A powerful novel of a man and a woman from different worlds whose passion binds them together even as it tears them apart—from the bestselling author of When Venus Fell and A Place to Call Home There had always been MacKenzies and Colebrooks at Blue Willow, their histories entangled like the graceful branches of the rare willow trees that thrived there. Artemas Colebrook and Lily MacKenzie shared more than that history, their souls bound to each other and to the land the day the boy held tiny Lily minutes after her birth. But the tragedy that has brought Lily back to the small farm where she spent her childhood has also made Artemas’s brothers and sisters her bitter enemies. Torn between family loyalties and their shared sense of destiny, Artemas and Lily must come to terms with a childhood devotion that has turned to bittersweet desire, a passion that could destroy all they have struggled for—even Blue Willow itself. Praise for Blue Willow “Smith knows how to generate genuine emotion.”—Publishers Weekly “Smith [is] a remarkably talented prolific storyteller who creates unforgettable characters.”—Booklist “A moving journey into the heart and soul of enduring love.”—Julie Garwood

THE BLUE WILLOW MCQ (MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS) SERVES AS A VALUABLE RESOURCE FOR INDIVIDUALS AIMING TO DEEPEN THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF VARIOUS COMPETITIVE EXAMS, CLASS TESTS, QUIZ COMPETITIONS, AND SIMILAR ASSESSMENTS. WITH ITS EXTENSIVE COLLECTION OF MCQS, THIS BOOK EMPOWERS YOU TO ASSESS YOUR GRASP OF THE SUBJECT MATTER AND YOUR PROFICIENCY LEVEL. BY ENGAGING WITH THESE MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS, YOU CAN IMPROVE YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUBJECT, IDENTIFY AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT, AND LAY A SOLID FOUNDATION. DIVE INTO THE BLUE WILLOW MCQ TO EXPAND YOUR BLUE WILLOW KNOWLEDGE AND EXCEL IN QUIZ COMPETITIONS, ACADEMIC STUDIES, OR PROFESSIONAL ENDEAVORS. THE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS ARE PROVIDED AT THE END OF EACH PAGE, MAKING IT EASY FOR PARTICIPANTS TO VERIFY THEIR ANSWERS AND PREPARE EFFECTIVELY.

"It's Ecstasy come Dixie." —Southern Living The Most Extensive Collection of Southern Recipes Ever in One Book Voted Southern Living magazine's 1996 Reader's Choice Award for best small-town restaurant in the Southandthe"Best in the South" for six years straight, the Blue Willow Inn is the quintessential eatery for fans of traditional Southern cuisine. Now, you can recreate the Blue Willow Inn experience in your own kitchen with over 600 classic Southern recipes, including: Blue Willow Inn's Famous Fried Green Tomatoes (page 170) Chicken and Dumplings (page 90) Virginia's Vidalia Onion Dip (page 58) Kudzu Blossom Jelly (page 83) Mom's Sweet Potato Casserole (page 194) Alabama "Blue Ribbon" Banana Pudding (page 342) Southern Fried Chicken (page 247) Thanks to proprietor Billie Van Dyke, as well as cooks from all over the South, you can now experience the culinary wonders of the Blue Willow Inn's delectable taste in your very own kitchen. Recipes passed down from generation to generation, adapted and enhanced through the years, have been collected into the most comprehensive collection of Southern recipes ever published.

A Late Offering But today is different. I recognize I can’t go on doing this alone. Today he will need God. That’s the man on his knees, praying to something or someone as vast as the dark and as quiet as the heat coming on. It’s what’s left when time fades to a stop, and words have all fallen from the trees. ______________________________ Reader Comments: Peterson’s new offering, The Directions to Blue Willow, is a compelling, powerful, and at times exquisite testament to the life of the spirit. Each poem is precisely at the heart of a man searching his soul for a way home. —Sharon Butler, l’aluna di Abril The poems in Peterson’s latest are among the man’s best. Here he returns to a recurring theme: At what point am I acceptable before God? But now as he ages, the poems are lean and simple, and the search made clear. —Andy Vinca, poet-proprietor, Poets’ Warehouse I can’t shake the image of Masaccio’s fresco of the Holy Trinity. At the base a skeleton lies upon a sarcophagus beneath the inscription: I was what you are, and what I am you shall become. “Every book is a confession,” says the poet, and we the priests ready to offer absolution or exact an appropriate penance. But soon we note that each poem is a bead on the rosary of his life, and there has been penance aplenty. Perhaps the birds that visit carry the desired pardon, or his trips to Blue Willow may provide moments of peace. With each offering he extends his naked hand and we are left to wonder who will answer. —Barbara D. Crone, artist & poet

