Book picks similar to
Replacement Children by Rick Maloy


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Reverie


Christina Yother - 2014
    When a job opportunity as a housekeeper presents itself Hetty accepts believing that working for Isaac Wheeler and his family is a welcome, if not temporary, surrogate for her own family dreams. As she’s faced with learning to trust she discovers that wanting a family and building a family are two very different things. Will she learn to see herself as worthy of God’s gifts? Or will she return to the solitary existence that defined so much of her life? Isaac Wheeler, successful furniture maker and dishonorable bachelor, finds Hetty’s presence in his home to be disturbing and a haunting reminder of his past sins. As he struggles with his growing and unwanted feelings, he can’t help but torment himself with mistakes from his past. Can he navigate the family tensions, infidelity, and sudden choices destined to keep them apart? Or can Isaac endure each struggle and seek forgiveness before discovering what truly makes a family?

Mending the Line


Christy Hayes - 2012
    After two surgeries and a lengthy rehabilitation, she’s ready to pursue her goal again. Or is she…Jill’s healing and ready to hit the pavement, but her passion for the sport she’d planned to make her career unexpectedly wanes. On a whim, she changes course and runs right into tall, blonde, and gorgeous Tyler Bloodworth. Fly fisherman come and go in south central Colorado, but Ty’s back for a second summer, minus his girlfriend and hotter than ever.Tyler Bloodworth's life plan to start a fly-fishing business with his dad back home in North Carolina is suddenly snagged when Jill Jennings runs circles around his heart during a summer stint as a fishing guide in Colorado. Back for a second summer, he sets his bait and casts his line, but Jill's not so easy to catch.A catch and release fisherman hooks the one girl he won’t let go. A distance runner with big dreams and an uncertain future falls hard for a summer fling. Can Jill risk losing her career and her heart to Tyler when he’ll be gone in a few months, or will Ty reel in the biggest catch of his life?

The Travis Club


Mark Louis Rybczyk - 2013
    His books receive little notice until he unearths a 100 year old mystery that the powerful had hoped would never have been uncovered. How far will the city's power brokers go to silence Taylor and his band of friend known as The Travis Club? Intrigue and romance bring this mystery alive in a one of a kind city, San Antonio.

Summerlandish: Do As I Say, Not As I Did


Summer Land - 2013
    Summerlandish is all the hard-won, scar-leaving, tattoo-regretting, butthole-tearing lessons Summer has learned over the years – “summer-ised” here in all their glamorously gory detail, so you don’t have to bother with learning them yourselves. And, surprisingly, she seems to know quite a bit about love, life and awkward moments involving too much caffeine and/or lack of restraint.

Maggie's Epic Pancake


Flitzy Books - 2014
    This book is great for early readers, reading aloud at home, and is especially fun to read right before you go make your very own EPIC pancake!

The Bunco Club


Karen DeWitt - 2013
    Attitudes surface and personalities clash as struggles, secrets, and obsessions emerge. Follow the lives of eight quilters from Chicagoland as they gather once a month to play Bunco, the popular no-skills dice game. The last thing Lettie wants is for a member to quit the Bunco Club, but a well-guarded hoarding obsession may cause that very thing to happen. When Nancy’s one-love contacts her after twenty years, she shares tidbits each month about the devastating breakup along with news of a possible reunion and she finds there is no shortage of opinions from the women of the Bunco Club. Follow the members as their stories are revealed and woven together through the bond of friendship—from a heart stopping discovery of a national historic treasure, to a 39-year-old secret, to a mom whose child is devastated from being bullied. Eight women capture the hearts of readers who will long to be members of The Bunco Club.Show more Show less

Justifiable Deceit


Mikael Carlson - 2020
    A year later, he has become the country’s leading gun control activist and a media darling.When Ethan teams up with a powerful senator to push an extreme gun measure through Congress, a divided America watches the political fireworks in Washington. As both sides of the debate mobilize for an epic showdown, the public is about to discover that everything they know about the massacre that launched this movement may be wrong.Journalist Tierra Campos and FBI Special Agent Victoria Larsen begin questioning the official investigation into the shooting and find themselves caught in the political crossfire. Despite public condemnation, covert activities, and physical violence meant to stop them, they remain undaunted in their quest – but at what price? With their careers threatened and livelihoods at stake, they must race to unlock the secrets behind this horrible mass shooting before the truth disappears forever. Amidst the maelstrom of political agendas, personal vendettas, and brash cover-ups, the push to uncover the real motives behind the tragedy will have devastating consequences. When the dust settles, a shocked nation must make a fateful judgment: do the ends justify the means in politics, or is there no such thing as Justifiable Deceit?

The Wrong Todd


Donna McDonald - 2014
    This is especially true for favors that involve spending large sums of money and buying men whose last names she doesn't even know. In twenty bachelors, Sabine maybe expected to find several Davids, Mikes, or Johns. But what were the odds of two Todds? And now what is she going to do on a very expensive date with the wrong one?This light-hearted contemporary romance will make you laugh from the beginning and leave you smiling when you are done.

