Showing results for "Happy" in Women's Fiction

Maisie Brennan is standing on a podium on the 20th anniversary of the death of her son, trying to find the first breath that will help her start talking to a room full of strangers. A daunting task at the best of times, but she's also menopausal and one hot flush away from totally losing it. But as Maisie begins her story, she relaxes and, word by word, disappears into her past, back to the day when one mistaken action led to a chain of events that changed her life forever....

Motherhood has turned out to be a lot weirder and lonelier than Mary anticipated - has the world gone crazy, or has she? Most of the time, it feels like both. But when her oldest starts kindergarten, Mary meets another mom, Fiona, and the two form an unusual yet exhilarating friendship. There’s only one problem: Mary doesn’t really like Fiona’s husband, Andreas. What begins as a minor irritation keeps intensifying and changing shape in Mary’s mind as Andreas’s perceived wrongdoings pile up, until she can’t distinguish integrity from self-sabotage.

I almost didn't believe it was him. In high school, Sebastian Pryce had been an aloof outsider who kept to himself. But now, 10 years later, he's back and unusually attractive. With muscles in all the right places and hands that know exactly what they're doing, Sebastian is everything I didn't know I needed. And while he isn't exactly friendly, he has a magnetism that draws me in.

Annie has been sad for so long that she's forgotten how to be any other way. She's trudging miserably through every day, sheer determination keeping her going. Until she meets Polly. Polly is everything that Annie is not. She's colourful, joyful, happy. Because if recent events have taught Polly anything, it's that your time is too short to waste a single day.

No man has rattled wedding-planner Parker Brown in a long time, but the motorcycle-riding, raven-haired Mal seems to have a knack for it. His passionate kisses always catch her off guard, much like her growing feelings for him. Parker’s business risks have always paid off, but now she’ll have to take the chance of a lifetime with her heart….

Two years after losing her fiancé, Sloan Monroe still can't seem to get her life back on track. But one trouble-making pup with a 'take me home' look in his eyes is about to change everything. With her new pet by her side, Sloan finally starts to feel more like herself. Then, after weeks of unanswered texts, Tucker's owner reaches out. He's a musician on tour in Australia. And bottom line: he wants Tucker back. Well, Sloan's not about to give up her dog without a fight. As their flirty texts turn into long calls, Sloan can't deny a connection.

When story-lover Anna takes over Longhampton's bookshop, it's her dream come true. And not just because it gets her away from her three rowdy stepchildren and their hyperactive dalmatian. Unpacking boxes filled with childhood classics, Anna can't shake the feeling that maybe her own fairy-tale ending isn't all that she'd hoped for.

Valerie Wyatt is the queen of gracious living and the arbiter of taste with a successful TV show. Since her long-ago divorce, she’s worked hard to reach the pinnacle of her profession and to create a camera-ready life in her Fifth Avenue penthouse. So why is she so depressed? All the hours with her personal trainer, the careful work of New York’s best hairdressers, cosmetic surgeons, and her own God-given bone structure and great looks can’t fudge the truth or her lies about it: Valerie is turning sixty.

Jo said good-bye to peace and quiet when she got pregnant at 19, but now she has a chance to hit refresh. A partner she loves, five amazing kids and a house by the sea. But life is never simple and there is more than a little emotional baggage coming along for the ride. Starting with that t--t of an ex-husband who doesn't pull his weight. Then there's the untrained puppy, the work/life balance, a custody battle for the children and all the everyday ups and downs and chaos of being a patchwork family.

The wonderful and heartwarming new novel full of secrets, lies and family ties from Sunday Times best-selling author Cathy Kelly. Bess is hoping to show everyone just how happy her recent marriage is, but behind all the party planning the cracks are beginning to show. Why is joining a family so difficult?

