Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is Unread Books on My Shelves with flowers on the cover (Bonus points if you tell us how long it’s been sitting on your shelf waiting for you.). All of these books have been on my TBR mountain since 2008!
“Seek not your destiny, for it is seeking you.”
In the wake of personal tragedy, two people meet on a humanitarian mission in Peru. Christine is a shy, unadventurous woman whose fiancee broke off the engagement only a week before the wedding, and Paul is a former emergency room doctor whose glamorous lifestyle, stellar reputation, and beautiful fiancee are cruelly snatched from him one fateful, snowy Christmas Eve. Deep in the Amazon jungle, against a backdrop of poverty and heartbreak, they must confront their deepest fears and, together, learn to trust and love again.
All you need is love? For the residents of swanky Mayfair Estates, a pre-nup is just another item on the wedding to-do checklist—but three friends get more than they bargained for when they promise to love, cherish . . . and sign on the dotted line.
Ellie married her handsome, wealthy Prince Charming when she was young, naive, and willing to sign a one-sided pre-nup in the name of true love. But seven years and one toddler later, her happily-ever-after has come screeching to a halt. If she can’t save her marriage, she’s determined to save her divorce, and she’s not about to let a lot of legalese stand in her way.
When Jen married Eric, he knew she wasn’t head over heels. Still, he insisted that they were perfect together and even bankrolled her blossoming business. But when Jen’s career finally takes off, she realizes that she may lose her husband. If Eric leaves, Jen will lose everything—including the marriage she values more than she thought.
Up-and-coming attorney Mara is sure her fiancé has forgiven her for a foolish one-night fling—until he adds a “cheating clause” to the pre-nup she had demanded. If he really trusts her, why the clause? And if she’s really trustworthy, why is she objecting?
As romance collides with real life, three very different women turn to each other for moral support and insights about how to safeguard their most valuable their hearts.
From Joan Medlicott, the nationally bestselling creator
of the beloved Ladies of Covington series, comes an inspiring,
hope-filled tale of a woman who finds the courage to begin
a journey that will lead to a whole new life.
When Claire Bennett’s husband died, she felt directionless. Their thriving antiques business and beautiful house in the Hamptons, the social scene and her volunteer work — all seemed empty without Phillip. Estranged from her adult daughter and son, Claire knows that in the depths of her heart she still mourns a terrible loss from a tragic accident years ago.
Fleeing her memories, Claire moves to a condo in Florida, then impulsively leaves to visit her engaged daughter in North Carolina. From the sandy beaches of Boca Raton to a tiny farm tucked high in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Claire gains self-awareness through the unexpected kindness of strangers, and finally forces herself to confront some hard truths from the past.
Finding a joy in life that has been missing for many years, Claire at last reaches out to her son and daughter. And when the healing of old wounds leads her to a new love, Claire realizes that her travels have brought her to a place where she will never again walk alone.
Years ago, Nora Bridge walked out on her marriage and left her daughters behind. Now she is a famous talk show host. Her daughter Ruby is a struggling comedienne. The two haven’t spoken in more than a decade. Then a scandal from Nora’s past is exposed, and Ruby is offered a fortune to write a tell-all about her mother. Reluctantly, she returns to the family house on Summer Island, a home filled with frayed memories of joy and heartache. Confronting a past that includes a never-forgotten love, a sick best friend, and a mother who has harbored terrible family secrets, Ruby finally begins to understand the complex ties that bind a mother and daughter—and the healing that comes with forgiveness.
“At last! An author who writes straight to the heart of every woman…She writes with all the sweetness of Debbie Macomber, the uproarious humor of Jennifer Crusie, and a touching honesty all her own.”―Susan Wiggs, New York Times bestselling author
Hope Walker owns Changing Seasons Floral, Heart Lake’s most popular flower shop. When it comes to love and relationships, she’s able to work magic through her expert flower arranging…for everyone but herself. A painful surgery left Hope scarred and struggling with her confidence. So when a handsome contractor starts coming into her shop, she assumes he’d never be interested in someone like her. Unless maybe there’s more to him―and Hope―than meets the eye?
When Hope stakes a plot of ground at Heart Lake’s community garden, she finds that a woman can grow all sorts of things flowers, herbs, vegetables, and even friendship. As she gets to know the two women who share neighboring plots, they discover that they can learn a lot from each other―not just about gardening, but about life. And Hope realizes that in order to live life to the fullest, sometimes you have to take a chance on love…in Love in Bloom by Sheila Roberts.
From the bestselling author of P.S. I Love You and Love, Rosie, Cecelia Ahern, comes an enchanting novel that leads you to wonder if Not Seeing is believing!
Readers and critics alike adore Cecelia Ahern for her lighthearted yet insightful stories about modern women and their often unusual situations. In If You Could See Me Now, she takes that theme a step further, offering us a heroine who is entirely believable, and the new man in her life who is, well, slightly less so.
Elizabeth Egan’s life runs on order: Both her home and her emotions are arranged just so, with little room for spontaneity. It’s how she counteracts the chaos of her family—an alcoholic mother who left when she was young, an emotionally distant father, and a free-spirited sister, who seems to be following in their mother’s footsteps, leaving her own six-year-old son, Luke, in Elizabeth’s care.
