Environmental Novels

Library Journal: Elise Jeffries's marriage, friendships, integrity, and probationary job as media spokesperson for Houston-based ScanTron Security International are challenged when a suicidal driver crashes into a gate at a remote warehouse complex in mostly African American Flatwoods. The ensuing fire consumes the compound and many nearby homes and sickens residents. As a former Flatwoods resident, Elise is torn between supporting a husband intent on leaving his secure job to start a risky business, helping endangered friends, and representing the company. With the support of the company president, she and a former friend uncover the secrets buried in the ashes and in the past. This combination environmental/industrial thriller and character study is overly melodramatic. Nevertheless, this new novel by the author of Black Gold (LJ 12/93) belongs in most popular fiction collections for its portrait of a competent career woman balancing multiple demands and expectations.--V. Louise Saylor, formerly with Eastern Washington Univ. Lib., Cheney

She's a vegetarian. He's a carnivore. Will it be a table for one? Meet Léa. She's the idealistic owner and chef of La Dame Verte, a vegetarian restaurant struggling in a small French town in Brittany.Meet Mathieu. He's the carnivorous marketing director of the town's biggest pork producer, which is trying to put Léa out of business to take over the restaurant's prime real estate.When Léa and Mathieu first cross paths, it is under false pretenses--Mathieu is posing as a vegetarian, infiltrating the local animal rights community for information that will force Léa's restaurant toward a swifter demise. And while Léa suspects that Mathieu isn't all that he appears to be, she has no idea how deep his culinary deception goes. Neither of them can deny the attraction they feel for each other, and it seems as though they might be setting a table for two ... until Léa learns the truth.Translated from the French (Le Vert et Le Rouge), The Green and the Red is at once a romantic comedy and a comedy of errors--two people from different worlds coming together in a small French town immersed in the culture of food.

Publishers Weekly: With her mother deceased and her older sister suffering similar symptoms, successful 30-something novelist Annie Barnes turns detective—Erin Brokovich-style—when she reluctantly returns to her "stifling, stagnant, and cruel" New Hampshire hometown of Middle River in Delinsky's diverting latest (after The Summer I Dared ). A company town dominated by Northbrook Paper Mill, owned by the powerful Meades, Middle River's real claim to fame, according to Annie and other townspeople, is that it was the model for the once notorious bestseller Peyton Place by Grace Metalious. Annie's neighbors are equally sure that she's returned to dig up their dirt, and, like Metalious, write about it. Though Annie is less concerned with gossip than possible mercury poisoning, Metalious speaks to her from beyond the grave, egging her on in her investigation. (Reviewed May 23, 2005) (Publishers Weekly, vol 252, issue 21, p54)

Dinah Nichols has it pretty good doing PR work for Green World International, an environmental-protection agency. She's friendly with almost everyone in the office, save for Penelope, a self-righteous virgin who looks down on Dinah. But when upper--management guru Ian Trutch comes in to examine the company's financial state, Dinah and her co-workers get very worried about their jobs, especially after their biggest contributor goes bankrupt.

The last thing Lacy Green needs is trouble--and handsome Mayor Drake Randolph has "danger" written all over him . . . especially when "His Fineness" accidentally runs her off the road. Despite Drake's sensuous charm, irresistible magnetism, and unwavering determination to make amends, she's thinking it might be smart to play it safe and keep her distance . . . if only his lips weren't so inviting. But trouble comes from a different source when Lacy, as the head of Detroit's Environmental Protection Department, launches an investigation into the activities of a ruthless developer. Suddenly, Lacy becomes a target, dragged down into a swamp of greed, corruption . . . and murder. Now Drake Randolph might be the only one in Motown who can keep Lacy alive .

Heath Bradford never expressed his attraction to loner Willow Sands back in high school. Now that he's returned to Dead Falls, supposedly to broker a land deal, Willow views him as the enemy. Fiercely protective of the island's ecosystem, she's an obstacle to his development project. But Heath's true purpose for returning is to solve a mystery that's haunted him for years. Then Willow's neighbor is killed, and she becomes the target of a series of attacks. And protecting the woman he still yearns for becomes his only purpose.

