"Free-spirited, living on the fly, Vanessa Hayes is still always down for traditional family holiday fun--until now. She's making her oft-delayed wish finally come true: Christmas in Paris, the glittering City of Lights. But when her passport gets delayed, it's too late for Vanessa to rebook. Now it looks like the Yuletide she longs for won't happen. Until a stranger suddenly enters her life, and changes it forever ... Overwhelmed by responsibility,...

Bestselling author Mary Monroe won rave reviews from critics and readers alike with her first two novels, God Don't Like Ugly and The Upper Room, both Main Selections of the Black Expressions Book Club. Now she returns with the masterful Gonna Lay Down My Burdens—that rare novel that inspires laughter, tears, and repeat readings.
In the sweltering little town of Belle Helene, Alabama, Carmen Taylor keeps her weaknesses,...

Growing up in Shreveport, Ruby Jean Upshaw is a girl who knows what she wants and knows how to get it. By fifteen, the preacher's daughter has developed a taste for fast men and cheap liquor. But when she discovers she's in the family way, Ruby's scared for the first time in her life. Hiding it, she gives birth at the home of Othella Mae Cartier, daughter of the town tramp, who talks Ruby into giving the child away.

What happens when the life you have is not the life you want?
Christine Thurman and her husband, Jesse Ray, built a business worth millions and were once deeply in love. But lately J.R. has become obsessed with his empire and Christine feels taken for granted. . .until Wade Eddie Fisher, a bad boy with good looks from Christine's past, comes back to town. Even though Wade is penniless and undependable, he reignites something deep within...

When her new husband Mel and her daughter Lorretta, an aspiring model, run off together, claiming they are in love, Maureen Montgomery must confront her tragic past to find the strength to overcome this devastating betrayal and make a new life for herself that is all her own.

Jessie Tucker is beloved throughout Lexington, Alabama, for her kind heart and endless generosity. But the widow feels it's past time she rewarded herself-- especially when upstanding Hubert Wiggins tragically loses his wife and son. Discouraged by Hubert's lack of romantic interest, she cooks up a deception she knows will make pious Hubert do right by her. She doesn't know Hubert has a new, much-riskier secret love. When he is not the ardent lover...

"For best friends Lola Poole and Joan Proctor-Riley, there's never too much when it comes to online-dating rich, no-commitments lovers. It's a fantasy come true that makes their unhappy lives bearable. But there's no escape when Lola's vicious relatives cheat her out of everything that's hers, and Joan's husband pulls a devastating betrayal. With nothing to lose, the two will do everything and anything to lock down Mr. Right and lifetime satisfaction......

New York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe's heart-stopping tale about a woman who's suffered too much to give up on herself, even if everyone else has. . .
Growing up, Annette Goode thought all men were as low-down as the father who abandoned her, including the boarder who abused her for years and the men she slept with to earn the money she needed to run away from her life. Now, after decades of heartache and severing ties with her...

"With a successful career, money in the bank, and a solid future, Felicia has almost everything she ever wanted. But getting married is the one holiday wish she can't seem to get. And it's not helping that she's hopelessly in love with her coworker, widower Richard Grimes. Richard has his hands full juggling pre-Christmas work demands and raising two teenage daughters. But he's not too busy to wish his relationship with Felicia could become much more....