Book picks similar to
The Governor's Wife by Amaka Azie


west-africa
africa
african-writers
contemporary-romance

The Bull Rider's Collection


Lynn Cahoon - 2015
    These heroes aren't afraid of danger or a challenge, and neither are the sassy, smart women in their world. Slip on your boots and get ready to crown these men champions of the heart: The Bull Rider's Brother: Lizzie Hudson is enjoying rodeo weekend to start her summer when James Sullivan, the cowboy who got away, walks his Justin Ropers back into her life. Can he learn to redefine family before she gives up on him and marries another? The Bull Rider's Manager: No one knows how tough it is to manage a rodeo rider's career like Barb Carico, who simply wants a break before she has a breakdown. But when she indulges in a little R&R with sponsor Hunter Martin, who's determined to do some unwinding himself, things quickly spiral out of control . . . The Bull Rider's Keeper: Rodeo star Jesse Sullivan isn't afraid of anything . . . except maybe following his secret dream of being an artist. When he decides to take a chance and make an offer on an art gallery, owner Taylor DeMarco teaches him what it means to be truly fearless. Sensuality Level: Sensual

Butterfly Sisters


Jenny Hale - 2022
    So essentially, without the struggle, it never flies.”From the USA Today bestselling author of The Beach House comes a story about family bonds, second chances, and finding out who we really are. Butterfly Sisters is the perfect escape for fans of Susan Wiggs, RaeAnne Thayne, and Susan Mallery.About to land her biggest deal yet, Leigh Henderson is on her game. She’s prepared for this, and nothing can get in her way. Except Rebecca Mayer, who’d sashayed in a few weeks ago with a former client list that would fill the entire hallway to Leigh’s office if she laid it out end to end. When her boss unexpectedly offers the deal to Rebecca and tells Leigh he’s letting her go, Leigh finds herself without a job.But that’s the least of her worries. Her mother has some news that will change everything. She’s asked Leigh and her sister Meredith to meet her at the family cabin on Old Hickory Lake. Not only has Leigh been unable to pin her sister down in years, but going back to the cabin would mean dealing with the loss of her beloved grandmother and also chance running into her old flame Colton Harris, the one love she’s never been able to completely let go of.Will confronting her grief, speaking to her estranged sister, and being forced to face the love she’d left behind help Leigh to learn who she really is? A heartwarming story that will have you laughing, crying, and rushing to those you hold dear. If you loved the Christmas movies based on Jenny’s books and are looking for more feel-good, small-town romance, look no further!

I Swear by Apollo


Margaret A. Ogola - 2005
    In this novel, Ogola tells of the lives of AIDS' orphans Lisa, Johnny and Alicia, and how they are guided to adulthood by their aunt Wandia, an intellectual and independent woman. The author weaves her narrative around the aspirations of her characters and how they develop to find a place in Luo/Kenyan society. A place they seek at the dawn of the twenty-first century, when Kenya is emerging from decades of corruption and deterioration; and in an environment of contradiction and mixed messages, where values and attitudes are continuously being re- examined.

A Bantu in my Bathroom


Eusebius McKaiser - 2012
    Nobody writes like this.’ - Jonathan Jansen Why are South Africans so uncomfortable with deep disagreement? Why do we lash out at people with opposing views without taking the time to engage logically with their arguments? Eusebius McKaiser is on a mission to raise the level of debate in South Africa. He provokes us from our comfort zones and lures us into the debates that shape our opinions and our society. With surprising candour and intensely personal examples, McKaiser examines our deepest-felt prejudices and ingrained assumptions. Don’t expect to read this book and escape with your defences intact. Immensely readable and completely engaging, McKaiser tackles deeply South African questions of race, sexuality and culture, including: •Can blacks be racist? •Why is our society so violent? •Is it morally okay to be prejudiced against skinny lovers? •Why is the presidential penis so problematic? •Is unconditional love ever a good thing? •Is it necessary to search for a national identity?

Degrees of Love


Lisa Slabach - 2017
    Like the shiny new BMW parked in the driveway of the Silicon Valley home she shares with her husband, Matt, and their two boys, Susan Sinclair exudes confidence and style. Newly promoted to a prestigious Senior Vice President position at her firm, Susan is the picture of personal and professional success. Yet appearances are deceiving. With each advance in Susan’s career, Matt has grown more distant. But he refuses to admit there is a problem, and Susan, determined to give her boys the close-knit family life she never had, forces herself to play along. Then she meets her new boss, Reese Kirkpatrick. She and Reese become a crackerjack team, but little by little, pleasure mixes with business. For the first time in a long time, Susan feels seen and appreciated for who she is. In a moment of weakness, friendship becomes something more. Now, unable to stomach the façade her marriage has become yet unwilling to decimate her family by moving forward with Reese, Susan faces a choice that could cost her everything—including her children . . . but possibly bring her more than she can dream.

