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Book The Sugar Queen

    Book Details:
  • Author : Sarah Addison Allen
  • Publisher : Bantam
  • Release : 2008
  • ISBN : 0553805495
  • Pages : 249 pages

Download or read book The Sugar Queen written by Sarah Addison Allen and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2008 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Quiet, awkward Josey Cirrini's peaceful life caring for her elderly mother is turned upside down when Della Lee Baker, a sassy, confident, and bold waitress fleeing an abusive boyfriend, decides to hide out in Josey's home.

Book Queen Sugar

    Book Details:
  • Author : Natalie Baszile
  • Publisher : Penguin
  • Release : 2014-02-06
  • ISBN : 0698151542
  • Pages : 338 pages

Download or read book Queen Sugar written by Natalie Baszile and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-02-06 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiration for the acclaimed OWN TV series produced by Oprah Winfrey and Ava DuVernay "Queen Sugar is a page-turning, heart-breaking novel of the new south, where the past is never truly past, but the future is a hot, bright promise. This is a story of family and the healing power of our connections—to each other, and to the rich land beneath our feet." —Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage Readers, booksellers, and critics alike are embracing Queen Sugar and cheering for its heroine, Charley Bordelon, an African American woman and single mother struggling to build a new life amid the complexities of the contemporary South. When Charley unexpectedly inherits eight hundred acres of sugarcane land, she and her eleven-year-old daughter say goodbye to smoggy Los Angeles and head to Louisiana. She soon learns, however, that cane farming is always going to be a white man’s business. As the sweltering summer unfolds, Charley struggles to balance the overwhelming challenges of a farm in decline with the demands of family and the startling desires of her own heart.

Book Garden Spells

    Book Details:
  • Author : Sarah Addison Allen
  • Publisher : Bantam
  • Release : 2007
  • ISBN : 0553805487
  • Pages : 258 pages

Download or read book Garden Spells written by Sarah Addison Allen and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2007 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Garden Spells" is a wonderful, enchanting, crafty novel of sisters--two very different women, each rooted in some way to her past--who discover that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree when family ties cast their spell.

Book Lost Kingdom

    Book Details:
  • Author : Julia Flynn Siler
  • Publisher : Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
  • Release : 2012-01-03
  • ISBN : 0802194885
  • Pages : 469 pages

Download or read book Lost Kingdom written by Julia Flynn Siler and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2012-01-03 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times–bestselling author delivers “a riveting saga about Big Sugar flexing its imperialist muscle in Hawaii . . . A real gem of a book” (Douglas Brinkley, author of American Moonshot). Deftly weaving together a memorable cast of characters, Lost Kingdom brings to life the clash between a vulnerable Polynesian people and relentlessly expanding capitalist powers. Portraits of royalty and rogues, sugar barons, and missionaries combine into a sweeping tale of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s rise and fall. At the center of the story is Lili‘uokalani, the last queen of Hawai‘i. Born in 1838, she lived through the nearly complete economic transformation of the islands. Lucrative sugar plantations gradually subsumed the majority of the land, owned almost exclusively by white planters, dubbed the “Sugar Kings.” Hawai‘i became a prize in the contest between America, Britain, and France, each seeking to expand their military and commercial influence in the Pacific. The monarchy had become a figurehead, victim to manipulation from the wealthy sugar plantation owners. Lili‘u was determined to enact a constitution to reinstate the monarchy’s power but was outmaneuvered by the United States. The annexation of Hawai‘i had begun, ushering in a new century of American imperialism. “An important chapter in our national history, one that most Americans don’t know but should.” —The New York Times Book Review “Siler gives us a riveting and intimate look at the rise and tragic fall of Hawaii’s royal family . . . A reminder that Hawaii remains one of the most breathtaking places in the world. Even if the kingdom is lost.” —Fortune “[A] well-researched, nicely contextualized history . . . [Indeed] ‘one of the most audacious land grabs of the Gilded Age.’” —Los Angeles Times

Book The Night Garden

    Book Details:
  • Author : Lisa Van Allen
  • Publisher : Ballantine Books
  • Release : 2014-10-07
  • ISBN : 0345537572
  • Pages : 353 pages

