We're thrilled to celebrate the release of The Year We Turned Forty by Lisa Fenton and Lisa Steinke.
If you could repeat one year of your life, what would you do differently? This heartwarming and hilarious novel from the authors of The Status of All Things and Your Perfect Life features three best friends who get the chance to return to the year they turned forty—the year that altered all of their lives, in ways big and small—and also get the opportunity to change their future
Enjoy their recommended summer reading list and enter to win one of two signed paperbacks!
Happy reading and good luck.
If you could repeat one year of your life, what would you do differently? This heartwarming and hilarious novel from the authors of The Status of All Things and Your Perfect Life features three best friends who get the chance to return to the year they turned forty—the year that altered all of their lives, in ways big and small—and also get the opportunity to change their future
Enjoy their recommended summer reading list and enter to win one of two signed paperbacks!
Happy reading and good luck.
“She had been back in the year 2005 for just three weeks, but was acutely aware that her time was running out, not just to re-create her novel, but to re-create the life she should have chosen the first time.
Summer Reading List
At TRSOR, we know you guys like smokin’ hot books! (And so do we!) But for some reads with just a wee bit less fire and just the right amount of angst, we have six summer reads you will be sure to devour!
Annabel is blind sided when her husband of ten years says he’s leaving.
Piper is a single mother and crime reporter who thinks she’s finally found love until an old flame shows up and changes everything. And Mackenzie is struggling to balance the complicated relationship with her mother-in-law (also her boss) and her marriage to her husband that’s fallen flat. These three women’s lives are thrust together and they form a friendship and bond that helps them figure out what they really want.
Liebert is a master at writing about female friendships and love. She injects just the right amount of heart and humor, the perfect balance for a satisfying beach read!
2. Love, Luck and Lemon Pie by Amy Reichert
MJ is a wife and mother who is hit hard with the realization that her husband of twenty years, Chris, seems more interested in gambling than he is in her. But she wonders why she’s not more upset. She comes up with plan for them to spend more time together by taking up poker herself. But instead of repairing their marriage, it drives them further apart because MJ discovers she has quite a knack for the card game and a craving for freedom and begins to put the card game above everything else—including her family. Things get really complicated when a male poker star takes a serious interest in her. And she must decide if she’s willing to risk everything for her new lifestyle.
We were lucky enough to blurb this book and this is what we said: “As irresistible and delicious as an actual slice of lemon pie, LOVE, LUCK & LEMON PIE has all of the sweet ingredients that make a book impossible to put down. From the fallible yet lovable characters to the smart writing and layered plot, we absolutely fell in love with this book. Amy E. Reichert has a flair for writing heartwarming fiction that will give you sweet cravings!”
3. First Comes Love by Emily Giffin
When tragedy strikes a family, it shatters the relationship between sisters Meredith and Josie. Fifteen years later, their bond is still a shell of what it once was and they both wonder if it can ever be repaired, finding it hard to see anything in common other than the loss they both share. They seem to be at opposite spectrums--their lives completely different. Josie is a free-spirited teacher who decides she desperately wants to become a mother despite the fact that she is single. Meredith is a buttoned-up lawyer with a husband and daughter who questions her safe path every day. As the anniversary of their tragedy approaches, and deeply buried secrets begin to make their way to the surface, these sisters fight with each other but also for each other as they grapple with the answer to what equals true happiness. And they wonder if their love for each other will rise above everything else.
This is our favorite of Giffin's novels since Something Borrowed! She dives deep into the bonds between sisters and the complications of marriage and motherhood. She skillfully depicts how love is the most important ingredient when searching for forgiveness, and ultimately happiness.
4. In Twenty Years by Allison Winn Scotch
Twenty years ago, six Penn students shared a house, naively certain that their friendships would endure-until the death of their ringleader and dear friend Bea splintered the group for good. Now, mostly estranged from one another, the remaining five reluctantly gather at that same house on the eve of what would have been Bea's fortieth birthday. They quickly realize that sometimes while so many things change, some always stay the same.
In this heartwarming story of old friends and old flames, Allison Winn Scotch weaves together the lives of these college roommates seamlessly. This book will make you think about the roads not taken, but also appreciate your own life. You’ll be inspired to pick up the phone and call your best friend or maybe even reconnect with a past love…
5. One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Emma is a newlywed when she gets the heartbreaking news that her husband is missing. And she soon must accept that he's never coming home. Years later, she meets Sam and decides it's time to let her heart be open to loving again. When she discovers Jesse is alive, she struggles with her feelings for him and her now fiancé, wondering if there really is only one true love.
Taylor Jenkins Reid has done it again. She handles this complicated story with both wit and wisdom—we promise you that it will be impossible to put One True Loves down.
6. The Decent Proposal by Kemper Donovan
Two people. One decent proposal. What could go wrong?
An addictively readable debut romantic comedy, drama, and mystery rolled into one, about two very different strangers whose lives become intertwined when they receive an unusual proposition. This is a funny, tender, and enchanting story about love, attraction, and friendship
Kemper Donovan hits it out of the park with this hilarious story. Curl up with a glass of wine and treat yo-self to this winning debut!
Annabel is blind sided when her husband of ten years says he’s leaving.
Piper is a single mother and crime reporter who thinks she’s finally found love until an old flame shows up and changes everything. And Mackenzie is struggling to balance the complicated relationship with her mother-in-law (also her boss) and her marriage to her husband that’s fallen flat. These three women’s lives are thrust together and they form a friendship and bond that helps them figure out what they really want.
Liebert is a master at writing about female friendships and love. She injects just the right amount of heart and humor, the perfect balance for a satisfying beach read!
