When Alicia Carlyle returns to the home of her childhood after the tragic death of her husband, she is hoping to put the past behind her. But first she must come face to face with the woman who nearly destroyed her marriage and tore her family in two - her sister-in-law, Sabrina. Their enmity runs deep, but Alicia is determined to make a fresh start for herself and her two children, Nathan and Darcie, and to heal her fractured relationship with her beloved brother. However, just when it looks as if they might have a chance at a brighter future, Sabrina's fifteen-year-old daughter, Annabelle, accuses seventeen-year-old Nathan of a crime he insists he didn't commit. And once more the two families are locked in a battle that is fraught with mistrust, betrayal and lies - a battle that threatens to destroy them all...

Undercover officer George Raffield's job was to pose as a student in the small town of Midlothian, Texas and infiltrate the high school drug ring. When Raffield's cover became suspect, word spread through a small circle of friends that the young officer would pay with his life. No one stopped it. On a rainy fall evening in 1987, Raffield was lured to an isolated field. Three bullets were fired-one unloaded into his skull. The baby-faced killer, Greg Knighten, stole eighteen dollars from Raffield's wallet, divided it among his two young accomplices, and calmly said, "it's done." With chilling detail, Carlton Stowers illuminates a dark corner of America's heartland and the children who hide there. What he found was an alienated subculture of drug abuse, the occult, and an unfathomable teenage rage that exploded at point blank range on a shocking night of lost innocence...

Lost Innocence is the unforgettable account of a childs life, who was sexually, physically and mentally abused. Through her struggles you will feel her pain, her loneliness and fighting for her life. Imagine a young girl forced into submission and ordered to perform adult acts. Her own possession: loneliness and fear. Im still here after years of you trying to break me. One day youll see, I will make something of myself. Geraldine Cool tells of the courageous and moving story of her abusive childhood. Here is a horrifying glimpse of what went on behind closed doors. It is her touching account and testament to the strength of the human heart and its capacity to triumph over unimaginable trauma. She had nothing and no one to turn to but her dreams kept her alive. Dreams of one day being loved, honored and cherished by a special angel. Experiencing the instability of three foster homes, a detention home and a mental hospital. People thought foster kids were nothing but trouble and unworthy of being loved just because she wasnt part of a Real Family". Forced to suffer shame. Devastation, tears and hope create the journey of this severely abused child.

Innocence Lost sweeps the reader up into the adventures of a boy who, from an unknown entity, manages to become his junior high's supreme leader, followed by a small transitional period of limited conflicts with the regime's Secret Service and culminates with the struggles of freedom out into the streets of Bucharest Romania in late December 1989. The book describes in detail every single thing that the author has experienced during the last six years of socialism of one of the most brutal dictatorships in Eastern Europe. Every aspect of schooling, education, military training, battlegrounds, and personal private life of the author has been described in order to let the readers know what could happen or could have happened if they were to live in socialism. The book also describes Romania's history, economics, cultural, and social life along with some of the author's favorite vacation spots. Robert V. Angel-Little gets elected to lead the masses of pioneers (students) and works tirelessly to consolidate his position not only as a feared leader, but also as a trustworthy person within his community. After he resigns his duties as junior high leader, he enrolls into the country's National Guard program and takes his admission tests at the high school of his choice. At both institutions, he comes into an open conflict with the elite forces of the Secret Service, who plays its part similarly to Nazi Germany's state police, the Gestapo. As both good and unfortunate events take their courses, the author and his friends manage to survive both institutions at great costs: the disappearances of some friends and also expulsions from both institutions. The latter, along with all the other mishaps that took place in the past, has been the trigger point of revenge of both the author and his friends which culminates with their actions during the late December 1989 Romanian Revolution. Innocence Lost is a boy's testament to the world and is dedicated to all those who have lived and died fighting for freedoms from the clutches of socialist and communist oppression.

This book describes in detail the dark places where my addiction took me and how, with the willingness and desire to change, I was able to rise from the ashes and find that somewhat and every elusive peace of mind. It tells the story of addiction and just how cunning and powerful the disease is, and the path of destruction that follows. It tells the story of how addiction is a family disease and how so many lives are affected, not just the life of the addict. It is my hope that people reading this book will come to see that anything is possible in life, once you stop living your life based on others expectations for you - nothing good ever comes from this.

