Despite initial misgivings, it's the best summer of 17-year-old Dani's life. Staying in a small community while her mother honeymoons in Europe, Dani finds her days filled with riding, reading, rodeo, and romance. Life couldn't get any better. Then, suddenly, it couldn't get any worse, and she discovers that bad things can happen to good people.

When Dani sets out to uncover her father’s past, she also discovers her own future. Raised by her mother, eighteen-year-old Dani Lancaster only had six weeks to get to know her father, Sam, before he lost his battle with cancer. It was long enough to love him, but not long enough to get to know him — especially since Sam didn’t even know himself. In this two-book bundle, Dani meets and loses her birth father, and then sets out to uncover his real past. Includes Truths I Learned from Sam In Search of Sam Truths I Learned from Sam Despite initial misgivings, it’s the best summer of 17-year-old Dani’s life. Staying in a small community while her mother honeymoons in Europe, Dani finds her days filled with riding, reading, rodeo, and romance. Life couldn’t get any better. Then, suddenly, it couldn’t get any worse, and she discovers that bad things can happen to good people. In Search of Sam Determined to discover her dead father’s past, which was a mystery even to him, eighteen-year-old Dani Lancaster heads into B.C.’s Interior. Her search eventually leads her to a tiny rustic community, charming in its own way but full of secrets. Here, Dani’s digging reveals more than she was searching for.

The sequel to Charlie's Secret: Inspired by a true story If you haven't read it yet, you can get it here -- https: //www.amazon.com/dp/B00HVOE3VK After the death of her abusive mother, Sam's life was finally turning around. She had married her high school sweetheart, Jake, and was reveling in the birth of their son. Her abusive past was ancient history, and she knew that love would be the only emotion filling her family home. However, sometimes things aren't always what we envision, and Sam's expectations are definitely not matching reality. Now a raging alcoholic, Jake isn't keen on his new role in life and Sam is the brunt of his frustration. Waging a constant war between her head and her heart has become the new normal, and with everyone at work telling her to end her marriage, Sam is at her breaking point. How can she leave the love of her life at a time when he needs her the most?As the health of a family member takes a turn for the worst, Sam must face some past demons. Her mother's medical records disclose shocking information, and she and Charlie are shaken to the core by the revelations. Leaning on one another for support, they say goodbye to someone they've loved-and hated - for the second time in their lives, while trying to make sense of all of the secrets. Just as Sam's life hits its breaking point, Luke, a local divorcee, enters the bar with some friends one night, and offers a nice distraction from all the chaos. However, her decisions will have consequences - consequences that may just land her in the hospital. Once again finding herself at the other end of a police officer's questioning, Sam isn't so sure she can go through it all again, and leans on an unexpected friend for support. Will Sam finally find the love and safety she deserves? Or, is she destined to repeat the cycle of abuse, forever?Love this author? Find more about her here: www.clheckman.com

“Anne Lamott is my Oprah.” —Chicago Tribune The New York Times bestseller from the author of Dusk, Night, Dawn, Almost Everything and Bird by Bird, a powerful exploration of mercy and how we can embrace it. "Mercy is radical kindness," Anne Lamott writes in her enthralling and heartening book, Hallelujah Anyway. It's the permission you give others—and yourself—to forgive a debt, to absolve the unabsolvable, to let go of the judgment and pain that make life so difficult. In Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy Lamott ventures to explore where to find meaning in life. We should begin, she suggests, by "facing a great big mess, especially the great big mess of ourselves." It's up to each of us to recognize the presence and importance of mercy everywhere—"within us and outside us, all around us"—and to use it to forge a deeper understanding of ourselves and more honest connections with each other. While that can be difficult to do, Lamott argues that it's crucial, as "kindness towards others, beginning with myself, buys us a shot at a warm and generous heart, the greatest prize of all." Full of Lamott’s trademark honesty, humor and forthrightness, Hallelujah Anyway is profound and caring, funny and wise—a hopeful book of hands-on spirituality.

When Dani sets out to uncover her father’s past, she also discovers her own future. Raised by her mother, eighteen-year-old Dani Lancaster only had six weeks to get to know her father, Sam, before he lost his battle with cancer. It was long enough to love him, but not long enough to get to know him — especially since Sam didn’t even know himself. In this two-book bundle, Dani meets and loses her birth father, and then sets out to uncover his real past. Includes Truths I Learned from Sam In Search of Sam Truths I Learned from Sam Despite initial misgivings, it’s the best summer of 17-year-old Dani’s life. Staying in a small community while her mother honeymoons in Europe, Dani finds her days filled with riding, reading, rodeo, and romance. Life couldn’t get any better. Then, suddenly, it couldn’t get any worse, and she discovers that bad things can happen to good people. In Search of Sam Determined to discover her dead father’s past, which was a mystery even to him, eighteen-year-old Dani Lancaster heads into B.C.’s Interior. Her search eventually leads her to a tiny rustic community, charming in its own way but full of secrets. Here, Dani’s digging reveals more than she was searching for.

INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY OF ABUSE - Charlie's Secret has recently been added to several college curriculums across the United States- Samantha Mallon has gotten used to the bruises from her brother, Charlie. The black-and-blue pigments are becoming harder to camouflage, and all the good hiding spots in her house are now non-existent. Most days, she keeps to herself, safely locked behind the door of her bedroom, praying Charlie won't break it down if he gets angry--again. There are so many secrets to keep, that Sam is running out of lies to cover the abuse. Perhaps, one day, a teacher will ask enough questions that Sam will not be able to keep up the charade. Finding reprieve from a battered childhood, Sam is determined to make the best of her high school years. With Charlie away at college, she develops some new friendships, and even catches the attention of a super-hot, bad-boy, Jake. Yet, her happiness is always tainted by the family life she's trying to keep under wraps, and it's slowly destroying her hopes of real love. After a heart-wrenching betrayal, Sam leans on a stranger's shoulder for support. Fortunately, that stranger turns into the best-friend she never knew she needed. Able to get back on her feet, a familiar face re-enters her life--clutching Charlie's arm-- in a way that leaves Sam completely uneasy. Just when Sam thought Charlie had changed, his abusive past comes back to haunt them both. The hospital, the cops, and the courthouse are calling Sam's name as she has to relive one horrible night, over and over again to find the truth. The only problem ... the truth will send the one person she loves the most to jail. Will she find the strength to break the circle and free herself from abuse? Or, will she hold onto the family secret forever?

Dani's mother is getting married - again - because that's what she does, and while she and her new husband jet around Europe for six weeks, 17 - year - old Dani is sent to stay with an uncle she didn't know she had in a small community in Cariboo country she didn't know existed. It promises to be the summer from hell. But Dani's uncle turns out to be an okay guy. In fact, Dani really likes him. And she finds romance, too. Suddenly, a summer that had doom written all over it turns into one of the best times of Dani's life. Until the bottom falls out. In a story about relationships and about how bad things happen to good people, Dani discovers that sometimes the only villain is life itself.