Family Drama

’Tis the season for mistletoe and holly, Santa . . . and suspense. And the gift that keeps on giving is Ice: premier thriller author Linda Howard’s breathless tale of a man, a woman, and a battle for survival against an unforgiving winter–and an unrelenting killer. Oh what fun it is to listen.

After a traumatic injury took him off the job, prosecutor Solomon Shepard is back to work, teaming up with Sheriff Billie Gray to hunt down Utah’s most dangerous criminals. Shepard has spent years away from crime scenes and courtrooms, but one of those criminals still holds a grudge. Alonso Hafeez is out of prison after eleven years, and he’s determined to prove that Shepard tried him for a crime he didn’t commit. And he’s got something special planned: kidnapping Shepard and forcing him to revisit Hafeez’s case in an elaborately staged retrial.

Dublin 1996. Joan Egan lives an enviable life. She and her husband, Martin, and daughter, Carmel, are thriving in Dublin at the dawn of an economic boom. But everything changes when Joan receives a letter from Emma, the daughter who she and Martin gave up for adoption thirty years before, asking for a life-or-death favor.

When Loretta Ashton dies suddenly, her family is shattered. As a devoted wife and mother, Loretta was their rock—a woman admired by the entire community. But at her funeral, an unexpected guest turns their grief into confusion. A stranger claiming to be Loretta’s sister takes a seat with the family, only to vanish before anyone can confront her. The problem? Loretta was an only child.

Desperate to break free of small-town Florida, Addie Anne Buckley dreams of following in the path of her glamorous aunt Jean—known to the world as Marilyn Monroe. When Aunt Jean plans a trip to Hollywood for Addie’s eighteenth birthday, Addie sees her chance to escape. One thing stands in her way: her boyfriend. Truitt Holt is Addie’s first and only love and will be joining her in California. But days before Addie’s due to leave, Truitt does an about-face and gives her a painful ultimatum: stay and marry him, or they’re through. Addie chooses her dream.

When her friends gift her a 23-and-Me test as a gag, high school senior Chloe Kang doesn’t think much of trying it out. She doesn’t believe anything will come of it—she’s an only child, her mother is an orphan, and her father died in Seoul before she was even born, and before her mother moved to Oklahoma. It’s been just Chloe and her mom her whole life. But the DNA test reveals something Chloe never expected— she’s got a whole extended family from her father’s side half a world away in Korea.

Wales between the wars, a place of poverty and a world full of anguish. Yet, there is hope. Within family, within community and most of all in the brave heart of one young girl. Set in the lush Dulais Valley; Carrie is fated to a life of hardship and sorrow, but she grows stronger as she is forced to become a woman before her time. The hand she is dealt becomes a challenge and she refuses to surrender.

It’s been three years since Claire Kite lost her husband, David, an aspiring novelist, in a tragic car accident. Claire finally finds the courage to move on; then she discovers among the remnants of her shattered world her husband’s last manuscript. It’s intimate, stirring - and unfinished. An idea comes to her.... What if she can find someone to give David’s novel the ending it deserves?

Meet Eve, who has departed from her 30-year career to become a Free Spirit, Sally, who has waved goodbye to her indifferent husband and two grown-up children, and Anastasia: defiantly independent narrow-boat-dweller, suddenly vulnerable as she awaits a life-saving operation. Inexperienced and ill-equipped, Sally and Eve embark upon a journey through the canals of England, guided by the remote and unsympathetic Anastasia.

When artist Dani Manchester learns she’s slowly losing her vision, she becomes unmoored. Her ex-husband died only months before, leaving Dani and her preteen daughter grief stricken. Suddenly, the life Dani built for her family on the Outer Banks feels like a painful reminder of all they’ve lost. On a whim, Dani sells her waterfront home and buys an old farm inland near the Virginia state line. But Dani’s daughter recoils at the sudden, drastic change. The Outer Banks’ sun-swept beaches, pink dawns, and savage storms are all she’s ever known.

Allie Finkle is excited when a new girl - who comes all the way from Canada - joins her class at Pine Heights Elementary. Now Allie won't be the new girl anymore!But her excitement turns to dismay when the new girl, Cheyenne, starts creating drama and telling everyone in the fourth grade what to do!

