From the Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author comes the first book in a trilogy about love, betrayal, and the secrets families keep.
Forced to choose between abortion or adoption, Olivia Carson’s younger sister, Lily, runs away from home. Sixteen and pregnant, she never returns. But she writes. Once a year, Lily mails a picture of her son, Josh, to Olivia until his thirteenth year. Then it’s Josh himself who arrives at Olivia’s house, alone, terrified, and in possession of a notarized declaration from Lily. It begins, “In the event I go missing…”
Josh has difficulty talking. He can’t read or write, but he’s a prolific artist, exhibiting skill beyond his age. His drawings are as detailed as they are horrific. Olivia soon realizes Josh’s artwork tells a story. There’s more to his arrival and to Lily’s untimely disappearance than it seems. Using the drawings as a road map, Olivia traces Josh’s path back to his mom. Each drawing sheds light on Lily’s past and reveals a darkness that forces Olivia to question everything she thought she knew about her family.
At a boarding school in Pennsylvania, a deathbed request from the school’s dean brings three former students back to campus, where secrets and betrayals from the past are brought out into the open—secrets that could have a catastrophic effect on the dean’s eighteen-year-old son.
Told in alternating points of view and time frames, Attachments is the story of best friends Stewart (“Goody”) Goodman, Sandy (“Pick”) Piccolo, and Laura Appleby, the girl they both love. The friends meet in 1972 at a boarding school in coal-country Pennsylvania where they encounter Henry Griffin, the school dean, whose genuine fatherly interest and deep human bond with them is so strong that when he has a severe stroke almost twenty years later, he uses what could be his last words ever to call out their names.
Attachments is a puzzle—and the only one who knows how all the pieces fit is in a coma. In the process, longtime secrets are unearthed, revelations come out into the open, and Young Chip Griffin is about to learn something he may or may not be able to handle.
Winner Best Cover Design: Fiction 2021 Best Book Awards
Inklebrawt Winklehank is a Huply, a hybrid of the biologically engineered immortal Plythi’i race and a human. Because of his birthright, he has both the logic and enhanced psychokinetic abilities of the Plythi’i paired with the wild emotions and temperament of humanity. He is forced to wrestle with these emotions in the face of what his logical mind knows he must do to safeguard the future of the human race. But he is not alone.
Maggie Henderson is a scientist working at MIT, creating leading-edge bio-nanotechnology while struggling to keep her own powers hidden, unaware of a growing threat close to home.
David Wessel is an elite sniper stationed in the Afghanistan desert. When his latest target turns out to be far more dangerous than your average enemy, he is forced to choose who to believe to protect those closest to him.
Get their attention before it's too late... The Quiet War has begun...
Acclaimed journalist and media celebrity Diana Willis can snag the inside scoop and truth on any story. But when her helicopter mysteriously malfunctions and plummets to the ground, everything changes, sending Diana down a maze of murderous intrigue and confusion. Waking up from a coma eight weeks after the crash, she struggles with the recurring dreams that reveal an extraordinary past life. Now, Diana's hellbent on uncovering the secrets about those past memories.
Delving into a world of mind control and past lives, the truth is more terrifying than she ever imagined as she travels back in time to face the perpetrators of America's most confidential and sinister projects. Teaming up with an unlikely ally, an elusive interdimensional mentor from her other life, Diana is able to restore her psychic and telepathic powers. Suddenly, they're in more danger than ever before as their enemies seek world domination through mind control and media manipulation.
Family. The same people who destroyed Gavin's self-esteem are the ones he must save.
When Gavin looks in the mirror he sees his twin Devon — literally. Yet like the mirror, inside they are the reverse of each other. Devon is the chosen one, anointed by their tough Mob-connected father, who demeans Gavin as a nerd but expects him to save his brother from his worst instincts. Gavin struggles to believe in himself and make his own decisions in the face of Dad's bullying and Devon's narcissistic gaslighting. When Devon gets into drugs and crime, people start dying. Gavin's loyal allies tell him he can't save his twin; he must save himself. He flees to find freedom and success far away, but he can't hide from his sociopathic brother, or from the Mob.
Secrets In The Mirror is a sweeping saga of one family's journey to rise above cultural precedent. But Gavin is the one who must finally break the shackles of multigenerational and narcissistic abuse, despite inextricable bonds with a twin who's headed for self-destruction. It is a tale that grapples with the imperative to save others versus the struggle to save oneself.
