From New York Times bestselling author Marie Bostwick comes a beautiful novel of sisterhood lost and found-and of the ways we create the rich tapestries that encompass the past and the future...

The economic downturn has hit New Bern, Connecticut, and Tessa Woodruff's herbal apothecary shop, For the Love of Lavender, is suffering. So is her once-happy thirty-four-year marriage to Lee. They'd given up everything to come back to New Bern from Boston and start their business, but now they're wondering if they made the right decision. To relieve the strain, Tessa signs up for a quilting class at the Cobbled Court Quilt Shop, and to her surprise, rediscovers the power of sisterhood-along with the childhood friend she thought she'd lost forever...

Madelyn Beecher left New Bern twenty years ago and never looked back. But when her husband is convicted of running a Ponzi scheme and she's left with nothing but her late grandmother's cottage, she is forced to return to the town...

SUMMARY: Colleagues, friends, and lovers know Dodge Hanley as a private investigator who doesn't let rules get in his way in his private life as well as his professional one. If he breaks a heart, or bends the law in order to catch a criminal, he does so without hesitation or apology. That's why he's the first person Caroline King who after a thirty-year separation continues to haunt his dreams asks for help when a deranged stalker attempts to murder their daughter . . . the daughter Dodge has never met. He has a whole bagful of grudging excuses for wishing to ignore Caroline's call, and one compelling reason to drop everything and fly down to Texas: Dodge's mind may be a haze of disturbing memories and bad decisions, but he arrives in Houston knowing with perfect clarity that his daughter, Berry, is in danger. She has become the object of desire of a co-worker, a madman and genius with a penchant for puzzles and games who has spent the past year making Berry's life hell, and who now has vowed to kill her. Dodge joins forces with local deputy sheriff Ski Nyland, but the alarming situation goes from bad to worse when the stalker begins to claim other victims and leaves an ominous trail of clues as he lethally works his way toward Berry. Sensing the killer drawing nearer, Dodge, who's survived vicious criminals and his own self-destructive impulses, realizes that this time he's in for the fight of his life.From acclaimed best-selling author Sandra Brown,Tough Customeris a heart-pounding tale about obsession and murder, the fragile nature of relationships, and, possibly, second chances.

From Publishers Weekly

Brown (Criminal Minded) packs her latest New York street fable with titillation, betrayals, violence, sex, histrionics and an amazingly improbable redemption through true love. An extremely fed up Celeste Styles sets her beloved salon, Dime Piece, on fire in an attempt to head South and start her life anew, away from her married boyfriend Rah-lo, a dealer. Meanwhile, Ishmael, Rah-lo's business partner, best friend and confidante, tries to forget his feelings for Celeste with a relationship with Nina—and a rekindled affair with Robin. Brown keeps the drama flowing and the pages turning as the love triangle converges explosively in Atlanta. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"With powerfully vivid language, Brown renders the astronomical highs and heartrending lows of a beautiful but damaged young woman's struggle with crack addiction..."--Vibe Vixen

"Brown's characters are sympathetically drawn, and the Goodfellas-like take on the gangster life is eye-opening."--Publishers Weekly

"WHITE LINES is unrelenting in its gritty portrayal of addiction, and unforgettable in its depiction of ghetto love. Truly, a must-read!"--Right On! Magazine

"WHITE LINES is a blunt, evocative, explosive urban epic by Tracy Brown . . . definitely one of the best books of 2007." -- RAWSISTAZ Reviewers 4.5 (out of 5)

"Tracy Brown does it again…WHITE LINES will most definitely be a hood classic."--Shannon Holmes, national bestselling author of B-More Careful and Bad Girlz 4 Life

"Tracy Brown once again proves that the art of storytelling isn't dead."--K'wan, national bestselling author of Still Hood

"WHITE LINES is Tracy Brown's blunt yet strangely evocative urban epic...Tracy Brown's urban saga draws its strength on believable characters in extraordinary lives."--Fresh Fiction

About the Author

SALES POINTS A new trilogy from 'the name to watch in SF' (Peter Hamilton) Sensitive characterisation, human dilemmas; SF with the unique Brown touch Widespread review coverage for the HB 'Eric Brown has been in a class of his own for some time. This is brilliant' INFINITY PLUS

From Publishers Weekly

Brown's epic (after Criminal Minded) explores New York's ghettoes of the 1980s and '90s, following two characters caught up in the crack epidemic. Brooklynite Jada turns to the drug to numb the pain caused by an abusive stepfather and helpless mother. Her transformation from feisty teenager into crackhead is rapid and explicit, and Brown spares no wretched detail of Jada's descent. Meanwhile, on Staten Island, Born is growing from the impressionable son of a legendary "Original Gangster" into a hardcore hustler in his own right, fueled in part by the hurt over his father's weakness for the rock. When Born and a newly clean Jada cross paths as young adults, their common survivor spirit sparks a fairy tale love, and for a time, they live the blinged-out high life together. But one careless snort of coke at a party sends Jada spiraling again, and Born shuns her. It's not long before strung-out Jada hits bottom. Jada and Born reunite years later after escaping the drug world, but the overlong conclusion devolves into redundancy as the lessons learned pile up. As ugly as their actions can be, Brown's characters are sympathetically drawn, and the Goodfellas-like take on the gangster life is eye-opening. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

Jada left home at the age of sixteen, running from her own demons and the horrors of physical abuse inflicted by her mother's boyfriend. She partied hard, and life seemed good when she was with Born, the neighborhood kingpin whose name was synonymous with money, power, and respect. But all his love couldn't save her from a crack addiction. Jada goes from crack addict and prostitute to survivor and back again before she finds the strength to live for herself and come out on top. And her stormy romance with one of the fiercest hustlers on the streets makes White Lines one of the most unforgettable urban loves stories of the year.

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