Women Friendship

Good friends and healthy friendships are crucial to women's well-being at every stage of life. But what happens when a friendship turns toxic? When a friend becomes hurtful or mistreats another? When a friend abandons another in a time of need? Here, Suzanne Degges-White and Judy Pochel Van Tieghem explore such toxic friendships and how women navigate the ups and downs as well as how broken friendships can be mended and bad friendships ended.

These five best friends made a summer sand pact as teens and have only kept it once or twice - until they reunite decades later and renew their agreement to meet in Five Island Cove every summer. Get ready for more secrets to come to light in Five Island Cove, and for these five women to show each other what it means to love and support someone through thick and thin.

Alice is very good at her job. She's on the rise at a prominent PR firm, and there is no image-management disaster she can't fix. But when her dearest friend, a parish priest in a charming French village, becomes depressed about his dwindling number of parishioners, she may finally have met her biggest challenge. Though an avowed atheist, Alice is determined to apply her skills to the problem. She plunges into research, immersing herself in the world of spirituality, from Christianity to Hinduism, from self-empowerment seminars to the Tao Te Ching.

Your body is a sacred treasure, a worshipful instrument, and a unique masterpiece! That’s a pretty big deal. But sometimes it feels confusing, awkward, and flawed. The truth is: You and your body, all of it, are important and beautiful, designed especially by God with a specific plan and purpose. Each chapter in Perfectly Unique focuses on a different part of your body and the potential it has for helping grow your faith.

Joni, Deb, Eden, and Trina have been best friends since high school, sharing a bond that has seen them through their teenage years and into adulthood. But now time and circumstance are starting to pull them apart as careers, husbands, and babies get in the way. As their yearly vacation becomes less of a priority - at least for three of the women - how can Joni find a way to draw the four of them back together?

Hope Carpenter received that advice from her mother decades ago. Now, with their four children grown, Hope and her husband, Rick, are suddenly facing an uncertain future after a forced retirement strains both their savings and their marriage. Seeking inspiration and a financial boost, Hope gets a job teaching crafts to inmates at a local women's prison.

The Stories We Cannot Tell is a contemporary novel about the emotional journey of two women. Rachel is a thirty-year-old married, Jewish woman who's wanted a baby for a long time. Katie's a thirty-two-year-old single, Catholic woman who has been trying to find a man who'll stick around. We follow the women individually as they find themselves pregnant, Rachel happily, Katie, not.

Over the course of four years, the traveling love rally called Together Live brought together diverse storytellers for epic evenings of laughter, music, and hard-won wisdom to huge audiences across the country. Well-known womxn (and the occasional man) from all walks of life shared their most vulnerable truths in a radical act of love, paving the way for healing in the face of adversity.

Noelle is not a fan of the holidays, and to make matters worse she is at a crossroads in her life where it seems that love and adventure are no longer possible. When she stays late at her job in a department store on a snowy Christmas Eve, she accidentally gets locked in after closing. She isn't too concerned about the prospect of spending the night in the store...until a woman appears out of nowhere and tells Noelle that she's her guardian angel.

Childhood friends Hannah, Maya, Blue, and Renee share a bond that feels more like family. Growing up, they had difficult home lives, and the summers they spent together in Montauk were the happiest memories they ever made. Then, the summer after graduation, one terrible night changed everything. Twelve years have passed since that fateful incident, and their sisterhood has drifted apart, each woman haunted by her own lost innocence. But just as they reunite in Montauk for one last summer, hoping to find happiness once more, tragedy strikes again.

Moira Wellman has always loved makeovers - helping women find their most beautiful selves. Funny how it’s taken her five years with her abusive boyfriend, Lang, to realize she needs a life makeover. When Moira finally gets the courage to leave Lang, the beachside town of Moonlight Harbor is the perfect place to start over. Soon, Moira is right at home, working at Waves Salon, making new friends, and helping her clients find new confidence. When she meets a handsome police officer, she’s more than willing to give him a free haircut. Maybe even her heart.