The Real You


Elizabeth Myles - 2017
    Since moving away from her small hometown nearly a decade ago, she’s had to stay in touch with him online, where the pair has grown closer than ever sharing everything from their favorite sci-fi shows to cute photos of baby animals, to crises that have cropped up in each of their personal lives as they’ve grown up. Now Rourke is suddenly back in town, and while she’s thrilled to be reunited with the boy who has become her dearest friend, she realizes it won’t be easy seeing him in person again every day. Because over the years, Rourke has fallen deeply in love with Dallas…but Dallas isn’t the sort of guy who falls in love. As the high school’s resident drama heartthrob, Dallas is known for his passionate starring performances. Unfortunately his Romeo act isn’t only confined to the boards. Off-stage he’s so popular with the opposite sex that other guys come to him for advice on how to succeed with girls. Although Rourke knows there’s a lot more to him than the charismatic playboy everyone else sees, she still doubts Dallas could ever be satisfied with only one girl, especially not one as bookish and old-fashioned as herself. She knows the smart thing to do would be to get over Dallas and fall for someone more suitable, or else resign herself to only finding happily-ever-after within the pages of her favorite romance novels. But if it was hard enough for Rourke to keep from fixating on her charming pal when he was hundreds of miles away, now that she’s living right down the street from him again it seems downright impossible. Especially with Dallas sending her so many strangely mixed messages concerning his own feelings about her… MORE ABOUT THE BOOK: • The Real You is a complete novel of approximately 80,000 words. There is no cliff-hanger ending. • It is a light-hearted, contemporary YA romance written in third person, alternating between Rourke’s and Dallas’s points of view. ASSOCIATED TITLES • While The Real You may be enjoyed on its own as a stand-alone novel, it shares a setting with, and features some characters from, Elizabeth’s previous novels, Fear and Laundry and Fear and Laundry 2, also available now from Amazon.

The River Is Home


Patrick D. Smith - 2012
    It is the story of Skeeter, a young boy growing up in a family poor in material goods but rich in the appreciation of their natural surroundings. The river they live on is the source of life—and death.

Threads of Change


Jodi Barrows - 2013
    Raging storms and adversities hit the small band of travelers, and it all seems unrelenting.Relieved to finally arrive at the abandoned military post at Fort Worth, Texas, they begin the hard work of establishing a new home, including the difficult task of building schools and churches while attempting to civilize the community with manners.When trials follow them, they must decide to become true warriors of their hearts, minds, and souls—or fall to the sufferings of prairie life.Join the four women on a passage of friendship, love, and self-discovery as lives are mended around the quilting frame.

Murfey's Law


Bec Johnson - 2013
    Inheriting a rundown general store 17,000 kilometres away in Australia, her plan of getting in, selling up, and getting back out again seems simple enough. But accusing the local Police Sergeant, maddeningly sexy Zeb Turner, of shop lifting on her first day in Murfey's Beach, Lori quickly discovers the implications of being on the wrong side of the law.Moving on isn't going to be as easy a task as she first thought. Ironically, if Lori wants to get rid of the shop, she's going to have to fight to keep it first. Desperate to win over the colourfully eccentric locals who hold the keys to her freedom, Lori sets about breathing new life into the sleepy old community.Temperatures rise and desire sizzles as the residents of the tiny seaside village experience their hottest summer romance in decades.

Unwell


Marie Chow - 2014
    She doesn’t take the road to abortion. She decides to give her child a fighting chance in life, without the angst and drama that’s shaped her own bittersweet life.With a poignant lack of emotion, the young mother shares her life story. As the child of Asian parents who moved to America early in her life, the mother shares how her life disintegrated after her parents’ divorce. From upper middle class suburban to sharing her mean aunt’s house to a one bedroom apartment in a shabby neighborhood, this mother endures the indignity that comes with the change of status. From her father’s absence to her mother becoming a married man’s mistress, her story reads like a tragic Victorian novel set in the 21st century, but that’s where the similarity ends—she is definitely not a shy country miss and she certainly did not take the easy way out. This amazing story chronicles the life of a woman who fought for everything she got, faced her demons and made the hard choices. Her fortitude and candor are disarming, her avant-garde views strangely endearing. You’ve never read a book like this and probably never will again. Get your copy today and take the literary journey of a lifetime. Through this glimpse into the life of a woman of integrity, sacrifice and love, you’ll feel her pain, live her failures and cheer for the meager joys that come her way. But the one thing you’ll never do… is forget her. Or her story.

Life Can Be a Miracle


Ivinela Samuilova - 2011
    One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” (Albert Einstein)This is the motto of the cheerful debut novel by Ivinela Samuilova Life Can Be a Miracle. In 2008 Ivinela Samuilova met Alexey Bachev who, at the time, worked as psychologist in the Ministry of Defence in Bulgaria. She became intrigued by his personality and the manner he worked with people seeking his help. Ivinela started documenting what he did and at the end of 2009 she wrote Life Can Be a Miracle, convincing Alexey to keep his real name in her novel because she wanted people to learn about him and his unusual approach to reality. The story of the female protagonist Adie presents the life of the majority of people today – life stuck in social frameworks that define and limit what is 'possible and impossible', 'real and unreal', 'feasible and unfeasible', 'acceptable and unacceptable'.Adie realized that, dragged along by her fears, beliefs and prejudices, she had replaced her true identity with a personality scattered about in different roles. She believes that only by finding her Vocation, will she be able to make sense of her existence and once again restore the integrity of her personality. Cue her meeting with the extraordinary psychologist Alexey, who helps her look at herself and her life from a point of view she would probably never otherwise have.Alexey’s unusual lessons, that start with a tiny piece of blue cheese and a huge fork, reveal practically how to break away from hypnotically living our lives following fixed social models. We discover, bit by bit, how to restore a more direct and holistic connection with the world. This is the only possible way to turn our ordinary life into an extraordinary experience.

Sailing Down the Moonbeam


Mary Gottschalk - 2008
    As the voyage takes her farther and farther from her traditional support systems, her world becomes more and more defined by forces outside her control. Mary's travels through often uncharted island communities, provides a compelling metaphor for a journey of self-discovery.