Blue by You tells the uniquely romantic story of a man who falls in love with the same woman twice, decades and a thousand miles apart, but is a total stranger to her both times.
Daniel, a former D.C. trial attorney, has fled to Colorado following the cancer death of his young wife, a woman he'd known since their childhood. It's in a rural mountain setting two years later that a chance encounter results in a one-week love affair with Paula, a lifestyle writer from Nashville.
Paula is a person of faith; Daniel was while his wife was alive, but no longer. There is a soft-touch Christian theme throughout the book, especially about the power of prayer and the reality of redemption.
Paula leaves after the seven days, promising to return, but doesn’t. And Daniel never hears from her again. They are reunited over twenty years later in Nashville, but a rare illness has deprived Paula of any memory of Daniel.
A riveting coming of age story, that will make you laugh, cry and root for Laura to find happiness.
Laura Shirk is a normal, happy, go-lucky, little girl playing with Cabbage Patch dolls and Legos. Until she isn't. Set in the late 1980s-early 90s, a visit to her aunt and uncle's house changes everything.
What follows is a nerve-racking story shedding light on child sexual abuse. As the tragedy unfolds, Laura mutters through life concealing her secret from everyone. Feeling alone and isolated, she struggles to navigate her younger years wondering if she can or will ever find happiness.
A half century after the Holocaust, Daria Abramson, suffering nightmares of the Lodz ghetto and her time with its infamous ruler, Chaim Rumkowski, turns for help to a sensitive but dogged therapist.
During their intense sessions, she lays bare buried memories and faces deep feelings of guilt about the war and the death of her husband. Secrets long held by Daria spill out in fierce succession, revelations disclosed to those she loves most – her daughter, granddaughter, and Ruth, a lifelong friend and fellow survivor. In turn, they expose their own shocking surprises.
Amity Thorne is not like other nineteen year olds-she's trying to survive in war-torn Western America where fear and loss are no strangers. In a time where normal is gone, she closes herself off from the rest of the world, keeping her head down, and persevering through the oppressive rule of the Guardianship.
When her father's choices leave them in danger, Amity struggles to leave everything behind as she and her faithful wolf-like companion, Sarge, find themselves on a perilous mission to save her younger sister.
Amity tries to prepare herself for the uncertain, but she never imagined that the toughest hardships would come from within. As she navigates through new territory, her resolve is quickly challenged by obstacles that strike deeper than she ever thought possible; sparking a fire within her she thought was long gone.
It is 1925 when a love affair between enchantress Maggie Westinghouse and con man July Pennybaker upends the small town of Miagrammesto Station, tumbles it about, and sets it back down as Delphic Oracle, Nebraska. Will their love fulfill its destiny? The narrator of this wry, entertaining novel, Father Peter Goodfellow, weaves back and forth in time to answer that question. Along the way, he introduces the Goodfellows, the Penrods, and the Thorntons—families whose members include a perpetual runaway, a man with religion but no faith, a man with faith but no religion, a boy known as Samson the Methodist, a know-it-all librarian who seems to actually know everything, a quartet of confused midsummer lovers, and a skeleton unearthed in a vacant lot.
Somewhere along the way, Tony Brouwer’s life took a few wrong turns. Estranged from family, unemployed, living off the public purse, and a regular in the meal queue at the Faith Assembly Church, Tony feels like the Good Ship Destiny has set sail before he could even reach the gangway. As he navigates the desperate downtown streets of a major Canadian city, the clock is ticking for hapless Tony, who finds himself caught halfway between hope and despair.
An old, disabled dog (15) and his master (60) are plucked from their home, and parachuted into the town the man knew as a ten-year-old boy. Feeling rejuvenated, they celebrate by chasing each other playfully. Also, the dog is proficient in English, so they reminisce about their origins, relationships, good deeds, and misdeeds. But their reminiscences are interrupted by two tragedies, one involving the man’s younger brother, and the other involving the dog, who is quickly reverting to his old and disabled self. The man is debating whether the time has come to let his dog go. The dog will make the decision.
