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"Sure-Bet" Women's Fiction




BUZZ WORDS: Relationships with family, friends, lovers;
Focus is on characters who face tragedy/crisis and emerge stronger;
Strong recognizable female characters;
Plot driven; Issues are important, often provocative themes;
Sexual situations are rarely explicit;
Exotic settings and rich-and-famous trappings also frame these stories;
Could also have components of suspense, mystery and/or romance.
Appeal to fans of Danielle Steel, Barbara Delinsky

Click on the titles below to search the catalog


Delinsky, Barbara. Lake News

After being unjustly accused by a reporter of having had an affair with a newly-appointed Cardinal, famous singer Lily Blake returns to her home town to recover and escape further attention from the press. There she forms an unlikely alliance with a big-city reporter whose career ended disastrously, sending him to the same town to edit the local newspaper.

OR A Woman's Place

A successful Boston business woman is threatened by a custody battle with a vindictive husband, but finds an ally in her business partner.


Bradford, Barbara Taylor. A Sudden Change of Heart

The lives of childhood best friends take a dramatic and unexpected turn when one of them investigates artwork stolen by Nazis during the war. Author of Woman of Substance & others in the Emma Harte series.


Diamant, Anita. Good Harbor.

Two women are brought together by a mutual love for books, humor and nature for a once in a lifetime friendship. See complete review.


Frank, Dorothea Benton. Sullivan's Island: A Lowcountry Tale.

Troubled by her unfaithful husband and difficult teenaged daughter, Susan Hayes returns home to Sullivan's Island in an attempt to reconnect with her past. The author’s first novel is set in South Carolina’s steamy low country, as are all of her other books, and is full of compelling portraits and a rich read.


Gaffney, Patricia. Saving Graces.

A story about true friendship follows the lives of the Saving Graces--Emma, Rudy, Lee, and Isabel--four very different women who find strength in the love, loyalty, and courage they all share.


Hannah, Kristin. Summer Island.

Nora Bridge is a woman who walked out on her marriage and left her two daughters behind. Now she's a radio talk show host and syndicated newspaper columnist. Her daughter Ruby is a comedienne who uses her mother as fuel for her humor. The two haven't spoken in more than a decade. The tabloids unearth a scandal from Nora's past and offer Ruby a fortune to write a tell-all about her mother. But first Ruby needs to know her well enough to write the story. She returns to Summer Island and finds that Nora is not the woman Ruby has imagined all these years.


Michaels, Fern. Kentucky Rich.

Nealy Coleman,who left the SunStar thoroughbred horse farm years ago with her illegitimate daughter, returns a rich and powerful woman, changing the lives of everyone around her and confronting the greatest challenges of her life. 1st in series, followed by Kentucky Heat & Kentucky Sunrise.


Siddons, Anne Rivers. Colony.

Looking back on her ninety years of life while waiting for the arrival of her children and grandchildren at the family summer home, Maude Chambliss recalls a life of wealth, friendship, love, and loss.


Smith, Lee. Last Girls.

Thirty-five years after a trip down the Mississippi on a raft with their classmates, four women are reunited to cruise the river once again where they plan to release the ashes of a fellow rafter, Margaret "Baby" Ballou.


Sparks, Nicholas. A Bend in the Road.

Devastated by the death of his wife in a hit-and-run accident, Miles, deputy sheriff of New Bern, North Carolina, discovers new meaning in his life when he meets Sarah Andrews, a woman struggling to rebuild her own life.


Spencer, LaVyrle. Bitter Sweet.

Shattered by the loss of her husband, Maggie moves back to her small Wisconsin hometown, where she encounters her high school sweetheart, who is stuck in a passionless marriage and who yearns to rekindle old flames.



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