14 SERIES | 66 BOOKS | CONTEMPORARY WOMEN'S FICTION

Stories of friendship, family, and life's next chapters.

Fourteen series of contemporary women's fiction, set in Canada, Scotland, England and beyond.

Meet Ruth Hay

Ruth Hay is a Scottish-born Canadian novelist whose path to fiction came later in life. A retired teacher-librarian with a lifelong love of books, reading, writing and storytelling, she spent her career writing for educational purposes before turning to the kind of family-friendly stories she had always enjoyed reading. She describes her first book as a dream come true after retiring from teaching and writing for others. That debut, Auld Acquaintance, launched her Prime Time series and tells the story of Anna Mason, a woman in her 60s who has lost her confidence after a divorce and receives an unexpected legal letter saying she has inherited property in Scotland. Hay has drawn on her own travels for the series, which takes readers through Scotland, England, Greece, Italy and Egypt.

From there, her output grew steadily. The Prime Time series wrapped up at 10 titles in 2022 with Anna's Armchair, the same year she reached 50 book titles on Amazon. Other work includes the Seven Days series, which brings four women back together on a luxury holiday in the English Lake District, and Harmony House, the first book in the Home Sweet Home series, in which two retired widows reject the idea of a retirement community and set out to build a shared home designed exactly to their needs. That series is set in London, Ontario, and one reviewer compared it to a cozy mystery without the murder. Among her personal favourites, she lists Gwen's Gentlemen, Mariette (her first crime story), and a six-book run featuring Justine, an empathic cat lady. Her books centre on older women, friendship, second chances and family secrets, and the Prime Time series has been especially popular with Ontarians who have Scottish family roots.

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