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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.

Kristina Riggle, author of The Whole Golden World

Seventeen-year-old Morgan Monetti shocks her parents and her community with one simple act: She chooses to stand by the man everyone else believes has exploited her --- popular high school teacher TJ Hill. Quietly walking across a crowded courtroom to sit behind TJ, and not beside her parents, she announces herself as the adult she believes herself to be.

Antoinette van Heugten, author of The Tulip Eaters

Nora de Jong returns home from work one day to find her mother has been murdered. Her infant daughter is missing. And the only clue is the body of an unknown man on the living-room floor, clutching a Luger in his cold, dead hand. The contents of a locked metal box Nora finds in her parents' attic leave her with as many questions as answers --- and suggest the killer was not a stranger.

Dianne Dixon, author of The Book of Someday

California girl Livvi Gray has always been haunted by a terrifying nightmare of an eerily beautiful stranger in a shimmering silver dress. Shortly before Livvi’s 30th birthday, she will come face to face with the stranger from her dream, an encounter that will not only alter Livvi’s future, but change much of what she thinks she knows about the past.

Marlen Suyapa Bodden, author of The Wedding Gift

When prestigious plantation owner Cornelius Allen gives his daughter Clarissa’s hand in marriage, she takes with her a gift: Sarah --- her slave and her half-sister. Raised by an educated mother, Clarissa is not a proper southern belle she appears to be with ambitions of loving who she chooses and Sarah equally hides behind the façade of being a docile house slave as she plots to escape.

Diane Chamberlain, author of Necessary Lies

Set in rural Grace County, North Carolina in a time of state-mandated sterilizations and racial tension, NECESSARY LIES tells the story of two young women, seemingly worlds apart, but both haunted by tragedy. A social worker and a 15-year-old are thrown together and must ask themselves: how can you know what you believe is right, when everyone is telling you it’s wrong?

Jamie Ford, author of Songs of Willow Frost

Twelve-year-old William Eng has lived at Seattle’s Sacred Heart Orphanage ever since his mother’s listless body was carried away from their small apartment five years ago. On his birthday --- or rather, the day the nuns designate as his birthday --- William and the other orphans are taken to the historical Moore Theatre, where William glimpses an actress on the silver screen who goes by the name of Willow Frost. Struck by her features, William is convinced that the movie star is his mother.

Elaine Hussey, author of The Sweetest Hallelujah

Betty Jewel Hughes was once the hottest black jazz singer in Memphis. But when she finds herself pregnant and alone, she gives up her dream of being a star to raise her beautiful daughter, Billie, in Shakerag, Mississippi. Now, 10 years later, in 1955, Betty Jewel is dying of cancer and looking for someone to care for Billie when she's gone. With no one she can count on, Betty Jewel does the unthinkable: she takes out a want ad seeking a loving mother for her daughter.

Barbara Delinsky, author of Sweet Salt Air

Charlotte and Nicole were once the best of friends, spending summers together in Nicole's family's island house, but they have since grown apart. When Nicole returns to the island house, she invites her old friend Charlotte for both sentimental and practical reasons. But what both women don't know is that they are each holding a secret that may change their relationship forever. Are the bonds of friendship strong enough to weather past indiscretions and betrayals? Can love survive an honest mistake?

Jessica Brockmole, author of Letters from Skye

A sweeping story told in letters, spanning two continents and two world wars, Jessica Brockmole’s atmospheric debut novel captures the indelible ways that people fall in love, and celebrates the power of the written word to stir the heart.

Sandra Lee, author of The Recipe Box

Grace D’Angelo is a woman at her wits' end, barely managing her job, her rebellious teenager, and the horrifying fact that her lifelong best friend, Leeza, is dying of cancer. When Leeza succumbs to her illness, Grace realizes she must take drastic action to get her life back on track and repair her most precious relationships. She and her daughter move back to their hometown, where she comes to terms with the past, rediscovers the healing power of cooking, and connects with friends old and new.