The Hole in the Middle


Kate Hilton - 2013
    When she operates at peak performance, she can cajole balky employees, soothe her cranky children, troubleshoot career disasters, throw a dinner party for ten and draft an upbeat Christmas letter—all in the same day.But as Sophie's fortieth birthday looms, her seamless life reveals disturbing web-like fractures. Conflict with her boss, blossoming jealousy of her husband's femme fatale business partner and her feelings of hopeless inadequacy as a mother and daughter are cracking the edifice of her life.Rescue may be at hand when Lillian Parker, a wealthy widow who befriended Sophie during her university days, makes Sophie an irresistible offer. Why, then, does Sophie hesitate? The answer is the reappearance of Lillian's nephew, Will Shannon, the great unresolved love of Sophie's life. As she remembers the vivid drama of their college romance, Sophie confronts the choices she has made in life and in love and looks for the answer to a question that has always troubled her: What does she really want?The Hole in the Middle is a heartbreaking love story, a laugh-out-loud portrayal of the twin demands of work and family and a fresh take on the hot debate about having it all. It is not to be missed.

The Things We Wish Were True


Marybeth Mayhew Whalen - 2016
    But behind the white picket fences lies a web of secrets that reach from house to house.Up and down the streets, neighbors quietly bear the weight of their own pasts—until an accident at the community pool upsets the delicate equilibrium. And when tragic circumstances compel a woman to return to Sycamore Glen after years of self-imposed banishment, the tangle of the neighbors’ intertwined lives begins to unravel.During the course of a sweltering summer, long-buried secrets are revealed, and the neighbors learn that it’s impossible to really know those closest to us. But is it impossible to love and forgive them?

Sorry I Missed You


Suzy Krause - 2020
    Mackenzie’s sister, Sunna’s best friend, and Maude’s fiancé—all gone with no explanation.So when a mangled, near-indecipherable letter arrives in their shared mailbox—hinting at long-awaited answers—each tenant assumes it’s for her. The mismatched trio decides to stake out the coffee shop named in the letter—the only clue they have—and in the process, a bizarre kinship forms. But the more they learn about each other, the more questions (and suspicions) they begin to have. All the while, creepy sounds and strange happenings around the property suggest that the ghosts from their pasts might not be all that’s haunting them…Will any of the housemates find the closure they are looking for? Or are some doors meant to remain closed?Quirky, humorous, and utterly original, Sorry I Missed You is the perfect read for anyone who has ever felt haunted by their past (or by anything else).

The Last of the Moon Girls


Barbara Davis - 2020
    Eight years ago, she left the land that nine generations of gifted healers had tended, determined to distance herself from the whispers about her family’s strange legacy. But when her beloved grandmother Althea dies, Lizzy must return and face the tragedy still hanging over the farm’s withered lavender fields: the unsolved murders of two young girls, and the cruel accusations that followed Althea to her grave.Lizzy wants nothing more than to sell the farm and return to her life in New York, until she discovers a journal Althea left for her—a Book of Remembrances meant to help Lizzy embrace her own special gifts. When she reconnects with Andrew Greyson, one of the few in town who believed in Althea’s innocence, she resolves to clear her grandmother’s name.But to do so, she’ll have to decide if she can accept her legacy and whether to follow in the footsteps of all the Moon women who came before her.

Crimes Against a Book Club


Kathy Cooperman - 2017
    Sarah, a beautiful, successful lawyer, wants nothing more than to have a baby. But balancing IVF treatments with a grueling eighty-hour workweek is no walk in the park. Meanwhile, Annie, a Harvard-grad chemist recently transplanted to Southern California, is cutting coupons to afford her young autistic son’s expensive therapy.Desperate, the two friends come up with a brilliant plan: they’ll combine Sarah’s looks and Annie’s brains to sell a “luxury” antiaging face cream to the wealthy, fading beauties in Annie’s La Jolla book club. The scheme seems innocent enough, until Annie decides to add a special—and oh-so-illegal—ingredient that could bring their whole operation crashing to the ground.Hilarious, intelligent, and warm, Crimes Against a Book Club is a delightful look at the lengths women will go to fend for their families and for one another.

