Book picks similar to
Folly by Alan Titchmarsh


fiction
romance
alan-titchmarsh
chick-lit

Moving


Jenny Eclair - 2015
    It used to be a busy, crowded family home but now Edwina lives alone and it has grown too big for her. She has decided to sell it.The young estate agent who comes to value the house sees potential. Knock down a few walls, add a wet room. 'People like a project.' But as Edwina takes him from room to room, she is transported back to her old life as a young mother. Back to her first husband Ollie and their twins, James and Rowena. Back to lies and dark secrets and to a stepson whose name Edwina cannot even bear to speak aloud. As Edwina's story unravels she is revealed as a complex and intriguing person. Not just the 'frail old lady' trapped in her dated house, but a woman who has lived an extraordinary life, full of love and tragedy. Why is she now so alone? What happened to Edwina's family all those years ago?Moving - Jenny Eclair's fourth novel - reveals a writer at the height of her powers. Gripping, heart-breaking and laced with black humour, it is a novel of family secrets, shocking betrayals and most of all, of home.

Wild Irish Rose


Ava Miles - 2019
    In fact, Becca O’Neill loathes him so much that she won’t even serve him the award-winning scones her famed Wild Irish Rose Bed and Breakfast is known for. Even worse than that (and not getting scones is bad in Trevor’s book): Becca has an ornery cat, a mischievous Irish setter, and a famous ghost all intent on making sure he fails. Then there’s the woman herself. If she weren’t so indignant about his business offer, they might have a good romance budding. Worst of all: his Uncle Arthur and Aunt Clara Hale show up from Dare Valley hoping to help him get hitched—not exactly the help he was looking for. How in the world is he going to make this deal with his heart—and his dignity—staying intact?

LoveSick


Jake Coburn - 2005
    it cost him his basketball scholarship, ended his plans for college, and forced him into AA. But just when Ted has resigned himself to his new life, Michael appears. The wealthy father of a bulimic Manhattan rich girl has a tempting proposition. He has agreed to pay for Ted's college tuition, but there's one catch. Ted has to secretly keep tabs on his benefactor's daughter, Erica. A seemingly simple task, with only one minor problem: Ted never expected to fall in love.

The Stuff That Never Happened


Maddie Dawson - 2010
    She’s been in a stable marriage that’s lasted almost three decades and has provided her with two wonderful children, thousands of family dinners around a sturdy oak table, and a husband so devoted that he schedules lovemaking into his calendar every Wednesday morning. Other wives envy the fact that Grant is not the type of man who would ever cheat on her or leave her for a younger woman. The trouble is Annabelle isn’t sure she wants to be married to Grant anymore. The trouble is she’s still in love with someone else. In the early tumultuous years of her marriage, Annabelle carried on a clandestine affair with the one person whose betrayal would hurt her husband the most. When it ended, she and Grant found their way back together and made a pact that they would never speak of that time again. But now years later, with her children grown and gone, and an ominous distance opening between them, she can’t help but remember those glorious, passionate days and wonder if she chose the right man. Then, when called to New York City to help care for her pregnant daughter, Annabelle bumps into her old lover. Offered a second chance at an unforgettable love, she must decide between the man who possesses her heart and the husband who has stood squarely by her side. A journey into the what-ifs that haunt us all, The Stuff That Never Happened is an intricate, heartfelt examination of modern marriage that brims with truths about the nature of romantic love.

Meant for Her


Amy Gamet - 2012
    Ordered to the scene of a fiery homicide, Navy officer Hank Jared wants nothing more than to wrap it up and get to his sister's wedding. His sense of duty won't let him walk away from a case, even if he can't figure out why his boss insisted he handle this one personally.When the key to a safe deposit box is found among the ashes, Hank finds himself staring at two pieces of paper--on one is a coded message, on the other, a name that will change the course of his entire life.Julie Trueblood wouldn't trust a Navy man if he handed her a life jacket on board a sinking ship. Her father was a cryptologist for the Navy, who went into hiding a decade earlier to avoid charges of treason. In his absence, Julie was harassed and interrogated by Naval officers who believed she was a traitor, just like her father.Hank tracks Julie down and confronts her with the cipher. She can't stand what he represents and sends him away, insisting she knows nothing about the message. But when she realizes someone is after her, Hank is the only person she can ask for help. He finds the perfect place to hide Julie, right by his side, pretending to be his girlfriend at his sister's wedding. Now he just needs to remember their relationship is all an act.The coded message brings Hank and Julie together, but its secrets hold the power to tear them apart. Guided by her generous and quirky Aunt Gwen, Julie will gather the courage to unravel the cipher that was meant for her to decode, as she learns to trust the man she was meant to love.

