Book picks similar to
Dog-Heart by Diana McCaulay


caribbean
jamaica
loved
real-life-sh-t

An Autumn in Paris


Alix Nichols
    No matter how hot his kisses or how genuine his affection, he’s still reeling. He can’t move on.And I can’t risk falling for him. I have a child to raise—a preteen boy who needs his mom to be all there. But as autumn strips the trees of their leaves, falling for Thomas is exactly what I do. Throwing caution to the wind, I dare to hope for a future with him……until the past comes knocking.Can we handle it or will it break us forever?Whether you're a fan of timeless movies like “Sabrina” or prefer steamy contemporary romance novels, “An Autumn in Paris” has something for you to love.Escape to Paris, and let this sweet, fun and sensual tale give you all the feels!

My Husband's Sin (The Lacey Taylor Story, #1)


Mary T. Bradford - 2014
    For the grieving youngest sibling, Lacey, life is about to come crashing down as a deep secret is revealed. The fall-out affects every member and they struggle to regain the happy family unit they once shared. Each of the siblings, take the reader on a journey as they try to come to terms and learn to handle this huge revelation.

Weather or Knot


Tracy Brogan - 2019
    So when the Chanel 7 news director sends her on assignment to join a team of adrenaline-loving, tornado-seeking storm chasers, she's beyond thrilled. Live weather segments from the road is just what Allison needs to boost her on-air visibility and land that promotion she's been working toward. There's just one problem. Dylan Parks. Her one-time fiancé and the man she's never quite forgotten.The last time Dylan Parks saw Allie Winters, she'd just returned his engagement ring and twisted his heart like an F5 tornado. Now here she was in the back of his tech-laden SUV looking more beautiful than ever, and expecting to spend the week with him and his team. In the five years since their break-up, Dylan has worked hard at establishing his career - and he's worked even harder at getting over the love of his life. Neither was easy, and her surprise appearance has left him as unstable as a springtime weather system in Kansas.Long days spent chasing ominous clouds give way to nostalgic evenings that stir up long-buried emotions, but can Dylan and Allie leave behind their turbulent history in the hopes that love, like lightning, sometimes strikes twice?***Includes an excerpt of Tracy Brogan's new release THE NEW NORMAL***

Songs and Portobellos


M.A. McCormack - 2015
    Songs and Portobellos is a magical story that captures the creativity and clarity of perception that young people possess.The book centres on the development of teenagers Conor and Melanie during the summer of 1967 and explores the influences that bring them to understand their uniqueness.By the end of the summer they have transcended the ordinary, discovered who they are and determined what they stand for.

The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You


Amulya Malladi - 2019
    The best Zara store is in BCN (Barcelona, Spain). The best airport to buy whiskey at is ARN (Stockholm, Sweden). When stopping at CDG (Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris), you must have a long layover because of those damn funiculars; and never forget that the international terminal in ORD (Chicago) has no food after ten in the evening. Airplanes, airports, and hotel lobby bars make Asmi feel just as much at home as her apartment in Laguna Beach does. A marketing director in a biotech company, Asmi rose through the corporate ranks and never really took the time to think about couple-hood. She has good friends, a terrific sister who lives close by, and a married on-again, off-again lover in Paris she sees while she travels around the world for work.But as Asmi reaches the big 4-0 and contemplates making some life choices; her boss announces he is retiring, and she is suddenly thrown into a corporate Hunger Games against her nemesis Scott Beauregard III to win a promotion.Worried that her inability to commit to a real relationship with a man is a personality flaw and afraid that she’s unqualified for the job she desperately wants, Asmi must learn to lean in to have the career and life she wants and deserves, without worrying about what society expects from her.

