The tightrope walk is getting trickier by the minute.As maternity leave comes to an end for Heidi Elliott, so does virtually everything else she thought she knew. The substitute filling in for her high school Spanish classes has made a complete mess—not just with her students, but perhaps in a way more personal. Her husband is developing the disconcerting habit of going out of his way to help a beautiful and wealthy client who is all kinds of perky. And now, to further complicate m...

After realizing her coworkers at L’Ombre, a high-profile restaurant in NYC, will never appreciate or respect her, Charlie Garrett allows her ex-boyfriend, Avery Michaels, to convince her to work for him as executive pastry chef at his new Seattle hotspot, Thrill. She’ll have her own kitchen, her own staff-everything she ever wanted professionally.When she arrives at Thrill, however, she realizes that Avery wanted more than a pastry chef for his restaurant-he wanted a costar for the...

A story of reconnection, lost love, and the power of faith, Heart Land follows a struggling fashion designer back to her small Iowa hometown as she tries to follow her dreams of success and finding true love.Grace Klaren has finally made her dream of living in the Big Apple and working in the fashion industry a reality. But when she’s unexpectedly fired and can’t afford the next month’s rent, Grace does something she never thought she’d do: she moves back ...

Mia is a granola-eating, sensible shoe-wearing, carbon footprint-conscious twenty-something living in a multicultural neighborhood in Chicago. Her mother, Babs, is a stiletto-wearing Zsa Zsa Gabor type who works as an activities hostess on a Caribbean cruise line…and if you guessed there’s some tension there, you’d be right. Factor in an unexpected pregnancy and Mia’s idealistic boyfriend, and the mother-daughter relationship is, well, stretched very thin. As is Mia’s sanity when Babs show...

New Yorker Sadie Maddox is the toast of the classical-music world—and a bit of a diva. But lately her CD sales are sagging, not to mention parts of her anatomy. Maybe it’s time for a change. So when her agent suggests a professorship at a small liberal-arts college, Sadie decides to give it a go. Besides, she needs the money.But the college is in rural Iowa. Sadie’s colleagues are intimidated, her students aren’t impressed, and she has to live far too close to farm animals. When Sa...

The Moms’ Group that saved Heidi Elliott’s sanity has gone on hiatus, as have any ideas about dropping the weight (in all the wrong places) and keeping the curves (in all the right ones). In their place, the Friday Strut-n-Stroll provides, if nothing else, two miles of adult company and the outside chance to use polysyllabic words.As much as she has loved being home for Nora’s first steps, words, and forays into makeup artistry, Heidi misses working, not to mention money for pedicu...

From an author and podcaster, an "invaluable and hilarious" memoir-in-essays about learning to understand that we can’t earn God’s love no matter how hard we try, and learning to accept the grace that is freely given (Jennifer Dukes Lee).Growing up, Kimberly Stuart got really good at strapping on her spiritual tap shoes and trying to be a star for Jesus. She could sing all the songs, ace the sword drills, and knew all the right theology. From earning creepy Jesus p...

From an author and podcaster, an "invaluable and hilarious" memoir-in-essays about learning to understand that we can’t earn God’s love no matter how hard we try, and learning to accept the grace that is freely given (Jennifer Dukes Lee).Growing up, Kimberly Stuart got really good at strapping on her spiritual tap shoes and trying to be a star for Jesus. She could sing all the songs, ace the sword drills, and knew all the right theology. From earning creepy Jesus p...

A story of reconnection, lost love, and the power of faith, Heart Land follows a struggling fashion designer back to her small Iowa hometown as she tries to follow her dreams of success and finding true love.Grace Klaren has finally made her dream of living in the Big Apple and working in the fashion industry a reality. But when she’s unexpectedly fired and can’t afford the next month’s rent, Grace does something she never thought she’d do: she moves back ...

Loretta D’Angelo doesn’t want to get married. Being dumped by her fiancé just months before her wedding was fine with her. She loves her life as a single woman in New York City, indulging in gourmet ice-cream, getting the occasional mud-mask facial, and working for a tacky talk show that specializes in screaming and scrapping among its philandering guests. If only she could tune out her pushy family and their constant match-making attempts.Josh Kaplan has no interest in getting mar...