When her best friend, Gemma, loses her parents in a tragic fire, Jessilyn's father vows to care for her as one of his own, despite the fact that Gemma is black and prejudice is prevalent in their southern Virginia town.

Ruled by fear and deep wounds, teenager Molly Fisk stays hidden away in the tiny tourist-town museum she and her mother call home, but everything changes when Claire Rodriguez, a woman from Molly's past, suddenly reappears.

"Anna Larson's daughter, Lauren, is confused, brokenhearted, and misguided. It's the turbulent 1960s and feeling alienated from her mother, Lauren chooses to stay with her paternal grandmother. However, repelled by the woman's manipulative and spiteful ways, Lauren returns to her mother, the river, and the Inn at Shining Waters."--P. [4] 0f cover.

In her wildest dreams, spunky and impulsive nineteen-year-old Mary Kate Lapp never imagined herself behind a schoolteacher's desk. A run-in (literally) with the schoolteacher compels her to act as a substitute teacher, just as her restless desire to see the world compels her to apply for a passport...just in case. The only thing of interest to M.K. in the sleepy Amish community of Stoney Ridge is the unexpected death of a sheep farmer that coincided...