'Pearls My Mother Wore' is about loss and recovery, resentment and forgiveness. The novel opens on the day that forty-three-year-old 'nice girl' Kelly Tremblake buries the ashes of her forty-two-year-old husband, Grayson. Devastated by his sudden and unexpected death, Kelly finds the sweet, uncomplicated life she has intentionally crafted for herself screeching to a halt. As she pulls increasingly inward in response to this psychic blow, what she finds is complicated and decades old.Compounding the agony of her loss and the flood of memories is the sudden and unexpected arrival of Grayson's twenty-three-year-old 'bad-boy' nephew, Mitchell. Kelly can not stand this young man for a number of reasons, chief among them the fact that years earlier he stole a pearl necklace and earring set that had belonged to her deceased mother. This combination of events throws Kelly into a spiral of grief, bitter resentment, paranoia, and despair. To find relief, she must get those pearls back.
Have you ever wanted something good to read but didn't have the time? Do you want to make a difference in the world? Beyond the Clouds is a collection of short-short stories that are designed to be easily read anytime, any place. Discover stories with a dash of humor and a splash of adventure on the go. The stories are written by seven women from very different backgrounds who all share a passion for writing and helping others. We are proud to donate 100% of the authors' proceeds to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund with the hopes of improving the quality of life for women touched by this deadly disease and ultimately, finding a cure.
In She Always Knew How, her wonderful new biography of legendary actress Mae West, acclaimed biographer Charlotte Chandler draws on a series of interviews she conducted with the star just months before her death in 1980. From their first meeting, where West held out a diamond-covered hand in greeting and lamented her interviewer's lack of jewels, to their farewell, where the star was still gamely offering advice on how to attract men, Mae West and Charlotte Chandler developed a warm rapport that glows on every page of this biography. Actress, playwright, screenwriter, and iconic sex symbol Mae West was born in New York in 1893. She created a scandal -- and a sensation -- on Broadway with her play Sex in 1926. Convicted of obscenity, she was sentenced to ten days in prison. She went to jail a convict and emerged a star. Her next play, Diamond Lil, was a smash, and she would play the role of Diamond Lil in different variations for virtually her entire film career. In Hollywood she played opposite George Raft, Cary Grant (in one of his first starring roles), and W. C. Fields, among others. She was the number one box-office attraction during the 1930s and saved Paramount Studios from bankruptcy. Her films included some notorious one-liners -- which she wrote herself -- that have become part of Hollywood lore: from "too much of a good thing can be wonderful" to "When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better." Her risqué remarks got her banned from radio for a dozen years, but behind the clever quips was Mae's deep desire, decades before the word "feminism" was in the news, to see women treated equally with men. She saw through the double standard of the time that permitted men to do things that women would be ruined for doing. Her cause was sexual equality, and she was shrewd enough to know that it was perhaps the ultimate battleground, the most difficult cause of all. In addition to her extensive interviews of Mae West, Chandler also spoke with actors and directors who worked with and knew the star, the man with whom she lived for the last twenty-seven years of her life, as well as her closest assistant at the end of her life. Their comments and insights enrich this fascinating book. She Always Knew How captures the voice and spirit of this unique actress as no other biography ever has.
Our marriage of convenience isn’t meant to be real, but I’m falling in love with this protective cowboy. Austin He was the cop with the startling blue gaze who saved me. Four years later, the small-town sheriff is still saving me. Only this time, I’m a pregnant single mom and his protection comes in the form of an offer: be his wife. It’s the only way to ensure my baby is safe. During the next six months, I’ll be married to my favorite fantasy in name only. But what will happen to my heart when I find myself falling in love with the protective cowboy? Luke Four years ago, I protected a scared girl. I paid the price by losing my job and reputation. I had to come home in disgrace but none of it mattered. Because she was safe. Now, I’m determined to protect her again when I discover she’s a pregnant single mom. Except the only way I can do that is by giving her and her unborn child my last name. It’s just a marriage of convenience…but I plan to convince my new wife to take a chance on us. I’ll show her that she and the baby are my forever. If you’re craving a sheriff and single mom romance, then it’s time to meet Luke in Her Wild Cowboy. Welcome to Courage County, North Carolina where alpha cowboys fall for strong curvy women and find love on the ranch. Each book in the Love on the Ranch series is standalone with NO cheating and NO cliffhangers. Just a sweet, sexy HEA so you can get your swoon on!
