Contemporary Family Life

After a failed dig in Honduras, aspiring archaeologist Casper Christiansen heads home to Minnesota to face his unresolved feelings for Raina Beaumont, the woman of his dreams. But when he arrives unannounced on her doorstep, he receives the shock of a lifetime: Raina is pregnant with someone else's baby.

When Rachel Mowbray left behind her family farm in North Yorkshire at eighteen, she never planned on returning. But when her ex-childhood sweetheart calls and insists she returns due to her father's declining health, she travels north. Every moment home reminds Rachel why she left—her sister Harriet is both hostile and cold, her father barely communicates with anyone, and the house feels stuck in time. Plus, her old neighbor and ex, sheep farmer Ben Mackey, still has the power to make her pulse race…a decidedly unwelcome realization!

For decades, Judge Margot Burr-Nadir has worked tirelessly, case by case, to administer justice from the federal bench of the Eastern District of the United States. Her position already seems like the highest possible honor. So she is surprised when a call comes from the President of the United States inviting her to accept his nomination to the Supreme Court. For Margot, this should be among the brightest spots of an already charmed existence. But the call comes on a family trip to visit their oldest daughter, Story, who has vanished as if spirited away in the middle of the night.

With a little determination and a lot of charm, Rosa Capoletti took a run-down pizza joint and turned it into an award-winning restaurant, voted the “best place to propose” three years in a row. For Rosa, though, there has been no real romance since her teenaged love affair with Alexander Montgomery ended without explanation a decade ago. But guess who’s just come back to town? Reunited at the beach house where they first fell in love, Rosa and Alexander discover that the secrets of the past are not what they seem.

Maddie doesn't believe in luck. She's all about hard work and planning ahead. But one night she buys a lottery ticket on a whim, and, to her astonishment, she wins! In a flash Maddie's life is unrecognizable. No more stressing about college scholarships - nope, now she's suddenly talking about renting a yacht and basking in the spotlight at school! But then rumors start flying, and random people begin asking her for loans. Suddenly Maddie finds that she isn't sure whom she can trust.

Sie ist dreißig Jahre alt und heißt Kiều, so wie das Mädchen im berühmtesten Werk der vietnamesischen Literatur. Doch sie nennt sich lieber Kim, weil das einfacher ist für ihre Freunde in Berlin. 1968 waren ihre Eltern aus Vietnam nach Deutschland gekommen. Für das, was sie zurückgelassen haben, hat sich die Journalistin nie interessiert. Im Gegenteil: Oft hat sie sich eine Familie gewünscht, die nicht erst deutsch werden muss, sondern es einfach schon ist. Bis zu jener Facebook-Nachricht. Sie stammt von ihrem Onkel, der seit seiner Flucht in Kalifornien lebt.

Her life is missing the love… When Katelyn “Katie” Morrison attends her brother’s wedding, the glamorous hotel heiress wonders if she’ll ever find “the one”... especially when she sees her sexy-as-sin ex, Dean Prescott. While attending his best friend’s wedding, Dean can’t stop staring at Katie’s sinful curves. He swore he’d never repeat the mistake of falling for her. Learning that Katie has a newborn, Dean knows there’s more going on than Katie admits.

After putting the brakes on her dead-end relationship, local veterinarian Ivey Anders is ready to soak up this summer on her own terms. The way she sees it, no dating means no disappointment. Why complicate life with anything long-term? But when she meets Corbin Meyer - and his troubled young son, Justin - Ivey’s no-strings strategy threatens to unravel before she can put it into practice.

In this new offering from “the king of Christmas fiction” (The New York Times), number one best-selling author Richard Paul Evans shares a story of heart, loyalty, and hope as he explores the deeper meaning of the holiday season and asks what it truly means to love and forgive. The year is 1975. Elle Sheen - a single mother who is supporting herself and her six-year-old, African-American son, Dylan, as a waitress at the Noel Street Diner - isn’t sure what to make of William Smith when his appearance creates a stir in the small town of Mistletoe, Utah.

