About this series
Three women, one menopause support group, and a whole lot of hot flashes.
Emily's perfect plan for becoming a mommy in her twenties has just been shattered by a cancer-removing hysterectomy, and her anger is all-consuming.
Michelle's been laser-focused on getting a promotion... until early menopause (at thirty-nine??) hit her hard last year. Now that she can't have a baby, she's obsessed with them. And also with getting that promotion.
Sixty-four-years-young Brenda takes care of everyone, whether they want her to or not. She's actually finished with menopause, but she's faking symptoms so she won't lose the group and the opportunities for "helping" others it provides.
The three of them and their fellow group members work through career crises, marriage disasters, and the world's worst birthday celebration as they learn together what it means to be a woman in menopause and beyond.
Titles in the series (17)
- Finding My Happy Pace (Toronto Series #8)
If thirty-year-old Megan were any more of a doormat, she'd have footprints on her back. She helps anyone and everyone, no matter the cost to herself, and she's always been that way. Even the thought of withholding her assistance makes her feel sick. Worse, it makes her feel like she's a bad person, selfish and unkind. She takes up running purely to avoid gaining weight, but as she trains with her cute but heartbroken coach Andrew she becomes more able to do things she'd never thought she could, both physically and emotionally. The day before she runs her first marathon, though, her best friend's demands result in the biggest challenge yet to her developing assertiveness and Megan must decide: cave in as she always has before or stick to her new-found 'happy pace' in running and life.
- Pink is a Four-Letter Word (Toronto Series #11)
Nothing ever comes easily for Larissa, a makeup artist who both loves and fears pink and all things feminine. She longs to start her own business as her late dad had wanted but never quite gets there, her attempt to host her best friend's son's christening is a disaster, and the only dates she can get are dreadful. When she's offered a job teaching English in Kuwait, at first she says no because her life is bad enough at home without throwing sand and camels into the mix. But when everything goes wrong at once, she can't stay in Toronto another second so accepts the job in the hopes that she will be a new and better person there. But can she really leave her psychological baggage behind, or is it true that 'wherever you go, there you are'? The sequel to "Good to Myself"!
- Go Small or Go Home (Toronto Series #2)
Massage therapist Tess Grayson has long dreamed of turning her hobby of building intricate miniature dioramas into an art career. She's finally ready to grab for that tiny brass ring, but her potential new massage client shakes her resolve. Forrest Williams had finally healed from the car accident that killed his fiancée, but a new injury now threatens his professional hockey career. Even allowing for everything he's suffered, the depth of the emotional and physical pain Tess senses in Forrest at their first meeting shocks her, and she puts aside her artistic aspirations for two months to help him recover. When Forrest shows Tess's dioramas to his mother, who owns a top Toronto art gallery, she agrees to sell Tess's work but her rules and restrictions stifle Tess's creativity. Giving up the career of her dreams is unthinkable, but losing the freedom and joy she'd always found in her art is unbearable, and Tess can't seem to find a way to have both at once.
- Planning to Live (Toronto Series #3)
Thirty-something Rhiannon is an obsessive planner and goal-setter, but somehow nothing she achieves ever seems good enough to her. Determined to lose forty pounds for her best friend's August wedding, Rhiannon flees her parents' house in a Christmas-day blizzard to avoid the temptation of all her favorite foods, but her car skids off the deserted road into a tree. Unable to escape the car, with her leg trapped and bleeding and her cell phone out of reach, Rhiannon is at first certain she'll be rescued and writes notes to her friends and family to pass the time. As the weather cools and her condition deteriorates, though, she recognizes the possibility that her life might be over. Interspersed with increasingly desperate escape attempts, her letters become deeper and more heart-felt as she comes to see what really matters in life. She's spent her whole life planning but hasn't ever really lived. Will she get the chance to change that?
- Everybody's Got a Story (Toronto Series #12)
Both personally and professionally, Alexa knows all too well the power of words. Two years after her boyfriend Christophe's vicious attack, she's still trying to see herself as more than simply 'his victim', still trying to figure out her own story. After his trial, she moves from New York City to Toronto in an attempt to start over, but his words cling to her and even in a new country she can't see how to move into relationships with the new people in her life while hiding the secret of Christophe's worst offense. She can't hide that secret from her coworker Jake, though, because the news buff has recognized her from the coverage of the assault and trial and knows every word she can't bring herself to say about her ordeal. With Jake's help, can Alexa reclaim her story and her life?