In 1882, Charles "Gunner" Morgan, 17, shipped out from New Orleans as a 3rd class apprentice seaman, Navy No. 817. Becoming a Navy team baseball player, he knew the "greats" in American baseball. In 1898, he led the dive team pulling bodies from the USS Maine disaster, reported to President Theodore Roosevelt (then assistant secretary of the Navy), and became "The Man Who Started the Spanish-American War."
Known also as "The Man Behind the Gun" for his shooting prowess, he was among the first enlisted men promoted to officer. He taught the Japanese how to fire the big guns in the Russo-Japanese War. He survived working in Thomas Edison's Navy lab at Key West.
Yet, he found time for love. He met Vivian, the sugar king of Havana's daughter, married and pregnant -- both situations temporary. She became his soul's safe harbor.
Faced with the mortality of her beloved mare, Beauty, and while trying to provide guidance and support to her twelve-year-old niece, Trina starts to reminisce her twenty-year friendship with Beauty.
Trina was a shy and nervous twelve-year-old that wasn't just happy in the shadow of her big sister, Talicia, but actively sought it out. This happened despite her not really noticing or caring that she and Talicia had been cast from the same mould, being physically similar, having similar names and being dressed in matching clothes as infants. Even having matching horses to ride that happened to be almost physically identical sisters themselves.
Just as Trina acquires her dream horse, she also starts to break out of the mould cast in Talicia's image.
"The Fabian Waltz" is a witty romance set against the backdrop of late Victorian London, where poverty is all but ignored. Playwright George Bernard Shaw's life and work are upended by a challenging woman he cannot win. Shaw and his fellow Fabians fight for social justice and discover love along the way.
George Bernard Shaw, the Don Juan of London's progressive Fabian Society, finds himself attracted to an Irish millionairess: Charlotte Payne-Townshend. Shaw's best friend and fellow Fabian is Sidney Webb, a romantic Cockney intellectual. Webb pursues a beautiful social reformer named Beatrice Potter. Potter put aside the comforts of her upper-class life to go undercover in the city's sweatshops to expose the meager wages and horrid working conditions of the urban poor.
An inspirational second act book for women in the arts, the ARTemis Arts Wisdom Anthology is the first-ever collection of plays and screenplays written by women over 50.
Much has been said about the need for diversity in the arts industry, but its deep-seated ageism is often overlooked. Opportunities are most often afforded to the same set of young, prodigious, and mostly male creators.
While these men default to a seasoned, wizened status as their careers mature, talented female artists often simply become . . . invisible.
The ARTemis Arts Wisdom Anthology is the antidote to women over fifty going unrecognized in the arts industry.
Inside you'll find fifteen works, all new, all unproduced, some ready for the stage, some for workshops, three for the screen, and all written by women of age who have faced severely limited opportunities to test, perform, or publish these works.
The Otis, an inconsequential river—not the Hudson—flows through Wattsville, a small city a few hours north but a universe away from the real City, capital C. You might think the everyday people who live here, in this land of scarce opportunity, are also inconsequential. Until you meet them.
Sam, a cross-dresser with a voice like Tina Turner’s and his best friend Carol, a cashier who stress eats, prove their mettle when Carol’s daughter Garnet is imprisoned for defending herself against a violent boyfriend. Sam and Carol’s plots to save Garnet have consequences, however. An innocent boy is blamed for their actions and kidnapped, a dog gets poisoned, and Garnet’s life is imperiled as parole becomes a distant dream. In the end, it’s the river that offers up justice for these heroes-at-heart. But they will need to be able to swim.
The test of survival lies within one's character, and, yet, experiences can jade you and change life forever. Bea and Bobby McCreary's chances to experience the life their mother had hoped for them became dimmer and dimmer as sacrifice and starvation crept in. Post-World War II circumstances led their mother, Lottie, to the point of desperation where she sunk to depths she never could have imagined. It was a world turned upside down where morals and ethics played a smaller part. It was only satisfying their hunger and staying alive that became their daily mission in life. This story, inspired by true events, happened not only for Bea and Bobby but for thousands of other children whose families felt that survival seemed possible--only if their children were handed over to orphanages to foster their care. What a rude awakening and choice it would be--an orphanage, a workhouse-or the street-if these children survived at all.
