Book picks similar to
Second Chances by Rachel Cullen
authors-female
books-with-less-than-300-reviews
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fiction
The Carer
Scott Nelson - 2014
Out of options in the middle of a bitter British winter, Mal takes on a live-in job looking after Florence Days, an octogenarian who talks to her wallpaper and can’t fathom why her late husband is always late for dinner.Part social commentary and part gritty psychological thriller, The Carer is a dark tale of patricide by proxy, the corrosive effects of unbridled power - and of what happens when you outsource your loved ones to people who don’t love them...Advance reviews for The Carer"A wake up call for anyone facing a dementia diagnosis - or who has elderly relatives requiring care.”Georgia Howley, best selling author of In the Garden and Switcher“With elder abuse increasingly in the news, and against a backdrop of a rapidly aging population, this book calls time on our culture’s drive to prolong life at all costs – providing the strongest argument yet for quitting while you’re still ahead.”James Whitehead, author of Exit Zero"The Carer contributes to the current – and increasingly intense and high profile – debates about our right-to-die and how we will cover the cost of our aging population’s healthcare."Dave Rider, author of Distant Sons
Lark Song
Jane Bailey - 2018
But there are secrets afflicting Freya’s family, some more sinister than others, that could destroy their relationship before it has a chance to flourish.While Freya’s older children are less than welcoming, six-year-old Sophie helps Duncan find his place in the family—but even Sophie harbours fears that threaten to overshadow any chance of a new start. The past is hard to leave behind when pictures of Freya’s idolised late husband hang in every room, and the more Duncan tries to find the source of Sophie’s anxiety, the more he is convinced that Reuben was not the perfect husband and father Freya remembers.Tormented by concern and his own insecurity, Duncan begins an obsessive investigation into the dead man’s past. But when his good intentions lead him in too deep, he risks destroying everything he has built with Freya—and the whole family’s second chance at happiness.
The First Emma
Camille Di Maio - 2020
Though they become one of the wealthiest couples in the country – a fortune made on beer, mining, and hospitality - Emma is lonely in their stone mansion, unable to have children and unable to keep his attentions at home. When a tragic accident changes everything, Otto presents a new betrayal – and Emma must choose between loyalty and independence in a world that demands convention.1943 – Mabel Hartley flees Baltimore after the war leaves her broken and alone. She answers the advertisement of a dying woman in San Antonio, with an urgent plea to come write her memoirs. In Emma Koehler, Mabel discovers astounding resilience - a pioneer who weathered personal devastation and navigated her large brewery through the storm of Prohibition. Soon Mabel realizes that Texas holds more for her than this new friendship. Romance blooms even as she’s given up on love, and an unexpected phone call gives her hope that not all goodbyes are final.The First Emma is a moving story of love, hope, and murder that captures one woman’s journey to make her mark on history and another’s desire to preserve it.
Broken Rules
Hanleigh Bradley - 2015
Rules. Perfection.Aurora's lives her life by someone else's rule book until one night she meets Landon Peters, the unprofessional, sexy as hell, British billionaire CEO. He's seductive, downright naughty and yet somehow still a perfectly English gentleman.Together they begin an adventure of rule breaking, undeniable chemistry and hot sex. It's a whirlwind of giving and losing control.But what happens when the rules are broken and shocking secrets are revealed? Will this London Socialite and British Bad Boy be able to put their broken rules aside or will everything erupt in scandal?Broken Rules is the first book in a four book complete series.A one night stand with CEO bad boy and all round "manwhore" Landon Peters will change Aurora's life, if she'll take a risk and break some rules."A Brilliant, hot, steamy and thoroughly enjoyable read." - Bloggers Down Under
The Shadow Between Us
Carol Mason - 2019
Maybe when you look out at the ocean you can see the future; forget the secrets and pain holding you back.
Or at least you can forget them for a time.
When Olivia moves to Port Townsend, her marriage is floundering, and her life is in pieces. She doesn’t know if things with her husband Mark are truly over, or quite why the phone call she longs for on her daughter’s birthday will never come. Joining a letter-writing club seems like a harmless decision. But when she meets Ned, an ex-soldier badly wounded in Afghanistan, this unlooked-for friendship revives unexpected emotions and memories she’d rather forget. Can Olivia find the courage to confront what she’s hiding from and finally begin to heal the wounds that have torn her life apart? From the bestselling author of After You Left comes a story about finding hope in second chances.
