After a string of foster homes and the death of her heroin-addict mother, Lexi Baill is taken in by a newly discovered great-aunt who lives a spartan life near Seattle. Lexi soon meets Mia and her loving twin brother, Zach. The friendship flourishes, and Mia's mother draws Lexi into the family circle. A slowly growing attraction between Zach and Lexi begins, but then Lexi, Mia, and Zach collectively make a bad decision that results in a tragedy with...

Left in the cold care of a loveless foster family and alienated at school, Sarah Crane finds a kindred spirit in classmate Nick Dunnigan, a former mental patient still plagued by voices and visions. And in eccentric art instructor Bettina Phillips who is eager to mentor Sarah's artistic talent. But within the walls of Bettina's ancestral home, Sarah finds something altogether different and disturbing--a gateway from the grave into the world of the...

A new teacher in Stoney Ridge takes on the challenge to help find homes for foster children in Lancaster County. Her effort brings hope to two young girls, but complicates her budding romance. New to Stoney Ridge, schoolteacher Mollie has come to town for a fresh start. When Luke Schrock, new to his role as deacon, asks the church to take in foster girls from a group home, she's the first to raise her hand. The power of love, she believes, can pick...

As Bernadine Brown and Malachi July prepare for their upcoming wedding, Amari's birth mother comes to Henry Adams, Kansas, with the hope of spending Christmas with her son.

Reformed rebel Jackson Cooper thinks he can handle anything-;until a sullen teenage girl appears at his ranch, claiming the impossible. Even though he's not Jade's father, he can't turn her away, knowing she's in need. But he's going to need the helping hand of compassionate schoolteacher Madeline Patton. An unlikely duo with their own secret fears, Jackson and Maddie certainly don't expect the Christmas surprise of instant parenthood. Yet as they...

Moving to the Philippines with his zoologist mother, twelve-year-old Pablo struggles with anxiety while his mother fosters an orphaned child with a facial anomaly.

"Growing up in the foster system, Quinn O'Meara made a point of never getting involved. When she discovers a crying baby amid a fiery crime scene, she knows she has no choice. Suddenly in way over her head, Quinn turns to the police, unintentionally positioning herself in the crosshairs of a deadly human-trafficking ring. The last time homicide detective Nick Saldano saw Quinn, she was still the young girl he'd shared a foster home with. The girl...

The Boss Man has an unexpected motive in destroying Mike Wingate, who's worked his way up from the bottom to become a successful home contractor in Lost Hills, California. To protect his family and himself, Mike, who was raised in a foster home, summons his only friend from those days, the formidable Shep, who has grown up to be a career criminal of considerable skill.

Sixteen-year-old Claire wants her father back. His death left her only memories and an empty locket. After six difficult years in foster care, her vocabulary no longer includes "hope" and "trust." Everything changes when Justin rides his magical horse into her path and takes her under his wing. Like the rest of the elite men who serve as Spirit Knights, he hunts restless ghosts that devour the living. When an evil spirit threatens Claire's life, she'll...

Like everyone else in the Panopticon, 15-year-old Anais Hendricks has been in and out of foster care practically since birth. "[B]orn in a nuthouse to nobody that was ever seen again, " she had her only successful foster placement with a prostitute later stabbed to death (Anais found the body). She's been sent to this facility, where the inmates are under constant surveillance, because she had a bad history with a policewoman who has been bludgeoned...