Book picks similar to
Perilous Confessions by Carrie Dalby


historical-fiction
romance
fiction
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Catching the Current


Jenny Pattrick - 2005
    However Conrad - a talented and impetuous Faroeman - finds he cannot escape his past.In this companion novel to the bestselling Denniston novels, a free spirit is pitted against the forces of tradition. This is Conrad's story, and that of the unusual woman Anahuia. It is a tale of new lands and old songs, of seafaring and war and the search for love.

She Had No Choice


Debra Burroughs - 2011
    Disease was ravaging village after village. Young Sofia's parents decided to take what was left of their family and brave a perilous midnight crossing into the United States, hoping to save the lives of their remaining children. They did not anticipate the hardships that lay ahead of them. After a family tragedy, Sofia is sent to live with a well-to-do aunt in Phoenix. Sofia's father assumes this is for the best, that his sister would educate her and treat her as a daughter. He could not have known it would plunge her into a life of hard labor and bad relationships with the wrong men. Hungry for love, her first lover leads to a daughter, Eva, born out of wedlock. When he abandons her and their baby, another unsavory man is quick to come to her rescue. But when he tries to convince Sofia to leave what little family she has left to go west with him, to work in the fields of California, she is torn. Weighing what few options are available to her, she believes she has no choice but to go with him. If only that was the lone circumstance in which she had no choice. Sofia's difficult, yet inspiring life unfolds over the next twenty years, through a series of highs and lows, with her devoted, headstrong daughter by her side. As a young woman, Eva hopes to avoid the mistakes her mother made with men, but she is not always able to steer clear of them. When life becomes dangerous and unbearable for Sofia, will Eva and her beau be able to save her, or will Sofia have to save them? This poignant and gripping drama plays out from 1918 to 1960, and is full of love and heartbreak, prejudice and betrayal, lovers, friends and family. It is inspired by the true stories written in Debra Burroughs' book CARMEN.

Fighting for This: The Last Resort Motel


Gwyn McNamee - 2018
    The California surf boy has no business being up Spruce Mountain or anywhere near The Last Resort Motel. There can only be one reason he’s hanging around—to search one of the old mines in hopes of striking it rich. And as soon as he’s done, he’ll be gone fast enough to make my head spin. But Max brings more than just a danger to my heart. MAX Aurora Clayton is the last thing I expect to find at The Last Resort Motel. What in the world is a girl like this doing in the middle of nowhere, Nevada? Search the land I inherited and get back to California—that’s the plan. I never expected to find something here even more precious than silver. But someone else is after what’s down that mine shaft. And I’ll do everything in my power to protect what I’ve found, including Aurora. ***Fighting for This previously appeared in The Last Resort Motel shared world as Room One***

East of Orleans


Renee' Irvin-Ellis - 2012
    . . Isabella McCoy, from the banks of the Chattahoochee River in Georgia, was as naïve as she was beautiful. Jacqueline Rousseau, the exotic New Orleans prostitute, was known for cruelly breaking men’s hearts while she emptied their pockets. Both with dark secrets of their own, running away from their pasts, to an uncertain future. Fate brought them together, and into the arms of the notorious cotton broker Jules McGinnis, who became both a husband and lover to them. Jealousy. Passion. Love. Murder. Now both women must overcome the truth of their tormented pasts and their unknown futures, as they face one of the most scandalous murder trials Georgia had ever seen.

Must Remember


Colleen S. Myers - 2015
    For years, she endures their tortures, experiments and games. Then one day, she manages to escape their ship with her life, and no memory of her time with them.Stranded on their world, Beta wanders the mountains, looking for a way home. She stumbles onto the Fost—the E’mani’s ancient enemy. Their war with the Imani is old and rooted in magic that the Fost once had and the Imani crave. Magic Beta soon discovers she’s developing along with strange tattoos and disturbing glimpses of her past. The Fost take her in and train her in their ways. As she spends more time with them, she falls in love with their culture and with Marin—he of the hot hands and slit eyes.But the E’mani took her for a reason and they want her back—dead or alive. If Beta doesn’t remember that reason soon, they’re all going to die.

Wishwood


E.B. Wheeler - 2020
    The family members talk about a curse, lights move through the ruins at night, and Kate’s maid won’t spend the night in the house. Thomas is hiding something from Kate as well, but as she grows closer to him, a series of accidents makes her suspect that someone is willing to kill to keep Wishwood’s secrets buried in the past.

Garden of Lies


Eileen Goudge - 1989
    Rachel, in the lap of Manhattan luxury, an ice princess determined to be a great doctor. Rose, in the New York slums, yielding to passion too young, and fleeing heartbreak to become a star lawyer. When they both fall in love with the same fascinating man, they are brought face to face with the truth about each other and themselves.

The Pursuit of Lucy Banning


Olivia Newport - 2012
    Expected to marry an up-and-coming banker from a respected family, Lucy fears she will be forced to abandon her charity work--and the classes she is secretly taking at the newly opened University of Chicago. When she meets an unconventional young architect who is working on plans for the upcoming 1893 World's Fair, Lucy imagines a life lived on her own terms. Can she break away from her family's expectations? And will she ever be loved for who she truly is? Readers will love being swept away into a world of mansions, secrets, and romance as they follow Lucy through the streets of the Windy City during one of the most exciting times in the city's history. From opulent upper-class homes to the well-worn rooms of an orphanage, Olivia Newport breathes life and romance into the pages of history--and everyone is invited.

