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WOMEN'S FICTION



Fiction / African-American / Anthologies / Cross Genre
Fantasy & Sci Fi / Graphic Novels / Historical / Horror / Inspirational
LGBTQ / Literary / Multicultural / Mystery & Suspense / New Age
Novella/Novelette / Poetry / Religious  / Romance / Short-Story
Thriller & Adventure / Visionary / Western / Women's Fiction / Young Adult



What We Carry by Kalyn Fogarty

Winner
Fiction: Women's Fiction
2021 Best Book Awards

Fans of Caroline Leavitt will relish this rich, complex novel born of the author's own loss and grief, about how one can overcome tragedy through bravery and self-discovery.

Cassidy Morgan's life has always followed a carefully laid track: top education, fulfilling career, and marriage to the love of her life, Owen. The next logical step was starting a family. But when a late-term miscarriage threatens to derail everything she's worked so hard for, she finds herself questioning her identity, particularly what it means to be a mother. Unable to move past her guilt and shame, she realizes there's more to fix than a broken heart. Grief illuminates the weaknesses in her marriage and forces her to deal with her tumultuous relationship with her own mother.

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Girl Wears Those Shoes by Jenny Wang

Aspiring young Chinese immigrant Gigi O survives by working as a stripper, but she strives for true success in the U.S. real-estate industry. Navigating this highly competitive business is tough, especially when her only support comes from the deeply flawed man she loves and her old cohorts from the strip club. Issues of betrayal and trust, loyalty and commitment complicate her goals even as one lesbian friend adds new dimensions to her understanding of love versus desire. Then the market crashes and financial turmoil threatens to rob Gigi O of all she has achieved. Can she find new ways to chase her dreams-and still manage to keep her clothes on? Or might she find a better reason to take them off? Girl Wears Those Shoes is a tale of love and power, the story of one woman who wants to make the world her own-if only she can figure out how.




Grudge Tiger by Judith Fournie Helms

A novel inspired by real events

Beware of tiger... and her lawyer.

The Warrens aren't your average family-they live at a zoo. When their Bengal tiger, Ms. Benni, mauls an "aspiring model," the young man's multi-million-dollar lawsuit threatens to cripple their lifetime passion-caring for their beloved animals. The family's prospects to win at the jury trial look bleak, in spite of the fact that the young man deliberately walked into Ms. Benni's cage. When all appears lost for the family, their lawyer stumbles upon a creative defense.

If she can fly to London within the judge's shortened time frame and get the tiger expert's testimony on video and prove to the jury that Ms. Benni is a grudge tiger with a reason for her vengeance, they have one shot at winning. If she fails, the Warrens lose everything.

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The Road to Me by Laura Drake

Jacqueline Oliver is an indie perfumer, trying to bury her ravaged childhood by shoveling ground under her own feet. Then she gets a call she dreads—the hippie grandmother she bitterly resents was apprehended when police busted a charlatan shaman's sweat lodge. Others scattered, but Nellie was slowed by her walker, and the fact that she was wearing nothing but a few Mardi-Gras beads. Jacqueline is her only kin, so, like it or not, she's responsible.

Despite being late developing next year's scent, Jacqueline drops everything to travel to Arizona and pick up her free-range grandma. But the Universe conspires to set them on a Route 66 road trip together. What Jacqueline discovers out there could not only heal the scars of her childhood but open her to a brighter future.




The Trials of Adeline Turner by Angela Terry

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.

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Nothing’s As It Seems by Holly Brandon

Thirty-one-year-old Dr. Chastity (Chase) Ann Morgan's continued search to fulfill her romantic fantasy of a perfect marriage takes her to an unexpected place when she begins to have vivid, déjà vu dreams of a mysterious, otherworldly man who calls out to her in the most alluring sing-song voice. While the recurring dreams aren't helping one iota in her struggle with romance, a structural engineering job opportunity along with a man who may be "the one" sends her back to Europe. What unfolds is not quite what she has in mind, and her life becomes more complex than expected, especially when her quirky family's dysfunctionalities pop up at the most inopportune times.

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Sparrows: a novel by Rose Betit

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.

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Sylvie by Sharon Kreider

Sometimes, holding on means letting go...

