Secrets
Long-hidden secrets come to light in the shadowed halls of a California villa
Antonia stared out the Studebaker’s rear window as it sped away from her grandfather Quillan’s Sonoma villa, leaving behind the vineyard that had been life to her family — a life now lost….
The old villa needed what Rese Barrett could do as well as any man on the crew. Trained by the best, she had honed her skills with a passion for quality, an eye for detail, and no room for compromise. Renovation was her joy–taking something old and making it new without changing the heart if it. But this time the inn she restored was hers, and this time she worked alone….
The answers were there if he could find them, and the commission from his grandmother Antonia compelled him to do so. Brash and impulsive, Lance Michelli arrived at the inn sure of his quest and sensing his right. After all, it was part of his heritage.
Chef, musician, and spellbinder, Lance talked his way into her plans before she’d even made them and had Rese telling secrets she’d never before revealed. He spoke of faith as if he could touch it, but how much more was left unsaid?
Winner of the Christy Award, presented by the Christian Bookseller Association to honor the best in Christian fiction.
Selected by ForeWord Magazine as a 2003 Book of the Year (Gold Award in Romance category)
Unforgotten
The sequel to the bestselling and Christy-award winning Secrets
Antonia quivered as the door closed behind them. Why wouldn’t Lance leave it alone? She had done all she could. She couldn’t change the past. Couldn’t…
Lance Michelli had traveled to his grandmother Antonia’s old villa in Sonoma to find the truth behind the secrets of her past. There he met Rese Barrett, the woman who now owned the villa and hid secrets of her own.
Now Lance has returned to his grandmother with both Rese and the answers he has found. But Antonia refuses to hear what he has to say. Has she really misunderstood the events of that dark night so long ago?
Antonia sends Lance on another quest. But this time he discovers that the past has influenced the present far more than anyone realizes. Lance is caught between the two women he loves as he uncovers unforgotten truths that could change them all forever.
A Christianbook.com Pick of the Week
Echoes
The sequel to Unforgotten
The whimper came, no more than a note of longing–or fear–in a child’s throat. Sofie reacted instinctively, each nerve pulled taut. But when she opened her eyes, there was no warm, damp cheek, no tiny brow wrinkled with sleep-swept worries. She sank back as sorrow, marrow deep, found a familiar fit…..
Even in the midst of her affectionate and chaotic Italian family all living in the Bronx neighborhood where she grew up, Sofie Michelli feels alone. For too long, she has been caught in a net of loss and despair. When an old woman murmurs, “Finche c’e vita c’e speranza” Where there’s life, there’s hope, Sofie feels the familiar words penetrate and awaken something. She is alive. It is time to let go, to start again.
Rese is not sure what to make of Lance Michelli’s healing gift, but she feels protective of this humbled version of the swaggering man who turned her life inside out. As they find new footing, the Sonoma villa they once intended as an inn becomes a refuge for the downtrodden–including Lance’s sister Sofie.
Driven to protect the weak and innocent, Child Protective Service worker Matt Hammond responds to a call and finds an infant abandoned to the care of an odd assortment of misfits. He reserves judgment on the unconventional caregivers–who both concern and fascinate him–but he is especially drawn to Sofie, the mesmerizing woman with a dancer’s poise, eyes like dark copper pennies–and scars on her wrists.
