Hearthland Volume V — Chautona Havig

HearthLand is a serial novel released in episodes. Volume Five is a compilation of Episodes 25-30 Taking a step back in time-deliberately. After a trip to Walden Farm and an afternoon talking to Chad and Willow Tesdall, Ralph Myner caught a vision for what life could be like. Against the advice of his nephew, Ralph sinks his entire retirement account into an incredibly risky venture. Harlan Walker thinks his uncle has gone crazy. With the project in motion, all he can do is try to find people to invest their time, money, and even their lives into Ralph's project before the man ends up broke and without means to survive. People come from all walks of life as they embrace a new world-the world of HearthLand. In Volume 5, Annie's gone and everyone from Rory to Ralph is feeling the loss. The fallout from the Paisley Duncan show turns surprising, and Ralph can't keep up with all the food processing waiting for him. Why did The Agency have to take her before it was done? Susannah decides to move in with Delores to help guard against temptation she seems unable to resist, and a new family moves into the Community Center, while Ralph wrestles with the decision to hand Annie over to strangers for her "safety." What was he thinking? And Kim finds work more threatening than rewarding these days. Justin wrestles with the fear of giving into temptation in the wake of others' moral failures, and it puts a definite strain on his relationship with Kim. But when Stefan arrives from Romania, everything at HearthLand changes. Romance blossoms in marriages and out of them. Friendships forge and teeter on the brink of disruption. But everything seems wonderful when all of HearthLand's residents come together for the grand opening of Market Square. Until a couple of boys decide to go at it, that is. Note: For more about Annie, see "A Forgotten Truth"