Willow
All that glitters isn't gold...
Wealth. Extravagant parties. Celebrity status. These are the things Willow knew only in her wildest dreams--until now. After discovering deep family secrets in her adoptive father's journal, Willow bids farewell to her North Carolina college town and sets out in search of her birth family amid the ritzy glamour of Palm Beach.
Using an assumed name and pretending to conduct a study of one of the nation's wealthiest cocmmunities, Willow takes Florida's gem city by storm and quickly encounters Thatcher Eaton, a young lawyer who sweeps her off her feet. But as Willow spirals into a passionate love affair and becocmes intoxicated with the lifestyle of the rich and famous, the dark truth about her birth family threatens her fabulous new life, pushing her to the brink of insanity....
In the lap of luxury, things aren't always as they seem.
When I reached the address of my mother's property, I truly thought I was entering the closest to heaven on earth man could create.
The mauve driveway looked as though it were swept and scrubbed after each and every car drove over it. It continued for what looked like a good third of a mile toward a Mediterranean-style pearl-white mansion that loomed against an azure sky. To my right and left, oleander bushes bloomed in salmon pink, red, and white blossoms, a startling sea of color. The grass over the grounds was trimmed and cut so perfectly that one would think it was maintained by a small army of gardeners on their knees, each armed with a pair of scissors.
Closer to the house, a royal coconut palm trees stood like sentinels lining the circular entry drive. I could see the ocean behind the house and another building down toward the beach.
My heart was thumping so hard, I had to sit quietly for a few moments before attempting to turn off the engine and get out of the car. I was here under false pretenses. What if these people saw right through me and asked me to leave? What if they made a big scene?
I felt as if I were caught in a hurricane of my own making....
Wicked Forest
In a world of hidden dangers, it's easy to get lost....
After discovering her true identity, Willow De Beers leaves her North Carolina town to live with her real mother and her half-brother in Palm Beach, Florida. Now caught up in a world of glamour and extravagant wealth -- where nosy neighbors, fueled by gossip and greed, keep an eye on her eccentric family -- Willow is determined to make a fresh start.
Thatcher Eaton, the debonair attorney, uses his intoxicating charm once again, this time convincing Willow to give him her hand in marriage. It�s to be the ritziest wedding of the decade, even by Palm Beach standards. But as future plans are made, families feud and rumors fly -- and Willow soon learns the horrifying truth: from the darkest of secrets, there is no escape....
She knew the least about the man she loved the most....
We had been in dream, floating on love, touching the stars. Our plane would bring us back to earth. I remember thinking as the wheels touched down that this was it, the beginning of a new life with all the questions to be answered, the roads to travel.
I loved Thacther. He was the most exciting, handsome, and confident man I had ever met, other than my father, but there were so many dark areas in him I had yet to explore and to understand. It takes a long time to get to know someone, even someone you love very much.
Most married people don't bother. They live on a superficial layer of thin ice and skate carefully around each other. They turn away and distract themselves, and if one day they fall through, they pull themslves up and skate off to find another companion, a companion just as eager not to look too deeply at them.
That will never be me, I thought with confidence....
Twisted Roots
The perfect family... and the perfect nightmare.
From the outside, Hannah Eaton seems to live a charmed life in wealthy Palm Beach, Florida, with her mother, Willow, a renowned psychologist, and her stepfather. But deep inside, she is miserable and lonely. She's been abandoned by her father, a pretentious lawyer whose family wants nothing to do with her. Now, the arrival of a new baby brother has consumed her mother, who is obsessed with caring for the sickly infant. Ans so, Hannah slips further into the shadows....
With the help of her boyfriend and her uncle, Hannah sets out for New Orleans to follow her dreams of singing. But life on the road holds many dark surprises -- and shattering realities that Hannah herself may not be ready to face....
She felt like a stranger -- in her own family....
This morning I was woken by a great deal of commotion. Mother was being rushed to the hospital to give birth to what I already knew would be my baby brother, Claude, named for my maternal grandfather. Before little Claude, as he would come to be known, even opened his eyes and cried for the first time, I was already jealous of him.
After all, he would have my mother's last name. He would be a Fuentes. Maybe he would belong in this family more than I did.
Certainly, he would never feel like a stranger in his own home. He had dozens of real relatives to call his family. He would never think he was on an island, cut off from the sea of society around him. He would never wonder who he really was.
Why couldn't I be the one who was to be born today?
Into The woods
Her life would never be the same once she ventured... Into the Woods
The only child of a U.S. naval officer father and a charming mother, Grace Houston is the center of her parents' universe -- until sudden tragedy tears her world apart. Now Grace and her mother, Jackie Lee, move from the naval base in Virginia to ritzy Palm Beach, Florida, to start all over again. It's hard enough being the new girl -- but Grace is enrolled at a prestigious private school where what you wear is more important than who you are. Now her own mother is pressuring her to do whatever it takes to be accepted by the in-crowd. But Grace just wants to close her eyes and disappear....
