Having spent every summer of her life at “The Paper Palace,” Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, wakes on a beautiful July morning. But this morning is different because last night, when their spouses were inside having a conversation, Elle and her oldest friend Jonas sneaked out the back door into the pitch-black and had their first ever sexual encounter.
Now, over the course of the next 24 hours, Elle will have to choose between the life she has created with her really loving husband, Peter, and the life she has always fantasized she would have had with her childhood sweetheart, Jonas, had a tragic incident not irrevocably altered their lives.
We reach Elle’s conclusion in all its complexity as Heller adds color to the circumstances that brought her to this point. The Paper Palace examines the conflicts between want and dignity, the consequences of abuse, and the family’s crimes and misdemeanors in a tender yet terrible way.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Does letting go mean losing everything you have, or does it mean gaining everything you never had?”
“But it’s what we do, what we’ve done for years now. We drag our past behind us like a weight, still shackled, but far enough back that we never have to see, never have to openly acknowledge who we once were.”
“Nice is the enemy of interesting.”
“There are some swims you do regret, Eleanor. The problem is, you never know until you take them.”
“There is no such thing as unforgiveable between people who love each other. But even as I’m thinking it, I know it’s not really true.”
The first person to move, inspire, and genuinely comprehend her was him. Was he supposed to be the last one? An important decision must be made by Lucy. She must begin her story—their story—at the beginning before she can make a decision. At Columbia University, Lucy and Gabe cross paths as seniors on a day that will forever alter both of their lives. They agree that they want their lives to matter and have meaning. When they cross paths once more a year later, it feels fated; perhaps they will discover the meaning of life in one another. But then Gabe gets a job as a photojournalist in the Middle East, and Lucy decides to stay in New York to pursue her profession.
The thirteen-year odyssey that comes next is filled with hopes, aspirations, jealousies, betrayals, and eventually, love. Was their meeting the result of fate? Has their absence been due to their decision? Despite traveling across continents apart, Lucy and Gabe remain in each other’s hearts at all times.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“I hope you find a love like that–one that is all-consuming and powerful that makes you feel like you’re going slightly mad. And if you do find that love, embrace it. Hold onto it. When you give yourself over to love like that, your heart will get bruised. It will get battered. But you will also feel invincible and infinite.”
“A tear rolled down my cheek. If you died, I realized just then, it would mean that I’d be the keeper of our memories. I’d be the only one on Earth who had experienced them.”\
“The thing about roads is sometimes you happen upon them again. Sometimes you get another chance to travel down the same path.”
“Because we only reveal our true selves to the people we care about most.”
“A woman filled with light makes everything she touches brighter.”
In Colleen Hoover’s tragic yet upbeat novel, which is the #1 New York Times bestselling author, a disturbed young mother longs for a chance at atonement. In an effort to reconcile with her 4-year-old daughter, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where everything went wrong after serving five years in jail for a catastrophic error. But it seems difficult to repair the bridges Kenna burned. No matter how hard Kenna attempts to establish herself, everyone in her daughter’s life is determined to keep her out. Ledger Ward, the proprietor of a nearby tavern and one of the few people still connected to Kenna’s kid, is the only person who hasn’t totally shut the door on her.
But if anyone were to find out how Ledger is gradually taking over Kenna’s life, both would run the risk of losing the respect of everyone who matters to them. Despite the pressure they are under, the two connect, but as their romance develops, the risk increases. In order to create a future based on healing and optimism, Kenna must discover a way to put her past transgressions behind her.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Now that I’ve forgiven myself, the reminders of him only make me smile.”
“There was before you and there was during you. For some reason, I never thought there would be an after you.”
“Reading is a hobby, but for some of us, it’s an escape from the difficulties we face. To all of you who escape into books, I want to thank you for escaping into this one.”
“We’re all just a bunch of sad people doing what we have to do to make it until tomorrow.”
“A good person who had one bad night. It happens to the best of us. The worst of us. All of us. Some of us are just luckier than others, and our bad moments have fewer casualties.”
2 individuals. 10 chances. One heartfelt love tale. Laurie is adamant that true love at first glance only occurs in movies. But then, on a snowy December day, she encounters a man who she knows right away is the one through a misted-up bus window. A magical moment occurs when their eyes lock, and afterward, her bus departs.
Laurie searches every bus station and cafe in London for him for a year, convinced that they will eventually run into each other again. But she doesn’t locate him—at least not when it matters. Instead, they “reunite” at a holiday party where Laurie is giddily introduced to Sarah’s new lover. It’s Jack, the bus passenger. It would.
10 years of friendship, heartache, wasted opportunities, untraveled paths, and reevaluated destinies await Laurie, Sarah, and Jack. One Day in December serves as both an escape into a happy, joyful, and deeply emotional love story and a gentle reminder that happiness often comes with unexpected turns in fate.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“You tread lightly through life, but you leave deep footprints that are hard for other people to fill.”