Beyond the Horizon


Amma Darko - 1995
    It provides an account of the exploitation of women in Africa and Europe, and tells of an immigrant who, having travelled to Germany to find a paradise, finds she has been betrayed by her husband and is forced into prostitution.

Sex, Lies, & Family Vacations


Leslie Langtry - 2012
    Somehow, her family never seems to notice that the laundry gets done, the house is picked up, dinner mysteriously appears on the table, and then cleans up after itself. Instead of being her children's idol and her husband's lover, she's become a funny little footnote in her own life. That is until she takes her children on vacation to Disneyworld in sunny Florida, where she just happens to end up in a hotel room right next to her college flame, Alan James. Old passions ignite and new excitement sparks as Laura and Alan bring new meaning to "The Most Magical Place on Earth." But when Laura and Alan's spouses unexpectedly show up in Florida, a comedy of errors ensues, and only one thing is for certain: Laura's life will never be the same again. Note: This book was formerly published under the title The Adulterer's Unofficial Guide to Family Vacations. What critics are saying about Leslie Langtry's books: "Mixing a deadly sense of humor and plenty of sexy sizzle, Leslie Langtry creates a brilliantly original, laughter-rich mix of contemporary romance and suspense." - Chicago Tribune "Langtry gets the fun started from page one with a myriad of clever details." - Publishers' Weekly "Darkly funny and wildly over the top, this mystery answers the burning question, 'Do assassin skills and Girl Scout merit badges mix…' one truly original and wacky novel!" -RT BOOK Reviews "Another wicked blend of action, romance, mystery and dark humor, Guns Will Keep Us Together gives readers bullets, buff guys and bad boys…I hope the Bombay family continues on with their deadly misadventures. -News and Sentinel

Changes: A Love Story


Ama Ata Aidoo - 1991
    Though her friends and family remain baffled by her decision (after all, he doesn't beat her!), Esi holds fast. When she falls in love with a married man—wealthy, and able to arrange a polygamous marriage—the modern woman finds herself trapped in a new set of problems. Witty and compelling, Aidoo's novel, "inaugurates a new realist style in African literature."

Highland Fling


Emma Baird - 2019
     Gaby's recently split from her boyfriend of ten years and needs to escape fast. Where better than the Highlands of Scotland where she can lick her wounds and recover in peace and quiet? Fate has different ideas in mind. First, there's the rough and ready Jack McAllan who bears more than a passing resemblance to the fabled Jamie Fraser of Outlander fame. He's an important part of the local community, even if he's failed to impress Gaby so far. Who knew a guy could be so rude and taciturn? Then, there's the mystery of the woman whose home she now inhabits. Kirsty's left too many tantalising clues for Gaby to resist. Why did Kirsty run, and does it have anything to do with the red-haired Scot who keeps turning up in Gaby's daydreams much as she tries to resist… Featuring kilts, mist-cloaked hills, lochs where the water runs deep and a little too much whisky, Highland Fling is a sweet, fun-filled romp through Scottish village life, finding love, making a fool of yourself and discovering that an overactive imagination leads you into all kinds of trouble…

Always Yours


Somi Ekhasomhi - 2012
    She loves her life, her job, her friends, in fact, she has everything she wants. What she doesn't have, however, is the man she has been in love with for the past five years.Michael once crushed her feelings, after taking her innocence. After all this time, she should have forgotten him, but she is still desperately in love with him.The best way to get over someone is to see them again, or so they say. So when Sophie engineers a meeting with Michael, all she wants, is to finally be able to forget him, or so she tells herself. But as soon as she sees him again, she realizes that she still wants him, and he seems delighted to see her again. Everything is going well, until he tells her that he is engaged, crushing her hopes again. Now she has to fall out of love with him, as difficult as that is, or give in to the temptation of loving him, even though he belongs to someone else.