Jane and Dan have been married for nineteen years, but Jane isn't sure they're going to make it to twenty. The mother of two feels unneeded by her teenagers, and her writing career has screeched to an unsuccessful halt. Her one published novel sold under five hundred copies. Worse? She's pretty sure Dan is cheating on her. When the couple goes to the renowned upscale restaurant La Fin du Monde to celebrate their anniversary, Jane thinks it's as good a place as any to tell Dan she wants a divorce. But before they even get to the second course, an underground climate activist group bursts into the dining room. Jane is shocked--and not just because she's in a hostage situation the likes of which she's only seen in the movies. Nearly everything the disorganized and bumbling activists say and do is right out of the pages of her failed book. Even Dan (who Jane wasn't sure even read her book) admits it's eerily familiar. Which means Dan and Jane are the only ones who know what's going to happen next. And they're the only ones who can stop it. This wasn't what Jane was thinking of when she said "'til death do us part" all those years ago, but if they can survive this, maybe they can survive anything--even marriage.

Booklist: When deputy district attorney Alicia Maldonado gets the call that Daniel Gaines, a wealthy candidate for governor, has been murdered, she realizes it could be the case of a lifetime. Standing in her way is the arrogant Kip Penrose, who wants the case for himself and has been doing his best to drag Alicia’s career down ever since he took office. The case itself seems simple enough: Gaines was killed with an arrow, most likely from the bow of an environmental activist known as Treebeard. But Treebeard claims he’s innocent, and Alicia begins to have nagging doubts about Gaines’ widow, Joan, whose shopping sprees suggest she’s none too saddened by her husband’s passing. (Reviewed August 1, 2003) -- Kristine Huntley

Publishers Weekly: Award-winning YA author Charbonneau (The Ghosts of Stony Clove) successfully crosses over to adult fiction with this lively historical novel spiked with steamy romance. In 1903, Olana Whittaker, the spoiled 23-year-old daughter of a timber tycoon, is covering the grand opening of Sequoia National Park for a San Francisco newspaper when she meets Matthew Hart, the park's long-haired, bearded ranger, who is determined to keep lumber interests away from the magnificent trees. After rescuing Olana during a blizzard in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Matthew brings her back to his tree house, where he uses primitive remedies to heal her severe frostbite, and the two begin a simmering romance.

It's been five years since a hurricane ravaged Eliza Marino's life and home in her quiet town on the Jersey shore. Now a senior in high school, Eliza is passionate about fighting climate change-starting with saving Clam Cove Reserve, an area of marshland that is scheduled to be turned into buildable lots. Protecting the island helps Eliza deal with her lingering trauma from the storm, but she still can't shake the fear that something will come along and wash out her life once again. When Eliza meets Milo Harris at a party, she tries to hate him. Milo is one of the rich tourists who flock to the island every summer. But after Eliza reluctantly agrees to give Milo surfing lessons, she can't help falling for him. Still, Eliza's not sure if she's ready to risk letting an outsider into the life she's rebuilt. Especially once she discovers that Milo is keeping a devastating secret. Told in verse, Don't Call Me a Hurricane is a love story for the people and places we come from, and a journey to preserve what we love most about home.

Publishers Weekly: A lady lepidopterist may seem an unlikely real-life subject for historical romance, but Mountain (Bloodline ) makes it work in this first-person account of the life of Eleanor Glanville, the late 17th-century naturalist accused of madness because of her devotion to studying butterflies.... Butterflies become her passion even as she marries Edmund Ashfield, to whom she must cede control of her land, and it is Edmond's lack of passion that drives her into the arms of his dashing friend, Richard Glanville, whom she later marries, though neither husband proves as steadfast as the London apothecary with whom she corresponds about science. In later years, Richard and Eleanor's eldest son join forces to have her declared insane in order to gain control over her property so they can drain the wetlands. In fact, drainage—battles over it, the implications of it—is a huge piece of the novel and provides the most original passages of a lush and confidently plotted historical. (July) --Staff (Reviewed April 5, 2010) (Publishers Weekly, vol 257, issue 14, p42)

