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dbf0589
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She shrugged her shoulders, then shifted her attention to the hand-labeled glass jars of honey. "Which one do you want to use?" "Something mild to go with the cheese." "The milkweed blossom?" Isabel nodded. "We're probably the only ones who'll notice." "The different flavors of honey have always been obvious to me," Jamie said. "Not to me. I've had to train my palate. Same with wines. But I'm not a natural, but I love the alchemy of pairing..
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jamie-westfall
minor
palate
pregnant-teenager
sauvignon-blanc
wine-tasting
isabel-johansen
honey
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Susan Wiggs |
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6af15ca
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The undulating terrain was cloaked in lush abundance, the vineyards like garlands of deep green and yellow, orchards and farms sprouting here and there, hillocks of dry golden grass crowned by beautiful sun-gilt houses, barns and silos. And overhead was the bluest sky she'd ever seen, as bright and hard polished as marble. There was something about the landscape that caught at her emotions. It was both lush and intimidating, its beauty so a..
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farm-stands
farms
landscapes
vineyards
produce
tess-delaney
sonoma-county
orchards
nature-s-beauty
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Susan Wiggs |
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499e372
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Here, he felt like a stranger in a strange- and extremely seductive- land. In contrast to the places of his past, Bella Vista seemed weighted by a sense of permanence- the old country house with its courtyard and patios, the rustic stone barn and machine shop, outbuildings and weathered work sheds, the acres of age-gnarled apple trees, now covered in springtime blooms. He wondered what it would be like to watch the seasons change all in one..
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cormac-o-neill
sonoma-county
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Susan Wiggs |
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eb488d4
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I think I loved her from the first moment I saw her. Before that, I loved her, too. Before I even knew she existed outside the realm of my dreams.
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Susan Wiggs |
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ea26ff5
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Lately, she'd been waking up early every day, too excited to sleep. She was working on the biggest project she'd ever dared to undertake- transforming her family home into a destination cooking school. The work was nearing completion, and if everything went according to schedule, she would welcome the first guests of the Bella Vista Cooking School at harvest time. The big rambling mission-style hacienda, with its working apple orchard and k..
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dream
cooking-school
project
isabel-johansen
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Susan Wiggs |
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cf7a1e4
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She kept sneaking looks at him. He had strong, chiseled features, his jaw softened by a day or two's growth of beard. And those shoulders. She'd always been a sucker for a guy's strong shoulders. Big square hands that looked as if they did harder work than writing biographies. No wedding band. At thirty, Isabel couldn't help noticing a detail like that.
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Susan Wiggs |
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813959f
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Life could be very distracting, thought Isabel. And that was a good thing. It kept her from focusing on things that couldn't be changed, such as the fact that she'd never finished culinary school, or that she'd allowed one failed relationship to keep her closed up tight inside a hard, protective shell. Now she had a new project that consumed her every waking moment- the cooking school. It was true that she didn't have the official certifica..
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dream
isabel-johansen
talent
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Susan Wiggs |
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bd129af
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Language, Sweet," said Magnus's mother, arriving with a plate full of homemade biscuits. She didn't scold him too harshly about his talk these days. Magnus suspected this was because Mama shared Uncle Sweet's opinion about the Nazis. Yet despite the shortages and rationing, she had managed to turn out the most delicious biscuits Magnus had ever tasted. They were redolent of butter, which Mrs. Gundersen up the hill traded for apples from the..
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biscuits
rationing
uncle-sweet
magnus-johansen
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Susan Wiggs |
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c636077
|
In contrast, Bella Vista was lush and seductive, the landscape filled with colors from deep-green to submerged-gold. Gardeners, construction workers and farm workers swarmed the property. Isabel Johansen was in charge; that had been clear from the start. Yet when she'd shown him to Erik's room, she'd seemed vulnerable, uncertain. Some might regard the room as a mausoleum, filled with the depressing weight of things left behind by the depart..
