Book picks similar to
My Only Sunshine: A Story for Domestic Abuse Survivors by Shannon Jump
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The Last Thing to Burn
Will Dean - 2021
On an isolated farm in the United Kingdom, a woman is trapped by the monster who kidnapped her seven years ago. When she discovers she is pregnant, she resolves to protect her child no matter the cost, and starts to meticulously plan her escape. But when another woman is brought into the fold on the farm, her plans go awry. Can she save herself, her child, and this innocent woman at the same time? Or is she doomed to spend the remainder of her life captive on this farm? Intense, dark, and utterly gripping The Last Thing to Burn is a breathtaking thriller from an author to watch.
Awakened
James S. Murray - 2018
The shining jewel of this state-of-the-art line is a breathtaking visitors’ pavilion beneath the river. Major dignitaries, including New York City’s Mayor and the President of the United States, are in attendance for the inaugural run, as the first train slowly pulls in. Under the station’s bright ceiling lights, the shiny silver cars gleam. But as the train comes closer into view, a far different scene becomes visible. All the train’s cars are empty. All the cars’ interiors are drenched in blood. As chaos descends, all those in the pavilion scramble to get out. But the horror is only beginning. High levels of deadly methane fill the tunnels. The structure begins to flood. For those who don’t drown, choke, or spark an explosion, another terrifying danger awaits — the thing that killed all those people on the train. There's something living beneath New York City, and it's not happy we've woken it up.
The Belief in Angels
J. Dylan Yates - 2014
Somewhere between routine discipline with horsewhips, gun-waving gambling debt collectors, and LSD-laced breakfast cereal adventures, tragedy strikes a blow from which Jules may never recover. Jules's story alternates with that of her grandfather, Szaja, an Orthodox Jew who survives the murderous Ukranian pogroms of the 1920s, the Majdanek death camp, and the torpedoing of the Mefkura, a ship carrying refugees to Palestine. Unable to deal with the horrors he endures at the camp, Szaja develops a dissociative disorder and takes on the persona of a dead soldier from a burial ditch, using that man's thoughts to devise a plan to escape to America. While Szaja's and Jules's sorrows are different on the surface, adversity requires them both to find the will to live despite the suffering in their lives--and both encounter, in their darkest moments, what could be explained as serendipity or divine intervention. For Jules and Szaja, these experiences offer the hope they need to come to the rescue of their own fractured lives.
Isolation
Jenni Regan - 2020
The strain of it on her young shoulders led her to a downward spiral of drug abuse, which in turn led to Alice being placed with her grandmother.But Alice’s life, living with her grandmother, isn’t much better and by the time she is 21 she is suffering from a host of mental health problems, with a growing fear of what lies outside her front door. Stuck in her house and fearful of being outside, Alice uses social media to compensate for her miserable life, building an online persona over the years, that is nothing like she is in reality. With it she lives out her fantasies, safe in the knowledge that her grandmother will provide what she needs.But when Alice suddenly disappears from her online world and cannot be contacted, Rachel turns to her estranged brother for help. With a body discovered in the house and a man closely linked to Alice now in custody, they search for the truth about her disappearance.What has happened to the daughter Rachel lost all those years ago? And what is the truth behind the body in the house? The truth will be far stranger than they could have imagined.
All the Way Back Home
J.R. Rain - 2019
ONLY A MAN'S TRUE CALLING CAN SAVE A DOG. The epic adventure of a lifetime. Be prepared to be swept away by J.R. Rain’s thrilling novel of redemption, self-discovery and powerful love. Dr. Shaye Fox has lost almost everyone and everything he loved, including his wife. Once a successful dentist with a passion for healing, he’s been stripped of his career, his self-esteem, and his reason for living. His life is a mess until one rainy night when Shaye finds a big white dog in the road. A dog in critical condition. A dog with a horrific secret. In his race to save the dog’s life, Shaye takes matters into his own hands. And when Shaye discovers that his dog companion is thousands of miles from home, it becomes his personal mission to return the dog to his rightful owners. All Shaye knows of War Daddy’s origins is that he comes from a small, forgotten, Northern African kingdom on the edge of the vast Sahara desert. Their journey of thousands of miles is just the beginning. When Shaye becomes a stranger in a strange land, his earnest intentions evolve into an inner quest to live a life of purpose and meaning. And if Shaye ever finds true love, that, too, would be a miracle. He just has to stay one step ahead of War Daddy’s enemies. From the mountains of California to the scorching, rolling sand dunes of the mighty Sahara, this epic adventure of a troubled man and a stolen dog is sure to touch anyone with a love for animals and a hunger for new beginnings. For fans of Richard Paul Evans and Paulo Coelho. Lawrence of Arabia meets A Dog's Purpose. For anyone who dreams of more, All the Way Back Home is a standalone, inspiring adventure, with a lot of heart, laughs... and drool!
