While most Americans know of the atrocities of World War II through films such as Holocaust, Sophie's Choice, and Schindler's List, Janina Stankiewicz Chung simply knows. Her family endured life under Communist oppression in Russia, forced relocation to Hitler's hellish concentration camps, and the sorrow of losing their homeland.

And that's just part of her story.

In 2001, while researching the online archives of her hometown newspaper for a client, freelance writer Rita Schiano made a keying error—a simple mistake that led her to a path she'd been avoiding most of her life; on a journey inside the world of her father, killed gangland-style more than two decades ago.

Schiano turned that difficult journey into an engrossing novel. Painting The Invisible Man is a poignant, often hilarious coming of age story that explores the complex dynamics of growing up in an Italian family on the fringe of the Mafia.

Sweet Bitter Love explores that fine line between compassion and codependence.

From the moment writer Jenny Ceretti spots Susan Fredrickson at the Village Coffeehouse, her serene life begins to change. As their friendship explodes into a tempestuous love affair, Jenny discovers that all is not as it appears.