"What's the opposite of premonition? There are people who 'know' things in advance, or say they do. I am not one of them. In fact, I frequently don't 'know' something even after it's already happened.... All of which is a roundabout way of saying that when my well-ordered life started unraveling, despite ample hints and warnings, I didn't have a clue."After more than a decade alone, attorney Lynn Bartlett was ready to shake up her reliably comfortable life. So when successful, kind-hearted Jack Hughes—with his home in Silicon Valley (the perfect place to launch her new law practice), his safely remarried ex-wife, and his two grown children ("They love you already")—proposed, it seemed like a dream come true. After all, how hard could it be? All you had to do was be nice to everybody and you'd all get along.Welcome to the perilous world of the second wife, where nothing turns out quite as expected. With an unemployed, unmotivated stepson who declares he's...

From the author of Secret Lives of Second Wives: "a can't-put-it-down novel . . . for every woman who's had to mend a broken heart and get even" (Redbook). Newly separated from her lawyer husband, Caroline James heads to the spa for a makeover and a massage, looking for a tonic to her battered pride. Instead she encounters Eleanor Hampton, the ex-wife of her spouse's law partner, a woman so bitter she makes Medea look like Anne of Green Gables. Watch your back, Eleanor tells her. You won't believe the stuff they've pulled. When Eleanor turns up suspiciously dead in her hot tub, Caroline opens the Pandora's Box of documents the vengeful socialite has sent as proof of the firm's unscrupulous divorce tactics. Between fighting her divorce proceedings, raising two children, and mending her broken heart, Caroline sleuths her way through upscale La Jolla, California, to unravel the truth. For the first time in a long time, she...

"A slick, sassy book" from the author of Secret Lives of Second Wives. "Todd's characters are dead on" (The Oklahoman). This wasn't the way it was supposed to be. Once upon a time, Becky Weston had the life of her dreams—then the Volvo, the beach house, and the luxurious lunches disappeared when her husband went looking for a much younger trophy wife. To top that, her ex is now deceased, and the purse strings of the children's trust fund rest in the greedy hands of Number Two, leaving Becky truly out in the cold. Having put herself through six years of night law school, Becky is now the oldest new associate in a small, aspiring law firm, where she is expected to put her life on hold and her nose to the grindstone, a prospect that's neither anatomically advantageous nor a great deal of fun. Rescue appears in the form of a new client—bestselling author, glamorous anti-aging guru, and Becky's college archnemesis, Bobbie...

"One part mystery, one part soap opera, one part identity crisis and one part California eccentric make STAYING COOL one fun read." —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY "A stylish, provocative story no mystery fan should be without." —RENDEZVOUS Art consultant Ellen Santiago Laws thinks the spark has gone out of her life. Five years a widow, she has a grown daughter, a senile mother and very few prospects for adventure. But after she serves on a jury that convicts a man for murdering the flashy head of an exclusive matchmaking service catering to the wealthy, overworked Southern California elite, she discovers that not all the evidence came out in the courtroom—and the victim might not have been quite as virtuous as the prosecution made her out to be.With the help of an unlikely group of friends (including a weight-obsessed cardiologist with a penchant for Beach Bimbos, a high school frenemy, and a decorator with an uncanny resemblance to Vlad the Impaler), Ellen begins her...