This month, WFWA is excited to celebrate the diamonds in the rough. We are spotlighting characters who encounter challenges and emerge stronger because of them. Sometimes the challenge is external — war, political upheaval, family dynamics. Sometimes it is internal — vengeance, fears, regrets. Sometimes it is a combination of the two. But in each case, the protagonists must change and grow to overcome them, and in so doing, are honed into shining examples of what we, too, can become.
Make No Mistake by Julie Wise
(Wise Publications, May 2025)
Maggie Carpenter has faced it all — death threats, blackmail and financial disaster — building an international women’s rights organization over decades. The speed with which the newly elected President of the United States eliminated women’s rights caught her by surprise. With Congress, the Supreme Court and the police under his control, his plan to entrench white conservative ideals across the country seems unstoppable.
But he has underestimated Maggie.
Her call to action, code name “Book Club”, sparks a revolution and a coalition of unlikely allies including an undercover agent, an investigative reporter, and the First Lady. As the protest movement gains ground, Maggie receives information that changes everything and forces her to choose between justice and revenge.
Polite Calamities by Jennifer Gold
(Lake Union Publishing, July 2024)
Beneath the Sicilian stars they made a promise — but can love survive an ocean, a war, and the secrets in between?
In 1939, 17-year-old Concetta has just received news that will change her life: she’s leaving Sicily. Her family is moving to America, but they don’t realize that Concetta isn’t leaving just her home behind. She’s also leaving her secret love, Gaetano, the son of a fisherman who her father would never accept. After one final night together, they promise to keep their love alive in the written word, by penning letters to one another in hopes of an eventual reunion one day.
Life in America isn’t easy, and Concetta still dreams of returning home to Gaetano. The letters have become her lifeline in a difficult world. But when war tears their countries apart, Gaetano’s letters no longer arrive. Can Concetta let go of her past, or will she finally find her way back across a war-torn world to reunite with her love?
One Tough Cookie by Delise Torres
(Alcove Press, July 2023)
All cookies are made with love — even if twenty-seven-year-old Karina Cortés doesn’t believe in the concept. For her, a simple life with no attachments is a good life. Karina is able to secure an incredible and well-paying job at Singular Cookies, Inc., a small family-owned cookie manufacturing plant in Fort Pierce, Florida. And although the founders of the company treat her like family, Karina insists she doesn’t need or want one. Not after her mother chose a man over her own daughter, pushing the young Karina to move out and make it on her own.
And she couldn’t be happier with her single life, unlike her friends, whose lives revolve around men. Work and play collide when she meets the company’s hot new mechanic, Ian Feliciano, who stirs up feelings she tends to avoid. Karina knows she shouldn’t date him, but she’s strong; she’ll never become pathetic like her friends or, especially, her mom.
As Karina battles her heart, she’ll have to decide whether to continue holding on to deeply ingrained beliefs that keep everyone at bay, or learn that love is not as dangerous as she fears, an in the end, it is our history — our singular recipe — that shapes how we live.
Unbecoming Emma by Kelly Byrne
(Two Pens Press, August 2024)
In the charmingly odd small town of Calypso Springs, Emma Rosen’s once-quiet life becomes a whirlwind of magical chaos after her father’s death. Curious letters and bouquets materialize from nowhere, but most baffling, her father has become their backyard willow tree.
When Cassie McCormack, the insufferable mother-tornado Emma never knew, unexpectedly arrives in town very much alive, and harboring an agenda, it’s not a heartfelt reunion. Emma shuts her out, but she doesn’t stay out for long. Cassie and Bob, Emma’s beloved dog, both fall ill with a mysterious sickness and Emma discovers the unexpected connection between them that’s brought pain to the McCormack women for generations.
Desperate for answers about how to save them, Emma unravels the mystery of her past, one lie at a time, and suddenly questions everything she thought she knew about her family and herself.
With their hourglass running out of sand, they learn the key to their survival lies locked in an enchanted box. Can mother and daughter forgive the sins of the past and open it before it’s too late?
The Promise Between Us by Barbara Claypole White
(Lake Union Publishing, January 2018)
Metal artist Katie Mack is living a lie. Nine years ago she ran away from her family in Raleigh, North Carolina, consumed by the irrational fear that she would harm Maisie, her newborn daughter. Over time she’s come to grips with the mental illness that nearly destroyed her, and now funnels her pain into her art. Despite longing for Maisie, Katie honors an agreement with the husband she left behind — to change her name and never return.
But when she and Maisie accidentally reunite, Katie can’t ignore the familiarity of her child’s compulsive behavior. Worse, Maisie worries obsessively about bad things happening to her pregnant stepmom. Katie has the power to help, but can she reconnect with the family she abandoned?