Mary's teacher suddenly appeared as a few children began to stray from the straight line she had originally formed. She ushered the children back to their places until it was time to board their bus. Too many goddammed rules as far as I'm concerned, he thought. Mary seemed unconcerned with the rules for the most part, and he laughed when she twirled her skirt and bounced around anyway. She was some little tease! He could hardly breathe with excitement as he watched her. He'd been patient, waiting and watching, intent on her next move. Nervously, he began to pick his teeth with the toothpick he'd found on the seat. It wasn't long before he dropped the toothpick, and his hand slid down to his zipper. Suddenly, he was aware that there was a knock on the driver's side window. It startled the hell out of him and embarrassed him. His face turned bright red. He struggled to gain composure as he rolled down the window.
Ace Sinclair, now in his seventies, has one eye on a hurricane churning up from the south and the other on his old high school sweetheart, J’nelle Reade, whom he has invited to his Outer Banks beach house for a sentimental journey into their pasts. But the past is with them more than they know, and they are soon pulled into a haunting search among old memories for betrayals, mistakes, missed chances and ultimately the hard truths of their lives. As a dangerous hurricane turns in the Atlantic and heads their way, time runs short, and they must choose between the tidal pull of old dreams and the future’s wide unknown.
Two women, one ancient Egyptian harem, and the daring decision that changed the course of history.
In the opulent court of Egypt’s tenth dynasty, Princess Hagar has always known her destiny. One day, she will marry the Crown Prince Merikare and become the Great Royal Wife, the most powerful woman in Egypt. But dark dreams afflict Hagar the moment she hears of the latest addition to Pharaoh’s harem: the stunning, iridescent Sumerian, Sarai. Princess Hagar feels a powerful presence around the Sumerian woman. Hagar suspects Sarai has brought black magic into the palace—but what can she do to convince Pharaoh?
The intrigue of Pharaoh’s court pales in comparison to that swirling in the Royal House of Women among the wives, children, and concubines of the king. Sarai’s arrival upsets the already precarious balance. Loyalties divide, and betrayal, jealousy, and tragedy plague the once peaceful household. When a series of disasters befalls Egypt, Hagar must make a daring decision, and the stakes could not be higher. She could lose everything—her position, her power, her family, and even her life.
A gripping, openhearted novel about family, reconciliation, and bringing closure to the secrets of the past.
Early into the tempestuous decade of her thirties, Rae Langdon struggles to work through a grief she never anticipated. With her father, Connor, she tends to their Ohio farm, a forty-acre spread that itself has enjoyed better days. As memories sweep through her, some too precious to bear, Rae gives shelter from a brutal winter to a teenager named Quinn Galecki.
Set authentically in the High Sierra, The Trail is a moving story showing how nature helps us find what's missing in our lives.
More than a hiking novel, The Trail is fused with humor, philosophy, and trail lore. Woven in is a back story detailing the origins of the John Muir Trail: a 211-mile trail spanning the rooftop of the Sierra Nevada from Yosemite Valley to Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continental United States.
Twinkle follows Tess Lee and Jack Miller after two years of marriage. Tess is a wildly successful and world-famous novelist. Her inspirational books explore our innermost struggles and the human need to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Jack is a federal agent. After spending decades immersed in a violent world, a residue remains. As they both heal from past trauma, their epic love, fostered by their ability to truly see one another, has brought them true happiness. However, when an anonymous threat is made against Tess’s life, everything changes.
From Charming Falls Apart author Angela Terry comes a story about finding the courage to face your past, be true to your heart, and live your best life. Fans of Sophie Kinsella and Emily Giffin will enjoy cheering for Adeline Turner as she navigates the twists and turns of her newly complicated life in this fun, heartwarming novel.
Thirty-three-year-old corporate attorney Adeline Turner has built her adult life around stability. Her professional life is thriving, but her personal life . . . not so much. Deep down she wants more, but finds it’s easier to brush aside her dreams and hide behind her billable hours. That is, until a new client and a chance encounter with her high school crush have her taking leaps she never planned. Suddenly, unadventurous, nose-to-the-grindstone Adeline finds herself moving across the country from her predictable life in Chicago to San Francisco, falling into messy romantic situations, and trying to unravel an office-sabotage plot before it ruins her career.
ALL BEGINNINGS COME AT A PRICE. ARE YOU WILLING TO PAY IT?