Celia Fairchild, known as advice columnist "Dear Calpurnia", has insight into everybody’s problems—except her own. Still bruised by the end of a marriage she thought was her last chance to create a family, Celia receives an unexpected answer to a “Dear Birthmother” letter. Celia throws herself into proving she’s a perfect adoptive mother material—with a stable home and income—only to lose her job. Her one option: sell the Charleston house left to her by her recently departed, estranged Aunt Calpurnia.

Law school graduate and newlywed Ruth Appelbaum is acclimating to life and marriage in a posh Philadelphia neighborhood. She’ll do almost anything to endear herself to her mother-in-law, who’s already signed up Ruth for etiquette lessons conducted by the impeccably accessorized tutor Lillian Diamond. But Ruth brings something fresh to the small circle of housewives—sharp wit, honesty, and an independent streak that won’t be compromised.

Klara—who’s always thought of herself as a little different, a sneaker in a world full of kitten heels and polished boots—is feeling a disconnect these days. She has type 1 diabetes, currently works in a dead-end job, and is in desperate need of a change. When her dad falls ill, Klara begrudgingly agrees to help run his small construction company while he recovers, even though it means moving back home and pushing the boundaries of her comfort zone to the extreme.

Wren and Thessaly collide when they land coveted jobs at a glamorous New York City boutique wine importer. Hardworking, by-the-book Wren comes from a modest background and has everything to prove while Thessaly hails from a family of prestigious California growers—but she is plagued by self-doubt. Thrown together at work, where they're expected to have exquisite palates, endless tolerance for alcohol and socializing, and the ability to sell, sell, sell, they regard each other with suspicion.

As a book editor, Julia Morse lived and breathed stories. Whether with her pen to a manuscript or curled up with a book while at her beloved Fire Island cottage, her imagination alight with a good tale, she could anticipate practically any ending. The ending she’d never imagined was her own. To be fair, no one expects to die at thirty-seven. So when the unthinkable happens to Julia, rather than following the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, she chooses to spend one last summer near those she loves most.

New York, 1997. As the city’s gritty edges are being smoothed into something safer and shinier, two girls meet at a music magazine. Rose—brash and self-possessed—is a staff writer. Charlotte—hesitant, bookish—is an editor. First wary, then slowly admiring, they recognize in each other an insatiable and previously unmatched ambition. Soon they’re inseparable, falling into the kind of friendship that makes you better, makes every day an adventure, and makes you believe that you will be extraordinary.

For Eve, Irene, Betty, and Rosemary, working at the exclusive Heyworth's department store in Cambridge is a dream come true. Once the girls step inside the elegant building, the hardships of their own lives are temporarily forgotten. Serving a variety of customers, from glamorous gypsy queens to royalty and the city's fashionable elite, the store is a place where these young women can forge successful careers under the ever-watchful eye of flamboyant owner Mr Heyworth.

Zoe's life is full of colour. A fan of impromptu yoga, inspirational quotes and experimenting with hair dye, she's on a mission to make the most of each and every day - even if she is currently spending most of her time behind a checkout till. Then she meets Tristan. The rumour is that since his dad died, Tristan's life has fallen apart. No one has seen him for months. But now he's reappeared, does that mean he's back to 'normal'? Zoe soon realises Tristan is struggling with a sadness that she can't possibly understand and becomes determined to bring a world of colour back into his life.

What if you knew exactly when you’d meet the love of your life? Edie Meyer knows. When her Grandma Gloria was a young woman, she had a vision of the exact day she would meet her soul mate—and then Grandpa Ray showed up. Since then, Gloria has accurately predicted the day every member of the family has met their match. Edie’s day arrives on June 24, 2022, when she’s 29 years old. She has been waiting for it half her life. That morning, she boards an airplane to her twin sister’s surprise engagement, and when a handsome musician sits beside her, she knows it’s meant to be.