Marriage Friendship

The only thing Rosalind Ling Geraghty loves more than watching NASA launches with her dad is building rockets with him. When he dies unexpectedly, all Ro has left of him is an unfinished model rocket they had been working on together. Benjamin Burns doesn’t like science, but he can’t get enough of Spacebound, a popular comic book series. When he finds a sketch that suggests that his dad created the comics, he’s thrilled. Too bad his dad walked out years ago, and Benji has no way to contact him.

Abandoned by first her father and then her mother, as a girl Tessa is left to live with her abusive stepfather and stepbrother. She survives by finding reserves of strength in herself, and by the transformative love of another teenage girl, Mel, who sees through Tessa’s tough exterior to the loving woman inside. When she suddenly loses Mel, too, Tessa stumbles into a kind of refuge with Henry and his mama, becoming a mother and finding herself in a familial existence that somehow carries her into adulthood—until the day she runs into Mel, who has just returned to Perris after years away.

Widowed Samantha Arias hasn’t spoken to Holly Dunfee in forever. It’s for the best. Samantha prefers to avoid conflict. The blisteringly honest Holly craves it. What they still have in common puts them both back on speed dial: a mutual love for Katie, their best friend of twenty-five years, now hospitalized with cancer and needing one little errand from her old college roomies. It’s simple: travel cross-country together, steal her loathsome ex-husband’s VW camper, find Katie’s diabetic Great Pyrenees at a Utah pound, and drive him back home to Wisconsin.

Whether you're seeking deeper intimacy, struggling with patterns of insecurity, or simply curious about why you love the way you do, this book offers insights that are both enlightening and transformative. Drawing from psychology, neuroscience, and real-life stories, Anxious Heart, Secure Soul unravels the complexities of attachment theory in a way that’s accessible, compassionate, and refreshingly practical. Discover how attachment styles—such as anxious, avoidant, and secure—shape our reactions, our emotional needs, and even the types of partners we attract.

With The Interruption of Everything, her sixth novel, Terry McMillan takes on the fault lines of mid-life and family life, reminds us once again of the redeeming power of friendship, and turns her eye toward the dilemma of how a woman starts to put her own needs higher on the to-do list while not shortchanging everyone else.

Many couples prefer to go through relationship books or gather information and love tips so that their marriage can be smooth sailing, if not a bed of roses. But not all romance books will give tips that are realistic and ones that can be followed in daily lives. This book has not kept any stones unturned, as it is an invaluable piece of writing that has served as an ideal marriage help guide for many couples.

Washington, DC, 1914. Ivy Olwen knows how to survive on the streets without two coins to rub together. But when destiny thrusts her into the nest of a covert agency of assassins sworn to drive back the world’s darkness, she acquires a new set of lethal skills. Her education—from explosives to etiquette, sharpshooting to sabotage—is as far-reaching as the organization’s missions. But it’s the hours she spends among the towering bookshelves in the library and stargazing on the roof with Agent Jack Vale that make her heart fly.

Amber Brown is happy her dad has moved back to New Jersey, but her mom isn't. It means the beginning of shared custody, and that means more fighting. Amber feels as if half of her belongs to her mom and half of her belongs to her dad, and that doesn't feel good at all. Then her mom says she can't get her ears pierced, but her dad doesn't know that. Amber makes a decision. Something has to belong to her, so why shouldn't it be her ears?

Marriage is for Monarchs. Marriage is kind of like trying to choreograph a royal waltz… on a battlefield… in flip-flops… while holding emotional blueprints written by two entirely different civilizations—one in bold declarations, the other in deeply nuanced eye rolls. You can read all the Christian books, quote Ephesians 5 in four translations, take a compatibility quiz on your anniversary, and still end up crying in the kitchen because one of you said “I’m fine” and meant “I’m disappointed in your soul,” while the other heard “Excellent. Crisis averted."

