Lahore, Pakistan. Then. Misbah is a dreamer and storyteller, newly married to Toufiq in an arranged match. After their young life is shaken by tragedy, they come to the United States and open the Clouds' Rest Inn Motel, hoping for a new start. Juniper, California. Now. Salahudin and Noor are more than best friends; they are family. Growing up as outcasts in the small desert town of Juniper, California, they understand each other the way no one else...

Travis decides to get away from his abusive, alcoholic father and go live with his grandparents in Maine, but to do that he has to go on a cross-country journey where he learns survival skills and valuable lessons about human nature.

A group of teens in a Seattle-area rehabilitation center form an unlikely friendship as they begin to focus less on their own problems with drugs and alcohol by reaching out to help a new member, who seems to have even deeper issues to resolve.

Told in two voices, Veronica and Sawyer become partners for their senior project and soon they are helping each other battle the ghosts that haunt them--her illness causing blinding migraines and his adrenaline addiction.

Josie Little and her girlfriend Annette Anderson have traveled halfway across the country to attend Brookwood Academy, a prestigious boarding school in Connecticut, and get away from Annette's abusive mother, but as soon as they get there things begin tounravel--the undercurrents in the school are poisonous, Annette seems more interested in drinking with the in-crowd, and a boy declares that he is in love with her.

Sharkita “Kita” Hayes is always waiting. Waiting for her mama to mess up. Waiting for social services to be called again. Waiting for her and her siblings to be separated. Waiting for her worst fear to come true. But Mama promises things are different now. She's got a good job, she's stopped drinking, stopped going out every night-it's almost enough to make Kita believe her this time. But even as Kita's life is going good, she can't shake the...