* Attention fellow readers and book lovers!*
Are you an avid reader looking to discuss novels by popular and trending authors with other readers? If so, our Bookish Vibes book club is for you! Bookish Vibes meets monthly at 7pm via Zoom and is all about “vibing” with a great read. Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, April 8 at 7pm, where we will be discussing books by best selling author Barbara Delinksy. The best part? Barbara Delinsky will also be zooming into our discussion!
If you have read books by Delinsky before, join us and discuss what you have read. If you haven’t read books by Delinsky, a copy of her latest novel A Week at the Shore will be available for you to borrow from the Patron Services Desk. You can register for our upcoming Bookish Vibes meeting, here. The day before the event an email with information on how to access the Zoom meeting will be sent to you.
Interested in exploring Delinsky’s other books? Stop by the library and browse her novels in our print collection, or check out one of these titles from the Library’s Digital Collections!
A Week at the Shore ebook | audiobook
From the Publisher: “One phone call is all it takes to lure Mallory Aldiss back to her family’s Rhode Island beach home. It’s been twenty years since she’s been gone—running from the scandal that destroyed her parents’ marriage, drove her and her two sisters apart, and crushed her relationship with the love of her life, Jack Sabathian.Twenty years during which she lived in New York, building her career as a photographer and raising her now teenage daughter Joy.
But that phone call makes it clear that something has brought the past forward again—something involving Mallory’s father. Compelled by concern for her family and by Joy’s wish to visit her mother’s childhood home, Mallory returns to Bay Bluff, where conflicting loyalties will be faced and painful truths revealed.
In just seven watershed days at the Rhode Island shore, she will test the bonds of friendship and family—and discover the role that love plays in defining their lives.”
From the Publisher: “From the author of Not My Daughter comes the story of Emily Aulenbach, an idealistic young lawyer who once dreamed of representing victims of corporate abuse. Instead, she now spends her days in a cubicle arguing victims of corporate greed out of their rightful claims. She no longer connects with much in her life, period, with the exception of three things—her computer, her BlackBerry, and her watch. One day, she snaps. Without telling anyone where she is going, she heads north to Bell Valley, New Hampshire, the small town where she spent a life-altering summer during her college years. There, she will set out to forge new relationships with lovers, long-lost friends and the person she once wanted to become.”
From the Publisher: “Blueprints, the new novel from bestselling author Barbara Delinsky, is the story of two strong women, Caroline MacAfee, a skilled carpenter, and her daughter Jamie, a talented architect. The day after her 56th birthday, Caroline is told the network wants Jamie to replace her as the host on Gut It!, their family-based home construction TV show. The resulting rift couldn’t come at a worse time.
For Jamie, life changes overnight when, soon after learning of the host shift, her father and his new wife die in a car accident that orphans their two-year-old son. Accustomed to organization and planning, she is now grappling with a toddler who misses his parents, a fiancé who doesn’t want the child, a staggering new attraction, and a work challenge that, if botched, could undermine the future of both MacAfee Homes and Gut It!
For Caroline, hosting Gut It! is part of her identity. Facing its loss, she feels betrayed by her daughter and old in the eyes of the world. When her ex-husband dies, she is thrust into the role of caregiver to his aging father. And then there’s Dean, a long-time friend, whose efforts to seduce her awaken desires that have been dormant for so long that she feels foreign to herself.
Who am I? Both women ask, as the blueprints they’ve built their lives around suddenly need revising. While loyalties shift, decisions hover, and new relationships tempt, their challenge comes not only in remaking themselves, but in rebuilding their relationship with each other.”
Not My Daughter ebook | audiobook
From the Publisher: “When Susan Tate’s seventeen-year-old daughter, Lily, announces she is pregnant, Susan is stunned. A single mother, she has struggled to do everything right. She sees the pregnancy as an unimaginable tragedy for both Lily and herself.
