New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky understands the power of the human heart as few others and she shares that gift in this touching novel of acceptance and fulfillment, first published in 1983.Sitting in a Vermont jury room, Abby Barnes is happy to be empaneled. The trial is a sensational headline-grabber, and the thought of being sequestered for a few weeks is appealing. The time away from a relationship that fails to excite her will give her a chance to think . . . and to make a long overdue decision.Then she meets fellow juror Ben Wyeth, a witty and charming college professor who shows Abby just what she's been missing. But although they share grueling days of grisly testimony and long nights of passion, there is a part of Ben that he can never share with Abby, or any woman. Just as the fate of an accused man lies in the balance, so too does Abby's, as she decides whether what Ben can give is enough . . . enough to last her a lifetime.From Library JournalJury duty is usually a fate worse than death for most people, but for Abby Barnes, the protagonist of this 1983 novel, it offers a welcome respite from her faltering relationship with her boyfriend. Add to that a hunky college professor serving with her, and you have the makings of a good beach read. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. About the AuthorBarbara Delinsky, a lifelong New Englander, was a sociologist and photographer before she began to write. There are more than 30 million copies of her books in print.

New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky returns to the town of Lake Henry, New Hampshire, scene of her beloved earlier novel Lake News, with an unforgettable story that explores the ways in which we limit our own chances for happiness -- and the accidents of fate that can set us free. Heather Malone has made her home in Lake Henry for the last fourteen years. Known for her kind, gentle nature, she lives with Micah Smith, a widower, and his two young daughters. When the FBI takes her into custody on charges of flight to avoid prosecution, purportedly for a murder that took place in California, the local reaction is stunned disbelief. Yet, when those closest to her, including Micah, think back over the time they have known her, they realize that they have learned virtually nothing about her earlier life. Poppy Blake is Heather's closest friend. A lifelong resident of Lake Henry, Poppy is confined to a wheelchair, the result of...

An unforgettable novel about family, race, and the choices people make in times of crisis.Dana Clarke has just given birth to her first child. The little girl is lovely but no one can help noticing how little she resembles her parents. Dana's husband, among others, suspects that she may have had an affair. In order to put the rumors and speculation to rest, Dana has to delve deep into her past and her husband's heritage to unearth some uncomfortable secrets. Can her marriage survive what she finds out?

When a surprise October blizzard hits Panama, Vermont, blanketing the sleepy little town with several feet of snow, it creates a scene so tranquil no one suspects the tragedy to come, least of all Bree Miller. Slipping and sliding as she walks home from the diner where she works, she barely has time to notice the runaway truck skidding toward her until it is too late. She awakens in the hospital, remembering little of the accident or the hours thereafter, except for a very bright light, a beatific smile, and a mystical nonvoice granting her three wishes. Tom Gates is the accident's only witness. New to town, he is a bestselling author who turned his back on his family for the sake of fortune and fame. Now, rejected by both family and friends, he is in Panama to rethink his life. Bree becomes his cause. For self-sufficient, independent Bree, life changes dramatically. Suddenly within her grasp are those things she always wanted most -- a home, a soul mate, a family....

With this powerful story, Barbara Delinsky, the bestselling and acclaimed author of Coast Road and Three Wishes, has written her richest and most exciting novel yet.At its center is Lily Blake, a talented singer who shuns the limelight and cherishes her privacy. Tricked by a devious reporter into unwittingly giving an interview about her friendship with a distinguished churchman — a newly appointed Cardinal — she finds herself accused of having had an affair with him.Shocked and dismayed, Lily becomes a pariah and suffers the brutal, ultimate violation of her privacy as headlines all across the country proclaim her guilt. Hounded by the press, fired from her job, deprived of all public freedom, Lily has no choice but to flee. She returns in secret to her hometown of Lake Henry, in a remote, beautiful part of New Hampshire.But, idyllic as it may look, Lake Henry, too, has its secrets. Some were the cause of her leaving home in the first...

