim's most trusted men and it doesn't take long before she has him stealing from the crew. With the DEA and Chicago Police on everyone's trail, Myte and the Latin Kings' top dog, Felix, orchestrate the heist of a million dollars from Slim--a Chicago based mob outfit's million--and it causes the death of one of Slim's most trusted soldiers. Slim is devastated and exacts his revenge on all that weren't loyal and no one on the streets of Chicago or Gary is safe.

    A runaway at the age of twelve, Cleo Williams is now an adult with her own family. As she faces down the demons of her past, will she lose her family and her sanity?

    He and his Candace are the model successful couple to the outside world but Jaxon hasn't always played for the female team. When an old acquaintance comes to town the world that Jaxon thought he knew is turned upside down. Jaxon must fight his old ways to regain their lives but he soon learns he is not the only one with secrets. The truth can break hearts and wreck lives but will the Athens family survive? Find out what happens to Jaxon and Candace in the Down Low Love ***Get the COMPLETE STORY http://amzn.to/1HMvZpX***

    and Patrice Balark teamed up to bring you book one of this new and exciting drama filled series, The Wife of a Kingpin: Malik & Micah’s Story. Of course, romance, sex, deceit, backbiting, and illegal dealings will be served up like a five course meal. After losing his mom at the age of 18 during his senior year of high school, Malik Jefferson took comfort in the only thing that made sense to him at the time... the streets. Malik along with his best friend and right hand man, Rico “Goo” Grady, were taken under the wings and learned everything street by the connect who happened to be dating Goo's mom. They started out as corner boys and were making smooth waves along the way. After the connects demise, Malik and Goo went from the corner to the top. After being challenged for the top position over and over, the duo answered the call of being as ruthless as they wanted to be, thus informing Chicago and the world a new Kingpin had arrived. Eighteen year old Micah Sanders is all about her business. Not only is she a full-time student at the University of Illinois, but she also works part-time while being an unknown boss on the side. Coming from a life of privilege, Micah doesn't rebel against her upbringing, but she prefers to rely on herself to make her own way in the world. Despite having it all, she is only missing one thing, her now deceased brother. While everyone else may have forgotten about his untimely death, it stays at the forefront of Micah’s mind along with seeking revenge on whomever committed this heinous crime. Will she get the answer to the question that has been nagging her for so long? The first encounter was at random. The second encounter was accidental. But, the third encounter and every one afterwards were by design. After crossing paths with the beautiful mystery woman, Malik had to have her. It had been a while since the last time a woman captivated and held his interest that much. However, it was something more to the lady than meets the eye. He was on a mission to claim and to make Micah his woman. Malik and Micah are on the verge of starting something great. But, what happens when two bosses collide? Who will rule in the end? I don't know, but find out in book one of this new series. Warning: This book contains a cliffhanger.

    Just trying to clear the brutal shadows of the past from his mind, Brody’s next mission is clear: Spearfishing and Scuba Diving in warm clear tropical waters, with some cold beers on the beach. Living the dream… As Brody makes friends with the locals settling into the island retreat, his plans for peace and relaxation are suddenly shattered. After weeks of terrorizing the island paradise, a ruthless sea captain finally commits the unthinkable: he kidnaps a group of young girls from the village. Heartbroken and scared for the children, the people look to Brody for help. Time is running out… When Brody rallies the villagers to form a rescue team, he realizes he is the only one with the skills for this kind of work. With nothing but basic weapons and a sailing boat, Brody feels the weight of the dire situation. The lives of the girls are on the line, with the slave markets of Somalia only days away, the clock is ticking. Brody leads his ragtag crew across the rough and lawless ocean, knowing they are the only hope for the young girls. Once Special Forces, always Special Forces, he’s got this! With Brody at the helm, they’ll find the girls or die trying. This is the first in this exciting Action Adventure Series...

    Thereafter, he was his worst enemy. A tough-as-nails father who firmly enforces his old-fashioned ways, a mother who has little or no say, and a son with a penchant for getting into misadventures. The boy tries to convince his parents that something is wrong with him, and he is really physically ill. He suffers three years of humiliation, agony, and punishment from the school and his father. The school principal, gave him swats, detention and isolation, where he spent all day locked up in an empty storage room. His emotionally unstable father spanked him ferociously. The boy was also whipped shirtless with his shorts on leaving him with welts all over his body from head to toe. He suffered other cruel punishments as well. The school and his parents misjudge him almost costing him his life. The parents get a divorce. The mother and brothers moved back to Wisconsin from Texas. They found themselves in an all-black housing project, being the only whites there for almost four years. He grows up quick and learns that life isn't as simple as black and white. When he turns 18, he decides to move back to Texas to seek vengeance from his father in a small country town with his father and his new mother. He hasn't seen or talked to his father in almost four years. Things fall apart fast. The young man and his younger brother end up out on the streets being homeless for two months and encounters unpredictable adventures. A raw, uncut true story.

    Her choice could open the door to answers she's long wondered about, or it could forever chill a heart too long without love.

    He struggles to establish human connections—even his emotional life is a blur.As the novel begins, he is reconnecting with "The Gunners," his group of childhood friends, after one of their members has committed suicide. Sally had distanced herself from all of them before ending her life, and she died harboring secrets about the group and its individuals. Mikey especially needs to confront dark secrets about his own past and his father. How much of this darkness accounts for the emotional stupor Mikey is suffering from as he reaches his maturity? And can The Gunners, prompted by Sally's death, find their way to a new day? The core of this adventure, made by Mikey, Alice, Lynn, Jimmy, and Sam, becomes a search for the core of truth, friendship, and forgiveness.A quietly startling, beautiful book, The Gunners engages us with vividly unforgettable characters, and advances Rebecca Kauffman’s place as one of the most important young writers of her generation.

