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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Sam’s free-spirited nature leads her to Australia and anywhere else that smelled of adventure. Her lust for life often led her down rabbit holes, discovering the places where her fears lived. To create balance, she builds her life around American expats who become her family. Extravagant parties, intimate gatherings and the intrigues of the rich and famous, she finds herself wrapped in a love triangle torn between two suitors - a stalwart Aussie teacher who shares his enthusiasm of the Outback, and a wild Texan with a colorful past who unleashes her passion. Her quest for change now has her head spinning by the depth of choice. Who will Sam choose?
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.
It’s the end of summer, 2001. Erin O’Connor has everything she’s ever dreamed of: good friends, a high-powered career at a boutique Manhattan firm, and a husband she adores. They have plans for their life together: careers, children, and maybe even a house in the country. But life has other plans. Daniel works on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center.
Erin is drinking margaritas on a beach in Mallorca, helping her best friend get over a breakup, when she hears a plane has crashed into Daniel’s building. On a television at the smoky hotel bar, she watches his building collapse. She makes her way home with the help of a stranger named Alec, and once there, she haunts Ground Zero, nearby hospitals, and trauma centers, plastering walls and fences with missing-person flyers. But there’s no trace of Daniel.
Reeling from accusations of professional incompetence, high school counselor Kathlyn Murray takes refuge in her uncle’s cabin on Sandshell Island. Instead of finding solace, Kathlyn is confronted by islanders who resent her intrusion, as they struggle to keep their treasured lifestyle safe from the surge of mainlanders. Desperate to stay, Kathlyn puts her counseling skills to the test, fighting to overcome cultural prejudice. When a young girl befriends Kathlyn seeking advice for her future, Kathlyn recognizes the short supply of prosperous jobs on the island for young people. She seizes the opportunity to help and proposes a new initiative for kids to intern at local businesses. Her outspoken idealism sparks controversy amongst the islanders. While most young people are thrilled with her ideas, the entrenched residents ostracize her for butting into island affairs. The tides begin to turn when Kathlyn strikes up a friendship with the local attorney and wins his support. Despite his influence, Kathlyn endures a scathing personal defilement during a town meeting. Before it’s over, she must face her past and open her heart to the people who judge her. Only when Kathlyn confronts her fears and her scars can she find true peace.
These heroines communicate as women do-with intense emotion and in code! They put up with unsympathetic bosses, love the wrong men, and yearn for well-timed, unsolicited, supportive hugs from loved ones. Hilarious and heartwarming, readers will feel like part of the group as they gather for their special dinners in their chic sanctuary.
Silvia, the unofficial founder of this group of crazy, lovable women, does her best to function normally despite her abject past. Julie's idealistic nature despite a cavalcade of roguish suitors continues to surprise her friends with cheerful optimism. Sarah is tightly wrapped and comfortable with anonymity until a misadventure exposes a lot more than her truth. Tina is a tough-talking career woman who can spot a "fugazi" from a mile away and hides a startling secret. And Liza, with her unique delivery of the English language and tiny bladder, drags her friends along as she defeats her archenemy and chases her dream.
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.
Dying isn’t just hard on the ones left behind, the regret of unfinished lives weighs heavily on the terminally ill. That’s where Dire’s Club steps in, a specialty travel agency that takes a small group of dying people on one final adventure—so they can be free of guilt, be more than a diagnosis, and find a way to confront life…and death.
Life Coach Charlotte Claybrooke built a successful second career guiding people out of grief, but the impending tenth anniversary of her own heart-wrenching tragedy sets her on a journey to find life among the dying.
Staring death in the face was Jimmy Dire’s business. He met it with a warm hug, a kind word, and a smile. Dire’s Club gave the terminally ill one final, bucket-list adventure before passing on, but dying was expensive. The bills, like Jimmy’s lies, were piling up. It’s only a matter of time before he’s forced to face a different type of death.
Based on real-life accounts, "Imelda's Secret" delves into the story of two cousins who are grappling with the emotional scars of being forced to serve as 'comfort women' during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II. Forced into sexual slavery, 'comfort women' were stolen from their families and stripped of their dignity. The stories of these women have been swept under the rug for far too long.
"Imelda's Secret" is a story of story of hope, redemption, and strength. It exposes the experiences of 'comfort women' in the hopes of sparking awareness and advocacy in all who read it.
A young neurologist, Dr. Callie Wallace, returns to her hometown of Sperling, Texas, with business partner and friend Dr. Richard Cortez to set up their neurology practice. The unexpected death of one of Callie's patients throws the overachieving physician into a tailspin, and she begins to question her own sanity. Her mother wants to be there for her daughter, but a dark family secret keeps their relationship contentious and distant. A long-time boyfriend also wants to be there for Callie, but she keeps him at arm's length and repeatedly turns to Richard, causing strain. It all comes down to who exactly Callie can trust...definitely not herself.
Sara Matthews is middle-aged, broke, and facing a divorce she doesn't want. She feels like she's lost her compass in life. What's more, she has many secrets that she keeps from the world at large-the molestation that marred her childhood and a mother who is now a ghost and who haunts Sara only to berate her.
Now she must begin the difficult work of starting her life over. Sara travels to London to work with her business partner, Thomas Hunter, and soon she finds herself involved in a new relationship. But all too quickly, she starts making decisions that lead her down dangerous a path, one that could cost her more than she has to give. Only time will tell whether she'll be able to escape the danger.
Heartbreaking yet hopeful, this novel traces the journey of a middle-aged woman who breaks free from years of abuse only to enter into another life-threatening relationship.
"Magnificent. An enthralling and heartbreaking journey." -Bill Dedman, Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times #1 bestselling author of Empty Mansions
Lady Be Good transports us to the glittering, sumptuous era of 1920s New York to follow the life of aspiring actress Dorothy Hale as she comes of age. Breaking societal rules imposed on women, "Peck's Bad Girl of Pittsburgh Society" leaves behind her privileged world for the bright lights of Broadway to chase her dream. From convent school debutante runaway to Ziegfeld showgirl to Hollywood star, Hale transforms herself into one of the most adored figures in the highest echelons of society. Yet behind the public façade the darling of the press contends with heart-rending loss, gossip and betrayal, and a tempestuous friendship with Luce.
Surrounded by her fabulous circle of friends-Gertrude Stein, Fred Astaire, Cole Porter, James Roosevelt, Elsa Maxwell, and other iconic figures-Dorothy finds her way to the other side of heartbreak and prepares for a White House wedding. Then, suddenly, at age thirty-three, at the height of happiness and peak of her fame, she falls to her death. Her life story is revised and written into history by the tabloids and the famed and fêted-leading to this novel's stunning conclusion.
The most meaningful journeys encompass more than the distance we travel…
When Martha files for divorce from her controlling and dismissive husband, Tony, she knows she’ll have to begin again. Tony persuaded her to abandon her dreams of chocolate and pastry fame, and to break a promise to her grandmother, to follow him and his dreams.
Martha’s heart pulls her back to her hometown in seaside Maine, to Gram, and to the bakery where Gram is still waiting for her to return. But before she can go home, Martha must learn who she really is, and her journey of discovery leads her south—from Baltimore and Tony’s betrayal, to the Gulf coast of Florida and the friends she’d made in culinary school, when her dreams had felt within her reach.
