But that's not the half of it. After I interviewed for the job, my brother drove me home and I saw a black car following us. Then on my first day, this stranger came to the door and said he was from the gas company and had to get in for an emergency. I asked to see his ID and instead of showing me, he just left.

I could never have predicted what would happen next.......

For the first time in her eleven years, Mandy is alone. Through a series of miscommunications, her entire family has left her by herself in their big house on Lake Michigan. But it's the absence of her twin sister, Angel, that she feels the most. One year ago Angel died, and Mandy's life has been at a standstill ever since. While the rest of her family has moved on, Mandy still clings to the pain of her loss.

At first, Mandy is almost relieved to have the time to herself. But quickly the loneliness consumes her -- until she stumbles upon two boys, one her age, the other not yet two, who are also on their own. Running away from men who wish to do them harm, the boys turn to Mandy for help. But what can she do for these boys when she can barely take care of herself? If only Angel were here, she would know what to do.

But Angel isn't here, and Mandy can't let the men hurt these boys. So she takes them in, and in turn, makes a remarkable discovery about herself, her sister, and the very special bond they shared.

...

Kaci enjoys reading mysteries and adventure stories as long as there are other family members around and especially when she has a big bowl of popcorn nearby. Sometimes, though, she longs for a little excitement and wonders what it would be like to have a real adventure.

Kaci is feeling this way at the time her family moves to a house in a new development that is supposed to be safer than their old neighborhood. She likes everything about the new place except the nosy neighbor next door, Mrs. Banducci. She's a pain, always asking too many questions. She's around the morning Kaci comes home from school to get special medicine for her allergy attack, and her questions are about the deliveries made that morning to Kaci's house. What were they? Kaci doesn't know. She also doesn't know, when she gets to her front door, why it is open. No one is supposed to be home.

Although she doesn't realize it right then, this is the start of Kaci's big adventure. The new development, it turns out, is not so safe after all. A neighborhood where Mrs. Banducci is probably the only person home all day is ideal for thieves who want to break in and steal -- thieves who don't care what they do to you when they find you in a house where they don't expect you to be. Kaci's adventure is one that can even make her value Mrs. Banducci.

Once again Willo Davis Roberts has created an adventure story that leaves you breathless, yet makes you feel it could happen down the street, next door, or even to you....

"I always thought I'd be ready for an adventure, if one ever came along. I didn't know how stupid that was until it happened."...

Fourteen-year-old Nikki Simons has lost her mother to cancer. Her older sister, Bonnie, will soon be off on an exciting trip before heading to college, leaving Nikki to cope with things at home, including her little brother, Sam.

Nikki still grieves for her mother, knows she will desperately miss Bonnie, and feels inadequate to fill in for them at home. And then their father makes a shattering announcement: He is going to marry Crystal, a woman he met through work who is only slightly older than his daughters.

Not long after the peculiar wedding (none of Crystal's family or friends attended), Nikki learns that in place of a European trip the family had planned before her mother's death, they will be spending part of the summer in the village of Trinidad, in northern California, where Crystal has inherited a house on the beach.

Nikki decides that going to the beach is preferable to having no vacation at all. But soon she's troubled by more than just Dad's hasty marriage to a woman who doesn't make much of an attempt to relate to his children. Other things about Nikki's new stepmother remain unexplained: Why is she reluctant to return to the house where she spent some time as a child? And after Dad is called back to Seattle on an emergency, what awful secret causes Crystal to have nightmares that waken Nikki out of a sound sleep? How is Nikki, by herself, expected to cope with things that baffle and frighten her?

Then Nikki meets Julian Gyasi, an intriguing boy known as Spook who lives in a house on the cliff nearby. Why are there mysterious lights in the tower windows over there, and who is the man who frightens Nikki by watching her from the top of the cliff? As the days pass, Crystal's behavior becomes even stranger and Dad is still not there to help Nikki deal with either her stepmother or the increasingly mysterious situation at the Gyasi house....

Stepmothers aren't always evil...

Sometimes they are just odd and secretive. Only eight months after her mother's death, Nikki's father announces he's getting remarried. Her name is Crystal, and she's barely older than Nikki and Nikki's older sister, Bonnie. Though Bonnie and Nikki's younger brother, Sam, agree with Nikki that Crystal isn't your typical stepmother, they don't see anything that particular in her behavior. She's just shy.

But Nikki doesn't believe it. Crystal is hidding something. Why else would she cry out in the night or refuse to be seen in public without glasses and a scarf around her head? Most importantly, why would she forbid Nikki to work for the old man who lives in the next house over? As Nikki explores these questions and more, she quickly discovers that beneath the surface things aren't always what they seem....