Tina Jenson belongs to the same social stratum as Harris Chapman, but he’s out of her league - at least that’s what she thinks before they jump in bed together. It’s the perfect night, but when she overhears crude, hurtful comments the next morning, she can’t get away fast enough. Ten years later, Tina’s life is a mess. That night with Harris didn’t just hurt her feelings; it started a cascade of disappointment and heartbreak. Every time she bumps into Harris, her heart twists inside out. And she’s harboring a painful secret from their night together.

An accomplished photographer and the devoted mom of an adorable little boy, Allie Ross has just moved to an upscale DC suburb, the kind of place where parenting feels like a competitive sport. Allie’s desperate to make a good first impression. Then she’s framed for murder. It all starts at a neighborhood party when a local dad corners Allie and calls her by an old, forgotten nickname from her dark past. The next day, he is found dead.

With the horrors of the Nazi regime becoming more apparent by the day, Maureen Ritter decides to remain in Paris. There, she meets a disturbed young man, who will change the course of history and set the match to a firestorm that will engulf the innocent Jews still in Germany. Fiona Ritter’s devotion to the Führer will be tested when the nightmare of Kristallnacht consumes Berlin. The foundations she built her life upon these last six years will be shaken, as she witnesses the horrific violence and destruction wrought that fateful night.

Jody Asher had a plan. Her charismatic husband, Martin, would be a political icon. She, the charming wife, would fuel his success. For fifteen congressional terms, they were the golden couple on the Hill. Life was good. Until he wasn’t. Martin’s secret affair with a young staffer doesn’t bother Jody personally. But professionally? It’s a legacy killer. Soon a reporter gets word of this scandal in the making, and Martin’s indiscretions threaten to ruin everything Jody has accomplished.

German armies once more march across Europe, and one small Welsh village is changed forever. Carrie has escaped the suffocating, unhealthy love of her brother. With her innate kindness and strength, she begins her new life in midwifery. But the shadows of war rise. She is sent first to Birmingham and then to London during the Blitz. Carrie is no stranger to tragedy, but her courage and self-sacrifice bond her tightly to new friends and old, helping to keep her safe in uncertain times. Love, laughter, and friendship abound, making her a force to be reckoned with and admired.

Today’s middle school girls have it rough. In those few short years, girls go through an incredible number of biological and emotional changes, making it the most formative - and risky - time in their lives. Groups form and turn on each other, childhood friends can reveal trusted secrets just by sending a text message or updating a Facebook status, and deciding where to sit in the cafeteria can be a daily struggle. As any tween will tell you, life for a middle school girl can be summed up in one word: drama.

Ophelia Dahl has just buried her beloved father when she finds among his personal effects a blindsiding document. The mother Ophelia thought died thirty years ago isn’t dead after all—she abandoned her. But how could she, and where is she now? With some neighborly help, Ophelia’s going to find out. Beau Augustin is an acclaimed author and Ophelia’s childhood bestie turned teenage nemesis, still chafing after all these years.

After ten hectic years in Seoul, burned-out expat Radley Asher is promised a change—working the fall season at an apple farm in idyllic Fox Isle, Maine. Hoping for solitude, Radley is instead welcomed by the effusive Clark family as one of their own. A loner like Radley finds it almost disarming. But what’s not to like? Beau and Livia are doting parents, and their three children are absolute delights. Still, Radley prefers to keep her distance and just watch the lives of the Clarks unfold from her window.

Geschichten aus der Mama-Welt: Deine 10 Minuten am Tag nur für dich selbst!"Ich lache. Ja, sie können wirklich goldig sein. Die süßen, kleinen Biester." (S. 116) Wird dir als Mama auch manchmal alles zu viel? Kenne ich! Zwischen Windeln, Wäschebergen und der endlosen To-do-Liste fühlen wir uns alleingelassen und können einfach nicht mehr. Doch dieses Mama-Buch zeigt dir: Du bist nicht allein! Du wirst dich wiederfinden in den herzerwärmenden Kurzgeschichten und ehrlichen Real-Life-Anekdoten. Was sie dir geben?