Book picks similar to
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The Good Sister
Wendy Corsi Staub - 2013
Jen hoped her older daughter would thrive here. Instead, shy, studious Carley becomes the target of vicious bullies. But the real danger at Sacred Sisters goes much deeper.The only person Carley can talk to is "Angel," a kindred spirit she met online. Carley tells Angel everything—about her younger sister, about school, about the sudden death of her former best friend. Angel is her lifeline. And Angel is closer than she knows.When another schoolgirl is found dead, Jen's unease grows. There are too many coincidences, too many links to her past. Every instinct tells her that Carley is the next target. For someone is intent on punishing the guilty, teaching the ultimate lesson in how to fear . . . and how to die.
Yes, My Darling Daughter
Margaret Leroy - 2009
Welcome Margaret Leroy to the clan.What’s the matter with Sylvie? Such a pretty girl. Four years old; well loved by her young mother, Grace. But there’s something . . . “off ” about the child. Her deathly fear of water; her night terrors; most of all, her fixation with a photo of an Irish seaside town called Coldharbour.“Sylvie, tell me about your picture. Why’s it so special, sweetheart?” My heart is racing, but I try to make my voice quite calm.“That’s my seaside, Grace.” Very matter-of-fact, as though this should be obvious. “I lived there, Grace. Before.”Grace doesn’t know what to do with this revelation—she’s barely scraping by as it is. A single mother with no family, Grace works full-time at a London flower shop to support herself and Sylvie. Overwhelmed by her inability to help her daughter, she turns to Adam Winters, a dashing psychology professor with some unusual theories about what might be troubling the child. Together, they travel to seemingly idyllic Coldharbour, hoping to understand Sylvie’s mysterious connection to the place. Impossible as it may seem, Grace has to accept that her daughter may be remembering a past life. And not only that: the danger bedeviling Sylvie from her past life is still very much a threat to her in this one.Margaret Leroy has been celebrated for writing “like a dream,” and her previous novels have been praised for their “hypnotic prose” and “sensuously ethereal, subtly electric drama.” Now, in Yes, My Darling Daughter, Leroy offers a novel both haunted and haunting—a wonderfully original, deliciously suspenseful story that enthralls from the first page to the very last.
A Secret Affair
Barbara Taylor Bradford - 1996
There he is struck by the dark beauty of a young American woman, Vanessa Stewart, a 27-year-old glass designer from New York.Unhappily married, she welcomes a no-strings friendship with Bill. Soon they embark on an illicit affair and find themselves desperately in love. They vow to see each other whenever and wherever they can. But on their third meeting, one of them does not show up.Once again, Barbara Taylor Bradford weaves a love story of uncompromising ardor, this time taking readers through secret trysts in Venice, Manhattan and Southampton. In A Secret Affair, she touches on subjects that will stir the hearts and minds of her readers -- unconditional love and devotion, loyalty and loss.
A View of the River
Kathleen Eagle - 2005
Original.- This is Kathleen's debut novel with Mira Books.- The Last Good Man (Avon, 5/01) spent five weeks on the USA Today bestseller list, reaching #75.- What the Heart Knows (Avon, 6/00) was also a USA Today bestseller and reached #34 on the New York Times extended bestseller list.- Eagle is an award-winning author who counts an RWA Golden Heart Award, a RITA Award and two Romantic Times magazine Career Achievement Awards among her credits.- Kathleen has published over 35 titles, several of which have been named RWA "Top 10 Books of the Year."
Unconquered
Hannah Howell - 1996
Now, she brings us a tale of conquest and lover as a beautiful Englishwoman loses her heart to a man who is her enemy—and her destiny...UNCONQUEREDLeft a bequest by a woman with rare psychic powers, Eada of Pevensey suddenly finds herself in possession of a box containing a mysterious document....and something even more extraordinary: the gift of second sight. Nowshe can actually "see" her chilling fate: a Norman invader with sea-dark eyes riding across the fields to claim her lands....and her love.A reluctant soldier for William the Conqueror, Drogo de Toulan seizes the Pevensey lands as a right of conquest....and meets a woman who defies him at every turn—and arouses uncontrollable desire. Yet now, as war rages across a divided England, the two lovers must find the bond that joins body and soul....as they chart a course through battle and betrayal that could breaktheir hearts—or seal their passion for all time....
My Lady Beloved
Lael St. James - 2001
On the way to her nuptials to Sir Cyprian Avendall, sweet and sheltered Gabriella Redclift is abducted by vengeful Morgan Chalstrey, and soon they cannot resist yielding to the passion and love building between them.
