"Keira Johnston, a 50-year-old mother of two grown sons, believes she lives a good Christian life without secrets -- until she discovers a life-jarring fact her late mother kept hidden all her life. Kiera was born out of wedlock, and the man she had always known as her father had adopted her as an infant.
Meanwhile, Keira's beloved 17-year-old niece, Kirsten, has just discovered an unwanted pregnancy. Her boyfriend, Jose, is bound for college and Kirsten does not know what to do. As the family comes together for a reunion, Keira and Kirsten struggle with their fractured pasts and jumbled present. Will truth and honesty be the catalysts that allow the entire family to find peace?
Inspired by events in Lauraine Snelling's own life, REUNION is the author's finest novel to date."
"Two girls and three boys, all with strikingly different looks and talents, meet at the Atwood school as young children. Together, they become an inseparable group—known to outsiders as “The Big Five”—and lean on one another through all the bumps and bends of childhood and adolescence. But when the tight-knit group graduates and scatters to different colleges, their lives diverge dramatically, and some of the friends are lost forever.… Those who remain will struggle to understand that even bonds that once seemed unbreakable are not proof against tragedy—but that they can also transform into something new and entirely unexpected.…"
"From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner, an "utterly engaging story" (Time) about a young woman trying to make it as a writer in Hollywood.
At three years old, Ruth Saunders miraculously survives the car crash that takes her parents' lives on the icy Massachusetts Turnpike. Her eccentric grandmother nurtures her through years of surgeries, feeding her home-cooked meals, dispensing irreverent wisdom, and telling Ruth she's beautiful, even though her scars will stay with her forever.
After college, Ruth pursues her dream of writing to Hollywood, heading west with her grandmother in tow, hoping to make it big in the world of TV. After years of failure and a badly broken heart, Ruth gets The Call—her show has been green-lit.
But Ruth's happy ending is only the beginning, as she struggles with how television gets made: terrified (and terrifying) executives and actresses with their eyes on bigger prizes than Ruthie's show. Add in an unrequited crush on the man who has been her mentor. Add to that her grandmother's impending nuptials, and Ruth's big break might just break her.
A rollicking ride on the Hollywood roller coaster, The Next Best Thing is a heartfelt story about a young woman searching for her own happily-ever-after in the land where dreams come true."
"“Next to Tracy and Hepburn, nobody does romantic comedy better than Susan Elizabeth Phillips.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
Perennial New York Times bestseller Susan Elizabeth Phillips now provides her fans with The Great Escape from ordinary women’s romantic fiction. One of today’s most beloved writers, the incomparable Phillips follows up her utterly beguiling hit, Call Me Irresistible (“Phillips at her very best. Romantic, funny, sexy, and poignant” —Kristin Hannah) with a sequel that’s equally impossible to resist. Returning in The Great Escape are some of Phillips’s most adored characters, including headstrong, impetuous ex-president’s daughter, Lucy Jorik, who’s just abandoned her fiancé, Ted “Mr. Irresistible” Beaudine, at the altar. Now she’s looking for adventure—and perhaps a little romance—embarking on a wild and hilariously unpredictable road trip that begins on the back of a rather menacing-looking stranger’s motorcycle. The winner of more Favorite Book of the Year Awards than any other romance author, including Nora Roberts, Susan Elizabeth Phillips offers her fans an Escape to remember, and they’ll certainly want to come back for more!"
"Though unalike as snowflakes, sisters Patricia Anne and Mary Alice share a sympathetic heart for their distraught cousin Luke—known affectionately in his boyhood as 'Pukey Lukey,' because of his penchant for getting sick in moving vehicles. Luke is desperate to hunt down Virginia, his wife of forty years, who has run off with a housepainter/snake-handling preacher named 'Monk.' And the sisters have graciously agreed to accompany their stricken kinsman on his search … in Luke's car, of course.
But, while practical 'Mouse' and flamboyant 'Sister' are unable to find their runaway cousin-in-law among the asp-loving faithful on Chandler Mountain, they do manage to stumble upon the corpse of a pretty young redhead who was prematurely sent to her eternal reward. And before you can say 'anaconda,' they are hot on the serpentine trail of a killer who'd like nothing better than to sink a pair of poisonous fangs into two meddling Southern sisters!"
"Patricia Anne can't imagine why Mary Alice is in such an uproar over her son Ray's new bride. Sunshine Dabbs is cute as can be, even if she is a bit unconventional, which should hardly come as a shock to Mary Alice given that she's the one who raised her boy. But with all her motherly instincts, Mary Alice is sure that this sweet little blonde Barbie doll—who met her son in Bora Bora after she won the trip on Wheel of Fortune—thinks she's found herself a fortune in Ray's hefty wallet.
The sisters can't wait to get a look at Sunshine's family, and quite a look it turns out to be. As soon as Meemaw Turkett invites Mary Alice and Patricia Anne into her cozy trailer on the family compound they stumble over a corpse, and Meemaw's best hog butchering knife is stuck in its chest. Meemaw, a Cabbage Patch look-alike and Sunshine's grandmother, guardian, and the family matriarch, is shocked to pieces and immediately summons the family to her trailer. Pawpaw, a lovable bearded grump has his own trailer, and their grown kids each enjoy a private home-away-from-home on the five-trailer compound.
The discovery of the mysterious body brings in Mary Alice's nemesis, good ol' boy Sheriff Reuse, who, she knows from her experience at the Skoot 'n' Boot, is nothing but trouble. Within minutes, the compound is strewn with a weird collection of friends, neighbors, and relatives. There's Meemaw's spooky channeler, ready to give guidance as needed; Sunshine's jilted boyfriend skulking around; a bunch of dogs ready to attack … and Kerrigan, Sunshine's mostly absentee mama, who stars in the kind of video flicks that might even shock Mary Alice."
