Alice never imagined that meeting co-worker Leslie would lead to an all-consuming love affair. But even in the anything-goes 1970s, feminist attitudes and the sexual revolution can’t change the fact that Leslie is a traditional married mom of two who won’t chance losing her children to follow her heart and divorce her husband. Their year of risk, passion, and heartache takes its toll on both women. Tired of only receiving crumbs from Leslie, Alice makes the toughest choice of her life and moves on.
Although their affair is short-lived, their desire to be together never dies. Nearly forty years later, Alice returns to Connecticut after learning Leslie has suffered a stroke. She soon realizes that time and distance haven’t doused the fire for Leslie that’s always burned in her heart. But is it too late to pick up where they left off?
How much courage does it take to be yourself? In a decade when good girls conform to strict family and social expectations, Beatrice Darby is about to find out. After a harmless admiration for her older boss, sophisticated Abby Gill, blossoms into a full-blown crush, Beatrice is startled to discover why she's never felt like other girls.
She soon learns the necessity of "passing," the shame of secret "sin," and the pressure to meet family expectations, all while suffering the angst of unrequited love and the disastrous end to her friendship with college roommate and future sister-in-law, Gwen Ridgeway. When Abby reappears years later, can Beatrice go against all she's ever known to be happy? Will she have to choose between honesty and her family?
Just because you’re through with your past, doesn’t mean it’s through with you.
Margaret Beringer didn’t have an easy adolescence. She hated her name, was less than popular in school, and was always cast aside as a “farm kid.” However, with the arrival of Courtney Carrington, Margaret’s youth sparked into color. Courtney was smart, beautiful, and put together—everything Margaret wasn’t. Who would have imagined that they’d fit together so perfectly?
But first loves can scar.
Margaret hasn’t seen Courtney in years and that’s for the best. But when Courtney loses her father and returns to Tanner Peak to take control of the family store, Margaret comes face-to-face with her past and the woman she’s tried desperately to forget. The fact that Courtney has grown up more beautiful than ever certainly doesn’t help matters.
Named one of The 10 Best Romance Books of 2017 by Vulture: "This small-town second-chance romance is full of tenderness and heart."
Jordan was in love with her best friend, Sophie, in high school and no one knew…least of all Sophie. After fleeing without a trace before graduation, Jordan vowed never to return to Monarch, the butterfly obsessed town along the Central California coast.
Ten years later, Jordan owns a successful soul mate matchmaking company where she finds love for others, but has little use for it herself. Sophie runs the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary and has yet to forgive Jordan for disappearing from her life. When Jordan is forced to return to Monarch, will their soul mate connection deepen or will differing goals tear them apart?
Jacqueline Knight is driven and ambitious, always focused on getting to the top. But when her father’s failing health demands her attention, she must consider putting her career on hold. Though she struggles with her new responsibilities, she won’t admit she can’t do it alone. And the last person she wants to accept help from is her ex, Casey.
Since their breakup eight years before, Casey Meadows has concentrated on co-parenting their son and making a new life for herself. While she’s happy to offer her help, spending time with Jacqueline threatens to open the box in which she’s locked away their past relationship.
Will the lessons learned in eight years apart be enough to mend the mistakes of the past?
Special Agent Ryan O’Connor’s life is exactly on track—she’s with a wonderful woman, and she’s doing something she loves. Sure, her boss can’t stand her, but she figures if that’s her biggest problem, she’s pretty damn lucky. She should have known it was too good to last and that when fate finally slapped her, it would do so hard enough to leave a mark.
When Ryan’s ex-girlfriend, Special Agent Allison Reynolds, suddenly reappears in New York, her carefully constructed world is thrown into chaos. As they’re forced to work together, Ryan is compelled to confront several realities that she wishes she could avoid. One of which is that it’s terrible to mix the past with the present. The other is that it’s not only the past that paints the present with lead.
The ancient Chimú believed their people came from three eggs: the rulers from a gold egg, their wives from a silver, and the workers from a copper egg.
Archeologist Claire Adams receives a mysterious package that lures her to Peru in search of a treasure-filled tomb. She must find the tomb before looters do. She’s helped in her quest by old friends and by a strange connection to an ancient copper egg. Claire’s ex, Sochi Castillo, has her own plans for the tomb. She has two jobs—one within the law, one considerably outside it. If Claire finds the treasure first, Sochi is going to steal it. As Claire and Sochi are drawn into a web of intrigue, betrayal, and greed, they discover that love complicates everything.