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.




A Boundless Place by Pamela Stockwell

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.




The Art of Always by Patricia Friedrich

Art history student Darcey Mendes needs a new topic for her thesis in order to graduate, but time is against her. Family debts are pressing. She fears she must give up all hopes of an academic career. Yet, without her degree, would she earn enough to provide for her secret daughter's future? Archie Northwood, rich and from a privileged family, suddenly reappears in her life to offer the chance that could save her--the story of his Brazilian great-grandmother. His ancestor was Modernist painter Ana Eça, who, on the verge of stardom in the 1920s, mysteriously vanished from public view forever. Choosing to unveil Ana's story is a complicated proposition for them both. How will they be able to work together to resolve the decades-old mystery when Darcey cannot allow Archie to guess her secret?




Constellations by Patricia Leavy

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.

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Friendship Matters by Rona D.

Friendship Matters, is a splashy and spicy novel that demonstrates the staying power of friendship.

Meet Saisha (pronounced “say-sha”) who spends her days selling real estate and her nights with sundry men, some otherwise entangled, some not. But to what end?

Her friend Euniqé (pronounced “unique”), a widowed psychologist with her own private practice, has no interest in a love life. She’s quite satisfied with raising her son, Tyree, until she’s confronted with a gentleman who is committed to gaining her time and attention.

Rounding out the trio is Kandace, a stay-at-home mom who has many talents but sacrificed her dreams for her not-so-perfect husband, is raising two beautiful children and has access to buy anything and everything she desires. However, what she desires most can’t be bought.

By turns moving, funny, and inspirational, Friendship Matters is a timeless, charming story about three women who need each other just as much as they need the very air they breathe.




Ice Out by Susan Speranza

Francesca Bodin has a near-perfect life as an accomplished music teacher and professional flutist living in the Vermont countryside with her husband Ben, and their four-year old daughter, Addie. This ends suddenly when a snowmobiling accident traps the three of them in a frozen lake. Ben, after escaping onto the ice, leaves her and Addie to die.

Francesca believes she sees their dog pull Addie from the lake and drag her into the nearby woods. Desperate to help her daughter, she crawls from the icy waters and follows them. Once she enters the forest, however, she finds herself trapped in a sinister, dream-like world where night never ends, where Addie’s whereabouts remain hidden from her, and where she encounters a group of women who, like Francesca, have been left to die and now seek to unleash their revenge on those who have harmed them. When they have Ben in their sights, Francesca realizes that if she is ever to escape this nightmare and save her daughter, she must first save the husband who abandoned them.

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Love, Only Better by Paulette Stout

Meet Rebecca, an adorable gal with an intimate secret…

For Rebecca, sex is a joke missing a punchline. No crashing waves. Only pangs of inadequacy. At twenty-eight, shouldn’t she have had one by now? Her snickering ex thought so. His taunts echo in her ears as he rolls out of her bed. Then out of her life.

After enrolling in an unconventional study for women, Rebecca is stunned by the power she holds inside. But her promise to avoid intimacy hits a snag when a handsome neighbor moves across the hall. Their chemistry is electric, but the timing couldn’t be worse!

If he learns her secret, she’ll lose her best chance at love. But if her intimacy lessons fail, she’ll be left eternally broken. Unlovable.

Can Rebecca find the answers she needs to love someone new—and finally love herself?




No Names to Be Given by Julia Brewer Daily

Finalist
Fiction: Women's Fiction
2021 Best Book Awards

1965. Sandy runs away from home to escape her mother’s abusive boyfriend. Becca falls in love with the wrong man. And Faith suffers a devastating attack. With no support and no other options, these three young, unwed women meet at a maternity home hospital in New Orleans where they are expected to relinquish their babies and return home as if nothing transpired.

But such a life-altering event can never be forgotten, and no secret remains buried forever. Twenty-five years later, the women are reunited by a blackmailer, who threatens to expose their secrets and destroy the lives they’ve built. That shattering revelation would shake their very foundations—and reverberate all the way to the White House.

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Nowhere Near Goodbye by Barbara Conrey

Finalist
Fiction: Women's Fiction
2021 Best Book Awards

A mother’s love vs. a doctor’s oath.

