BOOKS
The Kingdom of Childhood
I suppose in the beginning it was a love story . . .
The Kingdom of Childhood is the story of a boy and a woman: sixteen-year-old Zach Patterson, uprooted and struggling to reconcile his knowledge of his mother's extramarital affair, and Judy McFarland, a kindergarten teacher watching her family unravel before her eyes. Thrown together to organize a fundraiser for their failing private school and bonded by loneliness, they begin an affair that at first thrills, then corrupts each of them. Judy sees in Zach the elements of a young man she loved as a child, but Zach does not realize that their relationship is—for Judy—only the latest in a lifetime of disturbing secrets.
One of Library Journal's Best Books of 2011, The Kingdom of Childhood was described by Publishers Weekly as "a scalding, engaging portrait of people at two very different stages of life, caught in a trap of their own making."
Deep Salt Sea
Originally published as Inside These Walls by MIRA Books
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There is only one day, and I live it over and over …
Convicted of murder at age twenty-three, Clara Mattingly lost her promising future decades ago when she joined her boyfriend in his impulsive crime spree. Since that day, she has led a stoic and isolated life in prison, rarely looking back at who she once was—a shy young art student and dancer, unsure of herself and deeply in love.
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But when a surprise visitor shows up one day, bringing her past abruptly into her present, Clara finds that in an instant everything has changed. Now she must account for the life she has led—for its beauty as well as its brutality—and face the truth behind the terrible secret she has kept to herself all these years.
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Heaven Should Fall
Alone since her mother’s death, Jill Wagner believes she’s found the perfect partner in Cade Olmstead when he bursts upon her life—idealistic, handsome, and motivated. He dreams of becoming a congressman and changing the world, and Jill is ready to stand at his side for the journey. When she discovers she is pregnant, Jill accepts that she must put college on hold for the sake of their new family. But it won't be the only sacrifice she'll have to make.
Relocating to the Olmsteads’ New England farm, Jill is excited to welcome the baby surrounded by Cade’s family. But life on the farm isn’t the idyllic retreat she’d imagined. Cade's brother Elias, a soldier newly returned from Afghanistan, is struggling to recover from the experience of war, and Jill is unsettled to find the family home is no less a battlefield than the one Elias left behind.
When unexpected tragedy strikes, Cade is afflicted most of all—his idealism quickly transforms into bitterness and paranoia. Before she knows it, Jill’s once-ambitious husband becomes a desperate man willing to endanger them all in the name of vengeance—unless Jill can find a way out.