Voted best small town restaurant for five years in a row by Southern Living magazine, The Blue Willow Inn Cookbook offers delicious Southern recipes, vintage pictures from the early days of Social Circle, Georgia and fascinating anecdotes about the restaurant. Billie and Louis Van Dyke say that no one is allowed to leave hungry, and certainly no one should after feasting on a variety of Southern dishes and famous drinks such as lemonade and tea, also known as the "Champagne of the South". Housed in a gloriously restored southern mansion, The Blue Willow Inn is home to Southern hospitality and charm at its best. In The Blue Willow Inn Cookbook, Billie and Louis share delicious recipes such as: Fresh Greens and Peas Southern Fried Chicken Sweet Potato Pie Cast-Iron Corn Bread Fried Green Tomatoes Southern Style Sweet Tea The greatest restaurants in America are its wonderful independent regional restaurants, and there are no greater experts on America's regional restaurants than Michael and Jane Stern. The brief stories connect the recipes to The Blue Willow Inn in a charming way and the recipes will make your mouth water. The Blue Willow Inn Cookbook is the perfect guide for creating traditional, Southern style dishes for family and friends.

Even before Nancy McCabe and her daughter, Sophie, left for China, it was clear that, as the mother of an adopted child from China, McCabe would be seeing the country as a tourist while her daughter, who was seeing the place for the first time in her memory, was “going home.” Part travelogue, part memoir, Crossing the Blue Willow Bridge immerses readers in an absorbing and intimate exploration of place and its influence on the meaning of family. A sequel to Meeting Sophie, which tells McCabe’s story of adopting Sophie as a single woman, Crossing the Blue Willow Bridge picks up a decade later with a much different Sophie—a ten-year-old with braces who wears black nail polish, sneaks eyeliner, wears clothing decorated with skulls, and has mixed feelings about being one of the few non-white children in the little Pennsylvania town where they live. Since she was young, Sophie had felt a closeness to the country of her birth and held it in an idealized light. At ten, she began referring to herself as Asian instead of Asian-American. It was McCabe’s hope that visiting China would “help her become comfortable with both sides of the hyphen, figure out how to be both Chinese and American, together.” As an adoptive parent of a foreign-born child, McCabe knows that homeland visits are an important rite of passage to help children make sense of the multiple strands of their heritage, create their own hybrid traditions, and find their particular place in the world. Yet McCabe, still reeling from her mother’s recent death, wonders how she can give any part of Sophie back to her homeland. She hopes that Sophie will find affirmation and connection in China, even as she sees firsthand some of the realities of China—overpopulation, pollution, and an oppressive government—but also worries about what that will mean for their relationship. Throughout their journey on a tour for adopted children, mother and daughter experience China very differently. New tensions and challenges emerge, illuminating how closely intertwined place is with sense of self. As the pair learn to understand each other, they lay the groundwork for visiting Sophie’s orphanage and birth village, life-changing experiences for them both.

Seeing how successful her older sister's "mail order marriage" has been and longing to strike out on her own, Greta Olsen answers an ad for a mail order bride in Central City, Colorado. But when she meets Jess Gifford, owner of a thriving mercantile, she begins to harbor doubts. He didn't place the ad to begin with and his business in a busy mining town leaves him little time or energy for love. To compound her troubles, she was not the only bride to answer the ad! Will either bride strike the match she hopes for? Filled with amusing and awkward situations that will keep the reader interested and guessing, Twice Promised is another sweet romance from Maggie Brendan.

When Catharine Olsen leaves Holland for America as a mail-order bride, she brings along some extra baggage: two sisters, her mother's set of Blue Willow china, and a tragic past. When she arrives in Cheyenne, Wyoming, she promptly marries Peter Andersen and dreams of starting life over in this rugged land. Peter is kind and patient with Catharine and accommodating to her sisters. His mother, however, is not. When she begins a campaign to sabotage Peter's marriage, Catharine is distraught, worried that her secret past will be discovered. Will her life end up as nothing but broken pieces? Or will these trials make her stronger? Readers will love negotiating the clash of cultures and class as a highborn European and a Western wheat farmer learn to love one another and trust God with both the past and the future.