A funny, touching story about life changes, friendship and first love. Josie has lived on her boat, Promise, her whole life. She finds it easier to walk on deck than she does to walk on land. But Promise has been condemned, and in turn, Josie is condemned to live on dry land. Then she meets Leon, a boy from her neighbourhood...
Isabelle Mackenzie always imagined herself married with kids. Instead, at 30, she’s chronically single and lives alone in a cramped condo on Chicago’s north side. Sure she’s got her beloved bookstore and her two best friends, Cameron and Oliver, but even they can’t make up for the fact that her life hasn’t turned out anything like she expected. The weighing disappointment has her questioning everything she once felt certain of, including her faith in God. So when Olly and Cam secretly volunteer her for a nationally-televised makeover, Mack decides to use the opportunity to reinvent herself. What follows is an unlikely romance with famous actor Cooper Young, a cross-continental adventure, and the long-awaited chance to make all of her dreams come true. Will Mack be able to keep her faith amidst the glitz and glamour of Cooper’s lifestyle, or will she lose herself and abandon everything and everyone she cares about in the process? Ciao, Bella is the story of one woman’s unexpected revelations about faith, love, and true happiness. It’s a novel for all who have ever been granted the desires of their hearts only to discover that what they thought they wanted could never compare to what they already had.
Bella's house likes to travel, setting sail across the ocean while everyone sleeps. Bella's parents don't mind as long as the house is home by daylight. One night, Bella has a wonderful idea for her grandfather's birthday. She wants to find a figurine he made of her grandmother, which was lost overboard in an accident. Bella and the house go in search of it, but things don't quite go according to plan...
For Graziella, the quiet, cultured life she lived in Venice with her musician husband, Ugo, was everything she could have hoped for. But when Italy allied itself with Nazi Germany in 1940, her world changed forever. Ugo, trading in his violin for a gun, joined the Resistance, while Graziella was forced to seek refuge at his family's farm in the nearby Euganean Hills. "Just until the war is over," Ugo had promised, but it has been months now since the Nazis retreated, and no one has seen him since. With Ugo gone, it seems as if she will be trapped forever on this remote farm with her lost husband's difficult family. So when an American soldier named Frank is stranded on the mountain, Graziella embraces this unexpected chance at being happy again. But as tempting as it is to leave behind this war-torn country and her painful memories for a new life in America, can she go without learning her husband's fate? With quiet grace and humor, Ciao Bella explores the possibilities of love and redemption in the wake of war, showing that some of the hardest decisions come only after the fighting has stopped.
Bella Poldark marks the twelfth and final book in Winston Graham's classic Poldark saga, now a major TV series from Masterpiece PBS. Cornwall 1818 We continue the tale of Ross and Demelza; of the wayward Valentine Warleggan, whose existence keeps open the old wounds of the feud between Ross and George; of Bella, the Poldarks' youngest daughter, whose precocious talent as a singer is encouraged by her old flame, Christopher Havergal, and by a distinguished French conductor, who has more in mind than Bella's music; of Clowance, the Poldarks' widowed daughter, who considers remarriage to one of two rival suitors; and of a murderer who stalks the villages of west Cornwall. In his Poldark series, Winston Graham explores the complications of love lost and the class struggle of early 19th-century England with a light comic touch. Bella Poldark is the final Poldark book.
Hiding out from the past in small town New England, two writers find their stories merging in this heartfelt romance by the author of Share the Moon. Rose Richardson is on the run from her dangerous ex-husband, a crime she didn’t commit—and the embarrassment of being an advice columnist with a disastrous personal life. With a fake identity, and her adorable dog Bella, she escapes to a lake house rental in rural Connecticut—only to discover her refuge is already occupied. Now her plans have been disrupted by the most attractive man she’s ever seen. A prize-winning novelist mourning the loss of his wife, Leo Drake clearly wants to be alone. But Rose has nowhere else to go—plus, he kind of likes the quirky pooch. Despite his misgivings, his mysterious housemate has secrets that only draw him closer, firing his imagination, even as his heart struggles with the attraction building between them. Perhaps this beautiful, fragile Rose is just the muse he needs.