So many feels with this one. :) Loved all the 70s flashbacks. The story alternates back and forth in the past and present in a way that made me think of Fried Green Tomatoes. (Another great book.) This book is filled with love, angst, hurt, and hope. It's a fairly quick read with some engaging characters....
Reviewed by Samantha Luce
Her prose is well-crafted, and her characters are beautifully flawed, a winning combination.
By Netgalley.com on Dec 19, 2016 02:12
When Alice finds out that her old friend, Leslie has had a stroke, she dashes to her side, never mind that it’s been over twenty years since they’ve seen each other, and longer still since they had an affair while Leslie was married with children. From coworkers to friends to lovers, Alice rehashes the past while at Leslie’s bedside, and when she wakes up, if they can put the past behind them, they might just rebuild their friendship and more.
Copeland is an English teacher, and it shows. Her prose is well-crafted, and her characters are beautifully flawed, a winning combination. There is a lot of back and forth, not just in time but also in a will-they/won’t-they work out their differences sort of way, but for the characters’ complicated history, it makes sense. The sex scenes aren’t too hot and heavy, and are pretty tasteful, so if you’re in it for the bodice-ripping, you might be a tad disappointed. That said, there is plenty of action.
As with most books I enjoy, my favorite part of the story is the characters. As I mentioned before, Alice and Leslie are both terribly flawed, and though Alice knows she’s different from a lot of women, neither suspected sapphic tendencies before falling for one another. Thus, the emotional fumbling seems realistic as does the melodrama. I mean, not only are they dealing with new feelings for one another in a time when that sort of thing wasn’t talked about, they can’t even research, no Google. Anything they could have possibly read to get a clue would only tell them they were deviants. That combined with Leslie’s marriage and motherhood seems to spell disaster.
They’ll get a second chance, however, if they can work out all of the hurt and anger from the past, and even as they try to find their way back to one another, there’s still plenty of those emotions to go around. Despite all of their shortcomings, these characters had the real deal, and the author had me rooting for them.
A couple of final thoughts. Firstly, women’s history is in the 70s, so there’s plenty of disco, feminism, and weed (right on), and finally, I love that this book is about older lesbians. Sure, half of it takes place when they’re younger, but I loved the chance to see them later, how they matured and changed and what became of them. Plus, if they’re to have a shot, they’re going to need the wisdom of age and time to learn from past mistakes. I’m always on the lookout for a good book about lesbians in middle-age and older, and this one doesn’t disappoint.
Reviewed by Leslie Shaip
A captivating tale of discovery, awakening, love and loss
By Netgalley.com on Oct 20, 2016 04:10
A captivating tale of discovery, awakening, love and loss, told through an intricate weaving of the present and the past. A story that rivals the poignancy of The Notebook, "The Second Wave" is a must read for lovers of romance everywhere. Jean Copeland is clearly a master at the art of drawing the reader in, and keeping you wanting to read just one more page before you set the book down.
Reviewed by Lily Greer
F/F at it's absolute best.
By Netgalley.com on Oct 20, 2016 04:10
This one was great. I literally got approved for it today and read it all on this lazy sunday. F/F at it's absolute best.
Reviewed by Guinevere Zoyana Thomas
A beautiful, heart-wrenching love story
By Netgalley.com on Sep 16, 2016 12:09
Jean Copeland has written a beautiful, heart-wrenching love story that flits between the 1970s and present day. Leslie and Alice became friends at work but over time they became so much more to each other. Alice, a divorcee, introduces housewife and mother Leslie to her feminist crochet club and to a different kind of love. What starts as an education into the new feminist thinking of the 70s becomes for Leslie the most important relationship of her life and one she can’t ever forget, however hard she tries.
When Leslie has a stroke at the age of 69, her daughter contacts her old friend Alice as that is the only word Leslie keeps repeating in her unconscious state. As Alice remembers their affair, we find out exactly how much they loved each other, but also how difficult it was to be in a lesbian relationship back then. Women had to put up with lecherous men refusing to believe that a woman might legitimately not be attracted to them!
The big worry for Leslie though was the fact that she might lose her kids if anyone found out about them. I loved the way the author let us see how all-consuming the relationship had been and then the affect it still had on them in the present day. This is an emotional story with great characters and a poignant insight into the lives of women in the recent past. Highly recommended.
