"Ace and Chance Jensen usually spend Christmas at the Sugarloaf Ranch. But this year, the brothers are heading to Death Valley to claim Chance's prize in a poker game: the deed to a silver mine. Sure, the mine is probably dried up and worthless, but what they don't realize is that half the deed belongs to a ruthless outlaw named Foxx, a rich vein of silver hasn't been tapped yet, and another wealthy mine owner is trying to crush the competition--by...

"Many children have grown up in the shadow of Louisiana's Greenmount State Penitentiary. Most of them--sons and daughters of corrections officers and staff--left the place as soon as they could. Yet Ginny Polk chose to come back to work as a prison cook. Yet she has never seen them as monsters, not even the ones sentenced to execution. That's why, among her duties, Ginny has taken on a special responsibility: preparing their last meals."--

"Reba Farrall was lost until a kindly old gentleman took her under his wing and helped heal her shattered spirit. Now her dearest friend is gone, leaving her with a broken heart and half-interest in a California gem mine. But Chance Walker has burst into Reba's life -- a daring adventurer who believes only in the priceless uncut stones for which he searches the Earth."--Cover

In the summer of 1348, as the Black Death ravages their city, ten young Florentines take refuge in the countryside. They amuse themselves by each telling a story a day for the ten days they are destined to remain there—a hundred stories of love, adventure and surprising twists of fate. Less preoccupied with abstract concepts of morality or religion than with earthly values, the tales range from the bawdy Peronella hiding her lover in a tub to Ser...

A brother and sister struggle to survive the rigors of Death Valley after their wagon breaks an axle and they set out alone to find help for their stranded family and injured father.

"Invited by a friend to trek west and help establish the newly formed town of Cheyenne, Edward Vogel is prepared to leave the painful memories of his wife and son's deaths behind him. The only problem is the corrupt new railroad town wants family men who can establish law and order, so Edward approaches his friend Marybeth with a proposition of marriage. After her father's death leaves her with no means of support, Marybeth Kruger is in danger of...

"In The Solace of Water, Elizabeth Byler Younts tells the story of two women, one white and one black, in racially charged 1956, who fight personal battles of freedom and form a friendship that neither expected.After the loss of her young son, Carver, an African-American preacher's wife named Delilah Evans moves with her family from Montgomery, Alabama, to Sinking Creek, Pennsylvania, for a fresh start. The last thing she could have imagined was becoming...

The Black Death sweeps through a Sicilian village.

"As the year 1349 approaches, the Black Death continues its devastating course across England. In Dorseteshire, the quarantined people of Develish question whether they are the only survivors. Guided by their beloved young mistress, Lady Anne, they wait, knowing that when their dwindling stores are finally gone they will have no choice but to leave. But where will they find safety in the desolate wasteland outside? One man has the courage to find...

In 1683 London during the Great Frost, thirteen-year-old Thomasina and her friend Anne stumble upon Father Winter's icy kingdom where Thomasina gets a chance to make a wish--to bring her twin brother back from the dead--that has dangerous consequences.