Book picks similar to
Second Chances by Rachel Cullen
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The Things I Didn't Say
Kylie Fornasier - 2016
I've used up every dandelion wish since I was ten wishing for the power to speak whenever I want to. I'm starting to wonder if there are enough dandelions.After losing her best friend that night, Piper Rhodes changes schools, determined that her final year will be different. She will be different. Then she meets West: school captain, star soccer player, the boy everyone talks about. Despite her fear of losing everything all over again, Piper falls in love - and West with her - without Piper ever speaking one word to him. But will it last?
Scar of the Bamboo Leaf
Sieni A.M. - 2014
But like the bamboo, if you plant and nurture it in the right soil, it has the potential to grow vibrant and strong."Walking with a pronounced limp all her life has never stopped fifteen-year-old Kiva Mau from doing what she loves. While most girls her age are playing sports and perfecting their traditional Samoan dance, Kiva finds serenity in her sketchbook and volunteering at the run-down art center her extended family owns, nestled amongst the bamboo. When seventeen-year-old Ryler Cade steps into the art center for the first time, Kiva is drawn to the angry and misguided student sent from abroad to reform his violent ways. Scarred and tattooed, a friendship is formed when the gentle Kiva shows him kindness and beauty through art, until circumstances occur beyond their control and they are pulled away. Immersed in the world of traditional art and culture, this is the story of self-sacrifice and discovery, of acceptance and forbearance, of overcoming adversity and finding one’s purpose. Spanning years, it is a story about an intuitive girl and a misunderstood boy and love that becomes real when tested.
The Hive
Melissa Scholes Young - 2021
The family talked about Fehler Family Exterminating at every meal, even when their mom said to separate the business from the family, an impossible task. They tried to escape work with trips to their trailer camp on the Mississippi River, but the sisters did more fighting than fishing. If only there was a son to lead rural Missouri insect control and guide the way through a crumbling patriarchy.After Robbie Fehler’s sudden death, the surprising details of succession in his will are revealed. He’s left the company to a distant cousin, assuming the women of the family aren’t capable. As the mother’s long-term affair surfaces and her apocalypse prepper training intensifies, she wants to trade responsibility for romance.Facing an economic recession amidst the backdrop of growing Midwestern fear and resentment, the Fehler sisters unite in their struggle to save the company’s finances and the family’s future. To survive, they must overcome a political chasm that threatens a new civil war as the values that once united them now divide the very foundation they’ve built. Through alternating point-of-views, grief and regret gracefully give way to the enduring strength of the hive.
Flying at Night
Rebecca L. Brown - 2018
And just when his diagnosis of autism sends her life reeling, she's dragged back into the orbit of her emotionally abusive father, Lance, after a heart attack leaves him with brain damage.Fred is in need of a friend. Lance is in need of care. And Piper just wants to feel stable ground beneath her feet. What she never expects is that Fred and Lance--both misunderstood by the world--will start to connect in the most miraculous of ways...
Brown Boy Nowhere
Sheeryl Lim - 2021
Life starts here.What’s the problem? Sixteen-year-old Filipino American Angelo Rivera will tell you flat out. Life sucks. He’s been uprooted from his San Diego home to a boring landlocked town in the middle of nowhere. Behind him, ocean waves, his girlfriend, and the biggest skateboarding competition on the California coast. Ahead, flipping burgers at his parents’ new diner and, as the only Asian in his all-white school, being trolled as “brown boy” by small-minded, thick-necked jocks.Resigned to being an outcast, Angelo isn’t alone. Kirsten, a crushable ex-cheerleader and graffiti artist, and Larry, a self-proclaimed invisible band geek, recognize a fellow outsider. Soon enough, Angelo finds himself the leader of their group of misfits. They may be low on the high school food chain, but they’re determined to hold their own.Between shifts at the diner, dodging bullies, and wishing for home, Angelo discovers this might not be nowhere after all. Sharing it can turn it into somewhere in a heartbeat.
Sassy Blonde
Stacey Kennedy - 2020
An artist by nature, she has no idea what she's doing as co-owner of Three Chicks Brewery. But she's determined to prove to her older sisters that she can be an asset to their grandfather's beer legacy. The best way to do that? Make the rounds at Colorado's craft brewery festivals and turn Foxy Diva, their top beer, into an award winner. Unfortunately, after more than one "beer mishap," it becomes clear that she's going to need some help.Hayes Taylor knows he has a chip on his shoulder, but he has no interest in working through his traumatic past. He just wants to work on his horse farm, alone. The last thing he needs in his life is a woman, especially his dead wife's best friend, the sweet-as-pie Maisie Carter. But she's always brought out his protective instincts, and he can hardly say 'no' when she asks for his help...As the two embark on the festival tour, beer filled days turn into lust filled nights, and neither Maisie nor Hayes can deny their growing attraction. But Hayes knows love leads to heartbreak.... Can Maisie show him that their love is worth the risk?
Past Mischief
Victoria Clayton - 1998
Yet, this is just the beginning of a better life for her.
Ripple
Heather Smith Meloche - 2016
So she finds a shot of much-needed power and confidence by hooking up with boys, even though it means cheating on her boyfriend. But when she's finally caught red-handed, she’ll do anything she can to cover up what she's done.Jack is a prankster who bucks the system every chance he gets—each transgression getting riskier and riskier. He loves the thrill, and each adventure allows a little release because his smug smile and suave demeanor in the face of authority doesn’t make life at home with his mom any less tough. He tries to take care of her, but the truth is he's powerless in the face of her fragile mental health. So he copes in his own way, by defacing public property and pulling elaborate pranks, though he knows in the end this’ll only screw up his life even more.As they both try not to let their self-destructive patterns get the best of them, Tessa and Jack gravitate toward one another, discovering the best parts of themselves in the process. An honest portrayal of the urges that drive us and finding the strength to overcome them, Ripple is a stunning debut from a powerful new voice.
