Book picks similar to
A Ruling Passion by Judith Michael


romance
judith-michael
fiction
michael-judith

The Girl She Used to Be


David Cristofano - 2009
    In this book, a woman who has lost her identity to the Witness Protection Program flirts with trusting her life to the Mafioso hired to kill her.

The Courage Tree


Diane Chamberlain - 2001
    Which is why her mother, Janine, reluctantly agreed to let her go on the weekend camping trip with her Brownie troop. But when Janine arrives to pick up Sophie after the trip, her daughter is not among the others. Somehow, along the forested route from West Virginia, Sophie has disappeared.Sophie is no ordinary 8 year old. She suffers from a rare disease, and Janine has recently enrolled her in an experimental treatment as a last effort to save her life - despite the vehement objections of her ex-husband, Joe, who believes conventional medicine is the only route to take. The only person to support Janine in her decision is Lucas Trowell, someone familiar with the herbs used in the treatment. Lucas has been encouraging Janine to keep Sophie in the program, and, indeed, the little girl has been showing remarkable improvement. All her mother's instincts tell Janine that Sophie is alive, but time is running out. Without her treatment, it's only a matter of days before Sophie's illness will claim her life. As Janine, Joe and Lucas embark on a desperate search to find Sophie, envy and suspicion grow between the two men, casting doubts on each other's true motives for helping Janine.Deep in the forest, another drama unfolds. Sophie has found refuge in a remote cabin inhabited by a woman who wants nothing to do with the little girl. She's desperate to help her own daughter, who has been wrongly imprisoned for murder and who, after escaping, is on her way to join her mother. Sophie's arrival puts in jeopardy her daughter's future, but the mysterious woman is as determined to save her daughter as Janine is to save Sophie.Only one of them can succeed.

Dazzle


Judith Krantz - 1990
    At twenty-nine, this playful, gifted, and thoroughly sexy woman has become one of the most successful celebrity portrait photographers in the world.But her charmed career and her dashing private life, which includes three fascinating --- and fascinated --- men, are rocked when an unexpected tragedy leaves Jazz to battle her father's vengeful ex-wife and the machinations of her own half-sisters. At stake is the Kilkullen family ranch, a three-billion-dollar paradise of unspoiled California land that developers all over the world would do anything to possess ... and Jazz will do anything to protect. Absolutely anything.

The Emperor's New Clothes


Victoria Alexander - 1997
    Mistaken for the Countess of Bridgewater, Ophelia saw no reason to reveal herself until she had stripped the hamlet of its fortunes and escaped into the sunset. Raised from grifter to gentlewoman, the fiery-haired actress couldn't help but chuckle at teaching a lesson to a town so sold on appearances. But the free-spirited beauty almost swallowed her script when she met Tyler, the town's virile mayor.When Tyler Matthews returned from an Ivy League college and his year abroad, he simply wanted to settle down and enjoy the simplicity of ranching. But his aunt and uncle were set on making a silk purse out of Dead End, and Tyler was going to be the new mayor. It was a job he took with little relish—until he caught a glimpse of the village's newest visitor. And as Tye got to know the "Countess" Ophelia, he grew to love her. But trusting her was a different story, and Tye swore that before he was through, he'd uncover her deepest secrets—and teach her that it's what's underneath that counts in matters of the heart.

Second Nature


Alice Hoffman - 1994
    As Robin impulsively draws this beautiful, uncivilized man into her world-meanwhile coping with divorce and a troubled teenage son-she begins to question her wisdom and doubt her own heart, and ultimately she changes her ideas about love and humanity.

Homecoming


Belva Plain - 1997
    . . two brothers embittered by a breach of ethics, honor, and trust.  The grandchildren. . . one young couple on the verge of divorce; another, lovingly united against the parents who have tarnished their lives.  As the ill-fated meeting hurtles toward a bitter and abrupt conclusion, not even Annette Byrne's indomitable will can heal the rift--until a shattering event alters the landscape forever.

Garden of Lies


Eileen Goudge - 1989
    Rachel, in the lap of Manhattan luxury, an ice princess determined to be a great doctor. Rose, in the New York slums, yielding to passion too young, and fleeing heartbreak to become a star lawyer. When they both fall in love with the same fascinating man, they are brought face to face with the truth about each other and themselves.