Then comes word of two more pregnancies among high school juniors who happen to be Lily’s best friends-and the town turns to talk of a pact. As fingers start pointing, the most ardent criticism is directed at Susan. As principal of the high school, she has always been held up as a role model of hard work and core values. Now her detractors accuse her of being a lax mother, perhaps not worthy of the job of shepherding impressionable students. As Susan struggles with the implications of her daughter’s pregnancy, her job, financial independence, and long-fought-for dreams are all at risk.
The emotional ties between mothers and daughters are stretched to breaking in this emotionally wrenching story of love and forgiveness. Once again, Barbara Delinsky has given us a powerful novel, one that asks a central question: What does it take to be a good mother?”
Facets ebook |
From the Publisher: “Nothing can prepare writer Hillary Cox for seeing her lover of 20 years, mining magnate John St. George, announce on television that he’s marrying another woman. Seeking revenge, Hillary begins a tell-all book exposing John and his shady past. John’s sister, Pamela St. George, also wants revenge against her brother. Throughout her life, Pamela has suffered horrifying abuses at John’s hands. She sets out to wrest control of the family’s tourmaline mining business from him. As Hillary attempts to end her obsession with John, Pamela searches for Cutter Reid, the one man she has always loved, and from whom John has always kept her. Now, a three-decade-old family drama of power, duplicity, and money comes hurtling to an explosive final confrontation with the one man who has so damaged their lives.”
Sweet Salt Air audiobook
From the Publisher: “Charlotte and Nicole were once the best of friends, spending summers together in Nicole’s family’s island house, but they have since grown apart. A successful travel writer, Charlotte lives on the road, while Nicole, a food blogger, lives in Philadelphia with her surgeon-husband, Julian. When Nicole returns to the island house in order to write a book about island food, she invites her old friend Charlotte for both sentimental and practical reasons. Outgoing and passionate, Charlotte has a gift for talking to people and making friends, and Nicole would like her help interviewing locals for her book. Missing a genuine connection, Charlotte agrees. But what both women don’t know is that they are each holding a secret that may change their relationship forever. Are the bonds of friendship strong enough to weather past indiscretions and betrayals? Can love survive an honest mistake?Filled with real, gut-wrenching emotion as well as a strong romantic storyline, Sweet Salt Air is a new offering from a beloved storyteller guaranteed to make you laugh and cry.”
Before and Again audiobook
From the Publisher: “Mackenzie Cooper took her eyes off the road for just a moment but the resulting collision was enough to rob her not only of her beloved daughter but ultimately of her marriage, family, and friends—and thanks to the nonstop media coverage, even her privacy. Now she lives in Vermont under the name Maggie Reid, in a small house with her cats and dog. She’s thankful for the new friends she’s made—though she can’t risk telling them too much. And she takes satisfaction in working as a makeup artist at the luxurious local spa, helping clients hide the visible outward signs of their weariness, illnesses, and injuries. Covering up scars is a skill she has mastered.
Her only goal is to stay under the radar and make it through her remaining probation. But she isn’t the only one in this peaceful town with secrets. When a friend’s teenage son is thrust into the national spotlight, accused of hacking a powerful man’s Twitter account, Maggie is torn between pulling away and protecting herself—or stepping into the glare to be at their side. As the stunning truth behind their case is slowly revealed, Maggie’s own carefully constructed story begins to unravel as well. She knows all too well that what we need from each other in this difficult world is comfort. But to provide it, sometimes we need to travel far outside our comfort zones.
From multimillion-selling master of women’s fiction Barbara Delinsky, Before and Again is a story of the relationships we find ourselves in—mothers and daughters, spouses and siblings, true companions and fair-weather friends—and what kind of sacrifices we are or aren’t willing to make to sustain them through good times and bad.”
First, Best and Only audiobook
From the Publisher: “Marni Lange was just seventeen when she fell passionately in love with the irresistibly sexy Brian Webster. Then a tragic accident tore them apart. Fourteen years later, Marni is now a successful businesswoman, about to appear on the cover of a national magazine—and come face-to-face with the world-famous photographer profiling her…Brian Webster. As Marni struggles with her attraction to the man who haunts her past, is she now brave enough to follow her heart and fight for what matters most?”
