Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Family Life

This dramatic romance, first published in 1845, ostensibly relates the story of the escape of a love-lorn young woman from the rigours of life with a stern and uncaring husband. Several commentators have seen the poem as an oblique reference to Browning's own current life situation, in which he enabled his future wife, Elizabeth Barrett, to escape from the confines of a patriarchal household to Italy, a country that forms the backdrop to many of his poems.

Fletcher Flora's short story narrated as an audiobook by Mike Vendetti takes us to the homes of two neighbors long after the fire has gone from their marriages. We have all experienced it. A song a sound and even a smell might take us back to happier times.

MaryLou always has a plan. Born and raised in a small logging town in the Pacific Northwest with a family of all boys, her life is good. She’s got a great family, she gets to work on race cars with her dad, and she knows exactly what she wants for her future. Then she meets Dale, a mysterious older boy who races at the local track, and MaryLou realizes she can’t always get what she wants. As she learns to adjust her plans to accommodate life’s unexpected twists and turns, MaryLou finds happiness along the way.

After crashing into a devastating revelation, Cyd’s tranquil life on the Florida panhandle is further upended when she receives a letter announcing an inheritance from an estranged aunt. The inheritance contains mysterious “items of a personal nature” which Cyd must collect in person halfway across the country. In a last attempt to salvage her deteriorating marriage, Cyd agrees to travel with her husband on what he promises—and she questions—will be the trip of a lifetime. As they set out, a hurricane threatens their hometown.

It’s 1925. Crunched between the Victorian age, WWI, and the Great Depression, women have new freedoms in the Roaring 20s, but do they? Patricia’s husband wants a divorce. She’s still in love with him, but the relationship has turned toxic. Separated from Peter, she’s free to explore her new identity as a businesswoman in her 20s, single again and living in New York City.

Set against the glamorous backdrop of 1924 New York City, Patricia's marriage is a mirror of the era—fast-paced, boozy and free of restrictions that bound previous generations. But when her husband, Peter, fresh off his own one-night stand, demands a divorce due to her behavior, Patricia is left reeling. Ex-Wife is her story of reinvention—a journey into the wild, uncertain world of the "modern woman," rife with boozy nights, fleeting love affairs and fabulous fashion.

What does it mean to be "just good people?" That is how the two couples—one British and one American—in this story are described. But what happens when you look deeper, peeling back the layers of politeness and civility? It is a tale of love, of disappointment, of miscommunication, and missed opportunities.

The Prairie Mother is a powerful tale of love, endurance, and survival set against the raw and untamed frontier. Tabbie, a spirited and determined woman, finds herself at a crossroads as she navigates the joys and burdens of motherhood while grappling with the emotional distance of her ambitious husband, Duncan. When she gives birth to twins—a boy and a girl—her world is forever changed, filled with both profound wonder and the weight of overwhelming responsibility.