Book picks similar to
The Power of Persuasion by Shelagh Watkins


fiction
jane-austen
fiction-and-literature
bluefire

My House Is Falling Down


Mary Loudon - 2019
    Bewildered by the demands of motherhood and dissatisfied by her work, she has also grown understandably resentful of her husband: Mark has serious difficulties of his own and whilst harsh self-reliance has kept him sane, it has alienated his wife.When Lucy falls in love with Angus, a pianist in his sixties, her shock is extreme. Adamant that she will not deceive her husband, she instead asks his advice. Mark’s reaction, however, is startlingly unorthodox, leaving Lucy to steer an impossible course between duty and desire, adventure and security. As her marriage falters and Angus presses for commitment, she is forced to choose between family and self, with lifelong consequences for everyone. Infused with her trademark precision, clarity and dark humour, Mary Loudon’s searing, highly-charged novel My House is Falling Down is a fearless exploration of what infidelity means when no one is lying, and how brutal honesty may yet prove the biggest taboo in our relationships.

The Perfect Son


Barbara Claypole White - 2015
    But, obsessed with order and routine, he’s a prisoner to perfection. Disengaged from the emotional life of his North Carolina family, Felix has let his wife, Ella, deal with their special-needs son by herself.A talented jewelry designer turned full-time mother, Ella is the family rock…until her heart attack shatters their carefully structured existence. Now Harry, a gifted teen grappling with the chaos of Tourette’s, confronts a world outside his parents’ control, one that tests his desire for independence.As Harry searches for his future, and Ella adapts to the limits of her failing health, Felix struggles with his past and present roles. To prevent the family from being ripped apart, they must each bend with the inevitability of change and reinforce the ties that bind.

This Game Has No Loyalty


Brooklyn June - 2010
    It quickly became the most sought out employment for street kids who learned how to distribute, package and sell it for a profit. What no one anticipated was the havoc and destruction it would bring to their hood because of the unlimited potential of stacks of money they stood to make. Murder, betrayal and disloyalty surfaced without prejudice and took young lives almost immediately. Welcome to Bushwick and Bed-Stuy Brooklyn where Junior catapults you into life in the drug dealer game and takes you on an up close and personal voyage that will have you smelling gun smoke and running for your life. Being a kingpin in a hood you're not from is usually unheard of but for Junior it wasn't. He's the boss of Baptiste projects and believes there are two reasons he's avoided drama from the locals. For one, he hired dudes from Baptiste to help him and the second was because his girl Shondra was born and raised in Baptiste and had mad love and respect in her hood. Junior enjoyed getting money relatively with no consequences but nothing remains the same for long. He gets his first taste of disloyalty from within his camp and that compromises his once solidly run drug empire. Junior's first instinct is impulsive and he rushes to deal with the betrayal with lethal intentions, but his premeditated move proves to be the wrong move and he finds himself in a deadly gun battle with KB and his crew. He barely escapes and flees Baptiste to Bed-Stuy to plan his next strategic move. He turns to Shondra to give him inside information on what is happening in Baptiste in his absence while he temporarily turns over the reins of his business to one of his trusted workers who was with him during his gunfight with KB's crew. Shondra finds out some information that will help him eliminate his enemies but it jeopardizes her relationship with her best friend Gloria. While Junior is plotting his revenge he runs into Muffin, a girlfriend from his past. He decides to use her as a part of his team but their emotions cause romantic turmoil that eventually leads to a love triangle although he tells Muffin he's in a relationship with Shondra. Muffin plays as if she respects the boundaries placed in front of her but has her own plans on taking Shondra out of the picture so she can claim her place as Junior's main girl. Junior's goal is to change the way the drug game is played but after being set up he's on a mission to stay alive and make everyone involved pay for their disloyalty. He also tries to find a balance between his love for Shondra and his business/love relationship he developed with Muffin. When Shondra finds out about Junior's affair with Muffin her anger is temporarily derailed when they find themselves in the middle of a deadly shootout. The massacre affects everyone's life in a dramatic way, spilling all secrets out in the open. Junior and Muffin's infidelity is revealed, Gloria discovers Shondra's disloyalty to her and KB's life hangs in the balance. Junior's empire, life and relationship are at stake as he executes his deadly plan of revenge. One Brooklyn neighborhood tells a gangster love story that is fueled by murder, betrayal, unfaithfulness, revenge and remarkably, love. To live the so called drug life, don;t try to find loyalty in something you believe in if you are not willing to commit to it completely.