With no home, job or husband to be seen, Liv and her son swap a life of luxury for a shared bedroom at a lakeside farm. Thrust into Lowen Farm’s quirky communal living, the last thing Liv needs is to be sharing a space with Seb, the man who broke her teenage heart. As Liv is drawn into a world of friendship, romance and skinny dipping, her temporary stay begins to feel more permanent. But when a figure from her past reappears, Liv’s Lowen Farm bubble bursts, and she faces an impossible decision.

Newly married Debbie is at her wits' end about her and Bryan's mounting debts, but there's no way he's going to stop living the high life and become a stay-at-home husband. Meanwhile, Debbie's dad has just found out his workaholic second wife, Aimee, is pregnant. He couldn't be happier, but she's horrified. Is their marriage going to last?

When you’ve spent your life trying to be perfect, how easy is it to let go? Marion Markshop is the undisputed queen of Penmenna and has the perfect life - ask anyone. Doting husband? Hmm, maybe not.... Well-behaved, angelic children? Definitely not. A network of close, supportive friends? Not so much, it turns out. Marion sets out to change her autocratic ways by starting up a wedding planning enterprise in the village.

On midsummer's day, Phoebe Bowler - star-sign demon - should have returned home a happy new bride. Instead, she's been jilted at the altar. In need of sympathy, she could turn to her neighbour, Rocky Lancaster, but with problems of his own he's turned into Mr Grumpy. That is until Essie Rivers arrives on the scene, and then Phoebe and Rocky's paths seem destined to collide with a very big bump. Essie knows far more about astrology, personology, numerology - any "ology" you care to mention - than Phoebe.

When struggling actress Heidi has a life-changing accident aged 32, her world falls apart. Stuck in hospital and unable to walk, her only companion is Maud, the elderly lady in the bed next to hers. Heidi misses her flatmate, her life, her freedom - surely 32 is too young to be an amputee? But when Maud's aloof but attractive grandson Jack pays a visit to the ward, Heidi realises that her life isn't over just because it's different.

The characters in Happy Like This are smart girls and professional women—social scientists, linguists, speech therapists, plant physiologists, dancers—who search for happiness in roles and relationships that are often unscripted or unconventional. In the midst of their ambivalence about marriage, monogamy, and motherhood and their struggles to accept and love their bodies, they look to other women for solidarity, stability, and validation. Sometimes they find it; sometimes they don’t.

Amy is 34 and has just given up her glittering career in the big (Welsh) city to move back in with her grandfather, returning to work in the small-town Chinese takeaway where she spent her bookish and boring childhood. Why? That's a secret she won't tell. Just like the secret of why her grandfather, Ah Goong, and her father, TC Li, haven't spoken to each other in 30 years. Weirder still, they've lived in the same small flat about the takeaway for the majority of those years, with Amy's mother, Joan, acting as their unfortunate go-between and buffer.

It’s been more than a decade since Charlie Trewin left her sleepy Cornish fishing village for the dazzling lights of London, vowing never to return. But when shocking news of her father’s death forces her back to Carncarrow, she’s confronted with everything she thought she’d left behind: the tragic loss of her mother, her father’s obsessive hoarding—and her own unresolved emotions about them both.

After her former band shot to superstardom without her, Claire reluctantly agrees to a gig as a playgroup musician for wealthy infants on New York's Park Avenue. Claire is surprised to discover that she is smitten with her new employers, a welcoming clique of wellness addicts with impossibly shiny hair, who whirl from juice cleanse to overpriced miracle vitamins to spin class with limitless energy.

When it rains, it pours...and sometimes love finds you even when you can’t find yourself. Fate has given me a second chance at the happiness I once knew in the odd Southern town of Grimm Cove. But only if I can come to terms with some rather eye-opening revelations. Supernaturals are a real thing. I'm a witch. My high school sweetheart, who happens to be the Chief of Police in Grimm Cove, is my fated mate and a wolf-shifter. Ghosts exist and can be very nosy and meddlesome. Someone is murdering witches left and right.