Where do you turn when all the bridges you have built in life have gone up in flames? When the ones you love don't protect you from the monsters lurking in the dark? I never thought at twenty-eight-years-old I would have nothing to show for my life. A child given away for strangers to raise. A childhood ruined. A life full of dead ends, drug abuse, and one night stands. I'm at a crossroads, and I have a choice to make. I choose salvation. I choose life. I choose myself, for the first time ever. I will find her. I will find the life I was forced to give up. I just pray that he stays out of my way. I am Starburst Bloom and this is my story.
When Riley finds her grandmother dead, she knows her world is about to collapse. Determined to find the father she knows only by an address, Riley and Mia take off on a journey with so many twists and turns Riley begins to doubt they'll ever find a real home. She ignores the question that keeps popping into her mind-if they do find her father, will he even want them? Or will he send them away?
A New York Times Bestseller In the tradition of Out of My Mind, Wonder, and Mockingbird, this is an intensely moving middle grade novel about being an outsider, coping with loss, and discovering the true meaning of family. Willow Chance is a twelve-year-old genius, obsessed with nature and diagnosing medical conditions, who finds it comforting to count by 7s. It has never been easy for her to connect with anyone other than her adoptive parents, but that hasn’t kept her from leading a quietly happy life . . . until now. Suddenly Willow’s world is tragically changed when her parents both die in a car crash, leaving her alone in a baffling world. The triumph of this book is that it is not a tragedy. This extraordinarily odd, but extraordinarily endearing, girl manages to push through her grief. Her journey to find a fascinatingly diverse and fully believable surrogate family is a joy and a revelation to read. * “Willow's story is one of renewal, and her journey of rebuilding the ties that unite people as a family will stay in readers' hearts long after the last page.”—School Library Journal starred review * “A graceful, meaningful tale featuring a cast of charming, well-rounded characters who learn sweet—but never cloying—lessons about resourcefulness, community, and true resilience in the face of loss.”—Booklist starred review * “What sets this novel apart from the average orphan-finds-a-home book is its lack of sentimentality, its truly multicultural cast (Willow describes herself as a “person of color”; Mai and Quang-ha are of mixed Vietnamese, African American, and Mexican ancestry), and its tone. . . . Poignant.”—The Horn Book starred review "In achingly beautiful prose, Holly Goldberg Sloan has written a delightful tale of transformation that’s a celebration of life in all its wondrous, hilarious and confounding glory. Counting by 7s is a triumph."—Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette
It is just after the school hours in the town of Heathestone; students are rushing home from their classes, parents are returning from work. But that evening, the town is one resident fewer. Willow Greene has vanished. Nobody knows her whereabouts; nobody knows what happened to her. The picturesque town soon becomes the hub of a major investigation, as a community of secrets become unravelled in a mystery the likes of which DCI Phillips and his DI Fiona have never seen before - and are never likely to forget.
