The Favorite Daughter

The Favorite Daughter by Patti Callahan Henry

This should be the happiest day of Colleen
Donohue's life. Splendid in her vintage,
lace wedding gown, she'll soon walk down
the aisle with a radiant smile, taking solemn
vows with Walter, the man she loves.

But those dreams are shattered when Colleen
witnesses a passionate, clandestine embrace
between Walter and her sister, Hallie,  just
minutes before the ceremony.

The deep, stinging betrayal by two people
she trusts the most, is overwhelming. So Colleen
follows her heart and runs far, far away from
the serene beauty of Watersend, South Carolina,
never looking back, praying her heart will
heal someday.

Ten years later, Colleen has made a name for
herself as a successful free-lance travel writer in
New York City. Friends, a bustling social life, and
casual romances along the way, keep her busy, but
unfulfilled.

When brother, Shane, summons her back home to
to help with the decline of their beloved father,
ravaged by Alzheimer's disease, she's keenly
aware of her obligation to return to the Low-
country she left behind.

So much has changed, yet many things remain
the same. Family calls her Lena, just like they did
years ago. Her brother still runs the Irish pub where many
after-school days were spent doing homework.
Hallie is married to the charming, deceitful Walter,
and mother to two precocious girls. And the pain, anger,
guilt, and resentment between the two sisters who were
once inseparable, is as fresh as it was on that fateful day.

As time goes on, Colleen can see her confused father
slowly slipping away from reality. Time is of the essence
as she and her siblings prepare to honor him with a
celebration of memories and pictures. But a puzzling
photograph from his youth contradicts what he's always
told them about the past. Could he be harboring a painful
secret, even as his mind is fading?

This is a mellow, heartwarming story about the
power of forgiveness, the futility of revenge, and
the achingly, difficult decision to accept what we
can't change, open to what the future holds.

The Mother-In Law

The Mother-In-Law by Sally Hepworth

Diana Goodwin is cool, sophisticated, and elegant
in every way. She's admired in the community
for using her great wealth to help underprivileged,
pregnant refugees deliver healthy babies when they
have nowhere else to turn.

But daughter-in-law, Lucy, feels quite differently
about Diana. Her mother-in-law's subtle
but scathing criticism, ranges from the way Lucy's
raising the grandchildren to her inability to multi-
task. Diana's daughter, Nettie, with her
persistent infertility problems, and brooding
husband, Patrick, also feel subjected to the
matriarch's belief that everyone should face
adversity head-on without asking for help
from loved ones.

Thank goodness for Tom, their jovial father
who's willing to dole out the money when the kids
come crying for financial assistance. They can
count on him for understanding and support.

But when Tom dies of a hideous disease that robs
him of his dignity, things drastically change in
the Goodwin family. Diana retreats into a world of
her own, shunning anyone who tries to lift her spirits.

Shockingly, Diana is found dead one day of an
apparent suicide. Investigators suspect foul play,
especially when a short goodbye note in Diana's
handwriting, is found in a drawer, rather than near
her body. Her words reveal a battle with cancer, but
an autopsy shows no evidence of the disease.
Puzzling clues at the scene point to murder, and the reading
of Diana's will casts suspicion on everyone with a motive.

Was someone with a vendetta angry enough
to kill Diana?

Put this spellbinding mystery, filled with agonizing
family secrets and compelling sub-plots, on your
must-reads for the summer.

Sunset Beach

Sunset Beach by Mary Kay Andrews

Drue Campbell's life is in shambles.

She's out-of-work, down to her last penny,
bruised and battered from a serious
kiteboarding accident, and mourning the death
of the long-suffering mother who raised her.

When her polished, well-to-do, estranged
father shows up at the funeral after a twenty
year absence, she's stunned to see him and
baffled by the surprising news he shares.

Drue has inherited her grandmother's
dilapidated house in trendy Sunset Beach, a place
filled with warm, childhood memories. Even more
astonishing, is Dad's job offer with a steady
paycheck at his thriving personal injury law firm.
Drue reluctantly accepts, and cringes when she learns the
office manager is her former fair-weather, eighth-grade friend,
who just happens to also be her new stepmother. It appears
she's going to have to swallow her pride more than
once in order to survive.

Drue tolerates her tedious job until she fixates on one
particularly suspicious case about a beach worker killed
at a swanky ocean resort. There's a distinct possibility that
her father's firm is somehow involved in a cover-up
of what really happened that fateful evening of the girl's
death.

And what's the connection between her father and
a missing person's file from decades ago?
Drue has the uneasy feeling he's somehow entangled
in the woman's disappearance, and she shudders at
the thought that he's hiding a terrible secret.
Her investigations shed new light on a father
she admittedly loves, but doesn't completely trust.

In Mary Kay Andrews signature style, her new
release seamlessly blends two captivating mysteries
with a smoldering office romance, to make this
the perfect beach read of the season.