Book picks similar to
You Made Me Love You by K.D. Jensen
historical
poorly-edited
starts-in-high-school
war
The Perfume Thief
Timothy Schaffert - 2021
Her life of crime has led her from the uber-wealthy perfume junkies of belle epoque Manhattan, to the scented butterflies of Costa Rica, to the spice markets of Marrakech, and finally the bordellos of Paris, where she settles down and opens a legitimate shop bottling her favorite extracts for the ladies of the cabarets.In 1941, as the German's stranglehold on the city tightens, Clem's perfume-making attracts the notice of Oskar Voss, a Francophile Nazi bureaucrat, who comes to demand Clem's expertise and loyalty in his mysterious play for Hitler's favor. Clem has no choice but to surrender fully to the con, but while she knew playing the part of collaborator would be dangerous, she never imagined it would be so painfully intimate. At Oskar's behest, and in an effort to win his trust, Clem recounts the full story of her life and loves, this time without the cover of the lies she came to Paris to escape.Complete with romance, espionage, champagne towers, and haute couture, this full-tilt sensory experience is a dazzling portrait of the underground resistance of twentieth-century Paris and a passionate love letter to the power of beauty and community in the face of insidious hate.
Let The Wind Eavesdrop
Sydney Gibson - 2016
What Frankie didn’t know is those letters hold the key to mending her broken heart and finding true love. Letters written by a complete stranger whose words find a direct path to healing Frankie’s broken heart and hope in finding true love. In Sydney Gibson’s third novel, Let The Wind Eavesdrop, we join Frankie on a magical journey, where she finds love in the written word of a complete stranger who appears to be living in the past, while Frankie is in the future. The story of how true love can transcend time, space, and be more powerful through the written word, is told beautifully in Sydney’s unique style. The book will restore your faith in love, and maybe make you believe that magic is real.
Lost and Found
Natasha West - 2019
After three months, they’re both in deep. And then April vanishes off the face of the earth. Sophie is mystified and devastated. Two years later, Sophie is trying to get on with her life. Until Sophie’s best friend spots April in another town. Sophie needs answers and goes to find her lost love to demand them. But when she finds April, she doesn’t get the answers she’s expecting. What she gets is a story of danger, deceit and intrigue. As well as a lot of old sparks flying. But can Sophie and April find their way back to each other? Or will April’s past find them first? ‘Lost and Found’ is an hilarious romantic comedy packed with adventure and thrills, from the internationally bestselling author of ‘Just Married?’, ‘The Matchmaker’ and ‘200 Hours’.
Plus 1
Erica Lee - 2018
While she loved weddings and everything involved in them, she knew marriage wasn’t the path for her. She was happy casually dating. At least that’s what she thought until she met the beautiful, flirtatious Jenny Hanson at a wedding and her whole world was turned upside down. Jenny didn’t have any plans of getting married either. It was the perfect formula for a lasting friendship, except for the fact that the two girls were highly attracted to each other and lived at opposite ends of the country. As the two girls navigate through this friendship filled with plane rides, weddings, and lots of flirting, Rory begins to question if the life she always planned on is really what she wants.
The Two Hotel Francforts
David Leavitt - 2013
Awaiting safe passage to New York on the SS Manhattan, two couples meet: Pete and Julia Winters, expatriate Americans fleeing their sedate life in Paris; and Edward and Iris Freleng, sophisticated, independently wealthy, bohemian, and beset by the social and sexual anxieties of their class. As Portugal's neutrality, and the world's future, hang in the balance, the hidden threads in the lives of these four characters—Julia's status as a Jew, Pete and Edward's improbable affair, Iris's increasingly desperate efforts to save her tenuous marriage—begin to come loose. This journey will change their lives irrevocably, as Europe sinks into war.Gorgeously written, sexually and politically charged, David Leavitt's long-awaited new novel is an extraordinary work.
Cast the First Stone: A stunning wartime story
Angela Arney - 1992
It was done at last. They were married.
