Women's Fiction Author Spotlight

Inspired by the growing number of Women's Fiction titles, this feature spotlights novels dealing with issues significant to women. We share stories of friendship, love and family. Our Women's Fiction authors will range from familiar favorites to debut writers who we love. The titles featured here will make you smile, laugh, frown and cry --- and are sure to inspire a lively conversation.

Lauren Willig, author of That Summer

In 2009, Julia Conley inherits a house in England from an elderly aunt she never knew. In 1849, after years trapped in a loveless marriage, Imogen Grantham comes to life when she meets an enigmatic painter who is commissioned to paint her portrait. Their stories converge in the present, and Julia learns of the long-repressed secrets of her family, as well as a little about herself.

Mary Kay Andrews, author of Save the Date

A Savannah florist is about to score the wedding of a lifetime --- one that will solidify her career as the go-to-girl for society nuptials. Ironically, Cara Kryzik doesn't believe in love, even though she creates beautiful flower arrangements to celebrate them. But when the bride goes missing and the wedding is in jeopardy, Cara must find the bride and figure out what she believes in. Maybe love really does exist outside of fairy tales after all.

Lauren Francis-Sharma, author of 'Til the Well Runs Dry

Young Marcia Garcia, a gifted and smart-mouthed 16-year-old seamstress, lives alone, raising two small boys and guarding a family secret. When she meets Farouk Karam, an ambitious young policeman, the risks and rewards in Marcia’s life amplify forever. The novel follows Marcia and Farouk from their amusing and passionate courtship through personal and historical events that threaten Marcia’s secret, entangle the couple and their children in a scandal, and endanger the future for all of them.

Nadia Hashimi, author of The Pearl that Broke Its Shell

In Kabul, 2007, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age. A century earlier, her great-aunt, Shekiba, saved herself and built a new life the same way. Crisscrossing in time, THE PEARL THAT BROKE ITS SHELL interweaves the tales of these two women separated by a century who share similar destinies.

Francine Rivers, author of Bridge to Haven

To those who matter in 1950s Hollywood, Lena Scott is the hottest rising star to hit the silver screen since Marilyn Monroe. Few know her real name is Abra. Even fewer know the price she’s paid to finally feel like she’s somebody. Hollywood feels like a million miles from Haven, and naive Abra quickly learns what’s expected of an ambitious girl with stars in her eyes. But fame comes at an awful price. She has burned every bridge to get exactly what she thought she wanted.

Holly Peterson, author of The Idea of Him

Allie Crawford has the life she always dreamed of. But when she finds her husband locked in their laundry room with a stunning blonde, a scandal ensues that flips her life on its head. And when the woman wants to befriend Allie, an old flame calls, and a new guy gets a little too close for comfort, she starts to think her marriage is more of a facade than something real. Maybe she's fallen in love not with Wade, but with the idea of him.

Jean Hanff Korelitz, author of You Should Have Known

Grace Reinhart Sachs is the author of You Should Have Known, a book that cautions women to really hear what men are trying to tell them. But weeks before the book is published, a chasm opens in her own life: a violent death, a missing husband, and, in the place of a man Grace thought she knew, only an ongoing chain of terrible revelations. Left behind in the wake of a spreading and very public disaster, Grace must dismantle one life and create another for her child and herself.

Susan Mallery, author of Evening Stars: A Blackberry Island Novel

Small-town nurse Nina Wentworth has made a career out of being a caretaker. More “Mom” than their mother ever was, she sacrificed medical school --- and her first love --- so her sister could break free. Which is why she isn’t exactly thrilled to see Averil back on Blackberry Island, especially when Nina’s life has suddenly become…complicated.

Emylia Hall, author of The Swiss Affair

For Hadley Dunn, life has been predictable and uneventful. But that is before she spends her second year of college abroad in Lausanne, a glamorous Swiss city on the shores of Lake Geneva. Lausanne is imbued with the boundless sense of freedom Hadley has been seeking, and it is here she meets Kristina, a beautiful but mysterious Danish girl. The two bond quickly, but as the first snows of winter arrive, tragedy strikes.

Leila Meacham, author of Somerset

Slavery, westward expansion, abolition, the Civil War, love, marriage, friendship, tragedy and triumph --- all the ingredients (and much more) that made so many love ROSES so much --- are here in abundance.

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