Download or read book The Night Garden written by Lisa Van Allen and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fans of Sarah Addison Allen, Aimee Bender, and Alice Hoffman, The Night Garden is a luminous novel of love, forgiveness, and the possibilities that arise when you open your heart. Nestled in the bucolic town of Green Valley in upstate New York, the Pennywort farm appears ordinary, yet at its center lies something remarkable: a wild maze of colorful gardens that reaches beyond the imagination. Local legend says that a visitor can gain answers to life’s most difficult problems simply by walking through its lush corridors. Yet the labyrinth has never helped Olivia Pennywort, the garden’s beautiful and enigmatic caretaker. She has spent her entire life on her family’s land, harboring a secret that forces her to keep everyone at arm’s length. But when her childhood best friend, Sam Van Winkle, returns to the valley, Olivia begins to question her safe, isolated world and wonders if she at last has the courage to let someone in. As she and Sam reconnect, Olivia faces a difficult question: Is the garden maze that she has nurtured all of her life a safe haven or a prison? Praise for Lisa Van Allen’s The Wishing Thread “Reader to reader, knitter to knitter: You’re going to love this book.”—Debbie Macomber “Whimsical . . . great for fans of Sarah Addison Allen and Alice Hoffman.”—Library Journal Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more.

Book The Sugar Queen

    Book Details:
  • Author : Tess Thompson
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2020-05-19
  • ISBN : 9781951621094
  • Pages : 270 pages

Download or read book The Sugar Queen written by Tess Thompson and published by . This book was released on 2020-05-19 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: True love requires commitment, and many times unending sacrifice...At the tender age of eighteen, Brandi Vargas watched the love of her life drive out of Emerson Pass, presumably for good. Though she and Trapper Barnes dreamed of attending college and starting their lives together, she was sure she would only get in the way of Trapper's future as a hockey star. Breaking his heart, and her own in the process, was the only way to ensure he pursued his destiny. Her fate was the small town life she'd always known, her own bakery, and an endless stream of regret.After a decade of playing hockey, a single injury ended Trapper Barnes' career. And while the past he left behind always haunted him, he still returns to Emerson Pass to start the next chapter of his life in the place his ancestors built more than a century before. But when he discovers that the woman who owns the local bakery is the girl who once shattered his dreams, the painful secret she's been harboring all these years threatens to turn Trapper's idyllic small town future into a disaster. Will it take a forest fire threatening the mountain village to force Trapper and Brandi to confront their history? And in the wake of such a significant loss, will the process of rebuilding their beloved town help them find each other, and true happiness, once again? Fast forward to the present day and enjoy this contemporary second chance romance set in the small town of Emerson Pass, featuring the descendants of the characters you loved from USA Today bestselling author Tess Thompson's The School Mistress.

Book The Pastry Queen

    Book Details:
  • Author : Rebecca Rather
  • Publisher : Ten Speed Press
  • Release : 2011-05-25
  • ISBN : 1607741377
  • Pages : 242 pages

Download or read book The Pastry Queen written by Rebecca Rather and published by Ten Speed Press. This book was released on 2011-05-25 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Best Little From-Scratch Bakery in Texas The pastry case in Rebecca Rather's bakery in Fredericksburg is packed with ultra-buttery scones, luscious cakes, cookies the size of saucers, brownies as big as bricks, and fruit pies that look as though they came straight out of Grandma's oven. Since the day Rebecca and her Rather Sweet Bakery and Café came to town, life in this Hill Country hamlet has been even sweeter and the townsfolk now know why she is the Pastry Queen. Everything she makes is a lot like her: down-home yet grand, and familiar yet one-of-a-kind. A native Texan, Rather makes the most of her Lone Star state's varied traditions, whether looking to the kitchens of Texas's Mexican and German immigrants or to the cowboy culture of her own forebears. Best of all, her recipes aren't fussy—one of her best-selling cakes stirs together in a single saucepan. Add in a cupful of Texas attitude and her made-from-scratch-with-love philosophy, and you've got an irresistible taste of American baking. What's best at Rather Sweet? Rebecca's customers all have their favorites (and she is happy to cater to their cravings), but here's just a taste of the perennial best sellers: • Apple-Smoked Bacon and Cheddar Scones • Texas Big Hairs Lemon-Lime Tarts (the only big hair Rebecca has ever had!) • Fourth of July Fried Pies • Peach Queen Cake with Dulce de Leche Frosting • Turbo-Charged Brownies with Praline Topping • All-Sold-Out Chicken Pot Pies • Kolaches (pillowy yeasted buns with sweet or savory fillings) • PB&J Cookies With over 125 surefire tested recipes and 100 photographs that richly capture small-town life in the Hill Country, The Pastry Queen offers a Texas-size serving of the royal splendor of Rebecca's baked goods—courtesy of the rather sweet gal behind the case.

