Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in Family Life

As a child, Evie Lindsay was unnerved by her premonitions. As an adult, they have become a simple fact of life - sometimes disruptive but also inescapable, much like her quirky, loveable family. Evie's mother, Poppy, and her aunts, Camellia and Iris, are well known on San Orcanita island. Evie's sister, Jules, is getting married on the island. As Jules plans her wedding, she arranges to do a DNA test with her family, to see how much accepted lore about their heritage holds true. The results blow apart everything Evie has grown up believing about herself and her family.

Tom Lowe’s identity and his pride are invested in the work he does with his back and his hands. He designed and built his family’s dream home, working extra hours to pay off the adjustable rate mortgage he took on the property, convinced he is making every sacrifice for the happiness of his wife and son. Until, in a moment of fatigued inattention, shingling a roof in too-bright sunlight, he falls. In constant pain, addicted to painkillers at the cost of his relationships with his wife and son, Tom slowly comes to realize that he can never work again.

The House of Rust is an enchanting novel about a Hadrami girl in Mombasa. When her fisherman father goes missing, Aisha takes to the sea on a magical boat made of a skeleton to rescue him. She is guided by a talking scholar’s cat (and soon crows, goats, and other animals all have their say, too). On this journey Aisha meets three terrifying sea monsters. After she survives a final confrontation with Baba wa Papa, the father of all sharks, she rescues her own father and hopes that life will return to normal. But at home, things only grow stranger.

As the fact checker for a popular magazine, Gabby DiMarco believes in absolute, verifiable Truths—until they throw the facts of her own life into question. The genealogy test she took as research for an article has yielded a baffling result: Gabby has a sister—one who’s been desperately trying to find her. Except, as Gabby’s beloved parents would confirm if they were still alive, that’s impossible.

Shaken by her parents’ divorce and discouraged by the growing chasm between herself and her serious boyfriend, Nikki Werner seeks solace at her uncle’s farm in a small Missouri hamlet. She’ll spend the summer there, picking up the pieces of her shattered present so she can plan a better future. But what awaits her at the ancestral farm is the past—one she barely knows.

The recipe for forgiveness begins with an open heart and a full belly. Sisters Rose Tillman and her sister Marvina Nash haven't spoken in decades—not since Rose sent Marvina $40 to register their business and Marvina used that money for her own personal purposes. Now retired, Rose wants to open the restaurant they'd once dreamed of. But, to her horror, Rose realizes she's forgotten their mother's secret spice mix recipe, known to only one other person in the world.

Thirty years ago, musicians Emilia Oliveras and Paul Winstead were married in Puerto Rico. Forty-eight hours later, Paul vanished from their honeymoon cruise, leaving Emilia devastated—and the prime suspect in his disappearance. So, she ran for her life, leaving behind her love, her dreams, and her identity. Today “Emily Oliver” is a divorced music teacher and mother of two daughters who know nothing about her past: Gracie, a talented attorney who excels in the courtroom but grapples with personal relationships, and Meg, a gifted concert pianist who wrestles with her ambition and purpose.

Daniel Ahearn lives a quiet, solitary existence in a seaside New England town. Forty years ago, following a shocking act of impulsive violence on his part, his daughter, Susan, was ripped from his arms by police. Now in her 40s, Susan still suffers from the trauma of a night she doesn’t remember, as she struggles to feel settled, to love a man, and create something that lasts. Lois, her maternal grandmother who raised her, tries to find peace in her antique shop in a quaint Florida town but cannot escape her own anger, bitterness, and fear.

Maddie McLendon hasn't had a new relationship since the loss of her beloved husband two years ago. Broken by grief and desperate for a new start, Maddie moves to Bitterroot Valley, Montana with her adult son and her grandson. But despite the natural beauty of her new town, not every change in her life is a welcome one. Maddie's new next-door neighbor, Sam Conacher, used to be a pillar of the community, but he has driven old friends and new acquaintances away due to a recent heartbreak of his own. He seems to intrude on her life at every turn.

Devastated by the loss of her father, lovely Brynne McFarren returned to the Washington coastal town of her youth. Brynne was surprised to discover that her family name had a dark notoriety...and alarmed to be caught in a triangle of sudden desire. Drew Tanner—a wealthy, devil-may-care wastrel—was captivated by her beauty. But his brother Joshua, the intense and powerful head of the Tanner shipping empire, was also drawn to Brynne. Now she must unravel the terrible secret that tarnished her father’s life—a secret that tortures Joshua Tanner’s heart.

