Book picks similar to
The Little Island Secret by Emma Davies
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emma-davies
Deeper We Fall
Chelsea M. Cameron - 2013
Ready to move on. Ready to start forgetting the night that ripped her life apart. Her plans come to a screeching halt when not one, but both brothers responsible for the accident end up back in her life again. Zack is cruel, selfish and constantly rubbing what happened to her friend in Lottie's face. Zan is different. He listens to her awkward ramblings. He loves To Kill a Mockingbird as much as she does, and his dark eyes are irresistible. His words are few and far between, but when he does speak, she can't help but listen. The trouble is, Zan was the driver in the accident, and now Lottie's discovered he lied to her about what happened that night. Now she must decide if trusting him again will lead to real forgiveness, or deeper heartache.
Flying by the Seat of My Knickers
Eliza Watson - 2016
NOT a cozy mystery series.Why run from your troubles when you can fly instead?When Caity Shaw is fired from her first job that doesn't require an elf uniform, her older sister, Rachel, an event planner, hires her to work a meeting in Dublin. Caity jumps at the opportunity to travel abroad and escape her pathetic life. However, even four thousand miles from home, there's no avoiding debt collectors, an overbearing mother, and haunting memories of a controlling ex.While in Dublin, Caity suffers a series of humiliating mishaps, causing her to lose even more faith in herself. Caity struggles to earn Rachel's respect--and to keep Declan, her hot Irish coworker, at arm's length. Declan repeatedly saves Caity's butt and helps boost her self-confidence, making it difficult to keep her distance from the charming womanizer. When Declan helps her research her Irish grandmother, Caity discovers the mysterious past of the courageous woman she barely knew might hold the answers to her future.
You Were There Too
Colleen Oakley - 2020
But she has other dreams too — unexplained, recurring ones starring the same man. Still, she doesn’t think much of them, until a relocation to small-town Pennsylvania brings her face to face with the stranger she has been dreaming about for years. And this man harbors a jaw-dropping secret of his own—he's been dreaming of her too. Determined to understand, Mia and this not-so-stranger search for answers. But when diving into their pasts begins to unravel her life in the present, Mia emerges with a single question—what if?Acclaimed author Colleen Oakley delivers a heart-wrenching and unforgettable love story about a woman who must choose between the man she loves and the man fate has chosen for her in a novel that reminds us that the best life is one led by the heart.
The Summer List
Amy Mason Doan - 2018
Until one summer night, when a shocking betrayal sent Laura running through the pines, down the dock, and into a new life, leaving Casey and a first love in her wake.But the past is impossible to escape, and now, after seventeen years away, Laura is pulled home and into a reunion with Casey she can’t resist—one last scavenger hunt. With a twist: this time, the list of clues leads to the settings of their most cherished summer memories. From glistening Jade Cove to the vintage skating rink, each step they take becomes a bittersweet reminder of the friendship they once shared. But just as the game brings Laura and Casey back together, the clues unravel a stunning secret that threatens to tear them apart…“This is a lovely debut by Doan, exploring themes of motherhood, daughterhood, and first love with tenderness and humor. The writing is fresh and charming, a perfect read for anyone who spent her teenage years reading the racy bits of cheap paperbacks out loud to their best friends.”-Booklist, STARRED* review“Doan’s characters leap off the page…[An] accomplished debut novel…Will please readers who grew up with the novels of Judy Blume.”-Publishers Weekly“With a vivid sense of place and characters as real as your high school besties, this debut novel is sure to please fans of Kristin Hannah and Elin Hilderbrand.”-Library Journal“A poignant tale of mothers and daughters finding their ways home to each other.”-Kirkus Reviews“Summer Reads: Coolest Books of the Season”-Globe and Mail“Best New Books to Put in Your Beach Bag”-PopSugar “Best Books of Summer 2018”-Family Circle“Best New Books for Summer 2018”-Coastal Living“A trip down memory lane becomes a hunt for long-buried secrets in Amy Mason Doan’s gripping and poignant debut. An evocative tale of family, first love, and the unique and lasting gift of a friendship formed in girlhood.”-Meg Donohue, USA Today bestselling author“There is not a word or a plot line out of place in The Summer List, Amy Mason Doan’s fabulous debut. These characters and their stories are going to stick with you for a long, long time.”-Meg Mitchell Moore, author of The Admissions and The Captain’s Daughter“An ideal summer read…a compelling blend of love, betrayal, secrets and reconciliation…”-The Oregonian“An amazing debut.”-Authorlink“Read this one on the beach with your BFF.”-HelloGiggles"The perfect summer read. Beautifully drawn characters creating a page-turning mystery. I stayed up way too late to find out what happened! Impossible to put down!”-Bestselling author M. O’Keefe“In her mesmerizing debut, Amy Mason Doan challenges everything we think we know about family and forgiveness. Readers will be swept up in this haunting story of buried secrets and lost love.”-Lynda Cohen Loigman, author of The Two-Family House“With its exquisite detail, The Summer List wouldn’t let me go, and the unexpected ending gave me chills…Irresistible.”-Jennifer S. Brown, author of Modern Girls“A tender novel about friendship lost and rekindled, and uncovering the truth of the past.”-Polly Dugan, author of So Much a Part of You and The Sweetheart Deal“Moving…compelling…beautifully written characters.”-The Girly Book Club
The Secret Sister
Brenda Novak - 2015
She goes there to heal—and to help her brother, Keith, a deeply troubled man who's asked her to come home. But she refuses to stay in the family house. The last person she wants to see is the wealthy, controlling mother she escaped years ago. Instead, she finds herself living next door to someone else she'd prefer to avoid—Rafe Romero, the wild, reckless boy to whom she lost her virginity at sixteen. He's back on the island, and to her surprise, he's raising a young daughter alone. Maisey's still attracted to him, but her heart's too broken to risk… Then something even more disturbing happens. She discovers a box of photographs that evoke distant memories of a little girl, a child Keith remembers, too. Maisey believes the girl must've been their sister, but their mother claims there was no sister. Maisey's convinced that child existed. So where is she now?