A Part of Me and You


Emma Heatherington - 2018
    But as her fortieth birthday approaches she is dealt the deadliest of blows – she has just weeks to live. As the terrible news sinks in, Juliette’s only concern is for her fifteen-year-old daughter, Rosie. Who will take care of her precious child? Who will love her daughter with the same fierce love? The answer lies in a secret Juliette hoped never to reveal…Devastated at the loss of her own baby daughter, Shelley is barely managing to survive. Consumed by her grief, she has pushed everyone away – including the man who loves her the most. With her once happy marriage now in tatters, Shelley has nothing left to live for.But as the lives of these two women collide, could Juliette’s secret be the key to solving Shelley’s heartache? And could Juliette’s death give Shelley one final chance to live again…

The Stationmaster's Cottage


Phillipa Nefri Clark - 2017
    Questions needing answers.”Those words gave Christie Ryan a reason to stay in River’s End, when she should have gone home after Gran’s funeral. Inheriting a rundown cottage, far from her jet-setting life, she is drawn into a fifty-year-old mystery.Who wrote the letters hidden in the attic, an outpouring of love to a woman Christie suspects she is related to? What is the significance of a damaged painting kept by Gran but clearly painted in this seaside town?Local artist Martin Blake may have the answers she seeks, but refuses to help. His dog adores Christie, but Martin keeps his feelings locked away.As Christie faces difficult decisions about her own future, will the consequences of righting old wrongs be too high a price to pay?**New edition April 2019 completely re-edited**

The Promise Girls


Marie Bostwick - 2017
    Every child prodigy grows up eventually. For the Promise sisters, escaping their mother's narcissism and the notoriety that came with her bestselling book hasn't been easy. Minerva Promise claimed that her three "test tube" daughters--gifted pianist Joanie, artistic Meg, and storyteller Avery--were engineered and molded to be geniuses. In adulthood, their modest lives fall far short of her grand ambitions. But now, twenty years after the book's release, she hopes to redeem herself by taking part in a new documentary. Meg, who hasn't picked up a paintbrush in years, adamantly refuses to participate, until a car accident leaves her with crushing medical bills. While she recuperates in Seattle, the three sisters reluctantly meet with filmmaker Hal Seeger, another former prodigy. Like them, he's familiar with the weight of failed potential. But as he digs deeper, he uncovers secrets they've hidden from each other--and a revelation that will challenge their beliefs, even as it spurs them to forge their own extraordinary lives at last. "Reading Marie Bostwick is like wrapping yourself up in a warm, hand-crafted quilt. Her books, rich in character and plot, are stitched together by a skilled wordsmith." --Debbie Macomber, #1 New York Times bestselling author "THE PROMISE GIRLS is a beautiful story about the ties that bind--love, laughter, memories, even secrets kept so long they become a part of the fabric of a family. Marie Bostwick exquisitely tells the tale of the three Promise girls, former child prodigies who learn to heal the scars of a bitter past so that they can love--and forgive--again." --Melanie Benjamin, New York Times Best Selling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue

The Secret of Orchard Cottage


Alex Brown - 2016
    Arriving in the rural idyll of Tindledale, she’s dismayed to find Edith’s cottage and the orchards surrounding it in a sorry state of disrepair. Edith seems to have lost interest completely, instead she’s become desperate to find out what happened to her sister, Winnie, who disappeared during WWII.April gets to work immediately, discovering that the orchard still delivers a bumper crop each year, and with the help of some of the villagers – including Matt, the enigmatic Farrier – begins to unravel the mystery of the missing Winnie. Slowly,April can feel things coming to life again – but can Orchard Cottage work its magic on her too?

She's Having Her Baby


Lauren Sams - 2015
    Sadly, Nina’s uterus refuses to cooperate. One drunken evening, Nina asks Georgie for the ultimate favour: would she carry a baby for her? Georgie says yes – and spends the next nine months wondering why!With intense bacon-and-egg roll cravings and distant memories of what her feet look like, Georgie tries to keep it all together in her dream job as the editor of Jolie magazine. Her love life’s a mess – and sauvignon blanc’s off the menu – leaving Georgie to deal with twists in her life she never expected.

The Night the Lights Went Out


Karen White - 2017
    It's not her first time starting over, but her efforts at a new beginning aren't helped by an anonymous local blog that dishes about the scandalous events that caused her marriage to fail.Merilee finds some measure of peace in the cottage she is renting from town matriarch Sugar Prescott. Though stubborn and irascible, Sugar sees something of herself in Merilee--something that allows her to open up about her own colorful past.Sugar's stories give Merilee a different perspective on the town and its wealthy school moms in their tennis whites and shiny SUVs, and even on her new friendship with Heather Blackford. Merilee is charmed by the glamorous young mother's seemingly perfect life and finds herself drawn into Heather's world.In a town like Sweet Apple, where sins and secrets are as likely to be found behind the walls of gated mansions as in the dark woods surrounding Merilee's house, appearance is everything. But just how dangerous that deception can be will shock all three women....