Psychologist Casey Ellis never met her father -- but that didn't stop her from following in his professional footsteps. Now he has died, and Casey is shocked to have inherited his elegant Boston town house, complete with a maid and a handsome, enigmatic gardener. When she finds a manuscript that could be a novel, a journal, or a case study of one of her father's patients in her new home, she becomes engrossed in the story of Jenny, a young woman trying to escape her troubled life. Convinced the story is true and that her father left it as a message for her, Casey digs deeper. As she pieces together the mysteries surrounding her father, Jenny, and the romantic new stranger in her life, she discovers startling links between past and present, and unexpected ties between what is real and what is imagined.From Publishers WeeklyCassandra (Casey) Ellis, 34, a single, successful psychotherapist, is the newest of this prolific writer's heroines. The novel opens with a memorial service for Dr. Cornelius Unger, a brilliant and reclusive psychologist who is also Casey's father. She never knew him personally, since she was the product of her mother's single encounter with Unger, and is shocked to learn that Dr. Unger has left her a $3 million townhouse on Boston's Beacon Hill, complete with a maid, Meg, and a gardener, Jordan. Casey has always felt hostile toward her famous, mysterious father, even though her mother never expressed any anger. She's uneasy at first about living in a luxurious house haunted by her father's presence, but soon finds its meticulously attended gardens a source of relief from professional stress and the emotional turmoil of caring for her mother, left comatose after a recent accident. Moreover, she is attracted to handsome, virile Jordan. While she's rooting through Dr. Unger's personal papers, she comes across the story of Jenny Clyde, a young woman in her 20s who was abused by her father for years before being rescued by a police officer. Casey becomes intrigued: is this incestuous relationship fiction or one of Dr. Unger's case histories? Why did her father leave it for her to find? Delinsky (The Woman Next Door, etc.) weaves Jenny's story through the novel, and meshes her and Casey's fates in a melodramatic climax. Both stories have some lapses in credibility and underdeveloped supporting characters (Meg is particularly weak), but the plot is more sophisticated and fast-moving than some of Delinsky's earlier work. It will satisfy her fans and may even win her some new readers.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistCasey Ellis has spent her life longing for the father she never knew. Jenny Clyde has spent hers loathing the father she knew all too well. Casey's father is a noteworthy psychologist named Cornelius Unger; Jenny's is a notorious prisoner, Darden Clyde. When Unger dies, he bequeaths Casey more than just his luxurious Beacon Hill townhouse; she also inherits his cook, gardener, and random segments of Jenny's disturbing diary, a bewildering chronicle written prior to Jenny's mysterious disappearance in the company of a shadowy young man known only as Pete. Darden is about to be released from prison for the murder of Jenny's mother, and his imminent arrival permeates Jenny's abject account of her life spent in fear of his psychological and sexual abuse. Hoping to solve the puzzling connection between this tortured young woman and her enigmatic father, Casey follows the journal's tantalizing clues in search of not only Jenny's identity and whereabouts but also her own familial relationships. Fantasy battles reality in Delinsky's emotive novel of discovery and denial, love and liberation. Seamlessly and compassionately weaving Jenny's unsettling past with Casey's uncertain future, Delinsky delivers a scintillating study of each woman's search for answers and absolution. Carol HaggasCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky comes an emotional battle of wits, will, and passion, first published in 1996. A legal powerhouse, Assistant District Attorney Laura Grandine stares across the aisle at her opponent, Maxwell Kraig, the renowned big-city lawyer imported to her small Massachusetts town to act as the defense for the accused. Tough and talented, Laura has always fought hard for every victory, and she knows that she has found a worthy adversary in the skilled and charismatic Kraig, a man whose fiery spirit and need to win match her own. But their intense passions will not be confined to the courtroom -- as outside, a furious contest rages between them, one that could lead to incomparable joy ... or unbearable heartbreak. Because, beneath her hard exterior, Laura Grandine is a woman who aches to love and be loved. But it must be on her own terms.

New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky entralls in this powerful novel first published in 1983, of a man, a woman, ans the exciting game of love.Magazine writer Nia Phillips latest assisgnment is a feature on east Coast's five most eligible bachelors. But her research hits a snag when she meets number five, Daniel Strahan, the head coach for Boston professional basketball team. Daniel wants no part of the story , And though he refuses her interview request, he's instantly drawn to Nia's quick intelligence and dark beauty. As for Nia, she finds Daniel intriguing, but she knows that a man constantly on road, who lives and breathes basketball, isn't right for her. There's only one thing she's forgotten -- love doesn't play by the rules.About the AuthorBarbara Delinsky, a lifelong New Englander, was a sociologist and photographer before she began to write. There are more than 30 million copies of her books in print.

