"Joan Sample is not living the life she expected. Now a widow and an empty-nester, she has become by her own admission something of a recluse. But after another birthday spent alone, she is finally inclined to listen to her sister, who has been begging Joan to reengage with the world. With her support, Joan gathers the courage to take some long-awaited steps: hiring someone to tame her overgrown garden, joining a grief support group, and even renting...

"One woman discovers the beauty in chaos in this poignant and heartwarming story about the threads that hold family together from #1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery. With her divorce settlement about to run out and a mortgage she can't afford, Robyn Caldwell needs a plan for her future. She nurtured her family and neglected herself. But how's she supposed to think when her daughter has become the most demanding bride ever, her son...

"Fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college, in spite of having a mother more interested in keeping a man than raising a daughter. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright...Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University,...

"Elizabeth, Veronica, Rachel and Emily met at Camp Birchwood as girls in 1985, where over four summers they were the Clover Girls--inseparable for those magical few weeks of freedom--until the last summer that pulled them apart. Now approaching middle age, the women are facing challenges they never imagined as teens, struggles with their marriages, their children, their careers, and wondering who it is they see when they look in the mirror. Then Liz,...

The Baxter sisters come from a long line of women with disastrous luck in love. But this summer, Sunshine and Margot will turn disasters into destiny... As an etiquette coach, Margot teaches her clients to fit in. But she's never faced a client like Bianca, an aging movie star who gained fame -- and notoriety -- through a campaign of shock and awe. Schooling Bianca on the fine art of behaving like a proper diplomat's wife requires intensive lessons,...

"Eight years ago, Emma Montague left behind the strict confines--and rather dull boyfriend--of her upper-crust English life and moved to New York City, where she immediately found success in finance. But her soulless, cutthroat, all-consuming job was another life she didn't want. Answering an ad on Craigslist, Emma finds a tiny beach cottage in the small town of Westport, Connecticut. It needs work--lots of work. But it's the perfect project to satisfy...

"Overworked and underappreciated, single mom Amy Byler needs a break. So when the guilt-ridden husband who abandoned her shows up and offers to take care of their kids for the summer, she accepts his offer and escapes rural Pennsylvania for New York City. Usually grounded and mild mannered, Amy finally lets her hair down in the city that never sleeps. She discovers a life filled with culture, sophistication, and - with a little encouragement from...

Spanning the era from the 1950s to the present, a family saga follows four generations of women as they face the sorrows and emotional conflicts that tear families apart, and struggle to find the forgiveness and grace that can keep them together.

Struggling with her second book and abandoned by both her husband and her agent, novelist Francesca Sewell takes on the task of ghost writing the family history of Chicky, the ninety-year-old daughter of 1920s vaudeville stars, and gradually discovers how to move on with her life.

The author describes her relationship with friend and confidante Joan Erikson, whose struggles with widowhood, her own impending death, and humerous written works about aging inspired Anderson to accept life changes.