Book picks similar to
Racine: The Sisterhood Stories by Alison Clarke


angels
arc-read
author-requested-review
coming-of-age

When Love Comes in Disguise


Carol Colyer - 2021
    When Alice attracts the attention of a kind man who wants to marry her, Ellen follows her to Fort Worth without a second thought… not even about where she will stay in this new town. Fearless and determined, she quickly comes up with an outrageous plan; she disguises herself as a man and gets a job at Alice’s husband’s ranch. Yet she never counted on meeting a handsome man there who complicates her thoughts and feelings. Should she risk telling him who she really is? Or should she keep her secret and never even have the chance to be with him?Ben is happy helping at his best friend’s ranch, learning a lot and guiding the new ranch hands. When his best friend finds a wife from a newspaper ad, Ben thinks he’s quite careless to marry someone he has never met. His thoughts are completely forgotten though the minute he meets a mysterious woman in town and becomes determined to learn more about her. Much to his frustration, she disappears and reappears at the ranch out of nowhere, visiting a friend and always seeming to keep her distance from him. Where did she come from and why doesn’t she allow him to spend more time with her? Can Ben solve this riddle and earn her trust?Both Ellen and Ben feel a strong pull to each other from the very first moment their eyes meet. Ellen’s heart flutters during their fleeting moments together but sinks as soon as she has to disguise herself again. When everything inevitably comes to light, will it shatter their growing connection forever? Or could their feelings be enough to keep them together?

A Lucky Sixpence


Anne Baker - 2018
     Praise for Anne Baker's Merseyside sagas: 'A stirring tale of romance and passion, poverty and ambition' Liverpool EchoIt's 1937 and for sisters Lizzie and Milly Travis there's nothing quite like the thrill of the funfair at New Brighton. Amid the bright lights and whirling rides, Lizzie wins a lucky sixpence on a stall - as well as the heart of a handsome stallholder.Ben McCluskey isn't the type of man Lizzie's respectable parents had in mind for her, nevertheless the young couple embark on a whirlwind romance. Lizzie's mother worries that history will repeat itself when Ben introduces her daughter to a world she never knew existed. And, as war looms, Milly realises that her sister's luck can't last for ever...

Reena's Miracle


Terri Reid - 2018
     Nancy Schmidt was not interested in anything to do with Christmas. After the death of her husband three years ago, she found no reason to celebrate any longer. The last thing she needed in her life was a perky, overly-friendly, cookie-bearing new neighbor who wouldn't take no for an answer. Or, maybe that was exactly what she needed in her life.

When A Thug Has Feelings


Senoj - 2017
    When her parents found out, they decided to uproot them to another city. After losing contact with Dreon, she experienced her first heartbreak and decided to shift her focus back on her education. Now twenty-three, Niya is in her final year of law school, but over the years she continued to experience the short end of any relationship she was in, including the relationship with her parents. She finally accepts that her heart has never fully healed, but that all changes once she sees Dreon again. She doesn’t know how he will feel about the secret she’s been keeping from him. Dreon Carter was known for the havoc he wreaked growing up. But after being abandoned by his mother on his grandmother’s steps, he was angry and released that anger on other kids. Sometimes, even letting Niya tag along. Barely graduating high school, due to poor attendance, he went into the streets full time and was now known by the street name Menace. He ended up serving some time in prison, but now at twenty-five, he is the king of the dope game in Cleveland, running the streets with his right-hand man, Renzo. He has a two-year-old daughter by a crazy baby mama who’s set on being a pain in his ass and causing friction between him and Niya. Along with running the streets, he’s trying to run his home, but with the streets and his home life trying to cross, he runs into problems. The bond of Menace and Niya is undeniably unbreakable, but is Niya strong enough to be the woman of a thug, going against everything she’s about, and dealing with the drama that comes along? Can Menace avoid the pressures of the street life and be the man Niya wants him to be, while also not giving up his streets, or will it all be too much?