Soon Jackie Lee marries a sophisticated millionaire, Winston Montgomery, who is her ticket to high society. But happiness once again vanishes into the shadows... and it's not long before the young and dashing Kirby Scott works his way into Jackie Lee' life. He's got his eye on her newly inherited fortune -- and something much more precious: her beautiful, innocent daughter....
She wanted to escape the reality, to close her eyes and make it all go away...
I understood that something very serious was happening to me. It was as if my identity, my self-awareness, was dissipating, thinning out until I was translucent.
People would soon see right through me, and then I would totally disappear.
Sleep became an avenue of delightful escape. I loved wrapping my blanket around myself and drifting into the haze. There were no struggles, no hard memories to confront, no decisions to make. In sleep I was truly free.
Vaguely I knew my appearance was changing. I woke and didn't bother to brush my hair. Sometimes I didn't shower, either. I never put on makeup, not even a little lipstick anymore. I wore the same dress for days. Mommy noticed my hair and remarked about it, but she was so absorbed in her charity and social events she didn't see much more, which confirmed my mad suspicion that I was truly slowly disappearing...
Hidden Leaves
The truth could not be revealed -- until now....
After the tragic death of her adoptive father, Willow De Beers receives an unexpected gift: a family diary that unlocks all the secrets of her world--and forever shatters the life she's known in glitzy Palm Beach, Florida. At last, Willow learns the identity of her real father, and unearths his secret love affair with her real mother. She discovers the reasons for her adoptive mother's cruelty... and the truth about the mysterious woman who couldn't keep her, but would love her forever.
This is madness, I kept telling myself.
I'm growing more and more obsessed. It had to stop, but for all my wisdom and for all my experience, I could not heal myself, Willow. I could not purge my mind of your mother. Her eyes, her lips, her hair, the way she held her head or moved her hands, every little thing about her was caught in a mental snapshot and replayed on the screen of my memory and in the corridors of my dreams....
In a crazed rush of impulsive activity, I rose, dressed, and left the house. I drove myself back to the clinic. It was a very dark night, overcast, with not a star in sight. The clinic looked asleep, the lights turned down low and the lobby very quiet. All of our patients were in their rooms, and the attendants and nurses were sitting and having coffee or tea or watching television. I was able to let myself in and, like some burglar, sneak down the corridor. When I reached Grace Montgomery's door, I stopped and stood there, my heart pounding.
What was I doing?
Why had I come here?
All that glitters isn't gold...
Wealth. Extravagant parties. Celebrity status. These are the things Willow knew only in her wildest dreams--until now. After discovering deep family secrets in her adoptive father's journal, Willow bids farewell to her North Carolina college town and sets out in search of her birth family amid the ritzy glamour of Palm Beach.
Using an assumed name and pretending to conduct a study of one of the nation's wealthiest cocmmunities, Willow takes Florida's gem city by storm and quickly encounters Thatcher Eaton, a young lawyer who sweeps her off her feet. But as Willow spirals into a passionate love affair and becocmes intoxicated with the lifestyle of the rich and famous, the dark truth about her birth family threatens her fabulous new life, pushing her to the brink of insanity....
In the lap of luxury, things aren't always as they seem.
When I reached the address of my mother's property, I truly thought I was entering the closest to heaven on earth man could create.
The mauve driveway looked as though it were swept and scrubbed after each and every car drove over it. It continued for what looked like a good third of a mile toward a Mediterranean-style pearl-white mansion that loomed against an azure sky. To my right and left, oleander bushes bloomed in salmon pink, red, and white blossoms, a startling sea of color. The grass over the grounds was trimmed and cut so perfectly that one would think it was maintained by a small army of gardeners on their knees, each armed with a pair of scissors.
Closer to the house, a royal coconut palm trees stood like sentinels lining the circular entry drive. I could see the ocean behind the house and another building down toward the beach.
My heart was thumping so hard, I had to sit quietly for a few moments before attempting to turn off the engine and get out of the car. I was here under false pretenses. What if these people saw right through me and asked me to leave? What if they made a big scene?
I felt as if I were caught in a hurricane of my own making....
Wicked Forest
In a world of hidden dangers, it's easy to get lost....
After discovering her true identity, Willow De Beers leaves her North Carolina town to live with her real mother and her half-brother in Palm Beach, Florida. Now caught up in a world of glamour and extravagant wealth -- where nosy neighbors, fueled by gossip and greed, keep an eye on her eccentric family -- Willow is determined to make a fresh start.
Thatcher Eaton, the debonair attorney, uses his intoxicating charm once again, this time convincing Willow to give him her hand in marriage. It�s to be the ritziest wedding of the decade, even by Palm Beach standards. But as future plans are made, families feud and rumors fly -- and Willow soon learns the horrifying truth: from the darkest of secrets, there is no escape....
She knew the least about the man she loved the most....
