Is there really such thing as a lucky charm? The hero of Nicholas Sparks's new novel believes he's found one in the form of a photograph of a smiling woman he's never met, but who he comes to believe holds the key to his destiny. The chain of events that leads to him possessing the photograph and finding the woman pictured in it is the stuff of love stories.

"When Tucker's brother escapes from a mental hospital and an old girlfriend appears with her son and a black eye, Tucker is forced to return home and face the agony of his own tragic past. Miss Ella Rain once loved Tuck and his brother like they were her very own sons. Hiring her to take care of Waverly Hall and to keep the boys out of sight was the only good thing their father ever did. And though Miss Ella has been gone for many years, Tuck can...

"While taking photographs at an exposition in Seattle in 1909, Camera Girl Eleanor Bennett snaps an image of a woman in widow's clothes with deep sorrow etched in her expression and a young infant in her arms. Eleanor longs to study botany at the University of Washington and soon becomes fast friends with botanist Bill Reed, but she can't stop thinking about the widow in the photograph. She is stunned to learn Bill recognizes the woman as the sister-in-law...

Just when Adam MacIntyre answered his true calling at last, putting down roots on his Colorado ranch, along came footloose Lisa Berthoff to turn things upside down. His siblings might have marched down the aisle with hers, but Adam wasn't about to fall for a drifter who didn't believe in God, or in settling down. As a photojournalist, Lisa knew better than to let her personal feelings about a subject interfere with a job. But she couldn't seem to...

Eva Esch and her sisters are in a predicament. With the passing of their widowed mother, Eva's older brother Menno plans to move his growing family into the Eden Valley farmhouse where they all grew up, leaving little room for his three single sisters. Surely, Menno reasons, at least one of them will marry this coming wedding season. Eva does hope to marry, but she isn't sure she wants to give up her sweet shop for the life of a farmer's wife, and...

A photograph of a missing girl on a milk carton leads Janie on a search for her real identity.

The personal lives of sisters Callie and Steff, their friend, and their divorced parents are irrevocably changed throughout the course of an extraordinary summer in Maine that forces them to reevaluate their relationships and roles.

Returning home to the Amish country she left behind, news photographer Libby Morgan is reunited with police chief Adam Byler, who, striving to keep peace between the Amish and their modern "Englischer" neighbors, needs her help in finding the person responsible for attacking a young woman.

Latino homicide detective Jimmy Vega faces growing ethnic hostilities as he investigates the death of a young Hispanic woman whose purse contains the photo of a baby and a warning that soon reveals the dark truth about Lake Holly.

"You gotta know the rules to play the game. Ball is life. Take it to the hoop. Soar. What can we imagine for our lives? What if we were the star players, moving and grooving through the game of life? What if we had our own rules of the game to help us get what we want, what we aspire to, what will enrich our lives? Illustrated with photographs by Thai Neave, The Playbook is intended to provide inspiration on the court of life. Each rule containswisdom...