Family life fiction / Stories about family

Book SynopsisA page-turning novel of suspense about the perfect family, and the perfect lies, by the bestselling author of When I’m Gone and The Waiting Room. Adopted by her controlling foster mother at the age of eight, twenty-year-old Tara has seen little of the outside world. Lonely, punished for the slightest offense, her only distraction comes from watching the Feely family’s online videos. They’re an affectionate vlogging quintet and an internet sensation. Most important, they are Tara’s mental refuge. Then the opportunity arises for them to be something more. When Tara accepts an internship with the close-knit clan, they’re her escape. Daring to run away, and defying Mother’s rules, Tara is welcomed into the loving fold. But the more Tara gets to know them, the more she realizes that not everything is as it seems. As secrets slowly surface, the image of the perfect family begins to crack. For Tara, it’s another trap. To claim a life of her own, she’ll need a new escape plan. Because as the show’s popularity explodes, reaching even more fascinated viewers, Tara can’t shake the feeling that Mother is among their ranks. She’s watching. She’s waiting. She’ll never let her go.Trade Review“[A] nail-biting thriller…Suspense fans will be rewarded.” —Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisIn the isolated estate she’s found the perfect getaway. But there’s no escaping the past in this chilling novel from the bestselling author of The Unremembered Girl. Filmmaker Tessa Shepherd helped free a man she believed was wrongly imprisoned for murder. When he kills again, Tessa’s life is upended. She’s reeling with guilt, her reputation destroyed. Worse, Tessa’s mother has unexpectedly passed away, and her sister, Margot, turns on her after tensions from their past escalate. Hounded by a bullying press, Tessa needs an escape. That’s when she learns of a strange inheritance bequeathed by her mother: a derelict and isolated estate known as Fallbrook. It seems like the perfect refuge. A crumbling monument to a gruesome history, the mansion has been abandoned by all but two elderly sisters retained as caretakers. They are also guardians of all its mysteries. As the house starts revealing its dark secrets, Tessa must face her fears and right the wrongs of her past to save herself and her relationship with Margot. But nothing and no one at Fallbrook are what they seem.Trade Review“Suspense fans will be satisfied.” —Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisA missing child sets the lives of three women on a collision course in this powerful and compelling novel by USA Today bestselling author Bette Lee Crosby. 1971. When a music festival rolls through the sleepy town of Hesterville, Georgia, the Dixon family’s lives are forever changed. On the final night, a storm muffles the sound of the blaring music, and Rachel tucks her baby into bed before falling into a deep sleep. So deep, she doesn’t hear the kitchen door opening. When she and her husband wake up in the morning, the crib is empty. Emily is gone. Vicki Robart is one of the thousands at the festival, but she’s not feeling the music. She’s feeling the emptiness over the loss of her own baby several months before. When she leaves the festival and is faced with an opportunity to fill that void, she is driven to an act of desperation that will forever bind the lives of three women. When the truth of what actually happened that fateful night is finally exposed, shattering the lives they’ve built, will they be able to pick up the pieces to put their families back together again?

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Book SynopsisWriter Halley Brennan couldn’t dream up a better love story than her own. Married for eleven years, she and her husband, Adam, are still living their happily ever after. They both know what they want—and don’t want—for their life together. And that includes being child-free. But when one of them has a change of heart about wanting a baby, it brings their marriage and life plans into harsher focus. Devastated that this bombshell might destroy their relationship, Halley finds comfort in her closest friends: Nina, who’s finally pregnant after years of trying; her sister, Charlotte, an overwhelmed mother of three; and Marian, a successful businesswoman who regrets letting go of her one true love. Now, with their guidance and support, Halley begins a painful journey of self-discovery. As she searches her heart to make a life-changing decision for both herself and Adam, she realizes that someone is bound to get hurt. Will their perfect love be too great a sacrifice for everything her heart wants?