The Contortionist's Handbook


Craig Clevenger - 2002
    In the face of his impending institutionalization, he continually reinvents himself to escape the legal and mental health authorities and to save himself from a life of incarceration. But running turns out to be costly. Vincent's clients in the L.A. underworld lose patience, the hospital evaluator may not be fooled by his story, and the only person in as much danger as himself is the woman who knows his real name.

Change of Address (A Spencer Manning Mystery Book 1)


Rick Polad - 2012
    Tracking down an unknown father involves him in murder and drugs as his first case leads him to a Chicago racetrack and the mayor's house.

Oh Great, Now I Can Hear Dead People!


Deborah Durbin - 2011
    Someone however doesn't share Sam's joy and it's only when they set out to destroy her reputation does Sam really need help from the other side...Follow Sam's hilarious journey of self-discovery as she adjusts to being a grown up version of the kid from The Sixth Sense and discovers that love can often be right under your nose.

Dog Days


Mavis Cheek - 1990
    (Nancy Pearl)After eleven years of marriage to an egocentric opera singer, Pat Murray packs up her daughter and leaves, regaining control of her life and approaching single parenthood bravely until she meets Roland and his pregnant wife.

If the Shoe Fits


Laurie LeClair - 2013
    All she wants is her late father's dream to come true by making his beloved King's Department Store thrive again. However, her stepmother has other ideas. Charlie agrees to help her stepmother find grooms for her sheltered stepsisters. In exchange, the stepmother will release her stronghold on the store's budget. After all, one good deed deserves another, right? But, Charlie has no idea what her heart's in for when... Alexander (Alex) Royale, dubbed by society newspapers as Prince Charming, arrives for dinner to meet the all-female King family. His ailing grandparents yearn for his marriage and then the baby carriage. Well, that and running the family company. Having unsuccessfully searched for months, Alex doesn't hold out any hope in finding his future bride among the King sisters. However, all his expectations, including his idea of a business-like marriage of convenience, vanish the moment Charlie crashes into him. When Alex sets out out to win over Charlotte, he has no idea he has to bargain with the stepmother, secretly buy the store, court Charlotte after the wedding, and, oh yeah, be featured in Charlie's new fairy tale ad campaign, The Charmings, based on them. Can a guy ever get a break? The couple never factored in falling in love with each other. Now, faced with losing all their families ever wanted, Charlie and Alex must choose: Do they live their families' dreams or do they finally live their own?

The Bialy Pimps


Johnny B. Truant - 2012
    The loathed customers are dealt the poor treatment they seem to deserve, bad rap music is played loudly, and The Rat is killed often enough to stem his immortality. And the insane homeless regulars -- like drunken Little Johnny Redbeard -- keep life interesting.But when a rival tricks the crew into thinking that the deli's closure is imminent, they do the only logical thing: instead of giving up, they decide to go out in a blaze of glory, handing their customers the humiliation and abuse that the pesky social contract had previously forbidden. But as insults turn to assaults and snide remarks turn to harassment and pro wrestling moves, a strange thing happens. Business goes up -- way up -- as people come back in droves, begging for more.But the flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and as pop-culture welcomes the parody musical group "The Bialy Pimps" and its frivolous merchandising machine -- and as the crew pushes to see how much bad behavior society will accept -- the violent road to fame begins to feel like a runaway train, out of control and headed for destruction…The Bialy Pimps is a tale that could only be spun by the twisted, vaguely profane mind of outspoken blogger Johnny B. Truant. Combining hilarity with questions about conformity and whether the tail or the dog is the one doing the wagging, this story can't help but raise a question for the reader: If the rest of your friends decided to submit to the Face-Kicking Machine, would you do it too?