Flight


Oona Frawley - 2014
    Elizabeth’s mother rang her morning, noon and night. He’s driving me mad with his pepper talk, she said, I’ll crown him if he talks to me about the need for Vietnam to join the International Pepper Community and duties and postmen one more time! The cracks one begins to see in families.Flight is the story of four travellers as their journeys intersect one winter in Dublin.Sandrine, a Zimbabwean woman who has left her husband and son behind in the hope of making a better life for them in Ireland, is alone and secretly pregnant. She finds herself working as a carer for Tom and Clare, a couple whose travels are ending as their minds begin to fail. Meanwhile Elizabeth, their world-weary daughter, carries the weight of her own body’s secret.Set in Ireland in 2004 as a referendum on citizenship approaches, Flight is a magically observed story of a family and belonging, following the gestation of a friendship during a year of crisis. A story of arrival and departure, the newly found and the left behind, Flight is among a new breed of Irish novel – one that recognizes the global nature of Ireland experience in the late 20th century, and one that considers Ireland in the aftermath of the failed Celtic Tiger.

Pete & Daisy


Tani Hanes - 2018
    Pete is an exchange student from Italy with a chronic case of poverty. She needs a baby-daddy, he needs a place to live, so they decide to help each other out by engaging in the time-honored device used by people in need the world over: a marriage of convenience. She’s beautiful and smart, he’s a gorgeous and talented musician, surely they can live together as husband and wife for one academic year? In a one-bedroom on the Upper West Side? With her old-fashioned granny living on the first floor, Pete and Daisy move into a tiny, rooftop apartment, ready to be roommates, husband and wife in name only, for nine months. Real life has a way of getting in the way, though, of messing with the best laid plans... Come along for the journey of Pete Santangelo and Daisy White and their turbulent and very sexy romance, and see how two strangers can become best friends and fall in love. See how a modern American family is born.

Squalor, New Mexico


Lisette Brodey - 2009
    From the moment Darla asks to know more about her mysterious aunt, she is offered nothing but half-truths, distortions, and evasions. As Darla grows into her teen years, her life is oddly yet profoundly affected by this woman she has never known. She can't help but notice that Rebecca seems to exist only in dark corners of conversations and that no one ever wants to talk about her - with Darla. Squalor, New Mexico is a coming-of-age story shrouded in family mystery. As the plot takes twists and turns, secrets are revealed not only to Darla but to the "secret keepers" as well. Darla learns that families are only as strong as the truths they hold and as weak as the secrets they keep.

Anchors & Vacancies


Kat Savage - 2016
    It's all the things we all hold onto, all the things we let anchor onto us, and all the things that leave us vacant.

Pao


Kerry Young - 2011
    Pao needs to take care of some dirty business, but he is no Don Corleone. The rackets he runs are small-time, and the protection he provides necessary, given the minority status of the Chinese in Jamaica. Pao, in fact, is a sensitive guy in a wise guy role that doesn't quite fit. Often mystified by all that he must take care of, Pao invariably turns to Sun Tzu's Art of War. The juxtaposition of the weighty, aphoristic words of the ancient Chinese sage, with the tricky criminal and romantic predicaments Pao must negotiate builds the basis of the novel's great charm. A tale of post-colonial Jamaica from a unique and politically potent perspective, Pao moves from the last days of British rule through periods of unrest at social and economic inequality, through tides of change that will bring about Rastafarianism and the Back to Africa Movement. Pao is an utterly beguiling, unforgettable novel of race, class and creed, love and ambition, and a country in the throes of tumultuous change. Kerry Young was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to a Chinese-African mother and a Chinese father-a businessman in Kingston's shadow economy who provided inspiration for Pao. Young moved to England in 1965 at the age of ten. She earned her MA in creative writing at Nottingham Trent University. This is her first novel.

Reckless Beginnings


Tina Hogan Grant - 2018
    But with no leads and faced with turmoil in her own life, there wasn't much Tammy could do.After a forbidden secret love affair and a catastrophic dispute with her father, Tammy eventually meets Steven, settles down and has his child, only to discover he is a heroin addict. Thrown into a life of drugs and violence, Tammy lives in fear of what Steven might be capable of and struggles alone to provide for her young son.What consequences might she face if she leaves Steven? Is she ever going to find her sister alive? Will she have enough courage to conquer the impossible challenges of her twisted world and still come out on top?Reckless Beginnings is a story of fiction based on true events.