Echo


Francesca Lia Block - 2001
    This outstanding story is no different. Following the life of Echo, an L.A. baby born to an artistic dad and a mom who's an angel, this enthralling story offers more than fairy dust and the supernatural. It tells the tale of a girl who feels doomed to be less than angelic, at least in comparison with her mother. Mom's startling beauty and aura enchant all who meet her, and Echo can never keep up. Desperate to be loved as much, and maybe find her own identity, she escapes to the boys in her life. Ultimately, she must rely on herself for the strength to survive.Simple text ands story lines do not appeal to Block, who weaves a tale with amazing grace and the flowing energy of a true genius. Images of vampires, ghosts, and fairies fill these pages, daring the reader to believe. Told from the point of view of Echo and the key players in her life, the story imparts a dreamlike quality to Echo's life. This a novel layered with pain beauty, and triumph, all which will appeal to young readers.

Don't Fear the Reaper


Michelle Muto - 2011
    When Keely succeeds in taking her own life, she discovers death isn’t at all what she expected.Instead, she’s trapped in a netherworld on Earth and her only hope for reconnecting with her sister and navigating the afterlife is a bounty-hunting reaper and a sardonic, possibly unscrupulous, demon. But when the demon offers Keely her greatest temptation—revenge on her sister’s murderer—she must uncover his motives and determine who she can trust.ecause, as Keely soon learns, both reaper and demon are keeping secrets and she fears the worst is true—that her every decision will change how, and with whom, she spends eternity.398 KB

Being Human


Patricia Lynne - 2011
    With no memory of his life before death, his only connection to humanity is his twin brother. When Tommy rescues a young girl, he learns not all monsters are undead. After returning her to her family, Tommy struggles to understand why he felt so protective of her when she has no connection to him.As the years pass, and with his twin’s help, Tommy moves on with his ‘life’ but never forgets the young girl or the monster who hurt her. When she re-enters his life as a teenager, Tommy struggles with his vampire need to survive and his desire to protect her. He will be forced to decide which part of him is stronger: The vampire? Or the human? The answer may destroy him.

Ordinary Girls


Blair Thornburgh - 2019
    But when the family’s finances hit a snag, sending chaos through the house the two drift apart like they never have before. Plum, a self-described social outcast, strikes up a secret friendship with the class jock, while Ginny’s usual high-strung nature escalates to pure hysterics.Why does everything feel different this year? Maybe because Ginny is going to leave for college soon. Maybe because Plum finally has something that she doesn’t have to share with her self-involved older sister. Or maybe because the girls are forced to examine who they really are instead of who their late father said they were. And who each girl discovers—beneath the years of missing their dad—could either bring them closer together…or drive them further apart.

Listen to My Heartbeat


Prajnaa
    He did not speak. He just kept looking into my eyes without as much as a blink."And then...?" he said, in his arrogant voice. "You want to be my girlfriend next?"Merge yourself in the world of... Aryan, Trisha, Rohan, Danny and Aysha.An inescapable story of love and tears that gets your heartbeat racing.

A Deep Thing


A.K. Smith - 2016
    But Ryder, her nineteen-year-old stepson, is bitter and wants nothing to do with her. And she can’t keep the grief at bay. Sometimes, it’s so strong, she wonders if life is worth living. A call from a cave diver in Mexico gives her hope of mending the relationship with her stepson. Before his death, her husband arranged a diving expedition as a birthday gift for his son. Kendall persuades Ryder to honor his father’s last wish. From the campus of Western Maryland College to the woods of Camp David and the caves of the Yucatán, Kendall and Ryder take a journey to discover what her husband worked so hard to hide, and to protect his treasured secrets from falling into the wrong hands. The choices they make will decide their fate and the future of others. Will they risk everything for the truth?

Chase the Dark


Annette Marie - 2014
    There are three obstacles in her way.The first is Lyre. Incubus. Hotter than hell and with a wicked streak to match. His greatest mission in life is to annoy the crap out of her, but he isn't as harmless as he seems. The second is Ash. Draconian. Powerful. Dangerous. He knows too much and reveals nothing. Also, disturbingly attractive — and scary. Did she mention scary?The third is the Sahar Stone. Top secret magical weapon of mass destruction. Previously hidden in her Consulate until thieves broke in, went on a murder spree, and disappeared with the weapon.And they left Piper to take the fall for their crimes.Now she’s on the run, her dreams of becoming a Consul shattered and every daemon in the city gunning to kill her. She’s dead on her own, but there’s no one she can trust — no one except two entirely untrustworthy daemons ... See problems one and two.--Steel & Stone Universe Books:STEEL & STONEChase the Dark (#1)Bind the Soul (#2)Yield the Night (#3)Feed the Flames (#3.5)Reap the Shadows (#4)Unleash the Storm (#5)Steel & Stone (#6)SPELL WEAVERThe Night Realm (#1)The Shadow Weave (#2)The Blood Curse (#3)