The year is 2050. Ava and her girlfriend live in what's left of Brooklyn, and though they love each other, it's hard to find happiness while the effects of climate change rapidly eclipse their world. Soon, it won't be safe outside at all. The only people guaranteed survival are the ones whose applications are accepted to The Inside Project, a series of weather-safe, city-sized structures around the world. Jacqueline Millender is a reclusive billionaire/women's rights advocate, and thanks to a generous donation, she's just become the director of the Inside being built on the bones of Manhattan. Her ideas are unorthodox, yet alluring--she's built a whole brand around rethinking the very concept of empowerment. Shelby, a business major from a working-class family, is drawn to Jacqueline's promises of power and impact. When she lands her dream job as Jacqueline's personal assistant, she's instantly swept up into the glamourous world of corporatized feminism. Also drawn into Jacqueline's orbit is Olympia, who is finishing up medical school when Jacqueline recruits her to run the health department Inside. The more Olympia learns about the project, though, the more she realizes there's something much larger at play. When Ava is accepted to live Inside and her girlfriend isn't, she's forced to go alone. But her heartbreak is quickly replaced with a feeling of belonging: Inside seems like it's the safe space she's been searching for... most of the time. Other times she can't shake the feeling that something is deeply off. As she, Olympia, and Shelby start to notice the cracks in Jacqueline's system, Jacqueline tightens her grip, becoming increasingly unhinged and dangerous in what she is willing to do--and who she is willing to sacrifice--to keep her dream alive.

A wildlife biologist returns to the Texas Gulf Coast to manage a habitat project, where she meets a woman wildlife photographer with whom she falls in love.

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party--or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people. So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, muddle Emily's research, and utterly confound and frustrate her. But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones--the most elusive of all faeries--lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all--her own heart.

Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore who just wrote the world's first comprehensive encyclopaedia of faeries. She's learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Ones on her adventures . . . and also from her fellow scholar and former rival Wendell Bambleby. Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He's an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother and in search of a door back to his realm. And despite Emily's feelings for Bambleby, she's not ready to accept his proposal of marriage: Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and dangers. She also has a new project to focus on: a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by his mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambleby's realm and the key to freeing him from his family's dark plans. But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors and of her own heart.

Emily Wilde has spent her life studying faeries. A renowned dryadologist, she has documented hundreds of species of Folk in her Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project yet: studying the inner workings of a faerie realm--as its queen. Along with her former academic rival--now fiancé--the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell's long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare filled with scholarly treasures. Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal world: How can an unassuming scholar such as herself pass for a queen? Yet there is little time to settle in, for Wendell's murderous stepmother has placed a deadly curse upon the land before vanishing without a trace. It will take all of Wendell's magic--and Emily's knowledge of stories--to unravel the mystery before they lose everything they hold dear.

Publishers Weekly: Coastal Maine serves as the appealing backdrop for this charming but clichéd novel of romantic suspense from Chapman (The Seductive Imposter) . When a lobsterman alerts state Assistant Attorney General Willow Foster to the presence of contaminants in Puffin Harbor, she begins a secret investigation. She's unofficially assisted by bar owner and former salvager Duncan Ross, whose offers of both marriage and passion she's been resisting since a one-night stand 18 months earlier. As the two explore both the corporate paper trail and the local seascape, Duncan reveals that he's actually a Scottish lord, while Willow is forced to grapple with her fear of commitment. The story's use of old-fashioned romantic conventions often seems silly in this modern context. Corporate polluters call their victims "Miss," while Duncan's sister's Internet lover arrives from New Zealand carrying family heirlooms to ask for permission to court. Chapman's mimicry of Duncan's brogue is also unfortunate, making him sound more like Popeye ("Can ya climb with yar splint?") than an aristocratic adventurer. This novel works best when it focuses on the timeless bonds between friends and family, community and place. Agent, Grace Morgan Literary Agency. (May) --Staff (Reviewed March 28, 2005) (Publishers Weekly, vol 252, issue 13, p63)

