Book picks similar to
The Older Brother by Pansy


19th-century-literature
american
gilded-age
jc

The Leavenworth Case


Anna Katharine Green - 1878
    Green is credited with many firsts. With the character Ebenezer Gryce of the New York Metropolitan Police Force, Green developed the series detective. Amelia Butterworth, a nosy society spinster who assists Gryce in three novels, is the prototype for Miss Marple, Miss Silver and other similar mystery solving female characters. And with Violet Strange, a debutante with a secret life as a sleuth, she invented the ‘girl detective.’ The Leavenworth Case predates the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes by nine years, yet it feels much more modern. Although it bears the romantic sentimentalism of its time, the story possesses a never seen before mastery of detection.

Go Down the Mountain


Meredith Battle - 2019
    At once dramatic adventure, moving love story and recollection of a vanished life, the story follows mountain girl Bee on her harrowing journey to discover the truth about her family, living and dead. Bee is a nervy, teenage beauty whose beloved father's sudden death in a snake charming accident has left her alone with her abusive mother. Her one salvation is Miles, the big-city photographer who promises escape and a life full of the adventure she craves. But when Bee is caught in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with a government man who takes her family's land and won't stop until he claims her too, it may be Torch, the boy she grew up with on the mountain, who becomes the man she needs.

The Christmas Girlfriend


Taylor Hart - 2018
    She needs money for a dream. Maybe they'll both get a Christmas miracle!The handsome and kind, Mike Hamilton, doesn't want to go back to his hometown, Snow Valley, to attend his sister's wedding and spend Christmas, especially since he didn't tell anyone he got dumped two weeks ago. So when he discovers a girl standing on a roof praying, running to the top to join her doesn't feel thatdesperate. Too bad they both fall and she accuses him of trying to kill her. Aspiring singer and songwriter, Zoey Harper, doesn't know who this guy is -- but she doesn't need his help. When he offers to pay her to be his FAKE girlfriend to get him out of a little situation, she immediately says no. But when she finds herself without a job, without a car, and with no money to go try out for The Voice and fulfill a life-long dream, she agrees! But ONLY kissing. And only pecks on the cheek! She doesn't know how she finds herself making out with him to keep his ex girlfriend at bay, then cannon balling into the hot springs on his property and spilling all of her secrets. And who would have guessed that her favorite person would be his grumpy grandpa? Her lonely heart doesn't know when things started to change between she and Mike--when he ran up on the roof to save her or when she finds herself singing a song for him in front of his whole family. When their lies fall apart, they are left with a choice--forget the past five days or get the Christmas miracle that could change their lives forever.

The Relationship Rescue Workbook: A Seven Step Strategy For Reconnecting with Your Partner


Phillip C. McGraw - 2000
    Now, in The Relationship Rescue Workbook, Dr. Phil, Oprah's resident expert on human functioning, provides questions, exercises and self-tests that will enable couples in even the most troubled relationships to get their love lives back on track. And for those in solid relationships who would like to regain their spark, he reveals how to make that happen. He shows readers exactly how to pinpoint problems in their relationships, and how to make sure that the changes they enact will truly last. His straightforward, tell-it-like-it-is advice is made crystal clear in this easy-to-use workbook that is sure to prove immensely popular with his devoted national following.

Murder on Astor Place


Victoria Thompson - 1999
    At the request of Sergeant Frank Malloy, she searches the girl's room, and discovers that the victim is from one of the most prominent families in New York and the sister of an old friend. The powerful family, fearful of scandal, refuses to permit an investigation. But with Malloy's help, Sarah begins a dangerous quest to bring the killer to justice, before death claims another victim.

