In Dancing with Butterflies, Reyna Grande renders the Mexican immigrant experience in “lyrical and sensual” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) prose through the poignant stories of four women brought together through folklorico dance. Dancing with Butterflies uses the alternating voices of four very different women whose lives interconnect through a common passion for their Mexican heritage and a dance company called Alegría. Yesenia, who founded Alegría with her husband, Eduardo, sabotages her own efforts to remain a vital, vibrant woman when she travels back and forth across the Mexican border for cheap plastic surgery. Elena, grief-stricken by the death of her only child and the end of her marriage, finds herself falling dangerously in love with one of her underage students. Elena's sister, Adriana, wears the wounds of abandonment by a dysfunctional family and becomes unable to discern love from abuse. Soledad, the sweet-tempered illegal immigrant who designs costumes for Alegría, finds herself stuck back in Mexico, where she returns to see her dying grandmother. Reyna Grande has brought these fictional characters so convincingly to life that readers will imagine they know them.

Shunned as an outsider and mistreated due to an undiagnosed learning disability, the young and imaginative Mari-Jen Delene retreats into silence. Around her, the fictional community of Ste. Noire, Cape Breton, hosts a vividly drawn cast of characters: the uncompromising and bitter Mother Superior; the dangerous Uncle Jule; the kind-hearted holocaust survivor Daniel Peter; and Mari-Jen's rebellious and powerfully intelligent brothers, who sleep next to a map of the world they yearn to explore. Elegantly written and profoundly touching, Butterflies Dance in the Dark stands as a testament to the vibrant resiliency of youth and the enduring powers of the imagination.

TURNABOUT IS FAIR PLAY…. Marriage and babies weren't what Andrea Cunningham wanted—but Brandon Hamilton was. The gregarious hotel owner had a head for business, a body for loving…and a heart as warm and welcoming as his strong embrace. Like Andrea, he knew two weeks was too little time to understand what was happening between them. But unlike Andrea, he was starting to want all the things she resisted. Andrea had thought these stolen weeks with Brandon would make for beautiful memories. But somehow her heart and soul had been tamed by the tall, dark bachelor for whom memories were not enough…. Best buddies find their bachelor days numbered in bestselling author Joan Elliot Pickart's engaging new series The Bachelor Bet

Desiree has a problem: shes a butterfly, and she wants to fly at night. She wants to follow her dreams and dance in the dark. But her mother and father have told her that only bats, owls, and moths fly at night. Should she risk following her dreams and face the unfamiliar? Or should she be like the other monarchs that only fly during the day? Desirees Night Flight is an enlightening read for both spiritual seekers and lovers of childrens literature. This magical story takes readers on a journey from doubt to belief in our hopes and dreams. Jacquie Faber has created, with her lyrical text, a timeless dancefrom shadow to light. Truly inspiring! Anjali Andrea Alban Childrens Author, Speaker and Mentor. When Desiree follows her dream into the unfamiliar she learns that love, trust and belief in herself can all work together. She discovers an inner light all living things share and can then draw on strengths she didnt know she had. Ms. Fabers beautiful tale delivers this powerful message with great charm. Grace W Rogers Ph.D. Retired Psychologist and Columnist in West Marin Citizen.

How does a young woman, who hears but cannot speak, end up as the director, choreographer, and premiere danseuse for a world famous school and dance company for (believe it or not) deaf and mute dancers? Our heroine, Lynette Barker, is blessed with parents who are wealthy, successful actors, a fine home and servants. Unfortunately, when she is found to be mute, her mother denies her existence and her father sees her as "broken" and, blind to her needs, leaves her in the care of the servants. It was left to Lynette to find her own way and, with the loving support of the housekeeper, and butler, and two deaf friends whom she had found signing in the park, she was able to enter a school for the deaf and begin to joyfully live and learn as she had always wished. Lynette's father, Belton Barker, a renowned actor, busied himself with his career and his wife and not only never saw what was going on in his daughter's life, but managed to continually block her from doing what she needed to do. The ongoing struggle is devastating for Lynette and the last battle with her father - and her mother who tries to kill her - leaves her in the hospital in full pscyhologist retreat. Her father, finally realizing his culpability and fearful for her life, finally listens to the servants, teachers, and friends, who have kept a round-the-clock vigil at the hospital and begins to see who his daughter really is - a whole, quite wonderful person - and plans to help her develop the life she wants. Lynette is so angry with him that she will not accept anything from him directly but he remembers that at the sound of any music Lynette has danced since she could walk so he arranges for a young woman, who has found a way to teach the deaf to dance, to teach in Lynette's school and thus begins her career. Lynette finally discovers that it was her father who made all this possible for her and they become reconciled. Having found a way to do what she loves most, Lynette trains hard and learns to be a dancer and choreographer and finally, along with her two friends, Dan as Business Manager (and later husband), and Elsie as costumer, opens a school of dance and a dance company for deaf and mute dancers. With the addition of other dancers and teachers, the school/dance company becomes an unprecedented success and because of their unusual focus and teaching methods they become internationally known. Where they go from here is an open question.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024, internationally bestselling author and literary icon Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies is "beautiful, heartbreaking and alive ... a lyrical work of historical fiction based on the story of the Mirabal sisters, revolutionary heroes who had opposed and fought against Trujillo." (Concepción de León, New York Times) Alvarez’s new novel, The Cemetery of Untold Stories, is coming April 2, 2024. Pre-order now! It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo’s dictatorship. It doesn’t have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas—the Butterflies. In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters--Minerva, Patria, María Teresa, and the survivor, Dedé--speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from secret crushes to gunrunning, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo’s rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez’s imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human costs of political oppression. "Alvarez helped blaze the trail for Latina authors to break into the literary mainstream, with novels like In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents winning praise from critics and gracing best-seller lists across the Americas."—Francisco Cantú, The New York Times Book Review "This Julia Alvarez classic is a must-read for anyone of Latinx descent." —Popsugar.com "A gorgeous and sensitive novel . . . A compelling story of courage, patriotism and familial devotion." —People "Shimmering . . . Valuable and necessary." —Los Angeles Times "A magnificent treasure for all cultures and all time.” —St. Petersburg Times "Alvarez does a remarkable job illustrating the ruinous effect the 30-year dictatorship had on the Dominican Republic and the very real human cost it entailed."—Cosmopolitan.com

June's life at home with her stepmother and stepsister is a dark one—and a secret one. Not even her dad knows the truth, and she can't find the words to tell anyone else. She's trapped like a butterfly in a net. Then June meets Blister, a boy from a large, loving, chaotic family. In him, she finds a glimmer of hope that perhaps she can find a way to fly far, far away. Because she deserves her freedom. Doesn't she?