As The Avenger searches for the teenage boys who trashed a house in his neighborhood; Buddy, one of the trashers, increases his drinking in order to cope with his parents' separation and his obsession with the daughter of the owner of the vandalized house.

While eighteen-year-old Janie ponders her future with Cabe, knowing that her being a dream-catcher means eventual blindness and crippling, she encounters her past as the father she never knew is hospitalized with brain trauma and seems to need her help.

Sixteen-year-old Claire is unable to face her fears about a recurrence of her leukemia, her eating disorder, her need to fit in with the popular crowd on Hackett Island, and her mother's alcoholism until the enigmatic Lani Garver helps her get control of her life at the risk of his own. The close-knit residents of Hackett Island have never seen anyone quite like Lani Garver. Everything about this new kid is a mystery: Where does Lani come from? How...

After a Winter Ball that was a mix of fun and worry, seventeen-year-old DJ sets aside her hope for a quiet Christmas and joins Taylor in Las Vegas, although she fears she will do nothing but try to keep her roommate out of trouble.

Sixteen-year-old Jenna gets a job driving the elderly owner of a chain of successful shoe stores from Chicago to Texas to confront the son who is trying to force her to retire, and along the way Jenna hones her talents as a saleswoman and finds the strength to face her alcoholic father. Jenna Boller is the confident, smart, & moral heroine of this novel that deals with the effects of alcoholism on a family & a girl's growing friendship with a wealthy,...