Hadley & Grace
Suzanne Redfearn - 2021
A woman who can’t even kill a spider, Hadley soon finds herself pushed to the limits as she fights to protect her family.Grace, new mother of baby Miles, desperately wants to put her rough past behind her for good, but she finds it impossible when her path crosses with Hadley’s, and her quest for a new start quickly spirals out of control and turns into a terrifying flight for survival.Stronger together than apart, the two find their fates inextricably entwined, and as the danger closes in, each must decide how much she is willing to risk for the other.A powerful story of self-discovery, Hadley and Grace is the heart-racing tale of two women facing insurmountable odds, racing to stay one step ahead of the trouble that is chasing them, and discovering new kinds of love and family along the way.
Crooked Little Lies
Barbara Taylor Sissel - 2015
A young man well known in their small town of Hardys Walk, Texas, Bo seems fine, even if Lauren’s intuition says otherwise. Since the accident two years ago that left her brain in a fragile state, she can’t trust her own instincts—and neither can her family. Then Bo vanishes, and as the search for him ensues, the police question whether she’s responsible. Lauren is terrified, not of what she remembers but of what she doesn’t.Unable to trust herself and unwilling to trust anyone else, Lauren begins her own investigation into the mystery of Bo’s disappearance. But the truth can prove to be as shocking as any lie, and as Lauren exposes each one, from her family, from her friends, she isn’t the only one who will face heart-stopping repercussions.
An Invincible Summer
Mariah Stewart - 2021
Now, on the occasion of her fortieth high school reunion, she returns to her hometown on the Massachusetts coast, picking up right where she left off with dear friends Lydia and Emma. But seeing Brett Crawford again stirs other emotions. Once, they were the town’s golden couple destined for one another. He shared Maggie’s dreams—and eventually, a shattering secret that drove them apart.Buying her old family home and resettling in Wyndham Beach means a chance to start over for Maggie and her two daughters, but it also means facing her rekindled feelings for her first love and finally confronting—and embracing—the past in ways she never thought possible. Maggie won’t be alone. With her family and friends around her, she can weather this stormy turning point in her life and open her heart to the future. As for that dream shared and lost years ago? If Maggie can forgive herself, it still might come true.
A Letter from Nana Rose
Kristin Harper - 2021
You were once so happy in this house. Now I’m gone, all I ask is that you spend one last summer here together on Dune Island. And please forgive me, your Nana, for the secret I’m about to tell you…”Arriving at the honeysuckle-covered beach house inherited from her beloved grandmother, recently heartbroken Jill hopes to convince her two feuding sisters not to sell a place so full of happy childhood memories. But the envelope waiting on the driftwood table changes everything. In her elegant handwriting, Nana Rose promises a new letter will arrive each day of the summer revealing a family secret she took to her grave.Shaken, Jill anxiously awaits each letter filled with Nana’s bittersweet memories of her own sister who she loved more than anyone—and lost far too young. But why did Nana never speak of this tragic loss to her grandchildren?Watching the sunset each night and wondering how well they really knew Nana Rose, Jill feels her family is closer than they’ve been in years. And after a chance encounter with blue-eyed tree surgeon Alex, she wonders if Nana believed being back on Dune Island would help Jill find love, too?But when Nana’s final letter arrives, the revelation about how her sister died is more shocking than Jill ever imagined. Suddenly, despite the chance of happiness with Alex, selling the house seems the only way forward. Will Jill find a way to forge new bonds of sisterhood and save their inheritance, or will Nana Rose’s secret tear them all apart?
