Best of
Womens

2018

The Allotment Girls


Kate Thompson - 2018
    Annie, Rose, Pearl and Millie carry on making matches for the British Army, with bombs raining down around them.Inspired by the Dig for Victory campaign, Annie persuades the owners to start Bryant & May allotment in the factory grounds. With plenty of sweat and toil, the girls eventually carve out a corner of the yard into a green plot full of life and colour. In the darkest of times, the girls find their allotment a tranquil, happy escape. Using pierced dustbin lids to sieve through the shrapnel and debris, they bring about a powerful change, not just in the factory, but their own lives. As the war rages on, the garden becomes a place of community, friendship – and deceit. As the garden thrives and grows, so do the girls' secrets . . . The Allotment Girls is an inspiring and heartwarming novel of wartime hardship, friendship and fortitude from Kate Thompson, author of the Secrets of the Sewing Bee.

What Becomes of the Broken Hearted


Lisa Hobman - 2018
    Perfect for fans of Lucy Diamond, Heidi Swain, Laura Kemp and Holly Martin. Cassie Montgomery can remember a time where her life seemed pretty perfect. By day she was setting up her own little business in her sleek penthouse apartment, and by night sleeping on gazillion-count Egyptian cotton sheets next to her fiancée, once reputed to be Glasgow's most eligible bachelor. And yet one ordinary, fateful day, Cassie uncovers a secret that shatters her heart into tiny pieces, and changes her life forever... Escaping to a rural and idyllic coastal village, Cassie finds a cottage that, from the moment she steps through the rose-surrounded door, feels instantly like home. And then there's Mac, the cool surf teacher, who makes her question what really makes her happy – and makes her wonder if maybe, she might already have found the answer...

The Candle Factory Girl


Tania Crosse - 2018
    Perfect for the fans of Rosie Clarke and Lindsey Hutchinson. Work at Price's Candle Factory in Battersea is tedious for intelligent, seventeen-year-old Hillie Hardwick, but she knows she is lucky to have a job at all. Her home life is no better, as she constantly battles with her exacting and bullying father in order to protect her mother and five younger siblings from his abuse. Her only solace is her loving relationship with the chaotic Parker family and her best friend, Gert Parker. When matters violently escalate for Hillie, smitten Jack-the-Lad Jimmy Baxter seems her only salvation. But could this be the biggest mistake of her life, and should she be looking for protection nearer home? A story that crackles with unease where courage and friendship are the only hope.

Before I Saw You


Amy K. Sorrells - 2018
    After a tragedy leaves her mother in prison, Jaycee is carrying grief and an unplanned pregnancy she conceals because she trusts no one, including the kind and handsome Gabe, who is new to town and to the local diner where she works.Dividing her time between the diner and Sudie’s place, Jaycee nurses her broken heart among a collection of unlikely friends who are the closest thing to family that she has. Eventually, she realizes she can’t hide her pregnancy any longer—not even from the baby’s abusive father, who is furious when he finds out. The choices she must make for the safety of her unborn child threaten to derail any chance she ever had for hope and redemption. Ultimately, Jaycee must decide whether the truest form of love means hanging on or letting go.Includes discussion guide.

Flying at Night


Rebecca L. Brown - 2018
    And just when his diagnosis of autism sends her life reeling, she's dragged back into the orbit of her emotionally abusive father, Lance, after a heart attack leaves him with brain damage.Fred is in need of a friend. Lance is in need of care. And Piper just wants to feel stable ground beneath her feet. What she never expects is that Fred and Lance--both misunderstood by the world--will start to connect in the most miraculous of ways...

The Divine Feminine Oracle: A 53-Card Deck Guidebook for Embodying Love


Meggan Watterson - 2018
    It’s a spiritual tool to hone your intuition. Working with it can be a sacred practice of remembering that you contain your own answers. You can drop into your heart, that cathedral of love inside you, and receive what is needed.”***In this exquisite oracle deck, scholar, speaker, and author Meggan Watterson has gathered together the saints, mystics, gurus, and goddesses from the world religions who represent both divine beings and the human women who sought to embody them. Each of these sacred ladies, when called upon, can strengthen your capacity to hear your soul. From the unyielding love of Mary Magdalene to the transformational force of the goddess Kali, you will discover the expansive qualities of the divine feminine within you, so that you can embody with ease and levity the love that you already are.

Longing for Motherhood: Holding On to Hope in the Midst of Childlessness


Chelsea Patterson Sobolik - 2018
    Many women feel isolated, ashamed, or uncertain of how to reconcile this trial with a loving God. The death of the dream of motherhood—whether from infertility, barrenness, miscarriage, or the loss of a child—is one of the hardest journeys women can walk through.In Longing for Motherhood, Chelsea Patterson Sobolik speaks to these burdens specifically. She shares vulnerably about her own journey of childlessness and how she has ultimately come to view her story through the lens of Scripture and our hope in Christ. While remaining tender and empathetic toward suffering and longing, she discusses the comfort we have in knowing that the Lord is sovereign over all, and that His love is sufficient to carry us through any and every situation.A timely book for women struggling with childlessness, as well as for pastors, friends, and family who want to care for them well, Longing for Motherhood is a tender, truthful companion for a difficult journey.

Bettie Page: The Lost Years: An Intimate Look at the Queen of Pinups, Through Her Private Letters & Never-Published Photos


Tori Rodríguez - 2018
    After all, the film is narrated by Bettie Mae Page herself, and she spills on lots of subjects that she had previously kept private-even in her authorized biography-though she does maintain her own decades-long, no-photos rule in the movie. She loathed the effects of aging, said it made her sad to see her own celebrity idols when they were older, and wanted people to remember her as she looked in her pinup days. Fortunately for the hordes of Bettie fans worldwide, a bounty of unreleased Bettie material awaits. For years-since before Bettie's death from heart failure in December 2008 at the age of 85-boxes and file folders of Bettie mementoes have been gathering dust in the closets of Bettie's nephew's house. Ron Brem, a musician living in Bakersfield, California, is the only child of Bettie's beloved sister, Goldie Jane Page. Bettie never had kids, other than three stepchildren during one of her four marriages to three men (she married one twice). Goldie was also an aspiring model and actress but later settled into housewifery before eventually becoming an art teacher and gallery owner. She died during the summer of 2004, but in the several years before her death, she had carefully stored heaps of incredible family photos, the bulk of which feature Bettie as either the sole subject or part of the shot. None of these hundreds of photos has ever been published until now, and few people even know they exist. Goldie also saved approximately 29 letters from Bettie spanning the years 1949 to 2000, ranging in length from note-size to 18 full pages, which tell the unknown story of Bettie's "lost years" following her retirement from modeling in 1957.

The Light We Found


Q.D. Purdu - 2018
    She knows she should change the subject when her daughter calls to tell her what a scumbag her ex-husband is. Instead, Calla listens and learns that he's admitted to having an affair while they were still married. And this is just the beginning of bad news for Calla. After she's fallen for Ben, a kindhearted fellow student in her dance class, she finds a photo of a much younger wife on his Facebook page. On top of that, she loses her life savings and is forced to take a job at a local middle school.Calla truly believes she's hit rock bottom until she gets to know some of the students she's tutoring. One in particular tugs on her heartstrings. Cody has cut himself off from all the light in his life after the death of his father, which he blames on himself. As Calla struggles to help Cody cope with his feelings and learning problems, she discovers he has a surprising connection to Ben. And as she helps her student head back into the light, she just may find that assisting him will brighten her own life as well.