- All At Sea (Toronto Series #9)
Melissa and Owen met on New Years' Eve and he proposed on Valentine's Day. Now it's March, and they're about to set sail on a two-week Caribbean cruise - and get married on the last day at sea. Though their relationship's moving fast, Melissa's wanted to be married for years and she knows the smart stable Owen is a great catch so she's sure they'll be fine. At least, she's sure until she meets his brothers on the cruise and discovers she's dated both of them: Austin, the fun-loving flirt whose kisses still haunt her dreams, and Nicholas, the sweet horror movie fan whose lack of ambition upset her in ways she still doesn't understand. Melissa expected to spend tons of time onboard with her fiancé, but he instead spends nearly his every waking moment in the casino displaying a previously unseen love of gambling. This surprise, and the time she spends with Nicholas and with Austin, makes her question everything she thought she wanted. Her relationship with Owen was just fine before, but suddenly 'just fine' doesn't seem good enough to keep a marriage alive for a lifetime. Melissa has two weeks to decide: stay with Owen or jump ship.
- Blank Slate Kate (Toronto Series #7)
Waking up with a strange man is scary. Realizing you lost fifteen years of your life overnight? That's terrifying. With her memories from seventeen to thirty-two gone, Kate has no idea who she is and where she belongs. As she begins to fall for the man who found her, she wonders if she forgot those years for a reason. Should she keep trying to retrieve her original self, or start a new life?
- Fifty Million Reasons (Toronto Series #13)
Angela has typical lottery-player plans: help friends and family, give more to charity, and escape her rut. But when she wins big, she faces angry relatives, her own unexpected greed, and a lawsuit from the person who put her in that rut. Almost nobody treats her normally, and they've got fifty million reasons not to. She can buy anything she wants now, but can she buy the life she needs?
- Good to Myself (Toronto Series #10)
Internet columnist Lydia Grange is on the brink of the promotion she's wanted for two years. As lead columnist of the Toronto Times' women's issue site, she'll have the fame she longs for, the money to fuel her shopping obsession, and all the free shoes she can wear. Only one obstacle remains: beating her coworkers (Sasha the perfect mother and Patricia the bargain-obsessed senior) in a competition. All three must be 'good to themselves' for four weeks and teach their readers to do the same, and at the end of the time their sexy boss Felix will pick the winner. Lydia's certain she will be that winner, and not just because she knows Felix wants her on an unprofessional level. She's never anything but good to herself, so how could she not win? Fancy drinks with extra whipped cream, the cheesecake she adores, the exquisite but pricey purse she's been craving? With the help of her nice-guy buddy and coworker Percy, she'll just indulge herself even more and make sure her fans do the same. In a month both the job and her long-desired fling with Felix will be hers. It'll be the easiest four weeks of her life. Unless it turns out there's more to self-care than sex and shopping and sugar.
- Stir Until Thoroughly Confused (Toronto Series #4)
Mary's given up everything, including an unsatisfying marriage, to become a chef. But the career comes with a side dish: Kegan, her sexy but controlling new boss. They're soon in a relationship, and in all-too-frequent arguments, and when it becomes clear they can't work together and be together Mary faces a dilemma: keep her dream job or her dream man?
- Life, Love, and a Polar Bear Tattoo (Toronto Series #1)
When Candice's in-laws were killed eight months ago buying a huge faux polar bear rug for her Christmas present, she lost more than just two of her favorite people: she lost her husband Ian as well. After only two years of marriage, their guilt and pain have left them living together but apart, unable to really talk for fear of what they'll say to each other. Ian leaves for a month-long contract overseas, and Candice plans to use the time apart to decide whether her marriage can be saved. When her ex walks back into her life as the new client at work, ten years more attractive yet saddened by his own recent loss, she's left wondering what she really wants from life and love.
- A Life That Fits (Toronto Series #5)
Twenty-eight-year-old Andrea returns home from a business trip to find Alex, her boyfriend of fourteen years, nervously waiting for her. Assuming he's finally going to propose, Andrea's instead horrified to learn he's been cheating on her and is leaving to be with the other woman, who he calls Andrea's opposite. At first Andrea's paralyzed by shock and sadness, but the business analyst soon forms a plan: change every last detail of her life and become her opposite so Alex will come back to her. It's a challenge at first, but soon Andrea's loving the changes she's making, the new activities she's doing, and the new people in her life. But will she change enough to get Alex back? And if she does, will he fit into the wonderful new life she's creating for herself? ("A Life That Fits" is book 5 in the "Toronto Collection" set of loosely connected novels. While most of the books are not sequels, your favorite characters will reappear across the books in the collection, letting you follow their lives after their original book ends.)