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Book SynopsisAn Amazon Charts, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller. From the bestselling author of Trail of Broken Wings comes an epic story of the unrelenting force of love, the power of healing, and the invincible desire to dream. Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake. Desperate to assuage her deep anguish, she decides to go to India to uncover answers to her family’s past. Intoxicated by the sights, smells, and sounds she experiences, Jaya becomes an eager student of the culture. But it is Ravi—her grandmother’s former servant and trusted confidant—who reveals the resilience, struggles, secret love, and tragic fall of Jaya’s pioneering grandmother during the British occupation. Through her courageous grandmother’s arrestingly romantic and heart-wrenching story, Jaya discovers the legacy bequeathed to her and a strength that, until now, she never knew was possible.

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Book Synopsis“Complex and rich, Chen’s story serves as a fascinating window into a unique period of history and the plight of one displaced family.” —Harper’s Bazaar The day nine-year-old San San and her twelve-year-old brother, Ah Liam, discover their grandmother taking a hammer to a framed portrait of Chairman Mao is the day that forever changes their lives. To prove his loyalty to the Party, Ah Liam reports his grandmother to the authorities. But his belief in doing the right thing sets in motion a terrible chain of events. Now they must flee their home on Drum Wave Islet, which sits just a few hundred meters across the channel from mainland China. But when their mother goes to procure visas for safe passage to Hong Kong, the government will only issue them on the condition that she leave behind one of her children as proof of the family’s intention to return. Against the backdrop of early Maoist China, this captivating and emotional tale follows a brother, a sister, a father, and a mother as they grapple with their agonizing decision, its far-reaching consequences, and their hope for redemption.Trade Review“Chen captures the complex and terrifying political environment of the time through San San’s horrifying experience trying to reach her family, as well as through the depiction of the consequences of family loyalty over party loyalty. This is a fascinating family portrait.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Historic and contemporary themes related to refugees, immigrants, and periods of social, politica,l and cultural unrest add significance and immediacy to Chen’s fast-paced novel.” —San Jose Mercury News “Chen’s writing is fluid, and her storytelling ability is engaging. Readers are easily drawn to the characters and their perils, particularly plucky young San San…This novel is a quick and enjoyable read that should appeal to many audiences.” —Library Journal “Chen’s brisk pacing and eye for minor details make this a compelling narrative. Short chapters with emotional weight and a tense adventure lead to a page-turning read that will appeal to readers who shy away from historical fiction.” —School Library Journal “Chen draws a lovable protagonist in San San, and her deft use of suspense makes the novel a quick and satisfying read.” —Booklist “This is an atmospheric novel of betrayal and ardent allegiance to ideology and political choices…With its striking title about the sacrifice (the ‘burying’) of those who are left behind, the novel succeeds in drawing a very striking portrait of this turbulent period of Chinese history.” —The Millions “A heartbreaking and intriguing novel, Bury What We Cannot Take sheds light on a crucial point in history that you won’t find mentioned in many other books.” —Brit + Co “Kirstin Chen’s Bury What We Cannot Take is an incredibly moving exploration of family and identity, one that's set against a backdrop that we don't often hear about but which is infinitely fascinating: Maoist China. Heartbreaking and intricate, you’ll be driven forward by Chen's prose from the very start.” —PopSugar, “20 Best Books to Read in March” “Complex and rich, Chen’s story serves as a fascinating window into a unique period of history and the plight of one displaced family.” —Harper’s Bazaar “[Bury What We Cannot Take] provides a rare glimpse into the little-documented history of such people during Mao’s era.” —San Francisco Chronicle “…Epic and suspenseful, navigating universal themes of family and sacrifice while building a clear and empathetic picture of a precise historical moment in Maoist China.” —SF Gate “A beautiful story about family, freedom, and the choices we make.” —HelloGiggles “Chen is a precise writer, with enviable control on the page. Bury What We Cannot Take is completely immersive, and the only times I stepped out of the story were to admire the perfection of her word choice.” —KQED Arts “Chen brilliantly captures the complex and terrifying post-Trump world we’re living in, as families torn apart becomes more of reality than ever before.” —ELLE UK “[Bury What We Cannot Take] is an absorbing look at how women and children survive a crumbling world in which they have been indoctrinated to leave each other behind.” —The Straits Times “Constructing a survival narrative for a child is no mean feat, and what makes Chen’s extraordinary tale believable is the depth of her historical research, as well as the expert sense of pacing she brings to the storyline…In a tradition of exile narratives that are often told from male points of view, Chen’s novel proves a distinctive and overdue contribution.” —Cha: An Asian Literary Journal “Chen writes with a tenderness for her characters as well as a thorough knowledge of the environment of that time…Her commitment to thorough historical research and patient detail to her characters has resulted in a novel as enjoyable as it is sobering.” —Fathom “I just don’t understand how a book can be this good and this beautiful and this heart-wrenching all at once, and if you only read one of the books on this list: make sure it’s this one.” —Book Riot “Bury What We Cannot Take explores what it takes to survive in a world gone mad—and what is lost when we do. Kirstin Chen has written both an engrossing historical drama and a nuanced exploration of how far the bonds of familial love can stretch.” —Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere “This story will sweep you away. An utterly beautiful, entirely engrossing family saga. Chen writes betrayal and love with wisdom and nuance, attuned always to the complexities—personal, historical, cultural—of the human heart. Bury What We Cannot Take is an instant classic.” —Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Gold Fame Citrus and Battleborn “In Maoist China, the family at the center of this propulsive, haunting story is fractured by the dazzlingly complex fallout of a single irrevocable act. This beautifully plotted, suspenseful, and deeply compassionate novel shows Kirstin Chen, whose work I’ve long admired, at her absolute finest. Bury What We Cannot Take is a vital book.” —Laura van den Berg, author of Find Me “Bury What We Cannot Take fulfills the promise of Kirstin Chen’s debut. San San’s family flee Drum Wave Islet, leaving her behind. An epic story follows that explores gender roles, oppressive ideologies, sacrifice, and what it means to be free. All through the microcosm of one family. This is a book set in the past, on the other side of the world, that is more than relevant in today’s America. Chen delivers a page-turner that holds a historical mirror up to our fuzzy, complicit world.” —Matthew Salesses, author of The Hundred-Year Flood