“There comes a point where you have to make the choice to be happy, because being sad for too long is exhausting.”
“Sometimes you just meet the right person at the wrong time,”
“There’s something about living in a different place that allows you to be whoever you want to be.”
“I’m not a bitch though; or maybe I’m just a quiet one inside my own head. Isn’t everyone?”
In the most significant interview of her career, Type-A Manhattan attorney Dannie Kohan is asked this question, and she is prepared with a carefully written response. Later, after acing her interview and saying yes to her boyfriend’s marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep confident that her five-year plan will be accomplished.
She suddenly finds herself in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and standing next to a completely different man when she awakens, though. She can barely make out the date scrolling on the television news, which is playing in the background. The date is December 15, 2025, however, it is five years later.
Dannie awakens once more at the stroke of midnight in 2020 after spending an extremely intense and scary hour. She is unable to escape what happened. She is not the type of person who believes in visions, yet it felt far more real than just a dream. That gibberish only works when spoken by those with a free spirit, such as Bella, her best friend for life. She stores the strange sensation in the back of her mind with a determination to disregard it. That is, until four and a half years later when Dannie accidentally crosses paths with the very same man from her vision. In Five Years is a remarkable love story that serves as a reminder of the strength of commitment, friendship, and the unpredictability of fate. It is brimming with happiness and tragedy.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“You mistake love. You think it has to have a future in order to matter, but it doesn’t. It’s the only thing that does not need to become at all. It matters only insofar as it exists. Here. Now. Love doesn’t require a future.”
“I am constantly trying to learn the rules, only to realize that the people who win don’t seem to follow any.”
“It feels impossible how much space there can be in this intimacy, how much privacy. And I think that maybe that is what love is. Not the absence of space but the acknowledgement of it, the thing that lives between the parts, the things that makes it possible not to be one, but to be different, to be two.”
“Happiness. The enemy of all suffering.”
“I think sacrifice is in direct opposition to manifestation. If you want your dreams you should look for abundance, not scarcity.”
The heart’s history cannot be undone. Macy Sorensen is getting used to her ambitious but emotionally reserved routine: put in a lot of effort as a brand-new pediatrics resident; arrange her marriage to an older, well-off man; and hold her head down and heart hidden.
But when she crosses paths with Elliot Petropoulos, her one and only love, the meticulous bubble she had built starts to burst. Before he broke her heart the night he confessed his love for her, Elliot was once Macy’s entire world. He had evolved from being her gangly, bookish buddy to the man who helped her heart heal following the death of her mother.
The story of young Elliot and Macy, who spend weekends and leisurely summers together in a house outside of San Francisco reading books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their teething problems and triumphs, is told in alternating timelines between Then and Now. Prior to their unexpected reunion, they were unknown to one another as adults. Elliot will learn the truth behind Macy’s ten-year quiet, despite the pain of what happened that night so many years ago clouding their recollections. He will have to battle his own past and his own self to restore Macy’s trust in the potential of an all-consuming love.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“I never got to fall out of love. I just had to move on.”
“Don’t spoil her with toys; spoil her with books.”
“I’ve been waiting for you to come home for eleven years. I’ll go anywhere you go.”
“I like your kind of quiet. Your heart isn’t quiet.”
“Well, you’re more, too. You’re my best everything.”
In the novel Ugly Love, Colleen Hoover – the author opens the story with Tate Collins recognizing that she didn’t fall in love with airline pilot Miles Archer at first sight. Even if they were to consider themselves pals, they wouldn’t. There is no denying that Tate and Miles are attracted to one another. They understand they have the ideal situation once their wishes are made clear. The only option left is sex because he doesn’t want love and she doesn’t have time for love. If Tate can follow the two guidelines Miles has for her, their arrangement might be surprisingly easy.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Never ask about the past. Don’t expect a future. They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all. Hearts get infiltrated. Promises get broken. Rules get shattered. Love gets ugly.”
Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.
Even though Lily hasn’t always found it easy, she’s never let that stop her from striving to live the life she desires. She had graduated from college, relocated to Boston, and launched her own business. She has traveled a long way from the small Maine hamlet where she was raised. So everything in Lily’s life appears almost too beautiful to be true when she gets a spark with a stunning neurosurgeon called Ryle Kincaid.
Ryle is aggressive, obstinate, and perhaps a little conceited. He is also intelligent, sensitive, and completely infatuated with Lily. And it surely doesn’t hurt that he looks good in scrubs. Lily is unable to shake him from her mind. But Ryle’s utter distaste for partnerships is unsettling. Lily cannot help but wonder what made him such a person in the first place, even as she finds herself breaking his “no dating” rule.
Her first love and a reminder of the past she left behind, Atlas Corrigan, comes to mind as uncertainty about her new relationship overwhelms her. He served as both her ally and defender. Everything Ryle and Lily have created together are in danger when Atlas arrives out of nowhere.
