Book picks similar to
The Ruby of the Sea by Peggy Lampman


giveaways
women-s-fiction
fiction
family-and-relationship

When Smiles Fade


Paige Dearth - 2013
    As she matures into a resourceful teenager, she is unwilling and unable to stifle her desire for revenge. Reaching her breaking point she can no longer control the impulse to fight back and finally takes matters into her own hands.Having learned the art of hatred from her father and the mastery of manipulation from her mother, young Emma now sets out to make a better life for herself, leaving the memory of the abused child she had once been behind her. Hardened by the heartless brutality she encounters and the dangerous situations she must overcome in the course of her journey, she faces every challenge that comes her way in her quest for a normal life for herself and for those she loves.Finally a person emerges from within that guides her toward a better life until she learns of a secret that sets her on the path of ultimate redemption.**WARNING**18+ Readers Only. Graphic content and subject matter.

Deprivation


Roy Freirich - 2020
    Exhaustion impairs judgment, delusions become hysteria, and mob rule explodes into shocking violence. Told from three perspectives: Chief of Police Mays tries to keep order, teenaged tourist Cort and her friends compete in a dangerous social media contest for the most hours awake, while local physician and former Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Sam Carlson battles his guilt over a student's suicide and the blurriness of his own insomnia, to try to treat the sleepless—until he and the child must flee the violent mob that blames the child for the epidemic.

Then There Was You


Miranda Liasson - 2018
    More than anything, Sara just wants to move on, but that becomes impossible once she discovers that the man who was responsible for her broken engagement, and who is also her ex-fiance's best friend, is now the Angel Falls chief of police.As police chief, Colton Walker is devoted to his small town, and he's equally determined to avoid its newest resident. He and Sara have always gotten along like oil and water, and since the bachelor party incident, he's her Enemy #1. But after sharing an unexpected--and unexpectedly hot--kiss, avoiding Sara becomes the last thing he wants to do. She's not the woman he used to know, and he's falling for her. But when her ex-fiancé returns to Angel Falls, Colton will have to decide if the woman he's always fighting with is also worth fighting for.

Growing Season


Melanie Lageschulte - 2017
    Facing forty and downsized from her copywriting job at a Twin Cities ad agency, Melinda is struggling to find her way forward when a phone call brings her home to rural Iowa. It's not long before Melinda is living in a faded farmhouse, caring for a barn full of animals, and working at her family's hardware store in the community of Prosper, whose motto is "The Great Little Town That Didn't." And just like the vast garden she tends under the summer sun, Melinda soon begins to thrive. Filled with memorable characters, from a big-hearted farm dog to the weather-obsessed owner of the local co-op, "Growing Season" celebrates the challenges and joys of rural life.

High Rollers


Logan C. Kane - 2018
    University of Miami freshman Cameron McKinney is in dire need of cash. In a few years, he will graduate with over 100,000 dollars in student loan debt. To make matters worse, he is utterly ignored by the opposite sex. College isn't quite what he pictured back home in freezing-cold Chicago. Fortunately, Cameron has a brilliant mind for numbers. He decides to start a sports betting website with the help of fellow classmate Dylan Posner, a notorious campus party animal. Within weeks, hundreds of students sign up, and the business is a runaway success. Cameron begins making thousands of dollars of per week, tax-free. He uses the money to pay off his loans and fund his new South Beach lifestyle. As his operation grows, so does his ego. Cameron raises the stakes, taking on a group of jet-setting international students as customers. He begins dating Grace Cooper, the hard-drinking, purity ring-wearing daughter of a prominent Republican Party lobbyist. As the business grows, Cameron's problems multiply further. His dysfunctional romance and his business partner's reckless lifestyle threaten to take them all down.Do you love easy-to-read books filled with wealth, intrigue, and palm trees? If so, don't miss reading High Rollers!

