When four strangers rent bargain-basement rooms in an old hotel near the beach, they embark on the summer of their lives. First there's Ariel Spencer, who has big dreams of becoming a writer and is looking for inspiration in Nantucket's high society. Her new friend Sheila Murphy is a good Catholic girl from Ohio whose desire for adventure is often shadowed by her apprehension. Then there's small-town Missourian Wyatt Smith--who's immediately taken...

"When single mom Joy Lee abandoned her old life to take a job at a lakeside resort, she found something that her family's wealth and influence could never buy: peace of mind. Not easy to come by for the once-burned divorcée who keeps everyone at a distance. But when her new friend, Maris, dares her to take a chance with the drive-in's charismatic new owner, everything changes for Joy and her young son. A difficult childhood has left Maris Kennedy...

A couple fall in love when a woman does not honor her late stepson's will.

Although excited at the prospect of a fancy class trip to the art museum, the bumpy bus ride to get there leaves Nancy feeling anything but fancy.

That summer - more than ten years ago, while they were still in high school - Noelle McDowell and Thomas Sutton fell secretly in love. Secretly because their mothers had been locked in a bitter feud for decades. But despite the animosity between Sarah McDowell and Mary Sutton, Noelle planned to elope with Thom. Until he jilted her. This Christmas Noelle McDowell is home to celebrate the holidays with her family. (After all, December 25 is also her...

The Biedermeier Hotel can no longer afford the continental breakfast its residents have depended upon since 1929. Mrs. Mossler, the hotel director, has already cut lunch service and reduced dinner to a self-serve buffet, and someone has almost certainly stolen her pinking shears. Residents Katherine, Lucianne, Pauline, Kitty, Gia, Patricia, and Carol, along with Stephen, the daytime elevator operator, must decide whether to meet this crisis by practicing...

"From Betsy Lerner, celebrated author of The Bridge Ladies, comes a wry and riveting debut novel about family, mental illness, and a hard-won path between two sisters. It is said that when one person in a family is unstable, the whole family is destabilized. Meet the Shreds. Olivia is the sister in the spotlight, but when her stunning confidence morphs into something erratic and unpredictable, she becomes a hurricane leaving the Shred family wrecked...

"Four friends. Twenty years. One unexpected journey. Inseparable throughout college, Eva, Benedict, Sylvie, and Lucien graduate in 1997, into an exhilarating world on the brink of a new millennium. Hopelessly in love with playboy Lucien and eager to shrug off the socialist politics of her upbringing, Eva breaks away to work for a big bank. Benedict, a budding scientist who's pined for Eva for years, stays on to complete his PhD in physics, devoting...

Nancy is delighted that the new boy in her class is from Paris and sets out to become his friend, then discovers that this Parisian is not quite as fancy as she had thought.

"The Rowans' rambling Maine farmhouse is just big enough to contain the family members gathered there in the week before Christmas. Becca Rowan has driven north from Boston with one thought in mind - reclaiming the daughter she gave up when she was a frightened teenager. Raised by Becca's older brother and his wife, Rain Rowan, now sixteen, has no idea she was adopted. And though Becca agreed not to reveal the truth until Rain turned twenty-one, lately...