This month in BookTrib, we are celebrating women’s fiction titles that showcase stories of solo parenting. Perhaps your protagonist is a parent who is widowed, or abandoned, or their partner has gone missing. They may be a grandparent suddenly with the responsibility of a grandchild, or an adult caring for a child who is not related to them.
Parenting with two adults is tricky, complicated and a journey that is laden with glorious times and pitfalls, but what if there is only one adult? What if your protagonist thought they were an expert in this field only to find they know nothing? Take us on a solo parenting ride through the highs and lows and even better if you make us laugh about it all.
More Than by Diane Barnes
Before Peggy Moriarty’s husband died, he questioned her parenting skills and her commitment to their four-year-old twins. After his death, she’s determined to prove she’s a good mother and devotes her entire life to the twins, Grace and Greg. Her only hobby is watching Messages from Beyond, a show about a medium who connects the grieving with their deceased loved ones.
When the twins leave for college, they give Peggy a gift certificate for an exercise class. At first, she is insulted. But once the sting wears off, she realizes if she gets in shape, she might gain the confidence she needs to go on her favorite TV show and talk to her late husband one last time. With help from her new friends at the gym and Carmen Tavarez, the mother of Grace’s boyfriend, Peggy begins to emerge from her shell and spread her wings. She may soon discover that the sum of her is more than a mother, a widow and her body.
Louder Than Love by Jessica Topper
It’s been over three years since a train accident made a widow of Kat, sending her and her young daughter Abbey back to the suburban town of her youth … the only place that still makes sense. Lauder Lake is the perfect place to hide and heal.
Recluse rock star Adrian “Digger” Graves survived the implosion of his music career, but his muse has long lain dormant. Until Kat hires him to play at her library – not on the basis of his hard rock credentials but rather, because of the obscure kids’ TV jingle he wrote years ago. In a case of mistaken identity, Adrian stumbles into the lives of Kat and her comically lovable daughter. Using tattoos as a timeline, Adrian unfurls his life for Kat. But as the courtship intensifies, it’s unclear whose past looms larger: the widow’s or the rocker’s. Will their demons ever rest, or will they break these soul mates apart?
Blind Turn by Cara Sue Achterberg
Despite the disapproval of her father and her small town, Liz Johnson single-handedly raised an exemplary daughter — honor student, track star and all-around good kid. How could that same teenager be responsible for the death of the high school’s beloved football coach? This is Texas and high school football ranks right up there with God, so while the legal battle wages, the public deals its own verdict.
Desperate for help, Liz turns to a lawyer whose affection she long ago rejected. She attempts to play nice with her wayward ex-husband, while her daughter struggles with guilt and her own demons as she faces the consequences of an accident she doesn’t remember.
Mother of the Accused by Leanne Treese
After the tragic death of her husband, Meredith Morgan spends a decade raising their son, Zach, alone. On the verge of Zach’s graduation from high school, Meredith moves in with her fiancé, Dr. Reed Edwards, excited to begin a new chapter. But, when Zach is accused of sexually assaulting the daughter of a prominent lawyer, Meredith’s life spins out of control. Reed’s ex-wife does not want their daughters in the same house as Zach; Meredith’s best friend distances herself and her sons from the fray. Only childhood friend and lawyer, Peter Flynn, remains by Meredith’s side.
As Peter and Meredith team up to prove Zach’s version of the events, long-buried feelings resurface, complicating an already difficult circumstance. Meanwhile, evidence mounts against Zach, and Meredith faces the ever-increasing likelihood that her son is guilty. Struggling to cope with the idea of Zach behind bars, Meredith learns just how far a mother will go to protect her own.
Iris in the Dark by Elissa Grossell Dickey
Iris Jenkins is raising her young son on her own. He has severe food allergies, and Iris is on her own to protect him — in fact, she has dedicated her life to keeping him safe ever since she fled from her dark past, which just might be catching up with her. Iris knows that bad things happen and when she is entrusted to house-sit at a lodge on the South Dakota prairie, she thinks she’s prepared for anything.
But one surprise is Sawyer Jones, the property’s neighbor and caretaker. He’s a caring, reassuring presence who’s making her feel safe and alive again. Then late one night, Iris hears a chilling cry for help coming from a walkie-talkie buried in a box of toys. As the calls get more desperate, personal and menacing, Iris realizes the person on the other end isn’t reaching out for help. They’re reaching out to terrorize her.
Now the only way for Iris to move forward in life is to confront the past she’s been running from … a threat that has now followed her into the dark.
All I'm Asking by J. Marie Rundquist
Online history teacher Naomi is doing her best. “Don’t @ me.”
Teacher and single mom Naomi is always biting off more than she can chew. Naomi knows what it’s like to grow up in hard times and still manage a decent education, so when it comes to her online, at-promise (not “at-risk,” thank you very much) high school students, she goes the extra mile. At the rate she’s going, though, she’ll need the mouth of a hippo to have a shot of chewing it all, especially since her students aren’t the only ones who need her.
Naomi’s best friend discovers her wife has a mysterious disease doctors can’t figure out how to diagnose, her daughter struggles with debilitating social anxiety, and her mother calls her repeatedly. From jail. When one of Naomi’s students shows up at her door, pregnant and homeless, Naomi can’t help but take her in. But Naomi’s hyper-involvement in her students’ lives results in her alienating the people she loves most.
Wondering how she’d gotten everything wrong; Naomi seeks help and refuge with an online book club made up of sugar-addicted candy lovers who might offer the wake-up call Naomi needs. Narrated in a series of emails, texts, discussion forums, and other forms of communication, All I’m Asking delves into the bonds of friendship and family, what can test it, and how we find our way back to strengthen those ties.
Welcome to the Neighborhood by Lisa Roe
After years of struggling to make ends meet, Ginny, a single mom from Queens, falls for sweet, divorced Jeff, and relishes the idea of moving with her quirky 11-year-old daughter Harri to his home in an upscale New Jersey suburb. Though she’s never been impressed by material things, she is thrilled that getting a second chance at love comes with the added bonus of finally giving Harri everything she never could before.
And then she meets the neighbors.
Ginny is quickly thrust into the complicated realities of a neighborhood defined by the ever-shifting alliances of PTA moms, Real Housewife contenders, and their mean-girl daughters. When the neighbors’ secrets, back-stabbing, and bad behavior take a devastating toll, Ginny must learn how to fight back to hold on to what really matters.
Hardland by Ashley E. Sweeney
Hardland is a tale of survival and triumph over abuse, misogyny and economic challenges.
Arizona Territory, 1899. Once the Girl Wonder on the Wild West circuit, 26-year-old Ruby Fortune is forced to make a split-second choice: murder her abusive husband or continue to live with bruises that never heal. One bullet is all it takes.
Now the tough, quick-witted owner of a roadhouse north of Tucson, Ruby lives with the consequences of her checkered choices. Bursting with suspense, Hardland offers up an uncommon American cowgirl who spits at expectations as she provides for herself and her sons in one of the roughest towns in the American West.
