A collection of firsthand stories depicting a wide variety of lost dreams. Twenty-three authors reveal their pain, confusion, and anger when the path they followed came to an unexpected end. For some contributors the dream shattered instantly; for others the dream crumbled over decades.

Between 1870 and 1900, twelve million people immigrated to America. Hundreds of thousands of them came to work in the textile mills of Fall River, Massachusetts. The Mill of Lost Dreams is a story of love, friendship and sacrifice that provides an inside view into the world of textile mills and the daily life of seven courageous souls who leave home and risk everything for their shared dream of a better life: Angelina and Guido Wallabee, who have left their family’s failed farm in Italy; eleven-year-old Miranda Alysworth and her fifteen-year-old brother, Francois, who have escaped from indentured service in Canada; twins Phoebe and Charlie Dougherty, the children of Irish immigrant parents, who, though not yet thirteen, are forced to work in Troy Mill to support their family after their father’s untimely death; and eleven-year-old, Anne Kenny, an orphan who’s never known where she came from. All but one take jobs in Troy Mill in Fall River. Over the course of seven decades, there are marriages, births, secrets exposed, friendships tested, and innocence lost. Some succeed in making a new life away from harm but pay a terrible price. Many cannot build the life they dreamed of and the consequences impact and shape the lives of their children—and their children’s children.

A post-mortem photographer unearths dark secrets from the past that may hold the key to his future in this “sensual, twisting gothic tale…in the tradition of A.S. Byatt’s Possession, Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale, and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights” (BookPage). All love stories are ghost stories in disguise. “This one happily succeeds at both” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). When famed Byronesque poet Hugh de Bonne is discovered dead in his bath one morning, his cousin Robert Highstead, a post-mortem photographer, is charged with a simple task: transport Hugh’s remains for burial in a chapel. This chapel, a stained-glass folly set on the moors, was built by de Bonne sixteen years earlier to house the remains of his beloved wife and muse, Ada. Since then, the chapel has been locked and abandoned, a pilgrimage site for the rabid fans of de Bonne’s last book, The Lost History of Dreams. However, Ada’s grief-stricken niece refuses to open the glass chapel for Robert unless he agrees to her bargain: before he can lay Hugh to rest, Robert must record Isabelle’s story of Ada and Hugh’s ill-fated marriage over the course of five nights. As the mystery of Ada and Hugh’s relationship unfolds, so too does the secret behind Robert’s own marriage—including that of his fragile wife, Sida, who has not been the same since a tragic accident three years earlier and the origins of his morbid profession that has him seeing things he shouldn’t...things from beyond the grave. Blurring the line between the past and the present, truth and fiction, and ultimately, life and death, The Lost History of Dreams is “a surrealist, haunting tale of suspense where every prediction turns out to be merely a step toward a bigger reveal” (Booklist).

After years of abuse, endless struggles and, through no fault of her own, many failures, this gentle woman decides a change of lifestyle may be for the best. Several relocations, both within her adopted England and back to her homeland, eventually follow. Nevertheless, many ‘challenges’ continue to trouble her and yet again, her historic naivety and innocence are taken advantage of. She faces the potential of being shot, knifed and cut into pieces and has encounters with her homeland’s native wildlife; deadly snakes etc. Then, on top of all that, she witnesses the degrading abuse of relatives that she is powerless to prevent. Ultimately abandoning her dreams, she returns to her adopted country hoping for peace. But, it was never to be. This is the third and final book in an abridged series recording this amazing life.

Based on a true story of one mans journey living over 14 years in Puerto Rico. Details his life, his loves, his struggles with the Puerto Rican government, and the Puerto Rican police, as the society of the island falls into an abyss. He copes with living in an island that is called in the Caribbean, the ''island of enchantment'', but in the end, becomes the ''island of sudden fear'', as his love for the island, and its people turns into his lost dream.

When her mother dies, Laura Morrison is forced to give up her place at univerity to care for her father and her young brother Ronnie. She dreams of escape from the unending housework that now fills her days. But worse is to come. When her father decides to re-marry and to leave Scotland behind, he has no place in his new life for them. Laura has to find a way to support them both. How is she to manage? With no qualifications, she can expect only a poorly paid job. Fergus Cunninhgam is the answer to Laura's prayer, she thinks. A successful lawyer, he needs someone to care for three-year-old Sylvia. But he cannot give her security. As a housekeeper, Laura is in danger of dismissal the moment that Mr Cunningham decides to marry his glamorous girlfriend. And must she give up all her own dreams? The Dundee Courier called this book 'an unforgettable story of love and heartache.'

As the U.S. government prepares to take over the world, MC infiltrates one of their elite academies that trains future leaders. MC must rise to the top in the Cube training grounds in order to be placed high up within the government so she can stop them in their takeover. It is not until her fourth and final year at the academy that her top-student status is threatened by the sudden arrival of Li, the new transfer student. MC is completely focused on her self-created mission until she gets sidetracked by Li, who might be bad news in more ways than which she bargained.