Frank Carlson Library

It is 1844 and Lacey Bishop's life is a tangled mess. Estranged from her own family, at age 16 she went to work for a preacher and his wife. When his wife died, the preacher convinced Lacey that the only decent thing to do was to marry him. That way she could continue to act as mother to the little girl who was left on his doorstop. But Lacey never expected he would decide to take them all off to a Shaker village.

While getting some much needed rest and assisting with some herbal workshops, China Bayles stumbles over old secrets in a Kentucky Shaker village after a shocking death occurs during her stay.

Jessamine Brady loves her Shaker sisters and brothers, but can't stop imagining life and love in the outside world.

Gabrielle Hope has a special gift of "knowing" the future. When she and her mother join the Pleasant Hill Shaker community in 1807, the members embrace her ability, although it sometimes frightens quiet Gabrielle. But when one vision comes true, a chain of events and an unlikely love challenge her loyalty to this chaste community.

"1790s, Maine. In the depths of winter Hortense, a midwife, disappears after attending a birth in the woodlands. During the search Will Rees finds her struggling through the snow and woods without shoes or a coat. Hortense claims to have been kidnapped, but Rees and his wife Lydia are suspicious. After two young men begin stalking the community in search of her - including targeting Rees's own family - it is agreed her presence is endangering everyone's...

An expectant young woman turned away by her family at Christmas is taken in by the Shakers at Harmony Hill.

To a thirteen-year-old Vermont farm boy whose father slaughters pigs for a living, maturity comes early as he learns "doing what's got to be done," especially regarding his pet pig who cannot produce a litter.

Photographs of Shaker objects such as tools and pies illustrate the numbers from one to thirteen.