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About the novel Hot Fudge Sundae Blues. Thirteen-year-old Layla Jay was only pretending when she knelt before the preacher to seek salvation. She was hoping to make her grandma happy and get noticed by the cute new boy in town. But religion truly piques her interest when a young handsome visiting preacher stays at her family's home. Wallace seems genuinely interested in Layla Jay's life - until he meets her mama and falls head over heels. When Wallace marries Frieda, Layla Jay believes she will finally have the father she's always wanted. But it seems that none of her dreams will come true as Layla Jay wrestles with her mother's reckless ways, her unsavory stepfather, a best friend's betrayal, and the longing for love's first kiss. Yet everything pales in comparison to what happens next as Layla Jay is forced to tell a lie to save her mother's world from crashing down.
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About the novel Right as Rain. Though the women are as different as water and wine—Icey is feisty, hot-tempered, and impulsive, while Tee Wee is more submissive and disciplined—both are driven by a passionate determination to give their children a better life. Through trying times, they are the pillars, fierce and resilient; yet they celebrate life with a love of food, music, and family that makes even the most traumatic moments endurable. The illicit love between Tee Wee’s daughter Crow and the white landowner’s son Browder; the heartbreaking death of one of Icey’s children, for which she will blame herself; the murder trial of Tee Wee’s youngest son which threatens to tear apart not just their family but the entire town—all these events are interwoven with occasions of joy, including Crow’s fulfillment of her lifelong dream and Tee Wee’s own hard-fought success.
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About the novel Walking Through Shadows. When the body of seventeen-year-old Sheila Barnes is found on Lloyd Cotton’s dairy farm in 1941, nearly all the citizens of the quiet town of Zebulon. Mississippi feel the effects of her murder. But those most deeply affected by the tragedy include her young husband, Stoney, and the Cotton family, who took Sheila in and grew to love arid respect her. Though badly abused by her father, labeled “slow-witted," and burdened with a physical deformity, Sheila approaches life with a natural, cheerful optimism and an unwavering belief in the healing powers of magic. She quickly becomes the Best Friend of eleven-year-old Annette Cotton, and subtly charms and changes those around her, proving to many that true wisdom often comes from unlikely places.
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