The wedding took place in Naples, a city of burning rubble and poverty – for the time was 1944 and the Germans were in retreat. Thousands of Italians were starving and prepared to do anything to survive. Liana was more determined than most, not only to survive, but to get out of the hell-hole that Naples had become. She had lied, cheated, played provocative games, and now stood in a crumbling church before an emaciated priest. Beside her stood Nicholas Hamilton-Howard, Earl of Wessex, a young English officer who was totally bewitched by the exquisite Italian girl. Even during the service she was terrified – terrified that someone would reveal the truth about her, but when the final blessing was given she knew she was safe and she vowed to devote her life to making Nicholas happy, even though she did not love him – even though their life together was to be built on lies and deception… Angela Arney was born in Hampshire, where she still lives with her husband. She has been a teacher, a hospital administrator and a cabaret singer. The author of a number of romances, Cast the First Stone is her first full-length novel.
Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure
Courtney Milan - 2019
Bertrice Martin—a widow, some seventy-three years young—has kept her youthful-ish appearance with the most powerful of home remedies: daily doses of spite, regular baths in man-tears, and refusing to give so much as a single damn about her Terrible Nephew. Then proper, correct Miss Violetta Beauchamps, a sprightly young thing of nine and sixty, crashes into her life. The Terrible Nephew is living in her rooming house, and Violetta wants him gone. Mrs. Martin isn’t about to start giving damns, not even for someone as intriguing as Miss Violetta. But she hatches another plan—to make her nephew sorry, to make Miss Violetta smile, and to have the finest adventure of all time. If she makes Terrible Men angry and wins the hand of a lovely lady in the process? Those are just added bonuses. Author’s Note: Sometimes I write villains who are subtle and nuanced. This is not one of those times. The Terrible Nephew is terrible, and terrible things happen to him. Sometime villains really are bad and wrong, and sometimes, we want them to suffer a lot of consequences.
A Little Light Mischief
Cat Sebastian - 2019
She’s determined to keep her hands to herself, so she really shouldn’t be tempted to seduce her employer’s prim and proper companion, Alice. But how can she resist when Alice can’t seem to keep her eyes off Molly?Finds her own heartFor the first time in her life, Alice Stapleton has absolutely nothing to do. The only thing that seems to occupy her thoughts is a lady’s maid with a sharp tongue and a beautiful mouth. Her determination to know Molly’s secrets has her behaving in ways she never imagined as she begins to fall for the impertinent woman.Has been stolenWhen an unwelcome specter from Alice’s past shows up unexpectedly at a house party, Molly volunteers to help the only way she knows how: with a little bit of mischief.
Paying the Price
Julia P. Lynde - 2013
She discovers her captor is Dareena, daughter of the Tendarian queen, who intends to return Meorie to Tendaria to stand trial for war crimes of four years ago.Dareena promises justice, but Meorie knows she will only receive vengeance. She is offered the choice of spending the voyage trussed like a turkey with an equally undignified delivery to the Tendarian palace, or she can accept a magical slave collar of obedience, to be removed upon delivery. She accepts the collar, binding her to obedience to Dareena.As the voyage progresses, Meorie attempts to defeat the collar while learning how deep the treachery towards her has extended. She also finds herself falling in love with her captor.This novella of 43,000 words, about 130 printed pages, is the darkest story Julia P. Lynde has written.
Looking for Ms Right
Jade Winters - 2018
To find Ms Right...
Kemi's standing on the precipice of her twenties, gazing at the horror of the big 3-0! Terrified that she will never meet 'The One', best friend Chloe has a plan that just might turn Kemi's life around.Chloe's got her own problems, low on luck, she's unceremoniously dumped by her partner of two years. Not broken, not jaded, she's determined to get back into the dating game - no matter the cost. And there's always a cost...Laura, the incurable romantic is stuck in a loveless relationship with husband Mick. But her ailing marriage is about to be buried for good by an unexpected discovery. But this is a revelation that will drive her into the arms of the one she least expects.Maddie has the 7 year itch and wants to get scratching. Wanting more from her stale relationship, she's about to get just what she wishes when her girlfriend takes a surprising gamble - challenging her to leave and search for this illusive 'Dream woman'. It's an offer she can't refuse.
Will the four friends really find 'The One'?
Looking for Ms Right is the first book in the Jade Winters lesbian romance series.
