miami (fla.)

Sergeant Vince Paulo held his best friend's daughter, McKenna, bleeding in his arms as she uttered the name of her murderer and ex-boyfriend, Jamal. That was minutes before a blast made everything go black for vince--forever. Now Miami criminal defense lawyer Jack Swyteck has been called in to save Jamal from the death penalty.

Gabriela De la Paz, the teenage daughter in a family of Columbian immigrants to Florida in the 1970s, grows in confidence as she helps her parents and brothers deal with the complexities of their new country.

Painfully shy high school senior Teresa Adams gets a chance to work at The SLAM, Miami's hottest FM radio station, and to the surprise of everyone blossoms into confident, sexy Sweet T behind the microphone, but her secret identity is put at risk when the station announces a songwriting contest--and a prom date with Sweet T as the prize.

A collection of columns originally published in the Miami Herald.

Two Cuban sisters--one a master electrician in Havana, the other a successful cosmetics saleswoman in Miami--are reunited after a thirty-year separation and learn the truth behind their mother's tragic death at the hands of their father years earlier.