Chances Are audiobook
From the Publisher: “Liz Jerome is an expert at public relations. Well, at least in business. When she is hired to do some damage control for a company owned by Donovan Grant, the dividing line between professional and personal suddenly disappears. Donovan catches her off guard with his subtle come-ons and his humorous teasing. But being his playmate isn’t on Liz’s agenda. She is determined to block his every move, to resist the sweet confusion he arouses in her. Donovan threatens her safe, isolated world…making her want things she can never have.”
Shades of Grace ebook
From the Publisher: “New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky delivers a touching and heartfelt story in which love and devotion are put to the ultimate test, first published in 1996. Grace Dorian is The Confidante, America’s favorite advice columnist. Her wisdom has helped to guide two generations-including her daughter, Francine, and granddaughter, Sophie, who manage the vast Dorian empire and oversee the thousand details of Grace’s world.
But a national treasure is losing her brilliance. Her once razor-sharp mind is showing strain; her columns have begun to wander. Concerned about Grace’s health and future, Francine must step in to fill her legendary mother’s shoes and somehow also live her own life, which now suddenly includes her confusing feelings for Grace’s handsome doctor and new worries about tempestuous Sophie, who needs more guidance than Grace’s public.”
Finger Prints ebook | audiobook
From the Publisher: “Once upon a time she was Robyn Hart, a dogged journalist covering an arson case who saw too much and wasn’t afraid to expose it. But that courage nearly cost Robyn her life. Now under the safety of the Witness Protection program, she has a new identity-Carly Quinn-with a new job in a new city. As she struggles to make the best of her new life in Boston, the terror of the past still lingers, and Carly lives in fear that her enemies will find her.
Though she tries to wall herself off from the world, one determined man breaks through her defenses-successful attorney Ryan Cornell. Though Carly yearns to give him her heart, she doesn’t know if she can. While loving him offers a happiness she thought she’d lost forever, trusting him could cost her everything.”
A Woman Betrayed ebook | audiobook
From the Publisher: “A classic novel from an exceptional storyteller, A Woman Betrayed, first published in 1991, is a stunning tale of troubling secrets that can hide beneath the placid surface of a seemingly good marriage-and the courage that’s needed to move on.
Laura Frye has been happily married to her husband, Jeff, for twenty years. She has everything she ever wanted: strong, enduring, romantic love; two wonderful kids; even her own successful catering business. But her picture-perfect world shatters into a thousand pieces when Jeff mysteriously disappears.
Laura is certain the man she married would never leave his family voluntarily. But as the days go by, she learns there was much more to her husband than she had ever suspected. As Jeff’s many secrets come to light, Laura is left to wonder how well she really knew him-or if she knew him at all. In the wake of emotional disaster-with all she cherished in ruins around her-she will have to reach deep inside herself for the strength and will to hold her family together and somehow reclaim her life.”
More Than Friends ebook | audiobook
From the Publisher: “The Maxwells and the Popes have been friends forever. The women were college roommates, their husbands are partners in the same law firm, their kids have grown up next door to each other, and the two families share both vacations and holidays.
Like Wisteria Lane, the “perfect” suburban street of Desperate Housewives, all is beautiful and serene – until an accident forces these close neighbors to look beneath the surface. And when their idyllic lives are unexpectedly shattered by a moment that can never be erased or forgotten, their faith in one another – and in themselves – is put to the supreme test.”