"Those hilarious southern sisters, who prove that sibling rivalry never ends, are heading for a vacation at the beach. Mary Alice's flamboyant behavior aside, serious, sensible Patricia Anne looks forward to relaxing at her sister's beachfront condo in Destin, Florida, so she kisses her ever-loving spouse Fred goodbye, reminds him to water the plants and feed the dog, and the girls head south for some fun in the sun.
Mary Alice loses no time in making the acquaintance of just about everyone in sight, so watching the sun go down on the beautiful shores of the Gulf of Mexico is a welcome respite as far as Patricia Anne is concerned … until a dead body washes up in the waves and the victim turns out to be one of Mary Alice's newfound friends. With no witnesses to the crime except a few great blue herons, the sisters have no choice but to bypass the clueless police and follow their own instinct to find the killer. Before long they're on a murky trail of dirty real-estate deals, giant turtle habitats, and a sea of evidence pointing to a mammoth motive for murder."
"It's hard to believe practical, petite ex-schoolteacher Patricia Anne and amiable, ample-bodied, and outrageous Mary Alice are sisters, yet sibling rivalry has survived decades of good-natured disagreement about everything from husbands to hair color. No sooner do the Southern sisters discover a common interest in some local art, when they're arguing the artistic merits of some well-coiffured heads at a gallery opening. A few hours later, one of those pretty ladies ends up dead—with not a hair out of place. The other shows up on Patricia Anne's doorstep dazed, disheveled, and telling a wild tale of a narrow escape from some deadly cuts. Now the sisters are once again combing for clues to catch a killer with a bizarre style in art—and murder."
"A Different Kind of Sister Act
Patricia Anne—'Mouse'—is respectful, respectable, and demure, a perfect example of genteel Southern womanhood. Mary Alice—'Sister'—is big, brassy, flamboyant, and bold. Together they have a knack for finding themselves in the center of some of Birmingham's most unfortunate unpleasantness.
Country Western is red hot these days, so overimpulsive Mary Alice thinks it makes perfect sense to buy the Skoot 'n' Boot bar—since that's where the many-times-divorced 'Sister' and her boyfriend du jour like to hang out anyway. Sensible retired schoolteacher Patricia Anne is inclined to disagree—especially when they find a strangled and stabbed dead body dangling in the pub's wishing well. The sheriff has some questions for Mouse and her sister Sister, who were the last people, besides the murderer, of course, to see the ill-fated victim alive. And they had better come up with some answers soon—because a killer with unfinished business has begun sending them some mighty threatening messages …"
"Mary Alice has spared nothing for her only daughter's wedding—from seventy-five yards of bridal train to gourmet food for over three hundred guests and enough glittering elegance to make Mary Alice think about finding herself a fourth rich husband to pay for it all.
Practical Patricia Anne has put away her aunt-of-the-bride blue chiffon and settled back into domesticity when fun-loving Mary Alice calls to say they have a post-wedding date with a genealogist from the groom's side of the family. Lunch is a fascinating lesson on the hazards of finding dirty linens in ancestral boudoirs that ends abruptly when their guest scurries off with the local judge, leaving the sisters with their mouths open—and finishing their luncheon companion's cheesecake—when the police arrive.
Their mysterious guest has taken a plunge from the ninth floor of the courthouse building—an apparent suicide. But given the scandals a nosy genealogist might have uncovered, the sisters are betting that some proud Southern family is making sure their shameful secrets stay buried … along with anyone who tries to dig them up."
"Patricia Anne would swear that either she or her sister Mary Alice were switched at birth, except they were both born at home. Flashy, flirtatious Mary Alice is one foot taller, twice the body weight of Patricia Anne, and three times as likely to do something completely off the wall. But now Mary Alice's impulsive behavior has landed them both in the Birmingham jail!
It all begins with a call from their good friend Mitzi Phizer, who's starting an investment club—kind of a Beardstown Ladies group. Patricia Anne is willing to make a small, conservative investment in a thriving chain of HMOs; Mary Alice is hot to trot to put her money on Viagra. But before the club idea gets off the ground, the sisters spot Mitzi's supposedly faithful husband in a chummy little huddle with a redhead—and the next thing they know, Arthur is accused of murdering the mystery woman. Nothing about the whole sordid story fits the kind, gentle Arthur, and Patricia Anne is doing her best to console her good friends. But when their house catches on fire, and Arthur is shot in a place that won't allow him to even sit down at his own murder trial, the sisters know they have to stand up for the poor fellow. And that means checking out everyone—from low-down cads to highbrow bank presidents—to find a no good gun-toting arsonist who believes big money is to kill for."
"“Lynsay Sands writes books that keep readers coming back for more.”
—Katie MacAlister, USA Today Bestselling Author
“Take a bite into a fresh, fun vampire comedy ... read Lynsay Sands!”
—Carly Phillips, New York Times Bestselling Author
The Argeneau’s are hungry for love—and Lynsay Sands’s bestselling paranormal romance series starring the enormously popular vampire family is hotter than ever! In this New York Times and USA Today bestselling author’s spicy-sweet sixteenth Argeneau novel, the lady is a gorgeous vampire enchantress who finds herself kidnapped by one desperate—and devastatingly handsome—man. The Lady is a Vamp is Lynsay at her best—and fans of the hit HBO series True Blood, as well as the Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse novels it’s based on, will eagerly drink in every tasty drop of this sexy, suspenseful paranormal winner."
