Talented ten-year-olds Emily, Bella, Chloe and Grace are sick of teachers assuming they are helpless princesses. Sports-mad Grace Bennett is ecstatic when her teacher arranges a training session for her with a famous football team. When Grace arrives on the field, however, her role is not what she expected - and it certainly doesn't involve kicking a ball! How can she and her anti-princess sidekicks teach their teachers that there's more than one way to be a girl?
Interweaving biblical insights and personal narratives, this eloquently written book shows how God often uses suffering and desert experiences to form us into Christ's image. Marlena Graves shares her experiences of growing up poor in a house plagued by mental illness as a means to explore the forces God uses to shape us into beautiful people in the midst of brokenness. This book offers a window into suffering through the motif of desert spirituality, revealing how God can use our painful experiences to show himself faithful. While no one welcomes suffering, God often uses desert experiences--those we initially despise and wouldn't wish on anyone--to transform us into beautiful souls who better resemble Jesus. Graves shows how God can bring life out of circumstances reeking of death and destruction, whether those circumstances are crises or daily doses of quiet desperation. Readers who have experienced suffering and question God's purpose for it will benefit from this book, as will counselors, pastors, professors, and mentors. It includes a foreword by John Ortberg and Laura Ortberg Turner.
When Grace steps onto the small black wooden stage, a moment of panic hits her like a bolt of lightning! Grace is a nine-year-old Irish dancer who loves to dance but is super scared to compete at a Feis, which is just a fancy word for an Irish dance competition. When her sister suggests turning her worries into sillies, Grace not only finds a way to help herself, but also every other dancer in the world through the weird advice in her Irish dance survival guide.
Grace, Zoe and Imogen are three women whose worlds are linked by unseen connections to friends, family and lovers. In this psychological drama, set in contemporary Hobart, they move inexorably towards an event that will change them all forever. The Accident is an insightful exploration of the ways our formative years shape us, the resonating influence of first love and the impact of social rejection set against the healing power of friendship. 'Katie's done it again: an escalating sense of foreboding that drew me in from page one and never let me go' FIONA McINTOSH Praise for Katie McMahon's critically acclaimed debut novel, The Mistake: 'Fresh, funny and heartfelt ... I didn't want it to end' LIANE MORIARTY 'Brilliantly drawn characters, witty asides ... McMahon writes like a dream' ASIA MACKAY 'A firecracker of a book, rich in humour, warmth and insight' JACLYN MORIARTY
“Beth Webb Hart shares her knowledge [of the lowcountry] with skill, wisdom, and beauty.” – Pat Conroy, author of The Prince of Tides When a business venture goes sour, Charleston blue-bloods Billy and Dee DeLoach uproot their family and move into the caretaker’s cottage on what was once the family plantation estate on Edisto Island. While the rest of her family falls to pieces, DeVeaux struggles to sustain them through her reluctant help and her stubborn hope. Before the bankruptcy, the family had a graceful home in a historic Charleston neighborhood. Country clubs, cotillions, childhood friends, and a close-knit church group. Now they’re living in a run-down cottage on an island estate that is no longer in the family. DeVeaux has a restaurant job, a cantankerous old truck, and mud on just about everything. But something is wearing DeVeaux down. It's not living on the island, which is actually kind of interesting. And it's not missing her old friends, who have developed an annoying fixation on boys. What really bothers DeVeaux is that being "ruined" has changed her dad into an ill-tempered jerk, and her mother just tiptoes around him. If the good Lord has a plan for saving them, now might be a good time to start. A gritty but gentle drawl of a story, Grace at Low Tide is a tender and evocative portrait of a young girl embracing womanhood. With southern society as her backdrop, Beth Webb Hart paints for us a hard-luck family scrabbling to find its heart again. It is a testimony to the small miracles of love and loyalty--the gifts of grace that manage to keep us all afloat, even at our lowest ebb. "a lovely, gifted writer." -Publishers Weekly
Divorced and emotionally damaged, artist Grace Stollery wants nothing more than to spend her semi-retirement painting and let time heal her emotional scars. But when dashing widower Alfred Nobel moves into her retirement village, he turns her life upside down and her heart inside out by awakening feelings she wants to keep dormant. Alfred quickly sets out to woo Grace and slowly she warms to him. But the village's resident femme fatale wants him for herself. Will she succeed in driving a wedge between Alfred and Grace?
The concluding volume of Douglass's Troy Game series is set in World War II London, where all the major players who for centuries have tried to control the magical Labyrinth come together for the final battle to see whose destiny will reign supreme. Epic battles of magic and a compelling love story round out this dark and compelling fantasy.
Grace, tough and wise, has nearly given up on wishes, thanks to a childhood spent with her unpredictable, larger-than-life mother. But this summer, Grace meets Eva, a girl who believes in dreams, despite her own difficult circumstances. One fateful evening, Eva climbs through a window in Grace’s room, setting off a chain of stolen nights on the beach. When Eva tells Grace that she likes girls, Grace’s world opens up and she begins to believe in happiness again. How to Make a Wish is an emotionally charged portrait of a mother and daughter’s relationship and a heartfelt story about two girls who find each other at the exact right time.