Book African American Women in the Oprah Winfrey Network s Queen Sugar Drama

Download or read book African American Women in the Oprah Winfrey Network s Queen Sugar Drama written by Ollie L. Jefferson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-01-15 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This critical study interrogates the intersection of race and gender media representations on screen and behind the scenes. The thought-provoking investigation on the Oprah Winfrey Network’s Queen Sugar series shows the ways in which the television drama is a significant contribution to mainstream media that creates in-depth conversations concerning African American women’s social roles, social class, and social change. Ollie L. Jefferson provides a unique analysis of the television production by using the exemplary representations conceptual framework to contextualize and theorize research contributing to systemic change. Jefferson highlights the best practices used by African American female executive producers, Oprah Winfrey and Ava DuVernay, by examining Queen Sugar as a case study. The investigation shows how the decision-makers produced multidimensional female characters to illustrate the complex humanity of Black lives. This book broadens understanding of the media industry’s need for culturally sensitive and conscious inclusion of women and people of color behind the scenes—as media owners, creators, writers, directors, and producers—to put an end to the persistent and pervasive misrepresentations of African American women on screen. Scholars of television studies, film studies, media studies, race studies, and women’s studies will find this book particularly useful.

Book Beneath the Sugar Sky

    Book Details:
  • Author : Seanan McGuire
  • Publisher : Tordotcom
  • Release : 2018-01-09
  • ISBN : 0765393573
  • Pages : 158 pages

Download or read book Beneath the Sugar Sky written by Seanan McGuire and published by Tordotcom. This book was released on 2018-01-09 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner: 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series A glorious fantasy tale from Seanan McGuire's Alex-award winning Wayward Children series, which began in the Alex, Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winning, World Fantasy Award finalist, Tiptree Honor List Every Heart a Doorway Beneath the Sugar Sky, the third book in McGuire's Wayward Children series, returns to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children in a standalone contemporary fantasy for fans of all ages. At this magical boarding school, children who have experienced fantasy adventures are reintroduced to the "real" world. When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest – not when she has an entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.) If she can't find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is well-acquainted with quests... A tale of friendship, baking, and derring-do. Warning: May contain nuts. The Wayward Children Series Book 1: Every Heart a Doorway Book 2: Down Among the Sticks and Bones Book 3: Beneath the Sugar Sky Book 4: In an Absent Dream At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Book Sugar Town Queens

Download or read book Sugar Town Queens written by Malla Nunn and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-08-03 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Los Angeles Times Book Prize Award winner and Edgar Award nominee Malla Nunn comes a stunning portrait of a family divided and a powerful story of how friendship saves and heals. When Amandla wakes up on her fifteenth birthday, she knows it's going to be one of her mother's difficult days. Her mother has had another vision. This one involves Amandla wearing a bedsheet loosely stitched as a dress. An outfit, her mother says, is certain to bring Amandla's father back home, as if he were the prince and this was the fairytale ending their family was destined for. But in truth, Amandla's father has long been gone--since before Amandla was born--and even her mother's memory of him is hazy. In fact, many of her mother's memories from before Amandla was born are hazy. It's just one of the many reasons people in Sugar Town give them strange looks--that and the fact her mother is white and Amandla is Black. When Amandla finds a mysterious address in the bottom of her mother's handbag along with a large amount of cash, she decides it's finally time to get answers about her mother's life. What she discovers will change the shape and size of her family forever. But with her best friends at her side, Amandla is ready to take on family secrets and the devil himself. These Sugar Town queens are ready to take over the world to expose the hard truths of their lives.

Book Sugar Rush

    Book Details:
  • Author : Julie Burchill
  • Publisher : Pan Macmillan
  • Release : 2016-08-04
  • ISBN : 1509805419
  • Pages : 304 pages

Download or read book Sugar Rush written by Julie Burchill and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-08-04 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's survival of the fittest at Ravendene Comprehensive - the terrifying teenage jungle for which Kim Lewis must trade her safe, posh private school. But help is at hand - in the unlikely form of the rude, raucous, toxic and tantalizing Maria (aka Sugar) Sweet, queen of the 'Ravers'. As Kim falls quickly under her spell, and gambles her good-girl past for an exciting life of late-night parties and daring emotion, she must ask herself a disturbing question: has she fallen in love with her best friend? Julie Burchill's Sugar Rush is saucy, shimmering, loud and larger than life - come get your sugar fix!

Book The Girl Who Chased the Moon

Download or read book The Girl Who Chased the Moon written by Sarah Addison Allen and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2011-02-08 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A dusting of magic, the aroma of sugary cakes swirling through the breeze, and a girl who unwittingly brings change to a town of misfits make for a sweet summer story filled with hope and forgiveness.”—Beth Hoffman, author of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt Emily Benedict has come to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew, she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor, Julia Winterson, bakes hope in the form of cakes, not only wishing to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth but also dreaming of rekindling the love she fears might be lost forever. Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily’s backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in.

