Book picks similar to
Deliverance by Jennie Marsland
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Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth
Drew Hayden Taylor - 1998
Grace, a Native girl adopted by a White family, is asked by her birth sister to return to the Reserve for their mother’s funeral. Afraid of opening old wounds, Grace must find a place where the culture of her past can feed the truth of her present.
Mercy
Alissa York - 2003
Divided into two parts, Mercy pairs a single year in the past with a single night in the present, as they unfold in the town of Mercy, Manitoba, and in the neighbouring black spruce bog.In 1948, a dedicated priest named August Day arrives in Mercy to take over from Father Rock, who has passed away. Although Father Day is young, the bishop has seen fit to let him take over the parish, and August feels he is fulfilling his years of devotion, study and struggle -- at last being able to serve God as alter Christus, or another Christ. The first service he is to perform in his new church is the marriage of Thomas Rose, the town butcher, to Mathilda Nickels, the orphaned niece of the church housekeeper.Thomas Rose is a good man who waited years to express his love for Mathilda. And when Mathilda accepted his proposal, he was sure that their life together would bring them both joy, though in truth he knew little about his betrothed. Mathilda grew up in a Catholic orphanage and has since been living with her aunt Vera at St. Mary’s; she has not explored the world beyond the realm of her religious devotion, and approaches her wedding day with a mix of fear and dread. But when her eyes meet those of Father Day at the ceremony, Thomas seems to dissolve beside her and she feels physical passion for the first time in her life. As of that moment, August and Mathilda will only have eyes, and hearts, for each other.Over the coming weeks, the young bride spends more and more time at St. Mary’s, caring for her ailing aunt and taking over the woman’s cleaning duties, but also savouring her brief moments with Father Day. Her marriage remains unconsummated, and her lust for the priest grows to fever pitch, as does his for her -- fuelled not only by the secrets they share in the confessional, but by the fiery text of the Song of Songs. When they do unite, it seems to mark the end of their secret relationship… but the child Mathilda carries away from the encounter assures us their story is not over. Rather, it is yet another thread to add to the tapestry of unspoken stories underpinning Mercy itself, and one that will affect the town’s psyche for decades to come.Half a century later, another sort of preacher comes to Mercy -- a womanizing widower who wants to develop the black spruce bog on the edge of town and build a religious camp. Reverend Carl Mann is fairly confident of success, having taken up with Mayor Lavinia Wylie, but worries about the well-publicized protests of a woman known as Bog Mary, who has lived her entire life in the heart of the bog. He heads off to confront her and ends up lost and hurt, but Mary uses her natural remedies and knowledge to heal not only his wounds but his broken spirit.A dark yet compassionate novel, Mercy rivals the fiction debuts of Anne Michaels, Ann-Marie MacDonald and Gail Anderson-Dargatz. Alissa York brings to life a tale of misguided love and damaged souls with language of incredible clarity and intensity.From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Prisoner and the Chaplain
Michelle Berry - 2017
As the hours drain away, the chaplain must decide if the prisoner’s story is an off-the-cuff confession or a last bid for salvation. As the chaplain listens he realizes a life has many stories, and he has his own story to tell – a last ditch plea for forgiveness told to someone who will never be able to repeat it. Each man is guilty in his own way, and their stories have led them to the same room, a room that only one of them will leave alive. If you had only twelve hours left to live, what would you have to say?
The Last Summer
Judith Kinghorn - 2012
It is 1914, the beginning of a blissful, golden summer - and the end of an era. Deyning Park is in its heyday, the large country house filled with the laughter and excitement of privileged youth preparing for a weekend party. When Clarissa meets Tom Cuthbert, home from university and staying with his mother, the housekeeper, she is dazzled. Tom is handsome and enigmatic; he is also an outsider. Ambitious, clever, his sights set on a career in law, Tom is an acute observer, and a man who knows what he wants. For now, that is Clarissa.As Tom and Clarissa's friendship deepens, the wider landscape of political life around them is changing, and another story unfolds: they are not the only people in love. Soon the world - and all that they know - is rocked by a war that changes their lives for ever.
