Ten months. That’s the longest Elisa has stayed anyplace, constantly propelled by her fear that if she puts down roots, a family curse will turn her into a tree. But she’s grown tired of flitting from town to town and in and out of relationships. When she discovers a small town in Massachusetts where mysterious forces make it impossible for the residents to leave, she hopes she can change her fate.

Bud Stanley is an obituary writer who is afraid to live. Yes, his wife recently left him for a “far more interesting” man. Yes, he goes on a particularly awful blind date with a woman who brings her ex. And yes, he has too many glasses of Scotch one night and proceeds to pen and publish his own obituary. The newspaper wants to fire him. But now the company’s system has him listed as dead. And the company can’t fire a dead person. The ensuing fallout forces him to realize that life may be actually worth living.

Arriving at the University of Edinburgh for her first term, Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she’ll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father’s—now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox—lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lord Lennox’s centuries-old estate with his enveloping, fascinating family, Pen begins to unravel her parents’ secret, just as she’s falling in love for the first time . . .

Hayden Reese has a bad habit of breaking people's jaws. Granted, he only breaks jaws that deserved some breaking, but he's starting a whole new feud, with the husband of his lover—and this time, it may cost him his life. Hayden's life has never been easy. His father tormented him, his kid brother got all the approval, and he made a fatal mistake that he's never been able to forgive himself for making. But when Hayden's future is shattered by his bad choices, he has to redeem himself in the eyes of his long-estranged daughter Allegra.

By early 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan, Viv Buschetti, and Bitsy Cobb, suburban housewives in a brand-new "planned community" in Northern Virginia, appear to have it all. The fact that "all" doesn't feel like enough leaves them feeling confused and guilty, certain the fault must lie with them. Things begin to change when they form a book club with Charlotte Gustafson—the eccentric and artsy "new neighbor" from Manhattan—and read Betty Friedan's just-released book, The Feminine Mystique.

Mira Salvi has the perfect life—a job she loves, a fiancé everyone adores, and the secure future she’s always imagined for herself. Really, she hasn’t a thing to complain about, not even when she has to go on her engagement trip to New York alone. While playing tourist in the city, Mira chances upon a lost ring, and her social media post to locate its owner goes viral. With everyone trying to claim the ring, only one person seems to want to find its owner as badly as Mira does: journalist Krish Hale.

Anna first fell in love with London at her hometown library—its Jane Austen balls a far cry from her life of food stamps and hand-me-downs. But when she finally arrives after college, the real London is a moldy flat and the same paycheck-to-paycheck grind—that fairy-tale life still out of reach. Then Anna meets the Wilders, who fly her to Saint-Tropez to tutor their teenage daughter. Swept up by the sphinx-like elder sister, Anna soon finds herself plunged into a heady whirlpool of parties and excess, a place where confidence is a birthright.

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

Dublin, 1969: Maura has just married Dr. Christy Davenport and they look forward to growing their family. But as her husband’s vicious temper emerges, Maura worries that her home might never be safe for a child. Meanwhile, her close friend Bernie, a mother of three, learns the devastating news that if she conceives again, her health complications could prove fatal.

Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.

In the latest novel from Susan Gregg Gilmore, sometimes you have to return to the place where you began to arrive at the place where you belong.

In the late 1950s, in a small New England town, Reverend Tyler Caskey has suffered a terrible loss and finds it hard to be the person he once was. He struggles to find the right words in his sermons and in his conversations with those facing crises of their own, and to bring his five-year-old daughter, Katherine, out of the silence she has observed in the wake of the family’s tragedy.

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier.

Seventeen-year-old Margaux doesn’t realize one photo could change the course of her life. But in German-occupied Paris, nothing makes sense anymore. Margaux fears the worst when her lover is arrested. And when her photo appears in Nazi propaganda, her family’s reputation and prospects suffer the consequences. In 2008, Margaux has moved into a retirement home, and her granddaughter Barbara continues to live in the Paris apartment they used to share.

In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just twelve years old. Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more insatiable: her beautiful mother.

When Eve returns to her family home Fox House, the tension with her mother, Agatha, is palpable. But when Eve’s daughter, Lyra, and her granddaughter, Skye, arrive unexpectedly, four generations of women under one roof set the stage for explosive revelations. Lyra seems troubled, but refuses to explain why. And when she lays claim to the crumbling cottage on the estate, Agatha drops a bombshell – she’s already promised it to a mysterious man named Dylan.

When her nineteen-year marriage ends, stay-at-home mom Effie Baker takes the first step into her new life with an extreme makeover. She assumes she’ll wake up with a renewed sense of confidence, not a vision of country music icon Patsy Cline telling her she needs to “set things right.” But like everything else lately, the last thing Effie expected is exactly what she gets.