Phronsie Linnelle was conceived at Woodstock in a serendipitous liaison between a free-spirited hippie and a farmer’s son and was born with magical wonder flickering in her DNA and rationality knit into her bones. All her life she’s been torn between the two. But now that she’s been betrayed by both love and the mother she once idolized, her rational side is winning. So when her best friend from childhood proposes that they give up on romance and marry each other, Phronsie agrees.

Audrey and Ian were best friends—until they fell in love with the same man. To be precise, they fell in love with, married, and divorced the same man. And there’s no coming back from that. Twenty-odd years later, they’re right back at the beginning: Vienna, where their university study abroad turned into a love triangle from which they never quite recovered. But it’s Christmas, and Audrey’s daughter is getting married. Time to let bygones be bygones.

James splits his life between his mum’s and his dad’s houses. It’s far from perfect. Especially now Dad doesn’t have time for bike rides with him any more and Mum’s always with her new boyfriend. The constant is Digger, his dog and best friend. He’s the glue that holds the two halves of James’ life together. So when James finds a lump on Digger’s leg, everything changes. Digger is the one he can talk to about anything. But when it’s Digger he needs to talk about, where can he turn?

Manchester industrialist William Rose was a poor lad who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, but in order to achieve his greatest ambitions he must become the epitome of Victorian respectability: a family man. But the only woman who's caught his eye is Octavia Marshall, one of the notorious ladies of Carson Street. Though once born to great wealth and privilege, she's hardly respectable, but she's determined to forge a new life as an entirely proper businesswoman.

One takeaway dinner. Two lonely hearts. Did somebody order a rom com? Gia thrives on risks. Ben plays it safe. She crossed continents to chase her London dream; he works the same job in the same restaurant, night after night. Then fate steps in. When Gia’s takeout is delivered, her embarrassing list of New Year’s resolutions accidentally makes its way to Ben’s restaurant, stuck to the bottom of a delivery backpack. With each delivery Gia orders, Ben slips in a note of his own and eagerly awaits her reply.

A women’s boxing class is the perfect place for betrayed wife Katherine to work out her aggressions. Ideal too for Geneva, a teacher disgraced and ruined by a vengeful ex, and Luz, a software engineer battling an unjust system. Maggie, their instructor and mentor, guarantees she can right the wrongs they’ve endured. And if Katherine, Geneva, and Luz really want to unleash their rage, they must do what Maggie says.

When three women are thrown together by unusual circumstances, ruffled feelings are just the beginning. A wise, sharply observed celebration of the life-changing power of female friendships.

For Londoner Eloise Hamilton, it is a momentous day when she reluctantly agrees to uproot to Dartmouth, leaving behind her perfect world so her husband can return to his. At least her mother-in-law, Margaret, will welcome her with open arms, and she can rely on best friend, Sara, to be her lifeline to London. But Eloise is thrust into unexpected turmoil when it's revealed that Margaret is showing signs of dementia and Sara's intense longing for a family threatens to overwhelm her.

A chance encounter brings Nancy Sunday to the streets of London, where she finds herself amongst a band of street urchins. Her heart may have been broken by love but it’s big enough to help those less fortunate than herself, and Nancy takes these unloved orphans in—but when one of them is accused of a serious crime, the neighbourhood turns against her. The colder the cruel grip of winter grows, the more mouths she finds herself having to feed. Can Nancy’s good heart and strength bring them all through?

West London. Tania Samarasena (recently divorced), her mother Helen (recently widowed), and her best friend Priya (recently nearly sacked following The Outburst) are three women at a crossroads in their lives. As they make plans to reinvent themselves, a series of shocks, old secrets and surprises plays havoc with their relationships, as well as their futures.

Joni Ackerman’s decision to raise children, 25 years ago, came with a steep cost. She was then a pioneering filmmaker, one of the few women to break into the all-male Hollywood club of feature film directors. But she and her husband Paul had always wanted a family, and his ascending career at a premier television network provided a safety net. Now they’ve recently transplanted to Brooklyn so that Paul can launch a major East Coast production studio, when a scandal rocks the film industry and forces Joni to revisit a secret from long ago involving her friend Val.