Lilla must recruit the biggest and most dangerous army in the Seven Galaxies, but the Teryn emperor will not comply unless Lilla earns the blessing of the Teryn Guardian Goddess Laoise.
Dealing with gods is never easy. Guardian Goddess Laoise’s condition for bestowing her blessing is for Lilla to bring her the mysterious Heart Amulet. Now Lilla is trapped in a strange place with no way out, no idea where to go or how to find the amulet.
The only way for Lilla to complete her mission is to uncover the biggest secret of all Teryns. Will she survive discovering the secret of what it means to be a True Teryn?
It’s 1972 and Isabelle is four years old. She, her eight-year-old brother, and their mother are grappling with yet another harsh Maine winter under crushing poverty. With their father absent, their mother takes the children South to Georgia to be near her family. Their extreme economic hardship continues as residents of a public housing complex in Albany. Their lives become juxtaposed with the phenomenon of “White Flight” as they, a Caucasian family, become a local minority living among a societal minority. The predominately white world outside the public housing development is largely unknown to Isabelle and her siblings. Meanwhile, those with whom they most identify (the children in “The Projects”) reject them or directly take their frustrations out on them. Subsequently, Isabelle struggles to figure out where she belongs. That is, until she becomes best friends with Evelyn, a Black girl who moves in across the driveway. Their friendship blossoms and flies in the face of typical racial attitudes of the day. They become each other’s lifeline and hope in an environment rife with adversity. Soon, however, they are confronted with an earth-shattering event that completely changes Isabelle’s view of the world.
This inspiring debut novel is about love--where showing compassion toward others becomes a magical experience and changes people's lives--even when they are strangers.
The cross-country road trip began innocently enough ... but unexpected detours lead them down a road that will change their lives.
Megan and Katie Summers are leaving on their long-planned road trip and are thrilled when the departure day finally arrives. But Katie is apprehensive because her dreams are confusing; a mysterious fire, two sisters screaming, an Indian woman with a long grey braid, a white horse, and trees that want to hurt her. She didn't know how to interpret them.
Twenty-four-year-old Violet wants one thing: to hide from life after her husband's death left her reeling. But life has other ideas. Well, life and a certain seven-year-old neighbor.
Violet moves to Magnolia Avenue, a forgotten street in a forgotten neighborhood filled with forgotten mobile homes. It looks like the perfect place to retreat and lick her wounds. But it's not long before her young neighbor, Arabella, enlists her in the rescue of the cantankerous old woman next door who has fallen ill. But if Violet thinks this is a one-off event, she's wrong. Next thing she knows, she is entangled in the lives of several neighbors from grumpy Mr. Pritchard to the handsome GI across the street. Set against the backdrop of the 1969 moon landing when astronauts broke the boundaries of Earth, A Boundless Place shows what happens when people are able to break through their own boundaries and reach out to others.
Fresh off the debut of her EP, sixteen-year-old Dani Truehart is flying high on a string of number one hits. After locking down her first full-length album in record time and furiously preparing for her world tour, Dani is torn between leaving her loved ones behind and embracing her burgeoning stardom.
Dani's career explodes as her tour moves across the globe. Elated when two of Hollywood's hottest young actors, Kayla Spencer and Trey Connors, befriend her, Dani finds herself living life in the fast lane and recording her second album as she tours. Constantly dogged by the paparazzi, Dani basks in the adoration of The TrueHart Nation, her loyal super-fans who are ready to follow her around the world and go to war with anyone who dares dis their favorite pop star, whom they've dubbed "The Queen of Harts."
Constellations follows Tess Lee and Jack Miller after three years of marriage as they navigate the meaning of love and family over a series of holidays. Tess is a wildly successful and world-famous novelist. Her inspirational books explore our innermost struggles and the human need to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Jack is a former federal agent. After spending decades immersed in a violent world, a residue remains. Both healing from past trauma, together they have finally built the life they wish to live. What will happen to their blissful union when Jack’s childhood family resurfaces? When Tess and Jack visit the Millers for Christmas, how will insecurity, a sense of missed opportunities, and the need for redemption test their relationship? When a terrible accident threatens everything in an instant, will they learn the true meaning of unconditional love? Their loved ones are along for the ride: Omar, Tess’s sarcastic best friend who calls her Butterfly; the female president of the United States, with whom Tess talks politics and bakes cookies; Joe, Jack’s friend from the Bureau who understands the sacrifices he’s made; Bobby and Gina, their younger friends who never fail to lighten the mood; and the Miller family.
