This month in BookTrib, we are celebrating women’s fiction titles that showcase prologues. A great prologue gets your reader straight to the middle of the story without having to explain the events. It’s all about setting the stage, establishing the tone of the story, foreshadowing events to come, baiting the tease, opening up the mystery, allowing the reader to come in and, once they’re there, hooking them. We’re looking for stories that start with prologues that earn their keep.
Relative Strangers (Graydon House/ HarperCollins. April, 2024)
By A.H. Kim
Amelia Bae-Wood’s life is falling apart. Unemployed, newly single and completely broke, she finds herself hitchhiking across California to deal with the fallout of her mother’s eviction from the family estate. Amelia needs somewhere to live and time to figure out what to do with the rest of her life, so moving with her mother and sister to Arcadia, the cancer retreat center where her sister volunteers, seems like as good an idea as any.
Amelia’s sister, Eleanor, has too much on her plate, including being caught up in a court battle with a man who claims to be their half-brother from Seoul, their late father’s secret love child from his youth. And when Amelia adds herself to Eleanor’s list of problems, Eleanor must figure out what to hold on to—and when to let go—before things start to unravel.
A witty, wry, and enormously entertaining retelling of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Relative Strangers gives the classic tale a modern, feminist twist, touching on themes of blended families, race, class and wealth.
Elizabeth’s Mountain (Black Rose Writing. March, 2024)
By Lucille Guarino
Elizabeth is a feisty ninety-year-old widow keeping a secret. Developers have tendered a lucrative offer for her beloved Blue Ridge Mountain home in Asheville, North Carolina. She knows her children will pressure her to sell it against her wishes. But any hope of protecting it clashes with her gnawing awareness of the time she has left.
As Elizabeth agonizes over what to do, her granddaughter, Amanda, ends an unhappy relationship and yearns for a fresh start. She moves into the farmhouse with her grandmother, not far from the hospital where she works. Heartened by an exciting new relationship, Amanda examines her desires and intends not to repeat a history of foregoing her dream. She wants forever, but her unwillingness to compromise may mean losing out on a chance at true love. But Elizabeth sees her younger self reflected in her granddaughter, and wonders if Amanda could hold the key to her legacy.
An emotional, heartwarming tale of resilience and hope, Elizabeth’s Mountain will charm and immerse readers in a dual timeline of interweaving romances.
The Baby Left Behind (Bookouture. September, 2023)
By Jen Craven
Cate tries not to cry as she closes the nursery door. All she has ever wanted is to be a mother. Cursed with a medical condition that means she is unable to have children, her only option is to wait for a call from the adoption centre. But that call feels like a lifetime away.
Then she hears a faint cry from outside her house. She’s convinced she’s imagining it, that the grief is overwhelming her. But when she opens her door, her heart swells. By her feet is the most perfect baby curled up in a soft blanket. But is he hers to take? As the newborn’s eyes light up, Cate feels instant love for him. She knows she should call the police but as she picks him up, it all finally feels right. This is where the baby belongs.
But when her baby is rushed into hospital, Cate will have to expose the lie she’s been desperate to keep in order to save his life. And if she can’t find the child’s real mother, will she be able to make the hardest decision of her life?
An emotional story about family, secrets, and what makes a good parent. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Jojo Moyes and Kate Hewitt.
Borgia Rose: The Poisoning of Richland County (Battle Ridge Rising Sun Press. April 2023)
By KD Allbaugh
Was she innocent or guilty of murder?
During the Gilded Age, social standing was paramount, but many times, it came with a heavy price. One was often defined by public opinion. Any gossip, especially from those who were wealthy and powerful, had the potential to ruin a person completely.
Rose came to Richland Center to leave her life of poverty and tragedy behind her. She would do anything to achieve the social position of her friend, the wife of the small town’s most prestigious doctor. Would that price include poisoning those who stood in her way?
Inspired by true events, this fictional account of mystery, betrayal and murder is woven by the author of the acclaimed novel, Face Down in Rising Sun, K.D. Allbaugh.
A History of Silence (Atmosphere Press. March, 2023)
By Cynthia J. Bogard
Four women, unknowingly bound together by one man’s violent past.
Liz Wharton believes her husband, Johnny, a history professor and descendant of a Texas “planter family” has a legacy that has followed him all the way to 1985 and left unspeakable scars on her family’s present. She’s desperate to connect to her daughter, Jenny, who ran away to Madison, blotting out her past with distance, drugs, and sex. But Jenny’s loner lifestyle is upended by her new roommate’s scary insistence on friendship.