We had been in dream, floating on love, touching the stars. Our plane would bring us back to earth. I remember thinking as the wheels touched down that this was it, the beginning of a new life with all the questions to be answered, the roads to travel.
I loved Thacther. He was the most exciting, handsome, and confident man I had ever met, other than my father, but there were so many dark areas in him I had yet to explore and to understand. It takes a long time to get to know someone, even someone you love very much.
Most married people don't bother. They live on a superficial layer of thin ice and skate carefully around each other. They turn away and distract themselves, and if one day they fall through, they pull themslves up and skate off to find another companion, a companion just as eager not to look too deeply at them.
That will never be me, I thought with confidence....
Twisted Roots
The perfect family... and the perfect nightmare.
From the outside, Hannah Eaton seems to live a charmed life in wealthy Palm Beach, Florida, with her mother, Willow, a renowned psychologist, and her stepfather. But deep inside, she is miserable and lonely. She's been abandoned by her father, a pretentious lawyer whose family wants nothing to do with her. Now, the arrival of a new baby brother has consumed her mother, who is obsessed with caring for the sickly infant. Ans so, Hannah slips further into the shadows....
With the help of her boyfriend and her uncle, Hannah sets out for New Orleans to follow her dreams of singing. But life on the road holds many dark surprises -- and shattering realities that Hannah herself may not be ready to face....
She felt like a stranger -- in her own family....
This morning I was woken by a great deal of commotion. Mother was being rushed to the hospital to give birth to what I already knew would be my baby brother, Claude, named for my maternal grandfather. Before little Claude, as he would come to be known, even opened his eyes and cried for the first time, I was already jealous of him.
After all, he would have my mother's last name. He would be a Fuentes. Maybe he would belong in this family more than I did.
Certainly, he would never feel like a stranger in his own home. He had dozens of real relatives to call his family. He would never think he was on an island, cut off from the sea of society around him. He would never wonder who he really was.
Why couldn't I be the one who was to be born today?
Into The woods
Her life would never be the same once she ventured... Into the Woods
The only child of a U.S. naval officer father and a charming mother, Grace Houston is the center of her parents' universe -- until sudden tragedy tears her world apart. Now Grace and her mother, Jackie Lee, move from the naval base in Virginia to ritzy Palm Beach, Florida, to start all over again. It's hard enough being the new girl -- but Grace is enrolled at a prestigious private school where what you wear is more important than who you are. Now her own mother is pressuring her to do whatever it takes to be accepted by the in-crowd. But Grace just wants to close her eyes and disappear....
Soon Jackie Lee marries a sophisticated millionaire, Winston Montgomery, who is her ticket to high society. But happiness once again vanishes into the shadows... and it's not long before the young and dashing Kirby Scott works his way into Jackie Lee' life. He's got his eye on her newly inherited fortune -- and something much more precious: her beautiful, innocent daughter....
She wanted to escape the reality, to close her eyes and make it all go away...
I understood that something very serious was happening to me. It was as if my identity, my self-awareness, was dissipating, thinning out until I was translucent.
People would soon see right through me, and then I would totally disappear.
Sleep became an avenue of delightful escape. I loved wrapping my blanket around myself and drifting into the haze. There were no struggles, no hard memories to confront, no decisions to make. In sleep I was truly free.
Vaguely I knew my appearance was changing. I woke and didn't bother to brush my hair. Sometimes I didn't shower, either. I never put on makeup, not even a little lipstick anymore. I wore the same dress for days. Mommy noticed my hair and remarked about it, but she was so absorbed in her charity and social events she didn't see much more, which confirmed my mad suspicion that I was truly slowly disappearing...
Hidden Leaves
The truth could not be revealed -- until now....
After the tragic death of her adoptive father, Willow De Beers receives an unexpected gift: a family diary that unlocks all the secrets of her world--and forever shatters the life she's known in glitzy Palm Beach, Florida. At last, Willow learns the identity of her real father, and unearths his secret love affair with her real mother. She discovers the reasons for her adoptive mother's cruelty... and the truth about the mysterious woman who couldn't keep her, but would love her forever.
This is madness, I kept telling myself.
I'm growing more and more obsessed. It had to stop, but for all my wisdom and for all my experience, I could not heal myself, Willow. I could not purge my mind of your mother. Her eyes, her lips, her hair, the way she held her head or moved her hands, every little thing about her was caught in a mental snapshot and replayed on the screen of my memory and in the corridors of my dreams....
In a crazed rush of impulsive activity, I rose, dressed, and left the house. I drove myself back to the clinic. It was a very dark night, overcast, with not a star in sight. The clinic looked asleep, the lights turned down low and the lobby very quiet. All of our patients were in their rooms, and the attendants and nurses were sitting and having coffee or tea or watching television. I was able to let myself in and, like some burglar, sneak down the corridor. When I reached Grace Montgomery's door, I stopped and stood there, my heart pounding.
What was I doing?
Why had I come here?