    . .On the eve of her retirement, Georgia attorney Mikala Aulani is as vivacious and vibrant as ever, eagerly anticipating a happy future with her partner, Ben. But if Kala has learned anything in thirty-five years of practicing law, it's that the truth can always surprise you. And when Adam Star turns up at her office, confessing to the long-ago murder of his wife, Kala must return to a notorious case that has never stopped haunting her. Ten years have passed since young nurse Sophie Lee was accused of murdering her wealthy patient, Audrey Star. Kala defended Sophie and had no doubt of her innocence--or of Adam Star's guilt--but the prosecution convinced a jury otherwise. Sophie was convicted on a Tuesday--the day on which every significant event in her life, good or bad, seems to happen. Now, on the verge of his death, Adam exonerates Sophie and also leaves her a huge fortune in atonement. Released from prison, Sophie retreats to Kala's house and tries to evade the media frenzy that surrounds her. Kala is determined to help her client make her way back into the world and adjust to her new wealth and freedom. Yet for both, there are still revelations in store--about the nature of redemption, the strange workings of fate, and the power of forgiveness. And most of all, about the secrets that hide in every heart--even those we think we know best.

    The area of the Central Valley where fourteen-year-old Lacey May and her alcoholic mother live was once an agricultural paradise. Now it’s an environmental disaster, a place of cracked earth and barren raisin farms. In their desperation, residents have turned to a cult leader named Pastor Vern for guidance. He promises, through secret “assignments,” to bring the rain everybody is praying for. Lacey has no reason to doubt the pastor. But then her life explodes in a single unimaginable act of abandonment: her mother, exiled from the community for her sins, leaves Lacey and runs off with a man she barely knows. Abandoned and distraught, Lacey May moves in with her widowed grandma, Cherry, who is more concerned with her taxidermy mice collection than her own granddaughter. As Lacey May endures the increasingly appalling acts of men who want to write all the rules, and begins to uncover the full extent of Pastor Vern’s shocking plan to bring fertility back to the land, she decides she must go on a quest to find her mother, no matter what it takes. With her only guidance coming from the romance novels she reads and the unlikely companionship of the women who knew her mother, she must find her own way through unthinkable circumstances.Possessed of an unstoppable plot and a brilliantly soulful voice, Godshot is a book of grit and humor and heart, a debut novel about female friendship and resilience, mother-loss and motherhood, and seeking salvation in unexpected places. It introduces a writer who gives Flannery O’Connor’s Gothic parables a Californian twist and who emerges with a miracle that is all her own.

    Above all, as a very young child she decided one day that even if there was no other person in the world who loved and wanted her, she was going to love and care for herself—and that decision changed the course of her life. Africa’s Child is the story of a mixed-race girl growing up in the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania, East Africa. Raised in an orphanage with no knowledge of her origins or family, she endured abandonment, hardships, severe illnesses, and bullying. Her experiences as a child and teenager included physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, social stigma, and racial discrimination.Yet Nhambu tells her inspiring story with warmth and humor. Her questioning mind probes the African tribal realities and multi-cultural complexities that impacted her life both at the orphanage and schools run by German nuns as well as at an African high school with American nuns. Nhambu not only survived her childhood but triumphed. Her faith and resilience, along with a belief in learning and her tenacious pursuit of an education, sustained her through many challenges. Dance, especially African tribal dance, became the way she healed and nourished her spirit. Through the love and commitment of an American teacher she met in Africa, Nhambu was able to pursue her dream of education and a new life for herself. The first book in her three-part memoir ends as she is leaving Africa for university studies in America on a full scholarship.Maria Nhambu is the creator of Aerobics With Soul®, a fitness workout based on African dance.

    What could be interesting about an unhappy housewife who drowns her sorrows in ice cream and wine and barely leaves her house?Only one knows why.When a new family moves in across the street--the exuberant Vicki, who just might become the gossipy best friend Phoebe's always wanted, and her handsome college-bound son, Jake, who offers companionship of a different variety--Phoebe finds her dull routine infused with the excitement she's been missing. But with her head turned she's no longer focused on the woman in the car. And she really should be...An addictive domestic thriller for fans of The Last Mrs. Parrish and The Couple Next Door, The Other Mrs. Miller serves up a delicious brew of dark secrets and stunning plot twists that will keep you captivated until the very last page.

    On the night she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby’s glass wall: Why don’t you swallow broken glass. High above Manhattan, a greater crime is committed: Alkaitis is running an international Ponzi scheme, moving imaginary sums of money through clients’ accounts. When the financial empire collapses, it obliterates countless fortunes and devastates lives. Vincent, who had been posing as Jonathan’s wife, walks away into the night. Years later, a victim of the fraud is hired to investigate a strange occurrence: a woman has seemingly vanished from the deck of a container ship between ports of call. In this captivating story of crisis and survival, Emily St. John Mandel takes readers through often hidden landscapes: campgrounds for the near-homeless, underground electronica clubs, the business of international shipping, service in luxury hotels, and life in a federal prison. Rife with unexpected beauty, The Glass Hotel is a captivating portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, ghosts and unintended consequences, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives.

    "If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent. . . . Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist." Such is eight-year-old Noriko "Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her shameful skin.The illegitimate child of a Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Though her grandparents take her in, they do so only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life for what it is, despite her natural intellect and nagging curiosity about what lies outside the attic's walls. But when chance brings her legitimate older half-brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him the first person who will allow her to question, and the siblings form an unlikely but powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might cost her everything.Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what it means to try to break free.