Following the unexpected death of her alcoholic mother, and worn down by the unceasing taunts of “bastard” from her hostile and mentally unstable stepfather, plucky sixteen-year-old Terry Sue sets out to find her biological father—believing this man, whom she has never met, could change her life for the better. But before she can find him, she must identify him, and the unfamiliar names on her birth certificate perplex her. She comes to realize that tenacity must run in her family, for as determined as she is to find her father, he appears equally determined to remain hidden. In The Strongbox, Terry Sue offers readers a forthright and inspirational account of her challenges, as well as her against-all-odds successes. This decades-long personal journey reads like a detective novel, full of setbacks, false leads, jaw-dropping discoveries, and heartening triumphs. The narrative’s twists and turns also pull back the curtain on many of today’s inconvenient truths: child abandonment, multigenerational alcoholism, sexism, economic inequality, domestic violence, mental illness, and illiteracy. Undaunted by the many blind alleys she encounters, Terry Sue forges on in her hunt for the loving care and emotional support she never received from her parents, and she ultimately finds it—but it arrives in forms she never expected.
“Imagine if Annie Proulx wrote something like White Oleander crossed with Geek Love or Cruddy, and then add cults, God, motherhood, girlhood, class, deserts, witches, the divinity of women . . . Terrifying, resplendent, and profoundly moving, this book will leave you changed." —T Kira Madden, author of Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls Drought has settled on the town of Peaches, California. The area of the Central Valley where fourteen–year–old Lacey May and her alcoholic mother live was once an agricultural paradise. Now it’s an environmental disaster, a place of cracked earth and barren raisin farms. In their desperation, residents have turned to a cult leader named Pastor Vern for guidance. He promises, through secret “assignments,” to bring the rain everybody is praying for. Lacey has no reason to doubt the pastor. But then her life explodes in a single unimaginable act of abandonment: her mother, exiled from the community for her sins, leaves Lacey and runs off with a man she barely knows. Abandoned and distraught, Lacey May moves in with her widowed grandma, Cherry, who is more concerned with her taxidermy mouse collection than her own granddaughter. As Lacey May endures the increasingly appalling acts of men who want to write all the rules and begins to uncover the full extent of Pastor Vern’s shocking plan to bring fertility back to the land, she decides she must go on a quest to find her mother no matter what it takes. With her only guidance coming from the romance novels she reads and the unlikely companionship of the women who knew her mother, she must find her own way through unthinkable circumstances. Possessed of an unstoppable plot and a brilliantly soulful voice, Godshot is a book of grit and humor and heart, a debut novel about female friendship and resilience, mother–loss and motherhood, and seeking salvation in unexpected places. It introduces a writer who gives Flannery O’Connor’s Gothic parables a Californian twist and who emerges with a miracle that is all her own. “[A] haunting debut . . . This is a harrowing tale, which Bieker smartly writes through the lens of a teenager on the cusp of understanding the often fraught relationship between religion and sexuality . . . It's a timely and disturbing portrait of how easily men can take advantage of vulnerable women—and the consequences sink in more deeply with each page."—Annabel Gutterman, Time “Drawn in brilliant, bizarre detail—baptism in warm soda, wisdom from romance novels—Lacey's twin crises of faith and femininity tangle powerfully. Fiercely written and endlessly readable, a novel like this is a godsend. A–.”—Mary Sollosi, Entertainment Weekly
"Fascinating, gossipy, entertaining. . . ." — New York Times Book Review They are ten outstanding women of the century. Each had an aura, including Thelma Brenner, the first great dame her daughter ever knew. Their lives were both gloriously individual and yet somehow universal. They were mighty warriors and social leaders, women of aspiration who persevered. They lived through the Great Depression and a world war. Circumstances did not defeat them. They played on Broadway and in Washington. They had glamour, style, and intelligence. They dressed up the world. "Vivid, intimate portraits . . . a splendid tribute to ten of the century's grandest, most powerful women." —Us "These women were our geishas, whispering in our ears to influence all aspects of American life." —Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times "Delectable, classy . . . a runaway hit." —Liz Smith "An engrossing introduction to a way of life that's now extinct, for better or for worse." —Chicago Sun-Times
