How do you know, at fifteen, what love and affection really mean? Ruth learned all too soon that love is commitment, and affection has a price. But who will ultimately make the commitment, and who will pay the price?

At fifteen, Ruth thought she had her life planned out. That is until she met Luke, a charming new cadet from the local military school. After entering into a seemingly harmless teenage romance, Luke's possessive attitude and subtle remarks begin to undermine Ruth's confidence, sending her into an emotional tailspin.

A beautiful young girl is suddenly lost in a grown-up world, trying desperately to hang on to a love she thought would last forever. Shattered dreams and hopeless tears become the bricks that build walls around Ruth; yet just below her broken heart, a beautiful vessel is being formed.

Join Ruth on her wedding day, five years later, as her childhood friend helps her journey back to face the demons of her past.

Most people can name some famous artists and recognize their best-known works. But what's behind all that painting, drawing, and sculpting? What was Leonardo da Vinci's snack of choice while he painted Mona Lisa's mysterious smile? Why did Georgia O'Keeffe find bones so appealing? Who called Diego Rivera "Frog-Face"? And what is it about artists that makes both their work and their lives so fascinating--to themselves, to their curious neighbors, and to all of us? This book presents the humor and the tragedy in twenty artists' lives as no biography has done before.

Helped by her father, a young girl prepares a flower garden as a birthday surprise for her mother.

Follow the progress of a little girl and her father as they purchase "a garden," and board the bus to carry it home. The pansies, tulips, daffodils, geraniums, and daisies are lovingly planted in a window box, and the candles on the cake are lighted--just as Mom walks in the door to find her daughter, her husband, and her birthday surprise.

A charming tale about inventive children who plant some summer fun.

Luke Davis disappeared from Ruth's life nearly four years ago, abandoning her and their unborn son. Alone and only sixteen, Ruth felt certain her renewed faith would carry her through whatever storms were certain to come her way. But brewing just below the surface of her adolescent smile, there was one storm Ruth would never see coming. When Luke walked away, he callously left behind unworthiness he'd so cunningly instilled in Ruth. Now, as she enters her second year of college, a devalued mindset remains carefully hidden behind the majestic clouds of an approaching storm. Sabotaging a future with James, the one man who accepted and loved her, Ruth endures the pelting rains as the storm begins. But just when she begins to feel like the storm is ending, a sexual assault hurls her viciously into a deeper depression than she's ever known. Feeling hopeless and abandoned by everyone around her, Ruth embraces the violent winds setting course a path of her own self-destruction. With the storm raging and the last strands of her faith slowly unraveling, Ruth must break free from her circumstances and find the grace that has saved her once before.

How do you know, at fifteen, what love and affection really mean? Ruth learned all too soon that love is commitment, and affection has a price. But who will ultimately make the commitment, and who will pay the price?

At fifteen, Ruth thought she had her life planned out. That is until she met Luke, a charming new cadet from the local military school. After entering into a seemingly harmless teenage romance, Luke's possessive attitude and subtle remarks begin to undermine Ruth's confidence, sending her into an emotional tailspin.

A beautiful young girl is suddenly lost in a grown-up world, trying desperately to hang on to a love she thought would last forever. Shattered dreams and hopeless tears become the bricks that build walls around Ruth; yet just below her broken heart, a beautiful vessel is being formed.

Join Ruth on her wedding day, five years later, as her childhood friend helps her journey back to face the demons of her past.