But when she takes a month-long leave of absence to go on an African vacation, she ends up facing unexpected consequences. After she falls ill and spends six months trapped in a remote village thanks to a devastating earthquake, Emma returns home to discover that her friends, boyfriend, and colleagues thought she was dead--and that her life has moved on without her.As she struggles to re-create her old life, throwing herself into solving a big case for a client and trying to reclaim her beloved apartment from the handsome photographer who assumed her lease, everyone around her thinks she should take the opportunity to change. But is she willing to sacrifice her job, her relationships, and everything else she worked so hard to build?In "Forgotten," Catherine McKenzie tweaks a classic tale of discovering who we really are when everything that brings meaning to our lives is lost.

    Going back to college might not be everyone's dream but all Ceri has ever wanted to do is teach. Though her professional life is sorted, Ceri's personal life is still a no-go area. In fact her pent-up energies and frustrations seem to have been diverted into solving other people's romantic problems. Is Ceri destined to always play Cupid? Or can she use some of her powers where they're needed most - to help herself? THE CHOCOLATE RUN: Amber Salpone doesn't mean to keep ending up in bed with her friend Greg Walterson, but she can't help herself. And every time it 'just happens' their secret affair moves closer to being a real relationship, which is a big problem when he's a womaniser and she's a commitment-phobe. Slowly but surely, Amber has to confront the fact that chocolate can't cure everything and sometimes running away isn't an option ...

    A marriage ceremony at their beloved, rambling home should be the happiest of occasions, but Walter and Bennie have a secret. A new community has moved to Rundle Junction, threatening the social order and forcing Bennie and Walter to confront uncomfortable truths about the lengths they would go to maintain harmony.Meanwhile, Aunt Glad, the oldest member of the family, arrives for the wedding plagued by long-buried memories of a scarring event that occurred when she was a girl in Rundle Junction. As she uncovers details about her role in this event, the family begins to realize Clem’s wedding may not be exactly what it seemed. Clever, passionate, artistic Clem has her own agenda. What she doesn’t know is that by the end, everyone will have roles to play in this richly-imagined ceremony of familial connection - a brood of quirky relatives, effervescent college friends, ghosts emerging from the past, a determined little mouse, and even the very group of new neighbors whose presence has shaken Rundle Junction to its core.With Strangers and Cousins, Leah Hager Cohen delivers a story of pageantry and performance, hopefulness and growth, and introduces a winsome, unforgettable cast of characters whose lives are forever changed by events that unfold and reverberate across generations.

    Now to the external world, at least she s finally getting back on her feet, running her business, Cake. Then she meets Ciaran Argyll.His rich and charmed life feels a million miles from her own. However, there s more to Ciaran than the superficial world that surrounds him, and he too is wrestling with his own ghosts. Will Holly find the missing ingredient that allows her to live again and embrace an unknown and unexpected tomorrow?

    She has a hardworking husband, two adorable children, and a beautiful Tokyo apartment. It’s everything a woman could want, yet sometimes she wonders whether she would rather throw herself off the high-rise balcony than spend another evening not talking to her husband and hanging up laundry.Then, one rainy night, she meets Kiyoshi, a successful restaurateur. In him, she rediscovers freedom, friendship, and the neon, electric pulse of the city she has always loved. But the further she falls into their relationship, the clearer it becomes that she is living two lives—and in the end, we can choose only one.Funny, provocative, and startlingly honest, Fault Lines is for anyone who has ever looked in the mirror and asked, who am I and how did I get here? A bittersweet love story and a piercing portrait of female identity, it introduces Emily Itami as a debut novelist with astounding resonance and wit.

    Right all her life but even she didn't expect him to be delivered to her door, giftwrapped in a skimpy towel, one sunny summer morning. Sexy Nick Lucas seems almost too good to be true—and maybe he is. Arriving out of nowhere, he seems to have no past, no family, no history: things just don't add up. But then again he's not the first man Maggie's been out with to have lead a double life. As Nick's past starts to catch up with him, Maggie becomes embroiled in an exciting cat-and-mouse chase across the country. Temperatures rise and passion sizzles but although Maggie has the hots for Nick, can she take the heat?

    Diagnosed with MS, she awaits the results of another anxiety-inducing MRI. She’s just walked away from Connor, “a fixer” but possibly the love of her life. And nearing the holidays, the sights and sounds of winter in South Dakota only prick memories of better years gone by. Then, on a December morning at the university where she works, jarring gunshots pierce the halls. In a temporary safe place and terrified, Simone listens and pretends this will all be over soon.As she waits for silence, her mind racing, Simone’s past year comes into focus. Falling in love and missing it. Finding strength in family and enduring friendships. Planning for the future, fearing it, and hoping against hope in dark places. Her life has been changing at the speed of light, and each crossroad brought Simone here, to this day, to endure the things she can’t control and to confront those that she can.

    You're just meant to do one thing every day that makes you happy. Could be little things. Could be big. In fact, we're doing one right now…”Annie Hebden is stuck. Stuck in her boring job, with her irritating roommate, in a life no thirty-five-year-old would want. But deep down, Annie is still mourning the terrible loss that tore a hole through the perfect existence she'd once taken for granted—and hiding away is safer than remembering what used to be. Until she meets the eccentric Polly Leonard.Bright, bubbly, intrusive Polly is everything Annie doesn't want in a friend. But Polly is determined to finally wake Annie up to life. Because if recent events have taught Polly anything, it's that your time is too short to waste a single day—which is why she wants Annie to join her on a mission…One hundred days. One hundred new ways to be happy. Annie's convinced it's impossible, but so is saying no to Polly. And on an unforgettable journey that will force her to open herself to new experiences—and perhaps even new love with the unlikeliest of men—Annie will slowly begin to realize that maybe, just maybe, there's still joy to be found in the world. But then it becomes clear that Polly's about to need her new friend more than ever…and Annie will have to decide once and for all whether letting others in is a risk worth taking."Simply irresistible!" -Library Journal “A special book that will make you laugh through your tears with its heartfelt take on happiness and friendship.”—Amy E. Reichert, author of The Coincidence of Coconut Cake

