Showing results by author "Nancy Thayer" in All Categories

Every summer since college, twenty-nine-year-old Jenny has traded the familiarity of the Midwest for the allure of Nantucket. Now an established university professor in Kansas City, she finds herself caught between two lifestyles and two very different men. She chooses Nantucket and the glamorous life she associates with it, unaware that the summer will take an unexpected turn, and she will have to let her heart decide what it truly wants.

Christina Antonioni is preparing for the holidays at her Nantucket toy shop, unpacking last-minute shipments and decorating for her loyal Christmas shoppers. But when her Scrooge of a landlord, Oscar Bittlesman, raises her rent, it seems nearly impossible for Christina to continue business on the wharf. Even so, Christina firmly believes there may be a warm heart underneath Oscar's steely exterior. When she bonds with Wink, his sweet, young granddaughter who frequents the shop, it becomes clear that perhaps he isn't so cold after all.

A few years after losing her beloved husband, Alison is doing something she never thought she would do again: getting married. While placing the finishing touches on her summer nuptials, Alison is anxious to introduce her fiancé, David, to her grown daughters: Felicity, a worried married mother of two, and Jane, also married but focused on her career. The sisters have a somewhat distant relationship and Alison hopes that the wedding and the weeks leading up to the ceremony will give the siblings a chance to reconnect, as well as meet and get to know David’s grown children.

Catherine Eliot was born to a world of privilege and prestige, with a family whose last name and vast fortune provide her with access to almost anything she could wish for. But what Catherine craves most is independence. So while her friends settle into comfortable lives financed by doting parents and indulgent husbands, she moves to New York City, determined to make it on her own. Taking a demanding job in a bustling flower shop, she works hard and learns the trade until, with courage and determination, she’s able to open Blooms, an exclusive floral boutique on the Upper East Side.

Since opening up their day spa, The Haven, the wonderful women of the Hot Flash Club have been busy indulging the beleaguered, nerve-frazzled throngs. Now, in Nancy Thayer's hilarious new Hot Flash novel, it's the friends' turn to grab some soothing, and much-deserved R&R.

Twenty-six years after that amazing summer, Ariel, Sheila, Wyatt, and Nick reunite at the hotel where they first met. Now it’s called The Lighthouse and Nick owns the entire operation with his wife and daughter. Ariel and Wyatt, married for decades, arrive with their son, and Sheila’s back too, with her daughter by her side. Life hasn’t exactly worked out the way they had all hoped.

Making the startling discovery that her family finances are in dire straits is only the latest shock endured by Carley Winsted after her husband’s sudden death from a heart attack. Resisting her in-laws’ well-meaning overtures to take in Carley and her two daughters, the young widow instead devises a plan to keep her family in their beloved home, a grand historic house on the island of Nantucket.

Abbie Fox hasn’t seen her father or two younger sisters in almost two years, during which she’s jetted around the world and experienced life, if not love. But now Lily, the baby of the family, is sending Abbie urgent emails begging her to return home to Nantucket. Their middle sister, Emma, has taken to her bed, emotionally devastated after the loss of her high-powered stockbroker’s job and a shockingly unexpected break-up with her fiancé.

Meet Faye, Marilyn, Alice, and Shirley. Four women with skills, smarts, and secrets - all feeling over the hill and out of the race. But in a moment of delicious serendipity, they meet and realize they share more than raging hormones and lost dreams. Now, as the Hot Flash Club, where the topics of motherhood, sex, and men are discussed with double servings of chocolate cake, they vow to help each other...and themselves.

After years of wandering from whim to whim, 30-year-old Charlotte Wheelwright seems to have at last found her niche. The free spirit enjoys running an organic gardening business on the island of Nantucket, thanks in large part to her spry grandmother Nona, who donated a portion of her land on the family's seaside compound to get Charlotte started.

When Lucy West and Kate Cunningham meet, the two spirited young women recognize kindred spirits in each other. Both Lucy and Kate married early and lack complete confidence in the brave new world of mothering. As their friendship deepens, their lives become fully intertwined. With husbands and children in tow, they spend glorious summers together in a large house on Nantucket island, sailing and feasting on lobster - and when their husbands are back on the mainland, the two women even get a chance to kick up their heels.

Zelda Campbell was just a college student when she met and fell in love with her professor; they married before she graduated. Zelda’s love for Charlie was wonderfully passionate - though it came with extras: his daughters Caroline and Cathy. And so begins Zelda’s dramatic roller-coaster ride in step-parenting (aka “stepping”), marked by joyous highs and tear-stained lows. As Zelda struggles in her new role, the young girls are constant reminders of Charlie’s past life. Further, Charlie’s shrill ex-wife is a demanding presence Zelda cannot ignore.

In their modest farmhouse in rural New England, Owen and Linda McFarland feel that they’ve found a little slice of heaven. Both previously divorced, they now have a second chance at a happy home with his son, Bruce, and her daughter, Emily. While the transition wasn’t easy, Linda and Owen hope the newly blended family has put their troubles behind them.

At the age of 46, Daphne Miller is a first-time homeowner, a divorced college administrator whose daughter has moved in with her father. On a dirt road in the green mountains of southern Vermont, Daphne has at last found a home of her own. It may be tiny, but the rustic cottage is hers, and she’s determined to make it perfect. Just down the lane, Jack Hamilton and his young family move in. The newly appointed English professor, Jack has long dreamed of teaching at his prestigious alma mater, but his wife Carey Ann is terribly unhappy in rural New England.

The fabulous women from The Hot Flash Club are back in top form, welcoming the stressed-out and pampering-deprived through their discreet spa doors–as Nancy Thayer returns with a witty, sexy, and heartwarming novel. The Hot Flash Club Strikes Again also introduces four new women, ready for massages and seaweed wraps, each struggling to reconcile her secret dreams, biggest fears, and deepest feelings as topsy-turvy events shake up her life.

When Sara marries Steve Kendall, she leaves Boston behind and the newlyweds move to his native Nantucket. Though Sara loves the gorgeous island, she is less than thrilled with her husband’s friends, a tight-knit group that leaves her feeling left out. Trying unsuccessfully to have a baby, Sara’s only solace comes from her work as a freelance editor. When she stumbles upon several provocative pages mixed in with one of her manuscripts, she becomes determined to track down the reclusive author. Fanny Anderson has been writing romance novels for years, hiding away in her huge house.

From his position behind the pulpit, Reverend Peter Taylor has a unique view of his affluent congregants. By and large, they appear respectable and morally upstanding, but they have their share of troubles - and perhaps even more than their share of sins. Liza Howard is a notorious Jezebel who seduces young and old alike, and who now has her sights set on Judy Bennett’s son, despite his engagement. Meanwhile, Judy hides her own family secrets behind her relentless judgment of others.

John and Wilhelmina Constable uproot their lives in Boston so John can pursue his lifelong dream of becoming an artist. After settling into a beautiful Victorian home on Nantucket, John finds inspiration in the island light that illuminates his attic studio and Willy relaxes happily into the slower pace of seaside life. Painting alone one stormy night, John is startled by the sight of a beautiful ghost. When he admits to his wife what he thinks he’s seen, Willy tries to remain rational and understanding.