Book picks similar to
Solitaire and Brahms by Sarah Dreher
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A World Between
Emily Hashimoto - 2020
Both girls are on the brink of adulthood, each full of possibility and big ideas, and they fall into a whirlwind romance. Years later, Eleanor and Leena collide on the streets of San Francisco. Although grown and changed and each separately partnered, the two find themselves, once again, irresistibly pulled back together. Emily Hashimoto’s debut novel perfectly captures the wonder and confusion of growing up and growing closer. Narrated in sparkling prose, A World Between follows two strikingly different but interconnected women as they navigate family, female friendship, and their own fraught history.
The Grass Widow
Nanci Little - 1996
A moving novel of support, friendship and love, set in the tiny frontier community of Washburn Station, Kansas in the year 1876.
The Language of Hoofbeats
Catherine Ryan Hyde - 2014
New to a small town, Jackie and Paula envision a quiet life for their kids: a young adopted son and two teenage foster children, including the troubled Star. However, they quickly butt heads with their neighbor, Clementine, who disapproves of their lifestyle and is incensed when Star befriends her spirited horse, Comet. Haunted by past tragedy and unable to properly care for Comet, Clem nevertheless resents the bond Star soon shares with the horse. When Star disappears with Comet, the neighbors are thrown together—far too close together. But as the search for the pair wears on, both families must learn to put aside their animosity and confront the choices they’ve made and the scars they carry. Plumbing the depths of regret and forgiveness, The Language of Hoofbeats explores the strange alchemy that transforms a group of people into a family.
Love on Lavender Lane
Karis Walsh - 2019
She does whatever it takes to make her clients’ businesses profitable. She has no room for sentimentality in business or in her personal life and loves nothing better than pushing others out of their comfort zones. Kassidy Drake has spent a lifetime creating her comfort zone, and she has no intention of leaving. Her home is as orderly and as beautiful as the rows of lavender surrounding it, but she needs to make Lavender Lane Farm solvent or she might lose everything. She agrees to listen to Paige’s advice as long as Paige doesn’t expect much more from her than changing the font on her business cards. Accompanied by the buzz of honeybees and the scent of lavender, Paige and Kassidy must find a way to compromise if they want to save Lavender Lane Farm―and find a way to make room for love along the way.
Hopes and Dreams
P.J. Trebelhorn - 2020
There aren't many prospects for true love, but she keeps hoping she'll find it somehow. She dreams of owning the small movie theater she manages, but that takes money, which is hard to get when you live paycheck to paycheck.Victoria Thayer has fallen for a woman more interested in her money than her heart for the last time. When she runs into Riley, the first girl she ever had a crush on, at their high school reunion, she's hoping there might just be a chance for the kind of relationship she's always wanted. But Victoria can't help wondering if Riley too is only after her money, and Riley can't seem to forgive the fact that Victoria was part of a group of kids who used to bully her.When hopes and dreams are on the line, will true love find a way?
Euro Tripped
Sally Bryan - 2018
Her future was all planned out; graduate medical school, become a doctor and at some point get married. If she's to travel, it has to be now and so, together with Gabe, her long-term boyfriend, they take a camper to the continent for three months of bliss. One promise was made - That this would be the greatest summer of their lives. However, their plans are cast into disarray when Gabe receives an unexpected call from an old friend. He's loud, he's rude, he's close by, and he wants to join them. How will Freya cope now that her one chance for an intimate adventure's been hijacked by the most obnoxious man she's ever met and his slender, blonde and mystifying travelling companion? Freya had not bargained on meeting Arwen, a beautiful dancer from Australia and gradually, her orderly world turns to confusion as this exceptionally casual free spirit throws her entire life plan into doubt. Could this rigid Scottish trainee doctor seriously be attracted to a braided hippie woman who meditates? It was preposterous, yet... Suddenly, the relaxing European adventure she’d once craved is now life changing as Freya risks everything to discover who she really is. You'll adore this holiday romance because everyone loves a tale of sun and self-discovery. Get it now.
My Tiki Girl
Jennifer McMahon - 2008
After her mother dies in a tragic accident and she is left to feel responsible, Maggie leaves her popular crowd behind and befriends a fellow outsider like herself, but when her new friendship with Dahlia becomes something more intense, Maggie's ideas of everything she thought she once was is forever changed as love begins to blossom.
Sugar Rush
Julie Burchill - 2004
But help is at hand - in the unlikely form of the rude, raucous, toxic and tantalising Maria (aka Sugar) Sweet, queen of the 'Ravers'. As Kim falls quickly under her spell, and gambles her good-girl past for an exciting life of late-night parties and daring emotion, she must ask herself a disturbing question: has she fallen in love with her best friend?
