Here you'll meet Peggy Paula, who works the late shift at Perkins and envies the popular girls who come in to eat French fries and brag about how far they let the boys get with them. You'll meet a woman in her midthirties pining for her mean-spirited, abusive boyfriend, Del, a nine-year-old who is in no way her actual boyfriend. And just try to resist the noir story of a reluctant, Afrin-addled detective. Self-loathing, self-loving, and otherwise trapped by their own dumb selves, these characters make one cringe-worthy mistake after another.

Edited by Louise Downie. Essays by James Stevenson, Katharine Conley, Gen Doy, Claire Follain, Tirza True Latimer, Jennifer Shaw and Kristine von Oehsen.

Look Duncan, you're a journalist. One day you'll write a book about this club. Or, more to the point, about me. So you may as well know what I'm thinking and save it up for later when it won't do any harm to anyone.

When recently-dumped Charlotte and Anthony cross paths at the airport in New York City and get caught there by a blizzard, the two set out into the city with a self-help book from the gift shop with the intention of getting over their heartbreaks.

Everyone said eloping was a bad idea… Abby and Tom's whirlwind romance led to a quick marriage, despite their families' misgivings. Abby's childhood was marked by her parents' divorce and subsequent failed relationships, while Tom grew up expecting a fairytale ending like his parents and grandparents. Two years into their marriage, the couple finds themselves drifting apart, with divorce looming on the horizon. However, they decide to postpone breaking the news until after a family cruise celebrating Tom's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. As Abby and Tom struggle to maintain the facade of a happy couple, they're forced to confront their true feelings for each other. Will this voyage merely delay the inevitable, or could it be the lifeline their marriage desperately needs? Set against the backdrop of a family celebration and the vast ocean, this story explores the complexities of love, commitment, and the courage it takes to fight for a relationship when all hope seems lost. *** The Healing Hearts series focuses on marriage, second chances, and the role that faith plays in the process. Each book is a standalone story, and they can be read in any order. Book 1: Calming the Storm (A Marriage of Convenience) A marriage of convenience isn't exactly what she had in mind. Through love and patience, can he help Rachel realize that, even when she experiences storms in her life, she's never alone? Book 2: I Still Do (A Second Chance Romance) Through love and patience, can he help Rachel realize that, even when she experiences storms in her life, she's never alone? Book 3: Don't Kiss Me Goodbye (A Second Chance Romance Novella) Everyone said eloping was a bad idea… As Abby and Tom struggle to maintain the facade of a happy couple, they're forced to confront their true feelings for each other.

When his mother forgets to kiss him goodnight, Leon can't keep from speculating about the reason why.

Wynn Jamison is turning thirty. Her career has made her rich, but her love life is sorely lacking. She’s okay with that until she spends her birthday dinner with the woman who could’ve changed it all. There’s only one problem. She’s married to Wynn’s sister. Carly Evans is tired of her wife ignoring her needs to put her career first. Family has always been important to her, and Jordan just doesn’t seem to care. A freak thunderstorm rages during the night, and Wynn finds herself catapulted back in time to the day she made the worst decision of her life—stepping aside to let her sister romance Carly. Reliving the day over and over again, Wynn must decide what is most important: success, loyalty, or love. Given a second chance at happiness, will she take the opportunity and change her destiny?

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A Best Book of Fall at The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, BUST, and more "Dark yet sensitive explorations of family and love—of all kinds—from a masterful writer. The women at the centers of these stories are sharp-edged and complicated and irresistible; you won’t be able to look away." —Celeste Ng Bold and unapologetic, Karen Shepard’s Kiss Me Someone is inhabited by women who walk the line between various states: adolescence and adulthood, stability and uncertainty, selfishness and compassion. They navigate the obstacles that come with mixed-race identity and instabilities in social class, and they use their liminal positions to leverage power. They employ rage and tenderness and logic and sex, but for all of their rationality they're drawn to self-destructive behavior. Shepard’s stories explore what we do to lessen our burdens of sadness and isolation; her characters, fiercely true to themselves, are caught between their desire to move beyond their isolation and a fear that it’s exactly where they belong.

In this personal book from the star of many beloved and classic film comedies -- from The Producers to Young Frankenstein, Blazing saddles to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory -- Gene Wilder writes about a side of his life the public hasn't seen on the screen. Kiss Me Like a Stranger is not an autobiography in the usual sense of the word, and it's certainly not another celebrity "tell-all." Instead, Wilder has chosen to write about resonant moments in his life, events that led him to an understanding of the art of acting, and -- more important -- to an understanding of how to give love to and receive love from a woman. Wilder writes compellingly about the creative process on stage and screen, and divulges moments from life on the sets of some of the most iconic movies of our time. In this book, he talks about everything from his experiences in psychoanalysis to why he got into acting and later comedy (his first goal was to be a Shakespearean actor), and how a Midwestern childhood with a sick mother changed him. Wilder explains why he became an actor and writer, and about the funny, wonderful movies he made with Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Richard Pryor, and Harrison Ford, among many others. He candidly reveals his failures in love, and writes about the overwhelming experience of marrying comedienne Gilda Radner, as well as what finally had to happen for him to make a true and lasting commitment to another woman. A thoughtful, revealing, and winsome book about life, love, and the creative process, the New York Times bestseller Kiss Me Like A Stranger is one actor's life in his own words.

Joy can't stand Richie's smug, conceited attitude or his stupid jokes, especially the romantic ones about her, but one day she discovers that he's more serious than she thought.