Claire Cook

Life's a bit of a beach these days for Ginger Walsh, who's single at forty-one and living back home in the family FROG (finished room over garage). Geri, her BlackBerry-obsessed sister, is also nearly off the deep end about her pending fiftieth birthday (and might just drag Ginger with her). Toss in a dumpster-picking father, a Kama Sutra T-shirt –wearing mother, a movie crew come to town with a very cute gaffer, an on-again, off-again glassblower...

Bella Shaughnessy is addicted to lipstick with names like My Chihuahua Bites and Kiss My Lips-an occupational hazard, since she works at Salon de Paolo, her family-run beauty salon, along with her four half-brothers and sisters. The owner is her father, Lucky Shaughnessy, a gregarious, three-times-divorced charmer with Donald Trump hair who is obsessed with all things Italian. After Bella's own marriage flames out spectacularly when her half-sister...

When Noreen takes a buyout and gets dumped by a boyfriend in one fell swoop, she finds herself with nothing but time to notice everything that's missing in her life. Tess is the teacher next door, who thought she'd be spending the summer with her college-bound daughter, but now that daughter isn't speaking to her. The Wildwater Walking Club is complete when they meet Rosie, the dutiful daughter who moved onto her parents' lavender farm after her mother...

There was a time when March Monroe thought she and her daughter, Olivia, would never really cut the cord. Now, Olivia is off to college, and March is secretly doing the same thing. It's a high-voltage shock when they run into each other as student interns at the local radio station.

You've got mail: A romance in which superstore book chain magnate and cozy children's bookshop owner Ryan are anonymous e-mail cyberpals who fall head over--laptops in love, unaware that they are combative business rivals. Must love dogs: Sarah Nolan is divorced, demoralize and dateless until her sister posts her profile on perfectmatch.com. Now she has a lot of dates, mainly with weirdos, weepers, lechers and jocks. Then she meets Jake, a soulful...