The Phantom of Fifth Avenue: The Mysterious Life and Scandalous Death of Heiress Huguette Clark


Meryl Gordon - 2014
    Her father, William Andrews Clark, was a copper magnate, the second richest man in America, and not above bribing his way into the Senate. Huguette attended the coronation of King George V. And at twenty-two, with a personal fortune of $50 million to her name, she married a Princeton man and childhood friend, William MacDonald Gower. Two years later the couple divorced. After a series of failed romances, Huguette began to withdraw from society--first living with her mother in a kind of Grey Gardens isolation then as a modern-day Miss Havisham, spending her days in a vast apartment overlooking Central Park, eating crackers and watching The Flintstones with only servants for company. All her money and all her real estate could not protect her in her later life from being manipulated by shady hangers-on and hospitals that were only too happy to admit (and bill) a healthy woman. But what happened to Huguette that turned a vivacious young socialite into a recluse? And what was her life like inside that gilded, copper cage?

Do Not Find Me


Kathleen Novak - 2016
    Before he can approach her, she is gone. He returns to the bar for weeks, hoping to see her again. He dreams of her at night and searches the crowds for her face. Quiet and careful, he is not the type to become obsessed by a stranger. But obsessed he is.Two years later he meets her at a party. Her name is Corrine. She seems to like his cooking and the blues albums he collects, but she never stays with him for long. As he discovers the secrets and violence of her life, Gigi finds himself unable to rescue her, and barely able to save himself. He flees New York, but his obsession with Corrine follows him, even when he returns to his home in northern Minnesota, where he marries, has a daughter, and fishes the deep, quiet lakes he knows so well.After he dies, his daughter uncovers her father’s desire for this unknown woman, leaving her to question the inherent perils of his life as well as her own.Dark and poetic, Do Not Find Me moves between the voices of Gigi Paulo and his daughter with a compelling grace, its haunting undercurrents remaining long after the story has ended.

Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age


Amanda Mackenzie Stuart - 2005
    Her father soon started to spend the family fortune, enthusiastically supported by Consuelo's mother, Alva, who was determined to take the family to the top of New York society—forcing a heartbroken Consuelo into a marriage she did not want with the underfunded Duke of Marlborough. But the story of Consuelo and Alva is more than a tale of enterprising social ambition, Gilded Age glamour, and the emptiness of wealth. It is a fascinating account of two extraordinary women who struggled to break free from the world into which they were born—a world of materialistic concerns and shallow elitism in which females were voiceless and powerless—and of their lifelong dedication to noble and dangerous causes and the battle for women's rights.

The Royal Mob


Theresa Sherman - 2008
    Each makes a brilliant marriage that will bring her both happiness and heartbreak. The eldest, Princess Victoria, marries the handsome Prince Louis of Battenberg, the former lover of Lillie Langtry. The next, the exquisite Elisabeth, is swept off to the unbelievable splendor of the Romanov court by Grand Duke Serge, while Irène dazzles Prince Henry of Prussia and takes her place at the court in Berlin. Alix, the youngest, marries the man she has loved since childhood, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, and becomes the fabled Empress Alexandra.From such exotic locals as Russia, Bulgaria and Ottoman Jerusalem, to the drawing rooms of Sandringham, The Royal Mob is told as an intimate memoir of the eldest sister, Princess Victoria of Hesse, who was the favorite granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Starting in the court of the Queen Empress and ending at the marriage of Victoria’s grandson, Prince Philip, to the future Queen Elizabeth of England, The Royal Mob is the lavish and exciting story of the last royal courts of Europe.

Those Wild Wyndhams: Three Sisters at the Heart of Power


Claudia Renton - 2014
    Their dramatic lives are here unfolded in a rich historical biography certain to appeal to fans of Downton Abbey, ‘Georgiana’ and Stella Tillyard’s ‘Aristocrats’.Mary, Madeline and Pamela – the three Wyndham sisters – were painted by John Singer Sargent in 1899. For The Times it was, quite simply, ‘the greatest picture of modern times’. But these beautiful, fin de siecle gentlewomen came to epitomize a vanished world. The languor of their pose reflects the leisured, gilded, existence of the late Victorian aristocracy that was to be dealt a deathblow by the First World War.Yet the lives of these three Wyndham sisters were far more turbulent than their air of calm suggests. Brought up in artistic circles, their childhood was liberal and romantic. Their parents were intimate friends with the Pre-Raphaelites and the girls grew to become leaders of the aesthetic movement. Bowing to convention, they made excellent marriages but found emotional support from others – Mary with Arthur Balfour and the poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt; Pamela with Liberal statesman and ornithologist Edward Grey. Their liaisons shocked society, while the First World War devastated their way of life.‘Those Wild Wyndhams’ is their first ever biography, and is based on the many letters they have left behind – compelling, humorous and brilliantly illuminating. This sparkling debut by Claudia Renton captures them and their age in an unforgettable piece of historical and political biography.