Love Me Anyway
Tiffany Hawk - 2013
Hoping for a new start, she moves to San Francisco to bunk with six other new flight attendants. Among them is KC Valentine, a free spirit who encourages Emily to shed her mousy ways and start collecting experiences as exciting as her passport stamps. Emily soon follows KC's advice a little too well, falling in love with an older, married co-worker named Tien, a father to two young girls. But as Emily and Tien become more deeply entangled, KC grows distraught. Neither her friends nor co-workers know the real reason she became a flight attendant: to find her father who abandoned her as a child. As Emily and KC fly from Vegas to Boston, San Francisco to London, Chicago to Delhi, each searching for love and acceptance, they're torn between passion and moral conviction, freedom and belonging.An assured debut from a former flight attendant, Love Me Anyway deftly captures the complexities of love, friendship, and family, the excitement and loneliness that come from living everywhere and nowhere, and the surprising detours life can take when you set out to discover the world.
Malcriada & Other Stories
Lorraine Avila - 2019
Mal porque tengo miedo. Miedo porque yo era como t�, llena de ideas y verdad, y por mi sabidur�a lo perd� todo. T� no eres Malcriada. Lo que pasa es que tu sabes demasiado." __In the middle of the Caribbean Sea, aboard an illegal voyage from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico, a twelve year old learns her name; a former cacao farmer finds a constellation on his lover's thighs; best friends become strangers and find the essence of themselves in the face of deception; an old man exchanges his homeland for a New York City bodega storefront; preteen boys grapple with authority; female cousins come to terms with their first shared sexual experience; an alcoholic woman finds serenity at the bottom of the sea; feminism is deconstructed by opposing views; on the back of a motorcycle, self-awareness is found; and a woman discovers that healing is a series of choices.__ "My mother didn't teach me dependency, I want to yell and enunciate. I cannot force myself to need you. Mami taught me to use my tongue like a sword, and I haven't sharpened it in years. Too afraid, I find myself, to pain him, to say things that might strike him the wrong way. Some feelings just don't translate. " __ " You know that Malcriadas can love the world awake."
The Promise
Melody Grace - 2016
Promise me you’ll live.” Claire Fortune arrives in Boston with an old notebook and her best friend’s dying wish – to finish the scribbled bucket list that Hope didn’t have time to complete. Moment by moment, Claire builds a life she never dreamed of – until Theo walks into the coffee-shop one crisp September afternoon, and her careful plans scatter on the winds. Sometimes a chance meeting can change a life forever. Sometimes fate knows exactly what we need. Perfect for fans of ‘Me Before You’ and ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, ‘The Promise’ brings together two people searching for a love that can overcome tragedy. A heartbreakingly romantic novel that challenges us to live – and love - every day as if it were our last.
If You Love Me
Ciara Knight - 2020
His only hope to navigate the strange rules of the town comes from a distractingly beautiful, mess of a woman - Carissa Donahue. As a small town girl, Carissa lives her life on a whim and a prayer. Even in the kitchen she never uses a recipe, yet her sweets are known as the best throughout the South. She has no desire to be a part of Drew’s show, but she knows it’s the town’s best option to increase tourism during a troubling economic time. If there wasn’t an upturn, she’d have to close her bakery. She can’t lose it. Owning a bakery has been her lifelong dream, and her focus since her best friend ran away with her fiancé. The icing on the project for Drew is that a colleague has promised him a spot working at a real film network if Drew can spend time with Carissa and not fall in love. Drew isn’t sure he can resist the one person he’d never date under different circumstances, nor is he sure he wants to. Can Drew convince Carissa she can trust him enough to open her heart?
Tuesday's Child
Anya Mora - 2019
My husband and I cling to what’s left of our family, desperate to make sense of the tragedy. But when the sheriff knocks, he delivers news no mother should ever have to hear. Our daughter was murdered. And my son is the prime suspect. When we adopted eleven-year-old Holden, we weren’t wearing rose-colored glasses. But we never could have imagined this. They say you can’t pick your family. But I picked mine. Did I choose my daughter’s murderer? Tuesday’s Child is a gripping domestic suspense. Doubt, desire, and the demise of a once picture-perfect family force Emery, wife to a state senator, to live out a mother’s worst nightmare.
Pour On the Heat
Lily Rede - 2012
He's been avoiding her for weeks, but when one of the football players starts failing her class, Jill decides to corner Liam in the locker room one night after hours, vowing to fight her attraction to the obnoxious man. However, she doesn't count on Liam being able to give as good as he gets, or the steamy seduction of a shower built for two...Liam can't help it if Jill Langer's prickly exterior turns him on, but he knows that the brainy literature professor must want better than a lowly football coach. His preconceptions are shattered the day he discovers that the prim Ms. Langer has a love of steamy, hardcore erotica. When she corners him in the locker room one night, he sets out to prove to her that they may have more in common that she thinks, and that he might just be the man to bring all of her naughty fantasies to life.
Time to Run
Susan C. Muller - 2019
She decides to hide out until the case is solved and her name cleared.In each new city she tries to make a life for herself, but no place feels safe. She can still hear the violent confrontation, smell the blood . . . she still watches over her shoulder everywhere she goes, terrified of being discovered . . . eliminated.Now her worst fears have come true. The hit man has found her. And so has Special Agent Montgomery, the one person with the power to either lock her up or clear her name--if only he'll believe her.Unwilling to take that chance, she must run again. Only this time she has an added burden . . . a wounded FBI agent who depends on her to keep him alive until he's well enough to arrest her.