Meg Waite Clayton is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of five novels, including the forthcoming THE RACE FOR PARIS (August 2015), THE WEDNESDAY DAUGHTERS, THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS, THE FOUR MS. BRADWELLS, the Bellwether Prize finalist THE LANGUAGE OF LIGHT. Her books have been translated into languages from German to Lithuanian to Chinese. She's written for The Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The San Jose Mercury News, The Miami Herald, Writer's Digest, Runner's World, and public radio, and for The New York Times and Forbes online. A graduate of the University Michigan and its law school, she lives in Palo Alto, California.
Home of the American Circus (2025) Allison Larkin "Welcome to Somers, New York, the birthplace of the American circus - where Freya Arnald reluctantly returns to the falling-down home she inherited from her parents, to dig a future for herself and her niece out from her troubled past. Larkin's hauntingly gorgeous story of family secrets, shame, and redemption will warm hearts and inspire hope."
Your Presence Is Mandatory (2024) Sasha Vasilyuk "This extraordinary debut is the best kind of historical fiction-an emotionally complex and heartrending saga that takes us to unfamiliar places in unfamiliar times and makes them feel known and lived."
The Beautiful and the Wild (2023) Peggy Townsend "Page-turning. Exhilarating. Unforgettable. I read The Beautiful and the Wild in one riveting gulp. It's both compelling psychological suspense and a wise contemplation of the destructive power of secrets - not just those kept from us by others, but also secrets we keep from ourselves."
Murder by Degrees (2023) Ritu Mukerji "The evocative nineteenth century Philadelphia setting and the very real early history of the Woman's Medical College is new and fresh and fantastically feminist. But it's the kindness and care and the wonderful wisdom of Dr. Lydia Weston - even as she uncovers secrets cloaked in privilege and obsessions shrouded in shame - that makes Murder by Degrees one fantastic read!"
The Porcelain Maker (2023) Sarah Freethy "As detailed, delicate, beautiful, and brutal as the hidden porcelain Sarah Freethy conjures, this heart-rending debut intertwines real history and characters both noble and endearing into a story to live in, learn from, and love."
Once We Were Home (2023) Jennifer Rosner "Utterly gorgeous! This lyrical story of lives in the aftermath of war and displacement breaks our hearts, and mends them back into a stronger love."
Loyalty (2023) Lisa Scottoline "This brilliantly told story about the rise of the Mafia is an unforgettable saga of the powers of corruption and courage, injustice and honor, family secrets, loyalty and love set against the evocative backdrop of Sicily. Scottoline deftly explores the darkest passions and the deepest compassion of human nature in a fabulously twisty historical thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end."
The Woman with the Cure (2023) Lynn Cullen "The warm and wonderful The Woman with the Cure, brings brilliantly to life the story of the real Dorothy Horstmann, whose extraordinary discovery made possible the vaccines that ended the polio pandemic of the 1940s and 50s. Lynn Cullen's novel deftly breaks down the science and brilliantly delivers a complex cast of characters in a compelling page-turner of a novel about the race for the cure to that pandemic, and pulls from the shadows of history this extraordinary woman who literally changed our world. I could not put this astounding story down."
Go as a River (2023) Shelley Read "Shelley Read's devastatingly beautiful debut, Go as a River, delivers so very much: the tenderness and curiosity of young love, the eternal pangs of loss, the brutality of racism, the sustaining power of nature even in the face of man's destruction, and the precarious miracle of a mother's love. Suffused with wisdom and compassion, this shattering testimony to life is one to be savored, treasured, shared."
A Dangerous Education (2023) Megan Chance "A 1950s setting, rich with the complications of societal expectations for women and McCarthy's communist witch hunts. A private boarding school for wealthy but wayward girls. A teacher with a storied past guiding girls in a storied present. It all makes for a page-turner of a historical mystery that rips along to an unexpected and immensely satisfying ending. This is Megan Chance at her best!"
Angeline (2023) Anna Quinn "Through the evocative prose and story that is Anna Quinn's Angeline, we're reminded that grief is complex and dynamic and that, sometimes, taking a leap of faith can be the ultimate healing experience. This is the perfect read for anyone who believes in miracles, or wants to believe."