On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library
Glory Edim - 2021
Continuing her life’s work to brighten and enrich American reading lives through the work of legendary Black authors, she now launches her Well-Read Black Girl Library Series with On Girlhood. This meticulously selected anthology features a wide range of unique voices, finally illuminating a distinctly robust sector of contemporary literature: groundbreaking short stories that explore the thin yet imperative line between Black girlhood and womanhood.Divided into four themes—Innocence, Belonging, Love, and Self-Discovery—the unforgettable young protagonists within contend with the trials of coming of age that shape who they are and what they will become. With this tradition in mind, Innocence opens with Jamaica Kincaid’s searing “Girl,” in which a mother offers fierce instructions to her impressionable daughter. This deceptively simple yet profound monologue is followed by Toni Morrison’s first and only published short story, the now-canonical “Recitatif,” about two neglected girls who come together in youth only to find themselves on opposite picket lines in adulthood.In Belonging, Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson” follows rambunctious students on a field trip where they are exposed to a new world of luxury. In Love, Dana Johnson’s “Melvin in the Sixth Grade” captures the yearning of a lovesick teen smitten with the only boy who looks her way. And in Self-Discovery, Edwidge Danticat’s “Seeing Things Simply” charts the creative awakening of Princesse, a young woman with a hunger to be fully seen. These inspiring tales of world builders and rule breakers conclude with Zora Neale Hurston’s “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” a personal essay brimming with wit and strength: “When covered by the waters, I am; and the ebb but reveals me again.”At times heartbreaking and at times hilarious, these stories boldly push past flat stereotypes and powerfully convey the beauty of Black girlhood. In bringing together an array of influential authors—past and present—whose work remains timeless, Glory Edim has created an indispensable compendium for every home library and a soul-stirring guide to coming of age.Featuring stories by Jamaica Kincaid, Toni Morrison, Dorothy West, Rita Dove, Camille Acker, Toni Cade Bambara, Amina Gautier, Alexia Arthurs, Dana Johnson, Alice Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Edwidge Danticat, Shay Youngblood, Paule Marshall, and Zora Neale Hurston.
The Laundress
Barbara Sapienza - 2020
And now, following the death of his wife, he’s left for Italy. In the wake of her uncle’s departure, Lavinia has quit school. Now she works as a personal laundress to a diverse cast of San Francisco residents—people with stories as complicated as her own. As time progresses, through the sacred ritual of washing clothes—and with the help of a friend and her nurturing, flamenco dancing mother—Lavinia begins to recover memories of her past. Gradually, her gifts of receptivity multiply, and she communes with nature, finding messages from birds and the leaves of her garden’s fig tree. And when she recovers Raggedy, a beloved doll that accompanied her from Naples when she was four years old, she experiences a tangible connection to her own mother. Even as Lavinia makes these discoveries, she is busy building new relationships—discovering healing dance with her lover, a barista in a North Beach coffee shop; learning to understand Time and forgiveness with an elderly client; and even getting to know her father, a man who has never been a part of her life. Poetic and poignant, The Laundress is a coming-of-age story for anyone who’s ever sought to understand where they came from in order to figure out who they’re meant to become.
Gray
Pete Wentz - 2013
Tomorrow you will wake up in downtown Somewhere. It doesn’t matter. All the skylines look the same. Time is only marked by events. The world is on a first-name basis with you.But you…you barely even know yourself. There are those who give in completely to the idea of what it means to be famous. And those who can’t ever seem to leave the past behind. Life is a deep and contemplative story stuck on repeat—love, loss, self-destruction, self-discovery.If you could go back to the way things were before you made it…would everything still be gray?
The Cocky Thief
Mallory Crowe - 2017
Austin Miles can get into any building, safe or vault in the world if he wanted to,but when a former cop obsessed with revenge threatens his most important asset,his reputation, he finds himself accepting a job that even the best would balk at. The only silver lining as he's putting his life on the line is the sexy,mysterious Jennifer Murray. Somehow when he's flirting with her the threat of death doesn't seem quite so bad. Jennifer Murray thought she was going to her eccentric's mother's wedding. The only thing that made the ordeal bearable was the tall dark and handsome man across the hall from her. But when she learns her mother's true motives for elaborate wedding, it becomes apparent that this isn't a party. It's a job. With both Jennifer and Austin after the same payday, there can only be one winner. But no one ever said the score of a lifetime would be easy...
Chosen Child
Linda Huber - 2016
A sudden death. A betrayal of the worst kind. Ella longs for a child of her own, but a gruesome find during an adoption process deepens the cracks in her marriage. A family visit starts off a horrifying chain of events, and Ella can only hope she won’t lose the person she loves most of all. Amanda is expecting her second child when her husband vanishes. She is tortured by thoughts of violence and loss, but nothing prepares her for the shocking conclusion to the police investigation. And in the middle of it all, a little girl is looking for a home of her own with a ‘forever’ mummy and daddy… How well do you know your own family? And who can you trust? Chosen Child is the fourth chilling psychological suspense novel from the author of The Paradise Trees, The Cold Cold Sea and The Attic Room. The pace is perfectly controlled even as it races toward the inevitable crash. Barb Taub Gripping, fast paced, wonderful storytelling. Jane Isaac
Brooklyn's Song
Sydney Arrison - 2015
"Brooklyn Pierce has just witnessed an attempted assassination, and Detective Song Kai and his partner, Detective Mattice Blake, are on the case.But as the story progresses, sparks begin to develop between Brooklyn and Song, providing the reader with a storyline overflowing with sensuality, compassion and romance amidst the onset of drama, tension, suspicion, deception and murder and an explosive ending, which you will never see coming."