Jean Thesman

In 1927, the Mississippi River swept across an area roughly equal in size to Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont combined, leaving water as deep as thirty feet on the land stretching from Illinois and Missouri south to the Gulf of Mexico. Close to a million people - in a nation of 120 million - were forced out of their homes. Some estimates place the death toll in the thousands. The Red Cross fed nearly 700,000 refugees for months. Rising Tide is the story of this forgotten event, the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known. But it is not simply a tale of disaster. The flood transformed part of the nation and had a major cultural and political impact on the rest. Rising Tide is an American epic about science, race, honor, politics, and society. Rising Tide begins in the nineteenth century, when the first serious attempts to control the river began. The story focuses on engineers James Eads and Andrew Humphreys, who hated each other. Out of the collision of their personalities and their theories came a compromise river policy that would lead to the disaster of the 1927 flood yet would also allow the cultivation of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta and create wealth and aristocracy, as well as a whole culture. In the end, the flood had indeed changed the face of America, leading to the most comprehensive legislation the government had ever enacted, touching the entire Mississippi valley from Pennsylvania to Montana. In its aftermath was laid the foundation for the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The new boy in town meets the challenges of his neighbor but gets the worst of it until he learns to use the situations to his own advantage.

Growing up in a house full of women, fourteen-year-old Grayling learns to deal with death, love, and the unanswered questions raised by her widowed mother's apparent abandonment.

High school sophomore Bridget Raynes has to decide whether or not to accept her powers of witchcraft, or abandon them and try to fit in as an ordinary teenager.

She was desperate for his help... When a mysterious lady, her face hidden by a black veil, begs Gabriel Cynster for his help, he cannot refuse her plea. For despite her disguise, Gabriel finds the woman alluring and he is powerless to deny her. But he exacts payment as only a Cynster would demand: with each piece of information he uncovers, she must pay him - in the form of a kiss. He was powerless to resist... Lady Alathea Morwellan knows Gabriel is intrigued, but despite the sparks that fly between them, they have never passed a civil moment together. Yet as the stakes get higher, so does Gabriel′s desire for payment. And with each overpowering kiss, each passionate embrace, Alathea knows that she will not be able to resist his ultimate seduction...but what will happen when she reveals the truth?

When Skylar goes to summer school and tentatively begins to make some friends, she finally starts to get over the loss of her older sister and its terrible effects on the whole family.

Twelve-year-old Molly, who lives next door to a Japanese American family and whose cousin is a nurse in the Philippines, experiences many changes in her life when World War II breaks out.

While helping her mother clean out the family home in Puget Sound, fifteen-year-old Jane must deal with her hateful aunt and difficult cousin Ricki, a romance that cannot last, and secrets from her mother's past.

Fifteen-year-old Quinn, the middle child in a Depression-era working class family, learns some secrets about her beloved father, who has always been a source of strength and optimism for his family, friends, and neighbors.

HEATHER... She was a golden-haired beauty who'd never known her parents. Brought up as a foundling with David, the son of a marquis, she learned the manners of a lady. All of which helped her when she was captured one night and sold to a fancy brothel. Captain Nicholas Guyon, David's friend, who had long lusted after Heather, rescued her from that notorious palace of pleasure. He planned to make her his mistress. He had not reckoned on falling in love with her. But Heather had no intention of surrendering to the man who once had almost raped her... A lusty tale of fiery passions and deadly intrigue of men at war and women in love..

While living in a boardinghouse managed by her mother and grandmother in Seattle in 1922, sixteen-year-old Clare decides her future at a time of limited opportunities for women.

Growing up in a house full of women, fourteen-year-old Grayling learns to deal with death, love, and the unanswered questions raised by her widowed mother's apparent abandonment.

When Rachel's illegitimate baby brother is kidnapped by a travelling band of revivalists in 1940, she sets out with her grandfather, a hired hand, and an eccentric neighbor in a desperate attempt to steal him back.

After surviving the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires, two teenage girls, a wealthy semi-invalid and her hired companion, travel together to Ireland and discover they share much in common, from a love of romance novels to grief over the loss of their mothers.

As financial analyst for the Fortune foundation, Nicholas Fortune was used to crunching numbers--not changing diapers. But when he learned he'd just become temporary guardian--to triplets!--the overwhelmed new father needed to find a nanny, pronto.Charlene London was the answer to the Texas bachelor's prayers, even if she couldn't see it. And though it took no time for the three baby girls to steal Charlene's heart, their substitute dad was another story. Because her sexy boss was strictly off-limits, even if her job was just temporary. Unless he made her another offer--one she couldn't refuse....

Shiloh, a fifteen-year-old smart-alecky know-it-all, is taught a few lessons when she befriends manipulative newcomer Lovey Sullivan, who steals her best friend, a prospective boyfriend, and a starring role in a musical festival.

When her father's death results in the loss of her house and garden and a move into a shabby apartment house, twelve-year-old Maryanne adjusts with the help of new friends and a new garden.