Ingeniously plotted and perfectly structured, this captivates from beginning to end.” - Publishers Weekly “ The plucky and principled Sophie (who is hiding a few secrets of her own) captivates from the first page, while naive Belinda and sensitive Kat are standouts. A California native, she attended Point Loma Nazarene University and is also a writing workshop volunteer for Words Alive, a San Diego non-profit dedicated to helping at-risk youth foster a love for reading and writing. Her novels include The Nature of Fragile Things, which earned a starred review in Publishers Weekly The Last Year of the War, named to Real Simple magazine’s list of best books for 2019 A s Bright as Heaven, which earned a starred review in Library Journal Secrets of Charmed Life, a Goodreads finalist for Best Historical Fiction 2015 and A Fall of Marigolds, named to Booklist’s Top Ten Women’s Fiction titles for 2014. She is an author, speaker and writing workshop leader with a background in community journalism. Susan Meissner is a USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction with more than three-quarters of a million books in print in eighteen languages. The fates of these three women intertwine on the eve of the devastating earthquake, thrusting them onto a perilous journey that will test their resiliency and resolve and, ultimately, their belief that love can overcome fear.įrom the acclaimed author of The Last Year of the War and As Bright as Heaven comes a gripping novel about the bonds of friendship and mother love, and the power of female solidarity.

The second is hundreds of miles away in the American Southwest, grieving the loss of everything she once loved. The first, pretty and pregnant, is standing on her doorstep. Sophie discovers hidden ties to two other women.

Then one early-spring evening, a stranger at the door sets in motion a transforming chain of events. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin’s silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin’s odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn’t right. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner

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