Most Popular Books by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Arley Mowbray is young, smart, and lonely. Very lonely. And then she strikes up a correspondence with a prison inmate—and, under the spell of his poetic, seductive letters, falls helplessly, stubbornly in love. Annie Singer is a tough, dedicated Texas lawyer hired to help Arley unite with her beloved. She does so, but against her own better judgment—and soon she’s caught up in this disturbing and dangerous romance, and in her feelings for Arley, who’s become the daughter she never had. When Dillon LeGrande comes after the girl he loves, Arley finds herself both aching for his touch and fearing for her life. And Annie begins to question her own choices—and to wonder what price she would pay for passion.

"Masterful...A big story about human connection and emotional survival" - Los Angeles Times The first book ever chosen by Oprah''s Book Club Few first novels receive the kind of attention and acclaim showered on this powerful story—a nationwide bestseller, a critical success, and the first title chosen for Oprah''s Book Club. Both highly suspenseful and deeply moving, The Deep End of the Ocean imagines every mother''s worst nightmare—the disappearance of a child—as it explores a family''s struggle to endure, even against extraordinary odds. Filled with compassion, humor, and brilliant observations about the texture of real life, here is a story of rare power, one that will touch readers'' hearts and make them celebrate the emotions that make us all one.

A terrible accident has left little Keefer orphaned but not unwanted. Devastated by his beloved sister''s tragic death, twenty-four-year-old bachelor Gordon McKenna assumes that he will be entrusted with raising his niece, whom he has grown extremely close to over the few precious months of Keefer''s life. But the child''s paternal grandparents have different ideas—and a fierce legal battle ensues that will test the capacity and limitations of family love again and again . . . and no one will emerge from it unscathed or unchanged. Jacquelyn Mitchard, whose powerful, emotionally rich novels have won resounding critical acclaim and a wide, enthusiastic audience worldwide, brings us a soaring, heartbreaking, and unforgettable tale of love and the bonds that unite us all.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard comes a page-turning family drama that explores the emotional consequences of loyalty, deception and jealousy. Stunned by her recently widowed father’s reckless behavior, a young woman must learn to navigate a new world—where the people she should trust the most have become strangers she cannot trust at all. Frankie Attleboro returns home to Cape Cod with thrilling news. She’s met the love of her life, and they’re getting married with a baby on the way. That’s the moment her father makes his own jaw-dropping announcement: at sixty, he’s getting married as well, to Frankie’s best friend, Ariel, who is also pregnant, and due soon. As Frankie and Ariel struggle to adjust to their new relationship, Ariel’s estranged mother, Carlotta, returns after a decade-long absence. She claims to be a changed woman—but is she really? And where has she been all these years? Frankie is suspicious, and as Carlotta’s unpredictable behavior intensifies, Frankie must untangle the threads of the past to protect Ariel’s future—and her own. "The characters and relationships are all smartly drawn, and the narrative is shot through with plenty of humor and scandal. Mitchard fans will lap this up."—Publishers Weekly

Joining the volunteer rescue effort in Brisbane after the Christmas Eve tsunami, American expat Frank Mercy is transformed by his rescue of a telepathic little boy, who he illegally takes back with him to America and struggles to protect.

For ten years of Sunday mornings, readers of Jacquelyn Mitchard’s newspaper column, “The Rest of Us,” have been calling their mothers, boyfriends and sisters to say, “See? That’s exactly what I meant!” Mitchard’s clear-eyed takes on everyday life in process are described over and over as “a letter from home,” as “the best friend I can really count on,” and as “the kind of story you tell at the coffee machine—and keep under your pillow.” Jacquelyn Mitchard reaches for heart and mind simultaneously, with both wit and nostalgia but never with sentimentality. Whether writing of gun laws and garage sales, the loneliness of the long-haul single mother, fear of gardening, or the late great American game of baseball, Mitchard stresses the personal stake each of us has in the stand-up drama of daily life. The single mother of five children, she shares her own family’s dramas and epiphanies—her own mother’s tradition of optimism based on nothing, the early death of her husband, the adoption of her baby daughter, as well as the great wheeling issues that confound Americans every day.

12-year-old Veronica Swan''s idyllic life in a close-knit Mormon community is shattered when her two younger sisters are brutally murdered. Although her parents find the strength to forgive the deranged killer, Scott Early, Veronica cannot do the same. Years later, she sets out alone to avenge her sisters'' deaths, dropping her identity and severing ties in the process. As she closes in on Early, Veronica will discover the true meaning of sin and compassion, before she makes a decision that will change her and her family''s lives forever.

