From New York Times bestselling author Marie Bostwick comes a beautiful novel of sisterhood lost and found--and of the ways we create the rich tapestries that encompass the past and the future...  The economic downturn has hit New Bern, Connecticut, and Tessa Woodruff's herbal apothecary shop, For the Love of Lavender, is suffering. So is her once-happy thirty-four-year marriage to Lee. They'd given up everything to come back to New Bern from Boston and start their business, but now they're wondering if they made the right decision. To relieve the strain, Tessa signs up for a quilting class at the Cobbled Court Quilt Shop, and to her surprise, rediscovers the power of sisterhood--along with the childhood friend she thought she'd lost forever... Madelyn Beecher left New Bern twenty years ago and never looked back. But when her husband is convicted of running a Ponzi scheme and she's left with nothing but her late grandmother's cottage, she is forced to return to the town she fled. Unfortunately, the cottage is in terrible shape. Madelyn's only hope is to transform it into an inn. But to succeed, she'll need the help of her fellow quilters, including the one friend she never thought she'd see again--or forgive. Now Madelyn and Tessa will have to relive old memories, forge new ones, and realize it's possible to start over, one stitch at a time--as long as you're surrounded by friends... Praise for Marie Bostwick and her Cobbled Court Novels "Bostwick is a topnotch storyteller...Enjoy hours of storytelling that will warm your heart and help renew your belief that people can be good, if given the chance."  -- Armchair Interviews "Heartwarming...Bostwick's contemporary New England quilters series is an unbreakable thread of friendship and faith."  -- Publishers Weekly "As their tenuous bonds grow stronger, each woman discovers how much they can help each other with life's many challenges. Bostwick's writing is warmly nourishing, emotionally compelling...quiet yet powerful." -- The Chicago Tribune "The women in A Single Thread will feel like your own girlfriends--emotional, funny, creative and deeply caring.  It's a story filled with wit and wisdom. Sit back and enjoy this big-hearted novel, and then pass it on to your best friend." --Susan Wiggs, New York Times bestselling author "Bostwick beautifully captures the very essence of women's friendships--the love, the pain, the trust, the forgiveness--and crafts a seamless and heartfelt novel from them."  --Kristy Kiernan, author of Matters of Faith "[A] buoyant novel about the value of friendship...a tantalizing book club contender."  -- Publishers Weekly “Bostwick’s series continues to introduce interesting characters and compelling stories that show an appreciation for female friendship as well as a love for the art of quilting. Readers who have exhausted Jennifer Chiaverini’s Elm Creek Quilt novels or Clare O’Donohue’s Someday Quilt mysteries will definitely enjoy Bostwick.”  -- Library Journal “...Uplifting.” -- RT BookReviews 4 star review Marie Bostwick was born and raised in the northwest. In the three decades since her marriage, Marie and her family have moved frequently, living in eight different states at eighteen different addresses. These experiences have given Marie a unique perspective that enables her to write about people from all walks of life and corners of the country with insight and authenticity. Marie currently resides in Portland, where she enjoys writing, spending time with family, gardening, collecting fabric, and stitching quilts. Visit her at www.mariebostwick.com. Threading the Needle By MARIE BOSTWICK KENSINGTON BOOKS Copyright © 2011 Marie Bostwick All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-7582-3217-5 Chapter One Madelyn August 2009 I try to resist the urge, but as I sit in the offices of Blackman, Janders, and Whipple, located on the forty-eighth floor of the Mancuso Tower, a cathedral of excess located on Fifth Avenue at Fifty-sixth Street, I can't stop myself from adding it all up in my head and marveling at the true price tag of what Sterling used to call "a lifestyle." How did I fail to see it before? And how am I going to live without it? How am I going to live at all? The Oriental rug that sits under the antique mahogany partners desk of my attorney, Eugene Darius Janders, is hand-knotted silk and worth thirty thousand dollars at least—enough to buy a new car. It's very fine, though not as fine as the one in the library in our house in the Hamptons. I mean, the house that used to be ours. And if I added up the rest of the furnishings in Gene's office, it would probably be enough to buy a nice little cottage in the country for cash. Not a cottage in the Hamptons, mind you, but someplace quiet and removed from the city. Connecticut, maybe. Then there's his wardrobe. Gene's suit is summer-weight wool, tan, two button, side-vented, custom made, probably in London, priced somewhe