The All or Nothing Girl


Amanda Egan - 2014
    What happens when your comfortable life is suddenly denied you?When the Chanel make up’s dried up, the designer gear’s been flogged on eBay and the Persian rug has been well and truly pulled out from under you?Meet Francesca Milton-Harris as she realises that one ‘little mistake’ is going to change her life in ways she could never have imagined.The All or Nothing Girl …because sometimes you have to lose it all to see how much more you can gain.

A Man in Africa


Lara Blunte - 2016
    Chris stopped believing in it long ago. But Africa has a way of calling your bluff...On her wedding day, Reporter Roberta Bovi discovers that the man she has loved for years has been so faithless that she has lived a fictional life, happy only because she was blind.A journalistic assignment in Uganda saves her from facing the man she now needs to divorce: she is to cover a story about AIDS increasing in a country that had previously served as the model for Africa.Roberta has no more illusions about love and fidelity, and the writings of Christopher Burton, a doctor and evolutionary biologist she is going to interview, only convince her further that humans are just apes that shed some hair.Burton may have even fewer illusions than Roberta, but there is a heart beating beneath the white coat of a brave and very attractive doctor.As Roberta stays to help at the hospital where he works, they find it hard to keep away from each other, even as both understand that love always requires a leap of faith.Find out what happens when a woman loses everything, only to find what is truly important.

Susan Mallery Fool's Gold Series Volume One: Chasing Perfect\Almost Perfect\Sister of the Bride\Finding Perfect


Susan Mallery - 2014
    Nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Fool's Gold, California, is a charming town like no other, where newcomers and locals alike find endless�if unconventional�opportunities to fall in love. From Charity Jones, a city planner hired to create jobs that will keep the town's men from moving away, to Liz Sutton, still trying to shed the stigma of being the girl from the wrong side of the tracks, and Pia O'Brian who, despite having a disastrous romantic track record and the parenting skills of a hamster, has inherited three frozen embryos, Fool's Gold is overflowing with quirky characters, passionate moments and heartfelt emotion. Offered here for the first time in collection form, the first Fool's Gold trilogy�plus the bonus novella Sister of the Bride�is the perfect opportunity to discover some new, lifelong friends. Susan Mallery's Fool's Gold Collection, Volume One Chasing Perfect Almost Perfect Sister of the Bride Finding Perfect

Monrovia Mon Amour: Travels in Liberia


Theodore Dalrymple - 2012
    In the film, Johnson – now a Liberian senator – calmly sips a Budweiser as the naked Doe’s ears are hacked off. Unsurprisingly, Dalrymple forms the professional opinion that Johnson is a psychopath.Monrovia was once a peaceful and reasonably ordered city; now, it has been almost completely sacked. Burnt-out cars are everywhere; doors have been chopped up for firewood; rubble lines the streets, with the vandalism forming a systematic attempt to destroy every vestige of the old regime (and, the author speculates, of civilisation itself). The destruction of the university and library, for instance, seems to be little more that the revenge of the ignorant upon the educated. In a local hospital (once the pride of West Africa, now long ruined and abandoned), the professor of surgery’s office has been ransacked, and medical books and papers have been ripped up; in another, infant welfare records have been smeared with faeces. In the wrecked Centennial Hall, the body of a beautiful Steinway grand piano lies on the floor, its legs senselessly sawn off. In a Lutheran church, Dalrymple finds the floor covered in the blood silhouettes of 600 Liberians massacred by Doe’s soldiers.Dalrymple – who achieves the near-impossible by making a book about such barbarism at times amusing – lays much of the blame for what happened at the feet of Western intellectuals and their African counterparts.Monrovia Mon Amour is a profoundly moving and interesting book about a country which is little-understood and less visited.

The Mechanics of Yenagoa


Michael Afenfia - 2020
    Some of his troubles are self-inflicted: like his recurring entanglements in love triangles; and his unauthorised joyriding of a customer’s car which sets off a chain of dire events involving drugs, crooked politicians, and assassins. Other troubles are caused by the panorama of characters in his life, like: his sister and her dysfunctional domestic situation; the three other mechanics he employs; and the money-loving preacher who has all but taken over his home. The story is fast-paced with surprising twists and a captivating plot - a Dickenesque page-turner. This is Ebinimi’s story but it is about a lot more than him. It is an exploration of the dynamics between working-class people as they undertake a colourful tour of Yenagoa, one of Nigeria’s lesser-known cities, while using humour, sex, and music, as coping mechanisms for the everyday struggle. It is a modern-classic tale of small lives navigating a big city.