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May 2023, Volume 52                                                                            05/31/2023

Welcome to the new look of ReadON

 

Although our appearance might be different, the goal remains the same: celebrating the best of what women's fiction has to offer.

 

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Latest Podcast Episode

Bored during the pandemic, Chris Posti struggled to find novels featuring older women as the protagonists, so she wrote the book she wanted to read. Her debut novel, Falling Apart, Falling for You (Elk Lake Publishing, April 2022), is the first in a series of three books. It was recently named a Selah Awards Finalist. While self-employed as a career and executive coach, Chris also published four nonfiction books and wrote a newspaper column for the Sunday Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. She and her husband live in the Pittsburgh area. Other than writing, her favorite activity is being silly with her grandsons.

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Tex Miller is Dead by Kelly Elizabeth Huston

 

Callie Austin, the unknown author of the wildly popular Tex Miller book series, decides that twenty-plus years of living in anonymity is enough. Her plan? Kill the beloved Tex Miller. But with a fierce agent, a cut-throat editor, and a beyond-zealous fan base, Callie knows not everyone will be happy. And just wait until Tex hears about it.

 

Learn more on Kelly's website.

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Sushi and Sealions by Rachel Corsini

 

When a career-ending injury and a messy breakup send prima ballerina Daniela Verdi back to Queens, New York, she fills her days with countless distractions: meaningless sex, pinot grigio, and video games.

It takes a chance meeting with her brother's best friend, Vincent LaBate, for her to remember who she was before the stage lights and distractions of the Upper West Side. She's convinced that Vincent could never love a girl like her: broken, insecure, and stumbling her way through life. What Daniela didn’t count on is that Vincent is as scarred as she is after divorcing his cheating wife and going through an equally messy child custody fight. 

As Daniela and Vincent's relationship develops, will Daniela learn to accept that a dream life isn't all it's cracked up to be?

 

Learn more on Rachel's website.

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The Tiffany Girls by Shelley Noble

It’s 1899, and Manhattan is abuzz. Louis Comfort Tiffany, famous for his stained-glass windows, is planning a unique installation at the Paris World’s Fair, the largest in history. At their fifth-floor studio on Fourth Avenue, the artists of the Women’s Division of the Tiffany Glass Company are already working longer shifts to finish the pieces that Tiffany hopes will prove that he is the world’s finest artist in glass. Known as the “Tiffany Girls,” these women are responsible for much of the design and construction of Tiffany’s extraordinary glassworks, but none receive credit. Brought together by chance, driven by their desire to be artists in one of the only ways acceptable for women in their time, these “Tiffany Girls” will break the glass ceiling of their era and for working women to come.
 

Learn more on Shelley's website.

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Where the Grass Grows Blue by Hope Gibbs

Where the Grass Grows Blue is one woman’s journey to either accept her turbulent past by embracing the power of forgiveness or risk losing a second chance at love in a small Kentucky town. It’s a quintessential southern experience full of complex family dynamics, lifelong friendships, and a complicated love affair that spans twenty years.
 

Learn more on Hope's website.

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The Cost of Electricity by Kathryn Holzman

Lulu, the daughter of pioneers, enters the University of Oregon in 1902. She aspires to be modern, as free to love as the romantic poets and as committed to equality as the suffragettes. Her journey—from the University to Portland, where she edits a literary magazine, to Hollywood, where she faces down her demons—is the story of a new century fueled by electricity.

 

Learn more on Kathryn's website.

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New Normal by Michelle Paris

After the sudden death of her husband, Emilie Russell just wants to feel normal. But being a middle-aged widow doesn’t come with a how-to manual. Her well-meaning friend, Viv, believes the cure to all that ails is simple: a new man. So, she sets Emilie up with her handsome and charming new neighbor, widower Colin. There’s only one problem with the plan—Colin is gay.
 

Lean more on Michelle's website.
 

May's Theme: Brothers and Sisters. 

In May we explore the bonds of brothers and sisters. Settle in and enjoy one of these gems by WFWA members that highlight the antics and bonds of siblings.

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A Million Reasons Why by Jessica Strawser

When two strangers are linked by a mail-in DNA test, it’s an answered prayer—that is, for one half-sister, whose time is running out. For the other, it will dismantle everything she knows to be true. But as they step into the unfamiliar realm of sisterhood, the roles will reverse in ways no one could have foreseen.
 
 
 

Visit Jessica's Goodreads page to find out more!

