Caribbean Life

**Awards:** New Mexico-Arizona Book Award Finalist, 2024; Royal Dragonfly First Place in Letters, Diaries, and Journals, 2024; Global Book Awards Silver Medalist in Biography and Memoir, 2024. Do you want to get away from it all? Meet Kent. Overwhelmed by the indifference of his South Dakota undergraduate students and fed up with American politics of the 1980s, he yearns for a life of adventure. Then, he discovers sailboats. While retirement seems financially out of reach, living on a sailboat opens up a world of exhilarating possibilities. Imagine letting the wind guide your family ...

Cece Rios thought saving her sister would be the end of her adventures in the world of criaturas. But part of Juana’s soul is still trapped in Devil’s Alley. As Cece tries to find a way to get it back using her new curandera abilities, Juana takes her fate in her own hands and sets off alone, intent on restoring her soul and getting revenge on El Sombrerón.

Elvira Carr believes in rules. She also strongly believes in crisp schedules, clear guidelines, and taking people at face value. Not that the 27-year-old sees many people. After several unfortunate incidents, her overbearing mother keeps her at home. But when her mother has a stroke, Elvira is suddenly on her own. To help her navigate a world that is often puzzling, she draws up seven ironclad rules. Armed with these, a notebook full of questions, and guidance from a helpful neighbor, she takes charge of herself.

Living in the remote town of Tierra del Sol is dangerous, especially in the criatura months, when powerful spirits roam the desert and threaten humankind. But Cecelia Rios has always believed there was more to the criaturas, much to her family’s disapproval. After all, only brujas - humans who capture and control criaturas - consort with the spirits, and brujeria is a terrible crime. When her older sister, Juana, is kidnapped by El Sombrerón, a powerful dark criatura, Cece is determined to bring Juana back.

The 30-year regime of Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier, who ruled between 1957 and 1986, was arguably the most repressive in the Western hemisphere. Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier looks at how the father and son duo rose to power, and the results of their tight grip over Haiti.

Rae-Valentine and Howard were childhood sweethearts. They’ve shared twenty-five peaceful years since they were brought together by Dolly, Howard’s larger-than-life sister. But now, on the night of their wedding anniversary, Howard reveals a shocking betrayal that leaves Rae reeling. Heartbroken, she takes Dolly on her would-be anniversary trip to Antigua and the two women drink and dance and talk like they haven’t in years.

Amazon #1 Best Selling Author ★★★★★ Four former best friends are reunited at their 25th high school reunion. Little did they know this reunion would rekindle their friendship and lead them to an adventure of a lifetime. Andrea, Rita, Lauren, and Monica promised each other that they would always remain close but life happened leading them to go their separate ways and fall out of touch. Over two decades later, the four decide to dust off their high school yearbook and take a blissful trip down memory lane. As they flip through the pages, they are reminded of their senior class ...

Cece Rios and her friends have escaped Devil’s Alley, but the fight to save their world is just beginning. Despite her growing comfort with her curandera abilities, Cece is worried that she won’t be strong enough to stop her most dangerous enemy yet: her tía, Catrina. Desperate for power and revenge, Catrina has seized the throne of Devil’s Alley and set her sights on the living world.

A husband dead in a fiery crash. A son claimed by a killer’s hand. Tammy Horvath doesn’t think she’ll ever smile again. Strengthened by her faith, she bravely heads solo to Iceland to see the northern lights, where she climbs glaciers and ventures into caves before seizing the opportunity to travel more often. Tammy will take you on a journey of love, laughter, and inspirational life lessons as she swims in the crystal-clear Caribbean Sea, gets stuck atop one of Mexico’s pyramids, endures a tropical storm in the Bahamas, and hikes amid Yellowstone National Park’s spectacular scenery.

Kate and Scott’s marriage has always been a lot of fun, with alcohol at the heart of it. After all, what’s more entertaining than a good laugh and a large drink…or six? But recently, those relaxing drinks have become more crutch than comfort - and the couple have almost forgotten how to talk to each other sober. Then their teenage daughter Holly uploads a video of their humiliating drunken escapades, which gets picked up by YouTube superstar PinkyPud - and goes horrifyingly viral.

