Lisa Tucker

Sure, we were a small family, but it wasn't lonely. We had the endless stream of my sister's customers and, of course, the music. Every day, all day, our stereo would play and Mary Beth would talk about the lyrics, what they really meant. Leeann lives with her beautiful older sister -- the world's first and only "song reader." Everyone in their small town thinks Mary Beth is special, and Leeann does, too. Mary Beth helps people figure out how they really feel by using the songs they can't get out of their minds. And her advice is always right. But when Mary Beth makes a terrible mistake and half the town -- including the family of the one boy Leeann cares about -- turns against Mary Beth, Leeann will have to rethink everything she knows about her own family. She will have to be the stronger sister for a change. But she will also have a chance to discover that even an "ordinary" girl like herself can sometimes figure out what the music really means...

The Song Reader

When their beloved young son disappears from their home, Kyra and David Winter struggle to safeguard their family while combing through their respective pasts to figure out whether David's troubled ex-wife or a member of Kyra's estranged family may be responsible. By the best-selling author of The Promised World. 35,000 first printing.

A Novel

The Winters in Bloom

Once Upon a Day

Bestselling author Lisa Tucker's new novel tells the story of three old friends who are forced to confront what they truly believe in when a 10 year-old homeless boy disrupts their carefully organised lives.

The Cure for Modern Life

After the accidental death of her parents, Emily retreated to their home, where she freelances for an online greeting card company and tries to come up with words for feelings she can no longer feel. Jules climbed his way up to creative director of an advertising agency; he had power, a girlfriend, and a great apartment in New York, when he started having the panic attacks that would leave him in a tiny sublet, unemployed and alone. But when Emily and Jules both join an online board for agoraphobics, what begins as friendship quickly develops into something much more. Now if only they can find the courage to leave their “safety zones” and actually meet for the first time... Witty, wistful, and deeply moving, “Agoraphobics in Love” is an O. Henry story for the twenty-first century. In sparkling prose, Lisa Tucker perfectly captures the miracle of two lonely people finding each other—and finding their way back to life.

An eShort Story

Agoraphobics in Love

Your heart is pounding. You feel as if you can't breathe. A strange uneasiness takes over, and your body rages with fear. Your mind is engulfed with one overwhelming thought: I must be dying. If those words strike a chord with you, you might be suffering from panic attacks. If you've began avoiding any place or situation because you feel these sensations, you may have agoraphobia. It's important to know that you are not alone. Author Lisa Tucker invites you to take a glimpse inside the walls that held her captive for years: a life of panic attacks that led to agoraphobia. Terror paralyzed her. When her grandmother was hospitalized, Lisa was unable to go upstairs to the hospital room. When her friends asked her to go with them to the mall, it couldn't be too crowded, and Lisa had to know where all the exits were. When her daughter's school had activities, Lisa held on to the hope that they would be outside. Many told her to 'get a grip.' Many, including Lisa, didn't understand what was going on with the debilitating panic. It destroyed relationships, ended her career, and kept her on the outskirts of everything—until she found power over the panic. While struggling with this gripping fear, she desperately searched for answers that would bring freedom from her self-made cell—sometimes even meeting with a counselor outside in the freezing winter to avoid a panic attack. Looking for an Exit: From Panic to Empowerment sheds light on her experiences and reveals that peace is truly on the other side of the panic.

From Panic to Empowerment

Looking for an Exit

Tara McCarthy

Pamela Ribon

Heather Swain

Elise Juska

Say "I do" to five surprising stories of women grappling with love and marriage and whether to walk down the aisle or run away. In Elise Juska's "Perfect Weather for Driving," Megan and Joel's sunset fender-bender makes for a great drunken story at his friend's wedding, but the reality is hardly romantic. Stuck in a New England hotel waiting for the verdict on their Volvo, the two are forced to take stock of their own damaged relationship -- and whether it's too late to fix it. In Tara McCarthy's "Losing California," engaged surfer Alison is convinced that Michael Madsen -- a member of her favorite band -- is her soul mate. Unfortunately, he's not her fiancé. So Alison flies to Nova Scotia, where Michael lives, because she's either right or she's wrong -- and she better find out before the wedding. The bride-to-be in Pamela Ribon's "Sara King Goes Bad" has always done the right thing but decides it's important to know what it feels like to be reckless for once. And so two weeks before her wedding, she indulges in an unforgettable night of sex, drugs, and petty crime. In Heather Swain's "The Happiest Day of Your Life," Annie and Ben plan a simple ceremony at an apple orchard. But when Annie loses perspective -- and everything that can go wrong does -- she's forced to rethink why she wanted a wedding in the first place. The "Emily & Jules" of Lisa Tucker's story are two lonely people who meet on an online bulletin board for agoraphobics. But when Emily is invited to her estranged brother's wedding -- and it's clear across the country -- both she and Jules may be forced to change their ways. Will any of these heroines get to the church on time? Cozy up with Cold Feet and find out.

Cold Feet

When her beloved twin brother stages a suicide by instigating a gun fight with the police, Lila Cole is shocked to discover disturbing facts about her twin's relationships with his wife and children, a situation for which she risks her job and marriage to find answers. By the best-selling author of Once Upon a Day.

The Promised World

Rejected by his charity-minded ex-fiancée for his corporate beliefs, high-powered executive Matthew finds his life turned upside down by his unwitting involvement with a pair of homeless children. By the author of Shout Down the Moon. Reprint.

Since childhood, Lila has been closer to her twin brother Billy than anyone in the world. They even took a vacation together when Lila and her husband Patrick got tenure. To Patrick, his wife's relationship with her twin has always been something of a mystery. He knows Lila and Billy's parents died when they were teenagers, but he doesn't understand why Lila never talks about her parents. He also doesn't understand why books have always been so crucially important to the twins. A math teacher, Patrick is particularly mystified by Lila's obsession with stories. Then one afternoon, Billy points a rifle out the window of a hotel across from an elementary school. Billy is shot, "suicide by police," Lila is told. Billy's death devastates her, but it his reason for wanting to die that both stuns and horrifies her: he'd been charged with child abuse, of endangering the life of his middle child and namesake, eight-year-old William. In the aftermath of her twin's death, Lila falls apart. Soon her job, her marriage, her carefully constructed past-and even her sanity-are put at risk, as she tries to make sense of her life with Billy and the long-buried secrets of their childhood. While Patrick attempts unsuccessfully to save his wife, Lila's slowly comes face to face with who her brother really was-only to realise that there may be another person in danger now. Billy's favourite child, her nephew William, may be about to re-enact the same story Billy taught her to believe in so many years ago: a story of betrayal and lost innocence that must be redeemed by a violent act that could destroy them all.

Jennifer Weiner

Félix J. Palma

The Atria Summer Beach-Read Bag: a free collection of 11 excerpts from novels by some of our favorite writers. There’s nothing that goes better with beach season than a delicious novel. With that in mind, we present The Atria Summer Beach-Read Bag: a free collection of 11 excerpts from novels by some of our favorite writers. Selections include: Swim by Jennifer Weiner Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner The Map of Time by Félix J. Palma Between You and Me by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus The Winters in Bloom by Lisa Tucker The Island House by Posie Graeme-Evans Triangles by Ellen Hopkins The Time in Between by María Dueñas The Lost Angel by Javier Sierra Devil’s Wake by Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes Ten Girls to Watch by Charity Shumway No matter whether you’re on a plane traveling to your getaway destination or on your couch planted firmly in front of the air conditioner, we’ve got a great story guaranteed to whisk you away on a reading vacation.

Lisa Tucker

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