For more than 30 years, Edie and Richard Middlestein shared a solid family life together in the suburbs of Chicago. But now things are splintering apart, seemingly for one reason: Edie's enormous girth. When Richard abandons her, it is up to the next generation of Middlesteins to take control. Do Edie's devastating choices rest on her shoulders alone, or are others at fault, too?
At the turn of the 20th century, reclusive orchardist William Talmadge tends to apples and apricots as if they were loved ones. One day, two teenage girls appear and steal his fruit from the market; they later return to see the man who gave them no chase and end up indulging in his deep reservoir of compassion. But just as they begin to trust him, men arrive in the orchard with guns, leading to a shattering tragedy.
Life is good for Maura Corrigan. Married to her college sweetheart, Pete, raising three young kids with her parents nearby in her peaceful Chicago suburb, her world is secure. Then one day, in a single turn of fate, that entire world comes crashing down and everything that she thought she knew changes.
Sonnet Romano is leading a seemingly perfect life until her mother drops the news that she’s expecting and the pregnancy is high risk. Sonnet feels compelled to put everything else on hold and return home to Avalon. Although she plans to pick up her life where she left off once her mother is out of danger, a devastating diagnosis is given, forcing Sonnet to make life-altering decisions.
In this follow-up to ME & EMMA, nine-year-old Carrie Parker and her mother have fled their small North Carolina town for a fresh start, when they meet another mother-daughter pair, Honor and Cricket, with a troubled past of their own. Carrie and Cricket become fast friends, especially when they discover a surprising secret that could change both of their lives forever.
M. L. Stedman’s mesmerizing, beautifully written novel is a sweeping story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another’s tragic loss.
Ruth Saunders headed west with her 70-year-old grandma in tow, hoping to be hired as a television writer. Four years later, she finally hits the jackpot when the sitcom she wrote, “The Next Best Thing,” gets the green light. But her dreams are threatened by demanding actors, number-crunching executives, a crush on her boss, and her grandmother’s impending nuptials.
Gin Mitchell leaves the dusty farmland of 1960s Oklahoma to follow her husband to the oil fields of Saudi Arabia, only to find a world of wealth, glamour, American privilege, and corruption. Award-winning author Kim Barnes weaves a mesmerizing tale of Americans out of their depth in Saudi Arabia, a marriage in peril, and one woman’s quest for the truth, no matter what it might cost her.
In the summer of 1914, the elegant ocean liner carrying Grace Winter and her husband Henry across the Atlantic suffers a mysterious explosion. Setting aside his own safety, Henry secures Grace a place in a lifeboat, which the survivors quickly realize is over capacity. For any to live, some must die.
