Book picks similar to
Shepherd Avenue by Charles Carillo


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contemporary-fiction
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Bright Young Things


Anna Godbersen - 2010
    New York is ruled by the Bright Young Things: Flappers and socialites seeking thrills and chasing dreams in the anything-goes era of the Roaring Twenties.Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey escaped their small Midwestern town for New York's glittering metropolis. All Letty wants is to see her name in lights, but she quickly discovers Manhattan is filled with pretty girls who will do anything to be a star....Cordelia is searching for the father she's never known, a man as infamous for his wild parties as he is for his shadowy schemes. Overnight, she enters a world more thrilling and glamorous than she ever could have imagined — and more dangerous. It's a life anyone would kill for...and someone will.The only person Cordelia can trust is ­Astrid Donal, a flapper who seems to have it all: money, looks, and the love of Cordelia's brother, Charlie. But Astrid's perfect veneer hides a score of family secrets.Across the vast lawns of Long Island, in the ­illicit speakeasies of Manhattan, and on the blindingly lit stages of Broadway, the three girls' fortunes will rise and fall — together and apart. From the New York Times bestselling author of THE LUXE comes an epic new series set in the dizzying last summer of the Jazz Age.

The Last Letter


Kathleen Shoop - 2011
    A timeless tale of redemption with the best plot-twist at the end I've seen in a long, long time. Can't wait for book two!" New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Melissa Foster Katherine wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't found the letter... In the summer of 1905 Katherine Arthur's mother arrives on her doorstep, dying, forcing her to relive a past she wanted to forget. When Katherine was young, the Arthur family had been affluent city dwellers until shame sent them running for the prairie, into the unknown. Taking her family, including young Katherine, to live off the land was the last thing Jeanie Arthur had wanted, but she would do her best to make a go of it. For Jeanie's husband Frank it had been a world of opportunity. Dreaming, lazy Frank. But, it was a society of uncertainty--a domain of natural disasters, temptation, hatred, even death. 

 Ten-year-old Katherine had loved her mother fiercely, put her trust in her completely, but when there was no other choice, and Jeanie resorted to extreme measures on the prairie to save her family, she tore Katherine's world apart. Now, seventeen years later, and far from the homestead, Katherine has found the truth – she has discovered the last letter. After years of anger, can Katherine find it in her heart to understand why her mother made the decisions that changed them all? Can she forgive and finally begin to heal before it's too late? **Independent Publisher Awards** 2011 Gold Medal, Best Regional Fiction-Midwest **National Indie Excellence Book Awards** 2011 Finalist Award-Historical Fiction 2011 Finalist Award-Regional Fiction **USA Best Books 2011 Awards** Winner, Fiction--Western Finalist, Fiction--Historical Finalist, Best New Fiction **International Book Awards** 2011 Finalist Award-Historical Fiction 2011 Finalist Award-Best New Fiction

Belle of the Ball


Pam McCutcheon - 2003
    But a wish at a magical rock formation is about to change all that, in a most a-MUSE-ing way. . . . The three Sullivan sisters, named for the Three Graces of Greek legend who embody beauty, charm and grace, don’t live up to their names. Belle is no beauty. Charisma lacks charm. And Grace is somewhat less than graceful. But this doesn't deter their ambitious mother from bribing three bachelors to escort them to Colorado Springs’ beautiful Garden of the Gods. When the girls overhear their escorts mocking how little they resemble their names, each girl makes a wish at the magical Three Graces rock formation. Belle wishes aloud for beauty, but only so she can use it as a weapon to punish the cads who hurt her sisters. Her true wish is for revenge. Handsome viscount Kit Stanhope regrets his rude remarks and apologizes to Belle. He’s surprised when she tells him that's not enough. If he truly regrets his behavior, he has to make her beautiful in time for the Founders’ Day Ball. Kit isn’t sure he’s up to the task. But, intrigued by the spirited Belle, he agrees to assist her transformation from an ugly duckling into a swan with the help of a mysterious Greek dressmaker with muse-like qualities. Unfortunately, Belle makes a rather awkward swan. Still, after a few embarrassing escapades, she masters the flirtatious language of the fan and takes the town known as Little London by storm. Belle soon finds herself falling for the viscount and his sinful mouth. It seems he returns her regard, but she can’t renege on her promise to humiliate him . . . can she? Will her secret muse grant the wish she voiced . . . or the one she holds in her heart? Note to readers: This title was originally published in 2003 by Zebra Ballad.

