Book picks similar to
Caught in the Middle by Jennifer Hayden


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Baby Blues and Wedding Shoes


Amanda T. Martin - 2013
    So when Helen gets some unexpected news, she’s given no choice but to find a new path for herself and anyone else who might come along. With the help of her quirky photography friends and her feisty mother, Maggie, Helen finds strength to face the future alone. Marcio’s life is looking pretty good, until he’s left standing solo at the altar. Eager to write a new future, where women aren’t to be trusted, Marcio feels back in control. Until he meets Helen. Can they create a future together that fulfils all their hopes for a happy ending?

The Ride


Mickey Miller - 2021
    Have you heard the rumor about Zach Reid?Sexy as sin, tastes like whisky, rides a motorcycle.He is the man your father warned you about.Too handsome, too tall, too smooth.The rumor is, he’s done something dark in the past that he doesn’t want to talk about.But he’s about to shake up my small town life up like a snow globe.Because after one ride home on the back of his bike, my life will never be the same again.Zach’s about to take me on a roller coaster ride adventure.Turns out, sometimes real love comes in the most unexpected, and complex, packages.I just never thought I could be the girl who makes a man like Zach Reid fall in love.It all starts with a ride home on a hot summer night.Let me tell you about it.

To Live Again


Melody Dawn - 2015
    Everyone thinks my life is perfect, but looks can be deceiving. I should know - I've become adept at living a lie. The past I tried to put behind me follows me like a dark shadow, and whatever I do, I cannot escape. Drowning in guilt, I'm dying to live again, but can't seem to find my way out of the storm and into the sun. My life ended on the day it was supposed to start. At least no one here knows. Maybe if I lie loudly enough, I can convince myself I'm as fine as everyone thinks I am. JaysonMy life has been moving along exactly as I planned. I'm on the path I'm destined for, and nothing is going to distract me. Then Chloe Schaeffer blew into my life like a breath of fresh air, trying to steal my favorite seat in class. She's everything I never believed was possible. The way I feel about her defies what my brain dictates, but she's hiding something. There's a darkness clouding her. She thinks I don't see it, but I do, and the part of me that longs to treat the wounds of the world aches to heal her. Maybe if I can, she'll fall in love with me. Can I convince her to let me help her live again? Or will she continue to die a little more each day, killing my heart in the process?

Easy On the Heart


Jodi Thomas - 2006
    Cooper isn't necessarily opposed to marriage, he just figures he’s old enough to make his own decisions. There’s just one problem. He doesn't know much about the ways of women, seeming a heck of lot more complicated than tending to a ranch.Then one day at the general store, his spots Mary Woodburn. At first sight, she’s the nicest gift he could have received. She’s shy and gentle, sweetly receptive, and darn near irresistible. But she’s also a damn Yankee, the kind of woman Cooper never dreamed he’d find himself falling for. Now he can't stop thinking about her. And differences aside, with proper tending, theirs could be a love story as big as Texas itself.Includes a preview of Jodi Thomas’s latest Whispering Mountain novel, Promise Me TexasEasy on the Heart previously appeared in How to Lasso a Cowboy

Oxford Wild


Laura Bradbury - 2021
    

The Secret: A Billionaire and Nanny Romance (The Tuesday Club, #1)


Lulu Moore - 2022
    Still mind-blowing that this tiny, little thing is now your sole responsibility.Except try coming home to find a baby on your doorstep, wearing a pink striped hat and attached to a note saying she belongs to you. Then you can say parenthood is a shock.Overnight my bachelor life ceased to exist; my heart now owned by one woman.My daughter.Until Kit Hawkes knocked on my door; the sexiest nanny in existence and every single dad’s nightmare. A not-so-welcome gift from my meddling, interfering sisters.The more time we spend together, the harder it becomes to resist her. Resist her infectious charm, chocolate brown eyes, and mouth that looked like it was made for kissing.No matter what my heart wants, Kit doesn’t belong to me. She belongs to my daughter.Because I can’t have both, can I?

Country Christmas (Wilson's Hollow Book 1)


Savanna Grey - 2016
    His friend, Dalton, recommends his cousin's bed and breakfast in the Virginia mountains as the perfect getaway. Sara Davenport runs Simply Sara's Bed and Breakfast. She is an independent, fun-loving small town girl unimpressed with Nate's fortune and fame. He's more impressed with her and her baking skills. Her chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate are enough to make him promise anything as long as she keeps feeding him. Spending time with Sara has reawakened Nate's creative mojo. Lyrics are flowing as sparks ignite between them. Sara is pushing back, knowing Nate is only passing through, but when the day comes for Nate to go back on the road, will his lifelong dream of performing on the big stage mean more to him than finding lifelong happiness with Sara?

