"They say friends make life worth living... Once a spirited, independent woman with a rebellious streak, Masha's life was forever changed by a tragic event twelve years ago. Unable to let go of her grief, she finds comfort in her faithful canine companion Haizum, and peace in the quiet lanes of her town's swimming pool. Almost without her realizing it, her life has shuddered to a halt. It's only when Masha begins an unlikely friendship with the mysterious...

Reverend Analiese Wagner's judgment is called into question when she steps in to help a homeless family. Then Isaiah Colburn, the Catholic priest who was her mentor, reappears in her life, torn between the priesthood and his desire for a future with her. Analiese now must answer the question of how to define her own happiness.

Volunteering at a soup kitchen during the Christmas season to navigate midlife doubts, Beatrice Powell finds unexpected comfort in a relationship with a homeless man, Charles Davenport, who was driven to a life on the streets after the devastating loss of his family. Beatrice Powell is volunteering at a soup kitchen during the Christmas season to quiet her change-of-life doubts. She reaches out to help Charles Davenport, who was driven to a life...

In 1996, a 16-year-old girl gives birth to a boy in an anonymous Montreal hospital. Around Her traces twenty years of the lives of Florence Gaudreault and her biological son through the prism of twenty characters who have crossed their paths and who, in turn, tell their own story.

"In A Matter of Life and Death, an indigent man has been set up for the brutal murder of the wealthy wife of a prominent judge in New York Times bestseller Phillip Margolin's latest legal thriller featuring Robin Lockwood. Joe Lattimore, homeless and trying desperately to provide for his young family, agrees to fight in a no-holds-barred fight, only to have his opponent die. Lattimore now finds himself at the mercy of the fight's organizers who blackmail...

Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi leaves her poor mountain home in Nepal thinking that she is to work in the city as a maid only to find that she has been sold into the sex slave trade in India and that there is no hope of escape.

Seventeen-year-old Angela Carter intended to pick out prom dresses with her best friend and fill out college applications during her senior year. But after her father abandons the family and her addict mother kicks her out, the now-pregnant teen's new normal is keeping her pressure cooker older boyfriend, Dale, from erupting. When an intoxicated Dale loses control of her car one night, Angela fears she'll never hold her unborn child. But something...

CCBC's Best Books for Kids & Teens (Fall 2015) - Commended Fifteen-year-old Edie Fraser searches for her mother, who has gone missing shortly after the two moved to London, England, to escape Edie's abusive father. Is it possible to outrun your past? Fifteen-year-old Edie Fraser and her mother, Sydney, have been trying to do just that for five years. Now, things have gone from bad to worse. Not only has Edie had to move to another new school - she's...

The sisters of STREET CHILD tell their story... A companion novel to bestselling story of Victorian orphan Jim Jarvis based on the founding of Dr. Barnardo's homes for children. When Jim Jarvis is separated from his sisters, Lizzie and Emily, he thinks he will never see them again. Now for the first time, the bestselling author of STREET CHILD reveals what happened to his orphaned sisters. In Victorian London, Lizzie and Emily are left in the care...

A tough and funny project girl manages to make that chill wind blow away in Janet McDonald's sequel to Spellbound. The good life, according to Aisha Ingram, is easy. It's hanging with friends, dancing, listening to music, whatever ... but it doesn't include worrying about the future. Chilling out is her mantra until she receives a sixty-day termination-of-welfare-benefits notice. Without her monthly food stamps and assistance checks and with no help...