by Susie Moloney (1998)
A town of wide-open prairies and endless skies, Goodlands, North Dakota, seemed the perfect place to farm and raise a family - until four years without rain brought the town to its knees. Now darkness has descended on Goodlands: Fires are singeing the already parched land, suspicious crimes are on the rise, and an ever-increasing sense of doom is enveloping the town. Tom Keatley has pulled rain from the sky in town after arid town. A loner, a drifter, Tom is a rainmaker, the stuff of myth. But to Karen Grange, Goodlands' beleagured mortgage lender, Tom is her only hope to save the dying town. For Tom Keatley, inextricably drawn to Goodlands and to Karen, the storm is just beginning. Because beneath the hard, cracked earth is a shattering secret that only he can uncover. And in the hot, dry air, a sinister force is gathering strength, ready to wage a war for the soul of Goodlands.
Betsy Byars
As twelve-year-old Bingo Brown strives for the triumphs of today and steels himself against the tribulations of tomorrow, he discovers that he will have to undergo a few more trials and triumphs before growing up.
Diana Palmer
Wolf Patterson and Sara Brandon are arch enemies from ages ago, but mischievous fate has brought the tall rancher with the pale blue eyes together with the dark-haired beauty-on nearby Wyoming and Texas ranches. At first, sparks fly, but despite Wolf's misguided notions about the spirited Sara and her indignance over the assorted injustices he has thrown her way, a truce-of sorts forms. Suddenly Sara notices Wolf's face, while not conventionally handsome, draws her like no other man has ever attracted her. And Wolf sees into the vulnerable soul that Sara hides from the rest of the world. They are two passionate people with a talent for falling out. Will love be the spark they need to create what they both want the most ... a family?
Barbara Taylor Bradford
Seeking some much-needed rest and relaxation after a long stint as a TV-news war correspondent in Bosnia, 33-year-old Bill Fitzgerald travels to Venice. There he is struck by the dark beauty of a young American woman, Vanessa Stewart, a 27-year-old glass designer from New York.Unhappily married, she welcomes a no-strings friendship with Bill. Soon they embark on an illicit affair and find themselves desperately in love. They vow to see each other whenever and wherever they can. But on their third meeting, one of them does not show up.Once again, Barbara Taylor Bradford weaves a love story of uncompromising ardor, this time taking readers through secret trysts in Venice, Manhattan and Southampton. In A Secret Affair, she touches on subjects that will stir the hearts and minds of her readers -- unconditional love and devotion, loyalty and loss.
Mako Yoshikawa
"I have spent most of my life in New Jersey, but the blood of a geisha courses through me yet."If Kiki Takehashi's life is dramatically different from that of her reserved Japanese-American mother, it is light-years away from that of her grandmother, whom she knows only through old family stories. Kiki has recently become engaged to Eric, a handsome, successful New York City lawyer. But at the same time she is haunted--quite literally--by the memory of her friend Phillip, killed the previous year in a mountaineering accident.Kiki has never met her grandmother Yukiko, for whom she is named. Still, thoroughly American though she is, she feels a secret kinship with her. Kiki is swept up by the story of this strong, proud, passionate woman who, against all odds, in a time and place far different from her own, was sold by her impoverished family, became a famous geisha, and found the love that has so far eluded the rest of the Takehashi women.Lyrical, haunting, and stunningly evocative, One Hundred and One Ways introduces a powerful and exciting new voice in contemporary fiction.From the Trade Paperback edition.