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isabel-and-cormac
isabel-johansen
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Susan Wiggs |
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5ad1831
|
Let's grab something for you from the kitchen, and then we'll go find Magnus." The "something" turned out to be a wedge of the most amazing cake he'd ever tasted. It had cream in the middle, a crust of honey and almonds on top. He crammed half a wedge into his mouth and moaned aloud. "Damn, that's good," he said around the mouthful. "Damn." "I already ordered it for my wedding breakfast," said Tess. "It's called Bienenstich- bee sting cake,..
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cake
isabel-and-cormac
tess-delaney
isabel-johansen
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Susan Wiggs |
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f457cf9
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When Tess had told him about the book project, she hadn't mentioned hostile women and swarms of bees. In fact, she'd characterized it as a working vacation of sorts, a way for him to recover from his bum knee by soaking up the charms of Sonoma County. In contrast, Bella Vista was lush and seductive, the landscape filled with colors from deep green to sunburned-gold. Gardeners, construction workers swarmed the property. Isabel Johansen was i..
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isabel-and-cormac
isabel-johansen
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Susan Wiggs |
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bac5c63
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I like the organza tiebacks. They're pretty and ethereal." "Lovely. I think those are the ones." "Me, too. And hey, can we invent a signature cocktail for the wedding, using honey?" "I'm working on one made with honey syrup, apple juice and calvados. Garnished with an apple slice, of course."
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cocktail
tess-and-isabel
wedding-planning
honey
ingredients
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Susan Wiggs |
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2e7c96d
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The garden flourished that summer because Magnus's mother was determined to feed her family despite the depredations of the distant war. In the fall, there were beans and tomatoes and pickles to can, and jar after jar of applesauce. Mama's hives yielded fresh honey, and then willow skeps were winterized. The bees would not come out until the air warmed and the sun appeared.
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bees
canned-goods
produce
harvesting
magnus-johansen
garden
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Susan Wiggs |
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c6878f6
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Maybe that was why the term "old flame" had been invented. Somebody always got burned."
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Susan Wiggs |
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e6230aa
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She realized that no matter how old she got or how far she traveled, she would never stop needing her mom. Now, staring her in the face, was the possibility of a loss so devastating Sonnet didn't see how she could survive it.
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Susan Wiggs |
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23d92da
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Again, he had the urge to touch her. She was just... delicious to him. He couldn't understand it. He'd never felt so drawn to a woman- her scent, her soft curves, the curls of hair framing her face, the fullness of her lips. It was something more than attraction. She moved him- the way she cared so much about her grandfather and Bella Vista, her earnest dedication to her family and friends. Her unbelievable cooking. The tiny pulse beneath t..
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isabel-johansen
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Susan Wiggs |
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d6ac9e6
|
Is there anything I can do?" He gave her a tired grin. "Crawl in bed with me." She glared at him, then got up and tossed him a terry-cloth robe she found hanging on the back of the bathroom door. "Meet me in the kitchen. I'll make you a sandwich." "You don't need to make me a sandwich." "But I'm going to." She left the room before he could protest further. In the kitchen, she layered grilled pancetta, tomato and lettuce on toasted thick sla..
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sandwich-making
isabel-and-cormac
hospitality
ingredients
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Susan Wiggs |
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f29dc3c
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You're good at so many things," Camille said. "I'm a fat loser," Julie stated. "And don't say I'm not fat because I am." Camille felt ill. She'd been blind to what Julie wanted. Was she a terrible mother for being overprotective? Was she letting her own fears smother her daughter? By withholding her permission to take surf rescue, she'd forced Julie to go behind her back."
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Susan Wiggs |
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8eca6b6
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I'm fat, okay? Getting rid of my braces and glasses is not going to change that." "Stop it," Camille said. God, why were teenagers so hard? Had she been that hard? "I won't let you talk about yourself that way."
