Talkative, ten-year-old Rebecca goes to live with her spinster aunts, one harsh and demanding, the other soft and sentimental, and spends seven difficult but rewarding years growing up in their company.

In early twentieth-century Vermont, orphaned, eleven-year-old Pollyanna comes to live with her austere and wealthy Aunt Polly, and uses her philosophy of gladness to bring happiness to her aunt and other unhappy members of the community.

Sarah Cain is a strictly modern woman living in Oregon with a burgeoning career in real estate. Her sister Ivy left to pursue a Plain life in Amish country 12 years ago. But when Ivy dies, Sarah is shocked to learn of her appointment as guardian of her sister's five children. The eldest child, Lydia, foresees major difficulty for the new family. Neither she nor Sarah are prepared for the drastic changes they must make to fulfill Ivy's last wish.

"One woman discovers the beauty in chaos in this poignant and heartwarming story about the threads that hold family together from #1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery. With her divorce settlement about to run out and a mortgage she can't afford, Robyn Caldwell needs a plan for her future. She nurtured her family and neglected herself. But how's she supposed to think when her daughter has become the most demanding bride ever, her son...

Fifteen-year-old Colie, a former fat girl, spends the summer working as a waitress in a beachside restaurant, staying with her overweight and eccentric Aunt Mira, and trying to explore her sense of self.

Sixteen-year-old Eliza, an Amish girl, goes to work for an "English" family as a nanny to two young children, and must then choose between two entirely different ways of life.

Thirteen-year-old Bethany's parents have always been overprotective, but when they suddenly drop out of sight with no explanation, leaving her with an aunt she never knew existed, Bethany uncovers shocking secrets that make her question everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.

In the summer of 1976, ten-year-old Eli Book's excitement over Bicentennial celebrations is tempered by his father's flashbacks to the Vietnam War and other family problems, as well as concern about his tough but troubled best friend, Edie.