Why Is Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains In The 1930s Considered A Must-Read?

"I was naive and grateful. Happy that I had a place I could call home, but I was wrong. He was surrounded by evil and too blind to see it. I had to pay the ultimate price for his blindness..." Willow.*************** Willow Brooks learned a hard lesson that she wasn't meant to recover from. Framed for murder and executed for it. She was given a second chance to rectify her mistakes, save lives and change the outcome of events. The catch was she had only one year to fail or succeed; if she failed, both she and her wolf would be damned forever, never to be reborn. The other problem that loomed in her mind was if she succeeds, will she live beyond the year?

When Luca realized that I hadn't asked for money for five days now, he thought I'd finally stopped being a greedy slumdog and handed me a black card as if giving alms. "I can foot your mother's medical bills, but only as long as you stop trying to siphon money off the family. I'm doing all this because I want you to become an outstanding Donna, y'know." He had no idea that my mother was already dead, or that I'd signed the divorce papers—I certainly didn't need the money now. As I left, I found myself still wearing the soda can pull tab that he gave me on a whim for my wedding ring. I sighed—no one would believe that the noble Donna of the Gambino family needed approval just to get money for socks. All because he believed Lina, his secretary, who told him that I had married him for his money. When my mother's heart started failing five years ago, Lina refused to approve my request to foot the bill and even framed me for lying. Luca had no idea that I was only bearing with this abuse because my mother was being nursed in his private hospital. Now that my mother was gone, I decided to be myself again and leave him forever.

When enemies came seeking revenge, my brother was off with his first love, chasing a golden sunrise over the mountains. I didn't beg him to save us. Instead, I dragged my sister-in-law to safety, dodging killers. In my last life, my brother rushed home, but his first love got caught in an avalanche. Before she passed, she texted him, accusing me and my sister-in-law of humiliating her with money and threatening her to leave him. The fateful trip was her final wish. Her death crushed me with guilt, but my brother dismissed it, holding a perfunctory funeral for her before moving on. I thought he had recommitted to his family, but while my sister-in-law recovered from childbirth, he slipped poison into our meal. "How do I have such a vile sister like you?" he spat. "And you... I only married you for family interests. You two killed the love of my life!" He set the house on fire, burning us alive. Even his newborn son wasn't spared. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on that fateful day.

I endured hundreds of injections just to give Stanley Brighton a child. He was moved to tears and held me, promising that even if we couldn't have children, he would love only me. I diligently followed the doctor's advice and underwent treatment. The day I confirmed my pregnancy, I was so excited that I wanted to rush home and share the good news with Stanley. But what awaited me was unimaginable. Stanley and the female tenant we shared the apartment with were lying naked together in the bathroom, sharing an intimate bath. He was behind her, holding her close, his lips incessantly biting at her earlobes. "I'll give you as many children as you want! Ten, eight—whatever it takes! Just divorce her!" "Alright, just give me some time. I'll divorce her for sure!" Hearing their whispered entanglement, I turned away, stepping into the rain, determined to leave. I would disappear to a place where Stanley could never find me, not in this lifetime.

For seven years, my CEO girlfriend never once came home with me to see my parents. She told me that she hated social obligations, and that she didn't want to deal with the gossip and hassle that came with meeting my parents and relatives. Even in daily life, she treated me with cold professionalism, never spending any anniversaries with me in favor of working overtime. I'd always thought that it was just a simple matter of her being too rational and prideful, and I was fine with slowly teaching her how to nurture a relationship. That was, until Thanksgiving arrived. Once again, she stressed that holidays were just a capitalistic norm, and that she was going to work overtime instead of coming home with me. By chance, however, I accidentally stumbled upon my intern's social media. Inside a private room at a five-star hotel, he and his family sat at a table as my girlfriend sat beside him, carefully serving him food. [Yo, my boss secretly brought my parents into the city for Thanksgiving, and even gave me gifts! She told me that I was worth special gestures, too. Where can you even find a boss this romantic? My parents even told me to marry her as soon as I could! LOL!] So she knew better than anyone how to make people feel cherished. I just wasn't worth any of it. I commented: [How romantic.] Then, I messaged my girlfriend. [Let's break up.]

BLURB: Four years ago, Belle Moreno shattered Cassian Thornwell’s heart with a brutal lie, and disappeared without a trace. He was her best friend, her first love, the heir to a billion-dollar empire. She was the housekeeper’s daughter, never good enough in his mother’s eyes. So, she walked away. Now, fate brings them back together once more—older, colder, and harboring scars the other can’t see. Cassian needs a wife. A contract marriage to save his empire’s image. And when he sees Belle again, he offers a deal—one year as his wife. Should she say no? Should she run? But her secrets are catching up and her heart never learned how to stop loving him. Living under the same roof, sparks fly, wounds reopens, and the truth threatens to explode. Because he doesn’t know she’s hiding more than the past… He doesn’t know she’s hiding his son.