New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard’s novels, with their riveting stories and unforgettable characters, have won the hearts of millions of readers. Now, from the author of The Deep End of the Ocean and No Time to Wave Goodbye, comes the fierce and moving tale of one woman’s fight for her identity and her life when fate holds out a second chance. Sicily Coyne was just thirteen when her father was killed in a school fire that left her face disfigured. Twelve years later, a young surgeon, Eliza Cappadora, offers hope in the form of a revolutionary new surgery that may give Sicily back the grace and function she lost. Raised by a dynamic, tenacious aunt who taught her to lead a normal life, and engaged to a wonderful man who knew her long before the accident, Sicily rejects the offer: She knows who she is, and so do the people who love her. But when a secret surfaces that shatters Sicily’s carefully constructed world, she calls off the wedding and agrees to the radical procedure in order to begin a new life. Her beauty restored virtually overnight, Sicily rushes toward life with open arms, seeking new experiences, adventures, and, most of all, love. But she soon discovers that her new face carries with it risks that no one could have imagined. Confronting a moral and medical crisis that quickly becomes a matter of life and death, Sicily is surrounded by experts and loving family, but the choice that will transform her future, for better or worse, is one she must make alone. An intense and moving story of courage, consequence, and possibility, Second Nature showcases the acclaimed storyteller at her very best.

Mitchard''s ''Still Summer'' plunges into terror By Carol Memmott, USA TODAY Secure your life preserver. Tie yourself to the mast. It''s late August, but it''s still summer, and Jacquelyn Mitchard is taking you on a thrill ride you won''t forget. Mitchard made her mark in the literary world in 1996 when TheDeep End of the Ocean was chosen as the first pick for Oprah Winfrey''s now-legendary book club. Since then, she has written six other novels, but none matches the suspenseful pitch of Still Summer. It''s a tale of terror on the high seas, but this is no Pirates of the Caribbean wannabe. Readers know something terrible is going to happen, but Mitchard ratchets up the suspense by allowing her story to unfold at a leisurely pace. She painstakingly fleshes out her characters, because as readers will discover, their temperaments and personalities are as crucial to the story as the mounting disasters. Tracy Kyle, Holly Solvig and Olivia Montefalco, lifelong friends in their early 40s, charter a yacht and two-man crew for a sailing vacation that will take them from St. Thomas to Grenada. The trip starts out as an innocent adventure in paradise until two accidents in quick succession strand the women without their crew. What else can go wrong? In a word, everything. The engine conks out, the sails are torn, lack of electricity spoils their food and limits their drinking water - and then there''s the injury to Holly''s leg. Nature''s fury, murderous drug dealers and, possibly most deadly of all, their own frailties and secrets are added to the list. Readers will wring their hands with frustration, weep with sadness and second-guess the choices these women make. But since characters must do the bidding of the authors who create them, we can only sit back - or sit on the edge of our seats - and let Mitchard''s terror-filled tale wash over us.

Allie Kim’s fatal allergy to sunlight, XP, still confines her to the night. Now that she’s lost her best friend, Juliet, to an apparent suicide, the night has never felt darker—even with Rob at her side. Allie knows why Juliet killed herself: to escape the clutches of Garrett Tabor, whom Allie saw committing an unspeakable crime. Garrett is untouchable; the Tabors founded the world-famous XP clinic that keeps Allie and Rob alive and their small Minnesota town on the map. Allie can’t rest until Garrett is brought to justice. But her obsession jeopardizes everything she holds dear. Not even Parkour can distract her; nothing reminds her more that Juliet is gone. When Rob introduces Allie to the wildly dangerous sport of nighttime deep diving, Allie assumes he’s only trying to derail her investigation . . . until they uncover the terrible secret Garrett Tabor has hidden under Lake Superior.

