Contemporary Family Life Women Fiction

Mom is barely in the grave and the prodigal child is here to pick the bones clean. I don’t want her here. My sister’s defection is a wound that won’t heal, and her return simply rubs at the scabs covering my heart. I’ve managed just fine without her. She can go back to her fancy college and forget about us—that’s what she does best anyway. If only I didn’t need her help. Or miss her so much.

When Britt Conway was eighteen, she left Blue Harbor without a glance back, telling herself that she was closing the door to her painful past for good. But when her father takes a fall and needs her help to oversee the family business until he is back on his feet, Britt can’t refuse, especially when her current unemployment status gives no room for excuses. Everyone conveniently failed to mention that her first (okay, only) love is back in town and working at her family’s orchard. The two come together to give it a better chance for the future—and find their own second chance.

After a blizzard roared across the island in February, Lola Sheridan was forced to postpone her wedding to Tommy Gasbarro, the handsome Italian sailor who stole her heart two summers back. Their June wedding approaches—and the Sheridan women have a surprise party up their sleeves, one that will shock all involved and make Lola question her allegiances.

Alessandra è una biologa che insegna a Parigi, dove abita con Pierre. Da anni non va nel Salento, il luogo in cui è nata e che ha lasciato dopo un evento drammatico, perché non riesce a fare i conti con le ombre della sua famiglia. Quando Annie, l'anziana madre di Pierre, è ricoverata in una clinica perché sta progressivamente perdendo la memoria, Alessandra è costretta a rimettere tutto in discussione. Chi siamo quando pezzi interi della nostra vita scivolano via? Che cosa resta di noi?

After her scandalous May-December romance comes to an end, baby of the family Lilly Callaghan returns home to Trillium Bay braced for the torrent of “I told you sos” from her sisters and the rest of the tiny island community. Floundering both personally and professionally, she’s at an emotional crossroads but determined to figure out her next best steps. When a surprise job offer from her house-flipping sister reacquaints Lilly with handsome, free-spirited Wenniway Island transplant Matt Eastman, Lilly wonders if she’s ready for a new romance.

Talk about a bad hair day. Louisiana beauty salon owner Charmaine LeDeux has a loan shark on her tail, and Raoul Lanier, the six-foot-three hunk of testosterone she thought she divorced, has just delivered a bombshell: They're still married! At least the rundown ranch they've inherited together is the perfect hideout. With the moon shining over the bayou, this Cajun cowboy must sweet-talk his way into his wife's arms again...before she unties the knot for good!

Four sisters who never knew their father—or each other—come together around his deathbed and learn what it means to be a family in The Year Everything Changed, a magnificent novel brimming with heart and feeling from author Georgia Bockoven.

When Lillo Gray pulls up to Kennebunkport’s most exclusive hotel wearing a borrowed dress and driving a borrowed VW van, she knows she’s made a big mistake. She’s not even sure why Jessica Parker invited her to her posh wedding. They haven’t seen each other since they were unhappy 14-year-old girls at fat camp. And now they’re from two completely different worlds.

When reporter Phoebe Adams loses her job and her fiancé on the same day, it never occurs to her that she’ll also have to support her mother, Ruth, through her divorce from Phoebe’s father after thirty-five years of marriage. They both need a safe haven, and Phoebe knows just the place—Summer Island where Grandma Alice still rules the roost from the big New England beach house Phoebe and Ruth once called home.

Tracy Briggs has finally gotten her act together. She’s focusing on her own life and helping her hearing-impaired son learn to talk. With her sister married and exploring a new career, Tracy has begun to run the family’s magazine business and feels her life is pretty much perfect. That is, until her son’s deadbeat dad shows up in Magnolia Grove asking for a second chance. Now that her son is getting the help he needs and a promising new romance with his teacher is in bloom, Tracy wants to keep her life just as it is. But her ex isn’t taking no for an answer.