Sylvie is a tender, poignant women's fiction novel examining a family's love for one another, acceptance, and letting go. Set in the Colorado mountains, it reveals the secrets and lies surrounding what appears to be a perfect family. Exploring the delicate threads binding family together, we learn how an unexpected tragedy can unravel everything and how they find hope, inspiration, and forgiveness to continue.
Sylvie will give readers a peek in to the mind and moods of a young woman struggling with repeated social rejection. It's a must-read for grief groups; providing useful, understandable insight for parents and siblings of family members suffering consequences of coping with unexpressed trauma.
She has an eerie gift for drawing faces. Will one terrifying vision tear apart everything she loves?
Ohio, 1987. Adriana Krause hasn't slept in weeks. Desperate for work to keep her three-year-old son out of her powerful father's controlling clutches, her vivid illustrations land her a job as a police sketch artist. But the only image she can draw is the shockingly mangled visage from her recurring nightmare.
With her disturbed nights spiraling into violent episodes, Adriana's unique talents pull her into the tight-knit small-town's buried secrets. And now fearing she'll lose her little boy to the madness sucking her down, she's convinced that the monstrous likeness she can't stop scrawling holds the answer to a brutal crime.
Can this struggling mother solve a dark puzzle before her family is destroyed?
Face the Night is a bone-chilling supernatural thriller. If you like complex characters, lived-in settings, and tension dripping from every page, then you'll be transfixed by Alan Lastufka's gripping tale.
A political thriller about sexual misconduct in the #MeToo era, one victim's battle to survive and overcome trauma, and the cable news machine that feeds off titillating scandal coverage and inflammatory confrontation, Final Table draws upon Dan Schorr's firsthand experience as a New York City sex crimes prosecutor and sexual misconduct investigator to tackle the worlds of political and media dysfunction.
Former White House staffer Maggie Raster is struggling to build her own consulting firm and overcome a recent sexual assault by an ex-boss. Kyler Dawson, a broke former poker champion, desperately needs to gain entry into a controversial but potentially very lucrative international poker tournament. The host nation faces widespread condemnation for the recent murder of a prominent female US journalist, and a pending presidential executive order threatens to prohibit him and others from participating.
A novel of love, lies, and deceit from the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Everything series.
Lifestyle journalist Ella Skye remembers every celebrity she interviewed, every politician she charmed between the sheets, and every socialite who eyed her with envy. The chance meeting with her husband, Damien; their rapid free fall into love; and their low-key, intimate wedding are all locked in her memory. But what she can’t remember is the tragic car accident that ripped her unborn child from her. Ella can’t even recall being pregnant.
An unforgettable and breathtaking novel of love, loss, and the unexpected routes that life takes from Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Kerry Lonsdale.
With her deceased sister’s Route 66 bucket list in hand, California girl Joy Evers sets out on a cross-country road trip to meet up with her fiancé, checking off the bullets along the way.
Singer-songwriter Dylan Westfield has a serious case of wanderlust and a broken-down car. Stuck at a diner between LA and Flagstaff, he meets Joy, his complete opposite. She’s energetic. He’s moody. She’s by the book. He’s spontaneous. She believes in love at first sight. He thinks love is a complicated mess. But Joy has a brand-new convertible.
Tess Lee is a novelist. Her inspirational books explore people’s innermost struggles and the human need to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Despite her extraordinary success, she’s been unable to find personal happiness. Jack Miller is a federal agent. After spending decades immersed in a violent world, a residue remains. He’s dedicated everything to his job, leaving nothing for himself. The night Tess and Jack meet, their connection is palpable. She examines the scars on his body and says, “I’ve never seen anyone whose outsides match my insides.” The two embark on an epic love story that asks the questions: What happens when people truly see each other? Can unconditional love change the way we see ourselves?
Three generations of dads, playing traditional roles in each other's lives, arrive simultaneously at significant crossroads. The decisions they make and the actions they take will directly – and eternally – affect each other.
