Experience the sultry Southern atmosphere of Atlanta and the magic of the Carolina Lowcountry in this funny and poignant tale of one audacious woman’s quest to find the love she deserves, from New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank. Leslie Anne Greene Carter is The Last Original Wife among her husband Wesley’s wildly successful Atlanta social set. His cronies have all traded in the mothers of their children they promised to love and cherish—’til death did them part—for tanned and toned young Barbie brides. If losing the social life and close friends she adored wasn’t painful enough, a series of setbacks shake Les’s world and push her to the edge. She’s had enough of playing the good wife to a husband who thinks he’s doing her a favor by keeping her around. She’s not going to waste another minute on people she doesn’t care to know. Now, she’s going to take some time for herself—in the familiar comforts and stunning beauty of Charleston, her beloved hometown. In her brother’s stately historic home, she’s going to reclaim the carefree girl who spent lazy summers sharing steamy kisses with her first love on Sullivans Island. Along Charleston’s live oak- and palmetto-lined cobblestone streets, under the Lowcountry’s dazzling blue sky, Les will indulge herself with icy cocktails, warm laughter, divine temptation and bittersweet memories. Daring to listen to her inner voice, she will realize what she wants . . . and find the life of which she’s always dreamed. Told in the alternating voices of Les and Wes, The Last Original Wife is classic Dorothea Benton Frank: an intoxicating tale of family, friendship, self-discovery, and love, that is as salty as a Lowcountry breeze and as invigorating as a dip in Carolina waters on a sizzling summer day.

After twenty years of marriage, Rami discovers that her husband has been living a double--or rather, a quintuple--life. Tony, a senior police officer in Maputo, has apparently been supporting four other families for many years. Rami remains calm in the face of her husband's duplicity and plots to make an honest man out of him. After Tony is forced to marry the four other women--as well as an additional lover--according to polygamist custom, the rival lovers join together to declare their voices and demand their rights. In this brilliantly funny and feverishly scathing critique, a major work from Mozambique's first published female novelist, Paulina Chiziane explores her country's traditional culture, its values and hypocrisy, and the subjection of women the world over.

Elizabeth Lancaster, an English professor at Pasadena City College, finds her perfectly dull but perfectly orchestrated life upended one summer by three men: her movie-star ex-husband, a charming political operative, and William Shakespeare. Until now, she’d been content living in the shadow of her high-profile and highly accomplished family. Then her college boyfriend and one-time husband of seventeen months, A-list action star FX Fahey, shows up with a job offer that she can’t resist, and Elizabeth’s life suddenly gets a whole lot more interesting. She’s off to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the summer to make sure FX doesn’t humiliate himself in an avant-garde production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. As she did so skillfully with her first novel, Helen of Pasadena, which spent more than a year on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list, Lian Dolan spins a lively, smart, and very funny tale of a woman reinventing her life in unexpected ways. Lian Dolan is also the co-author of The Satellite Sisters' Uncommon Senses. As part of the Satellite Sisters, Lian and her four sisters found national acclaim first on NPR, then on ABC Radio and XM Satellite Radio. She also creates the popular podcast and blog Chaos Chronicles.

Kerry Jackson never thought her dream marriage, which began when her Morehouse lover propsed on a picture-perfect bridge over a lavish pool filled with rose petals and floating candles, could be torn apart by a harmless email. But 10 years later her husband Jamison is having an affair and a pregnant Kerry finds herself in her car at five in the morning, dead set on busting the secret romance. Angry, confused and in the back seat of a police car she realises that she needs a new plan for her life and her unborn child...fast.

Winner: 2021 Firebird Book Award for Contemporary Novel Winner: 2021 Firebird Book Award for Crime Fiction Winner: 2021 Firebird Book Award for Romantic Suspense Winner: 2021 Firebird Book Award for Women's Issues A thriller. A love story. A cruel twist of fate. Sometimes six-feet under isn't enough to bury someone. Lanie Spenser endured a childhood of merry-go-round foster homes before suffering an abusive marriage to Dr. Stanley Greystone. After twenty years of suppression by her husband, she musters the courage to divorce and begin a new life. College, trauma counseling, and an exciting career strengthen Lanie into a confident and capable woman. Feeling empowered and restored, she begins a new relationship. Brock Burnham is everything that Stanley was not-kind, tender, and loving. Brock's quest for adventure, sense of humor, and generous affection allow Lanie to feel hopeful about happy-ever-after's for the first time in her life. On the very day she meets Brock, she attends Stanley's funeral. Her ex-husband's death injects a bevy of baby mamas and discarded children into Lanie's world. As the original wife, she inherits the bulk of his estate as well as a string of clues to piece together the labyrinth of Stanley's lurid activities. His death exposes a tangled web of indiscretions, damaged women, and unspeakable acts of cruelty. With every new grain of discovery, Stanley's evil continues to reach from beyond the grave. Lanie's life unravels as her past collides with her present and she uncovers the darkest of Stanley's transgressions. Stanley's pre-meditated attempts to implicate Lanie in his crimes takes one ugly turn after another and there seems to be no end to the depths of Stanley's malevolence. Each twist of his manipulation plunges a blade deeper into her soul, not only threatening her cherished relationship with Brock, but also her mental stability. After Lanie is compelled to recall every moment of her traumatized marriage, she retreats to a reclusive existence. Desperately holding on to happy memories of being with Brock, she prays reflection and self-forgiveness will keep her from tumbling down a dark and bottomless rabbit hole of despair. She eventually emerges from her self-imposed solitude to reclaim what has been there all along-the sunshine she needs. Loving herself. Loving life. Loving Brock. She hopes it's not too late.

