Women Friendship

In the South, you always say “yes, ma’am” and “no, ma’am.” You know everybody’s business. Football is a lifestyle, not a pastime. Food — especially dessert — is almost a religious experience. And you protect your friends as fiercely as you protect your family — even if the threat is something you cannot see.

1941. Audrey Coltrane has always wanted to fly. It's why she implored her father to teach her at the little airfield back home in Texas. It’s why she signed up to train military pilots in Hawaii when the war in Europe began. And it’s why she insists she is not interested in any dream-derailing romantic involvements, even with the disarming Lieutenant James Hart, who fast becomes a friend as treasured as the women with whom she flies. Then one fateful day, she gets caught in the air over Pearl Harbor just as the bombs begin to fall, and suddenly, nowhere feels safe.

Forty-four-year-old Alice Holtzman is stuck in a dead-end job, bereft of family, and now reeling from the unexpected death of her husband. Alice has begun having panic attacks whenever she thinks about how her life hasn't turned out the way she dreamed. Even the beloved honeybees she raises in her spare time aren't helping her feel better these days.

The nuns need income… The guests need hope… Victoria encounters a unique experience when she books a rustic cabin—a poustinia—in the woodlands of the Monastery of St. Carmella. While trying to discern her future, she meets other guests who face their own challenges in life. The Sisters also have a dilemma, as they anticipate a merger because of their dwindling numbers and an aging congregation. Will they lose their beloved homeland, nestled among the vineyard, forest, and lake? Poustinia: A Novel is the first book of the Poustinia series. If you enjoy contemporary and inspirational ...

Alone in the world, Tae Holmes and her mother April pretty much raised each other, but as Tae starts asking questions about the father she’s never met, April, for the first time in her life, goes silent. To make matters worse, Tae is dangerously close to broke and just manages to avoid financial meltdown when she lands a shiny new contract with an adventure company for athletes with disabilities and wounded warriors.

Forty-five-year-old Erin has grown restless with her life, which is odd because she’s spent the past twenty years roaming the globe. Between summers in Alaska and winters in the Florida keys, she’s climbed the steps of Machu Picchu, hiked long sections of the Great Wall of China, and kayaked down the Amazon. Lately, though, Erin has felt the urge to put down roots, strengthen her neglected relationship with her sister, Reggie, and reconnect with her two best friends, Michelle and Nina.

November, 1941. She’s never even seen the ocean before, but Eva Cassidy has her reasons for making the crossing to Hawaii, and they run a lot deeper than escaping a harsh Michigan winter. Newly enlisted as an Army Corps nurse, Eva is stunned by the splendor she experiences aboard the steamship SS Lurline; even more so by Lt. Clark Spencer, a man she is drawn to but who clearly has secrets of his own. But Eva’s past - and the future she’s trying to create - means that she’s not free to follow her heart.

Bride-to-be Lulu is about to marry Shanghai’s most eligible bachelor. She just has one secret: she isn't in love and is only marrying him under pressure to fix her family’s financial issues. But for Lulu and her two best friends, her upcoming nuptials may offer a different opportunity entirely…

September 1896: As an aspiring archaeologist, Smith College graduate Betsy Hayes travels to Athens, desperate to break into a very male-dominated field and find work at some of the world’s most famous excavation sites. In the midst of the heat and dust of Greece she finds an unlikely ally in philanthropist Charles, Baron de Robecourt, one of the few men who takes her academic passion seriously.

Iris Maynard lost her husband in World War II, her daughter to illness and, finally, her reason to live. Walled off from the world for decades behind the towering fence surrounding her home, Iris has built a new family…of flowers. Iris propagates her own daylilies and roses while tending to a garden filled with the heirloom starts that keep the memories of her loved ones alive.

Winner of the Bookseller Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year. Research published in the New York Times and the Huffington Post proves that talking to strangers is good for us. But how do you get people to talk to strangers? Strangers Have the Best Candy is the book that answers that question. Margaret Meps Schulte shares her own humorous, illustrated stories of chance encounters with strangers, demonstrating how such encounters lead to adventure, friendship, and serendipity. You'll meet everyday strangers, as well as larger-than-life characters like Captain Craig, the Scourge of Lake...

