Afraid to Let Grow: A Marriage Survivors Club Book


Book Description

Annette Nauraine brings readers an emotional, funny, and heartfelt story that explores a mother’s fears as she struggles to let her children go while facing her own fear of falling in love. Olivia Maxwell is afraid of everything, including kittens. Determined to be a good mom, she does whatever it takes to keep her children safe. Eighteen years ago, her husband died, so she knows life can go up in smoke if you’re not careful.As a result, she’s tried to anticipate every imaginable risk, warning her children about the dangers of food past its due date, kidnapping, bubonic plague, and planes crashing into the house.Despite her pleas, her son drops out of college for a career guaranteed to put him in danger. Struggling to be allowed to grow, he pushes against all of Olivia’s boundaries, even insisting his older sister, who has Down, should be allowed to experience love.Can Olivia conquer her fears and let her children grow? Or is her reluctance to let them go about protecting them or herself? When an interfering fireman sets Olivia’s menopausal desires aflame, will she risk falling in love?Olivia’s friends in the Marriage Survivors Club remind her that living a full life means embracing love and letting go. After all, it’s never too late to grow.




He Brought Me Music


Book Description

Piano teacher Hélène Charbonneau turned her back on her former life after a crushing public humiliation. Even her beloved fellow members of the Marriage Survivors Club know nothing of her past. But when a desperate father asks her to teach his eleven-year-old son, Darius, a selectively mute piano prodigy, Hélène faces a choice: help a wounded little boy or risk exposure. With music, Hélène changes the lives of father and son. To her surprise, their love heals her own broken heart. But then Hélène’s old nemesis reappears, threatening Darius’ future, and Hélène’s newfound relationship with his father. Left with no alternative but honesty, she turns to the Marriage Survivors Club to help save the love and music these two lost men have brought her.




The Survivors Club


Book Description

Discover how to become the kind of person who survives and thrives with this "must-read" New York Times bestseller that's filled with fascinating true stories and helpful advice (New York Times). Each second of the day, someone in America faces a crisis, whether it's Covid-19, a car accident, violent crime, or financial trouble. Given the inevitability of adversity, we all wonder: Who beats the odds and who surrenders? How can I become the kind of person who bounces back? The fascinating, hopeful answers to these questions are found in The Survivors Club. In the tradition of The Tipping Point and Freakonomics, this book reveals the hidden side of survival through: astonishing true stories gripping scientific research the 5 Survivor Profiles top 12 Survivor Tools There is no escaping life's inevitable struggles. But The Survivors Club can give you an edge when adversity strikes.




A Very Special Christmas


Book Description

Revisit the magic of New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh's classic Christmas stories--together for the first time in one volume. In A Christmas Bride, a very wealthy Edgar Downes promises his aging father that he will finally wed a suitable bride by Christmas. London is full of pretty, proper, and eligible misses, but it's the widow Helena, Lady Stapleton, in a shocking red dress, who captures Edgar's attention. Helena is intrigued by the seductive stranger--but he's simply not in her class. Marriage, of course, would never do. But in a season of miracles, something wondrous is about to happen.... Enjoy the warmth of the holiday season with this Christmas tale along with five other cherished holiday stories from Mary Balogh's Under the Mistletoe collection.




Someone to Cherish


Book Description

Is love worth the loss of one's freedom and independence? This is what Mrs. Tavernor must decide in the new novel in the Westcott series from New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh. When Harry Westcott lost the title Earl of Riverdale after the discovery of his father's bigamy, he shipped off to fight in the Napoleonic Wars, where he was near-fatally wounded. After a harrowing recovery, the once cheery, light-hearted boy has become a reclusive, somber man. Though Harry insists he enjoys the solitude, he does wonder sometimes if he is lonely. Lydia Tavernor, recently widowed, dreams of taking a lover. Her marriage to Reverend Isaiah Tavernor was one of service and obedience, and she has secretly enjoyed her freedom since his death. She doesn't want to shackle herself to another man in marriage, but sometimes, she wonders if she is lonely. Both are unwilling to face the truth until they find themselves alone together one night, and Lydia surprises even herself with a simple question: "Are you ever lonely?" Harry's answer leads them down a path neither could ever have imagined...




