April Showers

April showers bring...10 books with rain in the title.  Enjoy!

Black Rain by Graham Brown - Covert government operative Danielle Laidlaw leads an expedition into the deepest reaches of the Amazon in search of a legendary Mayan city. Assisted by a renowned university professor and protected by a mercenary named Hawker, her team journeys into the tangled rain forest--unaware that they are replacements for a group that vanished weeks before, and that the treasure they are seeking is no mere artifact but a breakthrough discovery that could transform the world. Shadowed by a ruthless billionaire, threatened by a violent indigenous tribe, and stalked by an unseen enemy that leaves battered corpses in its wake, the group desperately seeks the connection between the deadly reality of the Mayan legend, the nomadic tribe that haunts them, and the chilling secret buried beneath the ancient ruins.  Book 1 of 3 in the Danielle Laidlaw series

Father of the Rain by Lily King - Gardiner Amory is a New England WASP who's beginning to feel the cracks in his empire. Nixon is being impeached, his wife is leaving him, and his worldview is rapidly becoming outdated. His daughter, Daley, has spent the first eleven years of her life negotiating her parents' conflicting worlds: the liberal, socially committed realm of her mother and the conservative, decadent, liquor-soaked life of her father. But when they divorce, and Gardiner's basest impulses are unleashed, the chasm quickly widens and Daley is stretched thinly across it.
As she reaches adulthood, Daley rejects the narrow world that nourished her father's fears and prejudices, and embarks on her own separate life--until he hits rock bottom. Lured home by the dream of getting her father sober, Daley risks everything she's found beyond him, including her new love, Jonathan, in an attempt to repair a trust broken years ago. 

Heaven Sent Rain by Lauraine Snelling - Dinah Taylor has an orderly life that is just how she likes it. A perfectly furnished luxury apartment, a satisfying career as a scientist and CEO of her own company, and an uncomplicated personal life. But all of that changes when she meets seven-year-old Jonah. The boy shows up one day, a scruffy dog by his side, in front of her office building. Dinah knows nothing about kids and even less about animals, but after she buys him breakfast, he shows up the next day...and the next. She tries to learn more about him, to help him, but he's remarkably skilled at evading her questions. And then, late one night, he calls her in a panic-his dog has been badly injured. Dinah rushes them to a local animal clinic, where she meets Garret, a veterinarian with a thriving practice and a passion for drawing. Though Jonah takes to Garret right away, for some reason neither understands, Dinah and Garret just don't mesh. But for Jonah's sake, their lives continue to collide, and slowly the relationship between these three strangers begins to change. 

History of the Rain by Niall Williams - Bedbound in her attic room beneath the falling rain, in the margin between this world and the next, Plain Ruth Swain is in search of her father, Virgil. To find him, enfolded in the mystery of ancestors, Ruthie must first trace the jutting jaw lines, narrow faces, and gleamy skin of the Swains from the restless Reverend Swain, her great-grandfather, to her grandfather Abraham, and finally to Virgil, through wild, rain-sodden history, exploits in pole-vaulting and salmon-fishing, poetry,and the 3,958 books piled high beneath the skylights in her room. Her funny, meandering narrative sings, moves, and irrevocably inspires. 

I Will Send Rain by Rae Meadows - Annie Bell can't escape the dust. It's in her hair, covering the windowsills, coating the animals in the barn, in the corners of her children's dry, cracked lips. It's 1934 and the Bell farm in Mulehead, Oklahoma is struggling as the earliest storms of The Dust Bowl descend. All around them the wheat harvests are drying out and people are packing up their belongings as storms lay waste to the Great Plains. As the Bells wait for the rains to come, Annie and each member of her family are pulled in different directions. Annie's fragile young son, Fred, suffers from dust pneumonia; her headstrong daughter, Birdie, flush with first love, is choosing a dangerous path out of Mulehead; and Samuel, her husband, is plagued by disturbing dreams of rain. As Annie, desperate for an escape of her own, flirts with the affections of an unlikely admirer, she must choose who she is going to become. 