Cavendon Hall
Barbara Taylor Bradford - 2014
Cavendon Hall is home to two families, the aristocratic Inghams and the Swanns who serve them. Charles Ingham, the sixth Earl of Mowbray, lives there with his wife Felicity and their six children. Walter Swann, the premier male of the Swann family, is valet to the earl. His wife Alice, a clever seamstress who is in charge of the countess's wardrobe, also makes clothes for the four daughters. For centuries, these two families have lived side-by-side, beneath the backdrop of the imposing Yorkshire manor. Lady Daphne, the most beautiful of the Earl's daughters, is about to be presented at court when a devastating event changes her life and threatens the Ingham name. With World War I looming, both families will find themselves tested in ways they never thought possible. Loyalties will be challenged and betrayals will be set into motion. In this time of uncertainty, one thing is sure: these two families will never be the same again. Cavendon Hall is Barbara Taylor Bradford at her very best, and its sweeping story of secrets, love, honor, and betrayal will have readers riveted up to the very last page.
The Long Shadow
Loretta Proctor - 2013
As the sun rose we began to see the sprawl of little Turkish houses clambering the steep slopes, painted in rosy pink, mauve, white, yellow, blue. The white domes of the Greek churches glistened in the fresh morning sunshine. The Long Shadow is compelling historical novel which tells the human story of the Eastern campaign in Salonika and will appeal to readers of The Island and The Thread. Fourteen-year-old Andrew discovers his mother's hidden diary at his grandmother's house during a Christmas holiday. His eyes are opened to a family secret when he reads about her time as a nurse on Salonika during the First World War, and the tragic love affair she had with his father, a Greek officer, who died in battle. Four years later Andrew is compelled to visit his father's country and trace his roots. What - and whom - he meets there will change his life forever. The Long Shadow is filled with descriptions of Greece and its people, dramatic images of battles and the terrible conditions endured by the allied armies fighting around Salonika. The Long Shadow illuminates a period of history not often featured in fiction and is highly topical as we approach the centenary of WW1 in 2014.
One for the Rock
Kevin Major - 2018
But when he leads a group of tourists along the cliffs of St. John's harbour, one of them ends up dead. Not only is there a murderer in his tour group, but the cop assigned to the case is sleeping with Sebastian's ex-wife. It seems like things can't get any worse, but as he's enlisted to help flush out the perpetrator, the trail leads deeper than expected, and Sebastian finds himself on the edge.
Promise Me This
Cathy Gohlke - 2012
Determined to carry out his promise to care for Owen's relatives in America and his younger sister, Annie, in England, Michael works hard to strengthen the family's New Jersey garden and landscaping business. Annie Allen doesn't care what Michael promised Owen. She only knows that her brother is gone--like their mother and father--and the grief is enough to swallow her whole. As Annie struggles to navigate life without Owen, Michael reaches out to her through letters. In time, as Annie begins to lay aside her anger that Michael lived when Owen did not, a tentative friendship takes root and blossoms into something neither expected. Just as Michael saves enough money to bring Annie to America, WWI erupts in Europe. When Annie's letters mysteriously stop, Michael risks everything to fulfill his promise--and find the woman he's grown to love--before she's lost forever.
Kings of Broken Things
Theodore Wheeler - 2017
Adolescent European refugee Karel Miihlstein’s life is transformed after neighborhood boys discover his prodigious natural talent for baseball. Jake Strauss, a young man with a violent past and desperate for a second chance, is drawn into a criminal underworld. Evie Chambers, a kept woman, is trying to make ends meet and looking every which way to escape her cheerless existence.As wounded soldiers return from the front and black migrant workers move north in search of economic opportunity, the immigrant wards of Omaha become a tinderbox of racial resentment stoked by unscrupulous politicians. Punctuated by an unspeakable act of mob violence, the fates of Karel, Jake, and Evie will become inexorably entangled with the schemes of a ruthless political boss whose will to power knows no bounds.Written in the tradition of Don DeLillo and Colum McCann, with a great debt to Ralph Ellison, Theodore Wheeler’s debut novel Kings of Broken Things is a panoramic view of a city on the brink of implosion during the course of this summer of strife.
