"No matter where you go, no matter whether you succeed or fail, stand or fall, no gone is too far gone. You can always come home."At the age of eighteen, musician and songwriter Cooper O'Connor took everything his father held dear and drove 1,200 miles from home to Nashville, his life riding on a six-string guitar and the bold wager that he had talent. But his wager soon proved foolish. Five years after losing everything, he falls in love with Daley...

"Grand adventure stories often begin where you least expect, Iris knows this because she's read them all. However, as a thirteen-year-old stuck in the tiny country town of Bugden, real adventure seems a distant dream. That doesn't bother Sam, Iris' best friend. For him, catching bugs and swimming in the lake is exciting enough. But when Iris and Sam stumble upon an unusually dry river on the outskirts of town, they're led to a discovery beyond anything...

"Delilah always keeps her messy, gooey insides hidden behind a wall of shrugs and yeah, whatevers. She goes with the flow--which is how she ends up singing in her friends' punk band as a favor, even though she'd prefer to hide at the merch table. Reggie is a D&D Dungeon Master and self-declared Blerd. He spends his free time leading quests and writing essays critiquing the game under a pseudonym, keeping it all under wraps from his disapproving family....

"Victoria has always loved horses. But riding in competitions is high stakes, high stress, and shockingly expensive. And even though Victoria's best friend Taylor loves competing, Victoria has lost her taste for it. After a heartbreaking fight with Taylor, Victoria needs a new start--at a new stable. A place where she doesn't have to worry about anything other than riding. No competition, no drama, no friends. Just horses. Edgewood Stables seems ideal....

Shannon's harrowing debut brings humanity and empathy to the story of the Donner Party, a group of pioneers who set out from Independence, Mo., for California in 1846, and were snowbound and forced to resort to cannibalism. It's been 13 years since Mrs. Jacob Klein ran away from her abusive family in Cincinnati at age 15 and joined up with the doomed wagon train bound for California. One of the survivors, Mrs. Klein, is now a schoolteacher married...