Verity is a psychological drama that also works as a romance. It’s about an author who is seeking to secure a new contract. She had a lot going on in her life that was stopping her from writing, and she desperately needed money. Her publisher is looking for a ghostwriter to fulfill the agreement, and they choose Lowen for the job. The conditions are unusual.
Her husband wants Lowen to come and stay at the Virginia house, and he wants her to go over Verity’s notes to figure out how she might finish the remaining novels. When Lowen visits Verity’s house, she discovers a book unconnected to the subject she’s working on, and things begin to go wrong.
All of the characters are keeping a lot of secrets, and you never know what will happen. This novel is disturbing. It’s going to screw you over. Lowen observes someone getting driven over by a truck, which is an unusual way to meet someone. This second-to-last chapter contains a storyline surprise that alters your viewpoint on the whole book. To keep the twist alive.
Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.
Alex and Poppy. Poppy and Alex. They are unrelated to one another. He’s dressed in khakis, she’s a wild child. He loves to stay in the house with a book, whereas she has an insatiable need to travel. They have been the best of friends ever since a tragic car share from college several years ago. While she lives in New York City and he is in their little hamlet for the majority of the year, they have spent one wonderful week of vacation every summer for the past ten years.
Up until they wrecked everything two years ago. Since then, they haven’t spoken. Poppy is in a rut despite having everything she should want. She is certain that the tragic, last trip she took with Alex was the last time she felt completely content. In order to make everything right, she resolves to persuade her best buddy that they should go on one more vacation together. Amazingly, he consents.
She now has a week to make everything right. If only she can avoid the important reality that has silently persisted throughout their seemingly ideal relationship. What possibly could go wrong?
A sparkling new book from the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read that will leave you with the kind of warm, hazy afterglow typically associated with the best vacations.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“I still have a lot to figure out, but the one thing I know is, wherever you are, that’s where I belong. I’ll never belong anywhere like I belong with you.”
“I don’t think I knew I was lonely until I met you.”
“It hurts to want it all, so many things that can’t coexist within the same life.”
“I love him so much. I love him more than I did yesterday, and I already know tomorrow I’ll love him even more, because every piece of him he gives me is another to fall in love with.”
“But most of us are too scared to even ask what we want, in case we can’t have it.”
More than a million readers have been riveted by the New York Times bestselling mystery and Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection about a woman who is determined to learn the truth about her husband’s disappearance. Protect her, Owen Michaels writes in a note to his dear wife of one year before vanishing. Hannah Hall is unsure and terrified, but she understands precisely to whom the letter is addressed: Bailey, Owen’s 16-year-old daughter. Bailey is a young girl who sadly lost her mother. Bailey is adamantly opposed to her new stepmother.
Hannah rapidly discovers her husband isn’t who he claimed to be as her urgent calls to Owen go unanswered, Owen’s boss is arrested by the FBI, a US Marshal and FBI agents show up at her Sausalito house without warning, and more. And that Bailey might be the key to discovering Owen’s real identity—and the real reason for his disappearance. Together, Hannah and Bailey went out to learn the truth. But as they begin to piece together Owen’s past, they quickly discover that they are also creating a new future. Hannah and Bailey couldn’t have predicted this one.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“He never understood that I wasn’t scared of someone leaving me, I was scared that the wrong person would stay.”
“This is the terrible thing about a tragedy. It isn’t with you every minute. You forget it, and then you remember it again.”
“The could-have-been boys still love you.”
“People don’t tend to work that way. We have our opinion and we filter information into a paradigm that supports it.”
“Most people don’t want to hear the thing that will make it work better… They want to hear what will make it easier.”
An extravagant party is hosted by four famous siblings to mark the end of the summer. However, during the course of a 24-hour period, their lives will change irrevocably. Malibu: 1983 August. The annual end-of-summer party hosted by Nina Riva is today, and excitement levels are at an all-time high. Everyone wants to be around the well-known Riva family, which includes Nina, a gifted surfer, and supermodel, Jay and Hud, brothers who are both accomplished photographers and surfing champs, and Kit, their adored baby sister. Being the children of renowned musician Mick Riva, the siblings together are a source of intrigue in Malibu and throughout the globe.
Malibu Rising tells the tale of one extraordinary night in the life of a family, the night when each member must decide what to keep from the individuals who helped create them and what to discard.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“How were you supposed to change- in ways both big and small- when your family was always there to remind you of exactly the person you apparently signed an ironclad contract to be?”
“Nina understood, maybe for the first time, that letting people love you and care for you is part of how you love and care for them.”
“Family is found…whether it be blood or circumstance or choice, what binds us does not matter. All that matters is that we are bound.”
“Our family histories are simply stories. They are myths we create about the people who came before us, in order to make sense of ourselves.”
“She had to choose what, of the things she inherited from the people who came before her, she wanted to bring forward. And what, of the past, she wanted to leave behind.”