Award Winner: 2018 Best Book Awards Fiction: Women's Fiction
Undone by motherhood, judged by her husband, thirty-two-year-old Rachel Clayborne flees with her baby in the middle of the night for the one place on earth that’s been her refuge: her grandmother’s lakehouse in northern Wisconsin. Hoping to reconnect with a former, healthier self, she instead faces a confused and dying grandmother, her ever-present nurse who seems bent on thwarting each of Rachel’s desires, and a changed ex-boyfriend—her first and most passionate love. As a constant rain threatens the nearby dam, Rachel struggles to discern what’s happened to the past, who she’s become, and what kind of a life she will make for herself now—one that clings to ghosts or opens bravely to a wild new geography.
From the acclaimed author of Nina: Adolescence and The Priest’s Madonna comes a gripping new novel that depicts the transformative power of motherhood with honesty, wit, and compassion.
Award Finalist: 2018 Best Book Awards Fiction: Women's Fiction
Raeanne Mara has just returned to the beautiful and hard scrabble ranch that has been the Family Ranch for 5 five generations to grieve the deaths of her husband and daughter. Her cousin John who manages the ranch gives her a shoulder to cry on and hard work to help her heal, but he suddenly disappears after a fight at the Blue Dog bar. Shortly after, she finds a dead body in the nearby forest and the local sheriff and others think John may have killed the man and left town. Journalist Raeanne doesn't believe that is true so she starts a search. When the neighbor's teenage son arrives at her doorway and says John has sent him to tell Raeanne that he is okay and will be home in "a couple of days but don't tell anyone", Raeanne knows something is wrong and she and the local women nearby delve into the dark places in the forest to find what's going on.
Award Finalist: 2018 Best Book Awards Fiction: Women's Fiction
A must-read for summer - a heartwarming story of love and second chances. Perfect for the fans of Jane Costello and Milly Johnson. Lizzie Greene is about to lose everything when her husband suddenly dies and his debts come to light. To make ends meet she opens up her quirky old house to be used as a set for a film based on a bestselling romance novel. Her life and household are turned upside down when a whole cast of colourful characters enters her family's lives: from an enigmatic author, a handsome location scout, a brooding director, to a heart-throb leading man, never mind her now ex-mother-in-law camped out in her drive. As Lizzie delves deeper into the film's book, all is not as it seems. Will her desire to save her house and unravel the secrets of the past lead to new love, or to mortal danger?
Award Finalist: 2018 Best Book Awards Fiction: Women's Fiction
Twenty-five years ago, a group of ninth graders produced a Saturday Night Live–style videotape to cheer up their ailing friend. The show’s running time was only ninety minutes, but it had a lasting impact: Becca laughed her way through recovery, and the group—Jordana, Seth, Holly, and Lex—became her supporting cast for life.
Award Finalist: 2018 Best Book Awards Fiction: Women's Fiction
When Ally Albright’s husband and unborn child are killed by a drunk driver, Ally is certain her life has ended, as well. But a request from a beloved professor to teach a first-grade class on Pelican Isle draws Ally from her grief and the security of her parents’ home to the remote island off the coast of North Carolina. Though her plan is to teach only until a permanent replacement can be found, Ally is immediately captivated by her enthusiastic and endearing students. Befriended by the islanders, including charming Dr. Chris Cruz and loving yet eccentric neighbor Joy Summers, Ally accepts the community’s hospitality and discovers that Pelican Isle is not just a way station, it is a safe harbor for recovery, rebirth, and hope—not just for Ally but for all the residents of the island.
Award Finalist: 2018 Best Book Awards Fiction: Women's Fiction
She can’t change what’s come before. But letting go could bring healing—and the rare love that comes once in a lifetime.
When Ohio pastry chef Jada Brooks and her two best friends restored the glorious Wayfair Inn, it was a boon to Sweet Lake—and to their own lives. Now Linnie and Cat are focused on private matters: one engaged, the other swept up in newlywed bliss. Jada has also begun looking to the future by dating widower Philip Kettering and forging a sudden, sweet bond with his six-year-old daughter.
But the past isn’t finished with Jada. When a curious guest checks into the Wayfair, her delving questions stir Jada’s guilt about the heartbreaking events that scarred the town seven years ago. The risks Jada must take by revealing the truth will test every assumption she’s made about the meaning of family and the magic of enduring love.
Award Finalist: 2018 Best Book Awards Fiction: Women's Fiction
A near-death experience in a car with her Mother; running from tear gas at a Vietnam War rally hand-in-hand with her Pop; a year in India learning side-by-side the country's 'untouchables;' the highs and lows of living on a rural Pennsylvania commune…and all before Fiona Sprechelbach's thirteenth birthday. Set during one of the most politically divisive eras in American history, Thread for Pearls is a coming of age tale that takes us on a young heroine's journey to faith and freedom amidst a turbulent family dynamic. It's a story of resilient hope that questions whether it's the events of our lives that define us, or the thread on which we choose to string them.
