WINNER Fiction: Women's Fiction 2023 Best Book Awards
When Maggie Bryan works up the nerve to tell her parents she’s pregnant, they immediately disown her. Later that night, her boyfriend is killed. In desperation, she turns to her brother, Sam. Against his wife’s wishes, Sam brings Maggie to his home in rural Pennsylvania.
While Maggie awaits the birth of her child and navigates the tension in her new home, she decides to finish high school. There, she meets Anne Phillips, a volunteer educator and full-time architect. Over time, Maggie becomes drawn to Anne in ways she doesn’t understand, but she knows enough to keep her feelings hidden.
After a devastating loss, Maggie tries to move on, but secrets and betrayals keep her from living her fullest life. Beginning in the late 1940s and spanning decades, My Secret to Keep portrays a woman at war with society, her family, and herself.
WINNER Women's Fiction 2023 American Fiction Awards
David Logan is a con man with four wives he plays like a deck of cards—until a car accident deals him a dead man’s hand.
Now the women he lied to—who thought they were happily settled down with the man of their dreams—have their lives turned upside down by a knock on their doors. All but one of them are left penniless and about to lose their homes, and all of them are too shocked to grieve.
Finding out they’d been deceived was bad enough, but coming face to face with each other at the funeral home wasn’t quite what they’d expected. Before the day was over, the first wife—the only legal one—made them an offer they couldn’t refuse…
From Sharon Sala, a winner of numerous honors including the Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award, this is a poignant, funny story of four women wrestling with betrayal, grief, and anger—and finding hope for the future in their unexpected friendship.
WINNER Fiction: Women's Fiction 2023 International Book Awards
Callie Dressler thought she’d put her past where it belonged—behind her. But when her ex-boyfriend brings their breakup to the big screen, she can no longer deny that their history has been looming over her all along.
At thirty-one, Callie Dressler is finally comfortable in her own skin. She loves her job as a preschool teacher, and although living in her vacant childhood home isn’t necessarily what dreams are made of, the space is something she never could have afforded if she’d stayed in New York City. She knows her well-ordered life will be upended when her type A, pregnant sister, Nina; adorable four-year-old niece; and workaholic brother-in-law move in, but how could she say no when they needed a place to crash during their remodel? As Nina pointed out, it’s still their parents’ house, even if their mom and dad have relocated.
As if adjusting to this new living situation isn’t enough, the universe sends Callie another wrinkle: her college boyfriend—who Callie dumped ten years earlier for reasons known only to her—has a film coming out, and the screenplay is based on their real-life breakup. While the movie consumes her thoughts, Callie can’t help wondering if Nina and her friends are right that she hasn’t moved on. When a complication with Nina’s pregnancy brings Callie in close contact with Nina’s smart and funny architect, Callie realizes she’d better figure out whether she wants to open the door to the past—or risk missing out on her future.