Showing results by publisher "Black Rose Writing" in Family Life

When Petula Kerslake returns to her childhood home in the Catskill Mountains, she discovers that the family painting hanging above the library mantel-long suspected to be valuable-is actually worth a staggering fortune. But the Fleming Foundation, which inherited the historic mansion and its contents, immediately moves to auction off the Sarah Cole masterpiece, citing fiduciary responsibility.

QUINN DAVIS shatters the norm. She's successful in the traditionally male-dominated wine world. She'll do anything for a hunk of swoon-worthy cheese. And she only dates married men, a practice designed to evade love and protect her battered heart. But even as a mistress, Quinn has rules. No meddling in happy marriages. No men with young kids. No falling in love. And absolutely, unequivocally, no gigantic panties on a date. She prefers her men the way she likes her food and wine — enticing, intoxicating and utterly delicious.

1934. Isabel longs to escape her squalid San Francisco neighborhood. While her mother struggles to make ends meet and her older brother serves with the CCC at Yosemite, she manages the household and comforts her younger sister with stories about an idyllic imaginary world. Desperate for a taste of freedom, she takes matters into her own hands-with tragic consequences.

Lucy never wanted the life that's been thrust upon her-the wedding band or the baby in the crib. A woman of ambition, she longs to pursue her dreams on stage, but her husband insists on locking her in a gilded cage under his control. And in 1922, alternatives are almost nonexistent and certainly not acceptable, forcing Lucy to make an impossible choice.

Mollie Crowley, a 26-year-old Irish unmarried teacher at a one-room schoolhouse in rural Michigan, and 8-year-old Cecilia Pokorski, a Polish girl orphaned after the deaths of her family during the 1918 influenza pandemic, are an unlikely pair. While Cecilia is grieving the loss of her beloved Mamusia, Mollie leans on her own mother, Catherine, for assistance after taking the girl into their home. Mollie loves teaching, but Cecilia hated having Mollie as her first teacher. In their town in rural Michigan, the Irish and the Polish don't mix.

I am the reason my sister is dead. Jolie-Mae Buckley doesn't think her heart can ever heal. Two years ago, she graduated from college summa cum laude and was on track for medical school. Drowning in guilt after a disastrous mistake turned deadly, she's unable to move forward.

Edited by the award-winning author, Niamh McAnally, Stories of Place will take you on a whirlwind journey across the globe courtesy of nine international writers whose tales span the genres of thriller, adventure, mystery, coming-of-age, LGBTQ+, young adult, and literary fiction, as well as the vast spectrum of the human experience. Each story is titled using the innovative geocode system What3Words, which uses three words to identify a precise location on Earth.

Cassie Linden worries about every word she can’t remember, terrified of the early-onset Alzheimer’s that stole her mother. Now, recently divorced, she’s back home to care for her aging father, who can no longer manage his beloved bees. To pay for her dad’s care, she puts her misgivings aside and convinces him to sell to a developer who’s putting up a luxury project next door. She also enlists the help of beekeeper Glenn Marsden, who fiercely opposes development of this last open space in town.

On his drive home from work, Mark hears a familiar voice on the Doctor Lisa radio show—a popular therapist hotline. It’s not just a familiar voice; it’s her voice. His wife Rachel’s voice. The caller, who goes by Mindy from Indy, has a secret. A secret so explosive it’ll destroy her life if it comes out—but she hangs up before revealing it. Later, Rachel denies ever having heard of the Doctor Lisa Show, or Mindy from Indy. But Mark knows his wife, and he knows her voice. And he doesn’t understand why she’s lying to him, or what about.

When Mar Meyer's husband divorces her for another woman, she reacts by abandoning everything in her past: her home, her friends, even her name. Though it's not easy to start over, Mar is young-looking, fit, and ready for new adventures - as long as she can keep things casual. With each passing month, Mar goes from one acquaintance to the next.

Dealing with a controlling, manipulative, and self-absorbed mother-in-law can be a challenge. But when your child brings home a fiancé who’s completely unworthy, and the shoe is suddenly on the other foot, do you take the high road, or get down and dirty? It's been five years since Allison Montgomery's beloved father-in-law, George, passed away and her cantankerous mother-in-law, Margaret, moved in. After nearly killing each other during their initial adjustment period, Allie and Margaret have finally buried the hatchet and have even launched a thriving home staging business together.

Jilted and disillusioned, three unlikely friends discover that each of their dysfunctional exes have shaped up to become someone else’s Mr. Right. Before the Next Mistake follows Carolyn, Ava, and Jazmine as they join forces in their own "Red Flag Society" support group, and eventually launch a podcast to search for the answers that will keep them from making the same relationship mistakes.

"I'm only telling you in case the police contact you. Esme was arrested, but I'm handling everything, and she doesn't want to hear from you." That email from her ex-husband is almost the only information Alice Wilson has had about her twenty-three-year-old daughter, Esme, in the six years since Esme abruptly ended all communication.

In Broken Pieces of God David B. Seaburn returns to the domestic arena to explore the complex and extraordinary lives of an ordinary American couple, Eddy and Gayle Kimes. Eddy, a supervisor for a cable company, loses his job. Gayle, a tax accountant, is recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Unemployment, failed chemotherapy, and no insurance bring them to life’s precipice. Desperate, Eddy turns to a statue of Jesus, seeking a miracle, while Gayle dives deeper into a scheme she has been concocting for twenty-five years.

The Dunwhitty family is flying high until their carefully choreographed life falls apart during the 2008 Great Recession. Lisa's firm goes belly-up while Michael's shuts down after selling faulty heart valves. Desperate, Lisa insists they regroup by seeking refuge in rural Central Texas on land she inherits from a distant relative she barely knows.

Claire and Gary, college sweethearts, married for decades were at an impasse. They had been together forever, and started taking each other for granted. When faced with problems they would normally tackle together, they turned elsewhere and struggled to find their way home. Gary finds his biological family, Claire struggles with identity issues, and their son is forced to become an adult.

Everyone feels stuck now and then, right? At least, that's what Kristen tells herself. The problem is that all her usual tricks for getting out of a funk aren't working. What she needs is a really big change, and as a single woman with a remote career, her options are wide open. So she decides to spend a year in the small town of Riverton where her dad recently relocated. The people in Riverton are warm and welcoming, and Kristen quickly finds herself a part of her new community in ways that she didn't expect.

In 1877, the Paris art scene is very competitive for men but nearly impossible for thirty-three-year-old Mary Cassatt, an American woman. Bored by traditional methods of painting, she admires the work of avant-garde painters, especially Edgar Degas. So, when Edgar visits Mary's studio to view her paintings, she is exhilarated by his invitation to join him, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and other Impressionists in the collective.

Lucas is thrilled when his grandmother comes to live with him. She’s his best friend after Justin from down the street. Only it turns out she’s dying, and no one—not his parents and certainly not Lucas—is ready to accept that. Then one night, his grandmother pulls out a memory, prompting a seemingly straightforward request—she wants to see her sister one last time.

Charlie Fightmaster is on the verge of achieving his lifelong dream—playing Major League Baseball. But when his younger sister needs him, he walks away from fame and returns home. There, a reclusive legend teaches him three secrets to finding harmony at the plate... and in life. As Charlie faces heartbreak and guilt, those lessons become his lifeline—not just to baseball, but to becoming the man he was meant to be.