Sunflower Beach

Beth Bonhall seems to have the world - and her four dogs - on a leash: she's a brilliant and successful engineer, married to a smart man who loves science and history, has a tight circle of friends and financial security. Underneath the perfect patina simmer fertility struggles, a reluctance to let her friends in on her troubles, a complaining and bored husband, and well-meaning but seemingly wacky in-laws. Beth isn't the only one hiding the truth. As lie after lie is revealed, Beth's carefully curated "perfect" world begins to crack and she must navigate something new and terrifying: living the truth. Never Just One overlaps part of the timeline of the first book in the series, Falling Feathers, and focuses primarily on the marriage and close friendships of Beth.

Fifty-five-year-old college librarian Alex Bonhall is sick of her job, bored with herself and simmering with resentment. Her husband is self-absorbed, her adult children are intimidating, and her best friend borders on bullying ... and everyone has an opinion on what's best for Alex. After yet another trip to the dentist for the painful effects of grinding her teeth, Alex takes the first halting steps to change her life. Can she move from silently resenting people to speaking out, making changes, and no longer hiding, literally and figuratively, from even her family and best friends? Alex's journey back to the free-spirited woman she used to be is a cascade of changes that surprise everyone -no one more than Alex herself. If you've ever felt trapped by your own choices, limited by other people's definition of who you are, and yearned for the adventurous life you'd imagined you might have... Come along with Alex on her hike into freedom. Falling Feathers is the first book in the Sunflower Beach series by Dolores Puterbaugh, a Florida-based psychotherapist, author and painter.

Gloria Newsommer runs her family the way she ran her kindergarten class - or at least she imagines she does. She has firm ideas on what's best - from handling the stoned teens inside the camel costume at Christmas Eve Mass to what her daughter should wear to work as an elementary school guidance counselor. Gloria lives in secret fear of life being out of control. Then her husband has a heart attack while driving and suffers serious injuries in the subsequent accident, and Gloria's world becomes more and more disorderly. Her adult children and husband are suddenly impossible to manage, one of her closest friends seems to be having a midlife crisis, and even the grandchildren are changing. Having lost control, Gloria must sort out how to stop letting fear control her, and how to enjoy, rather than merely try to manage, the events of her life.