Book picks similar to
Elizabeth's Star by Rhonda Forrest
historical-fiction
fiction
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Last Dance in London
Sydney Jane Baily - 2021
Too bad for him, clever and impossibly desirable Julia Sudbury shows up in his bedroom.Like a shadow, Julia slips from Mayfair's ballrooms into the nobility's private chambers where nothing is more appealing than a spare piece of jewelry. Earrings, necklaces, and cravat pins, oh my!With Julia's bad behavior tarnishing his reputation in ways he'd never imagined, Jasper goes on the run to escape the brutal gossips shredding his family name.It's enough to make a cocky rake wish he were safely married! Who will tame whom?
Beach House Romance
Cora Seton - 2021
Now she’s broke, homeless and starting out all over again, weighed down with debt that isn’t even hers. So when she learns she and her estranged sister, Ashley, have received an unexpected inheritance, she’s thrilled. Now they can both move to Seahaven, California and run Brightview, her grandmother’s rambling beachside bed & breakfast. She’ll do the cooking. Ashley can tend the Cliff Garden, the attached acre of winding paths and flower beds that has been in their family for generations. With her money and family woes solved, who knows—maybe someday Emma will find love again, too.
He’s 33 and just hit it out of the park…
Noah Hudson’s life couldn’t be better. He’s sold his successful business and can finally right the wrong he did years ago to his older brother’s career. Andrew deserves his turn in the limelight, so Noah just bought one of the last undeveloped oceanfront lots in Seahaven. He’ll give Andrew an unlimited budget to design and build a luxury vacation home that will land on the cover of every architectural magazine. While he’s waiting for his new digs, Noah has found a handy living situation in the bed & breakfast next door. While Andrew pursues his dream, he can spend his days on his own passions: extreme sports photography.Emma is furious when she finds out Ashley sold their grandmother’s garden to the newly minted millionaire renting one of her guest rooms—a very handsome millionaire who seems to have nothing better to do but surf, snap a few photos, and play havoc with her heart.Noah just realized what he left off his to-do list: find the woman of his dreams. Turns out she’s his current landlady and about to be his next-door neighbor—if she doesn’t kill him for destroying her grandmother’s legacy first.
Can Emma and Noah find a way to heal the past without ruining their future together?
Way Down There
P.J. Fernor - 2020
Now her sister is dead - a tragic hit and run accident - and Allie leaves her busy city life to come back to her hometown to raise her teenage niece. She's now in the role as mother instead of the 'cool, fun' aunt. Her niece is grieving the death of her mother and Allie has more questions than answers about what really happened the night Alex was killed. Sandemor is a sleepy town. A place not many would know or remember. Compared to the city detective life, Allie isn't sure how she's going to make this work. Trying to track down a missing cat isn't exactly what she signed up for. Then comes the day two frantic - and newly divorced - parents show up to the police station. Pointing the finger at each other, claiming the other forgot to pick up their daughter from dance class two nights ago. All Allie hears is that a little girl has been missing for about forty-eight hours. If that's not bad enough, both parents end up getting caught in lies as to what they were doing the night their daughter went missing. Allie is thrust into the disappearance case, but she's not alone. She didn't know Ben Welloski became a detective. Last time she saw him, he was working in his father's garage. The secret sparks between them are still there, but the focus has to be on finding young Jessie. Clues lead Allie to another kidnapping case in a different town. The lead detective is an arrogant jerk, and the man accused of the kidnapping swears he's innocent. Without enough evidence to make an arrest, Allie wonders if the man has struck again. Just as she begins to piece things together, a call comes in that a body has been found nearby. When Allie arrives and sees who it is, she suddenly feels like she's back in the big city again. Only here in her small town, any young child could be the next victim if she doesn't act fast enough.
