Restless Hannah can't wait to escape her Illinois hometown. Coastal California holds all she ever wanted, including the man of her dreams. It's only when her younger sister, Dilly, commits the unthinkable that she has second thoughts. Returning home, she finds Dilly a changed woman, but the bonds of sisterhood may be stretched beyond the breaking point.

Years ago Dilly made the devastating decision to give her baby daughter to wealthy local family, the Farthings. She is still living with the consequences of her choice when the daughter she gave away all those years ago turns up on Dilly's doorstep, with a baby girl in tow, begging for help. Olivia has a secret she only feels safe telling Dilly. Sworn to secrecy, Dilly agrees to help, delighted to be spending time with her new granddaughter and daughter. She can't tell Max Farthing, the man who took in Olivia all those years ago and who Dilly has feelings for. For Max has problems of his own: he's married to Camilla, who has lost leave of her senses. Could Dilly and Max ever come together? Dilly's Lass is a wonderfully heartfelt portrayal of families beginning to rebuild after WW1, from much-loved author Rosie Goodwin.

Hardworking widow Dilly Carey has struggled out of poverty to make a successful life for herself. Surrounded by her children and grandchildren, Dilly should be content, but she is still troubled by the one secret she must never share. Olivia, the daughter Dilly gave away at birth, cannot find out the real truth about her parentage. It's time for Dilly to make her peace with the choice that she was forced to make. As Dilly finds the strength and courage to visit her son's grave on the battlefields of the Great War, will she also find a way to a new happiness - and a new love?

ARYN KYLE, whose award-winning novel The God of Animals was hailed as "reason for readers to rejoice" (USA Today), turns her gift for storytelling to the lives of girls and women in this spectacular collection. These eleven stories showcase Kyle’s keen eye for character, her humor, and her uncanny grasp of the loneliness, selfishness, and longing that underlie female experience. In "Nine," a young girl given to exaggeration escapes a humiliating ninth birthday celebration with the help of her father’s new girlfriend. The dubious benefits of sleeping with one’s boss are revealed when a bookstore manager defends an employee from an irate customer in the hilarious "Sex Scenes from a Chain Bookstore." A raid on a neighbor’s meth lab strengthens the unlikely friendship between a solitary woman and a Goth teenage girl in "Boys and Girls Like You and Me." And in a notable exception to the rule, "Captain’s Club" features a boy whose devotion to a lonely woman transforms his cruise vacation. In moments electric with sudden harmony or ruthless indifference, the girls and women in this collection provoke, beguile, and entertain. Writing with remarkable tenderness and wisdom, Kyle gives us a collection radiant with bittersweet revelations and startling insights, and secures her reputation as a major young talent.

A desperate act to save her family . . . Dilly is devastated: with her husband unable to work and four children already at home, they cannot afford to feed their new-born baby. Heartbroken, she heads into the night to deliver her baby girl to the Farthing family at the big house. Having just lost their own daughter to measles, the Farthings adopt the baby and offer Dilly a lifeline: a job as a maid. This act of desperation will change the lives of both families irrevocably - and the onset of WWI even more so. Sons are taken, love is declared, hearts are broken and terrible acts are committed. Through it all, Dilly does everything she can to preserve her family. But when the chance for true love finally comes, will she choose family over her own happiness?

They say the pleasure of love lasts a moment and the pain of love lasts forever. The Honourable Dilianna Wescott could well believe the later. She has loved Lord Nicholas, the Marquis of Rushton, now a widowed misogamist, since she was in leading strings. So when he asks her to play the role of his inamorata for a Season to keep matchmaking mamas and milk-toast chits at bay, she agrees, but only on the condition that he grant her a favor in return. But soon, circumstances beyond their customary control force both of them to consider carrying the marriage banns, either with each other or another, and quickly. Nicholas and Dilly are doggedly determined to dodge duty, but forces beyond their ken conspire to cripple their burgeoning relationship. So begins the knotty entanglement of temptations, trials, and triumph. Could Darling Dilly's final favor be their saving grace, proving to them once and for all that the pleasure of love can truly last a lifetime?

China Bayles is in a pickle. The daughter of her best friend, Ruby, has turned up on her doorstep, pregnant and in need of a place to live. And her otherwise sensible husband has announced that he's bored with teaching and ready for a career change." "Say "hello" to P.I. Mike McQuaid and Associates. There aren't actually any "associates" - unless you count Ruby and China, of course. But the title does have a nice, official ring to it. His first client is Phoebe the Pickle Queen, owner of the biggest little pickle business in Texas. According to Phoebe, her plant manager is embezzling, and she wants McQuaid to follow the money." Meanwhile, Pecan Springs is hosting the annual Picklefest - and this year, China and Ruby are on the planning committee, along with Phoebe. But just days before the festival starts, the Pickle Queen disappears. Some say she sold her business and split; others think the answer may lie with her missing boyfriend. It's up to McQuaid and China to search for the Pickle Queen - and for clues in a case that promises to leave a very sour taste.

Fairies aren't real...or are they? Twelve-year-old Gracie Jamison is enjoying the flowers in her family garden when suddenly, she hears a tiny voice coming from a flower and sees a small form. Gracie finds out that her garden is inhabited by garden fairies! With one wish from a new, small friend ("Why not? What could possibly go wrong?"), Gracie finds herself a fairy in a tiny, delightful world she never knew existed. But when Gracie is left a fairy permanently, she must find a way to get back to her family. The situation worsens when the entire garden begins to die. Gracie discovers it's up to her to save the garden... and every fairy in it.

Love in the Midst of Grief is the story of a devastating double tragedy; the deaths of two much-loved young men within a short time of one another, one from a terrible virus, the other from unknown causes. Their loss devastated their family. Nine years on, their younger brother-in-law, Satenam Johal, who has a professional background in social care, has written a detailed account of the tragedy and its aftermath. In doing so he hopes not only to help his family in their continuing grief but to provide others who are mourning loved ones to understand and manage the grieving process. The book will also be of great help to professionals seeking to help the bereaved.

When West meets East in India, tradition, modernity, and necessity cast disturbing slants on the truth. When Georgia accepts the assignment to research prostitution in India, she enters blithely, confident of her ability to remain objective in the face of the difficult subject matter. Provided with an Indian guide, Karma, Georgia feels that she is in control of her well-being and safety. But India, being India, soon overwhelms her preconceptions as Karma’s first attempt to facilitate her assignment is to arrange for her to witness an encounter between a prostitute and a john. Told in two voices, Georgia’s and Karma’s, Hooks grapples with the discrepancies between a Western and an Eastern take on prostitution in a country where tradition, modernity, and necessity cast disturbing slants on the truth. A morality tale told from vastly different personal circumstances and orientations, Hooks draws in the uninitiated Georgia, as she in turn helps the grieving Karma to realize a route away from his spoiled hopes.