. . . and Baby Makes Two: A Novel


Judy Sheehan - 2005
    But that’s before she sees the perfect child. There he sits in his stroller, angelic and beautiful, magnetic and serene– and he makes Jane question everything she has and everything she thought she wanted. Suddenly all she can see are babies and pregnant woman everywhere. Were there always so many of them? And while there was once a man in her life–her one true love, Sam, gone from this world too soon–there is no man now. Jane must make a choice: possibly become a bitter and childless old lady, letting her biological clock tick on ’till menopause, or tend the ache in her heart now, by becoming a single mother. As Jane struggles to make the most important decision of her life, friends and family offer no shortage of opinions. There’s Ray, her “hubstitute” and gay best friend who would be jealous of any kid who got Jane as a mom; Sheila, her sister, who went from zero to sixty when she eloped with Raoul–who had two young twin sons– and has mixed feelings about being a new mommy; her strict, Catholic father who can’ t imagine what level of hell Jane would banish herself to if she becomes a single mother; and the women of Families with Children from China who are preparing to adopt orphan daughters–without a man in sight. Just as she thinks she’s made up her mind, Jane discovers one small wrench in her plans: handsome, charming, funny Peter, who just happens to be (unhappily) married. . . . And Baby Makes Two is a heartbreakingly honest, wonderfully addictive, and funny novel about love and loss, family and friendship. Judy Sheehan, co-creator of the smash hit Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, has perfectly captured the delights and dilemmas of the scariest job in the world: motherhood.From the Hardcover edition.

The Whisperer: A heart-wrenching and romantic novel about second chances


Elsa Winckler - 2017
    When she calms a stray dog during an incident at school, she’s asked to help a nearby farm with a difficult horse.Cameron Rahl has had a very different relationship with animals since his mother died in a horse riding accident. But now he's inherited his family’s farm, he's determined to never let anyone affect him that way again.Until he meets Cilla. He tries to stay away from the gorgeous horse whisperer with the potential to tame him, but something keeps pulling him close. And as much as Cilla tells herself she can keep it casual, she knows they're too connected to be 'just a fling.'Will Cilla's heart win out? Or will it take history repeating itself for Cameron to realise just how much he needs her?

The Little Orchard on the Lane


Tilly Tennant - 2021
    Adopted when she was just a baby, Posy is excited to re-connect with her birth family and help out on the family cider farm with its old stone walls and bees buzzing in the hedgerows.There’s just one tiny problem – her new next-door neighbour, haughty, handsome vineyard-owner Lachlan. Lachlan has taken an instant dislike to Posy, and after a furious argument when she ventures on his land, she’s pretty certain there’s not a heart of gold beneath his frosty exterior.Yet as she falls in love with the flower-filled hedgerows and apple-green fields of her new life, she discovers more about her grumpy neighbour. Even though he acts like the world is out to get him, she can’t ignore the sad expression in his dark eyes.And when Posy discovers the heartbreaking secret that is tearing Lachlan apart, she understands why he has shut the door on the world and vows to help him, as well as the vineyard, which has fallen on hard times. Yet just as Lachlan lets Posy in, a terrible night threatens to destroy everything she has begun to care about and puts someone she loves at risk. Will her dream life in the country come at an awful price?If you love Nicola May, Debbie Macomber and Milly Johnson, then you will adore The Little Orchard on the Lane. An enchanting summer romance about new beginnings, second chances and trusting your heart.

Making Lemonade


Muriel Ellis Pritchett - 2016
    Instead, a university student totaled her car, her boss – after 16 years of loyal and excellent service – gave her a letter of termination, and her professor husband of 32 years asked for a divorce so he could marry his post-doc student with the 18-inch waist and perky boobs. Half a century old, jobless, and with only a high school diploma, Missouri must take the lemons that life has thrown her and make the best lemonade ever – even if it means traveling to Italy alone to do it.

The Mud Sisters


Edie Claire - 2012
    But some promises are hard to keep...When hospital social worker Teagan Hansen is called to the bedside of a Jane Doe who has been beaten and left for dead with no ID and no memory, she expects to be dealing with a victim of domestic violence. The last thing she expects is to look into the eyes of the childhood friend who disappeared abruptly from her life fourteen years before.Concussed, broken, and hypothermic, Jamie can’t remember her own name, much less what personal circumstances brought her to such tragedy. But as the pieces of her memory begin to fit together, she does remember how much her friendship with Teagan meant to her through the long years of foster care, hard work, and heartbreak that followed that one magical summer.As the indomitable Teagan vows to help Jamie get back on her feet again, the women’s bond strengthens anew. But with Jamie’s life under threat from a man she can’t remember--a man who is determined to find her again before she does--Teagan’s loyalties to her friend, her profession, and her new marriage are tested to their limits. And when the women realize that their pasts have been intertwined far more than deeply than either of them knew, the fate that separated them once before threatens to tear apart them again. And this time, it could be forever.

