Book picks similar to
Acts of Kindness by Heather Barnett


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Coming Up for Air


Patti Callahan Henry - 2011
    With her beloved daughter away at college and a growing gap between her and her husband – between her reality and the woman she wants to be – she doesn’t quite seem to fit into her own life. But everything changes after her controlling mother, Lillian, passes away. Ellie’s world turns upside down when she sees her ex-boyfriend, Hutch, at her mother’s funeral and learns that he is in charge of a documentary that involved Lillian before her death. He wants answers to questions that Ellie’s not sure she can face, until, in the painful midst of going through her mother’s things, she discovers a hidden diary – and a window onto stories buried long ago. As Ellie and Hutch start speaking for the first time in years, Ellie’s closed heart slowly begins to open. Fighting their feelings, they set out together to dig into Lillian’s history. Using both the diary and a trip to the Summer House, a mysterious and seductive bayside home, they gamble that they can work together and not fall in love again. But in piecing together a decades-old unrequited-love story, they just might uncover the secrets in their own hearts…

Under the Maui Sky


Kellie Coates Gilbert - 2021
    Readers will laugh and shed a few tears as Ava Briscoe and her children discover what it means to be loved, supported and accepted by the people who mean the most… even in the face of deep betrayal.Ava Briscoe wants nothing more than for her children and the family’s pineapple business to flourish. When a dark secret comes to light, more than her steadfast resilience is tested.Christel is picking up the pieces after a painful divorce. She’s found solace in the family business. But a bitter discovery soon shakes the once-steady foundation under her feet.Katie is a wife and mother with a full plate. She yearns for purpose but her efforts to make her dreams come true falter when she learns nothing is at it seems.Aiden makes his living rescuing people on the island of Maui. When facing life’s changes, can he rescue his own family when it matters most?Shane believes life is a party, but sometimes life hands out more than a good time—fun crashes to an end and growing up is no longer an option.Come along on the journey... with all the messy wonder, humor, pain and ultimate hope of this heartwarming family as they grapple with an uncertain future and learn they can face anything, as long as they do it together.A heart-grabbing story, perfect for Robyn Carr and Susan Wiggs fans.

The Insider


Reece Hirsch - 2010
    Within days, Will is the prime suspect in a murder, the target of an SEC insider trading investigation, and a pawn in a complex criminal scheme involving the Russian mafia and a ruthless terrorist plot.Now, Will must ensure that a deadly enemy doesn't gain access to the nation's most sensitive and confidential information -- and the power to do incalculable, irrevocable harm.

Family Pieces


Misa Rush - 2010
    Away at college, even the necklace she wears serves as a constant connection home - a family tradition created when her grandfather handmade each immediate relative an interlinking charm. Each piece crafted in the shape of a puzzle piece, each one interlinking perfectly together. But when the unexpected death of her mother turns her world upside down, she discovers there is a missing piece of her treasured family tradition and her life as she once knew it may never be the same. Addison Reynolds resides in her posh Manhattan condominium and wraps her personal identity around running Urbane, the magazine empire built by her father. In a moment of haste, Addison divulges her deepest secret to her closest friend Emily - a secret she never intended to disclose. Could one choice, one secret, bond two unlikely women forever?

Faye, Faraway


Helen Fisher - 2021
    Every night, before she puts them to bed, she whispers to them: “You are good, you are kind, you are clever, you are funny.” She’s determined that they never doubt for a minute that their mother loves them unconditionally. After all, her own mother Jeanie had died when she was only seven years old and Faye has never gotten over that intense pain of losing her.But one day, her life is turned upside down when she finds herself in 1977, the year before her mother died. Suddenly, she has the chance to reconnect with her long-lost mother, and even meets her own younger self, a little girl she can barely remember. Jeanie doesn’t recognize Faye as her daughter, of course, even though there is something eerily familiar about her...As the two women become close friends, they share many secrets—but Faye is terrified of revealing the truth about her identity. Will it prevent her from returning to her own time and her beloved husband and daughters? What if she’s doomed to remain in the past forever? Faye knows that eventually she will have to choose between those she loves in the past and those she loves in the here and now, and that knowledge presents her with an impossible choice.Emotionally gripping and ineffably sweet Faye, Faraway is a brilliant exploration of the grief associated with unimaginable loss and the magic of being healed by love.