Racing the Rain by John L. Parker Jr. - From the author of the New York Times bestselling Once a Runner--"The best novel ever written about running" (Runner's World)--comes that novel's prequel, the story of a world-class athlete coming of age in the 1950s and 60s on Florida's Gold Coast. Quenton Cassidy's first foot races are with nature itself: the summer storms that sweep through his subtropical neighborhood. Shirtless, barefoot, and brown as a berry, Cassidy is a skinny, mouthy kid with aspirations to be a great athlete. As he explores his primal surroundings, along the Loxahatchee River and the nearby Atlantic Ocean, he is befriended by Trapper Nelson, "the Tarzan of the Loxahatchee," a well-known eccentric who lives off the land. In junior high school, quite by chance, Cassidy discovers an ability to run long distances, but his real dream is to be a basketball star. Still, Cassidy absorbs Nelson's view of running as a way of relating to and interacting with the natural world. Though he is warned of Nelson's checkered past, Cassidy dismisses the stories as superstitious gossip, until his small town is stunned by the disappearance of a prominent judge and his wife. Cassidy's loyalty to his friend is severely tested just as his opportunity to make his mark as a gifted runner comes to fruition.  Prequel to Once a Runner

The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard - One beautiful summer afternoon, from her bedroom window on the second floor, Jody Linder is unnerved to see her three uncles parking their pickups in front of her parents’ house-or what she calls her parents’ house, even though Jay and Laurie Jo Linder have been gone almost all of Jody’s life. “What is this fearsome thing I see?” the young high school English teacher whispers, mimicking Shakespeare. Polished boots, pressed jeans, fresh white shirts, Stetsons-her uncles’ suspiciously clean visiting clothes are a disturbing sign.
The three bring shocking news: The man convicted of murdering Jody’s father is being released from prison and returning to the small town of Rose, Kansas. It has been twenty-six years since that stormy night when, as baby Jody lay asleep in her crib, her father was shot and killed and her mother disappeared, presumed dead. Neither the protective embrace of Jody’s uncles nor the safe haven of her grandparents’ ranch could erase the pain caused by Billy Crosby on that catastrophic night.
Now Billy Crosby has been granted a new trial, thanks in large part to the efforts of his son, Collin, a lawyer who has spent most of his life trying to prove his father’s innocence. As Jody lives only a few doors down from the Crosbys, she knows that sooner or later she’ll come face-to-face with the man who she believes destroyed her family.
 What she doesn’t expect are the heated exchanges with Collin. Having grown up practically side by side in this very small town, Jody and Collin have had a long history of carefully avoiding each other’s eyes. Now Jody discovers that underneath their antagonism is a shared sense of loss that no one else could possibly understand. As she revisits old wounds, startling revelations compel her to uncover the dangerous truth about her family’s tragic past. 

The Sound of Rain by Gregg Olsen - Former homicide detective Nicole Foster has hit rock bottom. Driven off the force by her treacherous partner and lover, she's flat broke and struggling with a gambling addiction. All Nicole has left is the dream of a warm bed at a homeless shelter and the haunting memories of three-year-old Kelsey Chase--whose murder case ended her career. As Nicole obsesses over the old facts, she realizes everything about that case felt off: a disinterested mom, a suicidal pedophile, and too many questions left unanswered. When the little girl's grieving father begs Nicole for help, she's drawn back into the investigation ... and given one shot at redemption. But the deeper Nicole digs, the more evil she uncovers, including betrayals that hit painfully close to home. Will a shocking discovery be the key to finally getting justice for Kelsey and resurrecting her own life?  Book 1 of 2 in the Nicole Foster series

The Sound of Rain by Sarah Loudin Thomas - Judd Markley is a hardworking coal miner who rarely thinks much past tomorrow until he loses his brother--and nearly his own life--in a mine cave-in. Vowing never to enter the darkness of a mine again, he leaves all he knows in West Virginia to escape to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It's 1954, the seaside community is thriving, and Judd soon hires on with a timber company. Larkin Heyward's life in Myrtle Beach is uncomplicated, mostly doing volunteer work and dancing at the Pavilion. But she dreams of one day doing more--maybe moving to the hollers of Kentucky to help the poor children of Appalachia. But she's never even met someone who's lived there--until she encounters Judd, the newest employee at her father's timber company. Drawn together in the wake of a devastating hurricane, Judd and Larkin each seek answers to what tomorrow will bring. As opposition rises against following their divergent dreams, they realize that it may take a miracle for them to be together. 