Recipe for a Perfect Wife


Karma Brown - 2019
    As she discovers remarkable parallels between this woman’s life and her own, it causes her to question the foundation of her own relationship with her husband–and what it means to be a wife fighting for her place in a patriarchal society.When Alice Hale leaves a career in publicity to become a writer and follows her husband to the New York suburbs, she is unaccustomed to filling her days alone in a big, empty house. But when she finds a vintage cookbook buried in a box in the old home’s basement, she becomes captivated by the cookbook’s previous owner–1950s housewife Nellie Murdoch. As Alice cooks her way through the past, she realizes that within the cookbook’s pages Nellie left clues about her life–including a mysterious series of unsent letters penned to her mother.Soon Alice learns that while baked Alaska and meatloaf five ways may seem harmless, Nellie’s secrets may have been anything but. When Alice uncovers a more sinister–even dangerous–side to Nellie’s marriage, and has become increasingly dissatisfied with the mounting pressures in her own relationship, she begins to take control of her life and protect herself with a few secrets of her own.

Seabreeze Inn


Jan Moran - 2019
    An old crush. One summer to get her life back.Ivy Bay’s life implodes after discovering that her late husband had spent their life savings on a beach house. Strapped for cash as an art teacher and with nowhere to go, Ivy and her recently jilted sister head to Summer Beach to recreate their lives. If only renovating a historical home didn’t unveil a host of hidden secrets in the beachside community—and the mayor wasn’t her former high school crush.Bennett Dylan led a campaign against Ivy’s late husband to block the rezoning of the beach house land for a high-rise resort. Although it’s been ten years since his wife’s death, Bennett is avoiding the pain of loving—and possibly losing—another woman. And then the FBI shows up… Ivy’s demands for a zoning variance for a bed-and-breakfast couldn’t come at a worse time for him. Despite distractions, Ivy has one summer to sway the town to salvage her livelihood and the new life in Summer Beach she’s come to love.With spellbinding intrigue and poignant self-discovery, the Seabreeze Inn is a sweet summer beach read. If you like sun-soaked beach sagas you can lose yourself in, the Seabreeze Inn and Summer Beach’s fascinating characters are for you. Get it now and start your vacation in Summer Beach.

A French Affair


Jennifer Bohnet - 2020
    What’s not to love!' Lucy Coleman
'This was the first Jennifer Bohnet book I've read, but it definitely won't be the last. A beautifully written and heart-warming tale of family and friendship, I was completely transported to the south of France' Jessica Redland, author of The Secret to Happiness'A perfect summer read! I couldn’t stop myself from turning the pages and read it in one sitting. I absolutely loved it. Highly recommended!' Alison Sherlock, author of A House To Mend A Broken HeartWhat readers are saying about A French Affair:‘An absolute treat to read’’It is a lovely story to escape into with fantastic characters, a beautiful setting, strong friendships and, of course, romance. It is another enchanting read from this highly talented author.’’An uplifting and emotional tale of secrets, renewal and second chances’’The author really is a wonderful storyteller, and I thoroughly enjoyed the way this one unfolded – perfectly paced, a few surprises along the way, that strong focus on family and friendship, a couple of satisfying romances, and the vividly drawn setting.’’It makes me want to rent a cabin in the mountains and sit by the fire looking up at the stars while roasting marshmallows.’’The plot was interesting and the love interest was perfect. All in all, a pure escapism read.’

The Seventh Mother


Sherri Wood Emmons - 2014
    Jenny was three when her mother died, and since then Brannon Bohner has traveled with his daughter from one seasonal job to another, picking up girlfriends along the way. Cara, Ami, Trish--all were sweet and kind, but none ever stayed for long. Somehow Emma is different, traveling with them from Idaho to Kentucky, filling Jenny with hopes of a real family at last.Emma's warmth and optimism are contagious, defusing Brannon's flashes of temper and making their first weeks together everything Jenny has dreamed of. Yet something still troubles her, surfacing through years of memories--tempting her from within boxes Jenny has been told never to touch, filled with hidden mementoes from long ago. And somewhere among them Jenny will find answers that compel her to choose--between the home she longs for, the love she craves, and the hard truth she can no longer ignore. . .Praise for the novels of Sherri Wood Emmons The Weight of Small ThingsEmmons writes beautifully about women, friendship and choices, and engagingly chronicles the long friendship that becomes a mutual lifeline. --The Sunday Star LedgerThe Sometimes DaughterEmmons has a keen grasp of the difficulties of mother-daughter dynamics. . .an intimate story. --Publishers WeeklyTeens who appreciated Lauren Myracle's Bliss or autobiographies by Augusten Burroughs and Jeannette Walls of dysfunctional family survivors should also enjoy this novel. -School Library JournalPrayers and LiesA rich story of the triumph of love and decency. -Sandra Dallas, author of Prayers for SaleA strong debut. . .Emmons has a rich voice that pairs well with the earthy setting. . .and the characters are wonderfully drawn. -Publishers WeeklySurely Sherri Wood Emmons is the freshest new voice I've read in a long while. Read Prayers and Lies, and hold on tight! You are in for an unforgettable literary ride! --Ann Hood, author of The Red Thread