Contemporary Family Life

Julia and Grant Harrington’s fake marriage has lasted longer than most real Hollywood ones. But how much more can Julia take before they "consciously uncouple"?

In Family Life, Russell Banks' first novel, he transforms the dramas of domesticity into the story of a royal family in a mythical contemporary kingdom. Life inside this kingdom includes the king (dubbed "the Hearty" or "the Bluff"), who squeals angrily as is his wont; the queen, who, while pondering the mirror in her chambers, decides to write a book; three adolescent princes who are, respectively, a superb wrestler, a fanatical sports car driver, and a sullen drunk.

1980. Three schoolgirls visit St. Valentine's shrine in Dublin, to write petitions for love. 2010. These same women have discovered that finding love was the easy part; it's what you do with it that's tricky. When one of the women returns home unexpectedly from California, all three are forced to examine their choices. Vonnie, Abby and Diana must learn they need to open their eyes and more especially their hearts...

A family loses two of their children in a fire on Christmas. Struggling to find hope and peace through the uncertainty, the faith and love of others help them discover how they can walk through the fire to the certainty that families are eternal. In a world full of uncertainty, how does one cope with unbearable loss and pain? Steve and Maria discover where they can find true hope and certainty through the love and faith of those around them.

August Hanson was the silent type, the kind who spoke through his actions and not his words. He possessed enough power to make me feel safe and secure. I was ready to open up and share the parts of myself I’d never shared with another, and then I got hit with a truth that changed everything. There was a slight chance he’d still want me, only he had to accept our baby, too.

Twelve years ago Matthew "the Rocket" Rising had it all. Married to his high school sweetheart and one of the winningest quarterbacks in the history of college football, he was the number one NFL draft pick. But on the night of the draft, he plummeted from the pinnacle of esteem. Falsely accused of a heinous crime with irrefutable evidence, it seemed in an instant all was lost—his reputation, his career, his freedom, and most devastatingly, the love of his life.

Growing up in Brooklyn, Samantha Bonti knew the writer's life she was meant to live waited across the bridge in Manhattan. Summoning the courage to break free from an abusive mobster boyfriend, Sam finally leaves Bensonhurst and begins her new life, working as a temp in a Wall Street brokerage firm. Quickly, she's swept off her feet by Wall Street player Alec DeMarco, a man of boundless energy, appetites, desires, and the wealth to indulge it all.

Jill MacSweeney wishes everything could go back to normal. But since her dad died, she's been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends - everyone who wants to support her. And when her mom decides to adopt a baby, it feels like she's trying to replace a lost family member with a new one. Mandy Kalinowski understands what it's like to grow up unwanted - to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, she wants a better life for her baby.

Gabby Langdon has always tried to make people happy. She even went to law school to please her father, and now, she's a highly successful - albeit bored - attorney. But Gabby secretly dreams of being a writer, so for once, she does something for herself - she signs up for a writing class taught by best-selling novelist Caden Marshall. There's only one problem: Her brooding, sexy professor is a distraction she can't afford if she's finally going to get the life she truly wants.