    Olivia Simon is on duty in the emergency room of North Carolina’s Outer Banks Hospital when a gunshot victim is brought in. Midway through the desperate effort to save the young woman’s life, Olivia realizes who she is—Annie O’Neill. The woman Olivia’s husband, Paul, is in love with.When Annie dies on the operating table, she leaves behind three other victims. Alec O’Neill, who thought he had the perfect marriage. Paul, whose fixation on Annie is unshakable. And Olivia, who is desperate to understand the woman who destroyed her marriage.Now they are left with unanswered questions about who Annie really was. And about the secrets she kept hidden so well.Originally published in 2011

    But relatives Kat knows nothing about are moving in, intent on changing her life forever. I wrote Swallowing Grandma because I was again interested in the dynamic between a carer and the person receiving that care. The relationship between Kat and her troublesome charge is one of constant small power shifts; each woman believes she is the one in control, and the struggle for supremacy continues right up to the end of the novel.

    While Charlotte and her sister, Sally, grew up at "Lakeside," their stepbrothers, Spin and Perry, were welcomed as weekend guests. Now the grown boys own the estate, which Joan occupies by their grace--and a provision in the family trust. When Spin, the youngest and favorite of all the children, brings his fiancé home for the summer, the entire family is intrigued. The beautiful and accomplished Laurel Atwood breathes new life into this often comically rarefied world. But as the wedding draws near, and flaws surface in the family's polite veneer, an array of simmering resentments and unfortunate truths is exposed.With remarkable wit and insight, Ann Leary pulls back the curtain on one blended family, as they are forced to grapple with the assets and liabilities - both material and psychological - left behind by their wonderfully flawed patriarch.

     The boys' antics have earned them a riotous reputation in their small town of Cedar Mills. When Matt's former mother-in-law, a powerful lawyer and judge, threatens to sue for custody, Matt’s sure she means it. Enter Matt’s new neighbor, Elle Drake. She’s made a successful career for herself as a renowned artist and potter, but after a disastrously public break-up with her millionaire ex-husband, she’s back in Cedar Mills to lick her wounds and set her roughed-up self-image to rights. When Matt's oldest son causes damage in Elle’s yard, her common-sense approach forces the boy to take responsibility for his actions—and gives Matt the wake-up call he desperately needs. Initially adversarial, true attraction grows between this unlikely couple. Matt appreciates Elle's effect on his sons, and when he gets cornered into having a Sunday breakfast with Elle and the boys, he has fun for the first time in...well, he can't remember when. Everything changes when Elle hears the boys’ grandmother berating Matt in public and threatening to take the boys. She defuses the situation by pretending to be Matt's fiancée and the boys' future stepmother. When Matt decides it's a brilliant plan and kisses her to seal the deal, Elle knows he's crazy. But he's also sweet, funny, engaging, sexy and strong, which isn't exactly a bad thing! This latest poignant Christian romance by Ruth Logan Herne combines heart and humor with a dose of small-town reality... just enough to keep it real!

    Flirtation—online—ensues. A romance, potentially eternal, possibly doomed, begins.And, like most things in life today, their early exchanges are available to be scrutinized and interpreted by well-intentioned friends who are a mere click away.Madeline and Elliot's relationship unfolds through a series of thrilling, confounding, and funny exchanges with each other, and, of course, with their best friends and dubious confidants (Emily and David). The result is a brand-new kind of modern romantic comedy, in format, in content, and even in creation—the authors exchanged e-mails in real time, blind to each other's side conversations. You will nod in appreciation and roll your eyes in recognition; you'll learn a thing or two about how the other half approaches a new relationship . . . and you will cheer for an unexpected ending that just might restore your faith in falling in love, twenty-first-century style.

     It's early summer when Ginny and William's peaceful life in Vermont comes to an abrupt halt. First, their daughter Lillian arrives, with her two children in tow, to escape her crumbling marriage. Next, their son Stephen and his pregnant wife Jane show up for a weekend visit, which extends indefinitely when Jane ends up on bed rest. When their youngest daughter Rachel appears, fleeing her difficult life in New York, Ginny and William find themselves consumed again by the chaos of parenthood -- only this time around, their children are facing adult problems. By summer's end, the family gains new ideas of loyalty and responsibility, exposing the challenges of surviving the modern family -- and the old adage, once a parent, always a parent, has never rung so true.

    On the surface Elsie Jones, country music superstar, has it all. But a brush with death forces her to re-evaluate her life.Growing up a misfit in the dying wheatbelt town of Culvert, her only friend is chubby Tara Green. At sixteen the girls escape in a rust-bucket ute with a nearly-dead dog, a mop and bucket, a guitar and $74.85. What could possibly go wrong?While the road leads them to the outback scrub mustering cleanskin cattle, there's just one problem. Elsie and Tara have left their hearts in Culvert with their childhood sweethearts, eccentric inventor twins Zac and Amos Smith, who are hiding an incredible secret in their farm shed.After a devastating betrayal, the girls are led on very different journeys. Can they find their way home again or is their friendship lost forever?Cleanskin Cowgirls is a powerful story about taking risks, letting go, and learning that miracles don't just happen... they can be made. Praise for Rachael Treasure:'Treasure has a deft touch that enables her to evoke a rural setting with the quick flick of a stockwhip' The Age'Treasure writes with true grit, wit and warmth' Australian Women's Weekly