Book picks similar to
Things I Want You to Know by Martina Reilly


fiction
at-home
family-drama
chick-lit-womens-fiction

The Last Week Of May


Roisin Meaney - 2007
    Now what?As May fits into her new life we meet her friend Pam and her husband Jack - but why is Pam terrified to tell Jack that she's pregnant?And then there's Denis and Bernard, May's next-door neighbours, going about their business oblivious to the deadly threat that lurks close by.There's Paddy, who lives on his own yet never seems to be at home.And Paul, three doors up, willing to risk everything for an affair with Carmel, the young teacher who has yet to learn that there's a price to pay for having something that shouldn't be yours.But what May can't figure out is who gave her the beautiful shell necklace and was it really meant for her?On this one particular week, all is about to change for the inhabitants of Kilpatrick and May discovers that while only love can break your heart, only love can put it back together.

Happy Families


Janey Fraser - 2013
    Even worse, her mother has a new boyfriend: the notorious child expert Dr Know, who dishes out hard-line advice to the nation. Could parenting classes control her kids – and save her marriage?Andy’s wife is due to run a Perfect Parents course at the local school. But when she scarpers, he’s left to look after their two teenage daughters – and face his own childhood demons.Vanessa has found love, second-time round. But one night, six-year-old Sunshine is deposited on her doorstep with a message from Vanessa’s estranged daughter, 'Please look after her'. This time she's determined to get it right.Can Bobbie, Andy and Vanessa really learn the secret of raising a happy family?

The Secrets We Keep


Colette Caddle - 2000
    The Gatehouse attracts a strange clutch of guests who, once ensconced, never want to leave. There's Hazel, a shy artist, and her sweet, silent daughter Gracie. Sandra, a brash American, wants to know everything about everyone. Then there's wise old easy-going PJ, who's seemingly part of the furniture. But Erin's fragile happiness is thrown off-balance by the arrival of A-list Hollywood actor Sebastian Grey. Erin finds herself drawn to this handsome enigmatic man, who used to walk with a swagger but now prowls the country lanes with haunted eyes. What trauma could have brought about this devastating change? Sebastian isn't the only one in the Gatehouse with a secret. Why is Hazel cast so adrift? Where does PJ go each week without fail, and what really brought Sandra to Dunbarra? As Erin finds herself embroiled in her guests' secrets she starts to ask herself: will she be ready to reveal her own?

Killer Diamonds: A Sexy Thriller of Passion, Revenge and Murder


Rebecca Chance - 2016
    When she decides to auction her multimillion dollar jewellery collection for charity, there's no shortage of people eager to buy a piece of her incredible history. Young, ambitious Christine Smith is a jewellery expert working for a centuries-old auction house. But in a world of aristocratic snobs, her working-class origins are holding her back. She's desperate to secure the sale of Vivienne Winter's gem collection: it's set to be the biggest auction since Elizabeth Taylor's. However, meeting the Hollywood star is just the first hurdle Christine has to jump. Vivienne's handsome, spoilt and sexy playboy grandson Angel is the heir to her fortune. The anger and resentment he feels towards his grandmother for selling what he'd counted on as one day being his inheritance sets in motion a series of events with deadly consequences. Angel is totally unscrupulous, and no one will emerge from his plotting unscathed. For it seems that family secrets cut sharper than diamonds . . .

The Trouble With Marriage


Debby Holt - 2008
    Ten years on, the sparkle has faded - household bills, household chores, two small children and a dog have seen to that - but Tilly is convinced their love can survive even the attentions of interfering in-laws and a glamorous ex-girlfriend.

take a chance


Sarah Webb - 2005
    Gemma Redden, aka Agnetha, has just broken her ankle and finding a new singer to fill her white platform boots at such late notice isnt going to be easy. Desperate times call for desperate measures and the youngest Redden sister, Mia, reluctantly agrees to don the blonde wig and sky-blue hot pants. For Mia, a shy piano teacher who has felt third best all her life, this is her big chance to prove herself to her two big sisters, Wendy and Gemma. Meanwhile, Mias oldest friend, Alva Ryan, is having a life crisis of her own. Her previously devoted boyfriend, Sean, has just walked out, and this time hes not coming back. Things come to a head when Wendy has a terrible accident. Because Wendy has been keeping a secret; a secret that could blow the band apart and devastate the close-knit Redden sisters. But secrets have a way of coming out when you least expect them to. And sometimes even the best of sisters gets it horribly wrong.

Nobody Loves A Ginger Baby


Laura Marney - 2005
    Not being happy all the time makes them stressed out of their tights. Carol practises uninhibited sex which ends with her panty liner stuck to the bottom of someone's shoe. Donnie, after a mystery bite in a third world country, thinks he's incubating a nest of spiders up his bum. Daphne gets fat. She makes soup all the time and wonders if Woolworth's sell a hose pipe to fit a Vauxhall Vectra. Pierce is a poet; a fat balding womaniser who's only steady relationship is with a cup at the sperm bank. He's the only one not on anti-depressants, and he's the hero.