Alaskan Dawn
Edie Claire - 2015
So when her twin sister Micah needs a surrogate mother, Haley willingly volunteers. Like most feats the capable workaholic attempts, her pregnancy goes perfectly... until the results of prenatal testing threaten to tear Micah’s marriage apart.Pregnant, overworked, and driven to the end of her rope by the neediness of the sister and widowed mother who depend on her, Haley seeks refuge with a week’s vacation on the Alaskan coast. As she soaks up the serenity of the unexpectedly vast and beautiful wilderness, Haley finds something else she doesn’t expect -- deep feelings for the wildlife-loving boat captain who reminds her how to laugh.With her unborn niece or nephew on the way and thousands of miles of ocean between their lives and careers, Haley and Ben settle for a friendship. But back home in California, the emptiness in her heart refuses to heal, and when her pregnancy takes a frightening turn Haley must examine what really matters -- and rediscover the childhood dream she never realized she had lost.
The Color of Heaven
Julianne MacLean - 2011
When it seems nothing else could possibly go wrong, her car skids off an icy road and plunges into a frozen lake. There, in the cold, dark depths of the water, Sophie experiences something profound and extraordinary--something that unlocks the secrets from her past, and teaches her what it means to truly live"--Publisher description.
The Dirty Parts of the Bible
Sam Torode - 2007
Tobias is obsessed with two things: God and girls. Mostly girls, of course. But being a Baptist preacher's son, he can't escape God. When his father is blinded in a bizarre accident (involving hard cider and bird droppings), Tobias must ride the rails to Texas to recover a long-hidden stash of money. Along the way, he's initiated into the hobo brotherhood by Craw, a ribald vagabond-philosopher. Obstacles arise in the form of a saucy prostitute, a flaming boxcar, and a man-eating catfish. But when he meets Sarah, a tough farm girl under a dark curse, he finds out that the greatest challenge of all is love.
A Woman of Fortune
Kellie Coates Gilbert - 2014
Texas socialite Claire Massey is living the dream—designer clothes, luxury cars, stunning homes. But everything comes crashing down when her charming cattle broker husband is arrested for fraud. Suddenly she finds herself facing attorneys, a media frenzy, and a trail of broken hearts. Betrayed and humiliated, Claire must maneuver incredible odds to save her family—and discover a life worth living. Author Kellie Coates Gilbert delivers a story both poignant and emotionally gripping that celebrates the kind of fortune that lasts.
Dream Big, Stella!
Ashley Farley - 2020
At least, that’s what her parents have led her to believe. Imagine her surprise when she learns he’s none other than rock legend Billy Jameson, and that Billy has died and left Stella a historic inn on a sprawling farm in the mountains of Virginia. A city girl at heart, Stella can’t imagine living anywhere but New York. Her first inclination is to sell the property. But the terms of Billy’s will stipulate she manages the inn for three years before putting it on the market.Stella considers what’s really keeping her in New York. Her hotel management career is off to a rocky start; she's lost three jobs in less than a year. She's grown apart from her best friend, and her so-called boyfriend is only interested in late-night booty calls. Something is missing from Stella's life. On impulse, she hops on the next train headed to Virginia hoping to find happiness.When she sees the dilapidated state of the inn, Stella realizes she’s in over her head. But the more she learns about the fascinating Jameson family, the more she wants to know. Why did her mother keep Billy Jameson a secret? Were her biological parents in a relationship, or was she the result of a one-night stand? And why did her father wait until after his death to bring Stella to Virginia?On her journey to discover answers, Stella learns to have faith in herself and take a chance on love. Join an unforgettable cast of characters in the first installment of the Hope Springs Series.
