Marie Bostwick

At twenty-seven, fleeing an abusive marriage with little more than her kids and the clothes on her back, Ivy Peterman figures she has nowhere to go but up. Quaint, historic New Bern, Connecticut, seems as good a place as any to start fresh. With a part-time job at the Cobbled Court Quilt Shop and budding friendships, Ivy feels hopeful for the first time in ages. But when a popular quilting TV show is taped at the quilt shop, Ivy's unwitting appearance...

"Years of long workdays...as a political campaigner are about to pay off now that Lucy Toomey's boss is entering the White House. But when her estranged older sister, Alice, unexpectedly dies, Lucy is drawn back to Nilson's Bay, her small, close knit Wisconsin hometown. An accident in her teens left Alice mentally impaired, and she was content to stay in Nilson's Bay. Lucy...got out and never looked back. Now,...Lucy has taken up temporary residence...

In New Bern, Connecticut, one woman's marriage is suffering and another is trying to salvage a rundown cottage. The Cobbled Court Quilt Shop will bring them together and help them discover the power of sisterhood to heal old wounds.

Hope Carpenter finds new purpose in a new phase of life when her husband's forced retirement strains both their savings and their marriage. Seeking inspiration and a financial boost, Hope gets a job teaching crafts to inmates at a local women's prison with surprising results. At first, Hope feels foolish and irrelevant, struggling to relate to women whose choices seem so different from her own. But with time, and the encouragement of the prison chaplain,...

"Twice in her life, college counsellor Gayla Oliver fell in love at first sight. The first time was with Brian - a lean, longhaired, British bass player. Marriage followed quickly, then twins, and gradually their bohemian lifestyle gave way to busy careers in New York. Gayla's second love affair is with New Bern, Connecticut. Like Brian, the laid back town is charming without trying too hard. It's the ideal place to buy a second home and reignite...

Celia Fairchild, known as advice columnist 'Dear Calpurnia,' has insight into everybody's problems; except her own. Still bruised by the end of a marriage she thought was her last chance to create a family, Celia receives an unexpected answer to a "Dear Birthmother" letter. Celia throws herself into proving she's perfect adoptive mother material -- with a stable home and income -- only to lose her job. Her one option: sell the Charleston house left...

One extraordinary woman will come of age—and come into her own— in this haunting, elegiac portrait of an ever-changing America during the tumult and uncertainty of World War II.
After the death of her mother, Elise Braun is sent to live with a new family in the United States and to start a new life. Her father only wants to save his daughter from the impending war in her native Germany—and the horrors of the new Nazi regime....

"An uplifting story of three grief support group dropouts--women united in loss and rescued through friendship. An accident has left Grace's husband in a vegetative state. Nan, a widow for twenty years, is feeling the emptiness now that her children are grown. Monica is reeling over her husband's sudden death and the revelation of his infidelity"--