Contemporary Family Life Women Fiction

For years, Dora has played the role of the perfect wife and mother in a loveless marriage. Now her husband has filed for divorce, her child is diagnosed with autism, and her house is on the market. Dora's façade collapses under the weight of her grief, and she suffers "broken heart syndrome." Mamaw and the girls rally around Dora - but it's up to Dora to heal herself as she spends the summer prowling the beach, discovering the secrets of the island and her heart.

Hilton Head, a South Carolina retirement heaven - at least it's supposed to be, but for Big Al and Connie Russo, the move from New Jersey to this Southern paradise has been fraught with just a few complications. Especially for their daughter, Grace. Well, that's what she likes to be called. Her family insists on Maria Graziella. Seriously, enough with the Neapolitan. That might have been okay in New Jersey, but now it's just plain silly, and Grace, at 32 is - horror of horrors - still unmarried.

Grace sees her boyfriend, Henry, everywhere. In the supermarket, on the street, at the graveyard. Only Henry is dead. He died two months earlier, leaving a huge hole in Grace's life and in her heart. But then, Henry turns up to fix the boiler one evening, and Grace can't decide if she's hallucinating or has suddenly developed psychic powers. Grace isn't going mad - the man in front of her is not Henry at all, but someone else who looks uncannily like him.

Kate Flynn, 43, has given up her university career to come home and look after her mother in Firenze, their big house by a lake in Cardiff. When Kate meets her old friend David Roberts, she begins to obsess about him: she knows it's because she's bored, but she can't stop. David is married, rational, and dependable: the last type to want an affair. David's marriage isn't as solid as it looks, though, so he takes refuge in Firenze, where he can talk to Kate about music.

Once upon a time, she was Robyn Hart, a dogged journalist covering an arson case who saw too much and wasn't afraid to expose it. But that courage nearly cost Robyn her life. Now under the safety of the Witness Protection program, she has a new identity - Carly Quinn - with a new job in a new city. As she struggles to make the best of her new life in Boston, the terror of the past still lingers, and Carly lives in fear that her enemies will find her.

Shayla Perkins isn't the kind of girl who makes the same mistake twice, especially when it comes to Sean "Stitch" Molina. So when he gives her the world's biggest rejection, that's it - she's done. Until the sexy, silent, unavailable Sean makes Shay a very personal offer. Of course, it still doesn't mean he's interested in her. Or does it?

A compelling tale of two women separated by a century who discover long-buried secrets in an Australian manor house. In 1891, Tilly Kirkland is reeling with shock and guilt after her tempestuous marriage ends in horrific circumstances. Fleeing to the farthest place she knows, Tilly takes a job on Ember Island in Moreton Bay, Australia, where she becomes the governess to the prison superintendent's precocious young daughter, Nell.

Maria and Emma have not seen each other since their mother's funeral two years before. Now, Emma has come to visit Maria at her house in Spain, and her presence is an unsettling intrusion on Maria's quiet and solitary life. Over six days in the seaside town together, the sisters cautiously sink into conversations recounting the years of their separate adult lives. Their walks through the quiet town and evening talks on the terrace reveal almost more than Maria can deal with, until finally, the sisters confront the unspeakable....

Rita Lavender is the last woman to be swept away by a smooth line and a seductive smile. And she's just beginning to savor the fruits of her success when she meets a man who will change everything. Mayor-Elect Taylor MacKensie is handsome, charming, and charismatic. Still, Rita never imagines that she'll leave a Christmas party with him, or that, caught up in the magic of a snowfall and a bottle of champagne, she'll give in to desire. Eight weeks later, Rita knows she's carrying Taylor MacKensie's child.

Ten years ago, Jack Everett left his family's ranch without a backward glance. Now, what was supposed to be a quick trip home for his father's funeral has suddenly become more complicated. The ranch Jack can handle - he might be a lawyer, but he still remembers how to work with his hands. But turning around the failing vineyard he's also inherited? That requires working with the one woman he never expected to see again.

Leni and her sister Alice were best friends. But did they know each other as well as Alice thought? In the hope of coming to terms with her grief, she tries to piece together Leni's last weeks - but her discoveries only lead to more questions. And that's before the surprise reappearance of someone from the past. Meanwhile, the rest of the family seem to be falling apart. Belinda, Alice's mum, has developed an unhealthy obsession with a clairvoyant, and Tony, her dad, is stressed about becoming a father all over again, what with three failed marriages stacking up behind him.

The Mackay cousins - Natches, Rowdy, and Dawg - would do anything for family, so when former DHS agent Timothy Cranston drops off four sisters that Dawg never knew he had, there is no question: The cousins will protect and care for the girls, and their mother, because they’re family.... Five years later, Eve Mackay, the eldest sister, has graduated from college and settled in to life as a Mackay in Pulaski County, Kentucky. She works hard as a cocktail waitress and helps out at the bed-and-breakfast that Dawg bought for her mother.

One year after her mother’s death, a woman prepares to celebrate her fortieth birthday. Digging through a trunk in the attic, looking for keepsakes for the occasion, she discovers photographs that call into question everything she believed about her life. The truth is a different story—one of a little girl in danger, a lie, and a mother’s love so fierce it led her to do the unimaginable.

Clendenin Hughes first kissed Dabney Kimball during a Nantucket snowstorm freshman year of high school. Ever since that moment - God, the rush, the chemistry! - Dabney has known that she and Clen are an unsplittable unit - essentially the same person in two different bodies. Of course, with Dabney now at Harvard and Clen at Yale, those bodies are 140 miles apart. A stirring portrait of young love at a crossroads, The Tailgate introduces two irresistible characters and invites us into a world we don't want to leave.

With her mother dying and her marriage falling apart, Euly Winger returns to her birth place in order to uncover a dark secret about her parent's divorce. Something that has haunted their family since Euly was a young adult. But when Euly meets up with an old acquaintance, her time back home turns nightmarish when he angrily reveals everything he knows about her parents.

If living well is an art, then Toots Loudenberry is a modern-day Michelangelo. She and her best friends - Sophie, Ida, and Mavis - have shared joys and troubles, forged new businesses and love interests, and discovered talents they never knew they possessed - like Sophie’s blossoming psychic gift. The foursome returned from a trip to Sacramento to discover another situation demands their attention. Laura Leigh, a Hollywood starlet whose main talent seems to be landing in trouble, is missing.

Some kids inherit a family business; Jo Ward inherited a badge. Once voted Most Likely to End Up in Jail, the town wild child has become sheriff - hell-bent on uncovering the truth about her father’s mysterious death. Life is quiet in rustic River Bend, but Jo longs for something beyond her small hometown and the painful memories it holds. All that keeps her sane is the support of her best friends, Melanie and Zoe.

Weeks away from the birth of her first child, Georgie should be enjoying the peace of her new life in the country, but boredom has settled in and nerves are running high. A viral news story about the rescue of a missing child warms her heart until she sees the photo: the woman who found the child is her own mother, Nancy, who disappeared twenty years ago. How could Nancy have abandoned her own children? Georgie needs to know before becoming a mother herself, even if it means calling on her estranged brother Dan for support.

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.

Grenadine Scotch Wild has only vague memories of the parents she last saw when she was six years old. But she's never forgotten their final, panicked words to her, urging Grenadine to run. The mystery of their disappearance is just one more frayed strand in a life that has lately begun to unravel completely. One year into her rocky marriage to Covey, a well-known investor, he is arrested for fraud and embezzlement. And Grenadine, now a successful collage artist and painter, is facing jail time despite her innocence.