Emmanuel, a young man with spinal tuberculosis and confined to a sanatorium outside Paris, narrates his and his fellow patients' attempts to live life to the fullest as their bodies slowly atrophy and die. Blending dark humor and pathos, Scarred Hearts was hailed as a masterpiece on publication in Romanian in 1939, and was more recently compared to Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain and the fiction of Franz Kafka. Like Emmanuel, Max Blecher suffered from tuberculosis of the spine, and spent the last year of his life in a full body cast and wheelchair, before dying at age twenty-nine with two novels completed.

Healing Scarred Hearts follows the story of Hayden Hoemke, who died at age twenty two due to a serious drug addiction, and his devastated family in the years following his passing. Emotional, raw and gripping, this family memoir serves as a wake-up call to America about the opioid epidemic sweeping the country, and as a symbol of hope to others experiencing loss like this. Finding your light again is possible, no matter how dark the days seem now.

Meg Thurgood, former society girl, took the blame for her friend and paid a steep price. Now all she wants is solitude and a chance to rebuild her life. She thinks she's found that in an isolated house she rents from a mysterious stranger. Simon McAlter has hidden in his house on the coast of Maine since a fire left him scarred. A successful landscape architect who conducts his business and teaches his classes remotely, he's lost his inspiration and is trying to pretend he's not lonely. Simon's new neighbor is more than he bargained for. When he learns Meg's secret, will he retreat into the shadows or will he learn to see past the surface and trust in Meg's love?

Relatable, heartbreaking, and real, this is a story of resilience--the perfect novel for readers of powerful contemporary fiction like Girl in Pieces and Every Last Word. Before, I was a million things. Now I'm only one. The Burned Girl. Ava Lee has lost everything there is to lose: Her parents. Her best friend. Her home. Even her face. She doesn't need a mirror to know what she looks like--she can see her reflection in the eyes of everyone around her. A year after the fire that destroyed her world, her aunt and uncle have decided she should go back to high school. Be "normal" again. Whatever that is. Ava knows better. There is no normal for someone like her. And forget making friends--no one wants to be seen with the Burned Girl, now or ever. But when Ava meets a fellow survivor named Piper, she begins to feel like maybe she doesn't have to face the nightmare alone. Sarcastic and blunt, Piper isn't afraid to push Ava out of her comfort zone. Piper introduces Ava to Asad, a boy who loves theater just as much as she does, and slowly, Ava tries to create a life again. Yet Piper is fighting her own battle, and soon Ava must decide if she's going to fade back into her scars . . . or let the people by her side help her fly. "A heartfelt and unflinching look at the reality of being a burn survivor and at the scars we all carry. This book is for everyone, burned or not, who has ever searched for a light in the darkness." --Stephanie Nielson, New York Times bestselling author of Heaven Is Here and a burn survivor

Beauty and shame, jail and forgiveness. Andrea Smith was by all appearances living the perfect life, yet in an instant it all changed. Now, shame is her only company as she leaves her husband and children to check into the Pima County Jail of Tucson, Arizona, bringing to the forefront all the emotional and physical scars she has been hiding. From her first strip search to her final release, Andrea's honest, touching memoir offers a rare look into the lives of those who are behind bars. Scarred Beautiful eloquently chronicles her journey to find forgiveness and discover the good in tragedy and the beauty in her flaws as she learns to overcome shame and allow God to comfort her through the most unexpected people. And although her incarceration threatens to break her spirit, Andrea Smith emerges with a new perspective about what is most precious and cherished in her life. Her story is one of courage and faith...and the unlikely gift of adversity.

The author thought he had met his soul mate online and eventually moved to the U.S.A. to marry her. Unfortunately, she was not the soul mate he thought. The tragic story of this "lost love" and others show some of the inherent perils of Internet dating and boy meets girl/boy loses girl sagas.