The Ingredients of Us


Jennifer Gold - 2019
    But when she discovers her husband’s infidelity, she doesn’t know what to make of it. Jam, maybe? Definitely jam.Fed up with the stale crumbs of her marriage, Elle revisits past recipes and the events that inspired them. A recipe for scones reminds her of her father’s death, cinnamon rolls signify the problematic courtship with her husband, and a batch of chocolate cookies casts Elle in a less-than-flattering light. Looking back, Elle soon realizes that some ingredients were missing all along.After confronting her husband, Elle indulges her sweet tooth in other ways, including a rebound that just leaves her more confused. As secrets from the past collide with the conflicts of the present, Elle struggles to manage her bakery business and maintain the relationships most important to her. In piecing her life back together, will Elle learn to take the bitter with the sweet?

Beside Herself


Elizabeth LaBan - 2019
    Isn’t that what happens after an affair? But she’s seen friends divorce, and it’s not pretty. Plus, she and Joel have kids and an otherwise-happy life, and she still loves him, although begrudgingly.Furious and feeling stuck, she suggests having her own affair to even the score. Joel, desperate for forgiveness, agrees. But does she really want to go through with it? And how exactly does a married mother of two get back in the dating pool? Many awkward dates follow until she finds a deep and unexpected connection where she was least looking for it.Just as she thinks she’s made a decision, her journey to happiness is waylaid by storms of doubt. But the important thing is that she’s finally figuring out what she truly wants for herself, and she understands that whatever choice she makes must be hers and hers alone.

Dry as Rain


Gina Holmes - 2011
    From the bestselling author of Crossing Oceans comes a powerfully moving story that tests the limits of love's forgiveness. Like many marriages, Eric and Kyra Yoshida's has fallen apart slowly, one lost dream and misunderstanding at a time, until the ultimate betrayal finally pushes them beyond reconciliation. Just when it looks like forgive and forget is no longer an option, a car accident gives Eric the second chance of a lifetime. A concussion causes his wife to forget details of her life, including the chasm between them. No one knows when--or if--Kyra's memory will return, but Eric seizes the opportunity to win back the woman he's never stopped loving.

All We Have Lost


Aimee Alexander - 2003
    In private, Kim dreams of writing 'the great novel' and spending more time with her young family. Then, one day, she does it. She folds her business to follow her dream. Only to discover that the 'great novel' is, in fact, a great struggle. Life as a domestic goddess has (many) hidden challenges. And her relationship with her husband, Ian, is losing equilibrium. As the perfect life Kim has built for herself starts to crumble comes the revelation that will make her doubt everything she had taken for granted...

Where Hope Begins


Catherine West - 2018
    With her daughter in college and her son in boarding school, Savannah retreats to her parents’ lake house in the Berkshires, where hope and healing come in the form of an old woman’s wisdom, a little girl’s laughter, a touch of magic, and a handsome man who’s willing to risk his own heart to prove she’s still worth loving.But when her husband asks to reconcile, Savannah is faced with the hardest challenge of all: Forgiving the unforgivable. Somehow she must find freedom from the chains of their past and move forward, or face an unknown future without him.

Just the Way You Are


Barbara Freethy - 2000
    a life about to be tested by the return of the only woman who can break them up—Alli's sister, Tessa.A baby brought them together—and even though Alli has always loved her strong, sexy husband Sam and the life they've built together, she has decided to set him free to follow his youthful dreams. It is no longer enough for her to be wife and lover when she knows she holds so little of his heart.Sam has always dreamed of a life away from the close-knit world of Tucker's Landing, but marriage and fatherhood ended all that. Now Sam is torn between what was and what was meant to be. He must decide if it's time to rekindle the dreams of the past ... or accept Alli, and her love, just the way she is.JUST THE WAY YOU ARE is an emotionallly compelling, heartwarming, beautiful love story about choices, second chances, the crush of a youthful love, the intensity of a love born from marriage and life. "An exceptional novel from #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Barbara Freethy!"

The Woman He Married (A Magic City Duo, # 1)


Julie N. Ford - 2011
     Once an aspiring young attorney, Josie looked forward to taking on the injustices of the world—one case at a time. Eleven years later, she’s a stay-at-home mom and battling demons that don’t require a law degree. Only keeping up pretenses proves more than she can bear when a bracelet that should have been hers shows up on the wrist of another woman. Her marriage slowly begins to unravel as an ex-lover comes back into her life. When he offers her the dreams she thought she’d lost, Josie must chose between the man she married and the one she let get away. John has always known exactly what he wanted. A career as a high-powered attorney, followed by the perfect family of six, and then elected public service. So it was no surprise that the first time he laid his eyes on Josie, he knew she was the one he’d share his dreams with. More than a decade, and one tragic miscalculation later, all he has worked for is slipping through his fingers. Powerless to stem the flow, the one thing he remains certain of: he can’t lose the woman he married.

Crazy Over You


Carol Thomas - 2015
    in more ways than one! When Abby met Simon, it was the start of something special, a love Abby believed would last a lifetime. A wedding, two daughters and fifteen years later, Abby's world is falling apart. Having discovered Simon has had an affair, her normally ordered mind is spiralling out of control. Crushed by the betrayal and shocked by her own reaction, she knows she needs to get herself together; she's just not sure where to start. With Simon on a mission to win her back and a close friend hiding a secret that could push her further over the edge, Abby finds strength and support where she least expects it. But as she attempts to gain control of her life and make decisions about her future, it may be more than the limits of Abby's mind that are put to the test!

