"One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny's mother, Beverly--thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families. Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia,...

Pat Conroy's New York Times–bestselling coming-of-age novel about a son's struggle to escape the domineering expectations of his volatile military father.

Marine Col. Bull Meecham commands his home like a soldiers' barracks. Cold and controlling, but also loving, Bull has complicated relationships with each member of his family—in particular, his eldest son, Ben.

A born athlete who desperately seeks...

The Blue Ridge Madam was built by Willa Jackson's great-great-grandfather during Walls of Water's heyday. It now stands as a lonely monument to misfortune and scandal. But Willa has lately learned that socialite do-gooder Paston Osgood has restored the Madam to her former glory and plans to open a top-notch inn. Could the troubled past finally be laid to rest? When a skeleton is found buried beneath the property's lone peach tree, Willa And Paxton...

On their a cross-country camping trip, Greg Heffley and his family find themselves stranded at an RV park that's not exactly a summertime paradise and when the skies open up and the water starts to rise, the Heffleys wonder if they can save their vacation--or if they're already in too deep.

Anna McNichol knows how to take charge. Raised by a single mother, she's worked to ensure her three children have every advantage she didn't. And while her marriage has its problems, she values commitment and believes in 'till death do us part.' Now an empty nester, she's at the peak of her career and ready to seize the opportunity to focus on her future. But life can change in an instant, and when her husband dies suddenly, Anna's carefully constructed...

Rural Wisconsin, 1907. In the bitter cold, wealthy businessman Ralph Truitt stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who has answered his advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, but her plan is simple: she will win this man's devotion, then slowly poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow....

"A hostile relationship with her sister and a complicated past with her father's second wife have kept Robin estranged from her family for many years. But when her father's new family is attacked in their house, with her father, his wife, and young daughter in critical condition in the hospital, she returns home to await their fate and hopefully mend fences. It looks like a random robbery gone awry, but as Robin spends more time with her family members,...

Twenty years ago, Melanie Stokes was abandoned in a Boston hospital, then adopted by a wealthy young couple. Gifted with loving parents, a doting brother, and an indulgent uncle, Melanie has always considered herself lucky. Until the first cryptic, threatening note arrives: “You Get What You Deserve.”
Melanie has no memory of her life before the adoption. Now someone wants her to remember it all—even the darkest nightmare the...

Iris Lockhart is busy tending to the everyday business of her vintage clothing shop and sidestepping her married boyfriend's attempts at commitment when she receives a stunning phone call. Her great-aunt Esme, whom she never even knew existed, is being released from Cauldstone Hospital—where she has been locked away for over sixty years.Iris' grandmother, Kitty, always claimed to be an only child. But Esme's papers prove she is Kitty's sister,

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"Laura Ingalls and her family live deep in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Their log cabin is surrounded by miles of trees, and their closest neighbors are bears, wolves, and panthers. Daily chores keep Laura and her sister Mary busy, but they still find time to go exploring with their dog, Jack"--P. [4] of cover.