Book picks similar to
One Thing by Xanthi Barker


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novella
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Dec the Holls


Jasinda Wilder - 2014
    Holly is working overtime, cold and lonely and broke. Across the hall, Declan is lonely too, and thinking this Christmas is going to be a joke. Then one blustery night Holly’s car won’t start and Declan is there to help with a little love in his heart. Open this gift from bestselling author Jasinda Wilder to find out if a single mother of two can let herself fall in love with her sexy-as-hell workaholic boss.

Swim


Jennifer Weiner - 2006
    When she’s not working, she’s swimming—lap after lap at the local indoor pool, in a desperate attempt to wash away the sting of professional failure and heartbreak that she can’t seem to shake. It takes an unexpected client to show her that appearances can be deceiving, and that sometimes the bravest thing you can do is simply dive back in.

A Prickly Christmas Kiss


Allyson R. Abbott - 2017
    Abbott Emma Louise Fallon, aka Elf, has two wishes for Christmas. Having spent the last few months bragging about her latest boyfriend, who's turned out to be a womanizing cheat, one, she needs to escape her well-meaning family, and, two, she needs to avoid all men while she's in a man-hating mode.But stranded in a cold isolated cabin, when her girlfriend is forced to bail out on their vacation plans, Elf makes one more desperate wish: Can she please learn how to build a fire before she freezes to death?The solo rustic life is becoming all too much for her. She's convinced that a stray cat, who has decided to keep her company, has magical powers, that the local shop owners are secretly Mr. and Mrs. Claus, and nothing can stop her from laughing when the hot local Martian -come cop - come veterinarian - introduces himself as Rudi. Will Elf need to break her rule about staying away from men, and rely on this hunk for helping her start a fire? Or, worse, yet, will she be able to control the fire that Rudi's ignited in her?This story remained #1 for 6 consecutive weeks December 2016/January 2017 and was a #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER as part of the Mistletoe Kisses & Christmas Wishes set.

Home for the Holidays


Diane Greenwood Muir - 2015
    An old friend shows up in town to stay and they have decisions to make about some big plans for their future. Spend a little more time in Bellingwood during the holidays and see what everyone is up to. Rebecca and Andrew have a party to attend, Polly has yet another rescue. It's just one more week in that little world we all love.

The Foot Soldier


Mark Rubinstein - 2013
    The Foot Soldier brings you to the hell of jungle combat. Close your eyes and this novella takes you there. It conveys the terror and brutality of jungle warfare and their effect on the American riflemen--those who bore the greatest burden. It's every bit as compelling as The Things They Carried.

Voyage to Hell


Matt Shaw - 2017
    There's something happening on the posh liner... The people - staff and passengers alike... They're changing...From Matt Shaw comes a claustrophobic new horror.

The Hired Man's Christmas


George Givens - 1997
    Every summer a mysterious man known only as "Frank" arrives to help George Givens's grandfather with his farmwork. No one knows the hired man's last name, where he comes from, or why he always seems to be so sad. Once the season's crops are harvested, he disappears only to reappear the following summer. This routine continues for many years -- until one fateful Christmas Eve.The hired man never returns to the Givens farm after that day, and the mystery of his final disappearance seems destined to remain unsolved. Then, on Christmas Eve many years later, George serendipitously discovers the long-lost hired man's fate. This discovery teaches him a powerful lesson about the importance of family and the endurance of love."The Hired Man's Christmas" is a story of simpler times, but its message resonates across the years and in the hearts of fathers and sons even today.

Undead Winter


T.M. Williams - 2013
    That's all it takes for the darkness to penetrate. To infect. To destroy.A plague has incapacitated humanity, spreading across the globe faster than it could ever possibly be contained. Almost overnight the world is awakened to a new reality and the realization that no one is safe, not a single living soul.As the virus takes control, humanity is brought crashing to its knees. The few left untouched fight frantically for their survival, even as they know their future no longer exists, doing the uninmaginable at the brink of death.A dark tale that shows exactly how desperate, how dark, humanity can get once the undead winter arrives.This short story will haunt readers long after the last page has been read. A story you will want to read over and over.

A Piece of Cake


Trisha Ashley - 2014
    He’s definitely not her type.But at her best friends wedding, when one crisis follows another, Kate begins to wonder whether she’s misjudged Wes.Can love be the sweetest thing of all?A warm, witty and romantic short story from Sunday Times top 5 best-selling author Trisha Ashley

Where There's Smoke


Jodi Picoult - 2014
    Now, in this original short story, available exclusively as an eBook, Picoult introduces Serenity Jones, one of the fascinating characters from her eagerly awaited new novel, Leaving Time. Even as a child, Serenity Jones knew she possessed unusual psychic gifts. Now, decades later, she’s an acclaimed medium and host of her own widely viewed TV show, where she delivers messages to the living from loved ones who have passed. Lately, though, her efforts to boost ratings and garner fame have compromised her clairvoyant instincts. When Serenity books a young war widow to appear as a guest, the episode quickly unravels, stirring up a troubling controversy. And as she tries to undo the damage—to both her reputation and her show—Serenity finds that pride comes at a high price.

Moving Violations


Elise Sax - 2014
    If losing her job, her Mercedes, and her good name weren’t enough, she’s now on her way to the morgue, sentenced to three-hundred hours of community service for a minor altercation with a cop (totally not her fault). Her grey cloud has one silver lining…the hunky hottie medical examiner. When the local body movers fall ill, it’s up to the doctor and Dinah to take their place. As the body count begins to rise, Dinah falls into a mystery that might have her wind up on her own slab. Moving Violations is a funny adventure into Stephanie Bond’s Body Movers world.

