Unmarried women

bluepiano: One of the two protagonists was married for a bit before starting a successful business, remaining (iirc) single till death. Victorian but excellent.

spiphany: Children meet two elderly siblings (a bachelor and a widow) who are the only inhabitants of an abandoned vacation community.

spiphany: Anne herself is an incurable romantic, but she is adopted and raised by a middle-aged brother and sister pair.

spiphany: Ayla is raised by a medicine woman whose husband was killed and her brother, a shaman.

spiphany: No love interest here (although I gather the author adds one in one of the sequels)

Dilara86: A single woman looks after her orphaned nieces

spiphany: Nan chooses her career as a doctor over marriage.

spiphany: Features two maiden great-aunts and one widowed one (plus a decidedly bachelor uncle).

spiphany: Three adopted girls are raised by an unmarried woman and her childhood nanny. Other unmarried female mentors abound: two retired professors who board in the house; the head of the dance academy.

ManWithAnAgenda: Ann, Julia, Hester

spiphany: Woman leaves her career and worldly life behind to become a nun.

spiphany: After a brief arranged marriage, narrator lives alone and keeps busy by doing translations.

spiphany: The three child protagonists are all essentially raised by single mothers (widowed, divorced, or with a father who is present only a few weeks a year)

spiphany: Protagonist is a single mother; the plot focuses on her career rather than relationships.