The Thorn Birds
Colleen McCullough - 1977
It begins in the early part of the 20th century, when Paddy Cleary moves his wife, Fiona, and their seven children to Drogheda, the vast Australian sheep station owned by his autocratic and childless older sister; and it ends more than half a century later, when the only survivor of the third generation, the brilliant actress Justine O'Neill, sets a course of life and love halfway around the world from her roots.The central figures in this enthralling story are the indomitable Meggie, the only Cleary daughter, and the one man she truly loves, the stunningly handsome and ambitious priest Ralph de Bricassart. Ralph's course moves him a long way indeed, from a remote Outback parish to the halls of the Vatican; and Meggie's except for a brief and miserable marriage elsewhere, is fixed to the Drogheda that is part of her bones - but distance does not dim their feelings though it shapes their lives.Wonderful characters people this book; strong and gentle, Paddy, hiding a private memory; dutiful Fiona, holding back love because it once betrayed her, violent, tormented Frank, and the other hardworking Cleary sons who give the boundless lands of Drogheda the energy and devotion most men save for women; Meggie; Ralph; and Meggie's children, Justine and Dane. And the land itself; stark, relentless in its demands, brilliant in its flowering, prey to gigantic cycles of drought and flood, rich when nature is bountiful, surreal like no other place on earth.Alternate Cover Edition ISBN 0380018179 (ISBN13: 9780380018178)
A Tangled Mercy
Joy Jordan-Lake - 2017
Haunted by unanswered questions and her own uncertain future, she flees to Charleston, South Carolina, the place where her parents met, convinced it holds the key to understanding her fractured family and saving her career in academia. Kate is determined to unearth groundbreaking information on a failed 1822 slave revolt—the subject of her mother’s own research.Nearly two centuries earlier, Tom Russell, a gifted blacksmith and slave, grappled with a terrible choice: arm the uprising spearheaded by members of the fiercely independent African Methodist Episcopal Church or keep his own neck out of the noose and protect the woman he loves.Kate’s attempts to discover what drove her mother’s dangerous obsession with Charleston’s tumultuous history are derailed by a horrific massacre in the very same landmark church. In the unimaginable aftermath, Kate discovers a family she never knew existed as the city unites with a powerful message of hope and forgiveness for the world.
A Soft Place to Fall
Barbara Bretton - 2001
All she needs is courage, and time. The last thing she needs is a handsome, charming next-door neighbor...
Make Me Forget
Anna Brooks - 2014
She knows she’ll see him when she moves back to Wisconsin. She’s planning on it, the connection she still feels to him after all these years is undeniable. But one lie tore them apart years ago, and she’s afraid some mistakes can’t be forgiven.Travis Parker doesn’t like liars. When he was younger, lies burned him in a bad way. It only took one summer with Charlotte’s innocence to know that she was it for him. When he thought he finally had something to look forward to, one misguided lie shattered everything he believed.Now, Char’s back, but she’s not the same girl he once knew.Make Me Forget is the first book in a series of second chance romances featuring the most loyal men as they battle their past in order to secure a future with their one true love. Defeat is not an option when their hearts are on the line. Each emotional and angsty story can be read as a standalone.
Out of Time
Deborah Truscott - 2011
Then her uncle dies, leaving her the family’s Revolutionary-era home and, she believes, an escape from her chaotic marriage. But one afternoon, while searching for a rake, she discovers a man in her garden shed — and a free fall through the centuries. As her life spins wildly out of control, Kathleen finds her heart and in the process, her own place in time.
Miracle in a Dry Season
Sarah Loudin Thomas - 2014
She just wants a quiet, safe place for her and her daughter, Sadie, where the mistakes of her past can stay hidden. But then drought comes to Wise, and Perla is pulled into the turmoil of a town desperately in need of a miracle.Casewell Phillips has resigned himself to life as a bachelor...until he meets Perla. She's everything he's sought in a woman, but he can't get past the sense that she's hiding something. As the drought worsens, Perla's unique gift divides the town in two, bringing both gratitude and condemnation, and placing the pair in the middle of a storm of anger and forgiveness, fear and faith.
The Hesitant Bride And Her Wounded Marshal
Ember Pierce - 2020
But long years have passed and he never came.Gail has gone on with her life. Then one day, a letter arrives. Clark apologizes for not coming for her but he looked and looked and he couldn’t locate her. He says he still loves her and will she come out west and marry him?They marry and things are going well. Then a band of horse thieves starts attacking in their area. Clark is the Marshal working on the case. He tries to trap the outlaws but the plan fails. He wants to send Gail away to keep her safe but she’s having none of it.When the outlaws come to attack the town itself, Clark and Gail will have to sacrifice everything to protect their love.If you like fast-paced clean romance and action-packed stories, you won't be able to put down this addictive Novel by Ember Pierce."The Hesitant Bride And Her Wounded Marshal" is a stand-alone Western Historical Romance Novel of approximately 500 pages.