Seeking Sara Summers
Susan Gabriel - 2008
How would your life be different if you were truly yourself? Sara Summers Stanton has raised three children and works as a high school teacher at the same school she attended growing up. Her 25 year marriage is showing cracks in the facade and now she's dealing with breast cancer. In a rare moment of taking care of herself instead of everyone else, Sara takes a sabbatical and goes on the trip to Italy she has always dreamed of taking. This search for a more authentic life leads to Julia, a friend she hasn't seen since they were inseparable as girls, nearly 30 years earlier. They reunite in Florence and their friendship continues where they left off, resulting in an unexpected attraction to one another that threatens to turn Sara's already shaky world upside down. Sara's inner conflict and subsequent choices reveal an unpredictable yet dynamic future for all the characters. Seeking Sara Summers is an emotional and lyrical novel, a timeless story about love, commitment and transformation. What Readers Are Saying About Seeking Sara Summers: "Gabriel renders Sara's growing attraction and conflict with insight. There is a real sense of what is at stake for all three of these characters: Sara, Julia and Grady. A beautiful and powerful story." -- Heather O'Neill, Book Reviewer, afterellen.com "I started reading Seeking Sara Summers with my breakfast tea and couldn't put it down until I had finished it--even missed my trip to the gym. I laughed and cried and felt warmed by the Tuscan sun." -- Ann B., Asheville, NC "I've read plenty of fiction in my life, everything from junky beach books to classic literature. I loved this book. Gabriel is a clever, funny, profound writer who quickly takes you into the inner world of her characters, while taking you on an external journey that keep you glued to the page. Sara's character jumps from the pages and her transformation has impacted and inspired me." -- Jackie W., Loveland, Colorado
English Animals
Laura Kaye - 2017
Richard and Sophie are chaotic, drunken, frequently outrageous but also warm, generous and kind to Mirka, despite their argumentative and turbulent marriage. Mirka is swiftly commandeered by Richard for his latest money-making enterprise, taxidermy, and soon surpasses him in skill. After a traumatic break two years ago with her family in Slovakia, Mirka finds to her surprise that she is happy at Fairmont Hall. But when she tells Sophie that she is gay, everything she values is put in danger and she must learn the hard way what she really believes in. English Animals is a funny, subversive, poignant and beautifully written novel about a doomed love affair, a certain kind of Englishness and prejudice.
Rescue Me
Michelle L. Teichman - 2016
With a few good years under her belt and a promotion so close she can almost touch it, Staff Sergeant Kristen Bailey of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has everything figured out. Until she meets Ashleigh Paige.Beautiful, naïve, intelligent, and trusting, Ashleigh is the perfect possible lead for Bailey’s case. All she has to do is get close to her. The only problem is Ashleigh’s a paramedic, and in Toronto, paramedics and cops don’t mix.Undercover and searching for answers as a Toronto police officer, Bailey uses her charm to get Ashleigh to trust her and open up about what she knows surrounding the case of a dead police officer and the paramedics who might have murdered him.The trouble is, the closer she gets to Ashleigh, the more the line between informant and intimate gets blurred.272 pages(94,000 words)Themes: Canada · female police officer · lesbian · paramedic · police · Toronto
Forget Me Not
Kris Bryant - 2017
Her career with the most prestigious advertising firm in Dallas has her busy six days a week, and she doesn’t have time to step away from her life to handle her aunt’s estate. She plans a quick trip to sign papers and save family heirlooms, hoping to return home before the end of the week. She meets real estate agent Kerry Mulligan who was consigned to the property quite by accident. Their relationship starts off rocky, and as much as Grace wants to get to know the red-haired Irish beauty in the short time she is there, Kerry is nothing but business. Can Grace break through Kerry’s icy disposition and open her up to a quick affair? Even if Grace manages to seduce Kerry, can she return unscathed to the life she left in Dallas?
Love at Cooper's Creek
Missouri Vaun - 2018
She returns to her grandparents’ rural property in Cooper’s Creek, North Carolina, with a plan to hide out and reboot her life to be simple and stress free. But escapism eludes her when her attentions are captured by small town beauty Kate Elkins.Kate has spent almost her entire life in Cooper’s Creek. For Kate, the bonds of small-town life are a source of strength and comfort. When her aging mother weakens, Kate takes a leave from teaching to care for her. Romance is the last thing on her mind when she bumps into her unrequited teen crush Shaw Dailey just back from California. Long-buried feelings resurface for Kate, but all Shaw sees is a beautiful woman saddled with the responsibilities she is finally free from.
So Lucky
Nicola Griffith - 2018
But her life has turned inside out like a sock. She can't rely on family, her body is letting her down, and friends and colleagues are turning away—they treat her like a victim. She needs to break that narrative: build her own community, learn new strengths, and fight. But what do you do when you find out that the story you’ve been told, the story you’ve told yourself, is not true? How can you fight if you can’t trust your body? Who can you rely on if those around you don’t have your best interests at heart, and the systems designed to help do more harm than good? Mara makes a decision, and acts, but her actions unleash monsters aimed squarely at the heart of her new community.This is fiction from the front lines, incandescent and urgent, a narrative juggernaut that rips through sentiment to expose the savagery of America’s treatment of the disabled and chronically ill. But So Lucky also blazes with hope and a ferocious love of self, of the life that becomes possible when we stop believing lies.