Toni Andrews

Heather Barlow has always been idealistic, and now that she has finished high school, she's ready to make a difference in the world. After graduation, she joins a mission group on a hospital mercy ship sailing to Africa. However, Heather is unprepared to face the disease, famine, and misery she encounters. Ian McCollum is also among the medical staff in Uganda. Ian has left his native Scotland to help those threatened by a world of seeming indifference. When Heather meets Ian her heart races and she feels happy to be alive. But as the weeks pass, Heather finds her idealism vanishing; the refugee camps and orphanages are overcrowded, and misery is everywhere. Only Ian can see beyond the horror and help Heather understand that the world can be changed if people try to help those in need one by one.

I've never been certain I'm human

Oh, the X–rays and blood tests are normal, and most people have no reason to suspect I'm more than I appear to be. But if I tell you to do something? You do it no ifs, ands or buts.

I call my power the 'press.'

My name is Mercy Hollings, and if you think that having the power to control people makes my life easy, you're dead wrong.

Because when I get angry, everyone around me is at risk Sukey, my friend who has frightening taste in men; my clients, who, ironically, come to me for help; my neighbours, who regard me as a loner; and Sam, a man who wants to know my darkest secret.

I have hurt people in the past, and I don't want that to happen again. But now a powerful stranger is threatening the new life that I've made for myself.

And I'm afraid my anger is taking over.

I just want a normal life even if I'm not entirely sure I'm human.

My name is Mercy Hollings and I'm a successful hypnotherapist in Balboa, California. The problem is, my good fortune is dependent on a dark secret. I can make people do whatever I want using telepathy, a power I call "the press." And that ability has hurt some people I never wanted to hurt, so I try to keep it under wraps.

I also try to keep people at a distance at least, I used to. Recently a group of fearless characters broke through my self–imposed walls and became my friends: Sukey, my receptionist–turned–P.I.; Tino, a Chicano gang leader; Hilda, a wealthy society widow; Grant, a retired millionaire and Sam, my sexy–as–hell ex–boyfriend.

But with friends comes drama. Tino has inadvertently led me in