Hello from the Gillespies
Monica McInerney - 2014
This year, Angela surprises herself—she tells the truth....The Gillespies are far from the perfect family that Angela has made them out to be. Her husband is coping badly with retirement. Her thirty-two-year-old twins are having career meltdowns. Her third daughter, badly in debt, can’t stop crying. And her ten-year-old son spends more time talking to his imaginary friend than to real ones.Without Angela, the family would fall apart. But when a bump on the head leaves Angela with temporary amnesia, the Gillespies pull together—and pull themselves together—in wonderfully surprising ways....
On a Ring and A Prayer
Sandra D. Bricker - 2015
Jessie Stanton has it all... until one fateful afternoon when she notices her BMW bouncing by the window behind a tow truck. Her husband has gone, and he's taken it all. The whirling tornado that cuts down the life she's built drops Jessie onto the sandy beach of Malibu with a thud, penniless and alone. When all she's left with are the designer labels in her closet and the dreamy Neil Lane rock on her finger, Jessie tries to make ends meet by pawning her prized ring to fund a new business venture: a small shop where her designer duds and shimmering accessories are temporarily leased out to Southern California women with champagne tastes but root beer realities. As Jessie tries to rebuild, she realizes she can't move on, not without answers. Reluctantly, Jessie turns to beach bum/private investigator Danny Callahan for help. But is she staking her future success and happiness...on a ring and a prayer?
Six Months in Montana
Pamela M. Kelley - 2013
She's about to be promoted to her dream job of General Manager, the role she's been striving for her entire career. There's only one thing standing in her way. The will of her childhood friend, Christian Ford's grandfather. She hasn't even seen Christian in over ten years, but a recent run-in with his grandfather during a rare visit home, resulted in a new condition to the will. Christian will only inherit the ranch he's been running and the real estate development business that he has expanded, if he marries Molly and stays married for at least six months.
Her Guilty Secret
Emily Maine Cavanagh - 2021
There is so much I’ve been keeping from them. Just for this weekend, for our long-awaited college reunion, I want to put all that aside and have some fun. But it wasn’t my secrets I should have been worried about. It was theirs. When Ada draws truth, she can’t meet my eye. “Ivy…” she begins and then stops. Before saying something that I immediately wish she could take back. But of course she can’t, not now.The worst thing is no one else seems as shocked. I realise they have let me think I was to blame all these years. Perhaps I never knew my closest friends to begin with. Maybe we were never actually friends all… A gripping, emotional drama about the complexities of friendship and what truly lies beneath the image of a perfect life. Fans of Liane Moriarty, Kerry Fisher and Sally Hepworth will be hooked from the very first page.
Girlfriend, Interrupted: From carefree twenty-something to instant mother-of-two...
Patricia Caliskan - 2018
Enjoys walking barefoot across shards of broken home. Likes loaded silences, resentment and insomnia. Dislikes romantic weekends, lie-ins and any chance of future happiness. Former GSOH. Developing PTSD. Ella Shawe was undomesticated, unattached and uninhibited. Until she met Dan. Sexy, charming and funny, Dan ticked all the right boxes and Ella threw herself head-first into the whirlwind romance. But now she’s moved into his family home, complete with two demanding children and a hyperactive dog. Throw in Dan’s impossibly perfect ex-wife, Ella’s interfering sex therapist mother and the snooty and dismissive mother-in-law from Hell, and Ella is almost ready to throw in the towel. But, ready or not, Ella is part of the family now, and getting it right for Dan’s kids means getting it right for everyone. She just needs to figure out how to include herself in the mix… Girlfriend, Interrupted will have you laughing-out-loud, gasping in embarrassment and rooting for Ella all the way. This British romantic comedy is packed full of humour and has a delightful contemporary heroine at its heart.
The Break-Up Book Club
Wendy Wax - 2021
And yet at book club meetings in an historic carriage house turned bookstore, they bond over a shared love of reading (and more than a little wine) as well as the growing realization that their lives are not turning out like they expected.Former tennis star Jazmine is a top sports agent balancing a career and single motherhood. Judith is an empty nester questioning her marriage and the supporting role she chose. Erin's high school sweetheart and fianc� develops a bad case of cold feet, and Sara's husband takes a job out of town saddling Sara with a difficult mother-in-law who believes her son could have done better - not exactly the roommate most women dream of.With the help of books, laughter, and the joy of ever evolving friendships, Jazmine, Judith, Erin and Sara find the courage to navigate new and surprising chapters of their lives as they seek their own versions of happily-ever-after.