Another winner for Pat Conroy! South of Broad is a big, sprawling novel that is a love letter to Charleston and an ode to lifelong friendship. The novel gathers a unique cast of sinners and saints. Leopold Bloom King, the narrator, is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school principal and a respected Joyce scholar. Leo becomes part of a tightly-knit group of high school seniors and, over time, and an ever-widening circle whose liaisons will ripple across two decades, from 1960s counterculture through the dawn of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Their test of friendship is something for which no one is prepared.

The Confessions of Edward Day by Valerie Martin is a fictional memoir recreating the seamy theater world of 1970s New York, when rents were cheap, love was free, and nudity on stage was the latest craze. Edward Day, a talented and ambitious young actor finds his life forever altered during a weekend party on the Jersey Shore. Valerie Martin, author of Trespass, Italian Fever, The Great Divorce, and Mary Reilly, returns with a dark comedy about love, sex, an actor's ambition, and the perils of playing a role too well.

"You can always start again," Kate Robinson's mother once told her, "all it takes is a new thread." The Lace Makers of Glenmara "is a charming, moving story, written with a delicate touch," says Joanne Harris. Overwhelmed by heartbreak and loss, the struggling twenty-six-year-old fashion designer follows her mother's advice and flees to her ancestral homeland of Ireland, hoping to break free of old patterns and reinvent herself. Kate quickly develops a bond with members of the local lace-making society circle. The circle offers Kate and the others the strength to face their long-denied desires and fears.

In another story of escape to Ireland, Casting Off by Nicole Dickson tells the moving story of Rebecca Moray, a victim of an abusive relationship. She leaps at the chance to leave the States and study Irish sweater-making on a tiny island off the coast of Galway with her daughter Rowan. Rebecca notices that a local fisherman seems just as guarded and secretive as she. Can they help each let go on of their past mistakes?

 Lime Tree Can't Bear Orange reflects the beauty and culture of the two islands of Trinidad and Tobago, while painting a compelling tale of family, belonging, and identity. Author Amanda Smyth relays the intriguing story of Celia and her search for love complicated with secrets and torn emotions.  The Financial Times (London) comments "Smyth's debut is an absorbing and morally complex read with a bittersweet twist at the end."

Ever since the Bommarito sisters were little girls, their mother, River, has written them a letter on pink paper when she has something especially important to impart. And this time, the message was impossible to ignore -- River requires open-heart surgery. Isabelle and her sisters come home to run the family bakery and take care of their brother and ailing grandmother. Cathy Lamb, in her new novel Henry's Sisters, delivers her most heartwarming work to date as three sisters reunite during a family crisis.