Family Drama Fiction

Fifteen years after graduating from Harvard, five close friends on the cusp of middle age are still pursuing an elusive happiness and wondering if they’ve wasted their youthful opportunities. Jules, already a famous actor when she arrived on campus, is changing in mysterious ways but won’t share what is haunting her. Mariam and Rowan, who married young, are struggling with the demands of family life and starting to regret prioritising meaning over wealth in their careers.

The year is 1970. Emma Gable, a blind teenager coming of age in a small industrial town in Western New York, is about as far from the seismic cultural transformations rocking campuses and city streets across America as a person can get. Emma escapes the chaos of her dysfunctional family by dialing up random numbers on the phone in her bedroom, just to see who'll answer.

Susan Bliss is trying to make it all work. Her growing stardom in L.A., where she's a regular on the nation's favorite TV show. And her less lauded role as wife in New England, married to a history professor and raising young twins. But the past can't stay hidden forever, and as the teenaged twins pursue the secrets their mother left behind, they spin off in different directions.

What would you do if you thought each day on earth might just be your last? Lucky by name. Not so lucky by nature. Adopted twins Nora and Stevie Lucky have always been close, despite being total opposites. When their mother dies, Nora convinces Stevie to search for their biological parents, only to come face-to-face with a life-changing revelation that sends them spiralling in opposite directions. With their careers, love lives and even their sisterly bond at risk, they're going to need more than luck to survive.

When Loretta Ashton dies suddenly, her family is shattered. As a devoted wife and mother, Loretta was their rock—a woman admired by the entire community. But at her funeral, an unexpected guest turns their grief into confusion. A stranger claiming to be Loretta’s sister takes a seat with the family, only to vanish before anyone can confront her. The problem? Loretta was an only child.

Rachel Smedling is not like the other women in her isolated Pennine village: she is taller, stronger, and weaves cloth like a man. Without her, the household would fall apart, for her mother is ailing and her vicious drunkard father seems to hate her so much, he would happily offer money to any man who would wed her. When her mother dies, Rachel is at the mercy of her increasingly violent father. Her only escape is by marrying a kindly man with whom she finds happiness, if not passion, and her life begins to seem complete.

After the funeral of her mother, Sally, Alice Kent is approached by a man named Angus Tweedy. He claims to be her father and tells her that he served time in prison for marrying Sally bigamously. What does he hope to gain telling her this now, 30 years on? How can her adored dad Ralph not be her true father? And why did her mother betray her so badly? She had accepted Sally's many faults and her reluctance to never speak of the past. But faced with this staggering deception, Alice knows she must uncover the whole truth about her mother. Whatever the cost.

Fourteen years ago, Kelsey and Raf Maccioni left hospital with their newborn daughter, Ammy. Days later, Shona and Nathan James welcomed the birth of their son, Zac. The only thing the two couples have in common is the IVF clinic where their dreams came true. They are strangers to each other - for now. Fast forward to April 2024 . . . Ammy has grown into a rebellious young woman, and Zac is a kind but introverted teenager. Life may not be perfect for either family, but like everyone else they are muddling through. Until Ammy takes a DNA test for a school project.

Like many couples, Michael and Jolene Zarkades have to face the pressures of everyday life—children, careers, bills, chores—even as their twelve-year marriage is falling apart. Then a deployment sends Jolene deep into harm's way and leaves defense attorney Michael at home, unaccustomed to being a single parent to their two girls. As a mother, it agonizes Jolene to leave her family, but as a solider, she has always understood the true meaning of duty. In her letters home, she paints a rose-colored version of her life on the front lines, shielding her family from the truth.

As single mother Leah struggles to get her children ready one morning, the doorbell rings. Standing on the doorstep of their terraced house in Whitley Bay is a well-dressed stranger, Clio, who feels an emotional tie to the house that she can’t explain.