Thunder and Rain by Charles Martin - Third generation Texas Ranger Tyler Steele is the last of a dying breed-- a modern day cowboy hero living in a world that doesn't quite understand his powerful sense of right and wrong and instinct to defend those who can't defend themselves. Despite his strong moral compass, Ty has trouble seeing his greatest weakness. His hard outer shell, the one essential to his work, made him incapable of forging the emotional connection his wife Andie so desperately needed.
Now retired, raising their son Brodie on his own, and at risk of losing his ranch, Ty does not know how to rebuild from the rubble of his life. The answer comes in the form of Samantha and her daughter Hope, on the run from a seemingly inescapable situation. They are in danger, desperate, and alone. Though they are strangers, Ty knows he can help-- protecting the innocent is what he does best. As his relationship with Sam and Hope unfolds, Ty realizes he must confront his true weaknesses if he wants to become the man he needs to be.   

Nurses in Fiction

Today is National Certified Nurses Day!  Here are 10 novels that have nurses in them.

The Fire by Night by Teresa Messineo - In war-torn France, Jo McMahon, an Italian-Irish girl from the tenements of Brooklyn, tends to six seriously wounded soldiers in a makeshift medical unit. Enemy bombs have destroyed her hospital convoy, and now Jo singlehandedly struggles to keep her patients and herself alive in a cramped and freezing tent close to German troops. There is a growing tenderness between her and one of her patients, a Scottish officer, but Jo's heart is seared by the pain of all she has lost and seen. Nearing her breaking point, she fights to hold on to joyful memories of the past, to the times she shared with her best friend, Kay, whom she met in nursing school. Half a world away in the Pacific, Kay is trapped in a squalid Japanese POW camp in Manila, one of thousands of Allied men, women, and children whose fates rest in the hands of a sadistic enemy. Far from the familiar safety of the small Pennsylvania coal town of her childhood, Kay clings to memories of her happy days posted in Hawaii, and the handsome flyer who swept her off her feet in the weeks before Pearl Harbor. Surrounded by cruelty and death, Kay battles to maintain her sanity and save lives as best she can . . . and live to see her beloved friend Jo once more. When the conflict at last comes to an end, Jo and Kay discover that to achieve their own peace, they must find their placeand the hope of lovein a world that's forever changed. With rich, superbly researched detail, Teresa Messineo's thrilling novel brings to life the pain and uncertainty of war and the sustaining power of love and friendship, and illuminates the lives of the women who risked everything to save others during a horrifying time. 

A Pledge of Silence by Flora Solomon - When Margie Bauer joins the Army Nurse Corps in 1941, she is delighted to be assigned to Manila--the Pearl of the Orient. Though rumors of war circulate, she feels safe--the island is fortified, the airbases are ample, and the Filipino troops are well-trained.
But on December 8, 1941, her dreamworld shatters. Captured by the invading Japanese, Margie ends up interned at Santa Tomas, an infamous prison camp. There, for the next three years, while enduring brutality and starvation, her bravery, resourcefulness, and faith are tested and her life forever changed.
At once an epic tale of a nation at war and the deeply personal story of one woman's journey through hell, A Pledge of Silence vividly illustrates the sacrifices the Greatest Generation made for their country, and the price they continued to pay long after the war was over.

Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax - 2029: In Japan, a historically mono-cultural nation, childbirth rates are at a critical low and the elderly are living increasingly long lives. This population crisis has precipitated a mass immigration of foreign medical workers from all over Asia--as well as the development of refined artificial intelligence to step in where humans fall short. In Tokyo, Angelica Navarro, a Filipina nurse who has been working in Japan for the last five years, is the caretaker for Sayoko Itou, an intensely private woman about to turn 100 years old. Angelica is a dedicated nurse, working night and day to keep her paperwork in order, obey the strict labor laws for foreign nationals, study for her ongoing proficiency exams, and most of all keep her demanding client happy. But one day Sayoko receives a present from her son: a cutting-edge robot caretaker that will educate itself to anticipate Sayoko's every need. Angelica wonders if she is about to be forced out of her much-needed job by an inanimate object--one with a preternatural ability to uncover the most deeply buried secrets of the humans around it. While Angelica is fighting back against the AI with all of her resources, Sayoko is becoming more and more attached to the machine. The old woman is hiding many secrets of her own--and maybe now she's too old to want to keep them anymore. In a tour de force tapestry of science fiction and historical fiction, Andromeda Romano-Lax presents a story set in Japan and Taiwan that spans a century of empire, conquest, progress, and destruction. Plum Rains elegantly broaches such important contemporary conversations as immigration, the intersection of labor and technology, the ecological fate of our planet and the future of its children. 