And thus, Inés de la Rota—the youngest daughter of an Italian nobleman and a Colombian poet—begins to speak in a bitter, sweet voice. Against the backdrop of early twentieth-century Colombia, where the Catholic Church exercises total control over women, Orange Wine weaves an unforgettable story of sisterhood, love, passion, and betrayal. Isolated in a society that opposes her desires, Inés struggles with her identity as a mother, artist, sister, lover, and woman.

At the turn of the twentieth century, sisters Emmy and Callie Bullock are living a privileged life as the only daughters of a wealthy Alabama cotton farmer when their well-ordered household gets turned upside down by the arrival of Lily McGee. Arrestingly beautiful, Lily quickly—and innocently—draws the wrong kind of attention. Meanwhile, Callie meets a man who offers her the freedom to abandon social constraints and discover her truest self.

Growing up poor in Texas, Vera Lomax used every gold-digging trick in the book to land a rich husband. Now living in the lap of luxury in San Francisco, her only job is to fawn over her much-older husband, so it's been easy for her to balance a life of shopping and affairs with younger men with a major secret: the 16-year bribery of one of her husband's mistresses to keep her pregnancy under wraps. Vera figures that a little hush money every month will ensure her husband's fortune is hers alone....

Paula Smith Harris has learned that the man she thought was her true love isn't exactly who he vowed to be. After enduring countless affairs, among other things, Paula decides that it is time to move on. However, getting away from her crazy, obsessed husband isn't going to be as easy as she hoped it would be. Meanwhile, Michael is fighting for his right to stay married. With the secrets that have been revealed and the pain that was caused, is there any chance for a reconciliation?

One year after her family was in a tragic car accident that killed her teenage son, Lori Mendenhall returns home with a traumatic brain injury that has stolen the last eight years of memories from her. She is shocked to find that the life she was leading before the accident is unrecognizable. Her once-loving husband, Michael, is a distant workaholic she isn't sure she can trust and her once-bubbly daughter, Avery, has spent the last year hidden away in her room.

Jess Kirkman’s mother is dying of congestive heart failure, and he has come home to be at her bedside. Charged with getting family affairs in order, he faces the daunting task of sorting out the secret workshop that his father left behind when he died 10 years ago. As he investigates his findings—a map littered with the names of strange women and a strange invention of stovepipe and ceramic—Jess discovers an intriguing side of his father.

Aleksandar and Isobel are siblings and former classical music prodigies, once destined for greatness. As the only Eastern European family growing up on their block on the far southside of Chicago, the pair were inseparable until each was forced to confront the absurdity of tragedy at an early age and abandon their musical ambitions. Now in their twenties, they find themselves encountering ridiculous jobs, unfulfilling romantic relationships, and the outrageousness of ordinary life.

March 1995. As Raheim “Pooquie” Rivers juggles his increasingly hectic schedule as a supermodel, he is rocked by the news that one of his idols, NWA founder Eric “Eazy-E” Wright, has AIDS. His complacency shattered, Raheim gets tested for HIV but keeps it a secret from his boyfriend, Mitchell “Little Bit” Crawford. Meanwhile, life goes on: his son struggles in a new school and his high school sweetheart falls in love with a new man, while Mitchell becomes concerned about his moodiness and withdrawal.

Venus wasn't planning on falling for someone else. Her heart always belonged to Jake Parson, the enviable hot boy, starting from the moment he swept her off her feet with an impromptu proposal and a surprise wedding she never expected. Not a dull moment in the Parson household, to say the least. Their heat and attraction could spark a flame in a cold, wet room. But marriage, children, and too much distance, along with the constant swirling rumors of Jake's infidelities, have put their relationship to the test.

The ever witty and fun Venus Johnston is back and the subject of a reality show with her movie star husband, Jake Parson. Her world is turned upside with cameras following their every move and revealing the chinks in their marriage armor. Their home becomes a battle ground for the stardom Jake craves and the normalcy Venus needs to raise their children. Including Christopher, Jake's son who he only recently found out about after pop starlet Sirena Lassiter admitted the young boy she's pretended to be her little brother is actually her and Jake's son from their teen years.