Book picks similar to
The Unwrapping of Theodora Quirke by Caroline Smailes


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Music From Home


Geraldine O'Neill - 2013
    Having lost her mother at a young age, she has a close and loving relationship with her father, Leo who owns an Italian restaurant, Leonardo's. Finding first romance with Paul Spencer seems like the icing on the cake. Secretly, however, she worries over Leo's drinking and gambling binges. Then he buys a racehorse she know he cannot afford. Maria has no one to advise her as Leo's family are in Italy and her mother's family in Ireland rejected her when she married a foreigner. Having carefully guarded her father from female attention, Maria's attitude alters when the elegant Diana Freeman comes into their lives. She hopes that Diana's presence may distance Leo from his addictions. Then Leo is tragically killed. In the dark days that follow it emerges that he has left them deeply in debt and their home and her beloved Leonard's are in jeopardy. Maria has no choice but t o turn to her estranged Irish Family. Still reeling from her loss, she fins she has yet another challenge to face, In Ireland, as she uncovers a bitter legacy of secrets and lies, she comes to realise that their mother was not the person she's been led to believe she was.

Crush


Eve Ainsworth - 2016
    but should it hurt this much? Reeling from her mum's sudden departure, Anna finds the comfort she needs in her blossoming relationship with Will. He's handsome and loving, everything Anna has always dreamt of. He's also moody and unpredictable, pushing her away from her friends, her music. He wants her to be his and his alone. He wants her to be perfect. Anna's world is closing in. But threatening everything is a dark secret that not even Will can control... Eve Ainsworth's gripping second novel is a pitch-perfect exploration of love at its most powerful, addictive and destructive.

Once Upon a Lie


Michael R. French - 2016
    Jaleel Robeson, a gifted, eighteen year-old black man, falsely accused of murdering his father in a small Texas town, is on the run. He assumes a new identity in 1980s Los Angeles as a successful student on his way to college. Alexandra Baten, a restless sixteen year old white girl, lives in a privileged Toluca Lake family but feels trapped by her parents' values. One weekend, she rides her bike into a run down neighborhood, meeting a young black man selling lemonade. Thus begins a friendship between opposites, at least on the surface, but they learn they have more in common than they imagine. Told from each character's point of view in alternating chapters, we become involved in a gripping tale of two Americas where discontent and violence always lurk under the surface. When they erupt, no one is safe. Once Upon a Lie is both a family drama and a crime drama, as well as an exploration of interracial love, mother-daughter relationships, and redemption through courage.

New Poets of Native Nations


Heid E. ErdrichNatalie Díaz - 2018
    Heid E. Erdrich has selected twenty-one poets whose first books were published after the year 2000 to highlight the exciting works coming up after Joy Harjo and Sherman Alexie. Collected here are poems of great breadth―long narratives, political outcries, experimental works, and traditional lyrics―and the result is an essential anthology of some of the best poets writing now.Poets included are Tacey M. Atsitty, Trevino L. Brings Plenty, Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Laura Da’, Natalie Diaz, Jennifer Elise Foerster, Eric Gansworth, Gordon Henry, Jr., Sy Hoahwah, LeAnne Howe, Layli Long Soldier, Janet McAdams, Brandy Nalani McDougall, Margaret Noodin, dg okpik, Craig Santos Perez, Tommy Pico, Cedar Sigo, M. L. Smoker, Gwen Westerman, and Karenne Wood.

Baygirl


Heather Smith - 2013
    When the 1992 cod moratorium forces her father out of a job, the tension between Kit and her father grows. Forced to leave their rural community, the family moves to the city, where they live with Uncle Iggy, a widower with problems of his own. Immediately pegged as a "baygirl," Kit struggles to fit in, but longstanding trust issues threaten to hold her back when a boy named Elliot expresses an interest in her.

Pretty;


Amber Lacie - 2016
    Will they be able to build with the pieces of their hearts they have left, or will their love crumble and fall, leaving them both completely shattered?Author's Note: The novel contains adult situations that are meant for 18+ and graphic situations such as rape, abuse (including sexual), neglect, suicide and drug abuse.

The Mission House


Carys Davies - 2020
    Charmed by the foreignness of his new surroundings and by the familiarity of everything the British have left behind, he finds solace in life’s simple pleasures, travelling by rickshaw around the small town with his driver Jamshed and staying in a mission house beside the local presbytery where, after a chance meeting, the Padre and his adoptive daughter Priscilla take Hilary under their wing. The Padre is concerned for Priscilla’s future, and as Hilary’s friendship with the young woman grows, he begins to wonder whether his purpose lies in this new relationship. But religious tensions are brewing and the mission house may not be the safe haven it seems.

