Family Drama Fiction

Mona is married to Jack, younger brother to Denny Springer, lead singer for the greatest rock-and-roll band in the world. Jack happens to sing, too, of course, not that anyone in the world notices very much. After Denny attends the family Easter dinner in London for the first time in decades, Mona invites Denny to join her and her family for the summer at a rental house in coastal Connecticut. She tells Denny it'll be a chance for him to finally bond with Jack, from whom Denny has been estranged for 20 years. Denny initially laughs at the idea...but then shows up on their doorstep.

When Cady Davenport's husband-to-be hits the road for the upcoming presidential election, Cady realizes she’s on her own - and that her dream life might not be all she’d imagined. Until she finds herself thrust straight into the heart of the most influential inner circle in Washington, DC: the campaign widows. As friends, they’re an unlikely group - a fabulous Georgetown doyenne; a speechwriter turned mommy blogger; an artsy website editor; and a First Lady hopeful who’s not convinced she wants the job. But they share one undeniable bond: their spouses are all out on the trail during a hotly contested election season.

This "richly appointed and generously portrayed" ( Kirkus Reviews) debut novel tells the story of a WASPy, old-Boston family coming face-to-face with an America much larger than the one it was born in. Caroline Dunlap has written off the insular world of the Boston deb parties, golf club luaus, and WASP weddings that she grew up with. But when she reluctantly returns home after her college graduation, she finds that not everything is quite as predictable, or protected, as she had imagined.

Swedish sisters Astrid, Lena, and Sandra have struggled to get along since childhood, but when Lena is diagnosed with ovarian cancer, they are each thrown into crisis together.

"I am always with you. I will always be here." This was the promise Ella’s mother betrayed thirty years ago when she walked into the sea, leaving her five-year-old daughter alone in the world. Ella’s been angry ever since, building up a wall to protect herself. But that all changes the day she opens a newspaper and finds those ten little words printed in a classified ad. Ella refuses to believe her mother could still be alive - that would mean she did want to live, just not with her daughter. So she throws herself into finding out exactly what happened all those years ago.

Grace first met Mimi when she blew into their sons’ toddler playgroup like a warm bay breeze that loosened Grace’s tight spaces. Despite differing approaches to life and parenting, the fast friends raised their kids together while cementing a sisterlike bond that neither believed could be broken. But when a string of ill-fated decisions results in a teen party with a tragic outcome for Grace’s son, the friendship is ripped apart and an already-splintered community explodes.

In the Connecticut suburbs, a motherless young man suddenly becomes the beneficiary of a wealthy older couple, whose generosity has unsuspected motives and a sinister price. On an island in Australia’s Torres Strait, an enigmatic castaway throws kinks into the local culture and sexual politics. And in the jungles of Vietnam, four American soldiers undertake a mystical search for a man-eating tiger.

Honor Guinness is rich, aristocratic, shy and awkward—nothing like her glamorous cousins Aileen, Maureen and Oonagh. But when she marries the charming and ambitious American Henry 'Chips' Channon, together, they make the perfect couple. Determined to conquer London society, they are soon are at the heart of the best social circles—including a close friendship with the Prince of Wales and Mrs Wallis Simpson. But within the marriage, all is less than perfect.

When troubled teenager Immy disappears, she leaves her widowed mother Bea completely devastated. Bea pours her love into her six-year-old niece Phoebe, even taking her in when her single father Ewan takes a job abroad. Then Immy returns, in desperate need of her mother’s help and love. But Ewan is clear: he will never let Bea see Phoebe again if she welcomes her daughter back. As Bea grapples with this impossible choice between two girls who sorely need her, a long-buried secret comes out that changes everything.

Reverend Sabre Winfrey, shepherd of the Seven Seals Baptist Church, believes in God, his own privilege, and enterprise. Besides the barbershop and radio station he owns, he has an iron hand on every aspect of Dominion, Mississippi, society. He and his wife, Priscilla, have five boys; the youngest, Emanuel, is called Wonderboy—no one sings prettier, runs as fast, or turns as many heads. After a surprising encounter with a stranger, Wonderboy finds himself confronted by questions he’d never imagined, and his response will send shockwaves through the entire community.

