Once upon a time, the Peacock sisters were little girls who combed each other’s tangled hair. But decades of secrets have led them to separate lives --- and to telling lies. Sylvie, a librarian and widow, has caught the attention of Simon Rampling, a mysterious, wealthy man. She’s ready to love again. Or is she? Cleo, a successful criminal defense lawyer with the perfect boyfriend, is immediately suspicious of Simon. She heads to Mumberton Castle telling herself she will expose Simon and save her sister from more heartbreak. But who is she really trying to save? Emma is living a lie. She can’t afford this fancy trip --- and she definitely can’t tell her husband and sons why. When their toxic mother shows up, the sisters assume the roles they fell into to survive their childhood. But they just might find the courage to make new choices.

Austin’s Zilker Park neighborhood is a wonderland of greenbelt trails, live music and moms who drink a few too many margaritas. Whitney, Annette and Liza have grown thick as thieves as they have raised their children together for 15 years, believing that they can shelter them from an increasingly dangerous world. Their friendship is unbreakable --- as safe as the neighborhood where they've raised their sweet little boys. Or so they think. One night, the three women have been enjoying happy hour when their boys, lifeguards for the summer, come back on bicycles from a late-night dip in their favorite swimming hole. The boys share a secret --- news that will shatter the perfect world their mothers have so painstakingly created.

When 70-year-old Charlotte Perkins submits a sexy essay to the “Become a Jetsetter” contest, she dreams of reuniting her estranged children. She yearns for the years when they were young, when she was a single mother who meant everything to them. When Charlotte wins the contest, the family packs their baggage --- both literal and figurative --- and spends 10 days traveling from sun-drenched Athens through glorious Rome to tapas-laden Barcelona on an over-the-top cruise ship, the Splendido Marveloso. As lovers new and old join the adventure, long-buried secrets are revealed and old wounds are reopened, forcing the Perkins family to confront the forces that drove them apart and the defining choices of their lives.

Heart surgeon Suzette Kendall is stunned when her husband, Hyland, admits his yearning for a child. From the beginning they had decided that having children was not an option, as Suzette feared passing along the genes that landed her mother in a mental institution. But Hyland proposes a different idea: a baby via surrogate. A young woman named Dorothy Muscarello is chosen as the one who will help make this family complete. For Dorrie, surrogacy (and the money that comes with it) are her opportunity to leave behind a troubled past and create a future for herself. But this situation forces all three of them to face a devastating uncertainty that will reverberate in the years to come.

Alice and her husband, Jake, have a loving marriage and thriving business, but Alice still feels that something is missing. Carla is a strong-willed young girl who is acting as caretaker to her six-year-old brother, Junior. Years ago, her mother left the family behind in Honduras to make the arduous, illegal journey to Texas. But when her grandmother dies, Carla takes fate into her own hands. The lives of Alice and Carla will intersect in a profound and surprising way.

From Amanda Eyre Ward comes a beautifully twisting novel about the ways that our split-second choices in life and in love can dig into our hearts, shaping who we are forever.