Say Her Name


Dreda Say Mitchell
    But she’s not the only one looking…It’s twenty years since Eva, a biracial woman, was adopted as an eight-year-old, and Cherry and Carlton ‘Sugar’ McNeil have always been the only parents she’s wanted or needed. But when she’s dealt the double blow of Cherry’s death and her own suspension from work, Eva decides it’s time to discover who she was before she was theirs.Against Sugar’s advice, Eva joins a DNA database, desperate for a match that will unlock her identity. And when a positive hit comes, she’s excited to learn there are relations out there who might hold the key. But the closer Eva gets to uncovering her past, the more it appears someone is trying to stop her finally finding the truth…As she continues to dig, Eva is drawn into a dark and merciless underside to society, where black women disappear without a word. Names erased from history, no search parties, no desperate pleas for their return. Once, someone tried to save Eva from all this. Someone wanted a better life for her. But now that she’s torn down the facade of her life, has she come too far to be spared again?

Plain Jane


Fern Michaels - 2001
    Instead, she was just Plain Jane--overweight, frumpy, and painfully shy. That was then. Today, a lovely and confident Dr. Jane Lewis has a thriving psychotherapy practice, her own radio talk show, a beautiful old Louisiana mansion, and her affectionate, nutty dog, Olive, to keep her company. The only thing missing is someone to share her life.Jane has never forgotten Michael Sorenson, the boy she'd admired from afar in college. Now, he's inspiring her to hope for a future together. She's also never forgotten the brutal, unsolved attack that ended Connie Bryan's life--and haunts Jane still. Suddenly, the present collides with the past, as she finds clues into the identities of Connie's attackers--clues that send her into a world of risk and excitement, challenging her to become a truly extraordinary woman. . .if she dares.

A Summer to Remember


Erika Montgomery - 2021
    But when a mysterious package arrives containing a photograph of her mother and famous movie stars Glory Cartwright and her husband at a coastal film festival the year before Frankie's birth, her life begins to unravel in ways unimaginable.What begins is a journey along a path revealing buried family secrets, betrayals between lovers, bonds between friends. And for Frankie, as the past unlocks the present, the chance to learn that memories define who we are, and that they can show us the meaning of home and the magic of true love.Experience the salty breeze of a Cape Cod summer as it sweeps through this sparkling, romantic, and timeless debut novel tinged with a love of old Hollywood."The perfect read for summer. A novel with depth, real emotions, lyrical writing, and flawed characters with whom to fall in love."--New York Times bestselling author Karen White

Sweet Pastries & Sourdough: (Little Duck Pond Cafe, Book 15)


Rosie Green - 2021
    But when Katja's ski-ing holiday ends in disaster, a new teacher must be found very quickly. Anita is up for the challenge, but - fresh from a break-up and an operation that's left her feeling physically and emotionally vulnerable - the last thing she's looking for when she moves to Sunnybrook is a new relationship. So it's Sod's law that she should find herself with not one but two guys vying for her attention. Sven, from Denmark, is a bit of an enigma - but maybe passion lurks beneath his cool reserve? And as for twenty-five-year-old football coach Ross - surely she'd be asking for trouble getting involved with a gorgeous man a decade her junior? (Although her football-mad son Rufus seems to love him.)Moving in with Bertha proves a real comfort - but can Anita get to the bottom of what's troubling the older woman?Anita's job at the True Loaf Bakery is only temporary, but she finds herself drawn ever deeper into life in the village - especially when she finds a child's bracelet from long ago, in the rubble of the newly-renovated building. Solving the mystery of who it belongs to takes Anita on a journey of discovery - a journey that might just help her discover what her own heart really needs...