This Is Life


Shakara Cannon - 2012
    Sequel to This Can't Be Life

Feels Like Maybe


Claire Allan - 2008
    When she finds out she is pregnant, he decides the relationship is most definitely off and leaves her before she has time to say 'Mothercare'.Desperate to get him back – and convinced she can – Aoife doesn’t tell her family back home in Derry about her impending arrival until she is cradling newborn Maggie in her arms. She then has to return home to face the music – baby in tow and sanity absent without leave.Meanwhile her best friend has been keeping a secret of her own. Beth and her husband Dan have been trying to get pregnant for the past two years. According to the doctors there is no medical reason for their failure to conceive. And if there is no reason, there can’t be a problem, can there? Add a gorgeous gardener, an overbearing mother, a perfectly annoying sister-in-law and a well meaning aunt – all with secrets of their own – into the mix and you have 'Feels Like Maybe'.

A Husband's Confession


Zoë Miller - 2014
    Now, years on, Ali's greatest fear is that her happiness and contentment might be taken away from her. But just as Max's star is rising, unsettling incidents at their artisan bakery in Dublin's creative quarter threaten to damage the reputation of the bakery. Finn and Jo were running away from heartache when they met in Australia over 20 years ago. But now Finn is in shock after the demise of his gritty role in a popular television crime drama, and Jo fears for him and their marriage. Then an accident on a Saturday night has devastating consequences for both families, tearing their lives apart in ways they never imagined.

The Living End


Lisa Samson - 2003
    One Last Adventure.Pearly Laurel is devastated by the death of her beloved husband of thirty-five years. The two had always said they couldn’t live without one another, and Pearly has no desire to even try. Then, in the midst of her grief, Pearly finds a tattered list in Joey’s pocket, entitled, “While I Live, I Want to….” His ultimate to-do list sends her off on a mission to accomplish Joey’s last unfulfilled goals–along with a few of her own–before arranging her own death. But the people she meets along the way have something else in mind. Can their unexpected gifts, secrets long hidden in Joey’s journal, and memories from the rich life they shared convince Pearly that, despite her pain and grief, life is still worth living?

Talk Before Sleep


Elizabeth Berg - 1993
    "Until that moment, I hadn't realized how much I'd been needing to meet someone I might be able to say everything to."They met at a party.  It was hate at first sight.  Ruth was far too beautiful, too flamboyant.  Not at all Ann's kind of person.  Until a chance encounter in the bathroom led to an alliance of souls.  Soon they were sharing hankies during the late showing of "Sophie's Choice," wolfing down sundaes sodden with whipped cream, telling truths of marriage, mortality, and love, secure in a kind of intimacy no man could ever know.  Only best friends understand devil's food cake for breakfast when nothing else will do.  After years of shared secrets, guilty pleasures, family life and divorce, they face a crisis that redefines the meaning of friendship and unconditional love.

This Last Kiss


Madeleine Reiss - 2016
    But, try as she might, she can't run from true love forever.

The Husband Hour


Jamie Brenner - 2018
    They marry just out of college as Rory, a star hockey player, earns a spot in the NHL. Their future could not look brighter when Rory shocks everyone-Lauren most of all-by enlisting in the U.S. Army. When Rory dies in combat, Lauren is left devastated, alone, and under unbearable public scrutiny. Seeking peace and solitude, Lauren retreats to her family's old beach house on the Jersey Shore. But this summer she's forced to share the house with her overbearing mother and competitive sister. Worse, a stranger making a documentary about Rory tracks her down and persuades her to give him just an hour of her time.One hour with filmmaker Matt Brio turns into a summer of revelations, surprises, and upheaval. As the days grow shorter and her grief changes shape, Lauren begins to understand the past-and to welcome the future.

The Summer I Dared


Barbara Delinsky - 2004
     Julia, a forty-year-old wife and mother, has always taken the path of least resistance. Pigeonholed by her controlling family and increasingly distant husband as "loyal" and "obedient," she realizes in the aftermath of her brush with death that there is more to her -- and to the world around her -- than she ever imagined. Feeling strangely connected to Noah, the divorced, brooding lobsterman who helped save her life, and to Kim, a twenty-one-year-old whose role in the accident and subsequent muteness are a mystery, Julia begins to explore the unique possibilities offered by the quiet island of Big Sawyer, Maine. Suddenly, things that once seemed critical lose significance, and things that seemed inconsequential take on a whole new importance. With each passing moment, each new discovery, Julia grows more sure that after coming face-to-face with death, she must have more from life. Resolving to make things right for the future and drawing on an inner strength she never knew she possessed, Julia passionately awakens to a new world, fearlessly embracing uncertainties in a way she couldn't have imagined only a few weeks ago. Set in a beautifully rendered island off the coast of Maine, where lobstermen leave with the tides each morning to haul and reset their traps, and neighbors gather each night to feast on the catch of the day, Barbara Delinsky's The Summer I Dared is a deeply moving story of the risky but rewarding search for self, a story of survival, and of the irrepressible ability of the human spirit to rebound from disaster and to create life anew.