At twenty-three, Ruth Saunders left her childhood home in Massachusetts and headed west with her seventy-year-old grandma in tow, hoping to make it as a screenwriter. Six years later, she hits the jackpot when she gets The Call: the sitcom she wrote, The Next Best Thing, has gotten the green light, and Ruthie's going to be the showrunner. But her dreams of Hollywood happiness are threatened by demanding actors, number-crunching executives, an unrequited...

After nearly a decade as a sous-chef in a trendy eatery, Jenna is desperate for a change. She's supported her ex-husband's dreams for so long that she can't even remember her own, until she sees a for-lease sign near her parents' home and envisions her very own cooking store. Her crash course in business is aided by a streetwise store manager and Jenna's adoptive mother. But just as she's gaining a foothold in her new life, in walk her birth parents--aging...

"In this dazzling debut, Lara Avery crafts a story of heart, humor, and hope, as a young widow learns that her late husband signed her up for a dating service before his death, propelling her on an uplifting journey of possibility, second chances, and falling in love again ... with life. Robin Lindstrom spent her first year as a young widow cocooned in the safe haven of the Minnesota farmhouse she'd once shared with Gabe, the love of her life - the...

Tell me your best story: Anne McWilliams has lost everything. Her marriage fell apart so she turned to photography, only to have her world turned upside down again when a hurricane destroyed her home and all of her beloved photos. In the aftermath of the storm, Anne takes to the road to ask long-lost family, friends, and strangers a simple question: "What's your best story?" -- Write me a life: Tyler Bron has it all--a successful company that's changing...

"It's 1972 and times are changing. In the small farming community of Mason, Kansas. Vera and Kelly Exton are known for their ambitions. Vera is an activist who wants to join her boyfriend in the Peace Corps. But she is doing her duty caring for her widowed mother and younger sister until Kelly is firmly established. Kelly is studying to become a veterinarian. She plans to marry her childhood sweetheart and eventually take over his father's veterinary...

Mary Margaret Kelly was nine, when her father, an Air Force pilot, died. As the family moved from one city to the next, her mother warned her to beware of daredevil men and avoid risk at all cost. Following her mother's advice, Maggie instead sought out all the things her mother had lost--a predictable partner, a stable home, and a regular paycheck. She chose to marry a dependable, kind man who was a reliable husband and successful accountant. Then...

Allison Weiss has a great job, a handsome husband, an adorable daughter and a secret. Allison Weiss is a typical working mother, trying to balance a business, aging parents, a demanding daughter, and a marriage. But when the website she develops takes off, she finds herself challenged to the point of being completely overwhelmed. Her husband's becoming distant, her daughter's acting spoiled, her father is dealing with early Alzheimer's, and her mother's...

Follows a year in the life of Tess, a 22-year-old woman who's come to New York to escape the provincial and take on her destiny. After she stumbles into a coveted job at a renowned Union Square restaurant, she learns the chaotic, punishing, privileged life of a "backwaiter," on and off duty. Her appetites are awakened, for food, wine, knowledge and experience; and she's pulled into the thrall of two other servers--a handsome bartender she falls hard...

"Lucy Young is twenty-six and tired. Tired of fetching coffees for senior TV producers, sick of going on disastrous dates, and done with living in a damp flat with roommates who never buy toilet paper. After another disappointing date, Lucy stumbles upon a wishing machine. Pushing a coin into the slot, Lucy closes her eyes and wishes with all her might: Please, let me skip to the good part of my life. When she wakes the next morning to a handsome...

Madeleine is trapped--by her family's expectations, by her controlling husband, and by her own fears--in an unhappy marriage and a life she never wanted. From the outside, it looks like she has everything, but on the inside, she fears she has nothing that matters. In Madeleine's memories, her grandmother Margie is the kind of woman she should have been--elegant, reserved, perfect. But when Madeleine finds a diary detailing Margie's bold, romantic...