Delivered to the Ground


Mark Murphy Harms - 2020
    These mark the beginning of an incredible adventure where Harper finds himself on the other side of the earth, 2,500 years back in time and in a body that's not his own.The handful of crash survivors are thrust into the violent world of the ancient Greeks, the Persians and the mysterious horse nomads known as Scythians whose women are as fierce as their men." ... a real page turner ... not just sci-fi and historical fiction. It is also a war story, a mythical tale, and an action-packed adventure."-- Rocky Scramble's Weekly Reader

Fir


Sharon Gosling - 2017
    We are the snow.We are the winter.We are the peace. We are the rage.Cut off from civilization by the harsh winter of northern Sweden, the Stromberg family shelter in their old plantation house. There are figures lurking in the ancient pine forests and they’re closing in. With nothing but four walls between the Strombergs and the evil that’s outside, they watch and wait for the snows to melt.But in the face of signs that there’s an even greater danger waiting to strike, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish reality from illusion. All they’ve got to do is stay sane and survive the winter…

Untethered


Katie Hayoz - 2013
    In fact, there are times she can’t even manage to stay inside it. Junior year is off to a less than stellar start for Sylvie: Her parents are splitting up, her little brother is sitting at her lunch table, and she’s the target of the school bully. Plus, she accidentally astral projects, slipping out of her body again and again at all the worst times. Sylvie is cast as the class freak and a medical misfit. She wishes she were somewhere else. Someone else. But it's only when her best friend catches the attention of the boy Sylvie's loved in secret since the fifth grade that Sylvie makes up her mind to do something drastic. Sylvie intends to get Kevin by any means possible -- even if it involves treachery, deceit, and the dark side of the paranormal. After years of trying to ignore her ability to astral project, Sylvie finally decides to embrace it. But she also decides to embrace the shadows that accompany her on her out-of-body experiences. Opening herself up to the shadows and their evil, Sylvie comes up with a malicious plan. She is positive her scheme will give her what she wants, but she doesn’t count on it all spiraling out of control.Untethered by Katie Hayoz explores the intoxicating and dangerous world of jealousy and obsession when coupled with paranormal ability. It is a touching, sometimes funny, sometimes heart-breaking novel that speaks to the self-doubt lurking in us all. ****Indie B.R.A.G. Medallion ***Runner up in the Mslexia Children's and YA Novel Competition.

A Tender Thing


Emily Neuberger - 2020
    In love with musical theater from a young age, she memorized every show album she could get her hands on. So, when she discovers an open call for one of her favorite productions, she leaves behind everything she knows to run off to New York City and audition. Raw and untrained, she catches the eye of famed composer Don Mannheim, who catapults her into the leading role of his new work, "A Tender Thing," a provacative love story between a white woman and black man, one never before seen on a Broadway stage.As word of the production gets out, an outpouring of protest whips into a fury. Between the intensity of rehearsals, her growing friendship with her co-star Charles, and her increasingly muddled creative--and personal--relationship with Don, Eleanor begins to question her own naïve beliefs about the world. When explosive secrets threaten to shatter the delicate balance of the company, and the possibility of the show itself, Eleanor must face a new reality and ultimately decide what it is she truly wants.Pulsing with vitality and drive of 1950s New York, Emily Neuberger's enthralling debut immerses readers right into the heart of Broadway's Golden Age, a time in which the music soared and the world was on the brink of change.

The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw


Suzy Turner - 2012
    Sent off to London for two weeks of 'work experience', the Morgan Sisters soon find themselves being initiated into the ancient Praxos Foundation, one that protects the innocent while fighting evil, both human and supernatural.At the same time, Lana Beth and Emma Jane must also investigate why the sweet but sometimes pesky ghost of Josiah Grimshaw just won't leave them alone.

The Boys Who Danced With The Moon


Mark Paul Oleksiw - 2018
    Its only contents- an old newspaper clipping about a drowning twenty years earlier. Leaving career and friends behind, Kiran returns to the place of his youth to find the conjurer of his past.Kiran is a quiet and shy teenager with a taste for alternative music growing up in a suburban northern town during the mid-80's. The arrival of two students, the confident and rebellious Marius and the naive, cloak-wearing Moony, awaken Kiran. On the eve of graduation, fate turns the volume off in Kiran’s world and his memory fades to black.Returning to his hometown, Kiran is forced to confront the demons that haunt him. His future depends on whatever hope he has left and the life or death decision he must ultimately make. Will he hear the music again?The Boys Who Danced with the Moon is a coming of age tale of friendship, youth, and love.

The Third Witch


Rebecca Reisert - 2001
    She lives only for revenge against the man and woman who destroyed her young life and drove her to be an outcast: the warrior king, Macbeth and his ambitious queen. Disguising herself as a boy, she finds a way into their castle, just as they prepare to seize the throne of Scotland.

Too Close to Home


Susan Lewis - 2015
    The compelling and heart-rending new novel from the Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors.Jenna and Jack Moore have moved their family to Wales for a fresh start. For vivacious, happy-go-lucky fifteen-year-old Paige the future is full of promise.But suddenly everything changes. Paige becomes more and more withdrawn. The closeness she once shared with her mother a distant memory.It then becomes clear that Jack has secrets too. Preoccupied with her younger children, her husband’s fidelity and their fledgling publishing company, Jenna doesn’t realise the extent of her eldest daughter’s unhappiness until the unthinkable happens.And the nightmare is only just beginning…