Book A Tall History of Sugar

    Book Details:
  • Author : Curdella Forbes
  • Publisher : Akashic Books
  • Release : 2019-10-01
  • ISBN : 1617757810
  • Pages : 308 pages

Download or read book A Tall History of Sugar written by Curdella Forbes and published by Akashic Books. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A haunting, epic Caribbean love story, reminiscent of García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera. WINNER of the 2020 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Fiction! "A Tall History of Sugar is a gift for grown-up fans of fairy tales and those who love fiction that metes out hard and surprising truths. Forbes's writing combines the gale-force imagination of Margaret Atwood with the lyrical pointillism of Toni Morrison." --New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice "A mesmerizing love story that takes place over 50 years in Jamaica." --Tayari Jones in O, the Oprah Magazine A Tall History of Sugar has been longlisted for the 2020 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature (Fiction shortlist)! "Curdella Forbes's A Tall History of Sugar is the most recent in an impressive new wave of novels by Jamaican writers--from Marlon James's Booker Prize–winning A Brief History of Seven Killings to Kei Miller's Augustown, Marcia Douglas's The Marvelous Equations of the Dread, and Nicole Dennis-Benn's Patsy, among others. Forbes provides an eclectic, feverish vision of Jamaican 'history' from the 1950s to the present glimpsed through the experiences of an abandoned mystic-child named Moshe, whose translucent skin and mismatched eyes defy racial category. Who he is and who he becomes--like the country itself--is a riddle that unfolds in episodic bursts and linguistic flourishes." --Vanity Fair, one of the Best Books of 2019 "An epic tale of two soulmates: Moshe Fisher, born with mismatched eyes and pale skin that bruises easily, and Arrienne Christie, 'her skin even at birth the color of the wettest molasses, with a purple tinge under the surface.' Arrienne is his protector at school--and later his lover--but how they eventually wind up together is part of this unconventionally crafted story that spans decades, from the years before Jamaica's independence to the 2010s. Forbes' sentences are the stars here; it's a book that rewards slow, careful reading." --BuzzFeed, included in BuzzFeed's Fall 2019 Preview A Tall History of Sugar tells the story of Moshe Fisher, a man who was "born without skin," so that no one is able to tell what race he belongs to; and Arrienne Christie, his quixotic soul mate who makes it her duty in life to protect Moshe from the social and emotional consequences of his strange appearance. The narrative begins with Moshe's birth in the late 1950s, four years before Jamaica's independence from colonial rule, and ends in the era of what Forbes calls "the fall of empire," the era of Brexit and Donald Trump. The historical trajectory layers but never overwhelms the scintillating love story as the pair fight to establish their own view of loving, against the moral force of the colonial "plantation" and its legacies that continue to affect their lives and the lives of those around them. Written in lyrical, luminous prose that spans the range of Jamaican Englishes, this remarkable story follows the couple's mysterious love affair from childhood to adulthood, from the haunted environs of rural Jamaica to the city of Kingston, and then to England--another haunted locale in Forbes's rendition. Following on the footsteps of Marlon James's debut novel, John Crow's Devil, which Akashic Books published in 2005, we are delighted to introduce another lion of Jamaican literature with the publication of A Tall History of Sugar.

Book Kingdom of Sleep

    Book Details:
  • Author : E.K. Johnston
  • Publisher : Macmillan Children's Books
  • Release : 2016-12-13
  • ISBN : 1760551287
  • Pages : 268 pages

Download or read book Kingdom of Sleep written by E.K. Johnston and published by Macmillan Children's Books. This book was released on 2016-12-13 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is made safe by a woman . . . but it is a very big world. It has been generations since the Storyteller Queen saved her country from fire and blood - but now, the kingdom of Kharuf is threatened by a demon gathering power. When a princess is born, the demon is ready with her final blow: a curse that will cost that princess her very soul, or force her to destroy her own people to save her life. The threads of magic are tightly spun, binding princess and exiled spinners into a desperate plot to break the curse. But the web of power is dangerously tangled - and they may not see the true pattern until it is unspooled. Kingdom of Sleep by the critically acclaimed E. K. Johnston, is a spellbinding retelling of an enchanting fairy tale with the power of story at its heart.