Kirkus: Somehow, with almost as many planes as horses, this present-day windup to the Calder saga doesn't have quite the Yippee Ti Yi Yo spirit of its predecessors--but once again Dailey does an energetic job with all the old ranch-melodrama standbys. The hero this time around is Chase Calder's son Ty, who, after childhood in California with mother Maggie, arrives at the Triple C ranch as a teenager: he brings his folks together again. But Ty remains somewhat distant from the seasoned hands, especially when he insists on going to college--where he meets gorgeous, greedy Tara, Dior-wearing daughter of creepy Texas moneyman E. J. Dyson. (Dyson's too-quiet partner Striklin is often seen cleaning his nails with a knife.) And soon, despite a drunken one-night stand with adoring ranch-gal Jessy Niles, Ty marries Tara...as her father E.J. hatches a plot to snatch a wealth of Iow-sulphur coal by strip-mining on a portion of the Triple C ranch. (Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1983)

Publishers Weekly: There are some pretty weird things going on in the backwoods along the Fox River, just beyond Chicago's far-western suburbs. Twenty-four-year old Raedawn Somershoe and her mom Gelia are trailer trash, women of ill repute, who have worked their sexual wiles on many men in nearby Berne, Ill., not to mention any number of truckers and passing strangers. They live just outside of town with a variety of ill-sorted, half-feral family members and lovers and are mostly content with life. Then a corrupt developer decides that he wants their riverside property as the site for posh new townhouses and he won't take no for an answer. This turns out to be a mistake because the Somershoes have a powerful sexual magic, magic rooted deeply in the trees and the river, and the earth itself. Alexander Caebeau, a homesick Bahamian who runs heavy machinery for the construction company building the townhouses, quickly falls under Raedawn's spell. Then, after an enormous piece of construction machinery is found disassembled overnight, Caebeau is made night watchman and discovers that he has a marvelous and marvel-filled fate in store for him. Filled with oddly bent characters, lovingly detailed descriptions of the Illinois countryside, and just the right amount of magic, Stevenson's first novel is at once sexy, beautifully written and passing strange.

Reporter Lauren Sterling receives a tip about an environmental time bomb in her town, and though it's the scoop of a lifetime, it may very well cost her a lot more than she'd bargained for.

3rd book in the Tritone Trilogy
When a real live mermaid named Angel jumps into his fishing boat to escape a shark, single dad Logan Hardington agrees to help her in her mission to stop humans from destroying the oceans and, in return, she grants his young son Michael his birthday wish.

Callie Duflay just isn't like the rest of her family. While they've built white collar lives, she prefers getting her hands dirty by working with children and local California causes. When Callie learns that a beloved piece of untouched property in her town of Otter Bay may soon be developed, she confronts the architect assigned to the project. Gage Mitchell may be an easygoing, eco-friendly professional, but he's not about to back off this job no matter how cute Callie or her pet pooch, Moondoggy, may be. His reasons and hers are noble--both have a heart for protecting God's creation, and the truth is these two would be perfect for each other outside of this face-off. But will they ever figure that out?

Quinn Fortune is the official protector of all the unspoiled beauty in Lost Lake, Alaska, as the head of the community trust. A rugged frontiersman through and through, he doesn't do soft. But he can't help his fascination with the pink-clad professor who shows up in Lost Lake seeking his approval for her cheerful outsider's proposal about land that isn't hers. Still, he agrees to consider it - if she can handle a month of good old-fashioned Alaska living. He s betting she'll head back to the safety of the Lower 48 within the week. Violet Parrish is a thinker, not a doer, but desperate times call for extraordinary measures - like taking on the Alaskan wilderness. In January. Off the grid. With a mountain man hot enough to melt a glacier. The frozen Alaskan tundra should be no match for Violet's determination, but the sheer immensity of the Last Frontier takes her by surprise - as does her attraction to gruff, impossibly handsome Quinn, and the unexpected heat that burns between them during the freezing Alaska nights...

