This is a stunning novel about tradition and change, about whanau and its struggle to survive, about the place of women in a shifting world. Makareta is the chosen one - carrying her family's hopes. Missy is the observer - the one who accepts but has her dreams. Mata is always waiting - for life to happen as it stealthily passes by. Moving from the forties to the present, from the country to the protests of the cities, Cousins is the story of these three cousins. Thrown together as children, they have subsequently grown apart, yet they share a connection that can never be broken.

Esther, a girl who has been groomed by her grandmother to trust and believe in God, got a chance to go to high school. By divine connection, she meets Beth on her way to school. Beths family becomes a blessing to Esther in many ways. But an encounter with the Bad Girls Club, an occult group, separates the best friends after the school was turned into a spiritual battlefi eld. Esther hooks up with Sheila, a secret agent of the Bad Girls Club, who lures her from her God. Ruben, a popular boy at school, becomes a major player in altering her destiny, but God had not given up on her. The Word that was sowed in her became a paintbrush stroking up and down, bringing out the bright colors in her. Through Ms. Susie, her mentor, the power of Gods Word weaved every thread in place, creating a tapestry of a fl awless garment to cover the nakedness of her past, yet manifesting the greatness in her.

Fictionalized account of Walter Settle's baseball career and 19th century baseball in Norwalk, California.