Twenty-two years have passed since Beth Cappadora’s three-year-old son, Ben, was abducted. By some miracle he returned nine years later, and the family began to pick up the pieces of their lives. Now, in this sequel to Mitchard’s beloved bestseller The Deep End of the Ocean, the Cappadora children are grown: Ben is married and has a baby girl, Kerry is studying to be an opera singer, and ne’er-do-well older son Vincent is a fledgling filmmaker. His new documentary—focusing on five families caught in the torturous web of never knowing the fate of their abducted children—shakes his parents to the core. As Vincent’s film earns greater and greater acclaim and Beth tries to stave off a torrent of long-submerged emotions, the Cappadoras’ world is rocked as Beth’s greatest fear becomes reality. The family is soon drawn precipitously into the past, revisiting the worst moment of their lives—this time with only hours to find the truth that can save a life. A spellbinding novel about family loyalty and love pushed to the limits of endurance, No Time to Wave Goodbye is Jacquelyn Mitchard at her best.

“Rich and complex, The Good Son is a compelling novel about the aftermath of a crime in a small, close-knit community.”—Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestselling author From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard comes the gripping, emotionally charged novel of a mother who must help her son after he is convicted of a devastating crime. What do you do when the person you love best becomes unrecognizable to you? For Thea Demetriou, the answer is both simple and agonizing: you keep loving him somehow. Stefan was just seventeen when he went to prison for the drug-fueled murder of his girlfriend, Belinda. Three years later, he’s released to a world that refuses to let him move on. Belinda’s mother, once Thea’s good friend, galvanizes the community to rally against him to protest in her daughter’s memory. The media paints Stefan as a symbol of white privilege and indifferent justice. Neighbors, employers, even some members of Thea''s own family turn away. Meanwhile Thea struggles to understand her son. At times, he is still the sweet boy he has always been; at others, he is a young man tormented by guilt and almost broken by his time in prison. But as his efforts to make amends meet escalating resistance and threats, Thea suspects more forces are at play than just community outrage. And if there is so much she never knew about her own son, what other secrets has she yet to uncover—especially about the night Belinda died?

In her first novel for teens, national bestselling author Mitchard offers a story about a girl with everything who fakes her own abduction.

Where can a woman turn when her own life threatens to overwhelm her ability to keep her children safe? New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard takes the readers of her newest novel on a wry and moving journey of loss and healing. Giving advice is what Julieanne does for a living -- every Sunday she doles it out to clueless people she doesn''t know, in a column in her local Wisconsin paper. But when it comes to her personal life, Julie herself seems to have missed some clues. Having worked creatively to keep her twenty-year marriage to Leo fresh and exciting, she is completely caught off guard when he tells her he needs to go on a "sabbatical" from their life together, leaving Julie and their three children -- Gabe, Caroline, and Aury -- behind. But it soon becomes clear that his leave of absence is meant to be permanent. The succeeding months are filled with a confusion and sadness that shake the core of the entire family. Things take a turn for the worse when Julie is diagnosed with a serious illness and the children undertake a dangerous journey to find Leo -- before it''s too late. As the known world sinksprecariously from view, the clan must navigate its way through the shoals of love, guilt, and betrayal. Together, with the help of Leo''s parents and Julie''s best friend, Cathy, they work their way back to solid ground and a new definition of family. No one illuminates modern love, marriage, and parenting better than Jacquelyn Mitchard. Written with her trademark poignancy, humor, and insight, The Breakdown Lane is her most moving, eloquent,and life-affirming work yet.

A widowed mom takes a second chance on love with a sexy chef 10 years her junior in this novel of relationships by a New York Times–bestselling author. It is True Dickinson’s birthday and her best friends have gathered on this snowy night to celebrate—yet True has never felt more alone. Though her small business is thriving and her young son is happy, the death of her husband eight years ago has left an empty space in her life that friends and family cannot fill. Suddenly it seems that youth and beauty are slipping away while True is busily taking care of everyone else. But on this night, an accident on an icy road will offer True the golden opportunity to let love back into her life—if she can somehow conquer her fears. Twelve Times Blessed is a powerfully moving novel of the heart from one of our best-loved storytellers.

A beautiful and suspenseful tale by a master American novelist, The Midnight Twins tells the story of mirror twins born on either side of midnight. After a mysterious and nearly fatal fi re on their thirteenth birthday, Meredith and Mallory Brynn begin having visions: Mallory can see into the past, Meredith can see into the future. But it will take both of them to save their town from a great evil. That is, if their unique powers don?t destroy them fi rst.

After Rory the raccoon conquers his fear of spending an entire night away from home, he is prepared to tackle the challenge of starting school just one week later, whether his parents are ready or not.

Now in paperback--the first children''s novel from the "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Deep End of the Ocean" about a talented young ballerina mouse and her adventures in the famous Ballet Jolie.