A Cambodian woman sold into sexual slavery at the age of twelve describes the horrors she experienced until she managed to escape and discusses her role as an activist for the young women whom she has rescued from the region's brothels.

Violinist Ella Stafford isn't used to parties, so it's little wonder she's overwhelmed by brooding Russian Vadim Aleksandrov! The throbbing, raw attraction places fragile English beauty Ella out of her depth… And into Vadim's arms! Soon she finds herself sharing his Mediterranean villa, attending glamorous parties and being showered with luxuries. Ella should feel elated. Yet there is darkness in Vadim's past that even Ella's virginal sweetness cannot penetrate. But will the baby she's carrying make him learn to love?

When a fifteen-year-old babysitter and the toddler entrusted to hercare vanish from their sleepy sub-urban town, Maddy Blake -- like the rest of Taylorsville -- is horrified. When the teenager turns up dead and the baby is nowhere to be found, Maddy's once tranquil life is shattered. Her husband becomes the prime suspect for this heinous crime, having only recently been acquitted of sexual misconduct charges brought by one of his teenage students. Plagued by doubts of her husband's innocence, tortured by a growing attraction to her priest, and disconcerted by the grim strangers to whom she has opened her home, Maddy realizes too late that she is inmortal danger.

A portion of the proceeds of this book will be donated to the Somaly Mam Foundation. A riveting, raw, and beautiful memoir of tragedy and hope Born in a village deep in the Cambodian forest, Somaly Mam was sold into sexual slavery by her grandfather when she was twelve years old. For the next decade she was shuttled through the brothels that make up the sprawling sex trade of Southeast Asia. Trapped in this dangerous and desperate world, she suffered the brutality and horrors of human trafficking—rape, torture, deprivation—until she managed to escape with the help of a French aid worker. Emboldened by her newfound freedom, education, and security, Somaly blossomed but remained haunted by the girls in the brothels she left behind. Written in exquisite, spare, unflinching prose, The Road of Lost Innocence recounts the experiences of her early life and tells the story of her awakening as an activist and her harrowing and brave fight against the powerful and corrupt forces that steal the lives of these girls. She has orchestrated raids on brothels and rescued sex workers, some as young as five and six; she has built shelters, started schools, and founded an organization that has so far saved more than four thousand women and children in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. Her memoir will leave you awestruck by her tenacity and courage and will renew your faith in the power of an individual to bring about change. To learn more about how you can help fight human trafficking, visit the foundation’s website: www.somaly.org.

The Lovely Bones meets Celeste Ng for teens in this gorgeous, haunting, and tragic novel that examines the crippling--and far-reaching--effects of one person's trauma on her family, her community, and herself. For the past eight years, sixteen-year-old Emilia DeJesus has done her best to move on from the traumatic attack she suffered in the woods behind her elementary school. She's forced down the memories--the feeling of the twigs cracking beneath her, choking on her own blood, unable to scream. Most of all, she's tried to forget about Jeremy Lance, the boy responsible, the boy who caused her such pain. Emilia believes that the crows who watched over her that day, who helped her survive, are still on her side, encouraging her to live fully. And with the love and support of her mother, brother, and her caring boyfriend, Emilia is doing just that. But when a startling discovery about her attacker's identity comes to light, and the memories of that day break through the mental box in which she'd shut them away, Emilia is forced to confront her new reality and make sense of shifting truths about her past, her family, and herself. A compulsively-readable tragedy that reminds us of the fragility of human nature. Praise for The Fall of Innocence * "Sanchez deftly shows the long-lasting impact of the assault. . . . An intimate and tragic look at how traumatic incidents affect individuals, their families, and others around them." --Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW * "Sanchez writes with stunning detail, showcasing the beauty that can be found in small moments, in family interactions, in nature, and in seemingly everyday objects. . . and illustrates how a trauma like Emilia's has widespread effects." --School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW * "It is hard to imagine a more beautifully told, more moving, or more authentic story of one family’s journey through unbearable pain." --VOYA, STARRED REVIEW "Beautifully written but ineffably sad, Emilia's story is a case study of trauma and its aftermath." --BCCB "Emilia's inner world both captivates and devastates." --Publishers Weekly "Internal and contemplative, [this novel's] haunting quality lingers." --Booklist