Caught in the Light
Robert Goddard - 1998
Back in England, he breaks up with his wife and goes to meet Marian at an agreed rendezvous. Marian fails to show.Searching desperately for her, he stumbles on a Dorset churchyard full of the gravestones of dead Esguards. He also meets a psychotherapist, Daphne Sanger. She too is looking for someone: a former patient who has come to believe she is the reincarnation of Marion Esguard, who lived in Regency times and, it emerges, may have invented photography ten years before Fox Talbot. But if so, why is she unknown to history? And where is the woman he met in Vienna?Ian sets out to solve a mystery that may be 170 years old. At the end of his search a trap awaits him.
Beggar's Choice
Patricia Wentworth - 1930
First, he was rejected for a job because his shoes were worn out. Next, he ran into Isobel, whom he had not seen for three lovelorn years. Finally, a stranger handed him a printed flyer that read: "Do you want to make 500 pounds? If you do and are willing to earn it, write to..."But Car's new job was odd. His sole duty, it seemed, was to dine in chic restaurants. While his mysterious boss remained undercover, his glamorous cousin Anna suddenly offered Car 500 pounds to get her out of a jam. And then his friend Fay said she was in a jam and desperately needed five hundred. Even as he pondered the curious affair, Car slowly slid into a net of dangerous deceit and criminal skulduggery that threatened both himself and his future with Isobel....
The Bargain Bride
Barbara Metzger - 2009
Since then, thirteen years have passed, and as her betrothed has been sowing his wild oats, Penny has grown up, grown impatient, and grown resentful. In fact, she’s vowed never to marry the man who blighted her life and destroyed her dreams. Viscount Westfield is prepared—happily—to return the money that Penny’s father paid to secure the betrothal. It would appear that everyone is in agreement. But one look at Penny and Westfield knows he can never, ever let her go…
To Love Again
Bertrice Small - 1993
. . .TO LOVE AGAINBeautiful, headstrong, and defiant, Cailin Drusus possesses the pride of her Celtic-born mother, though she has been reared amid her Roman father's wealth and privilege. When Cailin's family is destroyed and their farmland seized, she marries Wulf Ironfist, a Saxon of enormous strength and power--a gentle giant who opens the door to a world of heady sensuality. But her happiness is short-lived. For an unknown enemy drugs her as she labors in childbirth--and she awakens to find herself sold to a slave merchant and transported to Byzantium, not knowing what happened to her child. . . .
Incandescent Guardians (Mythic, #1)
D.R. Rosier - 2020
A magician to the world at large, wielding the powers of magic, only not. That’s just a part of his cover, and a clever use of his true power.His alter ego is Bob Williams who is a powerful telekinetic that works in the civilian business world, no one knows that he’s truly the infamous Mythic, and keeping the streets of Chicago safe from monsters with powers. Supervillains.He isn’t the only superhero vigilante. With the end of the MTF, heroes were back on the streets, but the rules had changed again. Lawful heroes had to by law, reveal who they were, take off the mask. That was something he and the others he fought alongside of simply could not do. Not when they had families vulnerable to any psychotic supervillain bent on revenge for past slights.Things are about to get a lot more complicated for Bob, as he teams up with two of the other vigilantes, Lady Lightning and Elegant Prodigy. Will they be able to keep their secrets from each other?After all, the government had mind reader supers, it wasn’t safe for even allies to know the true identity of a vigilante, lest they all be caught when one was. Join Bob as he fights to protect Chicago, and the surprises in store for him.Content Warning: Not suitable for children. This is a Superhero Harem story with explicitly mature scenes between a man and a woman, and other mature content. This first book has no harem action, but plenty of explicit sex, and the harem aspects will come in book two and three. You have been warned.
Perils of the Heart
Jennifer Ashley - 2002
Her stepbrother’s life--and the life of the rugged sailor she must tempt--depended on her success. Evangeline swore to surrender her body, her virtue . . . anything Austin Blackwell demanded. But she never expected to relinquish her heart. On a mission for the American colonies, Austin suspected the timid temptress was a skilled spy ordered to sabotage his plans. She played the part of an untried miss to perfection, her inexperienced fumbling driving him wild with desire. But after sampling her sweetness, after one harrowing night fraught with passion and peril, the commander vowed to navigate any course to discover the truth. For his soul mutinied at the prospect of sailing into the future without the courageous lady by his side.