Like the yearning, doomed young clones in Ishiguro''s Never Let Me Go, three teenagers with XP (a life-threatening allergy to sunlight) are a species unto themselves. As seen through the eyes of 16-year-old Allie Kim, they roam the silent streets, looking for adventure, while others sleep. When Allie''s best friend introduces the trio to Parkour, the stunt-sport of running and climbing off forest cliffs and tall buildings (risky in daylight and potentially deadly by darkness), they feel truly alive, equal to the "daytimers." On a random summer night, while scaling a building like any other, the three happen to peer into an empty apartment and glimpse an older man with what looks like a dead girl. A game of cat-and-mouse ensues that escalates through the underground world of hospital confinement, off-the-grid sports, and forbidden love. Allie, who can never see the light of day, discovers she''s the lone key to stopping a human monster.

Giving advice is what Julieanne does for a living -- every Sunday in acolumn in her local paper. But in her own life, Julie missed someclues. She is completely caught off guard when her husband, Leo, tells herhe needs to go on a "sabbatical" from their life together, leaving Julie withtheir three children. Things worsen when Julie is diagnosed with a seriousillness and the children undertake a dangerous journey to find Leo -- beforeit''s too late. As the known world sinks from view, the clan must work theirway back to solid ground and to a new definition of family.

The bestselling author of "The Deep End of the Ocean" and other adult novels presents her second novel for children. Here she introduces a young duckling named Henry Marie who desperately wants a pet. Illustrations.

In the third book of the Midnight Twins trilogy, Mally and Merry?s supernatural dream visions are put to the test when their baby brother is kidnapped? and by someone who has grown very close to the Brynn family. Meanwhile, Meredith is distracted by the strange new boy in town. But there?s one problem with her new romance: he?s a ghost from the past, a boy who actually died in the Vietnam War and is struggling with his soul. Mallory must help her sister let go of a love that was never meant to be?and the twins must come together and use their powers to save their baby brother.

Bridget Flannery and Maureen O''Malley have been BFFs since forever. Then a brief moment of inattention on an icy road leaves one girl dead and the other in a coma, battered beyond recognition. Family and friends mourn one friend''s loss and pray for the other''s recovery. Then the doctors discover they have made a terrible mistake. The girl who lived is the one who everyone thought had died. Based on a true case of mistaken identity, All We Know of Heaven is a universal story that no one can read unmoved: a drama of ordinary people caught up in an unimaginable tragedy and of the healing power of hope and love.

With loving words, a mother bat lulls her baby to sleep.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Twelve Times Blessed comes a novel of the breakdown of a family and of healing after a loss Giving advice is what Julianne Ambrose Gillis does for a living--every Sunday she doles it out to clueless people she doesn''t know, in a column in her local Wisconsin paper. But when it comes to her personal life, Julie seems to have no insight whatsoever. She has worked hard to keep her marriage fresh and to be a good mother, so it''s a mystery when Leo, her husband of twenty years, decides to defect from their life together and their three children: Gabe, Caroline and Aury. In his absence, Julie is diagnosed with a serious illness, which drives her children to undertake a dangerous journey to find Leo--before it''s too late. But what they discover about their father is even more devastating than their mother''s deteriorating health. As the known world sinks precariously from view and leaves them all adrift, the Gillis clan must navigate their way through the trenches of love, guilt and betrayal, back to solid ground and a new definition of family.

Kofi, an eleven year-old boy from Ghana, lives only for his soccer team. He neglects his family, school work, and other responsibilities, until his grandfather undergoes cataract surgery to cure his blindness.

When psychic twin Mallory Brynn starts seeing imges of a white wildcat in her dreams, she tries to figure out the connection of her images to an injured cheerleader and her Native American friend Eden.

A fourteenth wedding anniversary is nothing tosneeze at, Elliott Banner knows, but it''s not a land-mark year, like twenty, when he''ll take his wife, Laura, to Paris. But when a headache on the drive home from their anniversary date -- two days before Christmas -- turns out to be more than a migraine, he wishes he had celebrated every year as though it were their last. In this poignant, uplifting story, a woman calmly gathers her family around her to celebrate their lives together and to count their blessings. A family history unfolds in a single night in this deeply affecting story about love, trust, and letting go -- a holiday read that underscores the true meaning of the season.

A story about the bonds that hold friend to friend and mothers to daughters, and how facing our own mortality tests the truth of everything we think we know.