PUBLISHED BY PRISM BOOK GROUP Ann's hectic work responsibilities demand all her time and effort, and what was once a useful, satisfactory life has become a burden to carry. Her bakery partner Susan has lost none of her enthusiasm for their business, and Ann can't understand her exuberance, or her friend's Christian faith. So she trudges along, hiding her dissatisfaction from Susan, resigned to a life of work, sleep and problems. Unexpected comments offered by two different people cause a crack in Ann's armor and her thoughts careen into unexpected directions. Attention from a young widower...

Lilli Clarke. They call her the marked girl. Beginning at her left shoulder, a pink birthmark tracks up her throat just past her jaw, like a finger pointing to her brain. Abandoned by her family, she is ostracized by everyone but her grandmother and cousin Bert. Six years of dust storms have left sixteen-year-old Lilli close to death with dust pneumonia. Now she must leave the only real home she's ever had, or risk death when the next storm hits. Lilli is sent to her aunt and cousins in Florida to recover. The possibility of a different life presents itself, yet circumstances snatch it away,...