Showing results by narrator "Rebecca Gallagher" in All Categories

“Why did he come back?" Tommy Tate finished his sophomore year alone at home, suspended from Latimer High School. Hated, dangerous, and accused of plotting to murder a classmate, Tommy was considered a monster by his peers and community. He swore that he would never step foot in LHS again. But now it’s fall, and after a summer of silence, Tommy arrives for the first day of school, leaving everyone to ask - why did he come back?

"Investigations" seems such an odd word to use in Hidden Falls. Quinn is still missing. Sylvia faces her ransacked shop. And now Dani’s sabotaged boat has gone over the falls. Are these events related or just bad timing? Everyone wants answers. In all of this, as mayor, business owner, and daughter of Emma, Sylvia has never felt so inadequate, so empty of answers...so lost without Quinn. She’s never liked Jack Parker much, but maybe he can use his connections to find Quinn. What could it hurt?

Quinn would want life to carry on. There's much to do and one day left to do it before the health fair. Adding to her list of tasks, Lauren resolves to confront the bully from her past - and is stunned in a way she never dreamed. Jack makes some interesting connections, professionally and personally, as he digs through old legal files. Maybe Hidden Falls won’t be so dull after all.

Three lone wagons on the California Trail become trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains by a sudden snowstorm. Stuck in tight quarters with others makes Cynthia Cooper reevaluate her reasons for being engaged to fellow-traveler Walter Prentice. When a widowed father heading to a California ranch and a gold prospector both show an interest in Cynthia, she has to reconsider here dreams for marriage alongside her responsibility to care for her mother. Can love win over her timid heart?

Troubles are escalating all over town. Sylvia has major cleanup to do, not to mention figuring out who and why - and could the vandalism to her shop have something to do with Quinn’s disappearance? Ethan and Nicole won’t sit around idly waiting for Cooper Elliott to do all the work. Cooper has an investigation on his hands like never before in Hidden Falls, but he sure doesn’t mind that it involves frequent communication with Lauren Nock. Liam is hitting wall after wall in finding a solution to his own personal crisis. Does he dare ask Dani for help (if she’d ever answer her phone)?

The Byler family is on a hunt for the father's will while relations continue to deteriorate among the siblings and between Joel and his fiancée. Joel is desperate for closure of his father's estate - but how far is he willing to go in order to restore the chaotic turn his life has taken? Will his quest ignore the needs of those closest to him?

It’s 1945, and Christine Freeman is a nurse at Hudson River State Hospital where she works alongside members of a Civilian Public Service unit. Eli is one of the conscies - conscientious objectors to the war - and he is doing his best to become a man of character instead of the immature heartbreaker he used to be back home in his Amish community. Christine and Eli are friendly, but when an old acquaintance, Jack, returns home from the war, Christine’s world is violently turned upside down. Eli, heartbroken to see his friend so hurt, offers her an escape within his Amish community.

Quinn’s friends need to powwow. One week without Quinn in Hidden Falls, and nothing seems quite right. He’d be proud of the way the townspeople followed through on his plans for the health fair. But amid the hubbub of the fair, it’s clear that those closest to Quinn have information they need to combine in order to find him. Dani knows what Liam knows - and wants out of the middle of people who need to talk to each other. Lauren thinks her mysterious phone messages must be an obnoxious prank - or just accidental - until Nicole has a shocking reaction.

It’s the calm after the storm. Ethan, Nicole, Dani, Liam, and Cooper kept vigil all night in the hospital waiting area, eager for news on Lauren’s injury. Aunt Sylvia hasn’t left her side. Liam comes clean with his brother, and the huge weight of that burden is lifted - but will Liam be able to meet Cooper’s conditions for helping him out of this mess? Dani and Nicole collide with a hospital employee - literally. Was it intentional or just obnoxious? Either way, the man’s green shoes send Dani on a chase for justice on her own terms.