The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain - In 1944, twenty-three-year-old Tess DeMello abruptly ends her engagement to the love of her life when she marries a mysterious stranger and moves to Hickory, North Carolina, a small town struggling with racial tension and the hardships imposed by World War II. Tess's new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night, hides money from his new wife, and shows no interest in making love. Tess quickly realizes she's trapped in a strange and loveless marriage with no way out. The people of Hickory love and respect Henry and see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain, especially after one of the town's prominent citizens dies in a terrible accident and Tess is blamed. Tess suspects people are talking about her, plotting behind her back, and following her as she walks around town. What does everyone know about Henry that she does not? Feeling alone and adrift, Tess turns to the one person who seems to understand her, a local medium who gives her hope but seems to know more than he's letting on. When a sudden polio epidemic strikes the town, the townspeople band together to build a polio hospital. Tess, who has a nursing degree, bucks Henry's wishes and begins to work at the hospital, finding meaning in nursing the young victims. Yet at home, Henry's actions grow more alarming by the day. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients, can she untangle her husband's mysterious behavior and save her own life? 

Time of Death by Lucy Kerr - Its been twelve years since ER nurse Frankie Stapleton fled the quiet banks of Stillwater, but with her sisters pregnancy taking a dangerous turn and a string of failed relationships in Chicago hanging over her, Frankie is backand hoping to put the past behind her. Within minutes of arriving at Stillwater General Hospital however, she ends up saving a mans life, only to have him turn up dead hours later and the hospital blames Frankie. Her instincts say Clem Jensen didnt die of natural causes, but the more she digs, the more she discovers too many suspects, a few surprising allies, and some hard truths about the first man she ever lovedand left. Now the boy she once knew is a skeptical sheriffs deputy, her family's hardware store is in jeopardy, and the rift between Frankie and her loved ones is deeper than ever. With her careerand futureon life support, Frankie must catch a killer, clear her name, and heal the wounds of the past in Lucy Kerrs enthralling mystery debut, Time of Death.  Book 1 of 2 in the Stillwater General Mysteries

To Everything a Season by Lauraine Snelling - Trygve Knutson is devoted to his family and his community. With his job on the construction crew, he is helping to build a future for the North Dakota town of Blessing. Though he loves his home, he sometimes dreams of other horizons--especially since meeting Miriam Hastings.
Miriam is in Blessing to get practical training to become an accredited nurse. She's been promised a position in the Chicago women's hospital that will enable her to support her siblings and her ailing mother. Although eager to return to her family, Miriam is surprised to find how much she enjoys the small town of Blessing. And her growing attachment to Trygve soon has her questioning a future she always considered set in stone.
When a family emergency calls Miriam home sooner than planned, will she find a way to return? If not, will it mean losing Trygve--and her chance at love--for good?  Book 1 of 4 in the Songs of Blessing series

Trauma Plan by Candace Calvert - Sidelined by injuries from a vicious assault, chaplain Riley Hale is determined to return to her former duties as an ER nurse. But how can she show she's competent when the hospital won't let her attempt even simple tasks? Determined to prove herself, Riley volunteers at a controversial urban free clinic despite her fears about the maverick doctor in charge.Dr. Jack Travis defends his clinic like he's commander of the Alamo. He'll fight the community's efforts to shut its doors, even if he must use Riley Hale's influential family name to make it happen.As Riley strives to regain her skills, Jack finds that she shares his compassion--and stirs his lonely heart. Riley senses that beneath Jack's rough exterior is a man she can believe in. But when clinic protests escalate and questions surface about his past, Jack goes into battle mode and Riley wonders if it's dangerous to trust him with her heart.  Book 1 of 3 in the Grace Medical series

We Are All Made of Stars by Rowan Coleman - Hospice nurse Stella prefers the night shift after Afghanistan left her veteran husband a changed man, haunted at night by memories he can't bring himself to share. Writing final letters for her hospice patients to their loved ones gives Stella the chance to help others communicate as she cannot. She only has one rule: she mails the letter only once her patient is no longer alive. When she meets a patient with a chance at redemption, she finds herself torn between respecting a dying woman's wishes and reuniting her with the son she abandoned years ago. 

The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason - Vienna, 1914. Lucius is a twenty-two-year-old medical student when World War I explodes across Europe. Enraptured by romantic tales of battlefield surgery, he enlists, expecting a position at a well-organized field hospital. But when he arrives--at a commandeered church tucked away high in a remote valley of the Carpathian Mountains--he discovers a freezing outpost ravaged by typhus. The other doctors have fled, and only a single mysterious nurse named Sister Margarete remains. But Lucius has never lifted a surgeon's scalpel. And as the war rages across the winter landscape, he finds himself falling in love with the woman from whom he must learn a brutal makeshift medicine. Then one day, an unconscious soldier is brought in from the snow, his uniform stuffed with strange drawings. He seems beyond rescue, until Lucius makes a fateful decision that will change the lives of doctor, patient, and nurse forever. 

