Penelope J. Stokes – författare

Before Diedre McAlister''s mother dies, she gives her daughter an old photograph and says: "Find yourself. Find your truth. Just don''t expect it to be what you thought it would be."

The truth will shake up Diedre''s world, threaten lives, challenge her faith-and quite possibly save her life.

When she discovers her son has designs to sell her home out from under her, Miss Amethyst-ninety-three years old and as sharp as ever-isn''t about to let her legacy go. She pins her hopes on her granddaughter, Little Am, a good-natured child who has mutated in her teenage years into something else altogether. Whatever it takes, Little Am will know that the Noble family heritage is worth fighting for.

Four friends gathered in a cold, dusty attic on Christmas day to make a solemn pact.

“Our dreams for the future,” they whispered, placing tiny pieces of paper into a shimmering blue bottle.

But that event happened in 1929, and it is decades later when local news reporter Brenna Delaney stumbles upon that bottle . . . and into the most meaningful story of her career.

Life has taken those four girls’ dreams of love, fame, and faith on a path fraught with seduction, betrayal, and loss. Little has turned out as expected—and yet every choice, every tear has led each of them to a special place.

Brenna’s search will uncover the secrets of that Blue Bottle Club . . . and her own life will never be the same.

“A beautiful novel about friendship and the power of faith to renew our dreams.”

—Angela Hunt, author of Magdalene

Abby Quinn McDougall is a Southern lady whose once picturesque small-town life seems to be shrinking. Widowed at fifty and burdened by the care of an ailing mother and a cantankerous teenaged daughter, Abby wishes her life were simpler and her responsibilities fewer. Abby''s daughter, Neal Grace, devastated by the loss of her doting father and the illness of her beloved grandmother, wishes for change, for the chance to break free from other people''s expectations. And Abby''s mother Edith wishes only to be liberated from life itself.

But wishes often backfire. As their wishes begin to come true, the Quinn women start to wonder: Could it be that their old life wasn''t so bad after all? Is it possible that the answer to their deepest longings has been right in front of them, all along?

Without a Trace

Bree thinks a plane crash took the lives of her husband and young son, but her son Davy survived the accident. Can she find him before it’s too late?

It’s been months since the crash. K-9 search-and-rescue worker Bree Nicholls knows the chances of finding her husband and son in the vast wilderness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula grow more remote by the day. But her heart and her faithful dog, Samson, demand she keep searching.

Deep in the woods a young boy wakes in a tiny cabin. He’s being nursed back to health by a reclusive woman, but he can’t figure out why she calls him by a name he doesn’t recognize. Or why she’s calling herself his mother. He wants to leave, but as winter sets in, his very life depends on her care.

Meanwhile, Bree’s relentless determination to find her family has uncovered a violent crime. With the help of Park Ranger Kade Matthews, she discovers the violence may be linked to the plane crash that took her family. Could solving the crime bring her peace with her own loss? Or, more incredibly, reunite her family?

Set in the untamed beauty of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the Rock Harbor novels draw readers into the life and adventures of a canine search-and-rescue team as it unravels the secrets of an enchanting wilderness.

“Colleen is a master storyteller.” —Karen Kingsbury, New York Times Best-Selling Author

The Blue Bottle Club

Four friends gathered in a cold, dusty attic on Christmas day to make a solemn pact.

“Our dreams for the future,” they whispered, placing tiny pieces of paper into a shimmering blue bottle.

But that event happened in 1929, and it is decades later when local news reporter Brenna Delaney stumbles upon that bottle . . . and into the most meaningful story of her career.

Life has taken those four girls’ dreams of love, fame, and faith on a path fraught with seduction, betrayal, and loss. Little has turned out as expected—and yet every choice, every tear has led each of them to a special place.

Brenna’s search will uncover the secrets of that Blue Bottle Club . . . and her own life will never be the same.

“A beautiful novel about friendship and the power of faith to renew our dreams.” —Angela Hunt, author of Magdalene