When graduate student Isabel Palmer moves to her mother's native country of Venezuela to finish her Masters degree, her grandmother presents her with a priceless piece of family history-the journal of her ancestor, a sixteenth century Spanish sailor, one of the first Europeans to walk Venezuela's Pearl Coast. Fascinated by the eloquent entries and romantic story within its pages, she begins translating the journal with the help of Archaeologist Manuel Santiago, which leads to a brush with romance and a search for stolen treasure. But the closer she gets to the pearls, the more danger she...

Mom and Daddy have run away from home As Darcy Granger finishes her graduate degree and looks for employment, her parents make the inexplicable decision to abandon successful careers, lease their New York City apartment, and purchase a motorhome to become "full-timers." As a young adult she should be eager to start her own life, but her wounded inner child mourns that her safety net has been pulled away and there's no nest for her to fly back to. To make the transition easier, her parents invite her to stay with them while she looks for a job as a research librarian. Born and raised in New...