After a life of hard work and raising children, Robert is enjoying his well-deserved retirement when he discovers that he has an illness he might not be able to beat. At 19, Jonah is sprinting across the threshold of adulthood when he learns, stunningly, that he's going to become a father. And Oliver – Robert's son and Jonah's dad – has entered middle age and is paying its demanding price. While reconciling the time and effort it has taken him to reach an unfulfilling career and an even less satisfying marriage, he realizes that it's imperative that he keep it all together for the two men who mean everything to him.
Soap opera star by day, harried, single mom by night, Calliope Hart's life is a delicate balancing act. When the network cancels her show, Callie's world crumbles and she must decide whether it's more important to fight to save the show or take a risk and start over from scratch.
As a young mother with a toddler and a live-in boyfriend, Maggie Fisher’s job at a checkout counter in downtown Phoenix doesn’t afford her much financial flexibility. She dreams of going to college and becoming a teacher, options she squandered when she fled her family home as a teenager. When Maggie stumbles onto an ad offering thousands of dollars to women who are willing to gestate other people’s babies, she at first finds the concept laughable. Before long, however, she’s been seduced by all the ways the extra money could improve her life. Once she decides to go for it, it’s only a matter of months before she’s chosen as a gestational carrier by Chip and Donovan Rigsdale, a married couple from New York.
After delivering twin babies and proudly handing them off to the Rigsdales, Maggie finally gets her life on a positive trajectory: she earns her degree, lands a great job, and builds a family of her own. She can’t fathom why, ten years after the fact, the fertility clinic is calling to ask for a follow-up DNA test.
High-energy and immensely readable, He Gets That from Me explores what it really means to be part of a family.
Amelia MacQueen has lost her favorite son, Gavin, to a suspicious drowning, for which her daughter-in-law has been convicted. She’s been awarded temporary custody of Gavin and Cassie's twelve-year-old daughter, Heaven, a name that makes Amelia cringe. Reluctantly, she takes Heaven in, but asks the girl to call her Grandmelia instead of Grandma, a name that doesn't make Amelia feel quite so old.
The daughter of drug addicts, who has long been left to her own devices, Heaven does not appreciate her grandmother’s constant critical ministrations, and the pair quickly butt heads. She instead bonds with Uncle Daniel, Amelia's older, agoraphobic son, who never leaves his bedroom. Through the wall between their rooms, Daniel spins Celtic tales for Heaven from the Isle of Skye, where the family's ancestors lived, including fifteen-year-old Maggie, who mysteriously disappeared crossing the Atlantic many years ago.
After her husband is killed by a drunk driver, Kelly Harris and her son TJ move to Ohio, into a sprawling Victorian house left to her husband by his grandmother. Dealing with her overwhelming grief is a struggle for Kelly as she adjusts to a new town. Life unexpectedly takes a turn when Kelly and TJ hear sounds of crying coming from the “Alexa” unit in her son’s bedroom, followed by a little girl’s voice asking for help. At first, Kelly is terrified and grabs her son, fleeing the house in the middle of the night and checking them into the nearest motel. But Kelly isn’t willing to be chased from her home by a ghost, so she decides to find out more. By chance, Kelly meets Detective Rob Porter, who is investigating the disappearance of a child named Marilee, and is taken aback when Kelly’s “ghost” mentions Marilee’s name. Will Rob and Kelly find answers as to the identity of the ghost and what she knows of the missing child?
Alex Evans, a thirty-six-year-old touring electrician, discovers through an accidental pregnancy and then the pain of miscarriage that she truly wants a family. But to attempt another pregnancy, she’ll have to change both her career and her relationship; her partner Connor, ten years her senior, isn’t prepared to become a father again.
When Alex is implicated in an accident involving the female pop star she works for, she and three other women on tour rent a house together in Tuscany. While the tour regroups, confessions are made, secrets are spilled: the guitar tech conceals a forbidden love, the production assistant’s ambition knows no limits, and the personal assistant battles mental issues.
Through arguments and accidents, combating drug use and religion, the women help each other look back on the choices they’ve made, eventually buoying each other, offering up strength to face tough decisions ahead.
Finalist Best Cover Design: Fiction 2021 Best Book Awards
“I dreamt of Noah last night. He was going to ask me to marry him …”
A rose-covered grave, seventy-nine letters, and a scribbled note unearth buried emotions and the timeless beauty of first love.
