The Vineyard - A Novel

New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky shares her special magic in this poignant tale, first published in 1983, of past mistakes and second chances.

Barbara Delinsky has always had a gift for creating tales of extraordinary emotional power and depth. Now this New York Times bestselling author of Three Wishes surpasses herself once again in a novel that takes readers on a journey as richly textured, colorful, and poignant as the northern California landscape in which the book is set.

Rachel Keats and Jack McGill were artists, deeply in love when they married, until the rush of life took its toll. After ten years of marriage, they divorced and went their separate ways. Jack stayed in San Francisco. Rachel moved with their two young daughters to Big Sur.

Six years later, an alarming middle-of-the-night phone call demands that Jack put aside his own busy life and career as a leading architect to rush to his ex-wife's hospital bed. While she lies lifeless, Jack maintains a bedside vigil and finds himself getting to know Rachel better than he ever did -- through their daughters, her friends, and, even more revealingly, through her art. Meanwhile, the beauty and grace of the redwood canyon where she has made their home also work their own special alchemy upon Jack. He begins to see Rachel, his daughters, and the story of his marriage with new eyes.

This is the question that haunts Julia Bechtel, Noah Prine, and Kim Colella, the only survivors of a terrible boating accident off the coast of Maine that claimed the lives of nine other people.

Julia, a forty-year-old wife and mother, has always taken the path of least resistance. Pigeonholed by her controlling family and increasingly distant husband as "loyal" and "obedient," she realizes in the aftermath of her brush with death that there is more to her -- and to the world around her -- than she ever imagined.

Feeling strangely connected to Noah, the divorced, brooding lobsterman who helped save her life, and to Kim, a twenty-one-year-old whose role in the accident and subsequent muteness are a mystery, Julia begins to explore the unique possibilities offered by the quiet island of Big Sawyer, Maine. Suddenly, things that once seemed critical lose significance, and things that seemed inconsequential take on a whole new importance. With each passing moment, each new discovery, Julia grows more sure that after coming face-to-face with death, she must have more from life.

Resolving to make things right for the future and drawing on an inner strength she never knew she possessed, Julia passionately awakens to a new world, fearlessly embracing uncertainties in a way she couldn't have imagined only a few weeks ago.

New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky displays her deep understanding of the desires and fears that move us all in this poignant story, first published in 1984, of danger, love, and trust.

Once upon a time she was Robyn Hart, a journalist who saw too much and wasn't afraid to expose it. But that courage nearly cost Robyn her life. Under the protection of the Witness Relocation program, she now has a new identity -- Carly -- and a new job. But the terror of the past still lingers, and Carly lives in fear that her enemies will find her.

Though she tries to wall herself off from the world, one determined man breaks through her defenses -- successful young attorney Ryan Cornell. And though she yearns to give him her heart, Carly doesnt know if she can. While loving him offers a happiness she thought she'd forever lost, trusting him could cost her everything.

Everything Claire Raphael has she's earned. On her own. The hard way. She built her part-time business up from nothing and made it successful through her imagination, creativity, and hard work. She has two great children and Dennis, a husband she loves completely.

Then, one evening, when Claire returns from a difficult business trip, Dennis hands her divorce papers along with a court order to vacate their house. Claire is devastated. She had no idea her marriage was on the brink of disaster, that Dennis had been planning this ambush for weeks, if not months, or that her hectic but happy life was about to come crashing down around her.

Claire doesn't know where to turn or whom to trust. But in a few short weeks she learns what so many women have had to discover—that when the going gets tough, a woman's as tough as she needs to be.

What if wishes really could come true?

It's the question facing waitress Bree Walker when she awakens in the hospital following a blizzard in sleepy Panama, Vermont. While she can't recall the

near-tragedy that landed her there, she's overcome with the certainty that she has been granted three wishes. One seems to have come true already: at her side is renowned author Tom Gates, the accident's only witness, who had come to Panama to make sense of his fame -- and who now makes Bree his cause.

Suddenly, the things Bree has wanted most -- a home, a soul mate, a family -- are within her grasp. But are the wishes real? And if they are, what is their

More Than Friends is a moving, unforgettable story of friendship, love, and forgiveness—a classic from New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky.

The Maxwells and the Popes have been friends forever. The women were college roommates, their husbands are partners in the same law firm, their kids have grown up next door to each other, and the two families share both vacations and holidays.

All is beautiful and serene in their "perfect" shared suburban Eden—until a tragic accident forces these very close friends and neighbors to look more deeply beneath the surface. And when their idyllic lives are unexpectedly shattered by a moment that can never be erased or forgotten, their faith in one another—and in themselves—is put to the supreme test.

After the death of her adoptive mother, thirty-six-year-old Chelsea Kane is consumed by the need to uncover her biological heritage. Taking a break from her successful architecture career, she arrives in the New Hampshire town where she was born, determined to learn the truth, her only clue a tarnished silver key.

One of her first discoveries, however, is something quite unexpected: the irresistibly attractive Judd Street. Buoyed by love and resolution, the determined Chelsea slowly begins to uncover the dark mystery of her past. But as she inches closer to the truth, she realizes that someone is trying to stop her, first by scaring her, then by trying to harm her. The danger escalates until one terrifying night when all secrets are laid bare.

With memorable characters and writing that will stir the hearts and minds of all readers, The Passions of Chelsea Kane is the kind of compelling narrative that has earned Barbara Delinsky an ever-widening readership.

New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky captivates with a magnificent story of loving friendship and desperate acts, first published in 1992.

The lovely vacation house on the Maine coast was meant to be a glorious retreat for Danica Lindsay and her husband Blake, a place where they could mend the wounds of a damaged and tired marriage. Instead, she finds herself mostly there alone while Blake's political star is rapidly rising back in Boston. Were it not for the cherished companionship of her new neighbor, gentle and caring Michael Buchanan, Danica would surely be overcome by loneliness and despair.

But a friendship that is strong, uplifting, and real is slowly transforming into something less innocent, more passionate -- something that could easily be called "love." For the first time in her life, a chance for true happiness may be in Danica's reach. But how can she grab onto it when she remains another man's wife, bound by her marriage vows to a union plagued by doubt and pain ... and by secrets so shocking an entire nation will take notice?

Stephanie Wright was just 19 the first time she ran, heartbroken and angry, out of Douglas Weston's life. She and Douglas, a devastatingly handsome tennis camp instructor, shared a summer marked by a gentle love, capped by one night of sensuous passion -- followed by a terrible, unforgivable betrayal that sent her fleeing. Eight years later, upon her return to the camp, Stephanie must fight the feelings that first drew him to her And now there is Melissa, her beautiful seven-year-old daughter; who smiles up at her tennis teacher with gray eyes that mirror his own.