Bestselling novelist Karen Witemeyer joins award-winning authors Regina Jennings, Amanda Dykes, and Nicole Deese for this Texas-sized romance novella collection. Each of the authors' unique voices is on display in stories where courting couples leave a permanent mark of their love by carving their initials into the same oak's bark. In Regina Jennings' Broken Limbs, Mended Fences, a small-town teacher has her credentials questioned by a traveling salesman. In Karen Witemeyer's Inn for a Surprise, two opinionated collaborators with conflicting visions must turn a doomed business venture into a successful romantic retreat. From Roots to Sky by Amanda Dykes follows a young WWII naval airman who heads to Texas to meet the sister of a lost compatriot. Heartwood by Nicole Deese is a modern-day romance about the groundskeeper of a historic inn who's reunited with someone from her past while she fights to save a town landmark.

After five long years, Georgiana McLaughlin returns to the only place she's ever considered home, the same place she stole a kiss from Ridge Carson under the "kissing tree" But this time he's a man, and reconciling their past is just the beginning. You'll find yourself applauding each new chapter filled with fun, romance, and adventure in this captivating, heartfelt tale of love, friendship, and finding your way back.

WWII airman Luke Hampstead found comfort in letters from the sister of a lost compatriot. When he visits Texas to thank her, he discovers her constructing a project with surprising ties to his letters. . . and that she herself is even more surprising. While a promising opportunity awaits him elsewhere, will what they've shared be enough to give their future flight? From Roots to Sky is a heartfelt novella from award-winning author Amanda Dykes.

Despite her own life being void of romance, spinster Phoebe Woodward adores love stories, especially those connected to the local Kissing Tree. Determined to foster romance in the lives of others, she builds an inn by the tree that caters to couples. When her father sends a property manager to help make the venture a success, however, she finds her whimsical vision thwarted at every turn by stodgy practicality. Finding the right blend of romance and reality is a challenge, but when the two bleed into her personal life, Phoebe's spinster heart may be in for a surprise. Inn for a Surprise is a humorous novella from bestselling historical romance author, Karen Witemeyer.

Abby Brookshire's world is turned upside down when the historic tree she's strived to preserve as the head groundskeeper at the Kissing Tree Inn is put in danger of removal. Making matters worse, the only way she can ensure its protection is to partner with the man who broke her heart years ago. Will she have the courage to move on from the past and start a new beginning? Heartwood is a sweeping novella from contemporary romance author, Nicole Deese.

When a young man from her past returns and upends their small town with his new invention, schoolteacher Bella Eden is reminded of the heartbreak she suffered years ago under the old oak tree. After her job is put on the line, can she trust the man who disrupted her life to help her fight for a brighter future? Broken Limbs, Mended Hearts is a captivating novella from historical romance author, Regina Jennings.

Pioneering novelist and short-story writer Nicholasa Mohr broke onto the literary scene of ethnic autobiography in the early 1970s, but it took another decade for other Puerto Rican women writers in the United States to follow the path that she cut. From the late 1970s on, a dynamic group of these writers have expanded the landscape of American literature. Kissing the Mango Tree is the first and only book to examine the works of the most popular Puerto Rican women writers from the perspective of feminist literary criticism. Rivera reconstructs the ethno-feminist aesthetic of Judith Ortiz Cofer, Sandra María Esteves, Nicholasa Mohr, Aurora Levins Morales, Rosario Morales, Esmeralda Santiago, and Luz María Umpierre-Herrera. In separate chapters dedicated to each of these writers, the author locates their works within the framework of feminist theory and literature, seeing them as "women with macho asserting their creative powers to record their own versions of their memories, to own their own bodies. . . They transform the way we look at the process of growing up and becoming a woman, at the relationship with our mothers and our daughters, at the fluidity of our lives, at our notions of nationhood . . ." This groundbreaking study is accompanied by a complete bibliography of the six writers' works and secondary sources of feminist, Latino, and ethno-poetic criticism and theory.

Famous Trees of Texas was first published in 1970 by the Texas Forest Service (now Texas A&M Forest Service), an organization created in 1915 and charged with protecting and sustaining the forests, trees, and other related natural resources of Texas. For the 100-year anniversary of TFS, the agency presents a new edition of this classic book, telling the stories of 101 trees throughout the state. Some are old friends, featured in the first edition and still alive (27 of the original 81 trees described in the first edition have died); some are newly designated, discovered as people began to recognize their age and value. All of them remain “living links” to the state’s storied past.

When the first settlers arrived in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky, they found an astonishing landscape of open woodland grazed by vast herds of bison. Farmers quickly replaced the bison with cattle, sheep, and horses, but left many of the trees to shade their pastures. Today, central Kentucky and central Tennessee still boast one of the largest populations of presettlement trees in the nation, found in both rural and urban areas. In Venerable Trees: History, Biology, and Conservation in the Bluegrass, Tom Kimmerer showcases the beauty, age, size, and splendor of these ancient trees and the remaining woodland pastures. Documenting the distinctive settlement history that allowed for their preservation, Kimmerer explains the biology of Bluegrass trees and explores the reasons why they are now in danger. He also reveals the dedication and creativity of those fighting to conserve these remarkable three-hundred- to five-hundred-year-old plants—from innovative, conscientious developers who build around them rather than clearing the land to farmers who use lightning rods to protect them from natural disasters. Featuring more than one hundred color photographs, this beautifully illustrated book offers guidelines for conserving ancient trees worldwide while educating readers about their life cycle. Venerable Trees is an informative call to understand the challenges faced by the companions so deeply rooted in the region's heritage and a passionate plea for their preservation.