Someone to Trust


Book Description

During a rare white Christmas at Brambledean Court, the widow Elizabeth, Lady Overfield, defies convention by falling in love with a younger man in this historical romance novel in the Westcott series. After her husband's passing, Elizabeth Overfield decides that she must enter into another suitable marriage. That, however, is the last thing on her mind when she meets Colin Handrich, Lord Hodges, at the Westcott Christmas house party. She simply enjoys his company as they listen to carolers on Christmas Eve, walk home from church together on Christmas morning, and engage in a spirited snowball fight in the afternoon. Both are surprised when their sled topples them into a snowbank and they end up sharing an unexpected kiss. They know there is no question of any relationship between them, for she is nine years older than he. They return to London the following Season, both committed to finding other, more suitable matches. Still they agree to share one waltz at each ball they attend. This innocuous agreement proves to be one that will topple their worlds, as each dance steadily ensnares them in a romance that forces the two to question what they are willing to sacrifice for love. . . .




Someone Perfect


Book Description

Sometimes, just one person can pull a whole family apart. And sometimes, it just takes one person to pull it back together. For fans of Bridgerton, New York Times bestselling Regency Romance author Mary Balogh shows how love truly conquers all in this new Westcott family novel. As a young man, Justin Wiley was banished by his father for mysterious reasons, but now his father is dead, and Justin has been Earl of Brandon for six years. A dark, dour man, he nonetheless takes it as his responsibility to care for his half-sister Maria when her mother dies. He travels to her home to fetch her back to the family seat at Everleigh Park. Although she adored him once, Maria now loathes Justin, and her friend Lady Estelle Lamarr can see immediately how his very name upsets her. When Justin arrives and invites Estelle and her brother to accompany Maria to Everleigh Park to help with her distress, she begrudgingly agrees for Maria's sake. As family secrets unravel in Maria's homecoming, Justin, too, uncovers his desire for a countess. And, while he may believe he's found an obvious candidate in the beautiful 25-year-old Lady Estelle, she is most certain that they could never make a match...




Someone to Honor


Book Description

First appearances deceive in the newest charming and heartwarming Regency romance in the Westcott series from beloved New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh. Abigail Westcott's dreams for her future were lost when her father died and she discovered her parents were not legally married. But now, six years later, she enjoys the independence a life without expectation provides a wealthy single woman. Indeed, she's grown confident enough to scold the careless servant chopping wood outside without his shirt on in the proximity of ladies. But the man is not a servant. He is Gilbert Bennington, the lieutenant colonel and superior officer who has escorted her wounded brother, Harry, home from the wars with Napoleon. Gil has come to help his friend and junior officer recover, and he doesn't take lightly to being condescended to--secretly because of his own humble beginnings. If at first Gil and Abigail seem to embody what the other most despises, each will soon discover how wrong first impressions can be. For behind the appearances of the once-grand lady and the once-humble man are two people who share an understanding of what true honor means, and how only with it can one find love.




Someone to Romance


Book Description

Love comes when you least expect it in this captivating new novel in the Westcott Regency romance series from New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh. Lady Jessica Archer lost interest in the glittering excitement of romance after her cousin and dearest friend, Abigail, was rejected by the ton when her father was revealed to be a bigamist. Now that she is twenty-five, however, Jessica decides it is time to wed. Though she no longer believes she will find true love, she is still very eligible. She is, after all, the sister of Avery Archer, Duke of Netherby. Jessica considers the many qualified gentlemen who court her. But then she meets the mysterious Gabriel Thorne, who has returned to England from the New World to claim an equally mysterious inheritance. Jessica considers him completely unsuitable, especially when, while they are still barely acquainted, he announces his intention to wed her. When Jessica guesses who Gabriel really is, however, and watches the lengths to which he will go in order to protect those who rely upon him, she is drawn to his cause--and to the man.




Someone to Hold


Book Description

A reversal of fortune befalls a young woman in this charming Westcott novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Someone to Wed. Humphrey Wescott, Earl of Riverdale, has died, leaving behind a fortune and a scandalous secret that will forever alter the lives of his family—sending one daughter on a journey of self-discovery... With her parents’ marriage declared bigamous, Camille Westcott is now illegitimate and without a title. Looking to eschew the trappings of her old life, she leaves London to teach at the Bath orphanage where her newly discovered half-sister lived. But even as she settles in, she must sit for a portrait commissioned by her grandmother and endure an artist who riles her every nerve. An art teacher at the orphanage that was once his home, Joel Cunningham has been hired to paint the portrait of the haughty new teacher. But as Camille poses for Joel, their mutual contempt soon turns to desire. And it is only the bond between them that will allow them to weather the rough storm that lies ahead...