John’s Pond

Donna Lynch has been immersed in writing since she was a teenager. The author of No Regrets/The Forgiving Heart of Allyson Porteus, Donna lives on Cape Cod with her husband, Bob. She has two grown children.

Like many other contemporary Cape Cod communities, Mashpee is a place divided among lines-affluence, race, heritage, and history. It will take nothing less than the selfless actions of a few pioneers to change the unchangeable.Tobin Horvath knows the pain of life in such a divided community. Two centuries earlier, his people's land was swindled away by European settlers. Now, he and the other members of the Wampanoag nation work to win their land back, but it's an uphill fight. Tensions are at the boiling point between the whites and the indigenous peoples, and no matter how much his Caucasian girlfriend, Laurie Matthews, tries to reassure him, he knows there is trouble on the horizon. Aware of her own family's prejudice, Laurie must conceal their love.Tobin and Laurie escape to Big Medicine Wheel, Wyoming, where she truly comes to understand Tobin's peaceful relationship with the beauty and serenity of nature. But that sense of serenity is shattered when they return-and Laurie finds herself the target of hatefulness. Tobin sees the unhappiness and conflict in Laurie's eyes, so he makes a decision to save them both.Despite Tobin's effort though, it only makes matters worse. Then when Laurie learns of her mother's dark secret, her life continues to spiral downward-and tragedy awaits.