Book picks similar to
Cinderella's Escape by Gita V. Reddy


free-for-review
kids
contemporary
a_atómic_mellark

Charlotte Tweed and the School for Orphaned Dragons (Book #1)


Allegra Skye - 2013
    I highly recommend it for all ages!"--Morgan Rice, #1 Bestselling author of THE SORCERER'S RINGCHARLOTTE TWEED & THE SCHOOL FOR ORPHANED DRAGONS (Book #1) tells the story of Charlotte Tweed, a 15 year old orphan who longs to know who she truly is, and who her true parents are. Charlotte is kicked out of every foster home she is sent to, and living with a cruel family and sent to a school where she is bullied, Charlotte ducks off the fire drill line one day and cuts school. During this fateful walk she meets Tom Throtteldon, a wizard from another land, and he tells her he’s come to take her home.Charlotte is brought to the land of Annarunnus, the land, and is led to the famous Bellins School for Magic, where she must train to learn who she is and how to use her unique powers. Charlotte also discovers that a rare and precious event has taken place: dragon eggs have been found, hatching just two days before Charlotte’s arrival. Each student receives their own baby dragon to bond with, tame, and train. At Bellins Charlotte meets new friends, and struggles to discover herself and to bond with her obstinate baby dragon. She also meets Tyron, one of the handsome Outcasts. But dating is forbidden at Bellins, and they will have to decide if they will risk it all for love.

Any Red-Blooded Girl


Maggie Bloom - 2011
    Can their chance meeting lead to true love? Or is their relationship doomed before it starts?

Unbeautiful


Jessica Sorensen - 2014
    Some might even say perfect. They say that I’m a pretty girl. They say I should be happy. They say that I have nothing to be angry about. That I’m popular. A cheerleader. That I’m perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. But all they see is what’s on the outside. On the inside I’m raw, open, bleeding. Scars that can’t seem to heal the wounds. Carrying dark secrets about who I really am.How afraid I am to tell the truth.And it’s slowly killing me. RylerTattoos. Piercing. Scars. The guy who can’t speak. Gothic freak. Mute. Punk. I’ve heard it all. They say that I’m probably dangerous. They say people should stay away from me. They say. They say. They say.But who are they anyway? To decide what I am. They don’t know what’s hidden beneath the scars. Beneath the piercings and tattoos. The secrets I keep hidden beneath the silence.Maybe if they knew, they wouldn’t fear me so much. Then again, maybe they’d fear me more.

The Marsh King's Daughter


Karen Dionne - 2017
    But she also has a secret: she is the product of an abduction. Her mother was kidnapped as a teenager by her father and kept in a remote cabin in the marshlands of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Helena, born two years after the abduction, loved her home in nature, and despite her father’s sometimes brutal behavior, she loved him, too…until she learned precisely how savage he could be.More than twenty years later, she has buried her past so soundly that even her husband doesn’t know the truth. But now her father has killed two guards, escaped from prison, and disappeared into the marsh. The police begin a manhunt, but Helena knows they don’t stand a chance. Knows that only one person has the skills to find the survivalist the world calls the Marsh King–because only one person was ever trained by him: his daughter.

The Forgotten Hours


Katrin Schumann - 2019
    Katie’s life fell apart almost a decade earlier, during an idyllic summer at her family’s cabin on Eagle Lake when her best friend accused her father of sexual assault. Throughout his trial and imprisonment, Katie insisted on his innocence, dodging reporters and clinging to memories of the man she adores.Now he’s getting out. Yet when Katie returns to the shuttered lakeside cabin, details of that fateful night resurface: the chill of the lake, the heat of first love, the terrible sting of jealousy. And as old memories collide with new realities, they call into question everything she thinks she knows about family, friends, and, ultimately, herself. Now, Katie’s choices will be put to the test with life-altering consequences.

Durable Goods


Elizabeth Berg - 1993
    Since their mother died, Katie and her older sister, Diane, have struggled to understand their increasingly distant, often violent father. While Diane escapes into the arms of her boyfriend, Katie hides in her room or escapes to her best friend’s house—until Katie’s admiration for her strong-willed sister leads her on an adventure that transforms her life. Written with an unerring ability to capture the sadness of growth, the pain of change, the nearly visible vibrations that connect people, this beautiful novel by the bestselling author of Open House reminds us how wonderful—and wounding—a deeper understanding of life can be.

Room


Emma Donoghue - 2010
    It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough ... not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work. Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

When She Returned


Lucinda Berry - 2019
    When she shows up at a Montana gas station, clutching an infant and screaming for help, investigators believe she may have been abducted by a cult.Kate’s return flips her family’s world upside down—her husband is remarried, and her daughter barely remembers her. Kate herself doesn’t look or act like she did before.While the family tries to help Kate reintegrate into society, they discover truths they’ve been hiding from each other about their own relationships. But they aren’t the only ones with secrets. As the family unravels what happened to Kate, a series of shocking revelations shows that Kate’s return is more sinister than any of them could have imagined.