With Love, Wherever You Are by Dandi Daley Mackall - Everyone knows that war romances never last . . .After a whirlwind romance and wedding, Helen Eberhart Daley, an army nurse, and Lieutenant Frank Daley, M.D. are sent to the front lines of Europe with only letters to connect them for months at a time.Surrounded by danger and desperately wounded patients, they soon find that only the war seems real--and their marriage more and more like a distant dream. If they make it through the war, will their marriage survive?Based on the incredible true love story, With Love, Wherever You Are is an adult novel from beloved children's author Dandi Daley Mackall.  

Quilting Fiction

It's Visit Your Local Quilt Shop Day!  Here are 10 novels that feature quilters, quilting, or quilt shops to celebrate!

Between Heaven and Texas by Marie Bostwick - Welcome to Too Much--where the women are strong-willed and the men are handsome yet shiftless. Ever since Mary Dell Templeton and her twin sister Lydia Dale were children, their Aunt Velvet has warned them away from local boys. But it's well known that the females in Mary Dell's family have two traits in common--superior sewing skills and a fatal weakness for men. While Lydia Dale grows up petite and pretty, Mary Dell just keeps growing. Tall, smart, and sassy, she is determined to one day turn her love of sewing into a business. Meanwhile, she'll settle for raising babies with her new husband, Donny. But that dream proves elusive too, until finally, Mary Dell gets the son she always wanted--a child as different as he is wonderful. And as Mary Dell is forced to reconsider what truly matters in her family and her marriage, she begins to piece together a life that, like the colorful quilts she creates, will prove vibrant, rich, and absolutely unforgettable.

Fool's Puzzle by Earlene Fowler - Leaving behind memories of her late husband, Benni Harper is making afresh start...Moving to the trendy California town of San Celina, she takes an excitingnew job as director of a folk-art museum. While setting up an exhibit of handmadequilts, she stumbles upon the body of a brutally stabbed artist. Hoping to conduct aninvestigation on her own, she crosses paths with the local police chief, who thinks thisshort and sassy cowgirl should leave detecting to the cops and join him for dinner. Butit's hard to keep a country girl down, and soon Benni uncovers an alarming pattern offamily secrets, small-town lies--and the shocking truth about the night her husband died...

Forget Me Knot by Mary Marks - Martha and her besties Lucy and Birdie are set to expand their Quilty Tuesdays by inviting newcomer Claire Terry into their group. Though at forty Claire's a tad younger than their average age, her crafty reputation could perk up their patchwork proceedings, especially as they prepare for the fancy quilt show coming to town. But when they arrive at Claire's home and find her dead inside the front door, and her exquisite, prize-winning quilts soon missing, Martha is not one to leave a mystery unravelled. Especially if she wants to stop a killer from establishing a deadly pattern...

The Forgotten Seamstress by Liz Trenow -  Interveaves the story of Maria, a seamstress in the royal household of Buckingham Palace, and Caroline Meadows who discovers a beautiful quilt in her mother's attic.
Maria knows she's lucky to have landed in the sewing room of the royal household. Before World War I casts its shadow, she catches the eye of the Prince of Wales, a glamorous and intense gentleman. But her life takes a far darker turn, and soon all she has left is a fantastical story about her time at Buckingham Palace. Decades later, Caroline Meadows discovers a beautiful quilt in her mother's attic. When she can't figure out the meaning of the message embroidered into its lining, she embarks on a quest to reveal its mystery.

The Healing Quilt by Lauraine Snelling - After her Aunt Teza's test results turn out to be inconclusive, Dot Cooper resolves to raise money for a new mammogram machine, through the creation and auction of a magnificent, king-sized quilt to be sewn by the women of Jefferson City.
Dot's efforts quickly draw the support of disparate members of the community, including newcomer Beth Donnelly, married to a local pastor; Elaine Giovanni, the stylish wife of a local surgeon; and an ailing Aunt Teza. But as the four different generations work the squares of the quilt, they are also confronted with ragged pieces of their own lives.
Though the women could not be more different on the surface, they hold in common quiet suffering triggered by painful circumstances: the death of children, the abandonment of husbands, the loneliness of depression. Yet their struggles will bring them closer together than they ever could have anticipated, and their lives will be dramatically changed, as together they experience the curative powers of The Healing Quilt.

