Annie Lane has heard it all — from marital hardships to workplace disputes, family turmoil to household annoyances — and she has been trusted for decades to give thoughtful, helpful advice. No problem is too big or too small for her tackle with her reliable honesty and wit. In her second anthology, Annie takes on the topic of infidelity from every angle: the ones who cheat, the ones who are cheated on, the ones who are confided in and the ones affected by the fallout. Relationships are messy. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Let Annie give you the compassion you crave and the candor you probably need to push you in the right direction.
NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2020! NPR BEST BOOK OF 2020 PEOPLE MAGAZINE TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR BOOKPAGE BEST BOOK OF 2020 GOOD HOUSEKEEPING BEST BOOK OF 2020 “A sensual and perceptive novel. . . . With humor and humanity, Miller resists the simple scorned-wife story and instead crafts a revelatory tale of the complexities—and the absurdities—of love, infidelity, and grief.” —O, the Oprah Magazine A brilliantly insightful novel, engrossing and haunting, about marriage, love, family, happiness and sorrow, from New York Times bestselling author Sue Miller. Graham and Annie have been married for nearly thirty years. Their seemingly effortless devotion has long been the envy of their circle of friends and acquaintances. By all appearances, they are a golden couple. Graham is a bookseller, a big, gregarious man with large appetites—curious, eager to please, a lover of life, and the convivial host of frequent, lively parties at his and Annie’s comfortable house in Cambridge. Annie, more reserved and introspective, is a photographer. She is about to have her first gallery show after a six-year lull and is worried that the best years of her career may be behind her. They have two adult children; Lucas, Graham’s son with his first wife, Frieda, works in New York. Annie and Graham’s daughter, Sarah, lives in San Francisco. Though Frieda is an integral part of this far-flung, loving family, Annie feels confident in the knowledge that she is Graham’s last and greatest love. When Graham suddenly dies—this man whose enormous presence has seemed to dominate their lives together—Annie is lost. What is the point of going on, she wonders, without him? Then, while she is still mourning Graham intensely, she discovers a ruinous secret, one that will spiral her into darkness and force her to question whether she ever truly knew the man who loved her.
Some fantasies are too hot to remain in the shadows...Jim and Annie have been married for 10 years. They have a storybook, white-picket-fence life with a house and two little ones. They also have a secret fantasy that would shock the daylights out of their respectable, suburban neighbors.For some time now, they've both been obsessed with the idea of Annie seducing another man. It's a deliciously naughty idea that has resulted in some pretty steamy nights behind the bedroom door. But it's just a game, something to spice up their love life. It's not real. Until Annie's boss begins to flirt with her at work... When Jim encourages her to flirt back, the wheels are set in motion. Annie soon realizes that reality can be even more exciting than fantasy. After all, there's no bigger boost to a married woman's ego than the desire in a strange man's eyes. She soon finds herself wondering just what it would be like, if she were to take that final, forbidden step.Will Annie be content to keep flirting with her boss, or will she tempt the fates and seize the opportunity to live out their mutual fantasy? Does she dare? And once that line has been crossed, what then?
After her sister and mother died of brain cancer, Imogen noticed she was experiencing the same symptoms they did. So she prepares for her death and flies to Paris to spend her last days in luxury. There she attends a high-class party and meets a Frenchman named Thierry. The two hit it off and spend a passionate two weeks together. On her way home, though, Imogen learns she is pregnant. What a dreadful turn of events… She explains the situation to Thierry, but his reaction is beyond anything she expected!
An offer to mend their marriage - or end it? After years without contact, glamorous film star Gina Moretti is stunned when billionaire businessman Massimo Conti stalks back into her life, demanding her help. Their short-lived marriage was a mistake she's striving to put behind her. The last thing she needs is to open old wounds, no matter how insistent Massimo is. Especially since he's still devastatingly dangerous to her emotions. But Massimo has confronted the inescapable truth - that the only woman in the world he wants is his estranged wife! He concocts a daring scheme to get her back. His plan might be underhanded, it might be brazenly manipulative, but he refuses to take no for an answer. His outrageous ploy must succeed. For the alternative is to lose Gina forever.
After the Affair teaches partners how to heal themselves and grow from the shattering crisis of an infidelity. Drawing on thirty-five years as a clinical psychologist, Dr. Spring offers a series of original and proven strategies that address such questions as: Why did it happen? Once love and trust are gone, can we ever get them back? Can I—should I—recommit when I feel so ambivalent? How do we become sexually intimate again? Is forgiveness possible? What constitutes an affair in cyberspace?
Whether the reader suspects his or her partner of cheating, or is the one who's been engaging in a secret affair, Meyers describes the process of discovery, confrontation, confession, and healing that can save a relationship and make it even better.
I've loved him as long as I can remember. The gangly boy with big brown eyes and unruly hair who grew up into an intoxicating man. He wears scruff like he invented it and ambles with a swagger that makes panties drop. Killian Shepard. Shep. We grew up together. We played Ghost in the Graveyard. Had our own rock band. It didn't matter that he was five years older than me. It didn't matter that he looked at me as a kid sister even as I grew into woman. It didn't even matter when he left me behind to go to college and start his adult life. He'd be back. He was always meant to be mine. He came back, all right. But instead of smelling of promises, he stunk of betrayal. And he destroyed me-us-the day he married my sister instead of me. So I did the only thing a girl like me in my position could do. I got my revenge. I married his brother, Kael. Now we're one big happy f**king family.
***This is a STANDALONE CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE***Aimee's wedding is supposed to turn out perfect. Her dress, her fianc� and the location-the idyllic holiday ranch in Brazil-are perfect. But all Aimee's plans come crashing down when the private jet that's taking her from the U.S. to the ranch-where her fianc� awaits her-defects mid-flight and the pilot is forced to perform an emergency landing in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. With no way to reach civilisation, being rescued is Aimee and Tristan's-the pilot-only hope. A slim one that slowly withers away, desperation taking its place. Because death wanders in the jungle under many forms: starvation, diseases. Beasts. As Aimee and Tristan fight to find ways to survive, they grow closer. Together they discover that facing old, inner agonies carved by painful pasts takes just as much courage, if not even more, than facing the rainforest. Despite her devotion to her fianc�, Aimee can't hide her feelings for Tristan-the man for whom she's slowly becoming everything. You can hide many things in the rainforest. But not lies. Or love.Withering Hope is the story of a man who desperately needs forgiveness and the woman who brings him hope. It is a story in which hope births wings and blooms into a love that is as beautiful and intense as it is forbidden.