The Seventh Taking


B.J. Bourg - 2015
     When Joy Vincent disappears in the Blue Summit Mountains of Tennessee while vacationing with her family, park rangers begin an intensive search for the Louisiana high school junior. Seven weeks later, the search is abandoned and authorities conclude that Joy voluntarily ran away because of a fight with her father. Unwilling to believe it, Abraham Wilson makes the long drive to the mountains and sets off on a journey that will change his life--and the lives of his friends, Brett Lester and Charlie Rickman--forever. Will they discover the secret behind Joy's disappearance, or will they meet with the same fate? (NOTE: Originally published on April 5, 2015 by Amber Quill Press, LLC)

Healing Hearts (The O'Connors Book 2)


Jax Burrows - 2020
    

The Girl in the Pink Shoes


Jessica Harrington - 2021
    

Primeval Valley


Edward J. McFadden III - 2019
    The town’s peace is shattered when a young boy is taken by a strange creature, and a distraught father goes on a desperate hunt only to uncover a valley that shouldn’t exist. A world where dinosaurs roam hunting prey. A world better left hidden.

Married to Maggie


Jan Romes - 2013
    Ditching an environmental conference in Atlanta to play in Reno, Ty suffers razor-sharp chest pains at the airport. The pains were becoming a common occurrence that started showing up after he lost his father in a fiery crash a year earlier. The woman who comes to his aid not only helps him with what she can only assume is a heart attack but she also fibs to keep airport security and paparazzi from descending on him. She's brilliant, unemployed and not his type which makes her the perfect choice for a temporary spouse. If he can ignore her extraordinary blue eyes then everything will go according to plan.Cardiac rehab nurse, Maggie Gray finds herself the victim of hospital downsizing. When T. Loy Vincent, I, a former patient, offers her a million dollars to get his grandson under control, Maggie is pressured by her father to enter into the wife-for-hire scheme. All she has to do is convince Ty Vincent to marry her. When she tracks Ty down at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport to put things in motion, she finds him in the middle of chest issues. The nurse in her takes over and before she knows it she's eyebrow deep in yet another deal. The second she says yes to both agreements, her life is turned upside down. To top it off, she can't seem to curb an annoying attraction for Dallas's most famous womanizer.Six months. No Sex. No telling each other what to do. It should be a win-win for them both. Will the mayhem of wealth, media attention, meddlesome friends and chemistry so hot it could melt plastic ruin their lives? Or will it be the catalyst for happily-ever-after?

The House Where She Died


Amy Cross - 2020
    told from the point of view of the house itself!Woken from years of lonely slumber, an old house is delighted to finally have a family again. This joy is soon interrupted, however, as the house realizes that another presence is watching the family. A mysterious gray figure seems particularly interested in the young girl, Dot, who has moved in with her parents.What does the figure want with Dot? What evil force lurks in the basement? And why does the house itself not remember its own history, including the tragedy that occurred when an unknown woman died within its walls?The House Where She Died is a ghost story about a little girl who finds herself drawn to darkness, and about a house that must face the truth about its own horrific past. This is an expanded version of an old short story, by the same author, titled The House Speaks.

The Labyrinth: A Joey Mancuso, Father O'Brian Crime Mystery Book 8


Owen Parr - 2021
    Just to be sure (or else to portray himself as a properly mourning husband), he hires P.I.s Joey Mancuso and Father Dom to solve the murder. Only they can’t help noticing he’s pushing them to come to the gang conclusion as well. Hey, is something fishy here?Joey Mancuso, his priest half-brother--Father Dom--and their crack team have got their work cut out for them. A year ago, a Brooklyn politician’s wife was brutally murdered, seemingly in a terrible burglary gone wrong. But no one really knows: the case remains unsolved. The mourning politician hires Mancuso to solve the cold case--right before announcing his plan to run for mayor of New York City. Oh, and in that same speech, the politician blames his wife’s death on gang violence. And the politician tries to convince Mancuso to come to the same conclusion.Well….none of the gangs in Brooklyn seem to have it out for the politician’s family. Plus, the politician may have a straying eye--there are rumors of the affair. It's a labyrinthine puzzle, the kind Joey (forever inspired by his hero, Holmes) delights in. Mancuso and Co. take to their office--which doubles as a bustling, Lower Manhattan cigar bar--and delve into Joey’s strangest mystery yet.Joey Mancuso’s latest adventure is a gritty tour of a side of Brooklyn that’s rarely seen anymore; any fan of The Wire will find a lot to love in the gripping gang politics. Plus, author Parr weaves in the ritzy drama of upper class New Yorkers, all of whom have sordid secrets...Anyone who loves Matt Scudder or Father Brown will adore Joey and Father Dom. Fans of both New York PI novels and police procedurals like Nelson DeMille’s John Corey, and those by Raymond Chandler, Joseph Wambaugh, Lawrence Block, and Rex Stout will love this motley detective team. As will devotees of clerical mysteries and the greatest detective of all time, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

Fixing Fate


Anna Brooks - 2017
    My brother’s friend and ex-partner is everything I’ll never be. Sexy, confident, and perfect. He calls me sunshine and tells me I’m beautiful. He asks me to stay. When my past come back with a vengeance, he proves just how much he’d risk to shield me from the demons that were never supposed to resurface.