Kristi Palmer thinks Joel Byler is the man she will marry - until she suddenly learns he has been hiding a lot from her. He never told her about growing up Amish, but the bigger problem is that he rebelled from all that was good in his upbringing and has put his selfish desires first. Now he has stolen money from their joint account, and she is done with the relationship. Can trust broken ever be mended?

Missionary trio Mildred Cable (1878-1952) and Evangeline and Franscesca French were the first Englishwomen to cross the infamous Gobi Desert, living for years among the diverse peoples of northwestern China in places few Europeans ever reached. Educated and rich, Mildred Cable once planned to be a concert pianist. Instead she served the people of China through wars and revolutions.

In the midst of grieving their father and settling his estate, the Byler family faces some of life's hardest challenges - sickness, disaster, loss. When Joel should be stepping up as the man of the family, his selfish determination continues to cause chaos. Can the family pull together, or will the prodigal son defy his father's last wish and part the family for good?

Up-and-coming Mission County, Pennsylvania, prosecutor Kate Magda has been given the assignment of a lifetime: lead counsel on a string of murders rocking the community. As the privileged daughter of a powerful local judge, Kate views the case as her chance to show her boss, her family, and the public that she is more than just “the judge’s daughter". As Kate delves into the case, she becomes convinced that she shares a personal link with the killer, who seems to know intimate details about a tragic childhood event from Kate’s past.

Being married to a saint isn't what it's cracked up to be. Beth's husband won't be joining the family on vacation at the beach this year. Or even joining them in the house. Instead, Rick has holed up alone in the backyard shed. Nobody knows exactly what he's up to. Maybe he's immersing himself in prayer. Maybe he's lost his mind. Maybe he's even the modern-day prophet or the saint the neighborhood artist imagines him to be. But while "St. Rick" waits for an epiphany, Beth will have to figure out what to do with herself and their teenage sons, possibly for the rest of her life.

Desperate people make desperate choices. Twenty-nine year-old Lisa Newberry can barely make it through the day. Suddenly widowed and the survivor of a near-fatal attack, she is wracked with grief and despair. Then, she hears of a medical trial for a tiny brain chip that emits electrical pulses to heal severe depression. At rope’s end, Lisa offers herself as a candidate. When she receives her letter of acceptance for the trial, Lisa is at first hopeful. But . . . brain surgery. Can she really go through with that?

Confused by your canine? Monique Anstee believes we have made dog training much too hard, when it really is very simple. Anstee teaches you to think differently, which will help you get out of your mind and into the moment. Monique Anstee trains dogs kindly, but effectively, and her clients love her for her honesty. Now, she has compiled a book of daily wisdom in which she shares her most deeply held values and philosophies, and her most sought-after lessons gleaned from more than 25 years in the business.

"And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way" (1 Peter 3:15-16, NLT). This book demonstrates again and again that talking about God is simple when we commit ourselves first to loving and listening to our friends. For people who are intimidated or fatigued by the idea of talking about matters of faith, Talking About God offers story after gripping story about faith conversations that avoid cliché and combativeness.

Jamil renounced a life of jihad when he encountered the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. But his new mission as an itinerant health worker in the hills of Afghanistan is met with skepticism and even violence. Returning to Kabul, relief worker Amy Mallory is shocked by the changes in her organization - changes with dire implications for the women and children under her care. And concern for her former assistant Jamil weighs heavily on her heart. Special Forces veteran Steve Wilson faces off against the riots and corruption of Afghanistan’s upcoming election.

Time marches on, even without Quinn. Four days without Quinn seems unreal, yet life in Hidden Falls must go on. Those closest to Quinn are tired of questions and desperate for answers. Sylvia tempers her anxiety with determined focus on restoring her shop and setting an example for the community that all will be well again - hopefully soon. Lauren picks up where Quinn left off in plans for the fast-approaching health fair, no matter how overwhelming the task.

In this coming-of-age memoir, Sharon takes you with her on a nail-biting adventure through the early 1970s after leaving her sheltered home life at 16 years old to join the hippies. Yearning for freedom, she lands in an adult world for which she is unprepared, and must learn quickly in order to survive.