Child Marriage

A Stand-up comedian and his fall-down-drunk artist brother need and want to switch places secretly. The comedian is in jail and needs out to prove his innocence. His brother needs in to detox with the hope of saving his engagement. Now out, the comedian has to enlist the help of a Mafia Don to clear his name, but suspects he may end up cat food. The comedian must also live with his brother’s Fiancée—a demanding psychologist—without touching her. The comedian’s attorney, a beautiful Chinese American is surprised when whom she thinks is the comedian starts flirting with her and ...

Emily Grey is a young woman ahead of her time. She prefers breeches to dresses, and spends her time riding horses, fishing, and climbing trees. When Emily is fourteen, she meets Cameron, the Duke of Templeton’s grandson. Their friendship deepens over the years, until Cameron is called to fight against Napoleon. They express their devotion to each other and make love for the first time before Cameron heads off to war. When Emily’s father discovers she’s pregnant, he’s livid. He had no idea his tomboy daughter has fallen in love, and her predicament threatens to destroy their ...

Ten-year-old Tracy was taken into care a while ago, and now she lives in a Children's Home. She doesn't know exactly where her mum lives, but she used to have long, pretend phone calls with her. Tracy's had two foster families, but things just didn't work. She allows us to share her hopes for the future in this touching and often very funny tale.

Tom Holland arrived in Burlington after making a couple of life-changing decisions. One of them he would never regret…the other he was still wrestling with.But even before the recent events that sped up his plans, he’d been considering that he needed a change in his life…and his career but hadn’t been able to push himself into action. After the last couple of weeks he realized it was no longer an idle consideration, it was a necessity. When he chose Burlington as his destination it wasn’t with a dart tossed at a map. In large part it was because the city was the new home of an old...

A widow with two children to care for, a bounty hunter that is badly beaten, and the crime that brings them together . . . Garnet Chandler has lost everything. The only things remaining are her café, custody of her niece and nephew, and what little bit of sanity she has left. After the deaths of her husband and in-laws, she has made it her mission to provide for the children. When the children are kidnapped, Garnet has to find a way to rescue the last ties to her family. What she doesn’t expect is the handsome bounty hunter that comes to her aid. Bounty hunter Adam Bennett is on his last...

Amber Brown is in deep trouble. Lately, no matter what she does, it isn't enough. She straightens up her room - sort of. She does her homework - well, most of it. And she agrees to meet Max, her mother's new boyfriend - but she doesn't agree to like him. Now her mother is angry, her teacher wants all of her homework, and Max keeps trying to make her laugh.

Twelve-year-old Alba doesn't want to live with her estranged grandmother in Barcelona. But her mother needs her to be far, far away from their home in New York City. Because this is the year that her mother is going to leave Alba's abusive father. Hopefully. If she's strong enough to finally, finally do it. Alba is surprised to find that she loves Barcelona, forming a close relationship with her grandmother, meeting a supportive father figure, and making new friends. Most of all, she discovers a passion and talent for bread baking.

Allie is British and dreams of being a spy. Sage is an only child from sunny California. They meet when their families swap houses for the summer. Though they’re polar opposites, Allie and Sage quickly realize that they’re both dealing with family issues—Sage’s parents may be on the brink of divorce, and Allie’s struggling to feel heard in her big family. It may take a trip around the world for them to find their place at home.

Twelve-year-old Anna has come to stay with her grandmother, Mim, hoping to forget her worries about her parents' troubled marriage. She'll be busy with the town's annual Flower Festival, a celebration with floats and bands that requires weeks of preparations.But before long, Anna finds herself involved in a very big problem. When she observes a girl her own age who seems to be being held against her will, Anna can't forget the girl's frightened eyes and she is determined to investigate.

A desperate woman… A distrustful rancher with a secret… And a boy in need of a family. Orphaned at an early age and sent to live with her relatives, Gloria Tabor is fed up with the treatment she receives from her aunt, uncle, and spiteful cousin. In a moment of desperation, she leaves her only relatives’ home. With only a small savings, where is she to go? The question is sobering, but she is determined she will not return to her kin’s home. While deliberating her lack of choice, she overhears a young man comforting a sobbing woman she recognizes as a friend from school. After a ...