Drops of Cerulean


Dawn Adams Cole - 2019
    Cadmus is plagued with guilt and feels responsible for the death of his mother. Two worlds collide when, years later, Delphina comes to understand that she had been Ilona, Cadmus’s mother, in her previous life. Well written and engaging, Drops of Cerulean deals with topics such as socioeconomic class, LGBT rights and acceptance, rebirth, and past-life regression. Set in Houston and revolving around the city’s ever-changing skyline, Drops of Cerulean is an amazing debut from a gifted writer.

The Divine Joke


Thomas Stemr - 2020
    That is, until the grandmother he never met dies in Greece and he receives an odd letter at her funeral. An invitation to a dusty old barbershop in Washington, DC.Accompanied by his new friend Victoria, Tom finds himself in wild pursuit of clues to solve the Cicada riddle. They believe it’s their only chance of reaching the old barber who turned their lives upside down and mysteriously disappeared.But what they discover is an ancient scheme to open human consciousness. A scheme that is finally coming to fruition thanks to modern technology. And unless the two most unlikely people uncover the elusive truth—visible for all to see but neglected for generations—humanity will face a prospect too sweet to resist.Fans of Dan Brown will be delighted by this raw and provocative spiritual mystery. Get ready for a thrill ride that may leave you enlightened and shaken.The Divine Joke is raw and provocative spiritual mystery. Get ready for a thrill ride that may leave you enlightened and shaken.

The Perfect Son


Lauren North - 2019
    But no one is listening to her. After her husband, Mark, died suddenly in a terrible accident a few months earlier, the only thing keeping Tess together is Jamie. As they struggle to make sense of their new life without Mark, they find joy in brief moments of normalcy like walking to school and watching television together. Life is hard without Mark, but Tess has Jamie, and that's what matters.But there in the hospital, confused and surrounded by people who won't listen, Tess’s world falls apart. To save her son, she must piece together what happened between Mark's death and Jamie's birthday, but the truth might just be too much for her to bear.

The Heart of the Garden


Victoria Connelly - 2018
    For freelance editor Anne Marie, the wild garden has become a serene and secret refuge from her loveless marriage. The only other regular visitor is Cape, the hall’s part-time gardener, who is forbidden to tend to anything except the magnificent maze or to meet his enigmatic employer.When Emilia dies, Cape and Anne Marie are astonished to find themselves among an unlikely group of villagers named in her strange will. Morton Hall, including its dazzling art collection and once glorious grounds, can belong to the community forever, but only if they work together to bring the garden back to life within a single year.As they try to put their differences aside to restore the tangled grounds, long-buried secrets are unearthed. Can the past be forgiven as hope and new love begin to bloom?

Everything the Heart Wants: A Novel


Savannah Page - 2017
    Married for eleven years, she and her husband, Adam, are still living their happily ever after. They both know what they want—and don’t want—for their life together. And that includes being child-free. But when one of them has a change of heart about wanting a baby, it brings their marriage and life plans into harsher focus.Devastated that this bombshell might destroy their relationship, Halley finds comfort in her closest friends: Nina, who’s finally pregnant after years of trying; her sister, Charlotte, an overwhelmed mother of three; and Marian, a successful businesswoman who regrets letting go of her one true love.Now, with their guidance and support, Halley begins a painful journey of self-discovery. As she searches her heart to make a life-changing decision for both herself and Adam, she realizes that someone is bound to get hurt. Will their perfect love be too great a sacrifice for everything her heart wants?

Wisteria Island


Rachel Hanna - 2021
    When she takes a job as the nurse for Wisteria Island, she has no clue what she's agreeing to.The brainchild of a wealthy entrepreneur, Wisteria Island is home to a cast of quirky, and often difficult, characters. When Danielle finds out why the previous eight nurses have all quit within days, she has to decide whether to stick it out or go back to a life she no longer recognizes.Wisteria Island is a standalone novel by USA Today bestselling author, Rachel Hanna. If you love southern women's fiction and lots of laughs, you'll enjoy this one!