The romances in this 5-book series flow from the original story of Bella, who was sent from her hometown in Georgia as a pregnant teenager. Bella establishes a clothing empire on the West Coast with her partner Rafael. These stories are of the women – some family, some friends – she works with along the way and how their determination to pay back leads each one down a unique path to love. Full Circle: Single and pregnant, Bella is given a choice. Give up her child for adoption or leave town. Her decision was never in doubt. Bella moves across the country, settling in Santa Monica. Determined to make a life for herself and her child, she and her new friend Sophia sell children’s clothing at the Venice Beach market. When their creative designs are featured on television, their business takes off and they accept an offer from Rafael Vargas to expand their business. Bella fights her attraction to the handsome entrepreneur, but deep in her heart all she really wants is love. Finding Forever: The new delivery man is everything Melissa is looking for… but she could do without the girlfriend! Wyatt Johnson delivers more than freight to the Bella store. He’s funny, intelligent, and oh, so charming. But there are hidden depths to the man who effortlessly steals her heart and Melissa must decide if he’s worth fighting for. Till I Met You: Spousal abuse can strip away any woman’s confidence. That is, until her children are threatened, and the warrior inside stages a rebellion. Growing up in in a sheltered, loving environment, Val doesn’t realize that her husband is manipulating her in the worst possible way. Summoning an inner strength she didn’t know she had, she breaks free. But will her traumatic past prevent her from trusting again? After All: “I want a divorce.” Carla thought she was prepared, but what woman knows how she’ll feel when her husband of twenty years says those words? With her life turned upside down, Carla forgets to tell Ethan that she’s pregnant. Seeking to make sense of what happened, she confides in the least likely person in town. Jeffrey Lambert turns out to be a good listener, but that’s all he can ever be... isn’t it? Only You: Brady Ferguson has been treading water for the past ten years. A gifted fashion photographer, he was forced to leave the job of a lifetime and has turned his talents toward industrial photography. Withdrawn and suspicious of most people in his orbit, he hesitates to accept an offer from Bella, the famous children’s wear firm. Wrongly accused in the past, he can’t bear the thought of dredging up those painful memories. Raphael Vargas convinces him to come back to his first love of fashion photography, and when he meets Savannah Mitchell he knows he’s made the right decision. A single mother, Savannah has issues of her own. Together, can they learn to overcome the past?

The romances in this 5-book series flow from the original story of Bella, who was sent from her hometown in Georgia as a pregnant teenager. Bella establishes a clothing empire on the West Coast with her partner Rafael. These stories are of the women – some family, some friends – she works with along the way and how their determination to pay back leads each one down a unique path to love. Full Circle: Single and pregnant, Bella is given a choice. Give up her child for adoption or leave town. Her decision was never in doubt. Bella moves across the country, settling in Santa Monica. Determined to make a life for herself and her child, she and her new friend Sophia sell children’s clothing at the Venice Beach market. When their creative designs are featured on television, their business takes off and they accept an offer from Rafael Vargas to expand their business. Bella fights her attraction to the handsome entrepreneur, but deep in her heart all she really wants is love. Finding Forever: The new delivery man is everything Melissa is looking for… but she could do without the girlfriend! Wyatt Johnson delivers more than freight to the Bella store. He’s funny, intelligent, and oh, so charming. But there are hidden depths to the man who effortlessly steals her heart and Melissa must decide if he’s worth fighting for. Till I Met You: Spousal abuse can strip away any woman’s confidence. That is, until her children are threatened, and the warrior inside stages a rebellion. Growing up in in a sheltered, loving environment, Val doesn’t realize that her husband is manipulating her in the worst possible way. Summoning an inner strength she didn’t know she had, she breaks free. But will her traumatic past prevent her from trusting again? After All: “I want a divorce.” Carla thought she was prepared, but what woman knows how she’ll feel when her husband of twenty years says those words? With her life turned upside down, Carla forgets to tell Ethan that she’s pregnant. Seeking to make sense of what happened, she confides in the least likely person in town. Jeffrey Lambert turns out to be a good listener, but that’s all he can ever be... isn’t it? Only You: Brady Ferguson has been treading water for the past ten years. A gifted fashion photographer, he was forced to leave the job of a lifetime and has turned his talents toward industrial photography. Withdrawn and suspicious of most people in his orbit, he hesitates to accept an offer from Bella, the famous children’s wear firm. Wrongly accused in the past, he can’t bear the thought of dredging up those painful memories. Raphael Vargas convinces him to come back to his first love of fashion photography, and when he meets Savannah Mitchell he knows he’s made the right decision. A single mother, Savannah has issues of her own. Together, can they learn to overcome the past?

The critically acclaimed biography Meriwether Lewis, coauthored by Thomas C. Danisi, was praised for its meticulous research and for shedding new light on the adventurous life and controversial death of the great explorer who became famous through the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Now, the author, with some help from contributors, extends his groundbreaking studies of Meriwether Lewis with this compilation of historical essays that offers new findings based on recently discovered docu­ments, tackling such intriguing subjects as: -The court-martial of Meriwether Lewis: Danisi’s discovery of the astonishing never-before published transcript of the entire court-martial proceedings affords him the distinction of being the first historian to mine the document for the many insights it offers into the then-untested twenty-one-year-old officer, who eloquently defended himself and won his case. -Documentation straight from the medical ledgers of Dr. Antoine Saugrain, the physician who treated Governor Lewis, which helps to confirm that Lewis suffered from malaria prior to his celebrated trek to the Pacific Ocean with the Corps of Discovery and continuing through his service as governor of the Louisiana Ter­ritory. Was Lewis’s death, as reported, the result of suicide, or was he merely a victim of this episodic and incurable disease? -Documentation that proves the true nature of the much-discussed Gilbert Russell State­ment given at the court-martial of General James Wilkinson. Some historians have argued that Wilkinson orchestrated Lewis’s murder, but Danisi’s research sets the record straight. -The role of Major James Neelly in Lewis’s last days. This subject has gained much prominence through the History Channel, according to which Neelly supposedly lied to President Thomas Jefferson about his presence at Meriwether Lewis’s burial, but Danisi has evidence to the contrary. The author presents an abundance of additional material to fill in previous historical gaps regarding the mysteries and controversies surrounding Lewis’s life and death. In doing so, he paints a vivid picture of the brilliant rise of an ambitious young man by virtue of courage, talent, and political connections, and the tragic fall of a conscientious public servant under the weight of chronic illness, bureaucratic pettiness, and the political intrigue that was ram­pant throughout America’s Wild West. This superb contribution to Meriwether Lewis research is a must-read for students and scholars of American history and anyone with an interest in one of our nation’s most important explorers and public servants.

"Is marriage a privilege or a right? A sacrament or a contract? Is it a public or a private matter? Where does ultimate jurisdiction over it lie? And when a marriage goes wrong, how do we adjudicate marital disputes-particularly in the usual circumstance, where men and women do not have equal access to power, justice, or even voice? These questions have long been with us because they defy easy, concrete answers. Kirsten Sword here reveals that contestation over such questions in early America drove debates over the roles and rights not only of women but of all unfree people. Sword shows how and why gendered hierarchies change-and why, frustratingly, they don't"--