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The Happy Accidents by Jamie Beck

Have they wrecked their lives or reinvented them? That’s the burning question for three friends who wake up to the consequences of an impulsive pact. Staring down the crossroads, each woman finds her relationships—with herself, with each other, and with loves both old and new—tested along the way to building more fulfilling lives.

 

Visit Jamie's Goodreads page to find out more!

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Appaloosa Sky by K. Blanton Brenner

At only eleven years old, Ginny Spangler is left orphaned after a horse theft gone bad. As Ginny grows from a self-reliant young girl to the fiery matriarch of a sprawling Texas ranch family, she passes on her resiliency and bold spirit to her nieces, Scottie, Rory, and Georgie O’Brien. The sisters look to their Aunt Ginny and to Nancy Drew as role models.
 

Visit K.'s Goodreads page to find out more!

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My Secret to Keep by Barbara Conrey

My Secret to Keep is a powerful story of courage and acceptance, an emotional journey through the life of Maggie Bryan, a strong but conflicted woman who, according to society, finds love in all the wrong places. Or does she?” Barbara Claypole White bestselling author of The Perfect Son and The Promise Between Us.
 

 

Visit Barbara's Goodreads page to find out more!

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Secrets in the Mirror by Leslie Kain

Secrets In The Mirror is the award-winning psychological fiction about defining self in a dysfunctional family, Gavin struggles to salvage his self-esteem from Dad’s bullying and from narcissistic abuse by his twin, while Mom defies Dad to assert sanity into the mix. But when Devon gets into drugs and trouble with the Mob, more people die. Gavin flees far away to protect himself and his new family, but he can’t escape his sociopathic brother, or the Mob. Yet inextricable bonds tie him to Devon, and Gavin vows to rescue his twin from his self-destructive path. Although he is warned, "You can’t save anyone until you save yourself," he isn't sure who his 'Self' is.
 

 

Visit Leslie's Goodreads page to find out more!

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Coming Apart by Karen Heenan

No one knows you like a sister.Ava has always been poor, so she doesn't think the Great Depression will change anything. But when her mother dies and her coal miner husband loses his job, Ava's certainty falters. The last thing she needs is a letter from her estranged sister, asking for the impossible.
 

 

Visit Karen's Goodreads page to find out more!

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Her Own Legacy by Debra Borchert

Her Own Legacy, the first in the Château de Verzat series in which a young woman fights for her legacy and the lives of the four hundred families who depend upon her ancestors’ vineyard that produces the finest wines in France as the French Revolution erupts.
 
 

Visit Debra's Goodreads page to find out more!

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What We Found in Hallelujah by Vanessa Miller

Another storm is on the horizon for the Reynolds women. And the only way out is to go through it. Good things never happen in November—at least not for the Reynolds women. It was the month they lost their patriarch. And the month when fourteen-year-old Trinity went missing during a tropical storm. So, Hope Reynolds isn’t surprised when it becomes the month she walks in on her boyfriend kissing another woman. Or when she receives a panicked call from her mother about a mistake that could cost the family their treasured beach house. Meanwhile, Faith Reynolds-Phillips is facing her own financial struggles. She’s also looking down the barrel of divorce and raising a daughter who reminds her so much of her younger sister, Trinity, that sometimes it physically hurts. The last place Hope and Faith want to be is in Hallelujah, South Carolina, during hurricane season. But if they can survive another storm, they’ll have a chance to rebuild on a new foundation—the truth.

 

Visit Vanessa's Goodreads page to find out more!

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California Sister by Gloria Mattioni

A sister’s love versus a cruel fate. Claire Waters, an Italian mystery writer living in Los Angeles, rushes to Italy after her older sister's devastating brain-hemorrhage, determined to restore her health—or help her die with dignity. Claire is faced with a dilemma impossible to solve. Would her non-verbal sister want to go on struggling, damaged as she is, or end her suffering?

 

Visit Gloria's Goodreads page to find out more!

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Jaguars and Other Game by Brynn Barineau

After years transporting gold to Rio de Janeiro’s port, Maria and Isabel Azevedo can handle smugglers and jaguars with ease, but when a childhood friend is wrongly arrested for murder, the sisters need help from inside the Portuguese Court. They recruit Victoria Cruz, a Portuguese maid in service to Mad Queen Maria, and discover a conspiracy that reaches the heart of the royal family. To save their friend, the women will have to decide what they’re willing to risk for justice, love and family.

 

Visit Brynn's Goodreads page to find out more!

If you are a WFWA member and want to be considered for ReadOn! please fill out a book submission form here. 

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Kori Kobzina, Vice-President, Communications | [email protected]

Nancie Abuhaidar, Editor | [email protected]