Putney Bridge


Helen Ryan - 2015
     Her two daughters, from a previous relationship, are now both adult. Jo, ambitious and independent, is pursuing a career as a barrister. Jo’s younger sister is very different. Shelley, just 20, sweet natured, trusting and innocent, still lives at home and works at a local animal clinic. They are a normal, happy family - and then Shelley meets Sam on the street and everything changes. Martha struggles to accept Shelley’s choice of boyfriend as, with increasing anger, she witnesses the erosion of all Shelley’s values under Sam’s influence. When Martha’s efforts to persuade Shelley to give Sam up fail, she decides on a more direct approach. The consequences of her actions are devastating for everyone and change the course of Martha’s life forever. “After I’d gone up to bed that night, leaving Gabe amidst the carnage I had created in the living room, I formulated my plan. But it was pure chance that I met Sam on Putney Bridge some three weeks later and I went ahead with it.”

Secret Lives


Diane Chamberlain - 1991
    An Oscar-winning actress returns to her native Virginia to script the story of the famous mother she barely knew, but she gets more than she bargained for when her uncle presents her with her mother's private journals.

That Girl From Nowhere


Dorothy Koomson - 2015
    ‘I'm from nowhere.'‘Everyone's from somewhere,' he says.‘Not me,' I reply silently.Clemency Smittson was adopted as a baby and the only connection she has to her birth mother is a cardboard box hand-decorated with butterflies. Now an adult, Clem decides to make a drastic life change and move to Brighton, where she was born. Clem has no idea that while there she'll meet someone who knows all about her butterfly box and what happened to her birth parents.As the tangled truths about her adoption and childhood start to unravel, a series of shocking events cause Clem to reassess whether the price of having contact with her birth family could be too high to pay...An emotional story about love, identity and the meaning of family, That Girl From Nowehere is the new novel from the bestselling author of The Ice Cream Girls, The Woman He Loved Before and My Best Friend's Girl.

Flying Fossils (Women of Fossil Ridge Book 1)


Lynne Gentry - 2018
    For twenty-five years, they've gone their separate ways and lived separate lives. But when Sara's fall breaks her hip and leaves her unable to care for herself, her daughter is forced to return to Texas. Charlotte’s short-term care-giving plan is dashed when she realizes her difficult mother needs long-term care. While Sara struggles to regain her independence, Charlotte grapples with the impossible task of juggling a high-pressure job, a rebellious teenage daughter, and a slightly demented mother. The Women of Fossil Ridge Series is a heartwarming addition to the small town, generational series of favorite authors like Ann B. Ross, Jan Karon, and Beth Hoffman. Gentry’s small-town sagas are a masterful peek into what it takes to resuscitate a mother-daughter relationship. Series sparkles with humor, heart, and southern charm. ~Amazon Reviewer Gentry is one to watch. ~RT Reviews Books in the Women of Fossil Ridge series: #1 Flying Fossils #2 Finally Free #3 First Frost If you loved FLYING FOSSILS, you'll enjoy Gentry's Mt. Hope Southern Adventures series. Out of the dust of West Texas comes another set of heartwarming books that will have you laughing until you cry. Books in Mt. Hope Southern Adventures series: #1 Walking Shoes #2 Shoes to Fill #3 Dancing Shoes #4 Baby Shoes

The Kingdom of Childhood


Rebecca Coleman - 2011
    Thrown together to organize a fundraiser for their failing private school and bonded by loneliness, they begin an affair that at first thrills, then corrupts each of them. Judy sees in Zach the elements of a young man she loved as a child, but what Zach does not realize is that their relationship is, for Judy, only the latest in a lifetime of disturbing secrets.Rebecca Coleman's manuscript forThe Kingdom of Childhood was a semifinalist in the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Competition. An emotionally tense, increasingly chilling work of fiction set in the controversial Waldorf school community, it is equal parts enchanting and unsettling and is sure to be a much discussed and much-debated novel.

Magic Hour


Kristin Hannah - 2006
    Julia Cates was one of the country's preeminent child psychiatrists until a shocking tragedy ruined her career. Retreating to her small western Washington hometown, Julia meets an extraordinary six-year-old girl who has inexplicably emerged from the deep woods nearby—a child locked in a world of unimaginable fear and isolation. To Julia, nothing is more important than saving the girl she now calls Alice. But Julia will need help from others, including the sister she barely knows and a handsome doctor with secrets of his own. What follows will test the limits of Julia's faith and strength, as she struggles to find a home for Alice . . . and for herself.

The Gift of Christmas Yet to Come (A St Nicholas Bay Novella)


Jo Bartlett - 2014
    well, almost. As Christmas rolls round once again, she longs for a child of her own to share it with. In a town where Christmas is big business all year round, it turns out Santa Claus isn’t the only one with mysterious powers. When a psychic reveals that the answer to her future will come in red and white, Kate follows this sign. It leads her to disastrous dating agencies and demoralising dead-ends until, finally, the answer seems to be revealed. But will her search for the missing piece of her family mean she doesn't recognise the one person who's loved her from the start? Or can Kate really have it all in time for the perfect Christmas?