Chronic overachiever Prudence Barnett is always quick to cast judgment on the lazy, rude, and arrogant residents of her coastal town. Her dreams of karmic justice are fulfilled when, after a night out with her friends, she wakes up with the sudden ability to cast instant karma on those around her. Pru giddily makes use of the power, punishing everyone from public vandals to mean gossips, but there is one person on whom her powers consistently backfire: Quint Erickson, her slacker of a lab partner. Quint is annoyingly cute and impressively noble, especially when it comes to his work with the rescue center for local sea animals. When Pru resigns herself to working at the rescue center for extra credit, she begins to uncover truths about baby otters, environmental upheaval, and romantic crossed signals--not necessarily in that order. Her newfound karmic insights reveal how thin the line is between virtue and vanity, generosity and greed . . . love and hate... and fate.

When strange levels of toxins are found in the local water, Fred, a mermaid, is asked to help investigate by a gorgeous marine biologist and her mer-person ruler.

A city lawyer is forced to return to his coastal hometown and discovers that conservationists plan to carve up his family farm. His initial fury is abated when he meets the woman in charge--a seal researcher whose passion for her precious seals touches his heart.

Natural Resources police officer, Sloan Cooper, and her partner had just taken down three men preying on hikers in the Western Maryland mountains. Driving back, she pulled in at a convenience store--and walked right into a robbery in progress. One gunshot from a jittery thief was about to change her world. After being shocked back to life on the operating table, she has a long recovery ahead, so she moves back to her parents' peaceful house in Heron's Rest. As for the boyfriend who dumped her via text while she was in the hospital, good riddance. She may be down, but she's not out. So when a woman vanishes, leaving her car behind in a supermarket parking lot, Sloan searches online for similar cases. She finds them, spread across three states. Men and women, old and young--the missing seem to have nothing in common. And the abductions keep happening. Luckily, the new man in her life shares her passion for solving this mystery. But it will take every ounce of endurance to get to the dark heart of this bizarre case--and she's willing to risk her life again if that's what it takes to stop the horror.

As a Baltimore cop, Nate Burke watched his partner die on the street--and the guilt still haunts him. With nowhere else to go, he accepted the job as Chief of Police in a tiny, remote Alaskan town with the hopes of starting over. Despite the name, Lunacy provides a balm for Nate's shattered soul--and an unexpected affair with pilot Meg Galloway warms his nights. But other things in Lunacy are heating up. Nate suspects the killer in an unsolved murder still walks the snowy streets. His investigation will unearth the secrets and suspicions that lurk beneath the placid surface, as well as bring out the big-city survival instincts that made him a cop in the first place. And his discovery will threaten the new life--and the new love--that he has finally found for himself. Alaska is the third main character in this book.

When five-thousand-year-old human bones are found at a construction site in the small town of Woodsboro, the news draws archaeologist Callie Dunbrook out of her sabbatical and into a whirlwind of adventure, danger, and romance. While overseeing the dig, she must try to make sense of a cloud of death and misfortune that hangs over the project--fueling rumors that the site is cursed. She must cope with the presence of her irritating--but irresistible--ex-husband, Jake. And when a stranger claims to know a secret about her privileged Boston childhood, she must question her own past as well. Not specifically environmental but does have some great detail about archaeological digs and their science.

In a world where witches control the climate and are losing control as the weather grows more erratic, a once-in-a-generation witch with the magic of all seasons is the only one who can save earth from destruction. But as her power grows, it targets and kills those closest to her, and when she falls in love with her training partner, she's forced to choose between her power, her love, and saving the earth. For centuries, witches have maintained the climate, but now their control is faltering as the atmosphere becomes more erratic; the storms, more destructive. All hope lies with Clara, a once-in-a-generation Everwitch whose magic is tied to every season. In Autumn, Clara wants nothing to do with her power. It's wild and volatile, and the price of her magic-losing the ones she loves-is too high, despite the need to control the increasingly dangerous weather. In Winter, the world is on the precipice of disaster. Fires burn, storms rage, and Clara accepts that she's the only one who can make a difference. In Spring, she falls for Sang, the witch training her. As her magic grows, so do her feelings, until she's terrified Sang will be the next one she loses. In Summer, Clara must choose between her power and her happiness, her duty and the people she loves...before she loses Sang, her magic, and thrusts the world into chaos.