A Note from the author on The Passions of Chelsea KaneA powerful and unforgettable classic tale from the renowned New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky.After the death of her adoptive mother, thirty-six-year-old Chelsea Kane is consumed by the need to uncover her biological heritage. Taking a break from her successful architecture career, she arrives in the New Hampshire town where she was born, determined to learn the truth, her only clue a tarnished silver key.One of her first discoveries, however, is something quite unexpected: the irresistibly attractive Judd Street. Buoyed by love and resolution, the determined 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, first by scaring her, then by trying to harm her. The danger escalates until one terrifying night when all secrets are laid bare.With memorable characters and writing that will...

On Quinnipeague, hearts open under the summer stars and secrets float in the Sweet Salt Air...Charlotte and Nicole were once the best of friends, spending summers together in Nicole's coastal island house off of Maine. But many years, and many secrets, have kept the women apart. A successful travel writer, single Charlotte lives on the road, while Nicole, a food blogger, keeps house in Philadelphia with her surgeon-husband, Julian. When Nicole is commissioned to write a book about island food, she invites her old friend Charlotte back to Quinnipeague, for a final summer, to help. Outgoing and passionate, Charlotte has a gift for talking to people and making friends, and Nicole could use her expertise for interviews with locals. Missing a genuine connection, Charlotte agrees.But what both women don't know is that they are each holding something back that may change their lives forever. For Nicole, what comes to light could destroy her marriage, but it could also save her husband. For Charlotte, the truth could cost her Nicole’s friendship, but could also free her to love again. And her chance may lie with a reclusive local man, with a heart to soothe and troubles of his own.Bestselling author and master storyteller Barbara Delinsky invites you come away to Quinnipeague…

On Big Sawyer island, life is as steady as the routine of the lobstermen who leave with the tide each morning and return with their haul each night. But for forty-year-old New Yorker Julia Bechtel, life and what's important in it are about to be forever altered when she survives a terrible boat accident en route to the island. Now, in the company of her aunt and daughter, Julia finds herself feeling strangely connected to the tragedy's other survivors -- Noah, a divorced lobsterman, and Kim, a young woman rendered mute since her rescue -- and newly outraged at the state of her marriage to a domineering man. Seeing the world with new eyes, Julia vows to embrace life with all of its joys and uncertainties. And the journey begins on Big Sawyer....From BooklistEver prolific and popular Delinsky has often considered the phenomena of near-death experiences granting second chances in life, but rather than rely on hackneyed notions of heroes rising Phoenix-like from the ashes to triumph over adversity, Delinsky grounds her characters in the here-and-now and presents them with dilemmas more familiar than fanciful. Such is the case in her latest work, a tale of three people quite literally thrown together following a boating accident off the Maine coast that spares them while taking the lives of nine others. At 40 Julia is an obedient wife, dutiful daughter, and devoted mother, and has planned a visit to her aunt Zoe to reflect on her obligation to herself versus her ties to her family. Rescued by fellow passenger Noah Prine, Julia feels connected to him by virtue of their shared tragedy while also being drawn to Kim Colella, the other survivor, whose whereabouts at the time of the crash provide a shadowy subplot. As a gentle romance blossoms between Julia and Noah, each evaluates who they were before the accident and who they hope to become in its aftermath. Once again, Delinsky excels at combining a compelling mystery with an insightful portrayal of captivating people facing challenges both ordinary and dramatic. Carol HaggasCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reservedReview"Delinsky may be as adept at chronicling contemporary life in New England as any writer this side of John Updike." -- Times Union (Albany, NY)

New York Times Bestselling AuthorBARBARA DELINSKY PICTURES OF YOU From America’s beloved storyteller, Barbara Delinsky, comes a classic novel of a woman who sets her sights on adventure—and exposes her heart to love… With one failed marriage behind her—and nothing to look forward to but a much-needed vacation—news photographer Eva Jordenson grabs her camera, claims her husband’s airplane ticket, and heads off to Rio de Janeiro. Before she even leaves the airport, she zooms in on a strikingly handsome man who catches her eye with his dark smoldering looks. At her hotel, Eva collapses in bed and dreams of this gorgeous vision of a man. When she awakes, he is there. In the flesh. In her room. And, in the heat of the moment, in her arms. His name is Roberto, a Brazilian guide hired to lead her ex-husband on a search for a legendary gemstone. Now, it is Eva he will lead....