Family Life Fiction

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned - from the layout of the winding roads to the colors of the houses to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren - an enigmatic artist and single mother - who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter, Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons.

It's 1924 in Branchville, South Carolina, and three women have come to a crossroads. Gertrude, a mother of four, must make an unconscionable decision to save her daughters. Retta, a first-generation freed slave, comes to Gertrude's aid by watching her children, despite the gossip it causes in her community. Annie, the matriarch of the influential Coles family, offers Gertrude employment at her sewing circle, while facing problems of her own at home.

I wanted to lose myself in the small town of Pelion, Maine. To forget everything I had left behind. The sound of rain. The blood. The coldness of a gun against my skin. For six months, each breath has been a reminder that I survived—and my dad didn't. I'm almost safe again. But the moment I meet Archer Hale, my entire world tilts on its axis . . . and never rights itself again. Until I trespass into his strange, silent, and isolated world, Archer communicates with no one. Yet in his whiskey-colored eyes, something intangible happens between us.

Miss this book at your own expense! When a mysterious broken down van shows up in front of the Hartwell’s apartment building in Washington DC, they have no idea that a vicious crime inside would steer them on an emotional, violent, heart wrenching journey that would damage their family forever. And then there’s Amina Hartwell, a selfish, sneaky and irresponsible teenager who when forced away from her friends, and carted off to another city, acts out in ways that rock her world. Her antics cause more problems than a little for Pam, her emotionally overworked mother who is struggling to ...

Cyril Avery is not a real Avery - or at least that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn't a real Avery, then who is he? Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead.

Eighteen-year-old Stella Sandell stands accused of the brutal murder of a man almost 15 years her senior. She is an ordinary teenager from an upstanding local family. What reason could she have to know a shady businessman, let alone to kill him? Stella’s father, a pastor, and mother, a criminal defense attorney, find their moral compasses tested as they defend their daughter, while struggling to understand why she is a suspect.

Twelve-year-old Fernando “Fin” joins his grandfather on a secret quest to find a long-lost treasure swept to sea. But when their first mission takes a near-deadly turn, leaving his abuelo weak and unable to speak, Fin’s left to navigate the hunt alone. Well, not exactly alone—his boring, totally unadventurous dad agrees to help out. With danger lurking at every turn, Fin dives into the mission in order to save Abuelo's life.

It is a perfect July morning, and Elle, a 50-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at “The Paper Palace” - the family summer place she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: Last night, Elle and her oldest friend, Jonas, crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside. Now, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love.

She's the only Glover without a significant other. He's been searching for someone who can love him and his daughter. Can Etta and August make a meaningful connection this Christmas? Etta's resigned herself to being the designated babysitter for the growing family and wearing the label of "bestest aunt" with pride. She loves all of her nieces and nephews, her siblings and cousins, and the family ranch where she works. She once had big dreams for herself, but they all ended when she couldn't walk down the aisle and left her fiancé standing at the altar. As if her embarrassment and regret ...

April had absolutely no intention of becoming the only person who knows that Gabriel Winterborne, the missing-and-presumed-dead billionaire, is actually living in the basement of Winterborne House, sharpening his swords and looking for vengeance. Now it’s up to April to keep him alive. But there’s only so much a 12-year-old girl can do, so April must turn to the other orphans for help. Together, they’ll have to unravel the riddle of a missing heir and a creepy legend, and find a secret key, before the only home they’ve ever known is lost to them forever.

Lulu has received the worst. News. Ever. She's getting a baby sister. No one ever asked her opinion on this debacle. She no how, no way, no thank you wants a sibling. Undeterred, to prepare Lulu for big sisterhood, her parents bribe - ahem, ask - Lulu to attend Camp Sisterhood, aka big-sister training camp. As a sister in training (SIT), Lulu is assigned a variety of temporary little "siblings". Well, no one ever said Camp Sisterhood was supposed to teach Lulu how to be a good big sister, so Lulu resolves to be a bad big sister.

Beloved author Alexander McCall Smith’s seventh Isabel Dalhousie tale finds the ethical philosopher doing background checks on several candidates for the same job. In the process, Isabel learns quite a bit about herself, as well.

Janner Igiby, his brother, Tink, and their disabled sister, Leeli, are gifted children as all children are, loved well by a noble mother and ex-pirate grandfather. But they will need all their gifts and all that they love to survive the evil pursuit of the venomous Fangs of Dang, who have crossed the dark sea to rule the land with malice. The Igibys hold the secret to the lost legend and jewels of good King Wingfeather of the Shining Isle of Anniera.

In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the "coolest girl in the world" moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all - beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn.

A Secret Service agent devotes his life to protecting the people he serves…until one day he realizes that the person who needs protecting is him. Henry Banks is a former Marine, a career Secret Service agent, and the only man allowed into the Shipwreck Key book club full of women. He’s like a handsome brick wall who doesn’t show emotion, but he’s finally let his guard down—just a little bit—to let Sunday Bond in. Banks and the former Second Lady have been dating for a few months, but now that they’re in their fifties and both divorced once, the dating dance has become more ...

Abdel Latif, an old man from the Aleppo region, dies peacefully in a hospital bed in Damascus. His final wish, conveyed to his youngest son, Bolbol, is to be buried in the family plot in their ancestral village of Anabiya. Though Abdel was hardly an ideal father, and though Bolbol is estranged from his siblings, this conscientious son persuades his older brother Hussein and his sister Fatima to accompany him and the body to Anabiya, which is - after all - only a two-hour drive from Damascus. There's only one problem: Their country is a war zone.

Sequel to: The Story Of Ms. Gertie King (Book #4 in the Bentley Family Adventure Series) Howdy, ya'll, I'm back! It's Ms. Gertie King here, and the year be nineteen hundred and seventy-eight. I can hardly believe it, but I've now reached the ripe ol' age of ninety, and thanks be to the Lord; he's showered me with many blessings in my long life. For the most part, I still has my mind fully intact, my boomin' voice has not left me, and I can still chase after the young'uns if'n they don't run too fast! My grandbabies be keepin' me young, that's for sure. For those of you who don't know it, ...

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother.

When Lucy's family moves to an old house on a lake, Lucy tries to see her new home through her camera's lens, as her father has taught her - he's a famous photographer, away on a shoot. Will her photos ever meet his high standards? When she discovers that he's judging a photo contest, Lucy decides to enter anonymously. She wants to find out if her eye for photography is really special - or only good enough. As she seeks out subjects for her photos, Lucy gets to know Nate, the boy next door. But slowly the camera reveals what Nate doesn't want to see....

Year-round adventures await, with a summertime trip to a ghost town, an Easter egg hunt, a Fourth of July celebration, and two short-story collections spanning the calendar (one story for each month of the year), perfect for bedtime listening. Short stories include a Valentine's Day, a Thanksgiving, and a Christmas story, as well as a trip to the county fair and a day at the beach, among others.