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Susan Wiggs |
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ecc899f
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As a volunteer for the Military History Center, he visited Arlington whenever he was in town, recovering items that had been left on headstones. With his fellow volunteers, he helped catalog the items for a database so each remembrance, no matter how small, would be preserved.
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Susan Wiggs |
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493dd82
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Of course his name would be Dominic. It meant "gift from God." AKA a life-support system for an ego. Still, that didn't mean he wasn't fun to stare at. Dominic Rossi looked like a dream, the kind of dream no woman in her right mind would want to wake from. She had always been susceptible to male beauty, ever since the age of ten, when her mother had taken her to see Michelangelo's David in Florence. She recalled staring at that huge stone b..
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dominic-rossi
tess-delaney
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Susan Wiggs |
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7d05c80
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a group of villagers in the highlands of Vietnam, he'd discovered the crash site of four U.S. soldiers who had gone missing fifty years before.
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Susan Wiggs |
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a2ae864
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It was a gorgeous evening, with a breeze shimmering through the trees, people strolling hand in hand through the quaint streets and the plaza. The shops, bistros and restaurants were abuzz with patrons. She showed him where the farmer's market took place every Saturday, and pointed out her favorite spots- the town library, a tasting room co-op run by the area vintners, the Brew Ha-Ha and the Rose, a vintage community theater. On a night lik..
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cafes
churros
food-and-wine
isabel-and-cormac
street-music
restaurants
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Susan Wiggs |
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9aec91c
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More than a thousand veterans still remained unaccounted for, and his father, Richard Arthur Finnemore, was one of them.
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Susan Wiggs |
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4b2a437
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There, a simple headstone marked the grave of Eva Saloman Johansen, "beloved wife and grandmother." Tess was intrigued to see a phrase in Hebrew characters. Her paternal grandmother had apparently been Jewish. Beside that was a marker for Erik Karl Johansen, inscribed, 'Measure his life not by its length but by the depths of joy he brought us. He jumped into life and never touched bottom. We will never laugh the same again."
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eva-johansen
inscription
jewish
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Susan Wiggs |
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bc71450
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, "America's greatest contribution to the world is the summer camp." Anyone"
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Susan Wiggs |
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8af7a21
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Returning to the buffet, she helped herself to another piece of focaccia bread, the top glistening with a sheen of olive oil and sprinkled with big crystals of salt, fronds of rosemary and tiny curls of thinly sliced garlic. She tasted the bread and made a sound of pleasure that would have embarrassed her if anyone had heard. "It's even better with this Cabernet." Dominic Rossi stood there with two full glasses of red wine. Tess felt her fa..
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tess-and-dominic
tess-delaney
taste
ingredients
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Susan Wiggs |
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46aea96
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The moments of life are ephemeral and unpredictable. We must capture the best ones and keep them safe in our hearts.
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Susan Wiggs |
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9d431a1
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But life had a way of interfering with one's plans. Things popped up unexpectedly, and suddenly a carefully plotted route had to be recalculated.
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Susan Wiggs |
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3a696a2
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Maybe you're not meant to remember the details. Just the feelings. Just the lessons. Just the love. pp274
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Susan Wiggs |
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d766f98
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He couldn't stop himself from checking her out from behind. He kind of wished she wasn't wearing all that flowy stuff because he suspected there was something much more interesting underneath. Pretty women were one of his several weaknesses. There was something about long hair, shapely legs, tanned skin, smooth and soft... He couldn't remember the last time he'd held a woman, inhaled the scent of her hair, pressed his lips to the pulse in h..
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Susan Wiggs |
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adfa96b
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Grandfather, is it all right if we join you for a bit?" "Of course. Particularly since you've brought sustenance." He eyed the tray of food. It looked like a food magazine layout, featuring a variety of cheeses with fresh berries on brightly painted Italian pottery, and a tiny glass container of honey with the smallest spoon he'd ever seen. Isabel laced a thread of honey across the cheeses. "These are my favorite honey and cheese pairings. ..