Megan's Way


Melissa Foster - 2009
    What would you give up for the people you love? When Megan Taylor, a single mother and artist living on Cape Cod, receives the shocking news that her cancer has returned, she's faced with the most difficult decision she's ever had to make. The love she has for her daughter, Olivia, and her closest friends will be stretched and frayed. Megan's illness reawakens her best friend, Holly Townsend's, torment of a long-held secret and years of betrayal. How does one choose between a daughter and a life-long best friend? Can the secret she has been keeping be revealed after years of lying without destroying everyone in its wake? Meanwhile, fourteen-year-old Olivia's world is falling apart right before her eyes, and there's nothing she can do about it. She finds herself acting in ways she cannot even begin to understand. When her internal struggles turn to dangerous behavior, even the paranormal connection she shares with her mother might not be enough to save her - her life will hang in the balance. Megan's Way is a journey of self discovery and heartfelt emotions, exploring the depth of the mother-daughter bond, and the intricacies of friendship. WINNER, READERS FAVORITE AWARD: Fiction/DramaWINNER, BEACH BOOK AWARD: SpiritualFINALIST, Next Generation Indie Book Awards: New AgeFINALIST, READERS FAVORITE AWARD: Women's FictionHONORABLE MENTION, NEW ENGLAND FILM FESTIVAL: Spirituality***Olivia's story will be continued in LOVING LIVI, Harborside Nights new adult romance series. Sign up for Melissa's newsletter and follow her on her author page here on Amazon to be notified of this release!

The Promise of Stardust


Priscille Sibley - 2013
    Now in their late 30s, the deeply devoted couple has everything-except the baby they've always wanted.When an accident leaves Elle brain dead, Matt is devastated. Though he cannot bear the thought of life without her, he knows Elle was afraid of only one thing-a slow death. And so, Matt resolves to take her off life support.But Matt changes his mind when they discover Elle's pregnant. While there are no certainties, the baby might survive if Elle remains on life support. Matt's mother, Linney, disagrees with his decision. She loves Elle, too, and insists that Elle would never want to be kept alive on machines. Linney is prepared to fight her son in court-armed with Elle's living will.Divided by the love they share, Matt and Linney will be pitted against each other, fighting for what they believe is right, and what they think Elle would have wanted resulting in a controversial legal battle that will ultimately go beyond one family . . . and one single life.

One Lavender Ribbon


Heather Burch - 2014
    Early into the renovations, she discovers a tin box hidden away in the attic that reveals the emotional letters from a WWII paratrooper to a young woman who lived in the house more than a half-century earlier.The old letters—incredibly poetic and romantic—transcend time, and they arouse in Adrienne a curiosity that leads her to track down the writer of the letters. William “Pops” Bryant is now an old man living in a nearby town with his handsome but overprotective grandson, Will. As Adrienne begins to unravel the secrets of the letters (and the Bryants), she finds herself not yet willing to give up entirely on love.

The One That Got Away


Bethany Chase - 2015
    She’s well on her way to having the family she’s hoped for since her mother’s death ten years ago. But with Noah on a temporary assignment abroad and retired Olympic swimmer — and former flame — Eamon Roy back in town asking her to renovate his new fixer-upper, Sarina’s life takes an unexpected turn.Eamon proves to be Sarina’s dream client, someone who instinctively trusts every one of her choices — and Sarina is reminded of all the reasons she was first drawn to him back in the day. Suddenly her carefully planned future with Noah seems a little less than perfect. And when tragedy strikes, Sarina is left reeling. With her world completely upended, she is forced to question what she truly wants in life — and in love.Full of both humor and heartbreak, The One That Got Away is the story of one woman’s discovery that, sometimes, life is what happens when you leave the blueprints behind.