When the Chatsworth library closes indefinitely, Dodie Fairisle loses her sanctuary. How is a small-town art teacher supposed to cope without the never-ending life advice and enjoyment that books give her? Well, when she’s as resourceful and generous as Dodie, she turns her sunroom into her very own little lending library.

Everyone thought college sweethearts Bex Holmgren and Hayden Archer were headed for the altar...until a tragic accident sent young Bex running from a future she wasn't ready to claim. But when she's offered her dream job at Archer Brewing, Bex can't pass up the chance to reconnect with the big, crazy family that once welcomed her with open arms - and the one man she's never stopped loving. When he returns home after a year in France, Hayden is less than thrilled to find his ex-girlfriend working for his family's company. He's finally moved on.

Evan Archer has always preferred peace and solitude to the loud antics of his large, hard-to-navigate family. But when Archer Enterprises needs a new creative director, Evan jumps at the chance to claim the job he's always wanted. Moving home is easier than he expected, but Evan isn't prepared for the stunning A-list celebrity hiding out in his family's garage apartment. Following a major tabloid scandal, movie star Alaina Pierce escapes to Ribbon Ridge. She's immediately drawn to the quiet, picturesque town and the incredibly sexy - if a little quirky - Evan.

The rich atmosphere of South Carolina, both Hilton Head and Charleston, is brought vividly to life by Dorothea Benton Frank, a South Carolina native who, with her exquisitely evocative prose, makes you smell the sea air, see the palmettos, and savor the sweet tea, but this time it comes with a side of antipasti.

Alice has hit rock bottom. Once a Michelin-starred chef, she is now drowning in debt, working the line at a chain restaurant, and drinking too much. The last person she ever expected to come knocking with a job offer and a fresh start is her ex-husband, Gabe. Gabe built The Riverview Inn with his dad and brother. Now the grand lodge in the Catskill Mountains is nearly ready for the opening event - a society wedding for 500 guests. The only thing missing is a chef. That’s where Alice comes in.

The Morgan sisters spent many blissful summers at their family’s lake house growing up, but as they grew older, their lives took very different paths. Hope adores her twin girls, but she doesn’t love being a stay-at-home mom. When her workaholic husband doesn’t support her career aspirations, she packs up the kids and goes to Sunset Cottage, thinking that some time apart will help her decide what she really wants. But when the life she dreamed of becomes a possibility, she is more torn than ever.

It’s Christmas time, and Mary Valley is in a funk. She’s a writer for home magazines, but she’s lost touch with what home means. Her life seems meaningless. The last house she wrote about was a gazillion-dollar mansion with a moat! Plus, she’s estranged from her daughter, CC, and granddaughter, Larkin, and mired in a dead-end relationship with her boss. Daniel is a man adrift since his son Timmy was killed in Afghanistan. He’s living on a houseboat in Florida with Timmy’s three-legged dog, Tripod, and taking tourists out on fishing charters. But his life is on the edge.

High on the clifftops, Lettie takes a deep breath of salty air and opens the letter. There is no signature, and the old-fashioned handwriting is faint against the yellowed paper. The message, and the tiny gold key inside, will turn her life upside down. Lettie Starcross makes her way along the cobbled streets of Heaven’s Cove, clutching a little key and searching for answers about her kind, great-aunt Iris, whom she misses terribly. With no job back home, and no one in her family understanding how adrift she feels, Lettie wonders if her aunt was lonely just like her.

When her estranged father leaves a will naming her and her sisters the sole heirs of the inn and restaurant in Oak Harbor, Jo finds herself putting her pride aside and heading back to the one place she'd vowed never to return. Josephine is finally finding her way after being lost for so long, but when secrets that should have been buried start resurfacing, she runs the risk of losing the most important person in her life. She now realizes the life she's hanging onto is about to become shattered into pieces.

Author Jamie Beck returns with an engrossing series about family, friendship, and starting over. In this first Cabot novel, a legacy of secrets tests old friends seeking a second chance at life and love.