Böcker av Sydell Lowell Voeller

Sixteen-year-old Deanna Lambert is miserable. She can't find her niche with the popular kids at school and she believes she is ugly. Then, too, after her mother deserted the family to pursue an acting career, Deanna's father has grown distant and embittered. Now Deanna is saddled with most of the chores at home--and she and her dad barely communicate. Yet Deanna's one happy escape is her volunteer work at the nearby children's hospital. There the activities director convinces her to get back into her ventriloquism, a creative skill her grandfather had taught her years earlier. Deanna and her puppet, Ramblin' Rosie, entertain and delight the young hospital patients, but Deanna is worried. What if the kids at school discover what she's doing? Will they think she's just "a baby" who still plays with dolls? Deanna takes the risk, but one problem soon leads to another. Can she ever gain acceptance at school, especially from Jason, a guy she has a major crush on? And most of all, can Deanna come to terms with her ventriloquism, and in so doing, come to terms with her mother's leaving?

Jessica Williams is bored living in her small town in Oregon, and the kids at school seem equally boring. Life is indeed dull for Jessica until Cam Easton moves into her neighborhood and teaches her how to skate. Soon she discovers she is falling in love with him, but she runs into a major obstacle. Most of the people in town despise skateboarders, including her father who is running for mayor. Worse, Jessica's involvement with the skaters suddenly poases a threat to his campaign. Can the skaters prove themselves worthy of the community's support? And most of all, can Jessica and Cam resolve their differences and find the true meaning of love?

Ivan was a class act! Marcie had felt it from the very first moment they'd met. But they were worlds apart. She was a local high school student leading a humdrum life. He was a dashing aerialist traveling with his circus family. Soon he would move on to the next town. Was it only a fly-by-night romance? She had to know. Her heart was teetering on a high wire. Where was her safety net? Had he fallen for her, or would he remain forever out of reach?

April Heatherton, history teacher and volunteer firefighter, is determined to protect the land she holds dear, especially the grave of an unknown pioneer woman who once trekked the Oregon Trail. Proposed logging operations are encroaching, and April soon finds herself organizing a local task force to try to stop them. Yet when April meets handsome Matt Spencer, son of the owner of Johnson Brothers Logging Company, she must reckon with her escalating attraction to him. Matt, one of a growing breed of displaced loggers, is also determined to fight for his beliefs--the right to make an honest living harvesting the timber. Can April and Matt overcome their differences? Or will their convictions forever keep them apart?

Publisher's note: WALTZ WITH THE STARS has been previously published in earlier editions as STAR LIGHT STAR BRIGHT. When Chyenna Dupres and her young daughter move from Portland, Oregon, to the small town of Prairie Valley, Chyenna leases a historic inn there. She plans to turn the inn into an upscale eatery, despite strong resistance from some of the locals. Her most vocal objector is cattle rancher Blair Westerman, who has relocated from L. A. to protect his own daugher from the "evils" of city life. Moreover, he is determined to guard Prairie Valley from outside influences, especially tourists who might decide to stay. From the moment they first meet, Chyenna and Blair can't seem to leave each other alone. They get under each other's skin and race through each other's thoughts. Their push-pull feelings for each other keep tensions high--especially when their match-making daughters become friends and decide to run away together. Cheyenna and Blair may have acted like children at times, but now it's time to come together for the good of their children and realize just how far apart they've let their differences push them.

One year after Joanna Sullivan's husband, Kyle, died while fighting a house fire, Joanna makes a desperate attempt to start over. She moves to a new town, embarks on a new career at a local aquarium on the Oregon coast and attempts to refurbish a run-down duplex. Then Austin, her husband's brother, visits unexpectedly. He offers to stay and help her with the much needed repairs. Joanna soon discovers, however, that Austin's presence is proving more disturbing than helpful. His resemblance to Kyle is uncanny, thwarting her resolve to put her husband's memory to rest. Worse, she is strongly attracted to Austin, a veterinarian. He shares her love of nature, and the two find common ground as they work together to help clean up the beaches and save the native birds and wildlife from the encroachment of civilization.Can Joanna let go of her grief and love Austin in his own right? Or will he always remain the ghost of her ex-husband?

Psychology professor Vanessa Paris receives word that her father has disappeared from his fishing boat in Puget Sound near the San Juan Islands. She rushes to her childhood home at Kaloch Bay Lodge to try to help find him. Little does she realize that romance and intrigue are waiting around the corner.

Sarah Pendleton, a grade school teacher in Portland, Oregon returns to her small hometown in the country and is forced to face the conflicted feelings from her past. When growing up in Mistletoe Valley, raised by her grandparents, Sarah resented being the "perfect preacher's kid" and living up to the townpeople's expectations of her. During high school, she fell for a stereotypical "bad boy" and when she learned she was pregnant, he left her. Sarah gave up the baby for adoption, but ever since she has been steeped in guilt. Now ten years later, she inherits her grandparents' estate. She must make the bittersweet choice whether to sell the property and return to Portland or stay in Mistletoe Valley. Meanwhile, she meets a handsome real estate agent, Rich Stevens, who is also the youth pastor of the church where her grandfather once served. Her attraction to him is powerful, but she is faced with escalating conflict: He is a grieving widower who still loves his late wife, and his young daughter is grieving too. Further, Rich's daughter reminds her of the baby she gave up. And if she were to commit to a future with Rich, a man of the collar, would she be right back to struggling in vain to live up to others' expectations? Can she and Rich overcome their personal demons and start a new life together?