When Ivan, Luke’s mysterious new grown-up friend, enters the picture, Elizabeth doesnt know quite what to make of him. With his penchant for adventure and colorful take on things large and small, Ivan opens Elizabeth’s eyes to a whole new way of living. But is it for real? Is Ivan for real?
If You Could See Me Now is a love story with heart—and just a touch of magic.
Old friendships–and love–make all things new again.
The acclaimed author of Safe Harbor and other New York Times bestsellers returns to the seaside, delving into the heart of a once happy family facing troubled waters.
Bay McCabe relishes life’s simple pleasures, her children, her home by the sea. She has never forgotten the values of her Irish granny–the everyday happiness of family, good friends, and hard work. Bay and her husband, Sean, have weathered rough spells and moved on. Now a perfect summer, filled with the scent of beach roses, lies before them.
Charming and ambitious, Sean splits his energy between the town bank, his old fishing boat, and the family he seems to adore–until he leaves his young daughter stranded after school. As troubling memories resurface, a phone call confirms that Sean is missing. So begins a season that will change everything. As the door to all Bay cherishes seems to close forever, another opens, and an old love steps through. Embraced by enduring friendships, Bay will discover the truth of who she is–what love is–and how life’s deepest mysteries are often those closest to home.
For Annie Barnes, going home to Middle River means dealing with truths long hidden, some of which she buried there herself. But it is a journey she knows she must take if she is to put to rest, once and for all, her misgivings about her mother’s recent death.
To an outsider, Middle River is a picture-perfect New Hampshire town. But Annie grew up there, and she knows all its secrets — as did her idol Grace Metalious, author of the infamous novel Peyton Place, which laid a small town’s sexual secrets bare for all the world to see. Though Grace actually lived in a nearby town, the residents of Middle River have always believed she used them as the model for her revolutionary novel, and some even insist Annie’s grandmother was the model for one of Grace’s most scandalous characters. With these rumors and whispers about Peyton Place haunting her childhood, Annie came to identify so closely with the author that it was Grace and her bold rebellion against 1950s conformity that inspired Annie to get out of Middle River and make a life for herself in Washington, D.C.
It’s been a good life, too. Annie Barnes is now a bestselling author, reaching that level with only her third novel. Success has given her a confidence she never had as a young girl in Middle River — and it has given the residents of that town something new to worry about. When they hear Annie is returning for a lengthy visit, everyone, including Annie’s two sisters, believes she’s coming home to write about them.
Though amused by the discomfort she causes in Middle River, Annie has no intention of writing a novel about the town or its people. It is her mother’s death — under circumstances that don’t quite add up — that has brought her back, and soon her probing questions start to make people nervous. When she discovers evidence of dangerous pollutants emanating from the local paper mill — poisons that she comes to believe contributed to her mother’s fatal illness — Annie finds herself at odds with most of the town’s inhabitants, including her sisters, both of whom are seemingly unfazed by the incriminating evidence she uncovers. Because the mill is the town’s main employer, everyone is afraid of what might happen if Annie digs deeper, and their fears soon start to turn ugly.
For Annie, though, there is no turning back, as passion and rage propel her forward in a determined quest. Coming face-to-face with decades of secrets and lies, she knows she must find the strength to move beyond the legacy of Grace Metalious, defying her past to heal the wounds of the town and her own family.
They’re three women with one thing in common…Our Husband.
When they found out about his cheating heart, they wanted to get even. But how even?
Fate has just thrown a curveball at the women in Raymond Carmichael’s life– all three of them. When they meet at his hospital bed, they discover they’re all married to the same man. And when Raymond suddenly dies, the police suspect that one of these spunky ladies has commited murder…
The Socialite— Blonde, post-menopausal, and mad as hell, Beatrix always suspected Raymond married her for her daddy’s money…twenty-one years ago.
The Doctor— a smart, small-town family physician, thirty-five-year-old Nathalie had ironically insisted on only one thing from her husband of seven years…absolute honesty.
The Stripper— Twenty-one and an exotic dancer, Ruby would have chalked up her brief marriage to a learning experience…if she hadn’t been pregnant.
Now they’re three women left with a man’s betrayal– and worse, each other. But one thing they each insist– they didn’t kill Raymond. What can they do? Something outrageous and probably impossible: stick together to catch a murderer…
“Anellia” is a young student who, though gifted with a penetrating intelligence, is drastically inclined to obsession. Funny, mordant, and compulsive, she falls passionately in love with a brilliant yet elusive black philosophy student. But she is tested most severely by a figure out of her past she’d long believed dead.
Astonishingly intimate and unsparing, and pitiless in exposing the follies of the time, I’ll Take You There is a dramatic revelation of the risks—and curious rewards—of the obsessive personality as well as a testament to the stubborn strength of a certain type of contemporary female intellectual.
Thank you for stopping by and have a terrific Tuesday!🌻📚🌻
Susan Loves Books 