Kirjahaku

What's the secret to a second chance? The ladies of small town Sweetgum, Tennessee would like to know. The town librarian can't believe it when her long-lost love turns up as the new pastor of the local church. He left her behind many years ago; can she forgive him and allow a second chance at love into her life? Two sisters have loved the same man for years, but one of them can't hide her feelings for her sister's husband any longer. Yet when a later in life health crisis looms, only one will be prepared to sacrifice everything for their loved one's happiness. A busy mother of three misses the connection she and her husband used to share. When she discovers she is unexpectedly pregnant, will it be the last straw for their already tenuous relationship? And a young dress shop assistant still dreams of a life beyond her small town, but what lengths will she go to to escape? Then the regular Friday night meetings of the women's knitting book club are disrupted by a new addition -- a neglected, surly teenager with more attitude than manners. Can their books and yarn, as well as their care for each other, craft a string of second chances for them all? SWEETGUM SECOND CHANCE is a full-length standalone work of clean and wholesome women's fiction. It features relatable characters and a Southern small town we'd all like to call home. A basic shawl knitting pattern and a reader's group guide are included *first published as The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society (2008)

The Sweetgum ladies are all keeping secrets. Even as they gather each month to discuss the great romances of literature and their accompanying knitting projects, the members of the Sweetgum Knit Lit Society are hiding behind their novels and their needles. The pastor's wife doesn't want her husband to know that she's being blamed for a drop in church donations. The young woman who dreams of leaving her small town behind won't admit her true feelings when a man from her past returns. The newly widowed town matriarch is keeping quiet about her surprising new best friends, and the youngest member, a struggling teenager, doesn't want anyone to know that her erstwhile boyfriend doesn't want to date her openly. The newest member of the group finds herself struggling to keep her family together after her father's death. And then there's the mother of four who's hiding her grief at leaving her infant son in daycare so she can return to the working world. What will happen when each of their truths comes out? Reading some of the great love stories of literature might just open their eyes to the possibility of happiness if they would let their secrets out. Sure, it's scary, and there's a lot on the line. But the truth about love is that as long as it's a secret, it can't transform their lives. *first published as The Sweetgum Ladies Knit for Love (2009)

Once upon a time, I believed in romance, thanks mostly to Jane Austen and my happy-ever-after peddling mother. I believed in love and soul mates until the day I found my professor husband compromising his teaching assistant on our kitchen table. As a lowly adjunct professor, I bore the brunt of the fallout. Suddenly, I was divorced, without a job, and in possession of a vendetta against one Jane Austen. Then the mysterious letter arrived. If I would come to London, a benefactor would put in my possession the lost letters of Jane Austen, letters believed to have been destroyed by her sister. I flew to London ready to expose all of Austen's secrets, but what I didn't expect was to run into my old friend Adam. I also didn't expect The Formidables, my mysterious benefactors, to send me on a Jane Austen treasure hunt before I could take possession of all the letters. And I certainly didn't expect to run into my first love, or to be pursued by a mysterious stranger. My journey takes me from the posh streets of Mayfair to the Hampshire countryside to the Regency splendor of the historic city of Bath. In the midst of uncovering Jane Austen's secrets - and her secret love-I might just learn that maybe Jane Austen didn't ruin my life after all.

(originally published in 2011 as The Dashwood Sisters Tell All) Were ever two sisters more different? I've never been close with my sister, Mimi, but my mother's dying wish sends the two of us on a walking tour in England that follows in the footsteps of Jane Austen. Once there, we discover that our mother also left us a mysterious diary that belonged to Jane's sister, Cassandra. Its undiscovered pages shed light on the secrets that nearly tore the Austen sisters apart and inspired one of the great love stories from Jane's pen. As my sister and I visit the places that were important to the Austens, from Steventon Church to Chawton Great House to the cathedral at Winchester, we discover that Cassandra's diary holds clues that lead to that holiest of grails-Jane Austen's own diary. Someone, though, doesn't want us to find Jane's diary, and they will do whatever it takes to keep us from discovering its whereabouts. My sister and I also face unexpected paths to love as we traipse through Hampshire. A formidable colonel can't keep his eyes off Mimi, and my own lost love reappears in a fashion that's so timely it's suspicious. As we retrace the steps of the Austen sisters, we discover what (and who) inspired Jane to write the famous sisters of Sense and Sensibility, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, and we come to realize, as the Dashwood and Austen sisters did before us, that despite our differences, sisters are vital to one another's happy endings.

Who's your Darcy? I never understood Mr. Darcy's appeal. Too sullen and broody for me. I'm happy dating Neil, a nice, normal guy. A nice, normal, sports-obsessed guy. When I agree to stand in for my sister at a Jane Austen seminar at Oxford University, I meet a peculiar older woman and soon find myself holding the lost first version of Pride and Prejudice. Entitled First Impressions, the manuscript in my hands is the one many scholars believe was destroyed long ago. As I read the first draft, written in Austen's own handwriting, I learn a secret about the iconic Darcy, as well as the truth about Jane Austen's struggle to understand what it takes to create a man worthy of her heroine.Is this my Darcy?When a tall, dark stranger crosses my path in real life, will I suddenly discover my inner Lizzie Bennett? Then Neil's unexpected arrival in England complicates my own journey - who is the hero to my heroine? A mysterious woman urges me to turn the manuscript over to her for safekeeping, but I don't know who I can trust. Why is everyone suddenly wanting to talk Darcy to me? And, really, who's my Darcy?Talk Darcy to Me is the story of how I learn that falling in love is the biggest adventure of all and that a true hero can appear in both the most unexpected -- and the most familiar - of places.*originally published in 2010 as Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart