Unsettling — Lynda Sandoval

Lucy, the commitment-phobe, is about to do something she never thought she would: get hitched. She has fallen in love -- with the right man. Only there's one problem: every first marriage in her family has ended in divorce. Every single one. She thinks her family is cursed, and most everyone who knows them agrees.

The issue: does Lucy really want to go through with getting married to Mr. Right, if it'll only mean that marriage will end in a division of assets?

Her three best friends -- Cristina, Mercedes, and Annette -- believe that Lucy's marriage is a blessing and are determined to get Lucy to the altar, despite the fact that the wedding has come at a particularly bad time in all of their lives.

Cristina, the beautiful, married into Texan aristocracy, has two perfect children, a perfect dog, a perfect cat, and a perfect wardrobe. So when her husband retires from professional baseball, the boredom of her perfect life begins to wane on her self-esteem, and she turns to the unimaginable -- shoplifting. Ugh.

Cue in Mercedes, the driven. This self-made publishing mogul has a no-holds-barred ambition that makes her the Cruella De Vil of the magazine world. After her power-biz beau dumps her, she finds herself a thrice-divorced horror of a person, whose fuel is a potent mix of martinis and Vicodin. Oh no.

Bringing us to Annette, the homemaker. This thoughtful, working-class mom has devoted her entire life to raising her five beautiful daughters. Feeling taken for granted, Annette is just about to go on Domestic Goddess Strike when her eldest daughter drops a bomb -- she's fallen in love with another girl. Yikes.

So when Lucy bolts after the wedding, each of her friends' secrets come spilling out. As a group they decide their only alternative is to embark on the unthinkable: a journey to the mountains of New Mexico, in search of a reclusive spiritual guru who is renowned for being able to change people's lives.

The quest is not what they expect, but it's an odyssey that strengthens the bonds of their friendship and ultimately enables each of them to begin accepting herself and who she is as well as the life she leads. Through laughter, love, and a little bit of magic, Unsettling is a novel that will make you want to pick up the phone and call everyone you ever felt close to, over and over again.