Morgan and Devon Gregson Bennett are an interracial creative power couple living happily enough in Brooklyn until a freak accident leaves a little girl orphaned in Los Angeles. Setting aside reservations about the price motherhood will exact on their marriage and careers, Morgan and Devon agree to adopt Vabeh, a bi-racial ethnic-hair-products heiress. Vabeh touches down in New York, wearing last season’s fur and on a mission to quickly distinguish herself from the other bold-faced names at her new school, the tony School for Spoiled Kids.

Food stylist Sophie Crommelin has a beautiful life. Now that their two boys are grown up, she and her husband Matt—an acclaimed artist—are leaving London for a new start on England's fashionably boho south coast. But the day after the house is sold, a series of shocks leave Sophie reeling—and suddenly she's heading off to Hastings on her own.

On a train that travels far, she finds herself immersed in a whirlpool of memories… faces from the past, forgotten voices, and unhealed pain. Every stop brings back fragments of her painful past with her family. But are these just memories, or is the train itself carrying her to a confrontation she did not expect?

Lena Sharma is a successful San Francisco restaurateur. An immigrant, she’s cultivated an image of conservatism and tradition in her close-knit Indian community. But when Lena’s carefully constructed world begins to crumble, her ties to her daughter, Maya, and son, Sameer - both raised in thoroughly modern California - slip further away.

To escape their griping grown children, husbands, and lovers, and an abundance of grandchildren underfoot, three self-proclaimed "old bags", Dania, Ruth, and Bess, head for a quiet island on the Aegean Sea. They'll spend a year by the water - watching the sunset, eating grilled fish and fresh olives, sipping ouzo. They deserve it, they say. After all those years, the three women will finally have some peace. Except they can't.

Since their bitter divorce, Lisa and Rolf have forged new and separate lives. Rolf has moved out of Beacon Bay, while Lisa has remained in the tiny tropical town, a pillar of her community. When a cyclone brings a massive tree smashing into Lisa's roof - into the home Rolf built and where they raised their family - their son, Dave, convinces Rolf that he must do the repairs. Tensions abound when Rolf arrives with glamorous stage star Renata, along with a pretty young publicist who stirs up complications for Dave and his new restaurant.

Rowan Darling, an adrift thirty-three-year-old, owns a record store on a run-down block in Philadelphia. Then news of his estranged brother’s death forces a return to Maybee, Illinois, the hometown Rowan left in the dust years ago. Rowan’s plan? Dart in for the funeral, support his mother, then disappear just as quickly. Things to avoid? Margot Beckett, his childhood sweetheart, and Skid Hall, his former best friend who stole Margot and married her. Together, they’ve become the town’s “it” couple.

Organised. Neat. Lonely. Kathy Simmonds is alone at Christmas this year, after her beloved husband John passed away a few months ago. She keeps her home spick and span, struggling with her grief for a family she has lost or lost touch with. But a chance phone call from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home opens the door to something new. She meets Scruff, a messy Jack Russell with a heart of gold who has been left for dead on the streets of London.

Sisters Amanda Foster and Erin Turner have little in common except the childhood bedroom they once shared and the certainty each feels that her way of life is best. Amanda follows the rules - at the school where she works; in her community; and as a picture-perfect daughter, wife, and mother-to-be. Erin follows her heart - in love and otherwise - living a bohemian lifestyle on a shoestring budget and honoring her late father’s memory with a passion for music and her fledgling bath-products business.

Seventeen-year-old Constance has had a privileged upbringing in Clapham, with staff to attend to her every need. But her parents have always been cold and distant, never showing her love.Craving affection, Constance falls into the arms of Albie Jones, the cook’s grandson. But one fateful encounter leaves her ashamed and pregnant, and she is soon shunned from the family home. Heartbroken and threatened by scandal, Constance is forced to wed Albie and moves to Battersea, where she suffers unforgiving stares and cruel whispers from the neighbours.