Coast Road audiobook
From the Publisher: “Coast Road. Where life’s greatest gifts come to us by accident. Rachel Keats and Jack McGill were artists, deeply in love when they married, until the rush of life took its toll. After ten years of marriage, they divorced and went their separate ways. Jack stayed in San Francisco. Rachel moved with their two young daughters to Big Sur. Six years later, an alarming middle-of-the-night phone call demands that Jack put aside his own busy life and career as a leading architect to rush to his ex-wife’s hospital bed. While she lies lifeless, Jack maintains a bedside vigil and finds himself getting to know Rachel better than he ever did — through their daughters, her friends, and, even more revealingly, through her art. Meanwhile, the beauty and grace of the redwood canyon where she has made their home also work their own special alchemy upon Jack. He begins to see Rachel, his daughters, and the story of his marriage with new eyes. Coast Road celebrates those things in life that matter most — the kinship of neighbors, the companionship of friends, and the irreplaceable time spent with children and family. In this masterful new novel, Barbara Delinsky depicts with exquisite accuracy the ties that bind each of us to those people and places we hold most dear.”
From the Publisher: “In the idyllic small town of Tucker, Vermont, life flows at a rhythmic pace for pediatrician Paige Pfeiffer. But when Mara O’Neill, her best friend and medical partner, inexplicably kills herself, Paige’s comfortable world is suddenly shattered. Temporarily caring for Mara’s newly adopted baby daughter while she comes to grips with her grief, Paige clings to the hope that, in time, her orderly life will return.
What she hadn’t counted on were the unforeseen joys that often come with change, including the attentions of Noah Perrine, acting head of the private school where Paige coaches girls’ athletics. Noah fills Paige’s life with hope, and offers her things she never thought she wanted. Paige never expected to find the meaning of life in the death of a friend.”
Passions of Chelsea Kane ebook | audiobook
From the Publisher: “After the death of her beloved adoptive mother, thirty-six-year-old Chelsea Kane is consumed by the need to learn the truth about her birth parents. Taking a break from her successful architecture career, she arrives in the New Hampshire town where she was born, determined to find answers, her only clue a tarnished silver key that was bequeathed to her after her mother’s passing.
One of her first discoveries, however, is something quite unexpected: the irresistible Judd Street. Buoyed by love and resolution, Chelsea slowly begins to uncover the dark mystery of her past. But as she inches closer to the truth, she realizes that someone is trying to stop her, and will go to any lengths to prevent her from finding answers. The danger escalates until one terrifying night when all secrets are laid bare.”
Within Reach ebook | audiobook
From the Publisher: “The charming vacation house on the coast of Maine was meant to be a heavenly retreat for Danica Lindsay and her husband Blake, a place where they could mend the wounds of a strained and tired marriage. Instead, she finds herself mostly there alone while Blake’s political star is rapidly rising back in Boston. Were it not for the companionship of her new neighbor, gentle and caring Michael Buchanan, Danica would surely be overcome by loneliness and despair. But a friendship that is cherished and uplifting is slowly transforming into something less innocent, more passionate-something that could easily be called “love.” For the first time in her life, a chance for true happiness may be in Danica’s reach. But how can she grab onto it when she remains another man’s wife, bound by her vows to a marriage plagued by doubt and pain . . . and by secrets so shocking an entire nation will take notice?”
Variation on Time ebook
From the Publisher: “Here, first published in 1984, is an unforgettable story of a woman who must discover who she is before she can give herself to the man she loves. Although he’d already heard a great deal about Rachel Busek, nothing prepared Jim Guthrie for the beautiful flutist’s gentle grace. A rough-hewn private investigator, Jim is nearly overwhelmed with the urge to love and protect her. And Rachel is both amazed and delighted at the ease with which Jim slips into her life. Yet as quick passion gives way to leisurely love, Rachel finds herself holding back. Troubling pieces of her past remain a mystery even to her, and keep her from trusting her heart. Now, she must either discover the truth about her past or risk losing the first man in her life worth keeping.”
Looking for more? The Livingston Public Library’s subscription to Hoopla Digital has even MORE ebooks and audiobooks that you can borrow by Barbara Delinsky.
See you at the next Bookish Vibes meeting!
-Jessica, Adult Services & Acquisitions Librarian