Book We Are Each Other s Harvest

Download or read book We Are Each Other s Harvest written by Natalie Baszile and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A WALL STREET JOURNAL FAVORITE FOOD BOOK OF THE EAR From the author of Queen Sugar—now a critically acclaimed series on OWN directed by Ava Duvernay—comes a beautiful exploration and celebration of black farming in America. In this impressive anthology, Natalie Baszile brings together essays, poems, photographs, quotes, conversations, and first-person stories to examine black people’s connection to the American land from Emancipation to today. In the 1920s, there were over one million black farmers; today there are just 45,000. Baszile explores this crisis, through the farmers’ personal experiences. In their own words, middle aged and elderly black farmers explain why they continue to farm despite systemic discrimination and land loss. The "Returning Generation"—young farmers, who are building upon the legacy of their ancestors, talk about the challenges they face as they seek to redress issues of food justice, food sovereignty, and reparations. These farmers are joined by other influential voices, including noted historians Analena Hope Hassberg and Pete Daniel, and award-winning author Clyde W. Ford, who considers the arrival of Africans to American shores; and James Beard Award-winning writers and Michael Twitty, reflects on black culinary tradition and its African roots. Poetry and inspirational quotes are woven into these diverse narratives, adding richness and texture, as well as stunning four-color photographs from photographers Alison Gootee and Malcom Williams, and Baszile’s personal collection. As Baszile reveals, black farming informs crucial aspects of American culture—the family, the way our national identity is bound up with the land, the pull of memory, the healing power of food, and race relations. She reminds us that the land, well-earned and fiercely protected, transcends history and signifies a home that can be tended, tilled, and passed to succeeding generations with pride. We Are Each Other’s Harvest elevates the voices and stories of black farmers and people of color, celebrating their perseverance and resilience, while spotlighting the challenges they continue to face. Luminous and eye-opening, this eclectic collection helps people and communities of color today reimagine what it means to be dedicated to the soil.

Book Lost Lake

    Book Details:
  • Author : Sarah Addison Allen
  • Publisher : St. Martin's Press
  • Release : 2014-01-21
  • ISBN : 1250019818
  • Pages : 303 pages

Download or read book Lost Lake written by Sarah Addison Allen and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2014-01-21 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now a New York Times Bestseller From the author of the beloved bestseller Garden Spells comes a beautiful, haunting story of old loves and new, and the power of the connections that bind us forever... The first time Eby Pim saw Lost Lake, it was on a picture postcard. Just an old photo and a few words on a small square of heavy stock, but when she saw it, she knew she was seeing her future. That was half a life ago. Now Lost Lake is about to slip into Eby's past. Her husband George is long passed. Most of her demanding extended family are gone. All that's left is a once-charming collection of lakeside cabins succumbing to the Southern Georgia heat and damp, and an assortment of faithful misfits drawn back to Lost Lake year after year by their own unspoken dreams and desires. It's a lot, but not enough to keep Eby from relinquishing Lost Lake to a developer with cash in hand, and calling this her final summer at the lake. Until one last chance at family knocks on her door. Lost Lake is where Kate Pheris spent her last best summer at the age of twelve, before she learned of loneliness, and heartbreak, and loss. Now she's all too familiar with those things, but she knows about hope too, thanks to her resilient daughter Devin, and her own willingness to start moving forward. Perhaps at Lost Lake her little girl can cling to her own childhood for just a little longer... and maybe Kate herself can rediscover something that slipped through her fingers so long ago. One after another, people find their way to Lost Lake, looking for something that they weren't sure they needed in the first place: love, closure, a second chance, peace, a mystery solved, a heart mended. Can they find what they need before it's too late? At once atmospheric and enchanting, Lost Lake shows Sarah Addison Allen at her finest, illuminating the secret longings and the everyday magic that wait to be discovered in the unlikeliest of places.

Book The Peach Keeper

    Book Details:
  • Author : Sarah Addison Allen
  • Publisher : Bantam
  • Release : 2011-03-22
  • ISBN : 0553908138
  • Pages : 227 pages

Download or read book The Peach Keeper written by Sarah Addison Allen and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2011-03-22 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER It’s the dubious distinction of thirty-year-old Willa Jackson to hail from a fine old Southern family of means that met with financial ruin generations ago. The Blue Ridge Madam—built by Willa’s great-great-grandfather and once the finest home in Walls of Water, North Carolina—has stood for years as a monument to misfortune and scandal. Willa has lately learned that an old classmate—socialite Paxton Osgood—has restored the house to its former glory, with plans to turn it into a top-flight inn. But when a skeleton is found buried beneath the property’s lone peach tree, long-kept secrets come to light, accompanied by a spate of strange occurrences throughout the town. Thrust together in an unlikely friendship, united by a full-blooded mystery, Willa and Paxton must confront the passions and betrayals that once bound their families—and uncover the truths that have transcended time to touch the hearts of the living.