Skip to main content

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.

Kim Michele Richardson, author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything --- everything except books, that is. Thanks to Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome has its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter. Cussy's not only a book woman, however; she’s also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else. Not everyone is keen on Cussy’s family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble. If Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, she’s going to have to confront prejudice as old as the Appalachias and suspicion as deep as the holler.

Martha Hall Kelly, author of Lost Roses

It is 1914, and the world has been on the brink of war so many times, many New Yorkers treat the subject with only passing interest. Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St. Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs. The two met years ago one summer in Paris and became close confidantes. Now Eliza embarks on the trip of a lifetime, home with Sofya to see the splendors of Russia.

Beatriz Williams, author of The Summer Wives

New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams brings us the blockbuster novel of the season --- an electrifying postwar fable of love, class, power and redemption set among the inhabitants of an island off the New England coast.

Amy Meyerson, author of The Bookshop of Yesterdays

Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric uncle Billy’s bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda’s 12th birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling-out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda’s life. She doesn’t hear about him again until 16 years later when she receives unexpected news: Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy, and one final scavenger hunt. Miranda soon finds herself drawn into a journey where she meets people from Billy’s past, people whose stories reveal a history that Miranda’s mother has kept hidden --- and the terrible secret that tore her family apart.

Paula McLain, author of Love and Ruin

In 1937, 28-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in the devastating conflict. It’s the adventure she’s been looking for and her chance to prove herself a worthy journalist in a field dominated by men. But she also finds herself unexpectedly falling in love with Ernest Hemingway, a man on his way to becoming a legend. When Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man’s wife, or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer.

Francine Rivers, author of The Masterpiece

Successful LA artist Roman Velasco appears to have everything he could possibly want. Only Grace Moore, his reluctant, newly hired personal assistant, knows how little he truly has. The demons of Roman’s past seem to echo through the halls of his empty mansion and out across his breathtaking Topanga Canyon view. Like Roman, Grace is wrestling with ghosts and secrets of her own. After a disastrous marriage threw her life completely off course, she vowed never to let love steal her dreams again. But as she gets to know the enigmatic man behind the reputation, it’s as if the jagged pieces of both of their pasts slowly begin to fit together...until something so unexpected happens that it changes the course of their relationship --- and both their lives --- forever.

Eva Woods, author of Something Like Happy

Deep down, Annie Hebden is still mourning the terrible loss that tore a hole through the perfect existence she had once taken for granted --- and hiding away is safer than remembering what used to be. Until she meets the eccentric Polly Leonard, who is determined to finally wake Annie up to life. The mission: One hundred days. One hundred new ways to be happy. Annie will slowly begin to realize that maybe, just maybe, there's still joy to be found in the world. But then it becomes clear that Polly is about to need her new friend more than ever…and Annie will have to decide once and for all whether letting others in is a risk worth taking.

Mary McNear, author of The Light in Summer: A Butternut Lake Novel

For the lovely Billy Harper, Butternut Lake is the place she feels most at home, even though lately she feels that the only one listening to her is Murphy, her faithful Labrador Retriever. Her teenage son, Luke, has gone from precious to precocious practically overnight. Her friends are wrapped up in their own lives, and Luke’s father, Wesley, disappeared before his son was even born. But Billy is about to learn that anything is possible during the heady days of summer. Coming to terms with her past --- the death of her father, the arrival of Cal Cooper, a complicated man with a definite interest in Billy, even the return of Wesley --- will force her to have a little bit of faith in herself and others...and realize that happiness doesn’t always mean perfection.

Nora Roberts, author of Come Sundown

The Bodine ranch and resort in western Montana is a family business, an idyllic spot for vacationers. A little over 30,000 acres and home to four generations, it’s kept running by Bodine Longbow with the help of a large staff, including new hire Callen Skinner. There was another member of the family once: Bodine’s aunt, Alice, who ran off before Bodine was born. She never returned, and the Longbows don’t talk about her much. The younger ones, who never met her, quietly presume she’s dead. But she isn’t. She is not far away, part of a new family, one she never chose --- and her mind has been shattered.

Graeme Simsion, author of The Best of Adam Sharp

Two decades ago, Adam Sharp’s piano playing led him into a passionate relationship with Angelina Brown, an intelligent and strong-willed actress. They had a chance at something more --- but Adam didn’t take it.

Now, on the cusp of turning 50, Adam likes his life. He’s happy with his partner Claire, he excels in music trivia at quiz night at the local pub, he looks after his mother, and he does the occasional consulting job in IT. But he can never quite shake off his nostalgia for what might have been.