The Single Mums Book Club

Three friends, three single mums, one quest to find love...

Your personality is a gift, not a liability. This book helps you uncover and embrace the hope, laughter, and joy of using your unique gifts to parent your children. Life as a mom is LOUD, but you long for quiet. When the volume of family life clashes with your personality, frustration, guilt, and overwhelm naturally result. In Introverted Mom, author Jamie C. Martin lifts these burdens from your shoulders, reminding you that your steady strength is exactly what your family needs in this chaotic world. Jamie shares vulnerable stories from her own life as well as thoughts from other introverted mothers, letting you know you're not alone. Her practical suggestions and creative inspiration are enhanced with quotes and insights from four beloved writers--Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, L. M. Montgomery, and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Together, Jamie and this band of fellow introverts share their wisdom on . . . Believing that you're enough Self-acceptance that leads to freedom Navigating heartache and disappointment Stretching out of your comfort zone Connecting with God as an introvert Cultivating calm wherever you are Defining for yourself what really matters Whether you've just realized you're an introvert, or if you've known it all along, this book is for you. It's time to honor who you are and savor life as an introverted mom. *Note: Written from a Christian perspective

'An intimate guide to resilience and healing.' Juanita Phillips, author of A Pressure Cooker Saved My Life 'With strength, insight and candour, Jacinta Tynan has single-handedly shifted the stigma around single parenting and repositioned it not as a failure, but as a purposeful and optimistic life choice . . . Jacinta brings her trademark wit and heart to a handbook for all those whose lives are not necessarily broken, but a different shape of whole.' Angela Mollard, News Corp journalist So, this isn't at all what you had in mind, or where you thought you'd end up . . . as a single parent, raising kids on your own - at least some of the time. You're battling the day-to-day grind, making life-defining decisions while helping with homework, shoelaces and Book Week costumes, all the while working and maybe even having a social life. It can be arduous, lonely and overwhelming. But it can also be liberating - not just adapting to your new normal, but wholeheartedly embracing it. What if you saw your circumstances as an opportunity for new beginnings and a call to step up in ways you never thought possible? In The Single Mother's Social Club, journalist Jacinta Tynan interviews experts and single mothers to share the best advice for thriving when you're the only adult in the home, along with her own experiences of making it as a single mum. You can look back and lament. Or you can join the club.

In the next book in the Half Moon Hollow paranormal romance series, Libby (a widow-turned-vampire) struggles with her transition, and finds out it sucks to be the only vampire member of the PTA… Widow Libby Stratton arranged to be turned into a vampire after she was diagnosed with late-stage cancer. It wasn’t the best idea she’s ever had, but she was desperate—she’s not about to leave her seven-year-old son to be raised by her rigid, overbearing in-laws. On top of transition issues, like being ignored at PTA meetings and other mothers rejecting her son’s invitations for sleepovers, Libby must deal with her father-in-law’s attempts to declare her an unfit mother, her growing feelings for Wade—a tattooed redneck single dad she met while hiding in a closet at Back to School Night—and the return of her sire, who hasn’t stopped thinking about brave, snarky Libby since he turned her. With the help of her new vampire circle, Libby negotiates this unfamiliar quagmire of legal troubles, parental duties, relationships, and, as always in Molly Harper’s distinct, comedic novels, “characters you can’t help but fall in love with” (RT Book Reviews).

Trustworthy Stepfamily Expert Offers Single Parents a Guide to Dating Single parents who are dating or want to begin a dating relationship wonder, How will dating affect my children and my parenting? They probably have figured out that "dating in a crowd" is complicated. Now they're looking for help. Ron Deal, who has counseled single parents and remarried couples for many years, helps single parents--as well as those who date them--navigate the potential pitfalls involved. He gives perspective on when a relationship may be harmful to the children as well as how it can be a blessing to all. Always at the forefront is the goal of strengthening families. Includes questions for individual or group study.

“This groundbreaking work will give voice to an enormous population of women who are struggling to understand themselves in the face of their fathers’ absence.” —Claire Bidwell Smith, author of The Rules of Inheritance and After This When Motherless Daughters was published 20 years ago, it unleashed a tsunami of healing awareness. When Denna Babul and Karin Smithson couldn't find the equivalent book for fatherlessness, The Fatherless Daughter Project was born. The book will set fatherless women on the path to growth and fulfillment by helping them to understand how their loss has impacted their lives. A father is supposed to provide a sense of security and stability. Losing a father comes with particular costs that vary depending on the way he left and how old a girl was when she lost him. Drawing on interviews with over 5000 women who became fatherless due to death, divorce, neglect, and outright abandonment, the authors have found that fatherless daughters tend to push their emotions underground. These issues in turn become distinct patterns in their relationships as adult women and they often can't figure out why. Delivered with compassion and expertise, this book allows readers support and understanding they never had when they first needed it, and it encourages the conversation to continue.

Campbell Harrison is obsessed with books. So, when she quits her day job, leaving behind her dysfunctional family, and decides to move to a small town where no one knows her and she knows no one, she breathes relief for the first time in years. With plans to open up a brick and mortar bookshop, she gives up most of her life's savings to sign a year-long lease on a space in an old building downtown. She doesn't think twice about it. It's been her dream for as long as she can remember and now is not the time to start second guessing her decision to move. But shortly after, Campbell realizes she may have bitten off more than she can chew, even with the town's support in her little, but big dream. When the charming Bishop Graham, a veteran-turned firefighter with a past he'd rather not talk about, shows up on the stoop of her bookshop late one night at closing, Campbell all but dismisses him as an annoying customer. But the more she sees him around the small town, the more curious she becomes about who he is, and why he too came to this middle-of-nowhere town to escape. With just a few months left on her lease and the holidays quickly appreaoching, Campbell has been dreading some big conversations. What is her next step? What is it exactly is it she's been running from? Where does the bookshop stand when her lease is over? With growing anxiety and anticipation over what is to come, Campbell finds herself longing for a sign that she is exactly where she is meant to be.

'All those things no one ever tells you about motherhood. It's like secret mothers' business. Lots of my friends had babies before me, but not one of them ever told me it would be this hard...It's like a code of silence.' The Mothers' Group tells the story of six very different women who agree to regularly meet soon after the births of their babies. Set during the first crucial year of their babies' lives, The Mothers' Group tracks the women's individual journeys-and the group's collective one-as they navigate birth and motherhood as well as the shifting ground of their relationships with their partners. Each woman strives in her own way to become the mother she wants to be, and finds herself becoming increasingly reliant on the friendship and support of the members of the mothers' group. Until one day an unthinkably shocking event changes everything, testing their bonds and revealing closely held secrets that threaten to shatter their lives. The Mothers' Group is an unflinching and compelling portrait of the modern family in all its complexity and intensity: love, sex and marriage and all the joys and tensions of raising children in an increasingly complicated world. Moving, provocative, tender and utterly gripping, The Mothers' Group will draw you in and never let you go.

Status Update: I’m going offline for a while... Wish me luck! xx

*The #1 Digital Bestseller!* ‘Funny and poignant with a gloriously realistic cast of characters. I followed Charlotte's journey avidly, cheering her on all the way. An unputdownable read.’Rachel Burton, author of The Many Colours of Us Don’t get mad, get even...