When Caroline Myers discovers a box of letters in her deceased mother’s trunk, she’s captivated by the romance that unfolds between her mother, Emma Rose Walsh, a nineteen-year-old waitress, and Noah Anderson, a handsome young soldier.
Determined to read between the lines, Caroline and her sister, Kate, set out on a search that leads them to the North Carolina foothills and the padlocked gate of the Anderson family cemetery. Will the one who holds the key keep them from unearthing long-buried secrets and fulfilling a request their mother tucked inside the box sixty-four years earlier? Will they find closure—or encounter a surprising revelation that plunges them deeper into the past?
Finalist Best Cover Design: Fiction 2021 Best Book Awards
Grace Cavanaugh is intelligent, kind-and a bit of a wise ass. Lately, though, she's also something else: completely lost and just a little crazy. Her entire world has collapsed since Valentine's Day, when her husband, Michael, died unexpectedly after a romantic dinner celebrating their devotion. With her world turned upside down, she abandons the couple's gorgeous Victorian mansion and retreats to a cramped apartment with their three dogs in tow. Living in misery, barely finding energy to walk the dogs, Grace succumbs to her sorrow.
Just as she hits bottom, a relative she hasn't seen in years calls out of the blue. Maggie Reilly, her eighty-six-year-old great aunt who still lives in the house she was born in, has troubles of her own. She desperately needs a family member to take care of her, so she reaches out to Grace hoping the bond they shared decades ago remains strong enough to bring her great niece back home.
Finalist Best Cover Design: Fiction 2021 Best Book Awards
The Eves is a multi-generational novel portraying lives lived well and lives in transition. Filled with poignancy and humor, The Eves captures the conversations we wish we had had with our parents, if we had taken the opportunity, and the lessons we would want to impart to our children, if they were ready to listen. Told through the voice of the psychologically complex Jessica Barnet, this is her story. As the primary witness in a messy trial she has been torn from the foundation of her existence—her connection to her children.
With a partially finished doctoral degree, and incomplete renovations on her Washington, DC row house, she has let go of her ambitions and her appearance, but not her vodka or her sense of loss and guilt. When Jessica meets five diverse, determined, and sometimes ditzy old women living in a sustainable community everything and everybody changes. Through plot twists and turns that cover three continents, we learn the truth of Jessica’s life and lies just as we fall in love with the vividly drawn characters and the vibrantly described settings.
Finalist Best Cover Design: Fiction 2021 Best Book Awards
The road to independence is paved with good intentions.
A series of life-changing events forces Gemma Stone to realize how dependent she is on those around her. Lost, alone, and quite desperate, she attempts to put distance between herself and her past. The last place she ever thought she’d find herself is in the wilderness of Vermont.
A devastating snowstorm is the perfect opportunity for Levi Hudson to have a quiet weekend getaway in his remote cabin. His father can’t bother him all the way out here. But a strange sound in the dead of night will put him on a path he never saw coming.
Finalist Best Cover Design: Fiction 2021 Best Book Awards
Sequel to the award-winning book, The Rabbit Princess: The Path.
"It doesn’t take strength to wake up; it takes courage to wake up. It takes strength to live."
After the war, Annie, Pika and Naso carry on their pilgrimage to find the unicorn, Qilin, but they are pulled into a battle at a human village, compelling them to reflect on their own journeys—past and future—and forcing them to make difficult choices. Years later, a new force has arisen to overthrow the kingdom. Naso must find the others to help her and her granddaughter, Osani, fight to keep the kingdom they so love from falling apart. Along the way, they learn that no matter where their journeys lead them, the ties that bind their hearts—love, integrity and loyalty—will always bring them back together.
Finalist Best Interior Design 2021 Best Book Awards
Taking risks and exploring the unknown are as vital to human beings as our need for air, for growth, for affirmation that we exist for something. These 19 stories reach deep into humanity’s compulsion for the rush of new experiences. But gently, because it’s not only records we might shatter. When does adventure turn to recklessness? What happens when we toe the edge above the void and face the big silence, where we might see God—and die without warning? The Icarus Syndrome seeks to capture our push for more and hold it to the light, lofty and free, for as long as we dare tempt the downward slip. Both are possible; only one is assured.