Scorn of Secrets


B. Truly - 2021
    The first dilemma is my dad’s gambling debt. Mama bounces back quickly from the ramifications it causes. She proves this by getting a new man. Her Rico Suave is just the tip of the iceberg—she moves us across state to live with him and his two sons. My outgoing, older sister fits right in—she’s the total opposite of me. I am Madison Guillory, the shy, quiet type. Taught to make the best of even the worst situations, I contemplate giving my new family a chance. Living with my future stepbrothers is interesting, to say the least. They’re like night and day. I have more in common with the laid-back brother, and we become instant friends. I’m adjusting to Taylor High, and the arrogant brother is even starting to grow on me. Maybe everything will work out after all. My life finally seems to be falling into place until a dreadful night shatters my dreams. My world is flipped upside down because of the consequences I must now bear. The memories of that night lurk in the shadows to torment me. If I think of what happened, I’ll succumb to my fear. His face has scorned me. No one will believe me if I confess, not even my own sister. I hold the key to my darkest secret, desperate to keep it locked away.

Bethlehem


Karen Kelly - 2019
    But what she finds is not what she expected: tragedy haunts the hallways, whispering of heartache and a past she never knew existed.Inspired by the true titans of the steel-boom era, Bethlehem is a story of temptation and regret, a story of secrets and the cost of keeping them, a story of forgiveness. It is the story of two complex women—thrown together in the name of family—who, in coming to understand each other, come finally to understand themselves.

Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties


Camille Pagán - 2018
    Perpetually anxious, she’s also accumulated a list of semi-reasonable fears: falling air conditioners, the IRS, identity theft, skydiving, and airbag recalls. But never once did Maggie worry that her husband of nearly thirty years would leave her.On the day Adam walks out the door, everything that makes Maggie secure goes with him. Only then does she realize that while she’s been busy caring for everyone else, she’s become invisible to the world—and to herself.Maggie cautiously begins to rebuild her life with a trip to Rome, a new career, and even a rebound romance. But when a fresh crisis strikes and an uncertain future looms, she must decide: How much will she risk to remain the woman she’s just become?

Mistrust


Margaret McHeyzer - 2016
    The one everyone wants to be friends with. I have the best boyfriend in the world, who’s on the basketball team. My parents adore me, and I absolutely love them. My sister and I have a great relationship too.I’m a cheerleader, I have a high GPA and I’m liked even by the teachers.It was a night which promised to be filled with love and fun until…something happened which changed everything.This is a darker, YA full-length novel.

The Children of Main Street


Merilyn Howton Marriott - 2018
    Broken. Suffering. Learning to survive. These are not the clients Katie Collier expected to help when she went to work at the mental-health clinic.But Katie and her husband can't have children of their own, so her natural compassion flows. Still, Katie wonders why God gives babies to some women who seem unwilling to care, feed, love, shelter—even hold, and leaves other women barren.Then one day it happens. A little girl named Bailey walks into Main Street Clinic … walks straight into Katie’s broken heart.Forced to choose between her husband and her career, Katie fights to hold onto both in order to save Bailey. When her husband gives her the ultimate ultimatum, Katie finds the children of Main Street are not the only ones feeling cast out and lost.Written for the General Market (G): Contains little or no; sexual dialogue or situations, violence, or strong language.

Last Girl Standing


Lisa Jackson - 2020
    . . In the Portland suburb of West Knoll, Delta and her friends were the pretty, popular elite of the high school. That was fifteen years and a whole lifetime ago. Even then, backstabbing and betrayal erupted among the women in the group, a trio of which are now gathered around a hospital bed. And most of it revolved around the man lying close to death before them . . . Until the day . . . To Delta, it feels as if a nightmare unfolds every time they get together. It started at their senior year graduation party when a group of daredevils led by Tanner slipped under the safety rope and tumbled into the dangerous, fast-flowing river. One of their clique died following his lead. It all seemed spontaneous at the time. A thoughtless deed. But since then, there have been more deaths, more "accidents." And the question hovers, unspoken: who's next? They die . . . As the body count rises, Detective Chris McCrae, one of Delta's classmates and a long ago friend of Tanner's, realizes that stopping the terror means digging deep into the past. Hidden beneath the conflicting stories, gossip, and scandalous half-truths are secrets that someone will kill again and again to protect--until there is no one left to tell . . .

