Emilie Richards

Wedding Ring
(A book in the Shenandoah Album series)
(2004)
A novel by


Emilie Richards



Three generations of women discover the healing gift of family, memories and love.

Tessa MacCrae feels as if she's facing a prison sentence when she reluctantly agrees to spend the summer helping her mother and grandmother clean out and repair the old family home in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. She is prepared for inevitable anger and tension -- the only emotional bonds they've ever shared. The three women have never been close, but Tessa hopes that time away from her husband -- no matter how trying -- will help her find the answers she desperately seeks and come to a decision about her failing marriage.

At first the summer is filled with all-too-familiar emotional storms. Helen, the family matriarch, is domineering, sharp-tongued and incapable of sharing feelings -- except negative ones. Widowed at a young age, she has struggled her whole fife, hanging on to the family farm by sacrificing everything, particularly love. Fiercely independent, Helen resents her daughter and granddaughter's intrusion, too angry to admit that she needs their help.

Nancy, Tessa's mother, appears to be little more than a hand-wringing social climber, who spends her days entertaining and courting Richmond's wealthy elite. What Tessa can't see is the woman so ashamed of her roots and desperate for acceptance that she would do anything to be loved, or the anxious wife trying to hold on to a marriage on which she has never had a firm grasp.

But with the passing weeks, each of their fives begins to change. Here in her grandmother's house, Tessa comes face-to-face with the family and the history that has shaped her. As Tessa restores a tattered wedding-ring quilt pieced by her grandmother and quilted by her mother years ago, the secrets that have shadowed their lives unfold in a drama of discovery, hope and healing. For the first time, Tessa can look past the years of resentment and regret and see her mother and grandmother for the flawed but courageous women they are.

Through, days of hard work, simple living and the determination to repair the torn fabric of their own lives, Tessa, Nancy and Helen will discover that what was lost can be found again -- if they look deeply into their hearts.

Endless Chain
(A book in the Shenandoah Album series)
(2005)
A novel by


Emilie Richards



It's not easy to hope for the future when you're still running from the past.

Sam Kinkade is finally feeling at home as a minister in rural Toms Brook, Virginia, reasonably ******* with his life and Shenandoah Valley congregation. But his plans to welcome the area's growing Hispanic community to the church are suddenly met with resistance. Fortunately, when La Casa Amarilla, the church-run community center, is threatened, a stranger named Elisa Martinez walks through his door and Sam realizes he has found a woman capable of building bridges.

Elisa is an enigma. Although she slowly becomes involved in the community center, Sam is certain from her guarded manner that she is hiding something. Yet despite their growing friendship Elisa won't discuss her past. Sam is intrigued with that Latina stranger, a woman who, despite the differences in their backgrounds, makes him only too aware of the intimacy missing in his life.

Elisa isn't looking to make friends, let alone put down roots. She has come to hide. But despite her fears of discovery she is enchanted by the beautiful work of and the friendship offered by the church women who invite her to join their quilting circle. And even though she fears the consequences for both of them, she finds herself powerfully drawn to Sam.

As she waits and prays for a reunion that may set her free, Elisa is captivated by a generations-old love story. Will she and Sam repeat the past, or can they find the love and the freedom they seek at last?

With the warmth and comfort of a hand-made quilt,Endless Chain -- and exploration of the intricate patterns of family and community, and the threads that bind them together - - will envelop and welcome readers into the richness of life in the Shenandoah Valley.

Lover's Knot
(A book in the Shenandoah Album series)
(2006)
A novel by


Emilie Richards



In a cave in the Shenandoah National Park, two bodies are discovered, wrapped in the tattered remains of a lover's knot quilt.

In Washington, D.C., Isaac Taylor inherits a nearly identical quilt from a grandmother whose name he never even knew.

After narrowly escaping death, newspaper journalist Kendra Taylor retreats to a cabin nestled in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley to heal and sort out her feelings about her troubled marriage. The land was bequeathed to her husband by a maternal grandmother he never knew, and the cabin has been abandoned for years.

As she is welcomed into the rural community of Toms Brook, Kendra becomes curious about an heirloom lover's knot quilt, which is another piece of Isaac's unexplored past. The unusual quilt clearly has a story to tell, and Kendra is convinced that helping her husband connect with his roots might help him reconnect with her, as well.

At first Isaac's reluctant visits to the cabin only underscore the difficulties in their marriage. But as circumstances force them to piece together a new relationship, Isaac discovers that the history of a family he's never known might hold the key to his future.

As a passionate story of strength, loss and desperation unfolds, the secrets of two quilts are revealed and the threads of an unraveling marriage are secured. In the rich, evocative prose that earned high praise for Wedding Ring and Endless Chain, Emilie Richards crafts the third tale in the Shenandoah Album series, resonant with the power of love and family ties.

Touching Stars
(A book in the Shenandoah Album series)
(2007)
A novel by


Emilie Richards



Gayle Fortman has built a good life for herself and her three sons in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Divorced from charismatic broadcast journalist Eric Fortman, Gayle has made a success of Daughter of the Stars, a popular bed- and-breakfast. She has even maintained a cordial relationship with Eric, covering with the boys for his absences and broken promises. Family was never a priority for her ex-husband, even when they were still married. Luckily Travis Allen, her closest surrogate father to the boys and her own neighbor, has been a loving best friend.

Then, on the eve of oldest son Jared's graduation, Eric returns, but not for the celebration. He nearly lost his life in Afghanistan. Worse, he has lost his way and his courage, and needs a place to recover. Gayle realizes this might be the last chance for her sons to establish a real bond with their father, and offers him a summer at the inn and a chance to put things right. Gayle and Eric are all too aware that the love and attraction they once shared are still there. But can the pieces of their broken lives be mended, or are they better laid to rest?