A Mother's Choice


Kristin Noel Fischer - 2014
    When a letter arrives threatening to reveal the truth that could destroy her tight-knit family, Nadine embarks on a difficult journey to explain her painful decision, especially to her youngest daughter, Autumn.Meanwhile, Autumn Anderson, Speech Pathologist and mother of two, is struggling in her marriage. The discovery of a troubling letter addressed to her mother disrupts her already complicated life, leading Autumn to question what she’s always believed. When the unthinkable happens, Autumn digs deeper into her family’s past and unravels a tangled web of lies and deception surrounding her own birth. Meeting the one person her mother entrusted with her secret brings Autumn face-to-face with an unexpected and shocking revelation.A Mother’s Choice is a fast-paced, uplifting, emotional read, full of family drama, love, hope, and forgiveness.

The Things We Keep


Sally Hepworth - 2016
    She also knows there's just one other resident her age, Luke. What she does not expect is the love that blossoms between her and Luke even as she resists her new life at Rosalind House. As her disease steals more and more of her memory, Anna fights to hold on to what she knows, including her relationship with Luke.When Eve Bennett is suddenly thrust into the role of single mother she finds herself putting her culinary training to use at Rosalind house. When she meets Anna and Luke she is moved by the bond the pair has forged. But when a tragic incident leads Anna's and Luke's families to separate them, Eve finds herself questioning what she is willing to risk to help them.

Breakfast at the Beach House Hotel


Judith S. Keim - 2015
    Ann, quiet and reserved, is no match for brash, bossy Rhonda, who left the family’s New Jersey butcher business after she won the lottery. Amid their struggles to succeed, The Sins of the Children, a soap opera, films a number of episodes at the hotel and things get complicated in unexpected ways when Ann falls for Vaughn Sanders, the star of the show.

Life From Scratch


Melissa Ford - 2010
    And so is her kitchen.Divorced, heartbroken and living in a lonely New York apartment with a tiny kitchen, Rachel Goldman realizes she doesn't even know how to cook the simplest meal for herself. Can learning to fry an egg help her understand where her life went wrong? She dives into the culinary basics. Then she launches a blog to vent her misery about life, love and her goal of an unburnt casserole. To her amazement, the blog's a hit. She becomes a minor celebrity. Next, a sexy Spaniard enters her life. Will her souffles stop falling? Will she finally forget about the husband she still loves? And how can she explain to her readers that she still hasn't learned how to cook up a happy life from scratch?

Shore Lights


Barbara Bretton - 2003
    Maddy Bainbridge left her Jersey Shore home town right after high school, determined to put as many miles as possible between herself and her many meddling relatives.Now she's back in Paradise Point -- an unemployed single mother whose only option is to accept her mother Rose's offer of a job and a place to live.But it doesn't take Maddy long to discover that the things about your mother that made you crazy at 17 make you even crazier at 32. Rose's critical comments bring out Maddy's inner teenager and by the beginning of December, the end is in sight. Maddy would stay there at the Candlelight Inn, her mother's popular B&B, through Christmas for her daughter Hannah's sake, but once the New Year rolled around… And then fate, in the form of an online auction battle over a Russian samovar that looks like Aladdin's lamp, brings home-town hero Aidan O'Malley into her life and suddenly Maddy begins to believe anything is possible.A child's dreams, an old woman's memories, the joys and heartaches that come with being part of a family, the thrill of new love and the deep comfort of love that stood the test of time -- it all comes together that one special holiday season when even the most battered hearts open just wide enough to let a miracle or two slip through.USA Today bestselling author Barbara Bretton has been hailed as a "monumental talent" (Affaire de Coeur) and now she delves deeply into the mysteries of family and shows us that even the most independent woman is still a daughter at heart.Home: it's where your story starts.(Previously published by Berkley Books)

When We Found Home


Susan Mallery - 2018
    Still, Callie Smith doesn't know how to feel when she discovers she has a brother and a sister--Malcolm, who grew up with affection, wealth and privilege, and Keira, a streetwise twelve-year-old. Callie doesn't love being alone, but at least it's safe. Despite her trepidation, she moves into the grand family home with her siblings and grandfather on the shores of Lake Washington, hoping just maybe this will be the start of a whole new life.But starting over can be messy. Callie and Keira fit in with each other, but not with their posh new lifestyle, leaving Malcolm feeling like the odd man out in his own home. He was clever enough to turn a sleepy Seattle mail-order food catalog into an online gourmet powerhouse, yet he can't figure out how to help his new sisters feel secure. But affection isn't Malcolm's strong suit...until a beautiful barista teaches him that an open heart, like the family table, can always make room for more.In this emotional, humorous and heartfelt story, Susan Mallery masterfully explores the definition of a modern family--blended by surprise, not by choice--and how those complicated relationships can add unexpected richness to life.