What I Left Behind


Jennifer Archer - 2020
    The owner of a successful restaurant and newly engaged to a man she loves, she’s ready to put her regrets behind her and embrace what lies ahead. But when a boy named Nick Pearson shows up at her door claiming he’s her grandson and needing her help, Ally can no longer ignore the questions that have haunted her since she was sixteen.Leaving her fiancé and her life behind, she embarks on a cross-country road trip with the orphaned teen to find his grandfather – Ally’s first love who disappeared without a word thirty years ago, leading her to give up their baby for adoption. But will learning the devastating reason he tore her life apart release her from the past…or draw her back?In What I Left Behind, bestselling author Jennifer Archer offers an emotional page-turner about love and loss, family and forgiveness.

Love in the Storm (bundle of four contemporary romances)


Samantha Chase - 2013
    She might be trapped with him during an ice storm, but she won't fall for him again.

Another Piece of My Heart


Jane Green - 2012
    When the dynamics between the two escalate, they threaten everything Andi believes about love, family, and motherhood—leaving both women standing at a crossroad in their lives and in their hearts.Another Piece of My Heart is a novel that illuminates the nuances and truths about relationships and is Jane Green at her absolute best.

Daughters-in-Law


Joanna Trollope - 2011
    For different reasons, the Brinkleys’ two previous daughters-in-law hadn’t been able to resist Rachel’s maternal control and Anthony’s gentle charm and had settled into their husbands’ family without rocking the boat. But Charlotte—very young, very beautiful, and spoiled—has no intention of falling into step with the Brinkleys and wants to establish her own household. Soon Rachel’s sons begin to think of their own houses as home and of their mother’s house as simply the place where their parents live—a necessary and inevitable shift of loyalties that threatens Rachel’s sense of herself, breaks Anthony’s heart, and causes unexpected consequences in all the marriages. Then a crisis brings these changes to the surface, and everyone has to learn what family love means all over again.

Never Too Late


Robyn Carr - 2006
    She's had it with her marriage to a charming serial cheater. Even her own son thinks she's given his father too many chances. With the support of her sisters, Maggie and Sarah, she's ready to move on. Facing her fortieth birthday, Clare is finally feeling the rush of unadulterated freedom.But when a near-fatal car accident lands Clare in the hospital, her life takes another detour. While recovering, Clare realizes she has the power to choose her life's path. The wonderful younger police officer who witnessed her crash is over the moon for her. A man from her past stirs up long-buried feelings. Even her ex is pining for her. With enthusiasm and a little envy, her sisters watch her bloom.Together, the sisters encourage each other to seek what they need to be happy. Along the way they all learn that it's never too late to begin again.

The Girls from Corona del Mar


Rufi Thorpe - 2014
    Mia and Lorrie Ann are lifelong friends: hard-hearted Mia and untouchably beautiful, kind Lorrie Ann. While Mia struggles with a mother who drinks, a pregnancy at fifteen, and younger brothers she loves but can't quite be good to, Lorrie Ann is luminous, surrounded by her close-knit family, immune to the mistakes that mar her best friend's life. Until a sudden loss catapults Lorrie Ann into tragedy: things fall apart, and then fall apart further-and there is nothing Mia can do to help. And as good, kind, brave Lorrie Ann stops being so good, Mia begins to question just who this woman is and what that question means about them both. A staggeringly arresting, honest novel of love, motherhood, loyalty, and the myth of the perfect friendship that moves us to ask ourselves just how well we know those we love, what we owe our children, and who we are without our friends.

The Secret Lives of Dresses


Erin McKean - 2011
    All a far cry from her vivid, eccentric childhood, growing up with her beloved grandmother Mimi.However, when disaster strikes, Dora knows she has no choice but to return to her childhood home and take over running Mimi’s vintage clothing shop. And there she makes a surprising discovery – Mimi’s been writing stories to accompany every dress she sells. Romantic, heartbreaking tales about each one’s secret life before it got to her shop...Dora starts to matchmake these lonely frocks with new owners, but will the stories help her as well? Trading her boring high street clothes for vintage glamour is one thing. What she needs to know is whether she can trade her safe old life – and love – for something better too?A captivating and enchanting novel for every girl who knows that the right dress can change your life. By the author of the popular blog www.dressaday.com.

The Color of Heaven


Julianne MacLean - 2011
    When it seems nothing else could possibly go wrong, her car skids off an icy road and plunges into a frozen lake. There, in the cold, dark depths of the water, Sophie experiences something profound and extraordinary--something that unlocks the secrets from her past, and teaches her what it means to truly live"--Publisher description.