Only Daughter


Sarah A. Denzil - 2019
    The flash of her daughter’s yellow dress, the blonde hair hanging across her precious face. Her own heart-broken sob… Kat experiences every mother’s worst nightmare when her only child’s body is found lifeless in an overgrown, abandoned quarry. Desperate to find out what happened, Kat questions those closest to her as she tries to piece together the last days of Grace’s life. But as a darker side to her little girl begins to unravel, Kat wonders if she ever really knew Grace. As Kat is drawn into a twisted game of lies, is she also in terrible danger? And will she be able to unlock her daughter’s final shocking secret? Even if the truth is unthinkable… This addictive and emotional psychological thriller from the million-copy-bestselling author of Silent Child will keep you gripped late into the night.

Of Wicked Blood


Olivia Wildenstein - 2021
    or the cursed.SLATEI didn’t mean to steal the Bloodstone from the De Morel’s crypt. Scratch that, I did mean to steal it. Until I realized it was a curse-magnet that only comes off if I, along with a jolly trio, successfully defeat four curses.If any of us fail, I’m dead.I’ve never been a glass half-empty sort of person, but my glass looks in dire need of a refill right about now.The only highlight of this wicked treasure hunt: feisty, entitled Cadence de Morel.CADENCEI was raised on tales of magic, in a small town reputed to be the birthplace of French witchcraft.Did I believe all the stories I heard? Absolutely not. I mean, if magic existed, Maman wouldn’t have died, and Papa wouldn’t be stuck in a wheelchair, right?Wrong.The night Slate Ardoin waltzes into my life, wearing a ring he stole from my mother’s grave, I call him a monster.But then I meet real ones, and Slate, well . . . he becomes something else to me.Something frustrating to live with but impossible to live without.Something I will fight for, no matter the cost.*Warning: profuse cursing (and not just the magical kind).

You May Already Be a Winner


Ann Dee Ellis - 2017
    Twelve-year-old Olivia Hales has a foolproof plan for winning a million dollars so that she and her little sister, Berkeley, can leave behind Sunny Pines Trailer Park.But first she has to: - Fix the swamp cooler and make dinner and put Berkeley to bed because her mom is too busy to do all that - Write another letter to her dad even though he hasn't written back yet - Teach Berk the important stuff, like how to make chalk drawings, because they can't afford day care and Olivia has to stay home from school to watch her - Petition her oddball neighbors for a circus spectacular, because there needs to be something to look forward to at dumb-bum Sunny Pines - Become a super-secret spy to impress her new friend Bart - Enter a minimum of fourteen sweepstakes a day. Who knows? She may already be a winner!Olivia has thought of everything . . . except herself. Who will take care of her when she needs it? Luckily, somewhere deep down between her small intestine and stomach is a tiny voice reminding her that sometimes people can surprise you--and sometimes your family is right next door.

Jack of Hearts


Sandra Owens - 2017
    Working as an undercover FBI agent in the biker bar he and his brothers co-own, he hangs with deadly criminals in order to gather information. Danger is just part of the family business. But one thing has him terrified: his attraction to Madison Parker.Madison is the cousin of Ramon Alonzo, son and second in command to a notorious drug lord Alex is trying to bust. Alex has befriended Ramon as part of his cover, and Madison has unknowingly become his informant. Falling for her could risk this case—and both their lives.All Madison wants is to get her new bookstore business off the ground, and for her creepy cousin Ramon—to whom she’s unfortunately indebted—to leave her alone. If she could only stop fantasizing about his mysterious new friend, Alex…As the Alonzo cartel investigation heats up, so does their relationship. But will the secrets they’re keeping tear them apart—or get them both killed?