Description
From USA Today bestselling author Kaira Rouda, a collection of four of her bestselling, award-winning women's fiction stories all sharing the upscale suburban setting of Grandville, Ohio.
Winner! Indie Excellence Book Award Mainstream/Literary Fiction
Winner! USA Book Awards Women's Fiction
Honorable Mention! Mainstream/Literary Fiction, Writer's Digest Book Awards
HERE, HOME, HOPE:
Kelly Johnson becomes restless in her thirty-ninth year. An appetite for more forces her to take stock of her middling middle-American existence and her neighbors' seemingly perfect lives. Her marriage to a successful attorney has settled into a comfortable routine, and being the mother of two adorable sons has been rewarding. But Kelly's own passions lie wasted. She eyes with envy the lives of her two best friends, Kathryn and Charlotte, both beautiful, successful businesswomen who seem to have it all. Kelly takes charge of her life, devising a midlife makeover plan.
"Reading Kaira Rouda is like getting together with one of your best friends - fun, fast, and full of great advice! Here, Home, Hope sparkles with humor and heart." --Claire Cook, bestselling author of Must Love Dogs
ALL THE DIFFERENCE:
Once again, everything isn't what it seems in the wonderful suburb of Grandville. This is the story of three women whose lives become entangled by the choices they make and how, ultimately, one of them turns to murder to achieve her goals.
"There are few things more entertaining than stories revealing the seamy underside of suburban life." -- The US Review of Books RECOMMENDED
"An intriguing cast of characters and an untimely death set the stage for a chick-lit, murder mystery in Rouda's (Here, Home, Hope, 2011) latest novel. A light, engaging read that keeps readers guessing until the end." -- KIRKUS Reviews
IN THE MIRROR:
Jennifer Benson is a woman who seems to have it all. Diagnosed with cancer, she enters an experimental treatment facility to tackle her disease the same way she tackled her life - head on. But while she's busy fighting for a cure, running her business, planning a party, staying connected with her kids, and trying to keep her sanity, she ignores her own intuition and warnings from others and reignites an old relationship best left behind. If you knew you might die, what choices would you make? How would it affect your marriage? How would you live each day? And how would you say no to the one who got away?
"Rouda writes with a fluent, psychologically subtle realism that cuts Jennifer's pathos (and occasional self-pity) with humor and irony, and she surrounds her with characters -- doting dad; vain, shallow mom; mensch of a gay business partner; sarcastic gal pals -- who are sharply etched and entertaining. Jennifer is a winning heroine, and readers will undoubtedly root for her as she reaches for a more mature, if achingly uncertain, future. An absorbing story of a woman grasping at life in the midst of death. ~ Kirkus Reviews
A MOTHER'S DAY: A SHORT STORY
Three mothers. Three sons. One day that connects them. Kaira Rouda tackles the big issues of life and death with candor and hope in this tribute to motherhood. A tragic event reawakens each woman to her own special gifts, and her love for family and friends is reborn. Three mothers. Three sons. Six lives that will be changed forever.