The Exact Opposite of Okay
Laura Steven - 2018
Or at least, that’s what the malicious website flying round the school says. Izzy can try all she wants to laugh it off – after all, her sex life, her terms – but when pictures emerge of her doing the dirty with a politician’s son, her life suddenly becomes the centre of a national scandal. Izzy’s never been ashamed of herself before, and she’s not going to start now. But keeping her head up will take everything she has...
Better Together
Christine Riccio - 2021
When they run into each other, their worlds turn upside down.Jamie and Siri are sisters, torn apart at a young age by their parent's volatile divorce. They’ve grown up living completely separate lives: Jamie with their Dad and Siri with their Mom. Now, reunited after over a decade apart, they hatch a plot to switch places. It’s time they get to know and confront each of their estranged parents.With an accidental assist from some fortuitous magic, Jamie arrives in New Jersey, looking to all the world like Siri, and Siri steps off her flight sporting a Jamie glamour.The sisters unexpectedly find themselves stuck living in each other's shoes. Soon Siri's crushing on Jamie's best friend Dawn. Jamie's falling for the handsome New Yorker she keeps running into, Zarar. Alongside a parade of hijinks and budding romance, both girls work to navigate their broken family life and the stresses of impending adulthood.Freaky Friday meets The Parent Trap in New York Times bestselling author Christine Riccio's Better Together, a sparkling and heartfelt story about sisters, second chances, finding romance, and finding yourself.
Hadley & Grace
Suzanne Redfearn - 2021
A woman who can’t even kill a spider, Hadley soon finds herself pushed to the limits as she fights to protect her family.Grace, new mother of baby Miles, desperately wants to put her rough past behind her for good, but she finds it impossible when her path crosses with Hadley’s, and her quest for a new start quickly spirals out of control and turns into a terrifying flight for survival.Stronger together than apart, the two find their fates inextricably entwined, and as the danger closes in, each must decide how much she is willing to risk for the other.A powerful story of self-discovery, Hadley and Grace is the heart-racing tale of two women facing insurmountable odds, racing to stay one step ahead of the trouble that is chasing them, and discovering new kinds of love and family along the way.
The Essence of Nathan Biddle
J. William Lewis - 2021
Kit’s angst is compounded by a unique psychological burden he is forced to carry: his intelligent but unstable Uncle Nat has committed an unspeakable act on what, according to the Uncle’s deranged account, were direct orders from God.The tragedy haunting his family follows Kit like a dark and foreboding cloud, exacerbating his already compulsive struggle with existential questions about the meaning of his life. When the brilliant, perhaps phantasmic, Anna dismisses him, Kit quickly spirals into despair and self-destruction. But when his irrational decision to steal a maintenance truck and speed aimlessly down the highway ends in a horrific accident and months of both physical and emotional convalescence, Kit is forced to examine his perceptions of his life and his version of reality.In this exquisite bildungsroman, calamity leads to fresh perspectives and new perceptions: it focuses Kit’s mind and forces him to confront the issues that plague him. Readers will empathize—and celebrate—as the darkness lifts and Kit comes to terms with the necessity of engagement with life’s pain, pleasure . . . and absurdity.An intelligent, clever, and captivating tale, The Essence of Nathan Biddle soars in the spaces that exist between despair and hope, darkness and light, love and loss. Beautifully written, profoundly moving, and resplendent with characters destined to remain with you long after the last page is turned, The Essence of Nathan Biddle is unforgettable.
The Topeka School
Ben Lerner - 2019
His parents are psychologists, his mom a famous author in the field. A renowned debater and orator, an aspiring poet, and - although it requires a lot of posturing and weight lifting - one of the cool kids, he's also one of the seniors who brings the loner Darren Eberheart into the social scene, with disastrous effects.Deftly shifting perspectives and time periods, The Topeka School is a riveting story about the challenges of raising a good son in a culture of toxic masculinity. It is also a startling prehistory of the present: the collapse of public speech, the tyranny of trolls and the new right, and the ongoing crisis of identity among white men.