- Live Out Loud (Toronto Series #6)
Amy's a hobbyist songwriter with big dreams, but not the usual 'making it as a musician' kind. No, Amy wants to honor her late best friend by finally starting the support center for teenage girls they'd dreamed of when they were just girls themselves. She doesn't know where to start, but when one of her songs becomes an overnight internet sensation she sees a quick path to the money she'll need to make the center a reality. As white-hot pop sensation Misty Will, Amy finds a whole new world opening to her and realizes she loves being on stage holding an audience spellbound. She also loves how her young fans look up to her and draw strength from her songs, but of course they don't know the awful thing she did after her friend died and how badly she could have used a support center herself. She knows, though, and also knows that she simply has to leave her new pop princess identity behind and become Amy the center director as she's dreamed of for eight years. Doesn't she?
- Plan Overboard (Toronto Series #14)
All Corinne has ever wanted was the role of clarinetist for the Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra. The clarinet, and working to master it, is all she has left of her father, who abandoned the family when she was a little girl. But after failing to clinch an open spot in a heated audition, her life-plan soon goes overboard. Not only does she break up with her longtime boyfriend, Clay, she also makes a decision that will alter her destiny in ways she never imagined... After a medical procedure and a couple of months of changing everything in her life, a pregnant Corinne meets Melissa and her gorgeous flirt of a brother-in-law, Austin, on a cruise. The heat of the Caribbean sun soon combines with a mutual attraction to create a sizzling connection neither Corinne nor Austin can deny. But when the truth comes out about Corinne's condition, will lifelong playboy Austin man up? Or will Corinne's hope for a future beyond a shipboard romance prove yet another PLAN OVERBOARD? The sequel to “All at Sea”!
- Safe Harbor? (Toronto Series #15)
Celia's always thought she was just emotional. But when she witnesses a near-murder and finds herself feeling everything the victim feels, she wonders if she's losing her mind. There's only one place she feels peaceful: near her new coworker. He's just been left at the altar and he should be devastated but instead he's quiet. Calm. Too calm? Or could he be the safe harbor she desperately needs?
- Game of Pies (Toronto Series #16)
"It's the Game of Pies: You win or your relationship dies." Thirty-somethings Brittany and Kyle have only been together four months, but she knows he's the one. Hosting Thanksgiving dinner at their Toronto apartment, with the food catered since neither of them are good cooks, will be a perfect way for their relatives to meet and become one big happy family. Marilyn and Virginia have hated each other for nearly sixty years, since Virginia got herself pregnant by Marilyn's boyfriend then married him. Both too stubborn to leave their small Ontario town and let the other one win, their feud rages on whenever they encounter each other and particularly at the town's annual pie-making contest, which only they enter because nobody else dares to get caught in their crossfire. When the relatives arrive on Thanksgiving, the truth comes out: Marilyn is Brittany's grandmother, and Virginia is Kyle's. And for once Marilyn and Virginia agree on something: no relation of that horrible woman is good enough for my grandchild. Desperate to stop the unending guilt trips but not willing to cut the grandmothers they love from their lives, Brittany and Kyle accept an invitation to the ultimate battle: the pie-making contest. If they win, the grandmothers agree to accept their relationship, or at least pretend to, and be civil to each other. Lose? The grandmothers will never again be in the same room, so Brittany and Kyle will spend every holiday separately while listening to their grandmothers criticize their partners. With only two months to learn to bake a better pie than women who've been at it for decades, can Brittany and Kyle win the "Game of Pies" and save their relationship?
- The Menopause Support Group
Three women, one menopause support group, and a whole lot of hot flashes. Emily's perfect plan for becoming a mommy in her twenties has just been shattered by a cancer-removing hysterectomy, and her anger is all-consuming. Michelle's been laser-focused on getting a promotion... until early menopause (at thirty-nine??) hit her hard last year. Now that she can't have a baby, she's obsessed with them. And also with getting that promotion. Sixty-four-years-young Brenda takes care of everyone, whether they want her to or not. She's actually finished with menopause, but she's faking symptoms so she won't lose the group and the opportunities for "helping" others it provides. The three of them and their fellow group members work through career crises, marriage disasters, and the world's worst birthday celebration as they learn together what it means to be a woman in menopause and beyond.
Heather Wardell
Want a free monthly story and updates about Heather's books? Copy bit.ly/HW-NL into your browser's address bar to sign up.Heather is a natural 1200 wpm speed reader and the author of twenty-two novels. She came to writing after careers as a software developer and elementary school computer teacher and can’t imagine ever leaving it. In her spare time, she reads, swims, walks, lifts weights, crochets, changes her hair colour, and plays drums and clarinet.Generally not all at once.
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