Akron Public Library

Imagine that your husband has two other wives. You've never met the other wives. None of you know each other, and because of this unconventional arrangement, you can see your husband only one day a week. But you love him so much you don't care. Or at least that's what you've told yourself. But one day, while you're doing laundry, you find a scrap of paper in his pocket--an appointment reminder for a woman named Hannah, and you just know it's another...

"Escaping from an arranged and abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone from her 1950s rural village to the vibrant pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the henna artist-and confidante-most in demand to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own... Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who...

"Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life-living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher-was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's beekeeping business. Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she...

"A talented 16-year-old artist slowly discovers the history of domestic violence behind why her brother left the family years earlier and why she suddenly cannot make art"--

"Jenny Blake has a theory about life : big decisions often don't amount to much, but little decisions sometimes transform everything. Her theory proves true the summer she's 14, when she makes the decision to pick up a penny embedded in asphalt and consequently ends up stopping a robbery, getting a job, and meeting someone who changes her life forever, Miss Shaw. Together they form a friendship that dares both of them to confront secrets in their...

Laurel Shields awakens to find her physician husband, Warren, in his study, wildly pulling books from the shelves. A home pregnancy test confirms Laurel's fear that she is pregnant, and she believes her lover is the father. Later that morning, Laurel is surprised to find her husband still at home, pale and fearful. Then, in come the children, innocent of it all. In less than five hours the Shields house becomes the vortex of a nerve-wracking siege....

"Laura Pritchett is an award-winning author who has quickly become one of the west's defining literary voices. We first met hardscrabble ranchers Renny and Ben Cross in Laura's debut collection, and now in Stars Go Blue, they are estranged, elderly spouses living on opposite ends of their sprawling ranch, faced with the particular decline of a fading farm and Ben's struggle with Alzheimer's disease. He is just on the cusp of dementia, able to recognize...

"After surviving fourteen years of hell in a violently abusive marriage, Rosie Daniels finally summons the courage to flee for her life. But leaving her husband, Norman, for a new city and a new start is a very daunting prospect. It's hard for Rosie not to keep looking over her shoulder, and with good reason - Norman's a police officer with the instincts of a predator, a force of relentless terror and savagery... a man almost mythic in his monstrosity....

Clare Burke's life took a devastating turn when she tried to protect her sister, Anne, from an abusive and controlling husband and ended up serving prison time for assault. The verdict largely hinged on Anne's defense of her spouse, all lies, and the sisters have been estranged ever since. Nearly twenty years later, Claire is living a quiet life in Manhattan as an urban birder and nature blogger, when her niece, Grit, turns up on her doorstep. The...

As a newly minted assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., Anna Curtis has already developed a thick skin to help her deal with the unsettling brutality she encounters daily with her overflowing stack of domestic violence cases. Yet when Laprea Johnson walks into Anna's life, battered by her boyfriend on the morning after Valentine's Day, there's something about this particular case that Anna can't quite shake, something that reminds the prosecutor...