It’s January 1972 but the sun is white hot when Willy May Michael’s boat first kisses the dock of Mustique Island. Tucked into the southernmost curve of the Caribbean, Mustique is a private island that has become a haven for the wealthy and privileged. Its owner is the eccentric British playboy Colin Tennant, who is determined to turn this speck of white sand into a luxurious neo-colonial retreat for his rich friends and into a royal court in exile for the Queen’s rebellious sister, Princess Margaret.

In the hottest hour of the hottest day of the year, a fateful wind blows into Oaxaca City. It whistles down cobbled streets and rustles the jacaranda trees before slipping into the window of an 11-year-old girl named Clara. Unbeknownst to her, Clara has been marked for la Lotería. Life and Death deal the Lotería cards but once a year, and the stakes could not be higher. Every card reveals a new twist in Clara’s fate - a scorpion, an arrow, a blood-red rose. If Life wins, Clara will live to a ripe old age. If Death prevails, she’ll flicker out like a candle.

When his ex-fiancée marries someone else, accountant-turned-landscaper Gus takes a vacation away from his Nassau home, visits his cousin in the USA, and falls in love with a pastor’s daughter. Is it just romance on the rebound? Or is there something serious going on in this friends-to-more travel romance? Unwanted time off… After losing Veronique to another man, Augustus “Gus” Moss III needs a distraction and a change of scenery. He takes a leave of absence from his landscaping job in Nassau and flies to Atlanta, Georgia, to visit his cousin, Byron Moss. When Byron’s family ...

Island Hopping: Trinidad & Tobago Abandoned as a newborn and now a determined twenty-three year old with her mind set on un-covering her true heritage, Sakkara Riley lands in Trinidad. She's met by Natalia Day, a local his-torian with a wealth of knowledge and Anthony, the elderly woman's grandson. Ms. Natalia introduces Sakkara to the memory of a high-spirited Frenchwoman with a connection to the young girl and a past so strong that the story is capable of capturing readers by the heart. Continue this colorful quest of the Caribbean's long, lost child as past and present collide in this ...

When Rachel Croft wakes up on her family’s boat in Bermuda, it’s to sunshine and yet another perfect day…until she goes to wake her seven-year-old son, Oscar. Because the worst thing imaginable has happened. He isn’t there. In the dark and desperate days that follow, Rachel struggles to navigate her grief. And while her husband, James, wants them to face the tragedy together, Rachel feels that the life they once shared is over.

Cubans today, most of whom have lived their entire lives under the Castro regime, are hesitantly embracing the future. In his new book, Anthony DePalma, a veteran reporter with years of experience in Cuba, focuses on a neighborhood across the harbor from Old Havana to dramatize the optimism as well as the enormous challenges that Cubans face: a moving snapshot of Cuba with all its contradictions as the new regime opens the gate to the capitalism that Fidel railed against for so long.

As Tammy explores mountains and beaches in paradise, she’s fueled by the allure of new cultures, creating memories that have made her who she is today. Throughout her island adventures to the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and Curacao, as well as hikes through national parks in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, surprises lurk at every turn—from navigating floods to fending off avian ambushes. Embracing the chaos, Tammy turns each misadventure into a story worth telling.

Tess is a Londoner whose relationship with Richard transports her from a Jamaican diaspora in the city to the English countryside, where predatory birds hover over fields, buses run twice a day, neighbors barter honey for cider, and no one looks like her. As Tess and Richard settle in, the dramatic arrival of their fraternal twins—one who presents as black and the other as white—recasts the family dynamic, stirring up complicated feelings and questions of belonging.

Since the tragic loss of her parents, Enid has lived alone in a coastal cottage in Jersey. But this year someone new has come into her life: Fred, who truly gets her, and who knows how to make her happy. The only problem is that Enid has Asperger’s and doesn’t like to leave her comfort zone - and Fred lives in Australia. Like Enid, Fred has survived heartbreak and is searching for a way to start again. Could a stranger on the other side of the world really bring new meaning to his life, or is he just setting himself up for another fall?

When Nick’s wife Kerry falls ill and dies, he realises for the first time how fragile his happiness has always been, and how much he’s been taking his good life and wonderful family for granted. Now, he suddenly finds himself navigating parenthood alone, unsure how to deal with his own grief, let alone that of his teenage son, Olly.