Judith Michael is beloved around the world for powerful stories of love and family. Now this renowned author returns with a richly emotional tale of the many kinds of love and the collision of good and evil that threatens to tear a family apart.
Sara Elliott has been forced to give up the life she's dreamed of to return home to Chicago and take charge of her sisters and brother. She finds a job and settles into the house she grew up in, building a life for ten-year-old Doug and teenagers Carrie and Abby.
But Sara has another brother, Mack, now twenty, who left home three years earlier. Suddenly he reappears, cheerful and unconcerned, as if he had never broken his promise to stay and help Sara with the children and the house. With bewildering volatility, Mack swings from kindness to cruelty, affection to hostility, keeping the family always on edge, his past and present a mystery. But with expensive gifts, storytelling, and the excitement of his presence, he is winning over the children, and sometimes the four of them stand together against Sara.
Mack challenges all Sara has achieved in trying to be a mother and keep her family together. And he does it at a time when she is confronted by crises at work that spill over into her home. Suddenly, events seem to be speeding past and Sara feels she cannot slow them down to regain control.
And then, when she thinks her life has room only for work and family, she meets Reuben Lister, a client from New York. As Sara helps him find and furnish a house and explore the city, they discover a closeness neither has known before and share new ways of dealing with conflicts each has always faced alone. Together, Sara and Reuben find answers to the questions: What is a mother? What is a parent? What is a family?
This is Judith Michael's most poignant exploration of the pressures and joys facing modern adults and children, in a story that will resonate with everyone for its universal themes and discoveries.

The Real Mother: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

MICHAEL, Judith

Contemporary

AVON.

Love is never the end of the story, only the begining.Mack Hayden, volatile and dangerous, shows up, all smiles, on Sara's doorstep. Sara has been struggling to build a new life for herself and her ten-year-old brother Doug and teenage sisters Carrie and Abby, after she was forced to give up her dreams and come home to Chicago to take care of them.
Now Mack, the brother who had abandoned them three years earlier, is threatening to undercut everything she does. Swinging dangerously from kindness to mystery to cruelty, he begins to win over the children with expensive gifts and fascinating stories, challenging Sara's efforts to keep the family together.
With events at home and at work seeming out of control, Sara desperately needs an ally. She finds one in Reuben Lister, a transplanted New Yorker, lonely and guarding his own secrets. Dealing with both the past and the present, Reuben and Sara discover a closeness neither has known before, as they find for themselves what truly makes a family.

The Real Mother

United States

Forced to leave medical school in order to care for her young siblings after their mother is placed in a nursing home, Sara Elliott finds her situation challenged by a love interest with questionable family ties and the reappearance of her long-lost brother.

The Real Mother CD

Genre Fiction

HarperAudio

A certain smile

Literary

Little,Brown

A Certain Smile

Crown, Publishers

Bestselling author Judith Michael’s most moving and captivating novel spans the pastoral beauty of the Pacific Northwest . . . the glitter of Broadway . . . the spectacular vistas of Sydney, Australia . . . and the myriad acts of love that will reunite a lost woman with her dreams, her destiny, and the one man who truly believes in her talent–and in their love. . . .When director Lucas Cameron finds letters to his grandmother from her protégé–the brilliant young actress Jessica Fontaine, who had vanished mysteriously after a tragic accident–he is intrigued and determines to find her. When finally they meet, they have one magic week of passion and love. But still Jessica cannot return with Lucas to his world–and he cannot share hers–unless they discover the many kinds of love, and the inner strength, that can triumph over the past and open the way for their hands and hearts to join.

Acts of Love: A Novel

Ballantine Books

Judith Michael's trademark storytelling verve has won this husband-and-wife team an audience of millions. Their tenth novel, A Certain Smile, is a bittersweet story of a perfect but impossible love. Miranda Graham, a clothing designer and the widowed mother of two teenagers, travels to China to work with the factories that will produce her designs. At first overwhelmed by the chaotic foreignness of China, she soon discovers what she never expected or would have believed possible: a passionate, all-consuming love. Yuan Li, son of a Chinese mother and an American soldier, survived Cultural Revolution and now owns a successful construction company. Li and Miranda spend every available moment together, until an intrusive Chinese government, corrupt businessmen, and Li's wildly ambitious son test their love in the complex crucible of politics, and family loyalties.

A Certain Smile (Random House Large Print)

Random House, Large Print

Bestselling author Judith Michael brings together the magic of East and West in a tale of heartwrenching love as vivid and breathless as the pounding energy of exotic Beijing. In a story replete with passion and enduring desire, A CERTAIN SMILE affirms that love has no borders. . . . An American clothing designer and widowed mother of two teenagers, Miranda Graham arrives in China and is immediately overwhelmed by life in this faraway place. Then she meets Yuan Li, son of an American soldier and Chinese mother--and suddenly two worlds, two cultures, and two hearts collide. As Miranda bravely explores vistas beyond the safe, ordered limits of her own life, she is inexorably drawn to Yuan, a man who embodies all the hardship, dignity, and mystery of China. Their love is an unexpected awakening of body, mind, and spirit--even as the intrusive government and Yuan's ambitious son threaten their newfound joy, propelling them toward the most shattering choice two lovers can make.

When modest single mother Claire Goddard wins $60 million in the lottery, her life changes in ways she cannot even begin to imagine. 300,000 first printing. Major ad/promo. Lit Guild & Doubleday Main. Tour.

Pot of Gold

Random House Value Publishing

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by MICHAEL, Judith. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by MICHAEL, Judith

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by MICHAEL, Judith. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Real Mother: A Novel

The Real Mother

The Real Mother CD

A certain smile

A Certain Smile

Acts of Love: A Novel

A Certain Smile (Random House Large Print)

A Certain Smile

A Certain Smile

Pot of Gold