The Scarred Heart

A searing portrait of the racial dynamics that lie inescapably at the heart of our nation, told through the turbulent history of the city of St. Louis. From Lewis and Clark's 1804 expedition to the 2014 uprising in Ferguson, American history has been made in St. Louis. And as Walter Johnson shows in this searing book, the city exemplifies how imperialism, racism, and capitalism have persistently entwined to corrupt the nation's past. St. Louis was a staging post for Indian removal and imperial expansion, and its wealth grew on the backs of its poor black residents, from slavery through redlining and urban renewal. But it was once also America's most radical city, home to anti-capitalist immigrants, the Civil War's first general emancipation, and the nation's first general strike—a legacy of resistance that endures. A blistering history of a city's rise and decline, The Broken Heart of America will forever change how we think about the United States.

The children of U.S. small-town Alexandria are just trying to live like normal teens until their parents’ promised return from a mysterious, four-year religious pilgrimage, and Ben Schiller is no exception. She’s just trying to take care of her sister, keep faith that her parents will come back, and get through her teen years as painlessly as possible. But her relationship with her best friend is changing, her younger sister is hiding a dark secret, and a terrible tragedy is coming for them all.

Meg Thurgood, former society girl, took the blame for her friend and paid a steep price. Now all she wants is solitude and a chance to rebuild her life. She thinks she's found that in an isolated house she rents from a mysterious stranger. Simon McAlter has hidden in his house on the coast of Maine since a fire left him scarred. A successful landscape architect who conducts his business and teaches his classes remotely, he's lost his inspiration and is trying to pretend he's not lonely. Simon's new neighbor is more than he bargained for. When he learns Meg's secret, will he retreat into the shadows or will he learn to see past the surface and trust in Meg's love?

Lionel Cantrell left his wife and son in the care of his parents and older brother while he went abroad to fight the French, only to return to a marriage in shambles, a daughter that cannot possibly be his, and his family fled to parts unknown. Until now. At a former comrade’s house party, Lion comes face to face with the object of his five-year search. Emma, whose cold reception is keenly edged with barely concealed panic. After a year of unendurable humiliation and torment, Emma had no choice but to take their son—and her sanity—to build a new life under an assumed name. Her chance meeting with Lion threatens to expose long-buried emotional scars. And physical ones, the origins of which he must never know. Emma’s stubborn refusal to explain why she won’t return home only fuels Lion’s relentless curiosity. So does their undeniable passion. Time is on his side, and his well of patience is deep. But Emma’s trauma runs far deeper…perhaps too deep for love to reach.

She's Shattered... Ashton Granger is a perfect wife to her husband. She has to be, if she's not, he will find a way to correct any perceived imperfections. Such is life, and so it has been for a very long time, eroding Ashton's sense of self, cracking her sense of worth until she lays in a million pieces on the side of a stretch of lonely highway. He's Scarred... Ethan "Trigger man" Howard is the Sergeant of Arms for The Sacred Hearts Motorcycle club. After several tours as a Marine Corps sniper overseas, he's seen and done enough damage for a man three times his age. He's out. Done. So over it, and home to nurse his wounds, physical, emotional and psychological with the help of his MC brothers. Now he simply deals with the scars that life handed him. Was it more than just luck for he and Ashton both that he was the only other soul traveling that isolated stretch of highway that night? **Mature Audiences Only (18+)** **Language, Violence, and Sexual Content including one very hot MFM threesome!**

Healing Scarred Hearts follows the story of Hayden Hoemke, who died at age twenty two due to a serious drug addiction, and his devastated family in the years following his passing. Emotional, raw and gripping, this family memoir serves as a wake-up call to America about the opioid epidemic sweeping the country, and as a symbol of hope to others experiencing loss like this. Finding your light again is possible, no matter how dark the days seem now.