There are 3 simple questions that determine whether you should read this book. Have you ever wanted to know why some people make you feel inferior? Have you ever had the slight suspicion of being manipulated by your family members, friends or even partner? Have you ever wondered if your relationships need a bit of "cleaning up" but don't know where to start? If you answered YES to any of those questions then you need to read this book. Human beings are created for relationships. All of us long for connection with others. Toxic means deadly, poisonous or damaging and when you are in a toxic ...

When the crying stops, her world falls apart… Vivian Walker’s life is perfect. A loving husband, two beautiful children, and extensive family wealth. Until a peaceful nature walk turns her carefully crafted world into madness. Plunged into temporary darkness, Vivian recognizes the results of her seizure the moment she returns from the fog. What she doesn’t recognize is the silence. A silence that’s louder than her worst nightmare. Her baby carriage is empty. Only the sounds of crashing waves against the nearby cliff and her clingy toddler remain. Desperate to find her daughter, ...

In the fiction SHIKARAS IN THE RAIN, Cyril Mukalel uses characters’ similarities in spite of their cultural differences to explore what it is to be human. The images, fragrances, and sounds of Kashmir in the 1990s give texture and realism to the story of Saraswati, a Kashmiri Hindu girl. A burka abruptly replaces her innocence and childhood, when a group of Islamic terrorists infiltrate Kashmir from Pakistan and abduct her while she is on her way home from school. Her ill-fated circumstance couldn’t be predicted by the events incited when a daring and carefree young Indian soldier falls...

It's the summer before eighth grade and Flor is stuck at home and working at her family's mattress store, while her best friend goes off to band camp (probably to make new friends). It becomes even worse when she's asked to compete in the local honey pageant. This means Flor has to spend the summer practicing her talent (recorder) and volunteering (helping a recluse bee-keeper) with Candice, her former friend who's still bitter about losing the pageant crown to Flor when they were in second grade. And she can't say no.

Handmade quilts...fragile antique tea cups...lacy curtains...vintage plates...needlework on the walls...Noah easily remembered their home...what it was filled with...what they shared...and the mistakes he'd made that changed everything...Forgiven is the eighth novella in the ongoing Andersen Family Saga. Livia Andersen was a woman who held her family together with a quiet smile and an iron will. It’s only been a few months since her death and the four children she leaves behind still grapple with the shifting changes in their lives now that she’s gone. But they are not alone in their ...

One in 10 American children has a parent under criminal justice supervision - incarcerated, on probation, or on parole. One in 33 American children - and one in eight African American children - goes to sleep without access to a parent because that parent is in jail. Despite these staggering numbers, the children of prisoners remain largely invisible to society. Journalist Nell Bernstein shows, through the deeply moving stories of real families, how the children of the incarcerated are routinely punished for their parents' status.

She's a small town girl... Lissa Winters has her life all figured out. She wants a happy marriage and a house full of kids, right down to the white picket fence. The only thing that doesn't figure neatly into her plans is Jesse Kincade. She's been in love with him as long as she can remember, but after a fateful kiss under the stars he made it clear they weren't meant to be. Jesse is struggling to keep his farm supply store in the black and has no time for a distraction like Lissa. Especially when he knows they have no future. He comes from a dark past and he's just not marriage material. ...

For Kirsten McKenna, the world is crumbling. Her parents are barely speaking to each other, and her best friend has come under the spell of the school's queen bee, Brianna. Only Kirsten's younger science-geek sister is on her side. Meanwhile, for Walker Jones, the goal is to survive at the new white private school his mom has sent him to because she thinks he's going to screw up like his cousin.

April has lots of nicknames: there's April Showers, because she's always crying, and April Fool, because of when her birthday falls. Her worst nickname of all, though, is Dustbin Baby. That reminds her of how she started out in life: abandoned in a rubbish bin. When she turns 14, April decides that she must find out who she really is, where she came from and, most importantly, who her real mother is. There have been lots of people she's called Mum, and now she lives with Marion.

Alice's world is falling apart. Her parents are getting a divorce, and they've cancelled their yearly cottage trip - the one thing that gets Alice through the school year. Instead, Alice and her mom are heading to some small town where Alice's mom will be a live-in nurse to a rich elderly lady. The house is huge, imposing, and spooky, and everything inside is meticulously kept and perfect - not a fun place to spend the summer. Things start to get weird when Alice finds a dollhouse in the attic that's an exact replica of the house she's living in.