This Dark Road To Mercy – by Wiley Cash (2014)

Some bad decisions are reversible, others are not. Wade is a man who formerly had a good life – a promising career as a baseball player, a wife, and two beautiful daughters, Easter and Ruby. When his marriage and his baseball career ended, he was left with a construction job. He had little contact with his girls, and when their mother died, Wade signed away his parental rights.

Easter and Ruby barely know their father, and are living in a foster home. The woman running the home tries to provide a stable environment for the children under her care, but it’s not like having a real family.

All Right Here – by Carre Armstrong Gardner (2014)

Amy Darling leads a somewhat fulfilled life. She has a close relationship with her parents and siblings, is married to a good man, and enjoys her job at a bookstore. Both she and husband Nick desperately want a baby, and have been on adoption waiting lists for years. It looks like their dream of becoming parents may not happen.

Then comes the day that the three children next door are abandoned by their mother. Amy brings them into her kitchen, feeds them, and calls the authorities. The children have no idea where their mother has gone, and say that this is not the first time she has left them. Nick and Amanda become their foster parents.

As the story goes on, the author takes what seems like a simple storyline, and weaves into a much more complex one.