Lady in the Mist


Laurie Alice Eakes - 2011
    Dominick Cherrett is a man with his own secret to keep: namely, what he, a British nobleman, is doing on American soil working as a bondsman in the home of Mayor Kendall, a Southern gentleman with his eye on a higher office.By chance one morning before the dawn has broken, Tabitha and Dominick cross paths on a misty beachhead, leading them on a twisted path through kidnappings, death threats, public disgrace, and . . . love? Can Tabitha trust Dominick? What might he be hiding? And can either of them find true love in a world that seems set against them?With stirring writing that puts readers directly into the story, Lady in the Mist expertly explores themes of identity, misperception, and love's discovery.

A Cast of Stones


Patrick W. Carr - 2013
    Eager for coin, Errol agrees to what he thinks will be an easy task, but soon finds himself hunted by deadly assassins. Forced to flee with the priest and a small band of travelers, Errol soon learns he's joined a quest that could change the fate of his kingdom. Protected for millennia by the heirs of the first king, the kingdom's dynasty nears its end and the selection of the new king begins--but in secret and shadow. As danger mounts, Errol must leave behind the stains and griefs of the past, learn to fight, and discover who is hunting him and his companions and how far they will go to stop the reading of the stones. 2014 Carol Award Winner for Speculative

Malevolent


Jana Deleon - 2015
     Everyone wondered about Shaye Archer’s past. Including Shaye. Shaye Archer’s life effectively began the night police found her in an alley, beaten and abused and with no memory of the previous fifteen years, not even her name. Nine years later, she’s a licensed private investigator, with a single goal—to get answers for her clients when there aren’t supposed to be any. And maybe someday, answers for herself. Emma Frederick thought her nightmare was over when she killed her abusive husband, but someone is stalking her and tormenting her with mementos from her past. With no evidence to support her claims, the police dismiss her claims as post-traumatic stress, but Shaye is convinced that someone is deliberately terrorizing Emma…playing a cat and mouse game with only one goal in mind. To kill Emma.

Murder Notes


Lisa Renee Jones - 2018
    And she is very good at her job. When a series of murders surface—the victims all stripped naked and shot in the head—Lilah’s instincts tell her it’s the work of an assassin, not a serial killer. But when the case takes her back to her hometown in the Hamptons and a mysterious but unmistakable connection to her own life, all her assumptions are shaken to the core.Thrust into a troubled past she’s tried to shut the door on, Lilah’s back in the town where her father is mayor, her brother is police chief, and she has an intimate history with the local crime lord’s son, Kane Mendez. The two share a devastating secret, and only Kane understands Lilah’s own darkest impulses. As more corpses surface, so does a series of anonymous notes to Lilah, threatening to expose her. Is the killer someone in her own circle? And is she the next target?

Diamonds and Cole


Micheal Maxwell - 2013
    In the past, Cole a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, worked for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine. Now, he’s returned to the paper where he started his career, The Chicago Sentinel. Instead of writing the big stories, he’s doing the work of a rookie reporter. His “big story of the day” is a cat caught in a tree. During its rescue, the cat’s owner takes her Good Samaritan neighbor hostage. Cole witnesses something so disturbing it reawakens the journalist’s desire to write again.Returning to the paper, Cole finds a desperate message asking for help from Ellie, one that got away. The one that has continually haunted his life. Cole drops everything and flies to California. He must find what would make her so desperate, she would call him after so many years. Cole finds her terminally ill, and abandoned by her husband. He discovers while Ellie was heavily medicated, she mistakenly signed a Power of Attorney. Now her estranged daughter Erin’s inheritance, won’t go to her, but her abusive step-father. Cole vows to find the girl and right the situation.The path to keeping his word is blocked at every turn by the husband who abandoned her, his shady real estate deals, violent con men, street thugs and the lure of a fortune in diamonds that unite them. The anger, sorrow, and crippling guilt of twenty years fires Cole's drive to keep a promise, that in the end, will heal and return the soul to the great journalist.Beaten, bloody but determined, Cole Sage conquers greed and hatred with a strength that only love, and a will as hard as diamond, can achieve.

