Sarah's Ground

In Rosewood, majestic estates sprawl for acres, and Tiffany toggle bracelets dangle from every girl's wrist. But not all that glitters is gold, and the town harbors secrets darker than anyone could imagine-like the truth about what really happened the night Alison DiLaurentis went missing. . . .

Back in middle school, Ali plucked Emily, Hanna, Aria, and Spencer from obscurity and turned them into the beautiful, popular girls everyone wanted to be. Ali was the best friend they ever had. But she also made them do terrible things and taunted them with their worst secrets. Now, three years later, all their questions about Ali have finally been answered and they can put this awful chapter of their lives behind them. Or so they think.

Not every story has a happy ending, especially when four pretty little liars have done so many wicked things. In the dramatic conclusion of Sara Shepard's bestselling Pretty Little Liars series, Emily, Hanna, Aria, and Spencer could get everything they've ever wanted-unless A has one more horrifying twist in store.

In 1872, sixteen-year-old Loretta Digby fled her home in Indiana to escape an abusive step-father. Rescued from the streets of St. Joseph, Missouri by brothel owner Jack Coulter, she turns to the only work available. By twenty she became a much sought after prostitute catering to St. Jo's most influential men and dreaming of the day she can leave her past behind and start her life anew. Jack is enraged when he discovers his favorite employee's plan to leave. Bloody and beaten, Loretta is rescued by a young prostitute, Amelia Benson, and customer Reverend Cyrus Langford. Working with teacher, Hettie Tobias, who is traveling west for a teaching position in Trinidad, Colorado, Loretta and Amelia leave their former lives behind.

In the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains outside Trinidad, Clare McIlhenney has been struggling for years to make her father's dream of owning a cattle ranch in the west come true. Working with a few ranch hands and her foreman, Ino Valdez, Clare has slowly built the ranch over the last twenty years while overcoming everything that should have stopped her.

In the spring of 1876 Loretta and her friends arrive in the dusty Colorado town. Her first meeting with Clare McIlhenney is less than inspiring. When Clare is injured, over her strenuous objections, Ino hires Loretta as a temporary cook and housekeeper for the ranch. Over the next few months, Clare struggles with her unwanted attraction to the much younger woman, unable to forget the events of her past that led to the deaths of everyone she had been close to. Determined to never lose anyone else, Clare closed off her emotions and became a distant and disliked stranger to everyone around her.

Will Loretta be able to keep her past a secret and find a new life? Will Clare open herself up to loss yet again and put her own prejudices behind her? In a story of the struggles in a harsh and unforgiving time will the two women find peace at last?
 

As the struggle for independence from England versus loyalty to the Crown heats up, war erupts, and daily life takes on an ever-more desperate character. A fierce local "civil war" intensifies the looting, plundering, massacre, battles, and treason of the Revolution. In the end, the futility of war is clear when the English commander in chief acknowledges to George Washington in 1783 that the conflict should have ended with the American victory at Trenton seven years before, in 1776.

"Fabend's evocative prose recreates a vivid New World. A poignant and gripping story, richly researched."

"I saw a bird dead once. I picture my father this way."

Twelve-year-old Lily has not seen her father for more than eight months. He was taken from her and her mother one night by the baron's men, forced against his will to leave England and to be part of a colony in the New World. And now Lily and her mother are in danger -- for the baron's men say they no longer have any right to their land. They also face persecution for being followers of Frere Lanther, a man who has been excommunicated by the church for wanting to purge it of its corrupt practices. Their one chance for safety and freedom is to take passage on the next ship out to the New World. Afraid her father is dead, hopeful that he might yet live, Lily and Frere Lanther persuade her mother to flee.

The harrowing voyage reveals painful secrets that strip Lily of her innocence. But Lily also makes a friend -- a boy named Ethan, son to none other than the baron himself, who is also onboard. Together Ethan and Lily navigate their way through betrayals and treachery in a strange new land. Separated from the group, lost in the wilderness, and captured by an Indian tribe, Lily must reach deep inside herself and tap into strength she never knew she had if she is to survive.

Richly imagined and beautifully written, Redemption is an epic adventure of family, growth, and love from a major new talent.