Amish Joy at Christmas


Hannah Schrock - 2018
    He dreaded the notion of following in his daed's and grossdaead's footsteps in working for the local RV manufacturer. Surely Gott had a plan for him to live the life Gott intended for him? Noah's maem was a renowned quilter and shopkeeper. She sold local Amish produce and her wonderful Amish quilts from her store, but she missed the opportunities presented by the seasonal flea-market when it closed for the winter months and harvest. With this in mind, Noah secures her a booth at the large Shipshewana flea market a fair distance from their home. It is here that he meets Miriam Yoder whose maem also has a booth at the market. As Christmas quickly approaches, is running out for Noah and he needs to decide on a vocation. Should he sell his dreams and settle into a life decided by his daed? When it becomes unbearable for Miriam and Noah to be apart for a week at a stretch, it seems that Gott is opening a window where He had so recently closed a door. Would the window offer Miriam and Noah the opportunities they both longed for? Find out if Christmas miracles do come true, in this truly wonderful seasonal story at this special time of year.

Dear Heart: The Letter Chronicles


Natavia - 2018
    Her father Brodie made sure she always had the best that money could buy. But her happiness comes to an end. When Brodie is slammed with a thirty-year prison bid. With him off the streets, Heart has to take over his job, pushing the purest cocaine through the city of, Annapolis. But there is one problem, she’s a woman. Jared is the persona Heart has to hide behind in order to fit in with the heavy hittas, but what will happen when she falls in love with her connect, Hamisi? Heart’s father, Brodie, writes her a letter revealing a shocking secret that will put everyone around her life in danger. The letter ends up in the wrong hands and Hamisi is out for blood. This novella takes place in the 80s era when the crack epidemic began to spread. Everyone is out for themselves at the cost of loyalty. Will Jared take over Heart’s life or will she have to reveal the person behind the facade? This is a fast-paced novella about love, loyalty and lust.

Issa Hood Love Story: Carlee & Macklin


Dani Littlepage - 2018
    Some may cause us our lives and other’s may be non- threating but, one of the mistakes that has been repeatedly made by a woman was dating the wrong the man and, Carlee Jackson was no exception. Carlee, a college graduate and girlfriend of up and coming boss, Vonn, was with him when he didn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. When they first stated dating, Vonn wasn’t fit to be with Carlee. He couldn’t even afford to take her to the movies but, instead of tossing him to the side, she stuck by him. Giving him the startup money for his business, things started looking up for Vonn. After she graduated college, the couple was living the good life and nothing could bring them down. That was until Vonn abandoned her with a car full of drugs and a dirty gun, leaving her to take the fall. When Carlee didn’t think Vonn could betray her again, she learned that he married her best friend, Sienna. With revenge on her mind, she reached out to the only man who had reached out to her while she was in prison. Macklin, her ole fling. While was with Vonn, Mack meet Carlee her junior year of college. Mack spent a year trying to convince Carlee that Vonn wasn’t the man for her but, she wasn’t willing to leave him. After a year of being her side piece, Carlee cut him off but, Mack never stopped caring for her. Finding out that she was in jail, Macklin wrote her every month while she was in prison offering her a helping hand if and when she needed it. After four and half years of sending letters, Carlee finally reached out to him asking for help. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to be in her life again, Macklin was prepared to do any and everything for Carlee. With Mack on a mission to win Carlee’s heart, Carlee puts him on a ninety-day trial to see if he was willing to ride with her through the rest of her bid or if he was just all talk. Will Macklin win the heart of the woman he always wanted to be with? Will Carlee be able to keep her guard up for the entire ninety-day trial? Find out the answer to these questions and a whole more in the hood love story of Carless and Macklin.

Stories I've Heard, Characters I've Met, & Lies We've Told in My 44 Alaskan Years


Tom Brion - 2016
    An Off the Grid lodge owner in Fish Lakes, Alaska, Tom enthralls roomfuls of guests every year from the Lower 48 and around the world with tales of his adventures, foibles, and SNAFUs in 44 years living in the Alaskan wilderness. From his start as a Pennsylvania farmboy who ran off to join the United States Air Force, to his arrival in Alaska with less than a hundred dollars in his wallet and a growing family in his back seat, to his forty years as a Bush pilot and his accidental introduction to the fishing lodge business, to his multiple brushes with death, hardship, and questionable characters, Tom Brion has a story to cover it all. A pioneer in sustainable homesteading and off-the-Grid living, Tom Brion built his first lodge in Alaska on five acres in the Lake Creek area, in 1979, and continues to this day building and working heavy machinery 60 miles from any road. Born in 1941, Tom has collected 74 years of humorous, heart-wrenching, and sometimes mind-blowing stories of traveling, hunting, and exploring the backcountry of Alaska in the pilot’s seat of a Vietnam-era Cessna Birddog. A biography in the form of short life stories, Tom Brion’s memoir takes us to a rural Bush life where people live off the land, drill their own wells, put out their own forest fires, and depend on their neighbors to pick up their mail. Surrounded by nature, Tom continues to fly, plow, run his bulldozer, and wrangle his subsistence fishwheel up the river every year in the Skwentna area of Alaska, where temperatures in winter drop to 45 below zero and summers can see entire months without rain. Follow him in this (mostly) nonfiction anthology of (somewhat) true stories from the Last Frontier as he gives the straight scoop about bears, outhouses, farming, flooding, fishing, moose, guns, and aviation in the 49th State.An avid hunter, outdoorsman, fisherman, and jack of all trades, Tom documents his life with photos and illustrations that detail an epic adventure from start to finish.