Darek Christiansen is almost a dream bachelor - oldest son in the large Christiansen clan, heir to their historic Evergreen Lake Resort, and doting father. But he's also wounded and angry since the tragic death of his wife, Felicity. No woman in Deep Haven dares come near. New assistant county attorney Ivy Madison simply doesn't know any better when she bids on Darek at the charity auction. Nor does she know that when she crafted a plea bargain three years ago to keep Jensen Atwood out of jail and in Deep Haven fulfilling community service, she was releasing the man responsible for Felicity's death.

Summer never meant to lie. She just wanted to keep the most perfect guy she ever met interested in her. She had been surprised when David began hanging out with her every day...and dizzy with happiness when he kissed her. David seemed to like her unconventional Irish family, even her eccentric Grandpa. Everything was going great - until Ann entered the picture. She collected boys like trophies. How could Summer compete with someone like that? Before she knew it, Summer was boasting to David about her passion for long-distance running. She never dreamed he’d enter them in a six-mile race....

Fanny Thornton, the proud matriarch of the Thornton dynasty, will do anything for her family. Her four children, now grown, mean everything to her, as does Babylon, the most dazzling casino in Las Vegas and the Thorntons' crowning achievement. But her children have dispersed across the globe, and so she chooses Jeff, the illegitimate son of her deceased husband, to run the casino.

Dr. Julie Walker wakes on a summer morning in San Francisco to find a city in chaos. Today Californians are voting on a controversial ballot initiative that will change history. With the future of the state and the nation uncertain, the streets have erupted into violence. Injured, Julie must make her way across the city by foot to the Veterans Administration Hospital, where her sister, recently returned from Afghanistan, is in labor. At the hospital a brutal scene is unfolding as a man who shares an intimate past with Julie begins to take his revenge.

When it comes to men, Nealy is very content with her new husband, lawyer Hatch Littletree. When it comes to horses, she is never satisfied. Nobody can measure up to her standards as a trainer, not even her daughter, Emmie, who now runs the family's famous stables, Blue Diamond Farms. But returning to Blue Diamond Farms for a family reunion sends Nealy reeling. Emmie has let the farm slide, and she has picked a small, gutsy colt to send to the Derby - a nice horse but clearly the wrong one.

Liam Page knows music and a life of solitude, but that all changed when he returned to Beaumont. The once notorious, bad-boy lead singer of 4225 West is now living the domesticated life with his wife and high school sweetheart, Josie, and their son, Noah. Life is good for the Westbury family. Josie Westbury loves everything about her life. She has a successful business and a son who keeps her active. The only thing she longs for is another child. Torn between his love for music and his love for his family, Liam finds he's needed back in Los Angeles and the place where it all began.

With Nealy, horses come first. So when her two grown children's irresponsible acts nearly cost her Shufly, she throws them both off Blue Diamond Farm, choosing to work alone rather than give them another chance to risk her dream of training the promising foal into a Triple Crown winner. But while the estrangement from her children doesn't seem to affect her work, inside she's shattered.

A tale of family and friendship, tragedy and triumph, loss and love, The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder features the warmth, humor, soul, and wonder that have made Wells one of today's most cherished writers, and gives us an unforgettable new heroine to treasure.

Caitlyn O’Brien left for Brazil in the aftermath of a heartbreaking loss. As much as she loves her husband, he can’t help her with the grief and disappointment that plague her life in Dublin. When she discovers that St. Clare’s charity mission, in Manaus, Brazil, needs a primary school teacher, she takes the opportunity to bury herself in missionary work, as her dreams of being a mother slowly vanish.

Set in a Scottish caravan park during a freak winter - it is snowing in Jerusalem, the Thames is overflowing, and an iceberg separated from the Fjords in Norway is expected to arrive off the coast of Scotland - The Sunlight Pilgrims tells the story of a small Scottish community living through what people have begun to think is the end of times. Bodies are found frozen in the street with their eyes open; midst economic collapse, schooling and health care are run primarily on a voluntary basis.

Arial knows the rules that keep her safe. She's been following them since she was a little girl: Do not tell. Do not show. But in a moment of terror, facing an attacker intent on taking more than just her life, Ari has no choice but to unleash the psychic powers she's been hiding since childhood.