Lord of the Night
Susan Wiggs - 1993
But in the city's shadowy alleyways, a new, deadly plot is afoot—a sinister threat that even Sandro needs help to uncover. He enlists the aid of an alluring, sensuous beauty, Laura Bandello. But Laura's innocent loveliness may hide a dark secret, and Sandro vows to keep his distance. Yet the deeper he delves into the underworld, the harder he falls for Laura. Pursued by unspeakable danger, Sandro risks his honor, his reputation, and even his heart—all for the love of a mysterious beauty he can't quite trust.
Agatha Christie: Six Mary Westmacott Novels: Giants' Bread / Absent in the Spring / Unfinished Portrait / The Rose and the Yew Tree / A Daughter's a Daughter / The Burden
Mary Westmacott - 1983
Semi-autobiographical in nature, the 6 novels offer a fascinating insight into Christie’s relationships with her family. Her daughter Rosalind Hicks describes the books as “bitter-sweet stories about love”.https://www.agathachristie.com/about-...“As early as 1930, my mother wrote her first novel using the name Mary Westmacott. These novels, six in all, were a complete departure from the usual sphere of Agatha Christie Queen of Crime.The name Mary Westmacott was chosen after some thought. Mary was Agatha’s second name and Westmacott the name of some distant relatives. She succeeded in keeping her identity as Mary Westmacott unknown for nearly twenty years and the books, much to her pleasure, were modestly successful.
Giant’s Bread
was first published in 1930 and was to be the first of six books under this nom de plume. It is a novel about Vernon Deyre, his childhood, his family, the two women he loved and his obsession with music. My mother had some experience of the musical world having been trained as a singer and a concert pianist in Paris when she was young.She was interested in modern music, and tried to express the feelings and ambitions of the singer and the composer. There is a lot about childhood and the First World War taken from her own experiences.Her publishers, Collins, were not very enthusiastic about this change of direction in her work as she was at this time becoming quite well known in the world of detective fiction. They needn’t have worried. In 1930 she also published The Mysterious Mr Quin and, Murder at the Vicarage – Miss Marple’s first book. During the next ten years there followed no less than sixteen full length Poirot stories including such titles as Murder on the Orient Express, The ABC Murders, Death on the Nile, and Appointment with Death.Her second Mary Westmacott book
Unfinished Portrait
was published in 1934. It also relied a lot on her own experiences and early life. In 1944 she published
Absent in the Spring
. She wrote in her autobiography:“Shortly after that, I wrote the one book that has satisfied me completely. It was a new Mary Westmacott, the book that I had always wanted to write, that had been clear in my mind. It was the picture of a woman with a complete image of herself, of what she was, but about which she was completely mistaken. Through her own actions, her own feelings and thoughts, this would be revealed to the reader. She would be, as it were, continually meeting herself, not recognising herself, but becoming increasingly uneasy. What brought about this revelation would be the fact that for the first time in her life she was alone – completely alone – for four or five days.“I wrote that book in three days flat…I went straight through…I don’t think I have ever been so tired…I didn’t want to change a word and although I don’t know myself of course what it is really like, it was written as I meant to write it, and that is the proudest joy and author can have.”I think
Absent in the Spring
combines many talents from Agatha Christie, the detective story writer. It is very well constructed, compulsive reading. You get a wonderfully clear picture of all the family from the thoughts of one woman alone in the desert – really quite a triumph.In 1947 she wrote
The Rose and the Yew Tree
. This was a great favourite of hers and of mine too. It is a haunting and beautiful story. Strangely enough Collins didn’t like it and as they hadn’t been very kind about any of the Mary Westmacotts, she took it to Heinemann who published this and her last two books –
A Daughter’s a Daughter
(1952) and
The Burden
(1956).The Mary Westmacott books have been described as romantic novels but I don’t think that is really a fair assessment. They are not ‘love stories’ in the general sense of the term, and they certainly have no happy endings. They are, I believe, about love in some of its most powerful and destructive forms.The possessive love of a mother for her child, or a child for its mother in both
Giant’s Bread
and
Unfinished Portrait
. The battle between the widowed mother and her grown-up daughter in
A Daughter’s a Daughter
. A girl’s obsession with her younger sister in
The Burden
and the closeness of love to hate – the Burden in this story being the weight of one person’s love on someone else.Mary Westmacott never enjoyed the same critical acclaim as Agatha Christie, but the books achieved some recognition in a minor way and she was pleased when people enjoyed them – she was able to fulfil her wish to write something different.”Rosalind Hicks