In her first work of contemporary women’s fiction, bestselling author Kay Bratt draws on her own life experiences to create a raw, yet inescapably warm, novel about friendship and a wary heart’s unexpected capacity to love.

A hungry, stray dog is the last thing Cara Butter needs. Stranded in Georgia with only her backpack and a few dwindling dollars, she already has too much baggage. Like her twin sister, Hana, who has broken Cara’s heart one too many times. After a lifetime of family troubles, and bouncing from one foster home to another, Cara decides to leave it all behind and strike out alone—on foot.

Cara sets off to Florida to see the home of her literary hero, Ernest Hemingway, accompanied only by Hemi, the stray dog who proves to be the perfect travel companion. But the harrowing trip takes unexpected turns as strangers become friends who make her question everything, and Cara finds that as the journey unfolds, so does her life—in ways she could never imagine.

From the bestselling author of The Tales of the Scavenger’s Daughters comes a historical fiction family saga that begins with a newborn Asian girl, unwanted but not forgotten, and those who come together in a tumultuous journey to give her a better life. 

In 1867 an infant girl called Luli is born into a middle-class Chinese family on the mainland. Her fate is altered when instead of being put to the breast of her mother, her father declares her a misfortune and she is left at the famous Chaozhou wall where many parents and grandparents abandon their unwanted girls. But the child’s mother is desperate to save her and beseeches one of her sons to step in and deliver the baby to safety.

At the same time in the affluent house of a scholar on the island of Hong Kong, house slaves Sun Ling and Jingwei are sworn sisters, bound by their shared struggles. When the hardship and abuse become too much too bear, the girls escape and make a run for freedom, then find themselves on a ship bound for the western coast of the Americas. 

When the paths of these three forgotten girls of China meet, the ocean journey is treacherous and not for the faint-hearted. In the midst of monumental difficulties, their lives converge, and they traverse many obstacles, but will do anything for one another in their oath to stay together and fulfill their hope for a better future in Chinatown, on the shores of San Francisco.

Maggie Dalton was forced to uproot her entire life to protect herself and her son. Just when she thinks she’s outrun her past, she’ll have to face her fears in this emotional and suspenseful novel by the bestselling author of Wish Me Home.

After a year on the move, single mom Maggie Dalton has found a safe haven with her son in Maui. It’s the perfect spot to settle down now that her relentless stalker is finally behind bars. Maggie finds a new job and a new life thanks to some help from her best friend, Quinn, who urged her to come start over in paradise. But when signals suggest her stalker is back, Maggie realizes Maui might not be the safe oasis she thought.

Quinn knows all about facing the past. Tenuously reunited with her biological family after thirty years, she’s still coming to terms with her childhood—along with guilt, secrets, and mysteries yet to be resolved. And just as she’s starting to figure out where she fits in with her family, a name from the past threatens them all.

With that fear comes a choice for both women: abandon the lives they’ve been building on Maui, or find the courage to finally stop running and fight for the happiness they deserve.

From the bestselling author of Wish Me Home comes a breathtaking novel about the secrets that families keep and one woman’s illuminating search for the truth.

Quinn Maguire has a stable life, a fiancé and what she thinks is a clear vision for her future. All of that comes undone by her mother’s deathbed confession—the absentee father Quinn spent thirty years resenting is not her real father at all. With that one revealing whisper, Quinn embarks on a journey to Maui, her mother’s childhood home, a storied paradise that holds the truth about her mother’s past and all its secrets Quinn is determined to uncover.

But settling on the island has its complications, and with the fiancé she left behind questioning every choice she makes, Quinn’s quest for her truth is even more difficult than she expected. As time passes and she digs deeper into her family history and her own identity, one thing becomes clear: Maui is as beautiful as she’d always imagined, and its magic is helping uncover the woman that Quinn was always meant to be.