Lamar Public Library

"It can happen in the best of families--even the Fergusons. When Lynn and Robert first meet, she's bright, fresh-faced twenty-year old; he's handsome, a bit older, a charming young executive on the fast track. From the start they fall deeply in love, thrilled by the discovery of their mutual desire. But as early as their honeymoon the gold begins to tarnish, when Robert's anger erupts into a physical assault, one for which Lynn blames herself. To...

"Jenny Blake has a theory about life : big decisions often don't amount to much, but little decisions sometimes transform everything. Her theory proves true the summer she's 14, when she makes the decision to pick up a penny embedded in asphalt and consequently ends up stopping a robbery, getting a job, and meeting someone who changes her life forever, Miss Shaw. Together they form a friendship that dares both of them to confront secrets in their...

Clare Burke's life took a devastating turn when she tried to protect her sister, Anne, from an abusive and controlling husband and ended up serving prison time for assault. The verdict largely hinged on Anne's defense of her spouse, all lies, and the sisters have been estranged ever since. Nearly twenty years later, Claire is living a quiet life in Manhattan as an urban birder and nature blogger, when her niece, Grit, turns up on her doorstep. The...

Laurel Shields awakens to find her physician husband, Warren, in his study, wildly pulling books from the shelves. A home pregnancy test confirms Laurel's fear that she is pregnant, and she believes her lover is the father. Later that morning, Laurel is surprised to find her husband still at home, pale and fearful. Then, in come the children, innocent of it all. In less than five hours the Shields house becomes the vortex of a nerve-wracking siege....

The novel starts off sweetly, with the smalltown antics of Carrie, a scrappy Scout-like eight-year-old who's always accompanied by her younger sister Emma. Carrie dreamily darts back and forth between her rough-and-tumble present (abusive stepfather, unloving mother) and the happy memories of her dead father, creating a bittersweet picture of her life in Toast, N.C., spiked with colorful Southern language and some feisty supporting characters.

When Frances' husband punches her again, she believes he's crossed the line--that the next time he will kill her. She decides to put her life--and that of her son--in the hands of a network which helps women start over. She becomes Beth and begins a new life in Florida with her son. It could be wonderful ... but she lives in fear of being found by Bobbie.

In the town of Coal Run, the local deputy, Ivan Zoschenko, a permanently-injured one-time football legend branded for life as "The Great Ivan Z," spends a week seemingly preparing for an old teammate's imminent release from prison. He is surrounded by a rich cast of characters: his wise and comic ex-beauty-queen sister; his former idol, Val Claypool; and the young woman whose life he changed forever. During the events of this week, Ivan Confronts...

An inspirational story; one child's courage to survive.

"A talented 16-year-old artist slowly discovers the history of domestic violence behind why her brother left the family years earlier and why she suddenly cannot make art"--

Agnes has finally escaped her abusive ex-husband Goss, who has recently been released from state prison. Agnes is a lonely waitress with a tragic past who moves into a sleazy, run-down Oklahoma motel room with her lesbian co-worker R.C. She, in turn, introduces Agnes to Gulf War veteran, Peter, a peculiar, paranoiac drifter and they begin a tentative romance. However, things don't always seem as they appear and Agnes is about to experience a claustrophobic...