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A Young Adult Novel set on the Florida Gulf Coast

The Middle of Nowhere is about a troubled 15-year-old girl, Lexie Crockett, who enters a residential treatment program somewhere in the Western United States. Based on personal experiences, the novel tells of the sometimes tragic, sometimes hilarious adventures of the thousands of girls who live away from home in residential facilities. As events unfold, Lexie finds a bond with the other girls and with Annie Salinas, a gifted counselor, who helps her get closer to her goal of going home. Parents of some of the girls visit the program, and struggle with finding the line that is always shifting between understanding the girls problems and holding them accountable for their actions. When a large company moves to buy the facility, the staff resistsand the girls find some ways of their own to challenge the new owners. Each of the girls brings her own background to this challengebroken homes, drug addiction, mental and emotional instability, along with ingenuity, resilience, and a fierce desire for independence. More than 14,000 girls live in such programs, and the book makes painfully clear how difficult their lives areand why some of them succeed.

A visceral tale of love, loss, and finding yourself where you least expect to, Amber L. CarterÕs whirlwind novel invites you to 'The Middle of Nowhere'Éand wonÕt let you leave.

Inspired by True Events One mother. One daughter. One adventure of a lifetime that will change their relationship forever. When her troubled teenage daughter, Nova, is hell-bent on self-destruction, Tessa Donahue makes a desperate bid to save their future. Together they will leave behind the familiar and step into a world of whimsical wonder. Nestled amidst the lush greenery of the Great Smoky Mountains, four unique treehouses offer a breathtaking escape as they embark on a journey filled with self-discovery and reconnection. It will force Tessa and Nova to face their demons and fight for understanding as they realize this may be the last chance to repair their relationship before Nova graduates from high school. This poignant and heartwarming contemporary women's fiction novel of a mother’s unconditional love and a child’s fight for independence will remind you that life’s greatest adventures are often found in the most unexpected places. For fans of Kristin Hannah, Sherryl Woods, Barbara O’Neal, Mary Kay Andrews, Jennifer Weiner, Emily Giffin, Pamela Kelley, Mary Ellen Taylor and Colleen Hoover. This best selling contemporary women's fiction novel features lovable characters over 40 in the prime of midlife.

A ten-year-old girl learns the importance of family and community in this tale of love and hope set during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Armani Curtis can think about only one thing: her tenth birthday. All her friends are coming to her party, her mama is making a big cake, and she has a good feeling about a certain wrapped box. Turning ten is a big deal to Armani. It means she’s older, wiser, more responsible. But when Hurricane Katrina hits the Lower Nines of New Orleans, Armani realizes that being ten means being brave, watching loved ones die, and mustering all her strength to help her family weather the storm. A powerful story of courage and survival, Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere celebrates the miraculous power of hope and love in the face of the unthinkable. Praise for Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere “Lamana goes for and achieves realism here, carefully establishing the characters and setting before describing in brutal detail, beyond what is typical in youth literature, the devastating effects of Katrina—loss of multiple family members, reports of attacks in the Superdome, bodies drifting in the current and less-than-ideal shelter conditions. An honest, bleak account of a national tragedy sure to inspire discussion and research.” —Kirkus Reviews “I recommend the book because I think it does a good job of capturing what life was like in New Orleans both before and after Katrina and because Armani’s journey will give readers a lot to think about and discuss. But parents will want to know that it doesn’t flinch when describing the death and destruction that hit New Orleans during that time and be cautious with younger, sensitive readers.” —Cindy Hudson, author of Book by Book

NYPD’s Lenny Bliss’s personal and professional lives collide in “a great noirish valentine to New York’s denizens, high, middle, and low” (Richard Price). Just when Detective Lenny Bliss is trying to find a little inner peace, he’s got a floater in the East River. Along for the ride and working his last nerve is his wife, an aspiring writer researching a thriller about—guess what—a homicide detective. But another murder soon takes priority. A young man is found bludgeoned to death after a wild party in a posh Upper East Side town house—a crime that could implicate his reckless teenage daughter, and Bliss himself should an incriminating surveillance video get leaked. Being on the wrong side of an investigation yet again, Bliss is tangling with a blackmailing security officer, the victim’s volatile father, a shady housekeeper, a philandering, potty-mouthed real estate mogul, and party crashers with hazy memories. As Bliss navigates a world of too much money and not enough sense, the clues to a killer’s identity start to lead back to the banks of the East River. If he can believe his wife’s amateur eye for detail. “Sloan knows New York and New Yorkers right down to their socks, and his novels . . . hum with the brutal vitality of the city” (The Rocky Mountain News). This third book in the Lenny Bliss series “delivers humor, soul, and dark drama in equal measure” (Booklist). It’s Sloane’s “best yet” (Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall).