Circle of Three By: Patricia Gaffney

Newly widowed, Carrie is overwhelmed by the guilt of knowing her marriage died long before her husband's fatal heart attack. Struggling to go on for the sake of her teenaged daughter, Ruth, and her overly possessive mother, Dana, Carrie slowly emerges from the sorrow that has embraced her and begins to pull her life together, with the help from an unexpected sources. Jess, Carrie's first love, re-enters her world and offers her the lifeline that will help her pull herself out of the drowning place she's been in.

Inspired with new purpose, and a passion she thought she'd never have again, Carrie must find a way to weave her new life—and love—into a family struggling with their own pain and disappointment, who find her newfound happiness is threat to their own precarious balance.

Wise, moving, and heartbreakingly real, Circle of Three offers women a deeper understanding of one another, of themselves, and of the perplexing and invigorating magic that is life itself.

Goodreads: 3.46

Paperback, 2001