Jess Lawson, a 45-year-old healthcare consultant, wife, and mother of two, has spent most of her adulthood fostering the illusion of having a perfect life. Her impending empty-nest syndrome as her youngest child prepares to start college is troubling enough, but when her doctor husband, Arthur, announces his intention to take a prestigious new job on the other side of the country - and relocate without Jess - her world quickly crumbles. 

In a radical departure from her urban life, Ann Turner buys a piece of remote Vermont land and sets up a tent home in the forest. In an effort to escape an unending string of personal disasters in Boston, she hopes to find a kind of peace in this new life. She soon learns she was mistaken in thinking a kindly Mother Earth would grant her wisdom and serenity in her new home. The forest confronts her with unanticipated dangers, aching loneliness, harsh weather, and wildlife. Then necessity requires her to start work as a farmhand.

Faith, free love, and betrayal. In 1969, the Summer of Love, America is changing, full of cultural revolution and new freedoms. As Julie Jensen escapes the hide-bound world of her midwestern family, she embarks on an adventure far from home. Julie leaves a life in shambles to follow her dreams of art and travel. From a charming town in southern England, into the decadent realm of Haight-Ashbury, and the exotic Barcelona coast, she finds love. But when disaster strikes, she must make a choice between family duty and her own needs.

Three brothers tear their way through childhood—smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn—he’s Puerto Rican, she’s white—and their love is a serious, dangerous thing that makes and unmakes a family many times.

Georgia Grayson has perfected the art of being two people: a neurosurgeon on track to becoming the first female Director of Neurosurgery at a large London hospital, and a wife and mother. Home is her haven where, with husband Adam’s support, she copes with her occasional anxiety attacks. That is until her daughter, 15-year-old Lara, demands to know more about Danny, her mysterious biological father from New Orleans who died before she was born. 

Nora Silk doesn't really fit in on Hemlock Street, where every house looks the same. She's divorced. She wears a charm bracelet and high heels and red toreador pants. And the way she raises her kids is a scandal. But as time passes, the neighbors start having second thoughts about Nora. The women's apprehension evolves into admiration. The men's lust evolves into awe. The children are drawn to her in ways they can't explain.

Elfrida Phipps, once of London's stage, moved to the English village of Dibton in hopes of making a new life for herself. Gradually she settled into the comfortable familiarity of village life - shopkeepers knowing her tastes, neighbors calling her by name - still she finds herself lonely.

Sisters Annie and Jess are used to their mother, Julia, being spontaneous. But when Julia announces she’s flying off to Rome to meet her first love, Patrick, whom she hasn’t seen for 50 years, it's an adventure too far. So, her daughters decide the only way to keep Julia safe is to go too - without actually telling their mother she has chaperones!

I thought I was sorted on the life front. I was a heart surgeon with a loving partner and two gorgeous little girls. Except my husband’s version of "loving" is lying, cheating, and sleeping his way around London. Which means I definitely deserve a refund. Unfortunately, moving on isn’t that simple. Just because I know how to operate on a heart doesn’t mean I know how to fix my broken one. Plus, I lost the receipt for him years ago, so I’m definitely getting shortchanged. But now that I’m single, am I ready to mingle?

Maggie Price is resilient. After her husband died, leaving her a young widow with an infant son, she returned home to Candle Beach to create a new future for them by purchasing the Bluebonnet Cafe. Jake Price promised his younger brother he’d take care of his wife and child if something happened to him while deployed overseas. Now, five years after his brother’s death, Jake vows to fulfill that promise and take care of Maggie and her son, Alex.

New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe invites you to meet five remarkable characters as she explores the power of friendship with tenderness, honesty and understanding.

This year, Lottie is hosting one last big family Christmas at the home she grew up in – just like her Nana would have wanted. But when her relatives descend on the old manor house, Lottie gets more than she bargained for. Every family has its secrets, but this one has 12! So, between cooking a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings, keeping tensions at bay and Dave the dog out of mischief, she has plenty on her plate. And then her first love shows up – nine years after he walked out of her life.

When Serenity Alston swabbed her cheek for 23andMe, she joked about uncovering some dark ancestral scandal. The last thing she expected was to discover two half sisters she didn’t know existed. Suddenly, everything about her loving family is drawn into question. And meeting these newfound sisters might be the only way to get answers. The women decide to dig into the mystery together at Serenity’s family cabin in Lake Tahoe. With Reagan navigating romantic politics at work and Lorelei staring down the collapse of her marriage, all three women are converging at a crossroads.

Julia Curtis is a busy mother of three, with a husband often away for work, an ever-present mother-in-law, a career, and a house that needs doing up. Her 14-year-old daughter, Milla, has fallen in love for the first time, and her youngest, Ruby, is a nine-year-old fashionista who can out-negotiate anyone. But Julia’s 11-year-old son, Jackson, is different. Different to his sisters. Different to his classmates. In fact, Jackson is different from everyone. And bringing up a child who is different isn’t always easy.

As children, half-sisters Cassie and Julie were nearly inseparable, bonded through happy, lazy summers playing barefoot in the surf and sleeping out on the porch of their grandmother’s Hamptons beach house. Though from wildly different backgrounds, each magical summer the girls were as close as only best friends, accomplices, sisters can be. But they haven’t spoken in nearly 15 years - not since the funeral of Cassie’s mother - and now there is only resentment and painful memories between them.