The King Within
Nandini Sengupta - 2017
Novel set in 3rd and 4th century India
The Letter
Ruth Saberton - 2017
Perfect for fans of Downton Abbey, it is the story of an aristocratic family, a forbidden love affair and the darkest of secrets kept for over one hundred years. On the eve of the First World War aspiring poet Kit Rivers looks forward to a bright future. As the Lord of the Manor's heir, Kit’s duty is to the family estate but when he falls passionately in love he knows a hard choice must be made. Yet before the golden days of summer can fade into autumn, war comes and changes his world forever. One century later young widow Chloe exchanges London for an isolated Cornish house. Haunted by memories, Chloe’s interest in an obscure war poet, Kit Rivers, proves a welcome distraction from grief and leads her to piece together a forgotten history. Faced with more questions than answers, her own life soon becomes entwined with Kit's through love, loss, and the darkest of secrets… The novel is full of secrets, suspense and set in Cornwall so reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier and Rosamunde Pilcher. Romantic and suspenseful, it is also a tale of loss and love, the devastation of war and the shattered lives of those left behind. A #1 bestseller on Amazon UK, The Letter is a vivid novel of heart-break and passion, with characters - and an ending - the reader won't forget.
Satisfaction Guaranteed
Tori Scott - 2011
Imagine her surprise when her current customer turns out to be her old high school flame, Grayson Montgomery. And the woman he plans to seduce is Cara.Gray plans to collect on an old promise Cara made back in high school. But his plans don't end with one night. Somehow he has to convince her he has staying power, that he will still be there in the morning, and for the rest of her life. Not an easy task when Cara has been left by every man in her life so far.Satisfaction Guaranteed is a single novella, 13,000 words.
The Strong, Silent Type
Lynn Kellan - 2013
Her busy sales job provides the perfect way to ease the painful memories of losing her husband to cancer. Now she’s tired of running from her loneliness. Tina suspects her brawny neighbor has been leaving single red roses in her mailbox, but he’s the strong, silent type – the kind that should come with a warning label.Wade Scott has felt dead inside over the miscarriage of his son and the disintegration of his marriage. When Tina moves next door, Wade comes alive again. Problem is, she’s a beautiful sales whiz and he’s an ordinary plumber with a wicked scar along his temple. With little hope of attracting her attention, he showers her with anonymous acts of kindness.As New Year’s Eve approaches, Tina discovers that Wade is the guardian angel who’s been watching over her for the past six months. She doesn’t know what to do. Should she jump at a new job offer that will keep her busy enough to forget her loneliness, or take a chance the strong, silent type might fill her heart, and her home, with love?
St Matthew's Passion: A Medical Romance
Sam Archer - 2013
When she lands a position at the prestigious St Matthew’s Hospital in London, she’s determined to beat the odds as a woman and become the best in her field.But Melissa didn’t expect her boss, Daniel Finmore-Gage - Fin, as he’s known, and the most brilliant surgeon in the city - to have quite such an impact on her from the start.And she certainly didn’t expect to fall in love with him.Fin, though, has his reasons for not returning Melissa’s feelings. He’s been married before, he’s too professional to abuse the authority he has over her - and he harbours a dark secret which he can’t reveal to Melissa, and which has made him vow he’ll never put anything before his work. Not even love... As the powerful forces which bind these two strong, vital personalities threaten to disrupt the very functioning of the service to which they’ve both dedicated their professional careers, a crisis occurs which will test not only the bond between them, but also their commitment to the lives they’ve chosen for themselves.Breathtaking in its suspense, and heartbreaking in its portrayal of a love affair that appears at once inevitable and doomed to failure, St Matthew’s Passion is a thrilling novel by a practising doctor which blends authentic specialist medical detail with a universal story of the complexities of the human heart.
Life, Love, and a Polar Bear Tattoo
Heather Wardell - 2009
After only two years of marriage, their guilt and pain have left them living together but apart, unable to really talk for fear of what they'll say to each other.Ian leaves for a month-long contract overseas, and Candice plans to use the time apart to decide whether her marriage can be saved. When her ex walks back into her life as the new client at work, ten years more attractive yet saddened by his own recent loss, she's left wondering what she really wants from life and love.