The Texicans


Jinx Schwartz - 2005
    Decades before Crockett, Bowie or Houston even set foot in Texas, Frederick Stockman was already there. Author Elizabeth Schwartz, a ninth-generation Texan, has delved deep into her ancestral roots to create this moving story of the Frederick Stockman familys' courageous determination to make Texas their home during the turbulent period between 1806 and 1836. The Texicans was inspired by a Texas history book calling her ancestral clan a "congenial society for evil"--rogues "skilled in many forms of villainy" for their role in the tumultuous years of first Spanish, the Mexican rule. Frederick Stockman and his family immigrate to Spanish Texas in 1806 to ranch, but soon find themselves inexorably drawn into the bitter conflict between Mexico and Spain. They join forces with a dashing young Spanish deserter, Miguel Gonzales, in his successful campaign to liberate Mexico and Texas from Spanish rule. Their ties are further cemented when Gonzales marries into the family. As Heroes of Mexico, the Texicans--staunch supporters of Mexican rule for Texas--find themselves vilified by North American settlers illegally flocking across the unprotected border. These newcomers, calling themselves Texians, view Mexico, Mexicans and Texicans as the enemy. Targets of bigotry, the Texicans themselves are torn along cultural lines as their hero-turned-despot, General Santa Anna, propels them towards a deadly showdown.

The Romney Family Table: Sharing Home-Cooked Recipes and Favorite Traditions


Ann Romney - 2013
    Featuring more than 80 family recipes and mouthwatering photographs and menu ideas.

Rogues and Ripped Bodices (A Historical Romance Boxset)


Samantha Holt - 2015
    Being a sinner never looked so good.Once Upon a Rake - Full Length NovelDo rakes deserve happily ever afters too?Christmas Seduction - A Christmas NovellaA time for family, forgiveness...and seduction?

What the Dead Leave Behind


Rosemary Simpson - 2017
    . . As the Great Blizzard of 1888 cripples the vast machinery that is New York City, heiress Prudence MacKenzie sits anxiously within her palatial Fifth Avenue home waiting for her fiance s safe return. But the fearsome storm rages through the night. With daylight, more than two hundred people are found to have perished in the icy winds and treacherous snowdrifts. Among them is Prudence s fiance his body frozen, his head crushed by a heavy branch, his fingers clutching a single playing card, the ace of spades . . . Close on the heels of her father s untimely demise, Prudence is convinced Charles s death was no accident. The ace of spades was a code he shared with his school friend, Geoffrey Hunter, a former Pinkerton agent and attorney from the South and a former Pinkerton agent. Wary of sinister forces closing in on her, Prudence turns to Geoffrey as her only hope in solving a murder not all believe in and to help protect her inheritance from a stepmother who seems more interested in the family fortune than Prudence s wellbeing . . . Filled with richly colorful characters, fascinating historical details, and thrilling moments of suspense, What the Dead Leave Behind is an exquisitely crafted mystery for the ages.

Better Together: Because You're Not Meant to Mom Alone


Jill Savage - 2016
    Presenting a compelling vision of motherhood as a group effort, Better Together shows how you can:Combat isolation and enjoy a supportive mothering communityIncrease your social confidence and stop the comparison gameDeepen your friendships as you share life with othersStrengthen trust and build friendships without fearIncrease your joy and thrive as a momAll these things are possible. Dive into this storehouse of creative ideas for how to make mothering easier, richer, and more fun than you ever thought it could be.