To save her, he must become the evil he fights. Aftercare specialist Willow Metcalfe joined Mission: Liberate Everyone to help trafficking survivors navigate the healing process. When MiLE’s Obioma Compound is attacked by the Nigerian mafia, she’s taken hostage. Against nightmarish odds, she and the victims attempt an escape—and are thwarted. A decade after leaving his beloved homeland, Chijioke “Chiji” Okorie returns to find his sister and fight for his own country. Believing a global trafficking ring behind her abduction and a string of kidnappings across Nigeria, he goes undercover to find the head of the serpent and his sister. Chiji is stunned to discover among the hostages a familiar face—a friend’s sister, Willow. The woman he vowed years ago to marry. The man who has interfered with her escape attempts seems … familiar, kind—but Willow knows better. He reeks of the warrior ethos that has devoured many a good man. Engaged in an impossible battle and losing at every turn, Chiji is determined to complete his missions—all of them. Even if it kills him. More Metcalfe Family thrillers: The Metcalfes Book 1: Stone Book 2: Willow Book 3: Range (coming soon) Book 4: Brooke (coming soon) Discarded Heroes Book 1: Nightshade Book 2: Digitalis Book 3: Wolfsbane Book 4: Firethorn
Sarah Jane ‘Lucky’ Carter is a big-boned, smart-mouthed sixteen-year-old. Willow Moonstone, Sarah’s legal guardian for the past five years, has vanished without a trace. The police believe she’s been murdered. Willow always said They were after her because of What She Knew. Sarah and her friends thought it was all some paranoid fantasy left over from the 60s. Except that Willow’s missing now. That’s no fantasy. Sarah’s estranged father comes to take her home to live with his new family but she has no interest whatsoever in playing ‘Brady Bunch’. All she wants is to get Willow back so they can go home. Then, out of the blue, a fierce stranger from Willow’s past turns up on Sarah’s doorstep bearing Willow’s diary from her radical student days in the late 1960s. Sarah becomes convinced the diary holds the clues to Willow’s disappearance, so she immerses herself in her aunt’s diary and her life. As the weeks pass with no news of Willow, Sarah begins to panic. Time’s running out and Willow’s trail is growing cold. Is she the only one who can’t accept the truth? Is Willow really dead? WHAT WILLOW KNEW by June Colbert is the suspenseful story of a teenage girl’s search for her missing aunt, but it’s also the story of Willow’s own journey from naïve university student to radical activist and complete paranoid ... Unless They were really after her, of course.
There's more to me than most people see. Twelve-year-old Willow would rather blend in than stick out. But she still wants to be seen for who she is. She wants her parents to notice that she is growing up. She wants her best friend to like her better than she likes a certain boy. She wants, more than anything, to mush the dogs out to her grandparents' house, by herself, with Roxy in the lead. But sometimes when it's just you, one mistake can have frightening consequences . . . And when Willow stumbles, it takes a surprising group of friends to help her make things right again. Using diamond-shaped poems inspired by forms found in polished diamond willow sticks, Helen Frost tells the moving story of Willow and her family. Hidden messages within each diamond carry the reader further, into feelings Willow doesn't reveal even to herself. Diamond Willow is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
Passion heats up in Paradise, Alaska, for two people who couldn't be more different in this sweet, sizzling romance from New York Times bestselling author Barbara Dunlop. Accomplished Los Angeles lawyer Marnie Anton has always been sensible, but when her friend Mia Westberg asks for help with a ridiculous matchmaking project, she can't say no. The idea of transporting city girls into the small town of Paradise, Alaska, is so crazy it just might...work? Against her best judgment, she tags along. Having grown up in a family of intimidating men, Marnie developed a preference for the urbane lawyers and clients in her life in LA. But when she meets a mountain of a buff Alaskan man with an intriguing snake tattoo, intimidated is definitely not the first thing she feels. Conrad "Cobra" Stanford was skeptical of the matchmaking event from the start. Big-city women weren't adventurous, they were judgmental. They'd take one look at him and scorn his lifestyle, just like his first love did. Cobra planned to give the women a wide berth, but one of them won't be ignored. Marnie's everything that's wrong and everything that's right for him all at the same time. Just when he thinks he's got her pegged, she blindsides him with a startling past, falling into his arms and igniting his protective instincts and so much more....
What's worse than being cursed by a witch? Being cursed by two. Moments after my village burned down, and I'd learned my entire family was gone, a witch cursed me. Now I live in fear of one specific season… the kind that made sleigh bells jingle everywhere I went. My little cafe is my sleigh bell-free haven. Until a Christmas themed store opens next to me. Now I can't even walk to my car in peace. What's worse, the manager comes over to my cafe, spreading her Christmas cheer everywhere. Except, my beast insists she's my fated mate. Totally Spiced is the tenth in a series of short, steamy, shifter holiday romances. If you love spicy adventures, wounded heroes, and fated mates, then you won't want to miss out on this treat… Read Totally Spiced today to start your next delicious adventure!
