Star basketball player Chelsea “Nitro” Keyes had the promise of a full ride to college—and everyone’s admiration in her hometown. But everything changed senior year, when she took a horrible fall during a game. Now a metal plate holds her together and she feels like a stranger in her own family.

As a graduation present, Chelsea’s dad springs for a three-week summer “boot camp” program at a northern Minnesota lake resort. There, she’s immediately drawn to her trainer, Clint, a nineteen-year-old ex-hockey player who’s haunted by his own traumatic past. As they grow close, Chelsea is torn between her feelings for Clint and her loyalty to her devoted boyfriend back home. Will an unexpected romance just end up causing Chelsea and Clint more pain—or finally heal their heartbreak?

Playing Hurt Excerpt

Playing Hurt Discussion Questions

Fifteen-year-old Aura Ambrose has been hiding a secret. Her mother, a talented artist and art teacher, is slowly being consumed by schizophrenia, and Aura has been her sole caretaker ever since Aura’s dad left them. Convinced that “creative” equals crazy, Aura shuns her own artistic talent. But as her mother sinks deeper into the darkness of mental illness, the hunger for a creative outlet draws Aura toward the depths of her imagination. Just as desperation threatens to swallow her whole, Aura discovers that art, love, and family are profoundly linked—and together may offer an escape from her fears.

A Blue So Dark Excerpt

A Blue So Dark Discussion Questions

Laugh-out-loud humor and quirky, lovable characters fill the pages of this modern-day fairy tale in which dogs, not dragons, rule the land.

Desperate to make her own way in New York City, Mable Barker, a “mutt” from Queens, begins working for an unruly, spoiled Upper East Side Pekingese…only to learn that Innis, the Peke, belongs to the pedigreed Jason Mead, a young veterinarian and hopeful breeder of AKC dog show champions.