Your Heart My Sky


Margarita Engle - 2021
    That’s what the government insists that this era must be called, but the reality behind these words is starvation.Liana is struggling to find enough to eat. Yet hunger has also made her brave: she finds the courage to skip a summer of so-called volunteer farm labor, even though she risks government retribution. Nearby, a quiet, handsome boy named Amado also refuses to comply, so he wanders alone, trying to discover rare sources of food.A chance encounter with an enigmatic dog brings Liana and Amado together. United in hope and hunger, they soon discover that their feelings for each other run deep. Love can feed their souls and hearts—but is it enough to withstand el periodo especial?

The Heebie-Jeebie Girl


Susan Petrone - 2020
    Between the closing of the city's largest steel mill and the worst blizzard in more than 40 years, the table is set for remarkable change. Unemployed steel worker Bobby Wayland is trying hard to help his family and still pay for his wedding, but the only solution he can think of involves breaking the law. On the other side of town, a little girl named Hope is keeping a big secret, one she won't even share with her Great Uncle Joe―she can make things move without touching them. Watching over both of them is the city herself, and she has something to say and something to do about all of this.The Heebie-Jeebie Girl is the story of an era ending and the uncertainty that awakens. It's the story of what happens when the unconscionable meets the improbable. It's the story of dreams deferred, dreams devoured, and dreams dawning. It is likely to be the most distinctive novel you read this year, but it will startle you with its familiarity. Author Susan Petrone has created an unforgettable tale of family, redemption, and magic.

Haiti Noir


Edwidge DanticatMarie Ketsia Theodore-Pharel - 2010
    Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.Featuring brand-new stories by: Edwidge Danticat, Rodney Saint-Éloi, Madison Smartt Bell, Gary Victor, M.J. Fievre, Marvin Victor, Yanick Lahens, Louis-Philipe Dalembert, Kettly Mars, Marie Ketsia Theodore-Pharel, Evelyne Trouillot, Katia Ulysse, Ibi Aanu Zoboi, Nadine Pinede, and others.Haiti has a tragic history and continues to be one of the most destitute places on the planet, especially in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. Here, however, Danticat reveals that even while the subject matter remains dark, the caliber of Haitian writing is of the highest order.

Monarch Manor


Maureen Leurck - 2019
    But sifting through the overwhelming collection of figurines, outdated appliances and dusty books, she finds something that captures her attention: a yellowed envelope of old photographs. In one, taken almost a century ago, a beautiful woman is seated with a young boy who looks uncannily like Erin's five-year-old autistic son, Will. Intrigued, Erin looks further into her family's history, and discovers parallels to her present day life. The boy in the picture, John Cartwright, was deaf. He and his mother, Amelia, are presumed to have drowned together in Geneva Lake, beside Amelia's family home. Named for the butterflies that flocked to its lush gardens, Monarch Manor still stands, though the once-grand Queen Anne house is now in ruins, slated for demolition. Seeking respite from her own exhausting battle to get the best care for Will, Erin delves even deeper into the past-unearthing a story that is both heartbreaking and surprising.Weaving Erin's and Amelia's narratives together, Maureen Leurck creates an unforgettable and moving novel of sacrifice and hope, and the way love between a parent and child can transform them both.Praise for Maureen Leurck's Cicada Summer"Rich with believable characters and an evocative setting, Leurck's novel is a gem." -Publishers Weekly"Leurck has crafted a perfect summertime story of love, loss, and second chances. . . . Readers of Elin Hilderbrand and Nancy Thayer will enjoy this beach read." -Booklist"A captivating novel about the power of redemption." -Jen Lancaster, New York Times bestselling author