New Women

The Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times best-selling author of Let’s Take the Long Way Home now gives us a stunning, exquisitely written memoir about a dramatic turning point in her life, which unexpectedly opened up a world of understanding, possibility, and connection. New Life, No Instructions is about the surprising way life can begin again, at any age.

The publication in 1992 of Andrew Morton's Diana: Her True Story shook the British Royal family to its very foundations. Initially greeted with disbelief, as time passed, it became clear that the book was, as its title claimed, Diana's true story.

As a teenage orphan in England in 1791, Mary Reibey was sentenced to death for stealing a horse. When police cornered her, she was dressed as a boy, and she maintained that disguise until she was unmasked at her trial. Due to her 'tender age', Reibey was spared the hangman's noose and sentenced to seven years' transportation to the colony of New South Wales. With the odds stacked against her, Reibey went on to become Australia's first female business tycoon and the richest woman in the colony, founding the Bank of New South Wales, now one of the nation's biggest financial institutions.

Blindsided by a breakup, and asking herself the usual why, how, what questions, Tatiana Jerome went online. She used social media as a way to uplift and empower herself by venting but also working through her own part in the relationship's demise. Her posts struck a chord with thousands and then hundreds of thousands of readers - no surprise since most relationships (approximately 85 percent) end.

Old New Worlds intertwines the immigrant stories of the author and her great-great grandmother. Sarah Barker and her new husband sail from England in 1815 to minister to the indigenous Khoihoi in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. In the midst of conflict, illness, and natural disasters, Sarah bears 16 children. Two hundred years later, Judith leaves post-apartheid South Africa with her new American husband to immigrate to the United States. She is drawn to Sarah’s immigrant story in the context of her own experience, and she sets out to try and trace her.

Ophelia Bishop was a lovestruck teenage girl when she and Kyle Kimpton chased their dreams to Hollywood. Kyle’s dreams came true. Ophelia’s did not. When Kyle chose his career over their relationship, Ophelia returned home to rural New York to run the family’s B & B—wiser, and more guarded against foolish fantasies. Now Kyle has come crashing back into her life, and all her defenses are down.

With her whole world turned upside down, the last thing international photojournalist Lucy O’Brien expected was for it to spin out of complete control. She finds herself falling for her longtime BFF, Dr. Andy Hale, the moment she arrives, risking their friendship. Only she has a secret, one she’s too scared to admit to anyone lest it come true. But Andy knows her better than anyone, and while he’s still overcoming the loss of his wife and finding his way as a single parent, he’s not going to let Lucy hide anything from him.

Hey, baby, Debbie and Edwina aren’t likely to thank anybody very much when a despicable sneak thief pilfers Elvis Presley’s blue suede shoes—the main exhibit at a Salt Lick, Texas, festival for the King. But with everyone’s favorite Southern detectives on the case, the proceedings are likely to be as tasty as a bacon, banana, and peanut-butter sandwich.

Lucy Frampton just wants to make animated movies and to raise as functional a family as possible in the midst of Hollywood’s special brand of madness. Unfortunately, when her producer-husband Kit scores his first blockbuster movie, he is stricken with the dreaded "Mogus Virus"—(a common ailment!), which compels seemingly down-to-earth people to hire personal chefs and trainers and share enough air-kisses to inflate the Hindenburg. And adding to the crazy is the suspicious on-location death of his director, the much-despised whiz-kid Jeremy Lord. What’s a rational wife to do?

When Jess left him behind, Morgan thought he'd never get over her. The only way he could move on was to completely cut her from his life. Until now. He's honoured to be the best man at his best mate's wedding but with Jessica as maid of honour, how is he going to face her? When the wedding brings them into one another's lives once more, will it be the final chance to lay their broken hearts to rest? Or will it reignite all the passion, as well as reveal the secrets that have stood between them for all these years?

