Have you had periods in your life when everything seemed to be going right, the future looked rosy, you were prosperous and happiness seemed to saturate your whole being? Did it seem as though you were in the spring of life with a promising future when suddenly some destructive force thrust sorrow and despair upon you and every flourishing sprig of hope was crushed by life’s Blackberry Winter? How can any woman lose the most important person to her and still have a meaningful, happy life? Mattie Posey struggles to achieve this and out of desperation agrees to marry an older man, who she admittedly does not love. Grief has dominated her life for the past eight years and she has finally made the decision to marry John Mayo in spite of the fact that she can never give her heart to anyone. He is very understanding, but eventually wearies of trying to compete with a dead man for Mattie‘s affection. BLACKBERRY WINTER continues the true-life story of the Author’s grandparents who were first introduced to you in her book, LEAVE ME WHERE I LIE. Actual events have been fictionalized to create an intriguing story while it still accurately records the course of the lives of Mattie “Parilee” Posey Mayo and her family. You will anxiously follow the romance of Wade Posey who falls in love with a beautiful woman from Ireland and makes plans to marry her in spite of the objections of his children. He is devastated when he learns facts about her that he must consider before asking her to marry him. You will share the joys of Mattie and her family as they thrive in the Roaring Twenties and will also feel their pain as they endure the hardships of The Great Depression of the early thirties and the deaths of some of the people closest to them.

Ellen Williamson weaves an intricate narrative with settings in the north and in the south, characters both black and white, forces of good and evil. A boy from the deep south is burdened with a secret so dark and a tragedy so deep that he is compelled at too young an age to deal with forces beyond his abilities. Then a stranger, a good man with secrets of his own, gives him a strong hand up...and the story is off and running. This is a tale of contrasts, of a coming apart and a coming together, of love and hate, of hardship and healing. Carolyn Erickson In fear of his life, sixteen-year-old Billy Richards flees from Philadelphia, Mississippi and attempts to hide his identity and guilt in Buffalo New York. The enormity of his guilt and fear of being apprehended keeps him cowling in the safety of his elderly friend’s barber shop. He changes his appearance and then his name to Charles Q. O’Malley, II. He is burdened with the heavy load of guilt until he is forced to face up to the enormity of his secret and makes full confession.

Charlie O’Malley is filled with grief, anxiety and hopelessness as he stands on the banks of Lake Erie and contemplates suicide. Jewel Brady, an avowed atheist has just broken their engagement because she cannot endure being married to a preacher. The temptation to throw himself into the dark, roiling waters of the lake pulls him toward the bank. You first met Charlie and Jewel in the books Anguish of the Innocent and Guilt in Disguise when they fell in love in high school. Charlie’s decision to be a preacher was the catalyst, which tore them apart. Now Charlie must decide whether to marry the girl he loves or follow through on his commitment to God. In her despair and depression, Jewel casts aside her moral convictions and begins a destructive lifestyle, which puts her in situations that have life-long consequences. Charlie’s brother, Hubert and Jewel begin a romantic relationship, unaware of the other’s relationship to Charlie. World War I and the great influenza epidemic bring death and grief to Buffalo, so Charlie must decide whether to join the military or stay home and minister to the people in his church. You will weep with the broken hearted, rejoice with the victorious and hope for a solution to a seemingly hopeless situation when you read Chains of Gold set in Buffalo, New York in Nineteen-seventeen. Carolyn Erickson, Retired Peace Corp volunteer: This chapter in the life of Billy Richards (a.k.a. Charlie Q. O’Malley, II) takes him from hopelessness and despair to the strong belief in his life’s mission. The spiritual strength he grows into along the way helps him in his relationships to himself, his friends, and an almost lost brother. In this, he is a lot like the rest of us.

Immerse yourself and become a part of the Deremer family who left behind a very comfortable lifestyle in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, to raise their children near the untamed frontier in Mansfield Woodhouse, New Jersey. Begin your journey in 1774 and share in the happy times, hardships, and often heartrending events that helped to make America what it is today. Can a land of mixed nationalities and classes of people who often cannot speak each other's language come together and create a more perfect union? Only God and time will tell. The journey continues in the series with Blackberry Winter, Flowering Brambles coming soon.

***THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*** From the New York Times bestselling author of Always and The Violets of March comes an emotional story of a dreadful storm, a missing child cold case, and a determined reporter who just may have a stronger connection with the past than she realizes. Seattle, 1933. Single mother Vera Ray kisses her three-year-old son goodnight and departs to work the night shift at a local hotel. She emerges to discover that a May Day snow has blanketed the city, and that her son has vanished. Outside, she finds his beloved teddy bear lying facedown on an icy street, the snow covering up any trace of his tracks—or the perpetrator’s. Seattle, 2010. Seattle Herald reporter Claire Aldridge, assigned to cover the May 1 “blackberry winter” storm and its twin, learns of the unsolved abduction and vows to unearth the truth. In the process, she finds that she and Vera may be linked in unexpected ways. Sarah Jio burst onto the fiction scene with two sensational novels—The Violets of March and The Bungalow. With Blackberry Winter—taking its title from a late-season, cold-weather phenomenon—Jio continues her rich exploration of the ways personal connections can transcend the boundaries of time.

Zoey Ryce never imagined she would encounter a serial rapist in a safe town in central Mississippi. She had escaped or outwitted all such encounters in New Orleans, her hometown. She dreamed of falling in love but not with a Christian who refuses to compromise his convictions for the love of an atheist. Logic fails her at the most crucial moment and leaves herentrapped. When Evelyn Nichols has to change her spending habits of the past fifty years she is thrown into a panic with physical manifestations. Evelyn finds herselfentrapped. A serial rapist customizes his van for his prowls about town looking for unsuspecting victims. He longs for love, but resorts to - a few minutes in the back of his van. His unmet passion leaves himentrapped. Dr. Dub Sachzman struggles with whether to follow God's calling or marry a woman who captivates his heart, mind, and if hes not careful, his soul. Between wisdom and the heart, Dub isentrapped.

"Felicity was young and lovely and sorrowful; she had been jilted by Barry Cornelius. So when the eloquent young preacher came along, with his magnetic manner, his speech rather charmingly flavored with the hill dialect, his evangelistic zeal flaming high, she thought the way to happiness was by his side. Down in the wild hills of Ozark country, the city-bred girl learned many things: among them that the frost which hill folk say comes with the blackberry bloom does not always blight the tender buds. Summer always comes. The author's knowledge of the Missouri Ozarks is intimate and this fine novel of romance and adventure is replete with the life, color and atmosphere of the mountains." -- from dust jacket.

We often live in an agony from which we wish to be free, and then, when the situation changes it is not as wonderful as we expected. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence but we go to great effort to climb that fence, only to realize our predicament is worse than before. We go through the steps we took and then moan if only I had done it differently. Darlene Hawkins finds herself in an abusive relationship and for the sake of her and her children, she seeks for a way to get out. She is not prepared for the unfortunate events that happen as she makes her escape, nor for the heartache that follows. Her heart longs for the child she left behind and then an unexpected tragedy prevents their long anticipated reunion. This book is set in the nineteen forties when the world was engaged in the conflict of World War II, the introduction of the Atomic Bomb and the struggle to overcome the devastation of the Great Depression. The hills of Tennessee in the area that was to become Oakridge, Tennessee, Kilgore, Texas and Abilene, Texas are the geographical settings of the story. Darlene Hawkins struggles to provide for her family in a community steeped with traditions and the dominance of the man over his wife. The opening of the mysterious manufacturing plant in the hills of Tennessee and the introduction of women to the working world give Darlene a means of escape.

Eighteen-year-old Reggie Dettman from Philadelphia, Mississippi, waits out a violent storm on the front porch of a stranger’s small, neat, house on Monarch Mountain, Arkansas. He knocks and calls, but no one answers. He is unaware of the horrible crime that has just been committed in the kitchen or that the killer is watching him from his hiding place. The hurricane-like wind is blowing rain through an open window into the living room. Reggie tugs on the screen door to go inside to close the window. It is latched from the inside so he eases along the eaves of the house and removes the screen from the window so he can close it. He sees movement inside. There has never been a murder on Monarch Mountain and the entire community of Crystal Ridge, Arkansas blames the only stranger in their community – a hippy who is there under the guise of a book salesman. Marty and Angelette witness the murderer’s strange behavior at Lovers Bluff but because of their clandestine meeting, they are afraid to report it. How can the wounds of the victims of gossip be salved? The words cannot be taken back, the wounds are deep and destructive. Who will judge and give justice? You will be riveted by the suspense of who killed Elizabeth McNair. The surprising twists and turns woven into the plot will keep you glued to the pages. To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. Proverbs 21:3 The Bible (KJV)

After their first meeting, Lacy and Adam vowed to steer clear of each other. But his investigation of a 15-year-old mystery would bring him closer to Lacy's childhood memories--and bring both of them closer to emotions they had never felt before.