The Scrying


Jaci Miller - 2017
     A modern witch, an ancient warrior, two worlds about to collide. Dane Watts-Callan’s destiny has always been complicated, she has been a witch living in a modern world since her “awakening” at thirteen. Now on her thirty-first birthday an ancient family legacy is revealed—a birthright written in a time before man, in a world silenced by a haunting past. Searching for answers she journeys to the magical realm of her ancestors where she is confronted by the only person that still exists on this archaic world. Rafe Morrighann, is an ancient immoral warrior whose destiny has left him waiting for billions of centuries for the prophecy to pass. When Dane appears in his world he knows the evil that decimated the ancient realms is about to rise again. As they work together to uncover the secrets of the prophecy and unlock the power of the ancient magic, he realizes that his destiny is intertwined with her own, igniting an attraction that neither can control nor escape. Dane must rely on the power and knowledge of her birthright, before the evil of the past is unleashed and the modern world is plunged into an ancient hell, for a dark destiny is rising.

Three Daughters


Consuelo Saah Baehr - 1988
    Uprooted by war, Miriam enters a world where the old constraints slip away with thrilling and disastrous results. Miriam’s rebellious daughter, Nadia, is thrilled with the opportunity for a modern life that her elite education provides. But when she falls in love with an outsider, the clan reins her back with a shocking finality. Nijmeh, Nadia's daughter, is an only child and the path her father, the sheik, sets for her is fraught with difficulties, yet it prepares her for her ultimate journey to America, where she finds her future.Each woman, in her own time and in her own way, experiences a world in transition through war and social change...and each must stretch the bounds of her loyalty, her courage, and her heart.

The Sound of Love (The Sound series #1)


Maria Watts - 2016
    Every girl is in love with the Funky Guys, the most famous boy band of them all, dominating the charts worldwide. Nina Bains is a normal schoolgirl from Southampton. She lives the life of every teenager going to school, hanging out with her friends and fantasizing about Chris Mulligan, one of the charismatic lead singers of the Funky Guys. Until one day by sheer coincidence Nina has the chance to get to know Chris personally. They fall in love and their two worlds collide with such a force that Nina is knocked out of her everyday life before she even realizes what is happening. As she is drawn more and more into Chris' world, she suddenly finds herself on tour with a boy band phenomenon in a whirlwind of fancy hotels, tour buses, venues, fans, groupies and music. Soon she realizes all that glitters is not gold and she has to question everything she once believed in. Will Nina survive life on the road? Is her love for Chris worth risking everything? And above all: Does Chris even understand the meaning of love? "The Sound of Love is not one of those stories about pure teenage love, this love story is dark, destructive, and definitely not innocent. And that’s why every girl, who dreams about a handsome guy from the poster in her bedroom has to read this book!" - Dana Kaledin ********** Author's note: The book contains some explicit scenes and is not intended for audiences under the age of 16. < BOOK CAN BE READ AS STANDALONE>

Amethyst


Lauren Royal - 2000
    Though custom dictates she wed her father’s apprentice, her heart rebels against the match. In mere days Amy will be condemned to a stifling, loveless marriage, and she sees no way out—until the devastating fire of 1666 sweeps through London, and tragedy lands her in the arms of a dashing nobleman who knows a diamond in the rough when he sees it…Colin Chase, the Earl of Greystone, has his future all figured out. He’s restoring his crumbling castle and estate to its former glory, and the key to its completion is his rich bride-to-be. But the Great Fire lays waste to his plans, saddling him with trouble—in the form of a lowly shopkeeper’s daughter with whom he’s most inconveniently falling in love...

Sea of Strangers


Amelia C. Adams - 2015
    His love is the only thing that sees her through the trials ahead. When the time comes to make the toughest decision of all, will she choose justice or mercy out of many shades of gray? From Amelia C. Adams, bestselling author of the Kansas Crossroads series, comes this novella about one girl's desire to follow her dreams and the man who encourages her from miles away.

Summer in the South


Cathy Holton - 2011
    Her charming hosts offer Ava a chance to relax at their idyllic ancestral estate, Woodburn Hall, while working on her first novel. But Woodburn is anything but quiet: Ancient feuds lurk just beneath its placid surface, and modern-day rivalries emerge as Ava finds herself caught between the competing attentions of Will and his black-sheep cousin Jake. Fascinated by the family’s impressive history—their imposing house filled with treasures, and their mingling with literary lions Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Faulkner—Ava stumbles onto rumors about the darker side of the Woodburns’ legacy. Putting aside her planned novel, she turns her creative attentions to the eccentric and tragic clan, a family with more skeletons (and ghosts) in their closets than anyone could possibly imagine. As Ava struggles to write the true story of the Woodburns, she finds herself tangled in the tragic history of a mysterious Southern family whose secrets mirror her own.

Melbury Square


Dorothy Eden - 1972
    It is expected that she will conclude the season with a brilliant titled marriage---but it is not to be so. Both idolized and dominated by her flamboyant father, Maud finds her search for love and happiness thwarted at every turn.How this vibrant, headstrong beauty is liberated and comes to learn what love is all about make Melbury Square an unforgettable reading experience.