Rising high school senior Emily felt lucky until her mother's death, but now, with childhood friend Blake, she sets out to accomplish every exciting, scary, and intimidating task on her mother's bucket list.

In 1974 Manhattan, a radical young Irish monk struggles with personal demons while making his home among Bronx prostitutes; a group of mothers shares grief over their lost Vietnam soldier sons; and a young grandmother attempts to prove her worth.

He was a man who didn't deserve a second chance. But he needed one… Emily and her husband Sandy Portman seemed to live a gracious if busy life in an old-world, Upper West Side apartment in the famous Dakota building. But one night on the way to meet Emily, Sandy dies in a tragic accident. The funeral isn't even over before Emily learns she is on the verge of being evicted from their apartment. But worse than the possibility of losing her home,...

Poverty-stricken Joseph bravely rides out all the storms life keeps throwing at him.

When market researcher Arthur Cathcart emerged from a coma and set out to track down whoever murdered his wife, the results were far from preordained. Wounded and alone, grief stricken and hiding off the grid, he thought the only mystery was who killed Florencia-and why. But the quest for justice uncovers a host of fresh mysteries, beginning with an elaborate fraud and embezzlement scheme, complete with dummy corporations and offshore numbered accounts....