'Pulse-pounding, page-turning, absolutely can't put it down.' Lisa Gardner THE OUTSTANDING THRILLER FROM NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ERICA SPINDLER What have readers been saying about The First Wife? 'This is a must read. Truly outstanding as always.' Amazon reviewer, 5***** 'A real page turner that kept me guessing throughout.' Amazon reviewer, 5***** 'Spindler fans should relish this latest release, as should anybody looking for a first class thriller!' Amazon reviewer, 5***** Perfect for fans of Karin Slaughter and Karen Rose, Erica Spindler is master of classic crime fiction and the twist you won't see coming. Despite the ten-year age gap and the differences in their backgrounds, Bailey was meant to be with Logan - she's sure of it. It's natural that they should marry as soon as they can. But when Logan brings Bailey home to his magnificent estate on ninety wooded acres, her dreams of happily-ever-after begin to unravel. She can't ignore the rumours about what happened to Logan's first wife and then when a local woman goes missing, all signs point to her husband. Has Bailey made a terrible mistake trusting Logan? What happened to his first wife? Suddenly Bailey is facing an impossible decision: should she believe what everyone is saying, or should she bet her life on the man she loves, but hardly knows? Praise for Erica Spindler: 'Pulse-pounding, page-turning, absolutely can't put it down.' Lisa Gardner 'Neat, taut and written with panache that forces you to turn each page.' Daily Mail 'I can put Spindler on my growing list of favourite crime-fiction authors.' Evening Standard 'Has enough twists to keep you riveted right to the final page.' Image

The real-life story behind Marie Benedict’s The Other Einstein—a fascinating profile of mathematician Mileva Einstein-Marić and her contributions to her husband’s scientific discoveries. Albert Einstein’s first wife, Mileva Einstein-Marić, was forgotten for decades. When a trove of correspondence between them beginning in their student days was discovered in 1986, her story began to be told. Some of the tellers of the “Mileva Story” made startling claims: that she was a brilliant mathematician who surpassed her husband, and that she made uncredited contributions to his most celebrated papers in 1905, including his paper on special relativity. This book, based on extensive historical research, uncovers the real “Mileva Story.” Mileva was one of the few women of her era to pursue higher education in science; she and Einstein were students together at the Zurich Polytechnic. Mileva’s ambitions for a science career, however, suffered a series of setbacks—failed diploma examinations, a disagreement with her doctoral dissertation adviser, an out-of-wedlock pregnancy by Einstein. She and Einstein married in 1903 and had two sons, but the marriage failed. So was Mileva her husband’s uncredited coauthor, unpaid assistant, or his essential helpmeet? It’s tempting to believe that she was her husband’s secret collaborator, but the authors of Einstein's Wife look at the actual evidence, and a chapter by Ruth Lewin Sime offers important historical context. The story they tell is that of a brave and determined young woman who struggled against a variety of obstacles at a time when science was not very welcoming to women. Given the barriers women in science still face, [Mileva’s] story remains relevant.” —Washington Post

Ha looks closely at the sordid underbelly of suburbia in Bluebeard's First Wife, the latest from one of Korea's preeminent authors.

My father looks around the room and raises his glass of champagne high. 'Friends and family, I'm so glad you're all here today. Because there's something I've been wanting to share with you.' The way my stepmother's looking at him I can tell right away Dad's gone off-script. He looks out over us all and rubs his hand across his sweat-beaded forehead. He's shaking, I notice. And then he looks my way and his glance is absolutely piercing. That's what I'm thinking in the moment that his knees suddenly buckle and the glass drops from his hand. It smashes like a grenade, an explosion of deafening silence. My father is lying face-forward in the grass. 'Somebody call an ambulance, ' a voice shrieks. And the world as I know it ends. Dinah Spencer is back in her childhood home for one stressful weekend. It's the twenty-five-year anniversary of her father's marriage to her stepmother. Those twenty-five years haven't all been happy ones for middle child Dinah, but she's getting ready to put the past behind her, keeping the bonds of family strong for her own daughter Josie's sake - until her beloved dad collapses in the middle of his anniversary speech. In the wake of her father's shocking cardiac arrest, youngest daughter Lottie Spencer must struggle to keep her family afloat. Her mother, the ever-capable Mara, suddenly seems disturbingly fragile. Then there are Lottie's two older step-sisters, Vaughan and Dinah, whose own private lives seem to be fraying at the seams. And then there's that mysterious box in the attic, belonging to her father's first wife. A box whose explosive secrets Lottie is only just starting to unravel... A heartbreaking, gripping page-turner about family secrets and the lengths we'll go to protect those we love. Fans of Jodi Picoult, Diane Chamberlaine and Liane Moriarty will be hooked.

Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a shy twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness when she meets Ernest Hemingway and is captivated by his energy, intensity and burning ambition to write. After a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for France. But glamorous Jazz Age Paris, full of artists and writers, fuelled by alcohol and gossip, is no place for family life and fidelity. Ernest and Hadley's marriage begins to founder, and the birth of a beloved son serves only to drive them further apart. Then, at last, Ernest's ferocious literary endeavours begin to bring him recognition - not least from a woman intent on making him her own . . .