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tray-of-food
isabel-johansen
honey
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Susan Wiggs |
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7efb9b3
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Setting out some honey shortbread cookies to go with the lemonade, she flashed on memories of her grandmother, offering refreshments to anyone who was lucky enough to come through the kitchen door. As a working farm, Bella Vista was always busy with workers, some seasonal and others permanent. 'In my kitchen, everyone is family,' Bubbie used to say, beaming as the orchard workers, mechanics or gardeners gladly wolfed down her baked goods.
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bubbie
eva-johansen
refreshments
isabel-johansen
hospitality
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Susan Wiggs |
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3eb4947
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Magnus had caught it gingerly, half expecting it to blow in his face. The Teacher chuckled. "Don't worry, it can't do anything without fire." The thing looked and felt pretty innocuous, actually. It was shorter and fatter than a candlestick, and not colored red like it was in the comic books or the new Technicolor cartoons that still ran at the cinema every Saturday afternoon. Magnus had no money for such things anymore, but sometimes he an..
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dynamite
magnus-johansen
resistance-movement
cinema
theater
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Susan Wiggs |
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e5a9600
|
Opening a book was like opening a door to another world, and once she stepped across the threshold, she was transported. When she was reading a story, she lived inside a different skin. She
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Susan Wiggs |
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550602e
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If I'm all alone, then the standard for sanity is up to me entirely.
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sanity
solitude
morality
society
self-esteem
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Susan Wiggs |
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8865ecf
|
Okay, did you know there's a basketball court on the top floor of the Supreme Court building?" "Nobody knows that," said Fletcher. "I do. Highest court in the land."
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Susan Wiggs |
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28a3df8
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louche, wearing a gauzy neck scarf and
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Susan Wiggs |
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b11a55e
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Even the most egregious captive state, bound and gagged on her damp bunk, felt eerily familiar to her. With nothing to do but lie there and think of things, she reflected that captivity took many different forms. A woman under the domination of her father or husband was as much a prisoner as a hostage on a boat. She had merely traded one form of servitude for another.
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historical-romance
historical-fiction
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Susan Wiggs |
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57455af
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AMERICAN LEGION FUNERAL HOT DISH 1 pound ground beef 1/2 onion, chopped 1 cup frozen sliced carrots 1 cup frozen cauliflower 1 cup frozen chopped broccoli 1 can cream of mushroom soup 1 can cream of chicken soup 3-4 stalks celery, chopped 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon white pepper 1 12-ounce bag chow mein noodles Preheat oven to 325degF. Fry hamburger and onion in large cast-iron pan, breaking hamburger up into small pieces. Drain ..
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Susan Wiggs |
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96746b4
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Gran was gone. She had passed quietly one night in springtime, and Annie's world shifted on its axis. The pain of this grief was like nothing she had ever felt before.
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Susan Wiggs |
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65dd17d
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Although it seemed impossible to find joy in the depths of her grief, Annie sensed that this was what Gran had been trying to tell her all along. She finally understood. This hurt she felt was the price of loving with her whole heart. But having Gran in her life had been worth every moment of pain.
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Susan Wiggs |
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bb5c161
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In time, the grief turned into a dull ache with occasional flares of agony. It was like a fading bruise Annie forgot about until she bumped into a memory. Gran. It was the little moments that pierced most sharply, the remembrance of a smile, a gesture, a soft-voiced phrase.
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Susan Wiggs |
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aa15dbc
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Antonio was fascinated by Isabel's razor-sharp knives from Japan. He made 'kia' sounds like a karate expert as he sliced the tomatoes and added them to the pan. there were some unexpected ingredients, things Tess would never dream of putting in tomato sauce- whole star anise, a vanilla bean split down the middle, a sprinkling of sugar, a sprig of thyme and bay leaves from the herb garden.
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isabel-johansen
tomato-sauce
ingredients
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Susan Wiggs |