Jane is Johnny’s emotionally damaged graduate student and gives his offer of an affair a try, thinking she might manage if it’s furtive and part-time.
Maddie, Johnny’s lesbian colleague is grief-stricken; her long-time Black lady love Roz left her — inexplicably.
As the lives of these four women intertwine in unexpected ways, each learns the past can’t be conquered until it’s confronted, and its secrets revealed — and shared.
No Names to Be Given (Admission Press Inc. November, 2022)
By Julia Brewer Daily
Would you be able to give your first-born to strangers? Millions did. How that inconceivable act dictated by societal norms in the ‘60s changed them forever is the story of No Names To Be Given.
When three young, unwed women meet at a maternity home in New Orleans in 1965, they are expected to relinquish their babies for adoption and return home as if nothing transpired. Twenty-five years later, they are brought back together by blackmail, and their secrets are threatened with exposure—all the way to the White House.
Five million people in the U.S. have adoption in their immediate families. Although No Names To Be Given is a fictional account, it is based on many true stories. It sparks conversations about adoptive parents, birth mothers, adopted children and the life-long impact on all three groups.
Six Weeks With You (Brown House Books. August 2022)
By Janet Koops
Vicki Meyers thought starting over would be her biggest challenge. But what if six weeks was all it took to change her life forever?
Vicki’s goal is simple: start anew in a city where no one knows her name. But her biggest hurdle isn’t just the new surroundings; it’s battling the ghosts of her past. With low self-esteem and a deep-seated mistrust of others, Vicki struggles to change her life significantly.
Then, she fosters Gunner, a rescue dog who is less trusting than herself, and through this, she meets Daniel, a recently divorced man with a wounded heart. For six weeks, this unlikely trio heals and blossoms, until Daniel is gone, leaving a hole in Vicki’s life that challenges her newfound strength. When her past rears its head, she faces a defining choice. Does she have the strength to move forward on her own, or will the shadows of her past pull her back?
Set against the backdrop of a frigid Montreal winter, this story is a reminder that sometimes, the most profound relationships are fleeting. Yet these brief encounters can forever alter the course of our lives.
Summer Breakdown (LMNO Publishing. June, 2022)
By Colleen Temple
This summer doesn’t just unearth the past, it threatens to unravel Sabrina’s life completely.
Her alcoholic father is dying, she hasn’t seen her family in years, and she’s only surviving motherhood thanks to bottomless cups of coffee and secret cigarettes. After years of trying to avoid her issues, she finally comes face-to-face with them on a reluctant journey back to Seaside, Massachusetts. And this time — she doesn’t run away.
But returning home sends Sabrina spiraling. Watching her father die is overwhelming. Living under her mother’s reign is suffocating. And finding out her dead sister Coraline’s secret brings up fifteen years of unresolved grief. This trip forcibly lifts Sabrina from her fog and drops her directly into chaos, past traumas, and the arms of her high school ex-boyfriend.
Summer Breakdown is a raw and moving story about the complexities of family, marriage, humanity, and realizing no one is as perfect as they want you to think.
Begin Again (KDP Amazon. April, 2020)
By Kimberly Ellen Dredger
‘Imagine yourself as a young widow, leaving the home you came to as a bride. Imagine depending—with all your heart—on your dog, your mother-in-law, and a couple of new friends. Now, imagine yourself losing them all.
Begin Again, set in the beautiful mountain valleys of western Montana, is a novel of loss, healing, love, and growth. Montana June McPherson survived the death of her young husband only through the love of her yellow Labrador, Ranger, and the help of her mother-in-law, Maura. Nine months into her widowhood, she moves from the farmhouse she and Logan cherished to Missoula.
During the next year, June experiences shocking dangers, friendship, new love, disillusionment, and more sadness. How, after months of feeling abandoned, can she conquer her own grief and fear? Can she become confident enough to embody her husband’s last words to her: “Montana June, Begin Again”?’
When Robins Appear (Red Adept Publishing, October, 2020)
By Densie Webb
With a lucrative freelance career and a loving family, Deborah Earle has a life many women would envy. But her daughter, Amanda, is heading to college soon, and Deborah worries about having an empty nest. She thinks another child might be the answer. Her husband, Richard, however, may not be willing to start over so late in life.
Amanda is excited about attending NYU next year, but she meets Graham, a handsome older boy, falls hard, and considers postponing her education to stay close to him. Her mother takes an instant dislike to Graham, but Amanda refuses to let her keep them apart.
As Deborah watches her daughter rush headlong toward heartache on an all-too-familiar path, the secrets lurking in Deborah’s past continue to echo in her present. When tragedy strikes, Deborah faces a future she could never have imagined.
