To get to happily ever after, sometimes you need to start from scratch.... Abbey Ross, who runs her own bakery in Oakland, California, is known for her visually stunning wedding cakes. But lately, Abbey's own love life has become stale. According to her best friend, Bendrix, Abbey's not the spontaneous young woman she was when they were teenagers listening to the Cure and creating attention-grabbing graffiti. Of course, her failed relationship with a womanizing art forger might have something to do with that. Nevertheless, it's time for Abbey to step out of the kitchen--and her comfort zone--and Bendrix has even handpicked a man for her to date. Samuel Howard is everything Abbey's dreamed of: handsome, successful, and looking to raise a family. But a creamy icing might be needed to hide a problem or two. When Samuel complains about disrespect for the institution of marriage, Abbey's reminded of her nontraditional family, with thirteen children from various mothers. And when Samuel rails about kids having kids, Abbey thinks of her twenty-year-old sister who's recently revealed her pregnancy. Soon Abbey is facing one disaster after another and struggling to make sense of it all. Her search for love has led her down a bitter path, but with the help of her unique family and unwavering friends, she just might find the ooh la la that makes life sweet. READERS GUIDE INCLUDED

Meet four girls who love shoes: SHOE-LA-LA!"Shoes with zippers, Shoes with straps,Shoes with buckles, Shoes with taps."Prance from page to page in search of the perfect pair of party shoes. Girls of all ages will love to go on a shoe shopping expedition with these four friends, from "fuzzy boots for when it snows" to "ballerinas on our toes." The girls try on every shoe in the store, but "eeny, meeny, my, oh, my [they] just don't know which shoes to buy." With some feathers and glitter, a little bit of glue, and a LOT of imagination, the girls come up with the best shoes of all!

Nancy and her partner for the talent show are very different. They don't have any of the same talents. How will they ever come up with an act?

Max the dog-poet is back, this time in Paris and falling in love, in Maira Kalman's delightful picture book. It's happened. Before you can say "Pepe le Pew," Max the millionaire poet dog has landed in Paris, the city of lights. The city of dreams. Everyone is in a froufrou of delight over Max. There's Fritz from the Ritz, Madame Camembert, Charlotte Russe, and Pierre Potpurri, who wants Max to perform in his Crazy Wolf Nightclub. Amidst the enchantment and beauty that is Paris in the spring, something is missing for Max. Max has made his millions; when will he find romance?

The author of Bonjour, Happiness! offers a revealing foray into French femininity with beauty and style secrets from the women of Paris and beyond. French women seem to have a special knack for life's most important things—food, love, raising children. And in matters of beauty and style, they appear to be at an unfair advantage. But the truth is that French women are not born more attractive than anyone else—and everything they know can be learned. French women learn at a young age how to feel beautiful, confident, and sexy, inside and out. It's an allure that outlasts youth—in fact, some of France's most celebrated women are femmes d'un certain âge. Growing up, Jamie Cat Callan had a French grand-mère to instruct her on style, grooming, and genuinely liking her reflection in the mirror. Now she shares that wisdom along with advice from other French women on fragrance, image consulting, makeup, and more. “This charming foray into French femininity will make a perfect cadeau for any Francophile lady.” —Publishers Weekly

When you’re in trouble and sinking fast, whom do you call? Piper Nelson is stuck. She can’t quite stay away from the husband she divorced. She isn’t always attentive to the high school students she teaches. And even she admits that she’s been drinking too much and seeking out unsuitable men. Piper’s mother, married to a celebrity evangelist, and her sister, who's immersed in plans to wed a professional football player and star in a reality TV show, are both too self-absorbed to sympathize with Piper’s angst. They tell her to get a grip. But how can Piper ever really recover from the blow she suffered five years ago, when a car accident took the life of her young daughter? When Piper’s ex-husband announces that his new girlfriend is pregnant, Piper is forced to take stock. Realizing that it’s time for a change is one thing, but actually making it happen is quite another. And despite what she thinks, Piper can’t do it alone Lucky for her, a couple of crazy, funny new friends are ready to step in when she needs them most and show her how to live and laugh again. CONVERSATION GUIDE INCLUDED

The Everly Brothers—aka Don and Phil to fans with an intimate appreciation for them—seemed to exist almost as an apparition. Emerging within the formative era for young Baby Boomers during the blandly regimented ‘50s, they were a ubiquitous presence, clad in snug suits and skinny ties, hair neatly Brylcreemed, never raising their voices when they sang. The two prim-looking country boys with dark, curiously penetrating eyes and perfectly merged, honey-dipped harmonies, were oddly but comfortably settled as sentimental, soothing, sometimes lovelorn voices of a still-uncharted cultural turf. Magnificent as the duo was, they have until now never received a definitive biography. In Crying in the Rain: The Perfect Harmony and Imperfect Lives Of the Everly Brothers, the details, small and great, roll along on the mighty “Mississippi,” in near novel-like fashion, revealing facts drawn from exhaustive research and first-hand interviews that trace the character and influences of these hardy but flawed men who grew from teenagers to old men before our eyes. Mark Ribowsky’s authoritative book serves as a fitting companion to an unforgettable collection of songs—heard on countless albums, and covered literally thousands of times—whose recording was a long time gone but that will never be forgotten.