In Lauren Appelbaum’s The Holiday House Swap, two homes, two holidays, and one unprompted switch change everything for two women. When Phoebe is fired right before the holidays, the last thing she wants is to face her family – so she impulsively decides to swap homes with Arden, a teacher desperate to escape her holiday blues. Unexpectedly, two love stories unfold. Shaken to the Core: A Novel, Dara Levan’s story of grief, resilience, and the power of love introduces us to Joy Stern, a free-spirited photographer, and her architect husband, who didn’t have children in their plan. But when Joy’s mother dies suddenly something changes, and capturing life in photos is not enough. In Evening Begins the Day, Jessica Brilliant Keener directs the spotlight toward two families in crisis. Reeling after discovering her husband’s infidelity, Rachel Cohen escapes to a rental house in idyllic Woodbury, Massachusetts, near Boston. Here, colleague and next door neighbor Cynthia Meyer seems to have it all. But pretenses shatter the day an ambulance pulls up to the Meyers’ home to take Cynthia’s daughter away on a stretcher.
