Popular television personality Valerie Adler turns to her long-forgotten, Illinois hometown friend Addie Downs when she runs into a bit of trouble involving betrayal and loyalty, family history and small-town secrets.

After the Reverend Curtis Black and his wife, Charlotte, must take in the illegitimate child he fathered with a mistress, who is now deceased, the two-year-old's arrival puts stress on their marriage, and soon each begins to stray, all the while suspecting the other of infidelities.

As letters flow back and forth--between the prairies of Illinois and the mountains of Afghanistan, across cultural and religious divides--sixth-grader Abby, ten-year-old Amira, and eleven-year-old Sadeed begin to speak and listen to each other.

"Sorority mom Becca Fairfield is used to guys not taking her seriously. She's too blond, too quirky, or Just. Too. Much. So she's ditched dating to focus on her job and a house filled with drama and plenty of tea. Now with the holidays and a major blizzard on her doorstep, Becca has everything she needs to survive the next two weeks on her own. Hot cocoa, plenty of books . . . and the memory of a steamy kiss with a certain hot, grumposaurus next-door...

"This is Noah Oakman, sixteen, Bowie believer, concise historian, disillusioned swimmer, son, brother, friend. Then Noah gets hypnotized. Now Noah sees changes--inexplicable scars, odd behaviors, rewritten histories--in all those around him. All except his Strange Fascinations"--

"Spring is in the air, but for Edindale, Illinois, attorney Keli Milanni, murder is the only thing blooming . . . Keli�s looking forward to Beltane, the time-honored Wiccan holiday that celebrates life with feasting, ceremonial dancing, and ancient Celtic rituals. But since recently leaving her law firm and opening her own practice, Keli has more on her plate than simple abundance. Still, she always has time for a friend. Erik, a Druid from a neighboring...

"A young woman's rootless past and uncertain future collide when she brings her white fiancé home to meet her Chinese immigrant parents, toppling her carefully constructed life in this vibrant, insightful debut from an exciting new voice in fiction. Audrey Zhou left Hickory Grove, the tiny town in central Illinois where she grew up, as soon as high school ended, and she never looked back. She moved to New York City and became the person she always...

"In 1850, Sophie Neumann flees New York with her two young charges after witnessing a crime. Reinhold Weiss has finally purchased his own small farm when an old friend shows up, pleading for help. But how can he help her when mounting debts and past scars still haunt him?"--

Marianne Neumann takes a job as a placing agent with the Children's Aid Society in hopes of finding her younger sister. In 1858 New York she finds it's not always easy to offer children a better life. Former schoolteacher Andrew Brady suffers from a grief that won't go away-- and keeps hidden a secret from his past. As the two team up to place orphans across Illinois, a shocking tragedy threatens their work-- and changes one of their lives forever....

To escape the violent cartel that is after them in Ciudad Juárez, siblings Sara and Emiliano flee across the border, seeking a better life in the United States and hoping to bring their pursuers to justice, only to discover that an even greater danger awaits them.