Delivery


Diana Prusik - 2011
    There, the strong and wacky Wilson’s Florist gang monitors the pulse of Mount Helicon, where customers carry stories even the local newspaper does not contain. Tales of birth and death, sickness and sorrow, love and betrayal, and even forgiveness—Livi hears them all. Privy to some of the community’s deepest secrets, she sometimes wishes she didn't know so much, especially when news arrives that a dear family friend is dead. Faced with servicing his funeral, she is blasted with painful memories she’s struggled for decades to ignore. Soon, guilt and grief over childhood and adult tragedies close in. Instead of turning to loved ones or God for comfort, she leans on alcohol, her long-time clandestine companion—but secrets rarely escape the close-knit flower shop crew, who makes Livi’s business its own. Fumbling through life’s challenges together, the Wilson gang often delivers more than flowers, yet when Livi needs delivery, can the bonds of faith and friendship dissolve her defenses?

Finding Emma


Steena Holmes - 2012
    She's the little girl standing in the supermarket, the child waiting for the swings at the playground, the girl with ice cream dripping down her face. But it's never Emma.Emma's been missing for two years.Unable to handle the constant heartache of all the false sightings, Megan's husband threatens to walk away unless Megan can agree to accept Emma is gone. Megan's life and marriage is crumbling all around her and she realizes she may have to do the thing she dreads most: move on.When Megan takes a photo of a little girl with an elderly couple at the town fair, she believes it to be her missing daughter. Unable to let go, she sets in motion a sequence of events that could destroy both families lives.Proceeds from each book sold will be donated to Missing Children's Society of Canada - www.mscs.ca - an organization dedicated to reuniting families.

All But One


Julie Oleszek - 2017
    As her high school friends and boyfriend Murph head off to college, Anna still struggles to overcome the wounds of her past while navigating the challenges of the future. Anna wants to confide in Bridgett and Frances, the youngest and oldest of her siblings, but her family’s reticent past, despite their efforts to change, stops her. Meanwhile, as Anna’s friends of the fifth floor are released, they go on with their interrupted lives, and each is tested differently on the lessons they learned together. Nine years later, everyone receives a mailed letter from Jonny Love, a friend who Anna hasn’t seen or heard from since her days on the fifth floor. In the third book of The Fifth Floor trilogy, author Julie Oleszek reunites the patients of the locked psychiatric ward at Advocate Hospital.

A Dignified Exit


John J. Asher - 2011
    Monroe Colson, a successful children’s book illustrator living in small-town Texas, baffles family and friends when he unceremoniously announces he’s moving to Mexico, ostensibly to paint.In Mexico, the true nature of his mysterious behavior not only comes to light, but takes an unexpected turn when he runs into a vibrant young American woman who has been abandoned, penniless, by her fiancé.This emotionally powerful and often humorous story with its controversial subject matter is a poignant testament to the resilience of the human heart.

Drawing Free


Elena Aitken - 2011
    Between dealing with her youngest’s never ending tantrums, her teenager’s attitude and her ailing father’s rapidly failing memory, Becca doesn’t have time to worry about who she used to be--let alone remember.She loves her family, but deep down Becca knows she wants more than the daily chaos and the quick fixes her self-help books have to offer. It's just another day when finally the pressure proves to be too much and Becca makes a split second decision that will change everything.Leaving her crumbling life in the rear-view mirror and fleeing to a remote mountain town may feel like the perfect way to reconnect with herself, but will her choices come at the expense of everything she left behind? Or can Becca find herself before it's too late?

The Skin of Water


G.S. Johnston - 2012
    But one evening he follows Catherine Steiner, a guest at the exclusive lakeside resort where he works as a bellboy, into the forest. Unknowingly he dives into her life, changing his forever.Her husband is a wealthy industrialist with the power to create – or crush – Zeno. Despite Catherine’s protests, Zeno moves to Budapest and takes a servant’s job in the Steiner house, shining her husband’s shoes while hearing the family’s secrets.All Zeno and Catherine have are precious hours in a secret apartment, tucked above the uneasy streets of a city at war, their affair a flimsy wall against a future no one can see or predict. Until it arrives.