Wells Families Historical Fiction

Miss Caroline Quick is desperate to escape London for the freedom of the wilds and her career as a naturalist—but she must get her widowed mother married before she can go. It’s a simple enough idea; track down Mama’s first love and engineer a meeting…with the help of the gentleman’s alarmingly charming son.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR The New York Times best-selling author of The Nix is back with a poignant and witty novel about a modern marriage and the bonds that keep people together. Mining the absurdities of contemporary society...

1930: It's a new decade, and the world economy has fallen into a tailspin. While most are focusing on daily needs, the determined Adolf Hitler takes advantage of the unrest to set the wheels of history in motion. The Harvey family and their loved ones are spread across the globe when the U.S. stock market crash cripples the world economy. Farming, food, and jobs are impacted in the U.S., and millions of men are out of work. In England, the disparity between the classes widens with devastating results. In Poland, antisemitism is on the rise, with unexpected consequences for Polish Jews. In ...

Germany’s insidious scheme draws the United States into the Great War. Peril and unease hover as Americans enlist and volunteer for the cause. But it’s the lurking risk on the home front that threatens to shatter lives. April 1917. President Wilson reneges on his campaign promise when the United States declares war on Germany. A military draft soon follows, and tension falls over the small German-settled Minnesota town of Holmesburg. Seventeen-year-old Melania Harvey happily moves to Minneapolis with her parents when they secure employment at a large flour mill—the location distancing...

“A big, blowzy romp through the rainbow eccentricities of three generations of crazy bayou debutantes.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution “A very entertaining and, ultimately, deeply moving novel about the complex bonds between mother and daughter.” —Washington Post “Mary McCarthy...

Following a family tragedy, siblings Lou and Oz must leave New York and adjust to life in the Virginia mountains--but just as the farm begins to feel like home, they'll have to defend it from a dark threat in this New York Times bestselling coming-of-age story. Precocious twelve-year-old Louisa...

A lyrical and bittersweet novel of a middle-aged man losing control of his life that's a brilliant study in emotional dislocation and renewal—from one of the most highly acclaimed authors of the twentieth century. Professor Godfrey St. Peter is a man in his fifties who has devoted his life to...

Law school graduate and newlywed Ruth Appelbaum is acclimating to life and marriage in a posh Philadelphia neighborhood. She’ll do almost anything to endear herself to her mother-in-law, who’s already signed up Ruth for etiquette lessons conducted by the impeccably accessorized tutor Lillian Diamond. But Ruth brings something fresh to the small circle of housewives—sharp wit, honesty, and an independent streak that won’t be compromised.

Grief overshadows memories. Dreams are forgotten. The notion of normalcy seems impossible. Autumn 1919. The country and the world strive to return to normalcy in the wake of war and disease. With new obligations, the Harvey family is spread across the globe. Melania moves to Pennsylvania with her new husband. Her brother, Peter, begins the Occupation on the Rhine with the American Army, just as Mathias Harvey is returning from a German prison camp. Melania soon wonders if she married too quickly, especially when troubles intensify for her parents in Minneapolis. Her marriage bond is tested ...

An emotionally charged addition to Rebecca Wells' award-winning bestseller Little Altars Everywhere and #1 New York Times bestseller Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Ya-Yas in Bloom reveals the roots of the Ya-Yas' friendship in the 1930s and roars through sixty years of marriage...

Late October, 1962. Wes Avery, a one-time Air Force tail-gunner, is living his version of the American Dream as loving husband to Sarah, doting father to seventeen-year-old Charlotte, and owner of a successful Texaco station along central Florida's busiest highway. But after President Kennedy announces that the Soviets have nuclear missiles in Cuba, Army convoys clog the highways and the sky fills with fighter planes. Within days, Wes's carefully constructed life begins to unravel.

Following a family tragedy, siblings Lou and Oz must leave New York and adjust to life in the Virginia mountains--but just as the farm begins to feel like home, they'll have to defend it from a dark threat in this New York Times bestselling coming-of-age story. Precocious twelve-year-old Louisa...

“A big, blowzy romp through the rainbow eccentricities of three generations of crazy bayou debutantes.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution “A very entertaining and, ultimately, deeply moving novel about the complex bonds between mother and daughter.” —Washington Post “Mary McCarthy...

Jonathan Beecher, a middle-aged widower and small-town store owner, has never asked for much. But lately, all too much is being asked of him. The bombing of Pearl Harbor plunges America into World War II and deeply fractures Jonathan's own family. His eldest son, a civilian contractor, is trapped on a Japanese-occupied island in the Pacific. Jonathan's feckless younger son ignores his father's pleas to stay home and joins the army.

From the nationally bestselling author of The True Memoirs of Little K, a deeply felt and historically detailed novel of family, loss, and love, told by an irrepressible young girl—the daughter of a two-bit gangster and a movie showgirl—growing up in golden-age Hollywood and Las Vegas in its...

The fragile, 1952 postwar tranquility of a young boy’s world explodes one summer day when a leopard escapes from the Oklahoma City zoo, throwing all the local residents into dangerous excitement, in this evocative story of a child’s confrontation with his deepest fears For Grady McClarty, an...

"Readers are transported to 1961 Britain in this fascinating tale about beloved Princess Diana....What follows is an astonishing story of Diana's route to the altar and beyond."—Woman's World The whole world saw Diana Spencer step from a gilded carriage for her wedding. But before that...

Inspired by a true story. In 1825, in a remote Irish valley lying between the mountains and Flesk River of Killarney, three women are brought together by strange and troubling events. Nora Leahy, a widow, has lost her daughter and her husband in the same year and is now burdened with the care of her grandson, Michael. The boy cannot walk or speak, and Nora has kept him hidden from neighbours, who might see in his deformity evidence of supernatural interference.

In 1931 Carbon Hill, a small Alabama coal-mining town, nine-year-old Tess Moore watches a woman shove the cover off the family well and toss in a baby without a word. For the Moore family, focused on helping anyone in need during the Great Depression, the apparent murder forces them to face the...

In 1941, Queensland drover Michael McTavish leaves behind his young daughter Gracie and joins the 2/22 AIF, his destination, Rabaul, New Guinea, a small town surrounded by impenetrable jungles and steep jagged mountains, its shores lined by tranquil bays and active volcanos. Joanie has also arrived in New Guinea, with a chance to manage a trading store with her father, Reg, too exciting an opportunity to pass up.