2. Love, Luck and Lemon Pie by Amy Reichert
MJ is a wife and mother who is hit hard with the realization that her husband of twenty years, Chris, seems more interested in gambling than he is in her. But she wonders why she’s not more upset. She comes up with plan for them to spend more time together by taking up poker herself. But instead of repairing their marriage, it drives them further apart because MJ discovers she has quite a knack for the card game and a craving for freedom and begins to put the card game above everything else—including her family. Things get really complicated when a male poker star takes a serious interest in her. And she must decide if she’s willing to risk everything for her new lifestyle.
We were lucky enough to blurb this book and this is what we said: “As irresistible and delicious as an actual slice of lemon pie, LOVE, LUCK & LEMON PIE has all of the sweet ingredients that make a book impossible to put down. From the fallible yet lovable characters to the smart writing and layered plot, we absolutely fell in love with this book. Amy E. Reichert has a flair for writing heartwarming fiction that will give you sweet cravings!”
3. First Comes Love by Emily Giffin
When tragedy strikes a family, it shatters the relationship between sisters Meredith and Josie. Fifteen years later, their bond is still a shell of what it once was and they both wonder if it can ever be repaired, finding it hard to see anything in common other than the loss they both share. They seem to be at opposite spectrums--their lives completely different. Josie is a free-spirited teacher who decides she desperately wants to become a mother despite the fact that she is single. Meredith is a buttoned-up lawyer with a husband and daughter who questions her safe path every day. As the anniversary of their tragedy approaches, and deeply buried secrets begin to make their way to the surface, these sisters fight with each other but also for each other as they grapple with the answer to what equals true happiness. And they wonder if their love for each other will rise above everything else.
This is our favorite of Giffin's novels since Something Borrowed! She dives deep into the bonds between sisters and the complications of marriage and motherhood. She skillfully depicts how love is the most important ingredient when searching for forgiveness, and ultimately happiness.
4. In Twenty Years by Allison Winn Scotch
Twenty years ago, six Penn students shared a house, naively certain that their friendships would endure-until the death of their ringleader and dear friend Bea splintered the group for good. Now, mostly estranged from one another, the remaining five reluctantly gather at that same house on the eve of what would have been Bea's fortieth birthday. They quickly realize that sometimes while so many things change, some always stay the same.
In this heartwarming story of old friends and old flames, Allison Winn Scotch weaves together the lives of these college roommates seamlessly. This book will make you think about the roads not taken, but also appreciate your own life. You’ll be inspired to pick up the phone and call your best friend or maybe even reconnect with a past love…
5. One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Emma is a newlywed when she gets the heartbreaking news that her husband is missing. And she soon must accept that he's never coming home. Years later, she meets Sam and decides it's time to let her heart be open to loving again. When she discovers Jesse is alive, she struggles with her feelings for him and her now fiancé, wondering if there really is only one true love.
Taylor Jenkins Reid has done it again. She handles this complicated story with both wit and wisdom—we promise you that it will be impossible to put One True Loves down.
6. The Decent Proposal by Kemper Donovan
Two people. One decent proposal. What could go wrong?
An addictively readable debut romantic comedy, drama, and mystery rolled into one, about two very different strangers whose lives become intertwined when they receive an unusual proposition. This is a funny, tender, and enchanting story about love, attraction, and friendship
Kemper Donovan hits it out of the park with this hilarious story. Curl up with a glass of wine and treat yo-self to this winning debut!
Synopsis and Purchase Link
Jessie loves her son Lucas more than anything, but it tears her up inside that he was conceived in an affair that ended her marriage to a man she still loves, a man who just told her he's getting remarried. This time around, she’s determined to bury the secret of Lucas’ paternity, and to repair the fissures that sent her wandering the first time.
Gabriela regrets that she wasted her most fertile years in hot pursuit of a publishing career. Yes, she’s one of the biggest authors in the world, but maybe what she really wanted to create was a family. With a chance to do it again, she’s focused on convincing her husband, Colin, to give her the baby she desires.
Claire is the only one who has made peace with her past: her twenty-two year old daughter, Emily, is finally on track after the turmoil of adolescence, and she's recently gotten engaged, with the two carat diamond on her finger to prove it. But if she’s being honest, Claire still fantasizes about her own missed opportunities: a chance to bond with her mother before it was too late, and the possibility of preventing her daughter from years of anguish. Plus, there’s the man who got away—the man who may have been her one true love.
But it doesn’t take long for all three women to learn that re-living a life and making different decisions only leads to new problems and consequences—and that the mistakes they made may, in fact, have been the best choices of all…
Gabriela regrets that she wasted her most fertile years in hot pursuit of a publishing career. Yes, she’s one of the biggest authors in the world, but maybe what she really wanted to create was a family. With a chance to do it again, she’s focused on convincing her husband, Colin, to give her the baby she desires.
Claire is the only one who has made peace with her past: her twenty-two year old daughter, Emily, is finally on track after the turmoil of adolescence, and she's recently gotten engaged, with the two carat diamond on her finger to prove it. But if she’s being honest, Claire still fantasizes about her own missed opportunities: a chance to bond with her mother before it was too late, and the possibility of preventing her daughter from years of anguish. Plus, there’s the man who got away—the man who may have been her one true love.
But it doesn’t take long for all three women to learn that re-living a life and making different decisions only leads to new problems and consequences—and that the mistakes they made may, in fact, have been the best choices of all…
Meet the Authors
LIZ FENTON and LISA STEINKE have been best friends for twenty-five years and survived high school and college together. Liz lives in San Diego with her husband and two children. Lisa, a former talk show producer, now lives in Chicago with her husband, daughter, and two bonus children.