Disappointed when his parents go off to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and leave him behind with his Great Aunt Hortense, young Walter encounters mystery and intrigue when he meets Old Zeb, a shipbuilder with a secret dream.

When 28-year-old Agnes Blythe, the contented bifocals-wearing half of an academic power couple, is jilted by her professor boyfriend for the town Pilates instructor, her future is suddenly less than certain. So when her glamorous, eccentric Great Aunt Effie arrives in town and offers a job helping to salvage the condemned Stagecoach Inn, what does Agnes have to lose? But work at the inn has barely begun when the unlikely duo find the body of manipulative...

"With her divorce settlement about to run out and a mortgage she can't afford, Robyn Caldwell needs a plan. But how's she supposed to think when her daughter has become the most demanding bride ever, her son won't even consider college, her best friend is on the brink of marital disaster and her ex is making a bad decision that could bring everything crashing down on Robyn's head? When her great-aunt Lillian invites her to Santa Barbara for the summer,...

Leaving his parents, his Mad Uncle Jack, and his Even Madder Aunt Maud at home at Awful End, Eddie Dickens, along with the color-blind Lady Constance, boards the ship the Pompous Pig on a mission to America.

"When he realizes that his grandfather's stories of an enchanted circus are true, Micah Tuttle sets out to find the mysterious Circus Mirandus--and to use its magic to save his grandfather's life"--

Eleven-year-old aspiring basketball star and interior designer Lucy Wu is excited about finally having her own bedroom, until she learns that her great-aunt is coming to visit and Lucy will have to share a room with her for several months, shattering her plans for a perfect sixth-grade year.

"Agnes Blythe and her glamorous Aunt Effie must take a break from restoring their inn to rake in the clues when a local mechanic is murdered"--Amazon.com.

"Smarting from her recently canceled wedding and about to turn forty, Laurie Sassalyn returns to her Maine hometown of Calcasset to handle the estate of her great-aunt Dot, a spirited adventurer who lived to be ninety-three. Alongside boxes of Polaroids and pottery, a mysterious wooden duck shows up at the bottom of a cedar chest. Laurie's curiosity is piqued, especially after she finds a love letter to the never-married Dot that ends with the line...

Eight-year-old Ellie has to give up her life-long dream of getting a puppy after her parents agree to take in the dog that Great-aunt Margaret can no longer keep.

Sara and Susan share tea, cookies, crab cakes, and stories about hats when they visit their favorite relative, Aunt Flossie.