Standing in line can be dull, but not when you mix tigers and frogs, sheep and skunks. But what could be worth waiting for...?

A rumination on faith, motherhood, race, and human connection after the shooting at her son's school, Sandy Hook Elementary.

Two-time National Book Award finalist Deborah Wiles introduces us to the Cakes, a family of traveling bakers, who've just arrived in Wiles's legendary Aurora County, Mississippi. Emma Lane Cake has five brothers, four dogs, and a family that can't stay put. The Cake family travels from place to place, setting up bakeries in communities that need them. Then, just when Emma feels settled in with new friends... they move again. Now the Cakes have come to Aurora County, and Emma has vowed that this time she is NOT going to get attached to ANYONE or ANYTHING. Why bother, if her father's only going to uproot her again? But fate has different plans. As does Ruby Lavender, who is going to show Emma Lane Cake a thing or two about making friendship last.

Nine years after the death of her fianc shattered her hopes of love, marriage and kids, thirty-year-old Tempest Marshall feels her biological clock ticking away. Afraid she will never love again, she decides to become a single mother - giving her child her dead lover's name. Her plan to carefully choose a stranger to father her child is upset when the morning after the annual office party she wakes naked in her boss's bed. Layton Grayhawk has been impatiently waiting until time and circumstances finally contrive to land the woman of his fantasies just where he wants her - in his arms and bed. Just as things finally seem on track for him to claim her as his own, she reveals her plans - plans that threaten to tear the two apart.

Sheila Turnage meets Kate DiCamillo's Because of Winn-Dixie in this debut about a small town and a young girl who discovers some old family secrets. Lou might be only twelve, but she’s never been one to take things sitting down. So when her Civil War-era house is about to be condemned, she’s determined to save it—either by getting it deemed a historic landmark or by finding the stash of gold rumored to be hidden nearby during the war. As Lou digs into the past, her eyes are opened when she finds that her ancestors ran the gamut of slave owners, renegades, thieves and abolitionists. Meanwhile, some incidents in her town show her that many Civil War era prejudices still survive and that the past can keep repeating itself if we let it. Digging into her past shows Lou that it’s never too late to fight injustice, and she starts to see the real value of understanding and exploring her roots.

“Marvelously dramatic…brings its era to life with lush detail.” – People Magazine From the author of Wild Beautiful and Free In this vivid reimagining of the French classic Les Liaisons Dangereuses, it’s the summer when Jackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball’s color barrier and a sweltering stretch has Harlem’s elite fleeing the city for Westchester County’s breezier climes, two predators stalk amidst the manicured gardens and fine old homes. Heiress Mae Malveaux rules society with an angel’s smile and a heart of stone. She made up her mind long ago that nobody would decide her fate. To have the pleasure she craves, control is paramount, especially control of the men Mae attracts like moths to a flame. Valiant Jackson always gets what he wants—and he’s wanted Mae for years. The door finally opens for him when Mae strikes a bargain: seduce her virginal young cousin, Cecily, who is engaged to Frank Washington. Frank values her innocence above all else. If successful, Val’s reward will be a night with Mae. But Val secretly seeks another prize. Elizabeth Townsend is fiercely loyal to her church and her civil rights attorney husband. Certain there is something redeemable in Mr. Jackson. Little does she know that her worst mistake will be Val’s greatest triumph.

What happens when we open ourselves to the idea that love does not need a sole proprietor, that our hearts aren't bound by standards that tell us who and how to love? What happens if we were to live and love outside of the box? This is the story of a few daring individuals who will choose to test the boundaries of that love and explore its possibilities. Prepare yourself... because this is not your average romance novel. This is a polyamorous love story that breaks all the rules.