Flames


Ginny L. Yttrup - 2014
    Preserving Yosemite National Park's natural and cultural resources is Jessica's job. Preserving her family's legacy is her obsession. But when she discovers her husband's infidelity, betrayal’s flames threaten her family and all she's fought to protect. Haley Weaver, a sophomore in high school, is a daddy's girl. As she enters the throes of first love, timid yet intrigued, Haley also discovers her father's affair. Stunned and broken, Haley flees into the wilds of Yosemite National Park. If she can't trust her father, how can she trust her boyfriend—or even love itself?When wildfire breaks out and Haley is missing, Jessica fears the worst. In a race against time, she searches for her daughter as she deals with the magnitude of what her husband's affair may cost her family. How can she go on if she doesn’t find Haley in time? And what will Jessica do to preserve the legacy that matters most?

The Other Half


Sarah Rayner - 2001
    When she meets James, her potential new boss, she knows she shouldn't mix business with pleasure, but finds it impossible to resist...Maggie appears to have it all. She's beautiful, a talented writer, and has a gorgeous husband. But something's not quite right: his job as a magazine publisher is keeping him in the city until late most evenings, and some nights he doesn't come home at all...Told in the alternating voices of the mistress and the wife, this story of an affair is a sharp, seductive take on modern love.Who, if anyone, comes out unscathed?In writing that is lively, sexy and sharp, the international bestselling author Sarah Rayner explores modern-day relationships and age-old moral dilemmas.

The Torn Up Marriage


Caroline Roberts - 2015
    But what happens when you tear that family apart? Kate and Michael are about to find out as they cope with the crushing fallout of his affair, whilst trying to protect their two young children. This powerful and poignant novel captures the explosiveness of everyday life and what it is to be human; to make mistakes.Set in the historic town of Alnwick, Northumberland, with its stunning backdrop of castles, moorland hills and coastline, this relationship story of love and family takes you in a rollercoaster ride of emotions along with Kate and Michael.Michael’s mother’s battle with breast cancer shatters them all, yet shows them how precious life, love and family is. Can they find a way back and fight for their battered yet enduring love?So, what would you do if it happened to you? Could you betray? Could you forgive?

The Only Best Place


Carolyne Aarsen - 2006
    Her five year plan had never included being a farmer's wife but now she's helping move cows, feed chickens and trying to find her way through the VandeKeere family interactions where she doesn't feel she fits in. The fact that the move was only temporary helped her go along with this detour in their life. That and the fact that their marriage was on shaky ground. Leslie hopes taking a break from their previous life will help her and her husband rekindle their marriage. But when her husband hints that the move might be permanent, she has to decide what to do. As she faces questions about her marriage and her faith in a God she didn't know much of before, Leslie has to struggle to find the only best place for her heart.

Contingency


Paula Wiseman - 2010
    The email teases, "My whole evening is free again." After an angry confrontation with Chuck, she is left with the broken remains of an eighteen year marriage. Where is God? Bobbi agrees forgiving Chuck is the right thing, the God-honoring thing to do, but it leaves her empty and isolated. Teaching her second-graders is a burden. Taking care of her boys saps all her energy. It seems God Himself has walked away, leaving her to struggle alone. Is God faithful? Bobbi can't deny the transformation in Chuck, but genuine forgiveness requires trust, and trust is a risk she's not willing to take. Can she let go of her deepest, most primal fears and save her marriage?

The First Time


Joy Fielding - 1999
     Behind the shiny facade of her seemingly idyllic life in Chicago, Mattie Hart feels as if she is falling apart. After sixteen years of marriage, and one beautiful teenage daughter, Mattie has discovered that her husband, Jake, a high-profile defense attorney, is ensconced in yet another love affair. It is only after Jake finally confesses his infidelity and leaves to live with his girlfriend that a far greater crisis descends upon the embattled Hart family -- Mattie receives some devastating news that will alter all their lives. Wracked by guilt at these unforeseen developments, Jake returns home to be with Mattie. Here, in this most daunting and unexpected of circumstances, Joy Fielding deftly ushers her characters through a poignant and heartbreaking drama about love's astonishing power to defy the greatest odds and to heal the deepest wounds. Bearing all the distinctive qualities of a contemporary classic, "The First Time" is a dazzling illumination of a marriage at the crossroads, where the ties that bind become frayed but refuse to sever, and where a long estranged husband and wife discover, for the first time, exactly what love really means. At once profoundly cathartic and inspiring, "The First Time" finds Joy Fielding at the height of her powers as she explores the amazing resilience of the human spirit.

Maggie's Turn


Deanna Lynn Sletten - 2013
    For the first time in years, Maggie contemplates what she wants from life and soon realizes that her deteriorating marriage can no longer continue as it is. Can she and Andrew repair their broken relationship, or is their marriage over?Left to his own devices, Andrew is forced to take over the household responsibilities and bridge the growing divide between himself and his children. Slowly, he begins to understand what drove Maggie away—and how he can’t bear to live without her. But is it too late? Will Andrew lose Maggie forever?