In the Time of Our History (2023) Susanne Pari "There is so much wisdom and love in this irresistible and assured novel. Susanne Pari understands the complex and flawed thing that is family, and carves right into the center of the human heart."
The Empress (2022) Gigi Griffis "Quite simply delightful ... Gigi Griffis has given us two sisters so spunky and unconventional that we want to crawl into the pages to join them, and palace intrigue enough to keep us turning pages late into the night."
The Boys (2022) Katie Hafner "The Boys is utterly charming -- one of the most delightful books I have read in ages. As we bike through Italy's little villages with introvert Ethan Fawcett, stopping to drink a caffe shakerato as church bells ring in a mournful E flat, what we see around us is the wide and beautiful horizon of the human heart. I absolutely loved this little miracle of a book."
Heritage (2022) Miguel Bonnefoy "Rich, evocative, charming, and quite simply stunning. In these poetically written pages following a single family, Miguel Bonnefoy's Heritage manages to speak volumes about history, courage, and home."
Love & Saffron (2022) Kim Fay "In Kim Fay's charming novel two women in 1960s Los Angeles and Washington state become the best of friends long before they meet in person. Together, they navigate relationships, ambition, societal expectations, and the arts of making and writing about food. Warm, delicious, and absolutely satisfying - I devoured in one enthusiastic gulp!"
You Belong Here Now (2021) Dianna Rostad "Rostad’s bighearted debut is full of surprises, and warm with wisdom about what it means to be family."
The Paris Hours (2020) Alex George "The Paris Hours explores, in the course of a single day, the loves, sorrows, and secrets of four ordinary people whose lives touch lightly on the more famous of 1920s Paris: Ernest Hemingway, Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein, and Josephine Baker. This extraordinarily wise and moving novel is one of the loveliest looks at the world's most charming city, and at humanity, that I have read. I hated for it to end."
The Jetsetters (2020) Amanda Eyre Ward "Secrets can be sinister, or they can set you free. In Amanda Eyre Ward’s playful, poignant The Jetsetters, one family’s secrets take you on a romp through Europe, and deep into hearts groping their way back to love. I adored every moment of this delightful book."
A Good Neighbourhood (2020) Therese Anne Fowler "A provocative, timely page-turner about the crucial issues of our time. I gulped it down, and the stunning conclusion left me both heartbroken and hopeful."
Louise Fein "[People Like Us] spins childhood innocence shattered, the tendency for society to carry us along in wrong directions, and the importance of standing up against tyranny in ways small and large into an absorbing, heart-wrenching story of love and letting go – and a lesson for us all."
The Removes (2018) Tatjana Soli "Tatjana Soli weaves a stark western landscape, a national tragedy, and intimate portrayals of two pioneer women into a poignant and powerful tapestry of identity and belonging that will break your heart. I absolutely loved The Removes."
The Lost Vintage (2018) Ann Mah "Ann Mah's The Lost Vintage is as rich and complex as a fine French Burgundy -- the perfect read for mystery lovers, history buffs, wine drinkers, Francophiles, and anyone interested in visiting the French wine country from a comfortable chair at home. Charmant!"
Ecstasy (2018) Mary Sharratt "A tender, intimate exploration of a complicated woman, Mary Sharratt’s Ecstasy renders in exquisitely researched detail and fiercely imagined scenes the life of Alma Mahler — daughter, wife, mother, lover, and composer — and the early 20th Century Vienna and New York in which she came of age. I loved this inspiring story of an early feminist standing up for her art."
The Scribe of Siena (2017) Melodie Winawer "THE SCRIBE OF SIENA is one part historical mystery and one part love story with a captivating dose of art mixed in for good measure. If that weren't enough, it all comes together in that most evocative of settings: Siena, Italy. Winawer's smart debut is a joy to read!"
The Two-Family House (2016) Lynda Cohen Loigman "In The Two-Family House, young sisters-in-law are thrown together in a single home, where their children live as near siblings in what on the surface seems an ideal life. Lynda Cohen Loigman plumbs the hidden world beneath the happy faces turned to the world with insight, honesty, and compassion, and in doing so explores universal truths about family, and love, and loss. I will certainly be giving a copy of this utterly charming novel to my own dearest sister-in-law."
