Begun in 1979, A Woman of Substance is the first in The Emma Harte Saga by Barbara Taylor Bradford and is the story of an impoverished English maiden’s rise from rags to riches.

Ken Follett has done it again—made the bestsellers list, that is. Winter of the World, the second in his Century trilogy, following Fall of Giants, has continued the story of the international heroes of America, England, Russia, and Great Britain during the troubling years of 1933-1949.

Paper Farms’ publishing debut features three novellas published under the Black Hills Press imprint. Defined as “a distinctive, mid-length fiction often overlooked as a literary genre,” the novellas have often fallen out of place, being too long to be a short story, and too short to be considered a full-blown novel.

After the excitement of the holidays comes always a letdown in spirits; and it seems that just about everyone could use a lift. Well, count on Nora Roberts to provide just that as going in, you know you’re in for a “happy-ever-after” treat.

At sixteen in rural England at the start of the 1960s, Laurel Nicolson hides in their tree house to avoid the family outing in celebration of her baby brother’s second birthday.  From there she witnesses a horrible act that involves her mother.  Innocently, she attests to the fact that her mother’s response was to protect her two-year-old child and herself. Years later in 2011, Laurel, an acclaimed actress now in her sixties, visits her ninety-year-old mother in the hospital in Suffolk, England, where Laurel and [...]

Coincidence Is God’s Way of Remaining Anonymous is Gloria Loring’s way of validating God in her life. When her son was diagnosed with diabetes, she joined JDF (Juvenile Diabetes Foundation). Attempting to offer her support to JDF, she came up with the idea of compiling a cookbook made up of recipes contributed by her fellow cast members of Days of Our Lives—where she at the time played Liz Chandler—as a way to raise money.

Kate Morton’s second novel, THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN (copyright 2008), is a beautiful mystery “. . . of unknown parentage, family intrigue and generational secrets that keeps the reader turning pages into the wee hours of the night.”

Told from the points of view of two sisters, A Gift for My Sister by Ann Pearlman is a novel of love and loss, conflict and triumph. The narration alternates between Sky, the older sister, and Tara, some years younger and the child of her mother’s second marriage after Sky’s father dies at the age of thirty-four.

Modelland Book CoverTookie De La Crème, AKA Forgetta-Girl, who aspires to become a Rememba-Girl, is the main character of Modelland, Tyra Banks’s first novel. It is set in the make-believe world of Modelland in Metopia. Tookie is a fifteen-year-old girl who longs to be noticed by anyone. One way she attempts to get attention is by lying down in the hallways of her school (B3), just hoping someone would step on her, proof she existed.

Lately it seems I have a run on unsympathetic characters. Two books I’ve read recently—one fiction and one non-fiction—have main characters that deserve pitying for their less than honest personalities.