Shadows of the Past


Patricia Bradley - 2014
    When she finally has a lead on his whereabouts, Taylor returns home to Logan Point, Mississippi, to investigate. But as she is stalking the truth about the past, someone is stalking her.Nick Sinclair pens mystery novels for a living, but the biggest mystery to him is how he can ever get over the death of his wife--a tragedy he believes he could have prevented. With his estranged brother the only family he has left, Nick sets out to find him. But when he crosses paths with Taylor, all he seems to find is trouble.

Beyond the Bougainvillea


Dolores Durando - 2011
    When scholarly, smart Mary Margaret is sixteen, her father marries her off to a drunken neighbor in return for a tract of land. The year is 1924, and Mary Margaret's motherless childhood has already been hard as a farm girl on the desolate prairies of North Dakota. Abused and helpless, the new Mrs. "Marge" Garrity seems destined for a tragic fate. But Marge is determined to make her life count, no matter what. Her escape from her brutal marriage takes her to California, where she struggles to survive the Great Depression and soon answers the lure of the state's untamed northern half. There, embraced by the rough-and-ready people who built the great Ruck-a-chucky Dam on the American River, she begins to find her true mission in life and the possibility for love and happiness with an Army Corp engineer of Cherokee Indian descent. This vivid saga of one woman's life in the early decades of a turbulent century is told from the heart of a true storyteller in the grand tradition of women's sagas. Author Dolores Durando knows Marge's world very well. She grew up ninety years ago on the plains of North Dakota.

The Glassblower's Daughter


Frances Clarke - 2010
    Even when she finds a way out betrayal and treachery threaten her.

The Millstone Prophecy


Jack Harney - 2011
    Lieutenant, Dax McGowan, attempts to track down and kill the pedophile priest who caused his daughter to commit suicide. A city-wide investigation soon turns into an international manhunt taking him to the gates of the Vatican and beyond with startling results. An intransigent hierarchy, a wimpish legal community's response, and his own conscience thwart the detective's efforts as his own life becomes imperiled in the process. Short chapters, fast action make for a hard to put down read.

Sword Bearer


Teddy Jacobs - 2012
    Then you go on all kinds of adventures - fighting monsters, casting spells and saving damsels in distress. At least that's how it's supposed to work, but I didn't believe a word of it.BOOK ONE OF THE EPIC FANTASY SERIES RETURN OF THE DRAGONSLocked in his room in the castle, young Anders yearns for adventure. Until the day he opens a magic portal and a girl bursts into his locked room with a chemical warlock hot on her trail. And adventure finds him -- an adventure full of danger, full of blood, fire, demons and evil. To face it, he'll need the sword given him by his blademaster, need the ancient words his grandfather gave him on his deathbed. Need the song that runs in his own blood, in his veins.A sword will be reforged, magic words discovered, battles fought, friends made and lost, secrets revealed. And blood will be spilled. But will blade, word and blood be enough?

Tangled Beauty


K.L. Middleton - 2013
    That is, until she met Reed, Jesse's sexy as hell older brother, and ends up getting much more than what she'd bargained for.Reed Eddington assumed his future was settled until he met Sinclair, his brother's so-called "girlfriend," but the raw, sexual tension between them is hard to ignore. As he watches their ruse from the sidelines, he finds himself wanting to uncover more than just their amusing little facade.Due to sexual content and heavy subject matter, this book is recommended for ages 18+.

Nora Roberts Land


Ava Miles - 2013
    All dreams of happily ever after—or Nora Roberts Land as her mother calls it—went up in smoke. But when her family asks her to temporarily help their Dare Valley, Colorado newspaper, she decides it’s time to change her life and prove her ex wrong. She’s determined to find her own small-town Nora Roberts hero, prove that true love exists, and publish a story about her quest.War correspondent Tanner McBride has just returned stateside to work for a major newspaper, and the last thing he expects is blackmail. Yet, before he can even unpack, he’s headed to Colorado. His assignment? Make his boss’s ex-wife fall for him and then break her heart. Her article about discovering love à la Nora might air dirty laundry about her marriage to the media mogul, threatening his senate run. The mogul wants Meredith stopped, and he makes sure Tanner has no choice in the matter.When the two meet, the sparks between them are undeniable. Meredith, who vowed never to date another journalist, begins to succumb. Could Tanner be her Nora Roberts hero? As they work together to uncover the truth behind a suspicious death, the depth of their feelings unfolds and both realize they’ve kept their secrets for far too long. But before the truth can be revealed, their investigation takes a deadly turn, one that might make Meredith’s personal Nora Roberts Land go up in flames.