2018 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist in Nature The 2.1 million acres (equivalent to Yellowstone National Park) of the wilderness study area are coming under increasing threat by resource development Essays of personal explorations of the region by an award-winning writer are accompanied by dramatic images from an award-winning photographer The wilderness study area is home to the largest concentration of tidewater glaciers in America and hosts a vast diversity of terrestrial and aquatic mammals, birds, and fish It's been said that "a picture is worth a thousand words," and nowhere is that more true than on the pages ofA Wild Promise: Prince William Sound. The images of photographer Hugh Rose show you what this region holds--and what will be lost without protection from future resource development. Alongside Hugh's images are eloquent essays covering the natural and cultural history, people, and fragility of this region by noted Alaskan writer Debbie Miller. Alaska's famed Prince William Sound includes more than 3,000 shore land miles of bays, coves, and deep fjords topped by the ice-capped peaks of the Chugach Mountains. More than 1 million tourists visit the region annually, and small family-owned fishing boats, ecotourism, oyster farms, and guide services provide sustainable livelihoods for year-round Alaskan residents. Many Americans first came to know of Prince William Sound through the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989--a catastrophe with lingering long-term effects, such the collapse of the once abundant herring population, a critical fish in the marine food chain. InA Wild Promise, readers travel alongside Hugh and Debbie as they hike and kayak from Columbia Glacier to College Fiord, exploring the Nellie Juan-College Fjord Wilderness Study Area, a region set aside for study in 1980, to be followed--it was hoped--by permanent protection from Congress. After almost four decades of being in limbo as a designated wilderness study area, the fate of this spectacular, wild place is now in our hands. Its protection is a gift we can offer generations to come--a promiseof wilderness, beauty, and natural diversity that we can, indeed, keep.

Can love shatter her stubborn pride? In the high mountains of Colorado, Clayton Taggart dreams of the day when he can leave the rough life of a mine surveyor to become a teacher. In the midst of his plans, he meets Jackie Fontaine, a newcomer from the East whose strongwilled spirit causes friction from the start. Just as the spark of love ignites, tragedy strikes, leaving Jackie with a secret so terrible she would rather lose Clay than share it with him. Can anything draw Jackie from her self-imposed exile and open the shutters of her blinded heart? Lori Wick at her best...a tender love story set in the exciting early West—a book you won't be able to put down!

It has been twelve years since a dark, murderous figure stalked the alleys and courts of Whitechapel. And yet, in the summer of 1900, East London is still poor, still brutal, still a shadow city to its western twin. Among the reformers is an idealistic young woman named India Selwyn-Jones, recently graduated from medical school. With the help of her influential fiancé--Freddie Lytton, an up-and-coming Liberal MP--she works to shut down the area's opium dens that destroy both body and soul. Her selfless activities better her patients' lives and bring her immense gratification, but unfortunately, they also bring her into direct conflict with East London's ruling crime lord--Sid Malone. India is not good for business and at first, Malone wants her out. But against all odds, India and Sid fall in love. Different in nearly every way, they share one thing in common--they're both wounded souls. Their love is impossible and they know it, yet they cling to it desperately. Lytton, India's fiancé, will stop at nothing to marry India and gain her family's fortune. Fractious criminal underlings and rivals conspire against Sid. When Sid is finally betrayed by one of his own, he must flee London to save his life. Mistakenly thinking him dead, India, pregnant and desperate, marries Freddie to provide a father for hers and Sid's child. India and Sid must each make a terrible sacrifice--a sacrifice that will change them both forever. One that will lead them to other lives, and other places...and perhaps--one distant, bittersweet day--back to each other.

“This tale is a sturdy one that is made even more emphatic by Davies’s terse writing style. The text is heightened in every way by Carlin’s outstanding mixed-media artwork.” — Booklist (starred review) On a mean street in a mean, broken city, a young girl tries to snatch an old woman’s bag. But the frail old woman says the thief can’t have it without giving something in return: the promise. It is the beginning of a journey that will change the girl’s life — and a chance to change the world, for good.

Wild Rose, an epic story of The West, now long gone, charts Sophie’s journey from underloved child in religion-bound rural Quebec, to headstrong young woman to exhausted homesteader to deserted bride and mother to independent businesswoman finding her way in a hostile, if beautiful, landscape.

Katherine Taggert—nicknamed "Rusty" for her curly red hair—shines like a ray of sunshine at her aunt and uncle's orphanage. Unaccustomed to traveling alone in the pioneer West, Rusty is accompanied on her first orphanage placement trip by the kind but reserved widower Chase McCandles. When Chase offers Rusty a position in his stately home as a companion for his young son, Quintin, Rusty accepts. But when she realized how little time Chase spends with Quintin, Rusty's heart is torn. How can she convince Chase that his son desperately needs a father? And can Chase learn to trust God to help him demonstrate his love and affection for Quintin—and for Rusty? A heartwarming story of love, trust, and family.