It's a roller coaster of excitement and emotion, as Petey Panda moves from his home in the bamboo forest to his new and very unexpected home on Noah's ark.
When Graham Michelsen pulled up stakes that spring and moved his wife Emily and daughter Lois to a brand-new model satellite community called Centrewood, he believed that its unique town plan based on his ideal form, the Circle, would ensure a life of security and stability. But having barely settled in, he is hit by a barrage of events which clash and collide, stark reality takes on an overlay of farce at times, and he struggles to manage his own equilibrium when everything seems to be going on tilt. Even his own daughter betrays him. Centrewood’s concentric circles are failing to protect him and have begun spinning out of control. Partway through the two months of September and October, 1957 that span this story, Lois is not mature enough to understand what is happening to her father Graham. She is not yet fourteen years old. She doesn’t know that as Chief Aeronautical Engineer for the Avro Arrow, he had worked so hard leading up to the October 4 Rollout that he was already suffering from burnout. On that very day, he was beset by three major setbacks, after which even more hit him broadside. Lois finds herself adding to his aggravation by suddenly flexing her wings, asserting her right to speak out and stand her ground. She also has her own challenges. She is absorbed by practicing flute with her new friend Becky, preparing to play the Doppler Flute Duet at the Fall recital. The other schoolmate, Mitsy, the thorn in Lois’s side from Day One, continues to disrupt Lois with her crazy antics, which ultimately lead to disaster. By the time Lois reaches her fourteenth birthday on November 1, everything has fallen apart.
Heartwarming historical fiction from a bestselling favorite set in the heartland just before WWI; friends who grew up in an orphanage long for home and find love.
“A thoughtful social commentary and tender narration of friendship and loyalty” from the bestselling author of A Wedding on the Beach (Publishers Weekly). The town of Yorktide, close to Maine’s beautiful beaches and the city of Portland, seems like the perfect place to raise a family. For Jane Patterson, there’s another advantage: her best friend, Frannie Giroux, lives next door, and their teenaged daughters, Rosie and Meg, are inseparable. But in the girls’ freshman year of high school, everything changes. Rosie—quiet, shy, and also very pretty—attracts the sneers and slights of a clique of older girls. Over time, the bullying worsens. When Meg betrays their friendship, fearful that she too will be targeted, Rosie suffers an emotional breakdown. Blaming both Meg and Frannie, Jane tries to help Rosie heal while dealing with her own guilt and anger. In the months that follow, each struggles with the ideas of forgiveness and compassion, of knowing when a friendship is shattered beyond repair—and when hope can be salvaged, one small moment at a time… Praise for Holly Chamberlin “Nostalgia over real-life friendships lost and regained pulls readers into the story.”—USA Today on Summer Friends “A great summer read but with substance. It will find a wide audience in its exploration of sisterhood, family, and loss.”—Library Journal on Summer with My Sisters “A dramatic and moving portrait of several generations of a family and each person’s place within it.”—Booklist on The Family Beach House
SHE'D DO ANYTHING FOR FAMILY… They were worlds apart, but Matt Duran couldn't refuse high-society princess Taylor Elmhurst when she asked for pointers on raising her adorable charge. After all, Matt liked spending time with the lonely lad. But Petey and his aunt were a package deal, and Taylor's luminous simle and velvety-soft touch were wreaking havoc on his no-strings-attached resolve. …AND EVERYTHING FOR LOVE! Matt brightened Taylor's life—and brought joy back into Petey's eyes. Now the single mom dreamed of linking their hearts for all time. But could she convince her beloved blue-collar bachelor that they were all meant to be together, now and forever?
This summer, they’ll learn that home is where the heart is. Somerset Lake is the perfect place for Trisha Langly and her son to start over. As the new manager for the Somerset Cottages, Trisha is instantly charmed by the property’s elderly residents and her firecracker of a new boss, Vi Fletcher. But Trisha is less enchanted by Vi’s protective grandson Jake. No matter how tempting she finds the handsome lawyer, Trisha knows that if Jake discovers the truth about her past, she’ll lose the new life she’s worked so hard to build. Jake Fletcher left Somerset Lake after a tragic loss, but he’s returning for the summer to care for his beloved grandmother, hoping Vi will sell the run-down cottages and finally slow down. There’s just one problem: Trisha, Vi’s new employee. She’s smart, beautiful, and kind, but Jake’s job is to protect his grandmother’s interests, and his gut is telling him Trisha’s hiding something that could jeopardize Vi’s future. However, as they spend summer days renovating the property and bonding over their love for the town, Jake realizes that Trisha is a risk worth taking—if only she can trust him with her secrets . . . and her heart. Includes the bonus novella Kiss Me in Sweetwater Springs!
From USA TODAY bestselling author Sheila Roberts comes an empowering story filled with hearth and humor about three women who band together to take back their houses and their lives. Stefanie Stahl has a husband with renovation ADD. He can’t seem to finish anything he starts, and her house is littered with his “projects.” If he doesn’t smarten up, she swears she’s going to murder him and bury him under the pile of scrounged lumber in the backyard. Her friend Griffin James is suddenly single and thinking maybe she needs to sell her fixer-upper and follow her career bliss up the ladder of success, even if that scary ladder is clear across the country. But getting her place ready to sell proves harder than she originally thought. She needs help. She’s not the only one. Cass Wilkes, their neighbor, has an empty nest—with a leaking roof. When her ceiling crashes in, she knows it’s time to do something. When Grant Masters offers his handyman services at a fund-raiser auction, the three women go in together to outbid the competition and win their man. (Cass’s friends think she should win Grant in a different way, too!) Now it’s time to make some improvements…in their houses and their lives. Previously published
In her very wild diary, V tells all as she watches her husband stray into the arms of a younger woman. But payback - in the shape of a man - will be hers.
Quinn never expected that her best friend’s courageous decision to be a single mother by choice would end up transforming her own life in this poignant novel from USA Today bestselling author Robin Wells. When Quinn Langston’s best friend unexpectedly passes away, Quinn embraces Brooke’s three-year-old daughter Lily and elderly grandmother Margaret as the family she’s always wanted. She’ll do whatever it takes to help them heal, but she didn’t anticipate Lily’s biological father would be part of the plan. Margaret is old-fashioned, though, and she has no compunction about finding a way to reach Lily’s dad, a sperm donor. After all, he's a blood relative, and she believes family should raise family. Zack Bradley doesn't know what to expect when he finds out he has a child. Sperm donors don't usually get to meet their...well, he's not sure what to call Lily yet, but he’s certain he wants to get to know her. There’s just one of problem: he’s about to move to Seattle with his wife, Jessica, who’s undergone multiple infertility treatments, desperately wants a family of her own and can’t stand the idea of Zack playing daddy to another woman’s child. Together, they’ll all learn that the human heart is infinitely expandable and there are many different roads to family.