Heiress


Janet Dailey - 1987
    Abbie Lawson is the gently bred daugter, raised in the lap of luxury. Rachel Farr is the love child of Dean Lawson and a fiery artist. Rachel's life has been modest and lonely--until now. For the father's death will set off a fierce competition between the sisters, and the stakes are nothing less than all that is Texas at its most magnificent--its oil fields, its Arabian horse farms, and its extraordinary men--men who will love two women who should have been the best of friends. Instead, they are locked in a battle to prove whom their father loved best by fighting to inherit his legacy....

We Were On a Break


Lindsey Kelk - 2016
    'Wasn't that enough of a break?' 'I don't mean that kind of break.' There's nothing worse than the last day of holiday. Oh wait, there is. When what should have been a proposal turns into a break, Liv and Adam find themselves on opposite sides of the life they had mapped out. Friends and family all think they're crazy; Liv throws herself into work - animals are so much simpler than humans - and Adam tries to get himself out of the hole he's dug. But as the short break becomes a chasm, can they find a way back to each other? Most importantly, do they want to?

The Vintage Teacup Club


Vanessa Greene - 2012
    They decide to share it - and form a friendship that changes their lives.Jenny can't wait to marry Dan. Then, after years of silence, she hears from the woman who could shatter her dreams.Maggie has put her broken heart behind her and is gearing up for the biggest event of her career - until she's forced to confront the past once more.Alison seems to have it all: married to her childhood sweetheart, with two gorgeous daughters. But as tensions mount, she is pushed to breaking point.Dealing with friendship and families, relationships and careers, highs and lows, The Vintage Teacup Club is heart-warming storytelling at its very best.

That Camden Summer


LaVyrle Spencer - 1996
    But she's about to show an entire town what one good woman can do.

Just Breathe


Susan Wiggs - 2008
    With both Sarah and her cartoon heroine undergoing fertility treatments, her fiction often reflects her reality. However, she hadn't scripted her husband's infidelity. In the wake of her shattered marriage, Sarah flees to the coastal town in Northern California where she grew up. There, she revisits her troubling past: an emotionally distant father, the loss of her mother and an unexpected connection with Will Bonner, the high school heartthrob skewered mercilessly in her comics. But he's been through some changes himself. And just as her heart is about to reawaken, Sarah makes a most startling discovery. She's pregnant. The winds of change have led Sarah to this surprising new beginning. All she can do is just close her eyes...and breathe.

Shoot the Moon


Billie Letts - 2004
    In 1972, windswept DeClare, Oklahoma, was consumed by the murder of a young mother, Gaylene Harjo, and the disappearance of her baby, Nicky Jack. When the child's pajama bottoms were discovered on the banks of Willow Creek, everyone feared that he, too, had been killed, although his body was never found.Nearly thirty years later, Nicky Jack mysteriously returns to DeClare, shocking the town and stirring up long-buried memories. But what he discovers about the night he vanished is more astonishing than he or anyone could have imagine. Piece by piece, what emerges is a story of dashed hopes, desperate love, and a secret that still cries out for justice...and redemption.

The Breakdown Lane


Jacquelyn Mitchard - 2006
    . .Julieanne Gillis's family collects them. An advice columnist for a local newspaper, Julie dispenses wisdom to her readers, but somehow missed the signs that something was wrong in her own home. Devoted to being a good mother and keeping her twenty-year marriage fresh and exciting, she is shocked by her husband's surprise announcement that he needs a "sabbatical" from their life together -- and devastated when he disappears, leaving Julie with no funds to raise two teenagers and a small daughter alone. But it is the discovery that Julieanne suffers from a serious illness that truly crumbles her family's foundation -- setting her children on a dangerous, quixotic journey to locate their missing father . . . before it's too late.

All the Lies We Tell


Megan Hart - 2017
    They’d grown up on a remote stretch of Quarry Street, where there were two houses, two sets of siblings, and eventually, a tangled mess of betrayal, longing, and loss. Tragedy catapulted Allie and Ilya together, but divorce—even as neighbors—has been relatively uncomplicated.Then Ilya’s brother, Nikolai, comes home for their grandmother’s last days. He’s the guy who teased and fought with Allie, infuriated her, then fled town without a good-bye. Now Niko makes her feel something else entirely—a rush of connection and pure desire that she’s been trying to quench since one secret kiss years ago. Niko’s not sticking around. She’s not going to leave. And after all that’s happened between their families, this can’t be anything more than brief pleasure and a bad idea.But the lies we tell ourselves can’t compete with the truths our hearts refuse to let go…