Penelope J Stokes

Abby Quinn McDougall is a Southern lady whose once picturesque small-town life seems to be shrinking. Widowed at fifty and burdened by the care of an ailing mother and a cantankerous teenaged daughter, Abby wishes her life were simpler and her responsibilities fewer. Abby's daughter, Neal Grace, devastated by the loss of her doting father and the illness of her beloved grandmother, wishes for change, for the chance to break free from other people's...

Just before she dies, Diedre McAlister's mother gives her a fading photograph and tells her, ''Find yourself. Find your truth. Just don’t expect it to be what you thought it would be.'' Armed with these clues to her past, Diedre sets out to find her older sister, Amber, who was mysteriously sent away by her parents when Diedre was very young. Her search will take her across the country -- and into the path of someone who will do anything to stop...

Four friends gathered in a cold, dusty attic on Christmas day to make a solemn pact. "Our dreams for the future," they whispered, placing tiny pieces of paper into a shimmering blue bottle. But that event happened in the wake of the Depression of 1929, and it is decades later when local news reporter Brenna Delaney stumbles upon the blue bottle . . . and into the most meaningful story of her career. Brenna's search will uncover the secrets of that...