The Secret of Joy
From the author of See Jane Date (2001) and The Solomon Sisters Wise Up (2003) comes the story of two women at a crossroads in their lives who discover they are half-sisters. The last thing Rebecca Strand expects to hear from her dying father is that he had an affair when she was two years old that resulted in the birth of a child—a daughter Daniel Strand never met. After Daniel dies, Rebecca heads from New York to Maine to find her sister, Joy—despite the protests of her practical boyfriend, Michael. Rebecca is crushed to find that Joy doesn’t really want anything to do with her, but she’s not ready to leave Maine yet and go back to her job, or Michael, whom she’s becoming increasingly disillusioned with. Joy reluctantly invites Rebecca on a singles bus tour she hosts, and Rebecca finds herself more at home with Joy and her friends than she is with her life in New York. Another warm, winning entry from popular chick-lit author Senate. --Kristine Huntley