Sisters Cleo and Robyn may be close in age but their attitudes to life could not be further apart. While Cleo's a fully-fledged adult with a family, a business and a signature scent, Robyn is still waiting for the instruction manual to Adult Life and success is keeping her houseplant alive. Skating by at her job as an estate agent, she's adept at avoiding housework, ignoring admin, and evading her mother's anxious questions about her love life. But then Robyn's fired in the most publicly humiliating way imaginable - and her chaos catches up with her.

She was a child caught in a riptide in the Caribbean Sea. He was a teenager from the East Coast on vacation with his family. He dove in to save her, and that single terrifying moment changed both of their lives forever. Ten years later Jack Ryder is a daring undercover agent with the FBI and Eliza Lawrence still lives on that pristine island. She’s an untainted princess in a kingdom of darkness and evil, on the brink of a forced marriage with a dangerous neighboring drug lord, a marriage arranged by her father.

When Chef Emily is left at the altar in front of her family and friends, she swears off love and instead throws herself into her new business: a restaurant with a difference. There's only one communal table, designed with the single diner in mind. Now it's two years later, and with her business thriving with regular customers, romance is still the last thing on Emily's mind - until she receives a letter from her ex who is returning home from Canada with a burning question for her....

When Shelley first met Greg, her life had been full of possibility. A whirlwind romance, a dream wedding, moving into their first house together, thinking about starting a family.... But now, it’s 10 years since their wedding. Greg has gone. And there’s a room in the house where Shelley has shut a baby blanket away. She’s been managing to hide from her past. Until one day, everything changes. She sees the couple moving in next door, giggling as they walk up the path to their new home. The woman is pregnant. It’s like she has everything that Shelley has lost.

Isla knows her family kept things from her. When she inherits the cliffside cottage where she spent her childhood, she must face dark shadows of her past—the mother who rejected her in favour of her art, the aunt whose death haunted them both, and the silence that permeated every room. Digging through the belongings of someone she realises she never really knew, Isla finally has the chance to find answers to the secrets her mother spent a lifetime hiding.

Evie's book club friends are the people in the world she relies on most. When one of the newer members finds herself confronted with her past, the rest of the club will do what they can to help, endangering the existence of the bookshop without realizing it. When Charmaine's past comes calling, she reverts to her old way of living—running and hiding. She's not used to having friends. But on Coral Island, everyone is a friend. And this time, Charmaine will find that being part of a close-knit community is the one thing that will save her.

Lois Saunders thought that marrying the right man would finally cure her loneliness. But as picture-perfect as her husband is, she is suffocating in their loveless marriage. In 1951, though, unhappiness is hardly grounds for divorce - except in Reno, Nevada. At the Golden Yarrow, the most respectable of Reno's 'divorce ranches' Lois finds herself living with half a dozen other would-be divorcees, all in Reno for the six weeks' residency that is the state's only divorce requirement.

Best friends Lily and Inga do everything together—they even meet their future loves at the same bar. After one serendipitous night, it seems like it’s going to be Lily and Alex and Inga and Matt forever. But life gets more complicated. A job offer moves Inga and Matt from Norwich to London. Lily, who craves stability after a traumatic childhood, is already struggling with the change when Inga confides in her a secret that could tear the group apart for good. At the same time, Lily’s friendship with Matt deepens, and she wonders if she was always meant to be with him instead of Alex.

Ellen has a lot to be thankful for. Her fiancé, Troy, is perfectly sweet. Her childhood friend Tanya, despite her edgier taste in men, is like a sister to Ellen: her closest friend—and rival. So familiar and yet, over the years, so many secrets between them. For Ellen, what lies ahead is a series of choices that will add up to a life she never could have imagined.

When Chase Stone’s estranged father dies, leaving his multibillion-dollar business to his children, no one is more surprised than him. Growing up outside of the high-stakes world filled with human vultures, Chase and his sister, Alex, are less than enthusiastic about stepping into their father’s shoes. That is until they learn of a half brother they didn’t know existed, and must find to share their inheritance with.