In Meg Waite Clayton’s The Wednesday Daughters (Ballantine, July), Anna Page, Hope, and Julie are lifelong friends who are the daughters of lifelong friends. Each woman faces loss—of loved ones, of their trust in relationships and in themselves—and each is trying to cope while navigating the deep waters of their entangled lives. After the death of Hope’s mother, Ally, they travel to England’s Lake District, where Ally was working on a biography of Beatrix Potter. While cleaning out Ally’s writer’s cottage the women discover a coded journal that suggests a more profound connection to Potter than they expected—as well as family secrets and a possible betrayal. Fans of Wednesday Sisters will relish this new work, which intersperses captivating journal entries within its chapters and easily deserves to stand on its own. Given Clayton’s vivid imagery and rich historical detail, readers will almost be able to see Beatrix and her husband rowing along the tarn at sunset.