Daisy Shoemaker can’t sleep. With a thriving cooking business, full schedule of volunteer work, and a beautiful home in the Philadelphia suburbs, she should be content. But her teenage daughter can be a handful, her husband can be distant, her work can feel trivial, and she has lots of acquaintances, but no real friends. Still, Daisy knows she’s got it good. So why is she up all night?

Paris, 1944: The war is nearly over, but for members of the Resistance in occupied France, it is more dangerous than ever before. Twenty-five-year-old Gabby Foucher loathes the Nazis, though as the concierge of 10 rue Royale, she does her best to avoid conflict - unlike her bolder sister Yvette, who finds trouble at every turn.

After a burnt pot and subsequent call to the fire department, Martha’s buttoned-up lawyer son whisks her away from her Iowa home and installs her in an assisted living apartment at Martyn Manor in Poughkeepsie, New York. Bored with her day-to-day routine, Martha finds ways to make her life, and the lives of her friends, more exciting. On top of late-night (by Manor standards) trips to the local college hangout, Martha morphs into an amateur sleuth who solves more than one crime. What really happened to sweet Harold Lancaster? What's the best way to catch a purse-snatcher? And what does ...

An emotional homecoming that will tug at your heartstrings & inspire you to believe in happy endings. Wendy vowed never to return to the small coastal town where her parents abandoned her. But when she inherits the family inn at the beach, she must come home and face her past. Will handsome millionaire Max help her heal old wounds and open her heart? From a New York Times bestselling author, don’t miss the chance to unite with friendships that endure and a love that will last forever in THE SECOND CHANCE INN.

It's 1924, and Peter and Patricia have what looks to be a very modern marriage. Both drink. Both smoke. Both work, Patricia as a head copywriter at a major department store. When it comes to sex with other people, both believe in "the honesty policy." Until they don't. Or, at least, until Peter doesn't—and a shell-shocked, lovesick Patricia finds herself starting out all over again, but this time around as a different kind of single woman: the ex-wife.

At forty-five, Chef Nina has all but given up on her dream of having a kitchen of her very own. Once hailed as the fresh, new face on the restaurant scene, she saw her hopes for the future fall like an overbaked soufflé after the man she loved betrayed her and destroyed her reputation. Ten years later, Nina gets one more chance to make her dreams come true. While her friends convert a run-down beach house, Nina tests out new dishes for the Café at Sugar Sand Inn. But when rumors of Nina’s past threaten the Café, will diners patronize the restaurant she’s always wanted?

What Remains begins with loss and returns to loss. A small plane plunges into the ocean, carrying John Kennedy, Anthony's cousin, and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Carole's closest friend. Three weeks later Anthony dies of cancer. The summer of the plane crash, the four friends were meant to be cherishing Anthony's last days. Instead, Carole and Anthony mourned John and Carolyn, even as Carole planned her husband's memorial.

Reggie has life all mapped out. The husband she put through law school has just landed his first big case. He’ll probably make junior partner within the year. In no time at all, they’ll move out of their cramped apartment, pay off the bills from the fertility clinic, and buy a nice house in the suburbs, where they’ll raise a baby. Except life goes off course when Reggie’s husband walks out on their marriage the same day she receives the most devastating news. With her hopes and dreams for the future crumbling, Reggie turns to three of the best friends a girl could ever want.

A lighthearted tale that will make you smile & let you believe that dreams really do come true. Abigail Apple is running late to meet her blind date when she’s pulled over for speeding. Unfortunately, the follow-the-rules cop doesn’t care that she’s late, let alone that she’s heartbroken because her favorite dog rescue is in danger of being closed. Now she has to meet her date with mud drying on her heels, dog hair covering her dress, and the smell of a barn perfuming her hair. When she arrives, however, Abigail learns her handsome blind date is none other than the cop who pulled ...