Booklist: Who is Sam Morgan? Wealthy investor with entree into upper-crust society? Environmental activist who uses robbery to bring down major polluters? Or is he bad-boy werewolf Johnny Marshall, long believed dead? When he infiltrates a party at the Woodlock mansion to plan a caper to take what is most dear to the man who is decimating a Washington forest, he isn’t expecting to meet a woman who will awaken his werewolf craving for a partner for life. Later, when his robbery goes wrong, he discovers that Woodlock’s adult children, Olivia and Colin, and Colin’s lover, Brice, had actually been setting him up because they needed a thief to redeem for them something that was stolen, the loss of which imperils the Woodlock family. Once again, York delivers an exciting and suspenseful romance with paranormal themes that she gets just right. This is a howling good read that connects beautifully with the earlier tales of Sam’s brothers, Killing Moon (2003) and Witching Moon (2003). -- Diana Tixier Herald (BookList, 01-01-2005, p833)

When a twelve-year-old girl drowns in the Tamassee River and her body is trapped in a deep eddy, the people of the small South Carolina town that bears the river's name are thrown into the national spotlight. The girl's parents want to attempt a rescue of the body; environmentalists are convinced the rescue operation will cause permanent damage to the river and set a dangerous precedent. Torn between the two sides is Maggie Glenn, a twenty-eight-year-old newspaper photographer who grew up in the town and has been sent to document the incident. Since leaving home almost ten years ago, Maggie has done her best to avoid her father, but now, as the town's conflict opens old wounds, she finds herself revisiting the past she's fought so hard to leave behind. Meanwhile, the reporter who's accompanied her to cover the story turns out to have a painful past of his own, and one that might stand in the way of their romance.

'Iwa Young's life is high in the Maui rainforest. As a field biologist, she's happiest in the company of trees and birds and waterfalls. When a developer arrives with plans for a so-called eco resort in the middle of a forest full of endangered species, 'Iwa puts all her energy into the fight to protect it. But a chance encounter threatens to distract her. His name is Dane Parsons, a big-wave surfer from California. 'Iwa has a few unbreakable rules, and at the top of her list: never date a surfer.  Dane is part of an underground group of big-wave riders, and his connection to the ocean runs deep. When he meets 'Iwa, he can't get her out of his mind. But 'Iwa wants nothing to do with Dane until he offers to help protect her beloved forest and waterfall. Always on the hunt for the ultimate ride, Dane suddenly glimpses something even greater.

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz--a magically sentient spider plant--have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire's most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city's elite. When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she'd see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy--and very handsome--neighbor who can't take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she's fed and to help fix up her new home. In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn't have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries. But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island's first-ever and much needed secret spellshop. Climate change due to unbalanced use of spells in the capital city is a significant driver of the plot.

Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium. This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She's starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes--at least until she's ready to sail home. But Terlu doesn't want to return home, and as she grows closer with the unwittingly charming gardener, Yarrow, she learns that the magic that sustains the greenhouses is failing--causing the death of everything within them. Terlu knows she must help, even if that means breaking the law again. This time, though, she isn't alone. Assisted by Yarrow and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island--and have a fresh chance at happiness and love.

Book 7 in a series
Tree-huggin’, animal-lovin’ Bridget Pickwick-Buchanan is on a mission. Well, two. First she has to come to terms with being a widow at thirty-three. After all, it’s been four years and even her five-year-old niece and nephew think it’s time she shed her widow’s weeds. Second, she needs to find a buyer for her family’s estate—a Biltmore-inspired mansion surrounded by hundreds of acres of unspoiled forestland. With family obligations forcing the sale, Bridget is determined to find an eco-friendly developer to buy the land, someone who won’t turn it into single-family homes or a cheesy theme park. -- Publisher information.