Olivia Lowell has just learned that the mother she had been told by her father had died during childbirth, had only recently died, leaving her a fortune. The money, however, came with a caveat and a confession. Now, to carry out her mother's dying wish, she's searching for two of the woman's college friends with the help of a handsome young lawyer. Along the way she discovers who her mother really was, and who she, too, is meant to be.

Fifty-year-old artist's model Helen Knightly, worn down by years of dealing with her depressed and needy mother, gives in to the temptation to smother the now old and senile Clair and spends the next twenty-four hours feeling both liberated by what she has done, and tormented by her memories of the past and expectations for the future.

Middle-aged sisters Meredith and Nina, having been estranged from one another and their parents by the actions of their disapproving mother, reunite after their father falls ill, and, by carrying out their dad's dying wish of hearing the true story of their mother's life in war-torn Leningrad, the women find their relationships mending and begin to have a deeper understanding and respect for their mom.

"Episodes from the young life of Annie John, aged 10 to 17, as she grows up on the Caribbean island of Antigua. This is a magical coming-of-age tale, ripe with the special ambience of its tropical setting and sustained by Annie's far from naive awareness of the world around her. Death, illness, and poverty intrude on the narrator's perceptive sensilibity from time to time, but even these experiences instruct her and expand her understanding of life...

As the awkward one, Courtney Watson may not be as together as her sisters, but she excels at one thing: keeping secrets, including her white-hot affair with a sexy music producer. Planning Mom's wedding exposes her startling hidden life, changing her family's view of her--and how she views herself--forever. When Sienna's boyfriend proposes--in front of her mom and sisters, for crying out loud--he takes her by surprise. She already has two broken engagements...

A collection of stories tell of two sisters: one trades self-respect for a wealthy husband while the other finds in the pages of a book a kindred spirit who changes her life. The janitor at the local school has his faith tested in an encounter with an isolated man he has come to help; a grown daughter longs for mother love even as she comes to accept her mother's happiness in a foreign country; and the adult Lucy Barton returns to visit her siblings...

After Senator Richard Woodruff's extramarital affair makes the headlines, his wife, Sylvie, and daughters, Lizzie and Diana, are caught in the national spotlight and begin to reconsider the choices that they have made in life and who they believe they were meant to become.

For eight years, single mother Grace Archer lived an idyllic existence with her daughter Frankie on a horse farm in Tallanville, Tenn. Then the ghosts of her past returned, forcing her to resume an identity she thought she'd cast off forever. As she joins forces with a man she believed she'd never see again, she must match wits with a deadly opponent. There's a lot at stake on the outcome, no matter which way it goes.

"At only seventeen years old, Ross Quest is already a master thief, especially adept at escape plans. Until her plan to run away from her legendary family of thieves takes an unexpected turn, leaving her mother’s life hanging in the balance. In a desperate bid, she enters the Thieves’ Gambit, a series of dangerous, international heists where killing the competition isn’t exactly off limits, but the grand prize is a wish for anything in the...

For a little girl on a rainy day, the best place to be is with Mama.