In a matter of days, Peter McDowell loses everything he has worked so hard for--his wealth, his property, his livelihood. Stripped of everything, he has only one place to retreat: a lakeside cottage he inherited from his parents, who left most of their modest estate to Peter's twin. With no other choice, the prodigal son goes home. A beloved small-town doctor, a devoted family man, and a pillar of his community, Michael McDowell serves others without...

"From the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read, a sparkling new novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations. Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She's a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends....

"Matelda, the Cabrelli family's matriarch, has always been brusque and opinionated. Now, as she faces the end of her life, she is determined to share a long-held secret with her family about her own mother's great love story: with her childhood friend, Silvio, and with dashing Scottish sea captain John Lawrie McVicars, the father Matelda never knew. In the halcyon past, Domenica Cabrelli thrives in the coastal town of Viareggio until her beloved home...

The decision has been made. After 23 years of marriage and raising their family in the same lakeside home, John and Abby Reynolds are getting a divorce. They gather their three children to tell them the terrible news, but before they can speak, their daughter makes a joyous announcement of her own: She is getting married. John and Abby decide to postpone their news until after the wedding. As the big day approaches, questions continue to haunt them....

With unerring insight and emotional power, Belva Plain, in her extraordinary novel, tells the story of a family divided and of the proud matriarch who takes a bold last stand to unite her warring children in what may be their last Homecoming.
It is a crisp December day when Annette Byrne walks to the end of her long, curving driveway and drops five sealed envelopes into the mailbox, quickly, before second thoughts stay her hand.  Shortly...

"In 1838, a group of America's most prominent Catholic priests sold 272 enslaved people to save their largest mission project, what is now Georgetown University. In this groundbreaking account, journalist, author, and professor Rachel L. Swarns follows one family through nearly two centuries of indentured servitude and enslavement to uncover the harrowing origin story of the Catholic Church in the United States. Through the saga of the Mahoney family,...

Free-wheeling irresponsible Maggie gets through her life thanks to her remarkable looks and her complete lack of scruples. She constantly goes to her straight-laced, plain-Jane successful lawyer sister Rose when she is in need of financial help. The two sisters have been very close to each other in part because their troubled mother died when they were girls. Maggie discovers hidden letters that reveal she and Rose have a grandmother, but Maggie ends...

On repentance applies an ancient framework of repentance and repair to our personal lives today, to the contemporary public square, to institutions, and to national policy in ways that could transform our society and our culture"--

It's been years since Mallory Westbrook set foot in Magnolia Sound, but the death of her great-grandfather forces her back. Two weeks to get his affairs in order then she would return to her life in New York. The perfect plan, if not for Jake Summerford--her first love who broke her heart. Jake always regretted the way things ended with Mallory and now that she's back in town, he's hoping they can put the past behind them. As they reconnect, old feelings...

When their usual routine is disrupted, Bookie and Cookie, best friends who live on opposite pages, learn to bridge their differences and explore new experiences together.