Dare to Dream by Amanda LaPera is the first book in the Desert of Dreams series. In it, Kiara ends up in the ironically named desert environment of Lake Los Angeles after her parents’ divorce. Her mother calls it affordable housing, but to Kiara, it’s...

Losing Dad, Paranoid Schizophrenia: A Family’s Search for Hope is written by Amanda LaPera. LaPera’s father was diagnosed with cancer. After going through the surgery, he left his family in search of a more divine purpose. He sends postcards from some of the places he...

Finding Dad, Paranoid Schizophrenia: An End to the Search by Amanda LaPera is a deeply personal memoir of her ten-year journey to reconnect with her father, Joseph, who has lived on the streets with untreated severe mental illness since his diagnosis at age fifty-three. Following...

Reach for Hope by Amanda LaPera is the second book in her coming-of-age Desert of Dreams series. Carolyn was formerly an “army brat” with both parents in the military, but with them retired, life was finally settling down. In the summer of 1985, home life...

Sway with the Wind by Amanda LaPera is the story of eleven-year-old Anne Dougherty, who is sent off to live on a ranch in the desert with her grandfather, after her parents died in a terrible accident. The land is large, empty, and harsh, and...

Embrace the Truth is the third book in the Desert of Dreams Series by Amanda LaPera; the story of Misty and her coming-of-age in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Antelope Valley, California. She grew up in a household with a father with a...