After years of hard work, Madeleine’s life is very nearly perfect. She’s about to move to LA to pursue her dream job—and there’s a new man on the scene too. But when her mother falls ill, pulling her back to the world she’s tried so hard to leave behind, the repercussions of a life-changing decision Madeleine made seven years ago resurface, threatening to jeopardise everything she’s worked for.

Maggie Blount, divorced mother of two and California physician, puts her private practice on hold when disaster strikes. Doctors on Wheels takes her and Alex—Maggie’s professional and romantic partner—wherever they’re needed. After rolling into rural Louisiana in the wake of a category five hurricane, Maggie immediately bonds with two sisters and their puppy, all orphaned by the storm. It’s enough to break Maggie’s heart, and she’s not leaving them behind.

Mack Anders will do anything for his wife, Daisy. Even die. With the woman he loves fading away from Alzheimer’s, Mack fakes his own passing. The insurance makes certain that Daisy will be taken care of with dignity and comfort until the end. In a lonesome cabin in the Wyoming wilderness, he lives off the grid with nothing but thoughts of the past to keep him company and the belief that Daisy is better off without him.

On the run from her abusive husband, Kyra Smith hits the road. Destination unknown. With a neglected dog she rescued in tow, she lands in the peaceful California town of Gold Creek and is immediately befriended by an openhearted group of women called the Tattooed Ladies Club. They’re there for Kyra—and for each other.

1927. Violet Mackenzie-Grant is embarking on her dream of studying at the Edinburgh School of Gardening for Women. She doesn’t yet know that it’s a journey that will take her to Kathmandu and beyond, deep into captivating landscapes and cultures that are worlds away from everything and everyone she’s left behind in Scotland.

For decades Emma Bowen has hoped she and her mother, Margaret, might find a way back into each other’s lives. Even as a child, her strongest connection to her mother was a painting Margaret created before Emma was born, of a little girl lost in a maze. So when Margaret dies, gifting the painting to a total stranger, Emma is consumed by grief—for her mother, the little girl, and the relationship they never had.

Returning home to Ditto, Texas, is bittersweet for Lila Matthews. Her dear and feisty aunt Gracie has passed away, leaving Lila her estate. That includes a centuries-old house, a field of the freshest strawberries in Atascosa County, more money than Lila can count, and a secret Aunt Gracie took to her grave. All the angels in heaven won’t be able to pry it out of her.

Unable to catch a break in life or love as she approaches thirty, Charli Thurman sees red lights at every crossroads. And given the Thurman family’s tumultuous history, she knows things will only get worse, unless she can break the cycle and figure out where—and when—it all went wrong. Charli is skeptical when her best friend introduces her to a “soul reader” who specializes in generational trauma. But during family constellation therapy with the guru, Charli experiences an inexplicable memory of terrible violence.

If Lark and Mikki didn’t have each other, they’d have nothing in this miserable town. So the best friends stick together, working night shift at the highway travel stop, going nowhere fast. Until a stranger drops in, heading for Florida, and Mikki impulsively leaves with him, never to be seen again. Eight years later, Lark is finally getting her life back together for the sake of her young daughter and Mikki’s lovably prickly grandma, who can no longer care for herself. People have almost stopped blaming Lark for Mikki’s disappearance, and she’s engaged to the nicest guy on highway patrol.

For social worker Mallory Ward, working with at-risk youth is a calling. But when one of her clients is tragically killed, she finds herself at a crossroads. Despite long-held resentments toward her distant mother, Mallory retreats to her childhood home on the Rhode Island coast to contemplate her future. Instead, she’s confronted by her past, not only in the renewed tensions with her mother but in the unexpected appearance of a familiar face—and the wrenching losses that drove her away a decade ago.

For more than thirty years, Elizabeth Stone has been an irreplaceable fixture in homes around the world, a food and lifestyle icon with a brand as warm and inviting as New England brown bread. Until, after her sudden passing, she leaves her legacy and her multimillion-dollar empire to her daughter, Juliet, who is expected to step seamlessly into her shoes.

On a tiny island off Paradiso, Florida, in 1970, neighbors gather to toast two new arrivals: shy Catherine and her taciturn husband, Dr. Frank Overbrook, who is taking over an old friend’s medical practice. It’s an intimate welcoming for the newlyweds, who have abandoned city life for swaying palms and an ocean breeze. But the morning after is anything but peaceful when Frank is found dead on the beach.

Luna McGraw struggles to conquer the addictions that destroyed her marriage and caused her to lose custody of her beloved daughter, Joy. After eight years, Joy is back and Luna aims to rebuild everything that fell apart. She has a therapeutic job as a florist, a loving mother’s support, and a new man in her life who makes Luna feel things she’s been afraid to feel since forever.