The Unearthly


Laura Thalassa - 2013
    The second time, I lost my humanity. Now I’m being hunted, and if I die again, my soul is up for forfeit.After enrolling in Peel Academy, an elite supernatural boarding school on the British Isles, the last of the sirens, Gabrielle Fiori, only wants to fit in. Instead, the elixir meant to awaken her supernatural abilities kills her.When Gabrielle wakes up in the morgue twelve hours later, something wicked is awakened in her, something even the supernatural community has never seen before. Now the only person who can help her is Andre de Leon, the community's infamous bad boy and the king of vampires.Yet even his help can’t prevent the repeated attempts on Gabrielle’s life. Someone is after her, and they will stop at nothing to end her short existence. Only Gabrielle cannot let that happen now that her soul hangs in the balance, because she may have met the devil. And he wants her. Bad.

Hunter


Nicole Conway - 2020
    With his home destroyed and family gone, 16-year-old Thatcher Renley has no one left to turn to. And when he’s mistaken for a Tibran soldier and banished to a wartime prison camp, Thatcher knows his only hope for freedom lies in appealing to Queen Jenna directly.But getting out of the prison camp might be the least of his worries— especially after he stumbles across a feral dragon locked in an iron cell.As far as dragons go, Fornax is a lost cause. The battle that killed his rider also left him blind and too aggressive for any knight to control. But Thatcher can’t deny feeling drawn to the beast. Does he have what it takes to calm Fornax and join the proud ranks of Maldobar’s dragonriders? Only time will tell. And with a bloodthirsty Tibran witch threatening to rekindle the chaos of war, everyone’s time may be running out.

Skin


Donna Jo Napoli - 2013
    Sixteen-year-old Sep stares into the bathroom mirror on the first day of school. It's not some weird lipstick (she never wears lipstick), she didn't bump her lips or chew on ice. Her lips are just white. In a panic, she digs up an old lipstick and smears it on her colorless lips. But soon, more and more white spots begin to bloom, spreading their chalky tendrils across her olive brown skin. Does she have a disease? Is she turning into some kind of freak? Sep is usually the one who knows all the answers. With a quicksilver mind and a supple body, she's happiest when she's delving into the mysteries of animal biology or giving herself over to sweet, hot moves in Jazz Dance Club. Unlike her best friend, Devon, she's never been in a rush to get a boyfriend. But as the white blotches spread, her dating days, like the endangered species she studies, seem numbered. So when Josh, a boy she's always liked, makes a flirty advance, she wonders: why not grab pleasure while she can? Frank, funny, and full of passion, this compelling novel tells the empowering story of a strong, gifted teen who, as her life spins out of control, desperately tries to prove to the world, and herself, that she is deeper than skin.

Songlines


Carolyn Denman - 2016
    We were sent here in human form for a reason. If you don’t know what to do, then just be human.'Right. Like that was ever a simple thing to do.In the heart of the Wimmera region of Victoria, an ancient gateway to Eden is kept hidden and safe by a creature so powerful that even the moon would obey her commands – at least it would if she had any idea that she wasn’t just a normal girl about to finish high school.When a mining company begins exploratory sampling near Lainie’s sheep farm, a family secret is revealed that makes her regret not having learnt more about her Indigenous heritage.What she’s told by their farmhand, Harry – an Aboriginal elder – can’t possibly be true, but then the most irritating guy in class, Bane, begins to act even more insanely toward her than ever, until she can no longer deny that something very unusual is going on.When Harry doesn’t return from his quest to seek help to protect the area from the miners, Lainie sets out to discover the truth of her heritage, and of the secret she’s been born to protect.