The enchanting story of a shipwrecked family--a minister, his wife, and four sons--who are cast up on a desert island, build a wonderful house in a tree, and survive so cleverly and happily apart from the world that they never want to be rescued.

"The acclaimed, bestselling author--winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize--tells the enthralling story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes two families' lives. 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...

"Summer's looking forward to a break when she, her husband Gabe, and Gabe's nine-year-old son arrive at the annual family get-together at her in-laws' sprawling Pennsylvania estate. On the agenda are leisurely gourmet meals, tennis matches, and plenty of relaxation by the pool. But this year, Gabe's brother Nick has invited his new flame Hannah, whom Summer immediately recognizes from an acting gig they both did a few years before. Oddly, Hannah claims...

"Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness. The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a repurposed church, newly baptized Dollar Voss. The once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother's former nurse, the little half-brother isn't allowed to do or eat anything fun, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. Then, there's Merit. Merit Voss...

While on her family's yearly escape to Cape Cod, Rocky, sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, relives the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers, coming face-to-face with her family's history and future and accepting she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.

The tree is decorated, the cookies are baked, and the packages are wrapped, but the biggest celebration this Christmas is Gaby Summerhill's wedding. Since her husband died three years ago, Gaby's four children have drifted apart, each consumed by the turbulence of their own lives. They haven't celebrated Christmas together since their father's death, but when Gaby announces that she's getting married, and that the groom will remain a secret until...

From New York Times bestselling author Helen Brown comes a witty, uplifting novel about a woman who discovers that it's never too late to build the home—and the life—you've always longed for...
The windows rattle. The roof leaks. Every surface cries out to be stripped, painted, or polished. But for writer Lisa Trumperton, the dilapidated manor house that once belonged to her great-grandfather is far more than the sum of its battered...

"A sweeping debut novel about the generations of a family that spends summers in a seaside enclave on Maine's rocky coastline. In 1944, Maren Larsen is a blonde beauty from a small Minnesota farming town, determined to do her part to help the war effort--and to see the world beyond her family's cornfields. As a cadet nurse at Walter Reed Medical Center, she's swept off her feet by Dr. Oliver Demarest, a handsome Boston Brahmin whose family spends...

"In the wake of a shocking tragedy, Natalie Harper inherits her mother's charming but financially strapped bookshop in San Francisco. She also becomes caretaker for her ailing grandfather Andrew, her only living relative--not counting her scoundrel father. But the gruff, deeply kind Andrew has begun displaying signs of decline. Natalie thinks it's best to move him to an assisted living facility to ensure the care he needs. To pay for it, she plans...

One year after her divorce, Joyce invites her older sister Lydia, who is also divorced, to live with her until she finds a place of her own, but their relationship begins to fray as new revelations from their family's history come to light, forcing them to finally reckon with their childhood.