The Mountain Between Us
Marian Snowe - 2016
After quitting her tedious, dead-end job, Tess has some time on her hands before her new career starts, and she’s determined to make the most of it. As a congratulations gift from her family, Tess receives a week’s retreat: a guided hike up to an exclusive yoga resort in the mountains. She’s certain this will be her chance for a fresh start, but the trip begins on a bad note when an unexpected storm turns the leisurely hike into a dangerous ordeal. When Tess slips off the steep, icy trail, her vacation and her life are in jeopardy...until she falls straight into the strong, capable arms of the world's hottest park ranger: Remy Labelle. Remy is a bold, intelligent woman with a cutting wit, and her striking features and smoldering smirk make Tess go weak in the knees. But Remy has a huge chip on her shoulder about the yoga resort, and Tess never takes chances when it comes to romance. Still, Tess can’t deny the incendiary spark between them, and she finds herself questioning her rigid expectations of what a perfect romance must be. As things keep going wrong on Tess’s vacation, she and Remy grow closer and passions flare. But Remy’s past—and the manipulations of Melissa, the resort’s manager, who clearly has a hold over Remy—threatens to get in the way. Will Tess overcome her fear of heartbreak to try a relationship with Remy? And even if she does, can Remy drop her barriers and allow herself to love again?
Blue Ice Landing
K.A. Moll - 2019
She has a comfortable home, good friends, and a loving family. She’s also a widow, carrying a burden of responsibility for her wife’s untimely death. She lost her footing that day, gave up her dream to be a doctor, and swore off relationships. Now, three years later, she’s ready to turn her life on end in an effort to regain what she lost. At 29, Coby O’Brien is a woman with secrets. She’s estranged from her family, a recovering alcoholic, and alone because she’s convinced that she’s unlovable. When she loses her job as a heavy equipment operator, she’ll accept one that’ll force her to step way outside her comfort zone into a life where nothing is, as it seems. Having caught next to no breaks in life, it may turn out to be her break of a lifetime. When Coy quits her job to accept a position in Antarctica, her path will cross with Coby’s. Their attraction to one another will be immediate, and despite their differences, it won’t be long before they fall in love. But for these two, with all their baggage, will love be enough?
Time Was
Ian McDonald - 2018
Brought together by a secret project designed to hide British targets from German radar, the two founded a love that could not be revealed. When the project went wrong, Tom and Ben vanished into nothingness, presumed dead. Their bodies were never found.Now the two are lost in time, hunting each other across decades, leaving clues in books of poetry and trying to make their disparate timelines overlap.
Leaving Pimlico
P.B. North - 2014
I can never get used to this, Alexi. Having you, that is. How did I deserve you? Deserve me? You don't have to do anything to deserve me. I love you. It's as simple as that. I love you for what you are. All you need to do is love me back. You don't earn love, as a payment in return.Peter Kingsmill's life had run into the sands since the death of his wife. What was a glittering London career had lost its shine. Until, that is, his life is turned upside down by an unexpected collision of events. He inherits the family estate, meets a girl seventeen years his junior and receives an anonymous letter which casts doubt on all the certainties on which he has built his past life.What follows is a journey of discovery which takes him back in time to war-torn Europe. To a story of betrayal in the secret world of spies and double agents, and ultimately to redemption and a bright new life.The narrative moves at speed from the dusty plains of pre-war Poland to the frozen winter landscapes of German-occupied Norway and finally to the gentle pastoral of the north Yorkshire hills. It is a story of a search for the pieces that make up a human life; and of the love that binds those pieces together....Do you remember the Snow Queen story? I can complete the pattern now. I have everything I need.
Back in Your Arms
Monica McCallan - 2021
Now a successful real estate agent in New York City, she’s brought back on behalf of a client, begrudgingly accepting her return home in order to close the deal of a lifetime. Coming back opens doors she’s done her best to keep closed all these years, namely, how she felt about her childhood best friend, Sawyer Kent. Sawyer’s spent her whole life in Kingsford, working at her family’s antique store and trying to make everyone happy. Quinn’s return is unexpected, knocking her routine existence more than a little off balance. She’s still frustrated at how Quinn left things between them, and even if she has all kinds of unresolved feelings, she’s got bigger problems to worry about right now.