Oncologist Emma Blake has dedicated her life to finding a cure for a rare brain cancer. Twenty-five years ago, Emma’s childhood friend Kate died of glioblastoma, and Emma vowed to annihilate the deadly disease. Now, Kate’s father, Ned, is pushing her to work harder to fulfill that promise.

When Emma discovers she’s pregnant, she’s torn between the needs of her family and the demands of her work. While Ned pressures her to do the unthinkable, her husband, Tim, decorates the nursery. Unwilling to abandon her research, Emma attempts to keep both sides of her life in balance.

Emma knows she needs to reconcile her past with her present and walk the fine line between mother and physician. But Ned has a secret, and when Emma discovers what he’s been hiding, the foundation of her world cracks.

Nowhere Near Goodbye is a story of family, failure, and second chances.




Rewrite the Stars by Christina Consolino

Finalist
Fiction: Women's Fiction
2021 Best Book Awards

Mom-of-three Sadie Rollins-Lancaster struggles with a crumbling marriage she had hoped to salvage. Though her husband, Theo, initiated the divorce, he's now having a change of heart that's difficult to reconcile as he fights against PTSD demons within. When a chance encounter with a stranger resurrects emotions in Sadie she never expected to feel again, her world is turned upside down. Will Sadie find the courage to shape her own future? Will Theo resolve his internal struggles and win Sadie back?

Rewrite the Stars is an honest, moving portrayal of life and love that reminds us how much of our happiness lies within our own grasp. If you like heartwarming stories about love, loss, and redemption, then you'll love Christina Consolino's debut novel.




Still Crazy by Judy Prescott Marshall

Finalist
Fiction: Women's Fiction
2021 Best Book Awards

Julie and Dan Holliday's lives are the definition of perfect. They have it all: a million-dollar business, properties (including a gorgeous home), and a dog. Julie Holliday is the perfect wife; she is loving, sensuous, and loyal, with adoration for her husband, yet she is in constant fear that her husband and perfect life is all but a facade on the brink of collapse. She finds a note on her husband's desk and is terrified, as it may confirm her suspicions that Dan may be cheating again! Every time she confronts him, he denies it and calls her crazy. Having had enough and determined to live a life afresh without a cheating husband and paranoia, she sells her business, all of her properties, packs her bags and disappears without a trace. Unbeknownst to her, her chapter with Dan is far from over because love may just have other plans for these two.




The Sometime Sister by Katherine Nichols

Finalist
Fiction: Women's Fiction
2021 Best Book Awards

Betrayed by Stella, the sister she adored, Grace Burnette struggles to put her previously well-ordered life back together.

News of Stella’s death in Ecuador propels Grace into a dangerous world of intrigue. Accompanied by the man her mother hired to protect her, Grace confronts her ex-fiance and Stella’s widower. She joins forces with Stella’s lover, Adelmo Balsuto, a man with a dangerous past, to bring her sister’s killers to justice.

Adelmo is more interested in revenge than justice, and Grace must choose how far she will go to settle the score for her sister. An explosive encounter with her sister’s killers brings back a long-buried memory that could destroy her family. The choices Grace makes could cause forgiveness and redemption or despair and destruction.




What's Not Said by Valerie Taylor

Finalist
Fiction: Women's Fiction
2021 Best Book Awards

Kassie O’Callaghan’s meticulous plans to divorce her emotionally abusive husband, Mike, and move in with Chris, a younger man she met five years ago on a solo vacation in Venice, are disrupted when she finds out Mike has chronic kidney disease—something he’s concealed from her for years. Once again, she postpones her path to freedom—at least, until she pokes around his pajama drawer and discovers his illness is the least of his deceits.

But Kassie is no angel, either. As she struggles to justify her own indiscretions, the secret lives she and Mike have led collide head-on, revealing a tangled web of sex, lies, and DNA. Still, mindful of her vows, Kassie commits to helping her husband find an organ donor. In the process, she uncovers a life-changing secret. Problem is, if she reveals it, her own immorality will be exposed, which means she has an impossible decision to make: Whose life will she save—her husband’s or her own?




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