The Death of Bees


Lisa O'Donnell - 2012
    Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved.Marnie and her little sister Nelly are on their own now. Only they know what happened to their parents, Izzy and Gene, and they aren’t telling. While life in Glasgow’s Hazlehurst housing estate isn’t grand, they do have each other. Besides, it’s only one year until Marnie will be considered an adult and can legally take care of them both.As the new year comes and goes, Lennie, the old man next door, realizes that his young neighbors are alone and need his help. Or does he need theirs? But he’s not the only one who suspects something isn’t right. Soon, the sisters’ friends, their other neighbors, the authorities, and even Gene’s nosy drug dealer begin to ask questions. As one lie leads to another, dark secrets about the girls’ family surface, creating complications that threaten to tear them apart.Written with fierce sympathy and beautiful precision, told in alternating voices, The Death of Bees is an enchanting, grimly comic tale of three lost souls who, unable to answer for themselves, can answer only for each other.

Girl Long Gone


Danielle M. Haas - 2020
    He was a great match, and they had so many things in common. But sometimes your life can come down to one single bad decision... NYPD Computer-crimes detective Connor Mitchel’s sister is missing. As he combs through his sister’s life, he realizes Monica might not have been this killer’s first target—or his last. In a twisted game of cat and mouse, Connor thinks he’s finally found the man responsible for his sister’s disappearance. Unfortunately, he’ll first need to convince the shy, distrustful Evelyn Price she could be the next victim tangled in the murderer’s web if she doesn’t agree to help him catch the killer. But just as Connor and Evelyn close in on their quarry, the killer has one last trick up his sleeve that could trap them all…

The Australian Billionaire


Britney M. Mills - 2019
     Jackson Walker hasn't had the best family life. Growing up in the foster system in Australia, it wasn’t until he met his college football coach that he understood what a normal family looked like. When he gets the call that Coach has passed away, he returns to California for the funeral and to find a place to honor the man. Hailey Montgomery threw herself into real estate soon after breaking up with her boyfriend nearly five years ago. She’s been working to build a name for herself and when the chance to make partner at her firm becomes available, she jumps at the chance. But the only way to achieve that distinction is to find a commercial property for the guy she’s nicknamed ‘Golden Boy’ from all the stories her father told about him. As spending time together brings them closer, the trust between them is called into question. Can they work through what’s happened in their individual pasts to create a relationship that will last?

Serenade


Heather McKenzie - 2017
    But as she forms an unlikely connection with her abductor, Luke, her adventure takes a strange turn.There is nothing magical about growing up in a mountainside castle, when it’s your prison. Kaya’s ruthless and powerful father keeps her under lock and key, watched every second of the day–and Kaya’s not really sure why. She’s just a normal girl…no one special. She doesn’t understand her father’s obsession with her safety – until she is kidnapped. Dragged through a brutal wilderness, Kaya’s captor shows her the devastating truth, and even though he has dark secrets of his own, she is inexplicably drawn to him–when the stars are in your eyes, sometimes the line between right and wrong is blurred. Passion obliterates common sense. Love... makes you reckless. As Kaya's father’s men and her devoted bodyguard scour the woods to find her, she wonders if staying in the arms of her abductor is the safer place to be. At least, that’s what her heart is saying—her head is saying run… Dangerously passionate and darkly romantic, SERENADE is a page-turning thriller and seductive love story.

Hide Your Heart


Tracey Alvarez - 2015
    Distrust will tear them apart…Alexandra Lauren Knight has reinvented herself in the safety of her rural New Zealand hometown to become Lauren Taylor. She’s cut all ties with her past as a former model whose ex-husband turned out to be ruthless in both the boardroom and the bedroom. While Alexandra allowed other’s expectations to propel her into the spotlight, Lauren prefers the safety of anonymity; restoring classic cars with her brother, and snuggling with her four-year-old son. Nate Fraser, a burned-out photojournalist, plans to fix up the property next door to Lauren and sell it as a celebrity retreat. Always on the move, Nate is only comfortable with short-term assignments and even shorter-term relationships. But it’s not just his buyer’s tight deadline or that the restoration is far beyond his expertise which turns a short-term project into an ordeal. Nate’s plan of travelling the globe is in jeopardy — created by the intensity of his growing feelings for Lauren and her little boy.As the sparks of passion ignite between them it reawakens Nate’s long forgotten dream of having a home and family. Lauren must find a way to trust Nate not only with her secrets, but with her heart — before her safe haven is exposed and she can no longer hide in the shadows.

Baby Doll


Hollie Overton - 2016
    Her daughter Sky has been a captive her whole life. But one day their captor leaves the deadbolt unlocked.This is what happens next......to her twin sister, to her mother, to her daughter...and to her captor.

A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories


Robin McKinley - 1994
    There’s mute Lily, in “The Healer,” who has the power to help others, and receives a startling opportunity to find her voice when a mysterious mage stumbles into town. And Queen Ruen, who is at the mercy of a power-hungry uncle until she encounters a shape-changer in “The Stagman.” In “Touk’s House,” a maiden who has grown up with a witch and a troll has a chance to become a princess, but she must decide whether she would really live happily ever after. When a curse follows Coral to her new husband’s farm in “Buttercups,” the pair has a choice: Succumb to defeat or find a way to turn a disastrous enchantment into a fruitful new venture. Finally, travel to upstate New York with Annabelle. In the title story, her family moves shortly after her sixteenth birthday, and just as she starts to adjust to her new life in a small town, a plan to build a superhighway threatens her new home. But a strange box hidden in a secret attic in the new house may be the answer. This is a delightful assortment of tales from an author with “a remarkable talent for melding the real and the magical into a single, believable whole” (Booklist).