Where's the Groom?
Cathryn Brown - 2020
Now her groom’s missing and a new man’s helping her search for him.Summer realized she’d made a big mistake. Why did she say yes to him? When her groom never arrives at the church, she uses her one clue to find him. She gets a big surprise. And she meets her Watson to help her search.Cameron agrees to help Summer because a family member’s caught in her mystery. She’s glad to have someone working with her, especially when he’s handsome and has a great smile, but a new romance is out of the question. But she sometimes (maybe too often) gets in trouble when she leaps before she looks, so he could come in handy.Cameron and Summer are immediately pulled into a mystery bigger than a missing groom (with no dead bodies!) and fighting their attraction to each other. If they can find the groom—and solve this mystery—they’ll part ways and never need to see each other again.They’re caught in a situation they didn’t create. Can a woman who almost got married find love on the run?
Diary Of A Broken Doll
Tatum James - 2018
Life may not start out all peaches and cream for Courtney...but with a little savvy and a lot of determination she might just turn it all around. Join her on a journey from innocence to independence. Determined not to be consumed by life's struggles, Courtney learns to take advantage of the obstacles she faces. Will she self-destruct or burn bright?
Pack Up the Moon
Kristan Higgins - 2021
That's what Lauren decides to leave her husband when she finds out she's dying. Each month, she gives Josh a letter containing a task to help him face this first year without her, leading him on a heartrending, beautiful, often humorous journey to find happiness again in this new novel from the New York Times bestselling author Kristan Higgins. Joshua and Lauren are the perfect couple. Newly married, they're wildly in love, each on a successful and rewarding career path. Then Lauren is diagnosed with a terminal illness. As Lauren's disease progresses, Joshua struggles to make the most of the time he has left with his wife and to come to terms with his future--a future without the only woman he's ever loved. He's so consumed with finding a way to avoid the inevitable ending that he never imagines his life after Lauren. But Lauren has a plan to keep her husband moving forward. A plan hidden in the letters she leaves him. In those letters, one for every month in the year after her death, Lauren leads Joshua on a journey through pain, anger, and denial. It's a journey that will take Joshua from his attempt at a dinner party for family and friends to getting rid of their bed...from a visit with a psychic medium to a kiss with a woman who isn't Lauren. As his grief makes room for laughter and new relationships, Joshua learns Lauren's most valuable lesson: The path to happiness doesn't follow a straight line. Sometimes heartbreaking, often funny, and always uplifting, this novel from New York Times bestselling author Kristan Higgins illuminates how life's greatest joys are often hiding in plain sight.
The Sisters
Nancy Jensen - 2011
A choice made in desperate haste sets off a chain of misunderstandings that will divide the sisters and reverberate through three generations of women.What happens when nothing turns out as you planned? From the Depression through World War II and Vietnam, and smaller events both tragic and joyful, Bertie and Mabel forge unexpected identities that are shaped by unspeakable secrets. As the sisters have daughters and granddaughters of their own, they discover that both love and betrayal are even more complicated than they seem. Gorgeously written, with extraordinary insight and emotional truth, Nancy Jensen’s powerful debut novel illuminates the far-reaching power of family and family secrets.
Written: A Story of Love, Secrets, Betrayal and Honour
D.A. Lee - 2019
Four-year-old Eleanor is forced to accept her mother’s religious beliefs, that her whole life has already been written, and that she has no choice but to honour and accept her parents’ plans for her. Subject to abuse by an Islamic teacher, and witness to scenes of violence inflicted by her father, Eleanor finds her only refuge at school, where she dreams of a life beyond the hills of her hometown of Ashcroft, England. A mysterious woman befriends Eleanor – showing her a world of choice and freedom. Caught between her parents’ cultural values and her own desires, Eleanor must decide whether to honour her parents’ wishes – a life locked in marriage to the hands of an abuser – or rewrite her own story. Written is the heart-wrenching story of a young girl’s struggle for freedom, and the uncovering of an intricate plan laced around forty years of secrets, betrayal and lies, in a family desperate to preserve their culture and honour.