Mornings on Main by Jodi Thomas - Jillian James has never had a place she could call home. So when she lands in the sleepy Texas town of Laurel Springs, she's definitely not planning to stay -- except to find a few clues about the father who abandoned her and destroyed her faith in family. Connor Larady is desperate: he's a single dad, and his grandmother, Eugenia, has Alzheimer's. He's the only one around to care for her, and he has no idea how. And now he has to close the quilt shop Eugenia has owned all her life. When Connor meets down-on-her-luck Jillian, he's out of options. Can he trust the newcomer to do right by his grandmother's legacy? Jillian is done with attachments. But the closer she grows to Connor and Eugenia, the higher the stakes of her leaving get. She has to ask herself what love and family mean to her, and whether she can give up the only life she's ever known for a future with those who need her.

Murder Plain and Simple by Isabella Alan - With her snazzy cowboy boots and her ornithophobic French bulldog, Angie doesn't exactly fit in with the predominantly Amish community in Rolling Brook, but her aunt's quilting circle tries to make her feel welcome as she prepares for the reopening of Running Stitch. On the big day, Angie gets a taste of success as the locals and Englisch tourists browse the store's wares while the quilters stitch away. But when Angie finds the body of ornery Amish woodworker Joseph in her storeroom the next morning, everything starts falling apart. With evidence mounting against her, Angie is determined to find the culprit before the local sheriff can arrest her. Rolling Brook always appeared to be a simple place, but the closer Angie gets to the killer, the more she realizes that nothing in the small Amish community is as plain as it seems.

The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini - When Sarah McClure and her husband, Matt, move to the small town of Waterford, Pennsylvania, to get a fresh start, Sarah struggles to find a fulfilling job. Disheartened by failed interviews, she reluctantly accepts a temporary position at Elm Creek Manor helping seventy-five-year-old Sylvia Compson prepare her family estate for sale after the recent death of Sylvia's estranged sister. As part of her compensation, Sarah is taught how to quilt by this reclusive, cantankerous master quilter.
During their lessons, Mrs. Compson slowly opens up to Sarah, sharing powerful, devastating stories of her life as a young woman on the World War II home front. Hearing tales of how Mrs. Compson's family was torn apart by tragedy, jealousy, and betrayal, Sarah is forced to confront uncomfortable truths about her own family -- truths that she has denied for far too long. As the friendship between the two women deepens, Mrs. Compson confides that although she would love to remain at her beloved family estate, Elm Creek Manor exists as a constant, unbearable reminder of her role in her family's misfortune. For Sarah, there can be no greater reward than teaching Mrs. Compson to forgive herself for her past mistakes, restoring life and joy to her cherished home.

The Sisters of Sugarcreek by Cathy Liggett - Lydia Gruber, a young Amish widow, faces an uncertain future. Without support or skills, how will she survive? With the loss of her beloved aunt, Jessica Holtz inherits Rose's Knit One Quilt Too Cottage. Though determined to keep the shop open, she doesn't know the first thing about knitting and quilting and begins to see her aunt's dream slip through her fingers. Liz Cannon lost not only her dear friend Rose, but her partner in the Secret Stitches Society -- dedicated to delivering anonymous gifts of hope to troubled folks. She and Jessica decided to keep the society going, choosing Lydia for their first mission. The three women form an unlikely friendship in the aftermath of tragedy. As they walk together through triumph and heartbreak -- through grief and new chances at love -- they begin to discover that with friends by your side, a stitch of hope can be found anywhere.

Wedding Ring by Emilie Richards - For Helen, Nancy, and Tessa, three generations of Henry women, quilts truly represent the fabric of their lives. Using scraps of feed sacks, wedding gowns, and baby clothes, matriarch Helen has chronicled her family in the hundreds of quilts she's made. Helen is now a recluse beset by an irrational paranoia that induces her to hoard everything she can, and her bizarre behavior motivates her daughter, Nancy, and granddaughter, Tessa, to spend their summer cleaning out their Shenandoah Valley homestead. For Tessa, the project is a way to avoid facing the tragedy of her young daughter's death, and the toll it is exacting on her marriage. For Nancy, returning to the house where she grew up forces her to confront the questionable circumstances of her own marriage and motherhood.