Charlie is already feeling adrift when she relocates to an exclusive town in coastal New England with her mysteriously distant husband, Dev, and their young twins in tow. She hopes the move will recharge her stalled marriage, and she wants her kids to feel like they belong, even if she’s clearly a fish out of water herself. In a strange new world where summer is a verb and both the harbor and the partygoers are awash in a dizzying constellation of pinks and pastels, she’s never felt so confounded or alone. She’ll need more than a preppy handbook to find her way.

When Manhattan business tycoon, commonly known as the Takeover King, Montgomery Livingstone is pushed off a Widow's Walk and falls to his death, Maeve and Meg are again thrust into a murder investigation as they attempt to help a seemingly innocent young woman accused of the crime. But it turns out there are many secrets to be uncovered, and once again, Maeve, Meg, and their savvy Boston Irish mother must band together to solve the murder. Maeve races against the clock to bring the killer to justice while caring for her patients and pursuing her goal of motherhood.

Lake Winnipesaukee in central New Hampshire is a paradise on earth. A perfect place to unwind—until a ruthless killer starts taking innocent lives. Following a horrific double homicide, the small communities surrounding the lake are wondering who the next victim will be and what the killer wants. Russian-American police officer Vanya Petrova is enraged that someone has shattered paradise on her lake community. She seems to be the central figure in this murderer's bloody rampage. Vanya suspects she's somehow acquainted with the sick man responsible for the bloodshed.

Botanist Millie Whitehall leaves her New Jersey home to take a job in New Mexico. She plans to spend a peaceful summer surveying rare plants. Instead she becomes entangled in two heartless murders. Millie befriends one too many characters that she encounters during her work in the back country. Will it be the friendly oil and gas hand, out-spoken environmentalist, laid-back cowboy, charming foreign tourist, or handsome young Navajo biologist that ends up threatening her life?

Newly divorced Lily Kimura returns to her hometown to start fresh with her daughter and her recently retired parents. She’s committed to rebuilding her life, starting with a new job at the town theater. The Starlight Cove Playhouse has been closed for years, ever since a tragic fire took the life of the lead actress. Now, thanks to an anonymous donor, the town is finally ready for a revival. So is Lily, who wholeheartedly dives into her new duties as theater manager, including an unexpected connection with the visiting movie star playing the lead.

New Orleans, 1982. Voodoo spells, prostitutes, prisoners, and veterans who are adamant about the size of their manhood—it's all just another day at Charity Hospital, also known as The Big Free. It's a medical free-for-all with the toughest trauma surgery in America, and Elizabeth—fresh from medical school in Charleston, wearing pearls and pink plaid socks—is one of the first women to work there. Half of the doctors who start the surgery program never finish. Nothing in her proper Southern upbringing prepared Elizabeth for the gritty and gruesome world she now experiences on a daily basis.

Set in 1995 against the backdrop of Auckland's burgeoning party scene, Golden Days is the story of an intense late-teens friendship between bookish Becky and star-dusted Zoe Golden, and what happened when one terrifying night changed their lives and destroyed their friendship forever. After finding out that her husband has been cheating on her, Becky is mourning the end of her picture-perfect marriage at the bottom of a bottle. She thought she'd left that summer far behind, but the trauma of her present day brings back memories of the horrific night her brother died.

For many years Elizabeth Lawson has battled single-handedly to run the family's historic horse stud in memory of her beloved father. But a devastating loss puts her dreams at risk. With no options left, Liz is forced to turn to her estranged sister Kayla for help. Kayla has built a new life in the city as a wedding planner, far removed from the stableyard sweat and dust of her rural upbringing. She never thought she'd go back. But when Liz calls out of the blue, Kayla forms a plan that could save their childhood home.

Elise Gilpatrick never thought she would be a parent, especially not like this. After agreeing to take 15-year-old DJ as a temporary foster placement straight from the police station, she feels like she's in over her head. But, as she learns on the job with a little help from her coworker, Elise realizes that she and DJ need to lean on each other and on the God who pieced them together. Their rocky journey will only prove that it's never too late to find the love of a family.

Sometimes the life you planned isn't the one you get to live. Sometimes the pain of the past overshadows the future. And sometimes to start over you have to go back to where it all began.