Amy Melissa Bentley

Seventh-grader Zoey has her hands full as she takes care of her much younger siblings after school every day while her mom works her shift at the pizza parlor. At school, Zoey tries to stay under the radar. Her only friend Fuchsia has her own issues, and since they're in an entirely different world than the rich kids, it's best if no one notices them. Unfortunately, she's not totally invisible, and one of her teachers forces her to join the debate...

Now: Sixteen-year-old Jesse is used to living with the echoes of the past. Her older brother died in the September 11th attacks, and her dad has filled their home with anger and grief. When Jesse gets caught up with the wrong crowd, one momentary hate-fueled decision turns her life upside down. The only way to make amends is to face the past, starting Jesse on a journey that will reveal the truth about how her brother died. Then: In 2001, sixteen-year-old...

"During the Great Depression, wretched labor camps crop up in remote areas of the expansive pine forests throughout the American South. Destitute workers live and toil under terrible conditions to harvest pine gum, hacking into tree trunks, drawing out the sticky sap that gives the Tar Heel State its nickname, and hauling it to stills to be refined into turpentine. Subsistence living means racking up huge debts they are forced to work off, creating...

This work evaluates the costs of low priced clothing while tracing the author's own transformation to a conscientious shopper, a journey during which she visited a garment factory, learned to resole shoes, and shopped for local, sustainable clothing. Until recently, she was a typical American consumer. She had grown accustomed to shopping at outlet malls, discount stores like T.J. Maxx, and cheap but trendy retailers like Forever 21, Target, and...

USA Today–bestselling author
Southern charm meets the dark mystery of the bayou as a hundred-year flood, a malicious murder, and a most unusual Mardi Gras converge at the Crozat Plantation B&B
It’s Mardi Gras season on the bayou, which means parades, pageantry, and gumbo galore. But when a flood upends life in the tiny town of Pelican, Louisiana—and deposits a body of a stranger behind the Crozat Plantation...

When teens Zorie and Lennon, a former couple, are stranded in the California wilderness together, they must put aside their differences, and come to terms with lingering romantic feelings, in order to survive.

Told from two viewpoints, Forest, a television actor who needs more fans, and Claire, a teen fan fiction blogger, are teamed to raise his profile despite their disagreement over whether his character is gay.

Linda Zook, 32, works part-time at the Lancaster Grand Hotel. As the sole survivor of a buggy accident that left her orphaned at age four, she was raised by her unwilling Uncle Reuben. Linda longs to be worthy of someone, but the life-long effects of her injuries and her upbringing under the care of her embittered uncle have destroyed her self-worth. Aaron Ebersol, 32, left the Amish community 17 years ago when he could no longer bear the restrictions...

Louisa Bell didn't want to be a dance-hall singer, but circumstances forced her hand. She gets by with help from her brother in the cavalry, so when he runs afoul of his commanding officer she undertakes a visit to Fort Reno. Major Daniel Adams can barely control his rowdy troops, much less two adolescent daughters. He must find someone suitable to guide his children, or lose them to his mother-in-law. When Louisa arrives with reading materials, she's...

When a celebrity chef arrives in Louisiana to open a new restaurant, he dies in a boat crash, and the proprieter of a local retsaurant is a prime suspect.