The tightrope walk is getting trickier by the minute. As maternity leave comes to an end for Heidi Elliott, so does virtually everything else she thought she knew. The substitute filling in for her high school Spanish classes has made a complete mess—not just with her students, but perhaps in a way more personal. Her husband is developing the disconcerting habit of going out of his way to help a beautiful and wealthy client who is all kinds of perky. And now, to further complicate ...

New Yorker Sadie Maddox is the toast of the classical-music world—and a bit of a diva. But lately her CD sales are sagging, not to mention parts of her anatomy. Maybe it’s time for a change. So when her agent suggests a professorship at a small liberal-arts college, Sadie decides to give it a go. Besides, she needs the money.But the college is in rural Iowa. Sadie’s colleagues are intimidated, her students aren’t impressed, and she has to live far too close to farm animals. When Sa...

Mia is a granola-eating, sensible shoe-wearing, carbon footprint-conscious twenty-something living in a multicultural neighborhood in Chicago. Her mother, Babs, is a stiletto-wearing Zsa Zsa Gabor type who works as an activities hostess on a Caribbean cruise line…and if you guessed there’s some tension there, you’d be right. Factor in an unexpected pregnancy and Mia’s idealistic boyfriend, and the mother-daughter relationship is, well, stretched very thin. As is Mia’s sanity when Babs show...

From an author and podcaster, an "invaluable and hilarious" memoir-in-essays about learning to understand that we can’t earn God’s love no matter how hard we try, and learning to accept the grace that is freely given (Jennifer Dukes Lee).Growing up, Kimberly Stuart got really good at strapping on her spiritual tap shoes and trying to be a star for Jesus. She could sing all the songs, ace the sword drills, and knew all the right theology. From earning creepy Jesus p...

The Moms’ Group that saved Heidi Elliott’s sanity has gone on hiatus, as have any ideas about dropping the weight (in all the wrong places) and keeping the curves (in all the right ones). In their place, the Friday Strut-n-Stroll provides, if nothing else, two miles of adult company and the outside chance to use polysyllabic words. As much as she has loved being home for Nora’s first steps, words, and forays into makeup artistry, Heidi misses working, not to mention money for pedic...

From an author and podcaster, an "invaluable and hilarious" memoir-in-essays about learning to understand that we can’t earn God’s love no matter how hard we try, and learning to accept the grace that is freely given (Jennifer Dukes Lee).Growing up, Kimberly Stuart got really good at strapping on her spiritual tap shoes and trying to be a star for Jesus. She could sing all the songs, ace the sword drills, and knew all the right theology. From earning creepy Jesus p...

A story of reconnection, lost love, and the power of faith, Heart Land follows a struggling fashion designer back to her small Iowa hometown as she tries to follow her dreams of success and finding true love.Grace Klaren has finally made her dream of living in the Big Apple and working in the fashion industry a reality. But when she’s unexpectedly fired and can’t afford the next month’s rent, Grace does something she never thought she’d do: she moves back ...

Selected as one of the great must-read mysteries of the summer by Canada's national book show, CBC Radio's The Next ChapterA dead man in the snow shatters Dr. Hope Sze’s peaceful month of research at an Ottawa stem cell lab.Hope discovers that one man’s body leads to a series of corpses, both at home and around the globe.This time, the killer knows no borders and no conscience.Hope must extricate them all, while caught betwe...

A Killer Flight With No Way OutWhen Dr. Hope Sze flies to Los Angeles to reunite with her soul mate, John Tucker, she expects Botoxed blondes with Brazilian wax jobs, not terror at 35,000 feet in the air.Yet on their way home, with 1000 miles to go and nowhere to land, she and Dr. Tucker must strive to save one man’s life.Hope and Tucker have no surgical equipment. No surgeon on board. And, as first year family medicine residents, almost no experien...

Two doctors. One killer. One woman in labour.A killer infiltrates the obstetrics ward of a Montreal hospital just before Christmas, taking one pregnant woman and one resident doctor hostage at gunpoint.Dr. Hope Sze struggles to deliver her patient's baby with blood on the floor and death in the air.And when Dr. Tucker tries to rescue their tiny crew, only to end up hostage material alongside them, Hope’s heart just might break, even before the kidna...