Wildflower Series

"There are two things I am afraid of. One is dying young. The other is Johnny Monroe." Small southern towns have few secrets. But when a grieving daughter confronts the local bully, she unwittingly triggers a series of traumatic events that will change her life forever. Appalachia, 1941. Thirteen-year-old Louisa May "Wildflower" McAllister's heart still aches for her father. A year after her dad's tragic sawmill accident, she relies on her strength of spirit and her heightened intuition to deal with a critical mother and cope with the aftermath. Despite these hardships, Wildflower has a resilience that is forged with humor, a love of the land, and an endless supply of questions. But when she's targeted by the town's teenage bad boy, she may need more than her "secret sense" to survive. Will Wildflower fall to another tragedy or will her strength be enough to carry her through? With prose as lush and colorful as the American south, The Secret Sense of Wildflower is powerful and poignant, brimming with energy and angst, humor and hope.                                   *   *   * Named a Best Book of 2012 by Kirkus Reviews: "A quietly powerful story, at times harrowing but ultimately a joy to read." "This was chosen by our book club as our book for the month. I am so happy it was! It was the best book of the year." – Cecilia C. "I've never read a story as dramatically understated that sings so powerfully and honestly about the sense of life that stands in tribute to bravery as Susan Gabriel's The Secret Sense of Wildflower." – T.T. Thomas

A mother's secrets, a daughter's dream, and a family's loyalty are masterfully interwoven in this much anticipated sequel to Amazon #1 bestseller The Secret Sense of Wildflower.   "Wildflower" McAllister's daughter, Lily, now 14, struggles with her mother's reluctance to tell her who her father is. When a stranger appears on the family doorstep, drunk and evoking ghosts from the past, it threatens to break the close-knit McAllister family apart.   Meanwhile, Wildflower has a deep secret of her own. When Lily discovers it by accident, it changes everything she thought she knew about her mother. The events that follow silence the singing she dreamed of sharing with the world.    With her signature metaphors, Gabriel weaves a compelling tale that captures the resilience and strength of both mother and daughter, as secrets revealed test their strong bond and ultimately change their lives forever.   Set in 1956 southern Appalachia, Lily's Song stands on its own, and readers who are new to Gabriel will be drawn into the world she so skillfully depicts. As a sequel, it will captivate fans of The Secret Sense of Wildflower (a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2012), who have eagerly awaited more.

She must return to the place that twice brought her shame. She'll have one final chance to save someone else. Tennessee, 1982. Wildflower McAllister thought she'd put the past behind her. But when she learns her mother is dying, she digs deep and returns to the small mountain town that stole her innocence and cast her out. And she has no choice but to pull her thirteen-year-old granddaughter Daisy right back into the ghosts of her painful history. As her mother passes, Wildflower's grief turns to despair when Daisy's fortune is read, predicting a dark future and the return of sinister threats. With her granddaughter keeping a terrible secret, Wildflower's distress forces her to call upon the community that rejected her to prevent another tragedy from playing out in front of her eyes. Can Wildflower stop a harrowing legacy from spreading to another generation? Daisy's Fortune is the emotional conclusion to the Wildflower Trilogy. If you like strong women, generational tales, and the power of family and the land to heal, then you'll adore Susan Gabriel's compelling finale.