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Book SynopsisA missing young woman, ten years gone. A town still held in the grip of an unsolved mystery. A breathtaking novel of psychological suspense by the bestselling author of We Were Mothers. A decade ago in upstate New York, art student Emma McCullough walked into the woods and was never seen again. It’s a mystery that still haunts her bucolic university town and her broken family, especially her sister, Haley, whose need for closure has become an obsession. But now, finally, the first piece of evidence in the vanishing has been found: Emma’s bracelet, lodged in a frozen piece of earth at the bottom of a gorge. For Emma’s three best college friends, for a beloved former teacher, and for Haley, the chilling trinket is more than a clue in a resurrected cold case. It’s a trigger. Then a woman is attacked during an open house, and the connections between the two crimes, ten winters apart, begin to surface. So do the secrets that run as deep and dark as the currents in this quiet river town.Trade Review“A chilling thriller, Open House tracks a missing art student who vanished 10 years prior and how her disappearance connects with a recent attack during an open house in a small university town. It also showcases the unending loyalty of close girlfriends and sisterhood in life or death.” —Good Morning America “Part murder mystery, part interpersonal drama, a serviceable who-done-it (or did anyone?) with a host of compelling characters…this novel has just enough twists to keep its readers along for the ride. Sleuths will delight in piecing together clues and untangling lies alongside the protagonists.” —Kirkus Reviews “Sise (We Were Mothers) weaves together the stories of two crimes in Waverly, N.Y., in this crafty novel…Sise’s talent is her ability to keep readers guessing about which character might be covering for whom, and she keeps the surprises coming. This will appeal to fans of Big Little Lies.” —Publishers Weekly “Sise captures the insular nature of small towns in this domestic drama, and a series of unpredictable twists makes everyone the culprit for at least a little while. The resolution is satisfying, and an epilogue, set five years after the mystery is solved, shows that justice has been served. Readers who enjoy suspense fiction with a strong focus on relationships, like that of Liane Moriarty or Jessica Knoll, will be drawn into the McCulloughs’ story.” —Booklist “This twisty tale is full of secrets and thrills sure to keep you interested in what is going on through the very end.” —Book Riot

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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