Vince and Joy


Lisa Jewell - 2005
    Now nearly twenty years later they've both begun to ask themselves if that long-ago romance was the enduring love that they've been searching for.

Theodora's Diary


Penny Culliford - 2001
    Emergency! It is 11:30 p.m. and I am suffering from an incredibly intense chocolate craving that will not leave me in spite of prayer, distraction activities and half a loaf of bread and butter. Got out of bed and searched the flat. No luck. Not even a bourbon biscuit. Not even a cream egg left from Easter. All the shops are closed so no nipping out to replenish supplies. Nothing else for it. I’m reduced to the chocoholic’s equivalent of meths—cooking chocolate. It’s been one of those days for Theodora. Her mother has become the Greek equivalent of Delia Smith, her boyfriend would rather watch 22 men kick a ball around a field than go shopping with her, and chintzy Charity Hubble wants to pray for her. And of course, the crowning insult is her utter lack of chocolate. Join in her daily life with all of its challenges and joys, tears and laughter. “Theodora’s Diary is a hilarious and realistic peek into the life of a sprightly Christian sister living ‘across the pond.’ I found myself laughing out loud and thinking, ‘Yes, life is just like this!’ Penny Culliford is a welcome new voice in inspirational fiction.” --Angela Hunt, author of The Debt.

The Sisterhood


Helen Bryan - 2012
    Rescued after a hurricane in South America, doomed to a life of poverty with a swallow medal as her only legacy, the orphaned toddler was adopted by an American family and taken to a new life. As a beautiful, intelligent woman of nineteen, she is in love, engaged, and excited about the future — until another traumatic event shatters her dreams. Menina flees to Spain to bury her misery in research for her college thesis about a sixteenth-century artist who signed his works with the image of a swallow — the same image as the one on Menina’s medal. But a mugging strands Menina in a musty, isolated Spanish convent. Exploring her surroundings, she discovers the epic sagas of five orphan girls who were hidden from the Spanish Inquisition and received help escaping to the New World. Is Menina’s medal a link to them, or to her own past? Did coincidence lead her to the convent, or fate? Both love story and historical thriller, The Sisterhood is an emotionally charged ride across continents and centuries.

True Colors


Doris Mortman - 1994
    . . ."[TRUE COLORS] HAS IT ALL."--CosmopolitanIsabelle de Luna is an ethereal figure as alluring and haunting as her paintings. Her talent will make her legendary. But neither fame nor love can protect her from a killer waiting for her to remember the long-ago night she watched him murder her mother . . . ."FASCINATING."--San Jose Mercury NewsNina Duran is Isabelle's adopted sister and friend . . . until a shattering secret ignites a fury of hatred against her family. Now one of the nation's most ruthless journalists, she's crafting a sizzling story that will destroy her sister and shoot her own fame into the stratosphere . . . ."A SWEEPING SAGA."--The Dayton Daily NewsA spellbinding novel that sweeps us from the sultry heat of Barcelona to the vibrant sunsets of Santa Fe to the posh galleries of Manhattan, TRUE COLORS is a rich tapestry of character and story, a vivid portrait of two women whose search for passion, revenge, and truth binds them forever."Solid writing. . . Who can resist wealth, lechery, scandals, hate crimes, passionate sex scenes and family secrets all rolled into one 500-page novel?"--The Denver Post"TRUE COLORS takes the reader from Santa Fe to Barcelona and deep into the world of art. . . . The featured cities are brought to life through detailed description and the art world--both its creative and mercantile sides--are delved into in fascinating detail."--The Dayton Daily NewsFrom the Paperback edition.

All Roads Lead Home


Diane Greenwood Muir - 2013
    With her inheritance, she purchased an old school building in Bellingwood and is in the middle of renovating it when the bones of two bodies are pulled out of a ceiling. The whole town knows who those bones belong to, but when she also finds crates and crates of items from the sixties through the early nineties in the old root cellar, they wonder if the two things are connected.A welcoming committee shows up at Polly's front door and these women soon become her fast friends. Fortunately, the leader of the group is married to the Sheriff and he is there to make sure mysteries are solved and everyone stays safe, but when Polly's old boyfriend from Boston shows up, that becomes a little more difficult. The women might be a little older than Polly, but she finds out they might be even more wild than the friends she had when living back east. Lydia Merritt, the Sheriff's wife, is a woman filled with love and passion. Beryl Watson is an artist and more than a little flamboyant. Andy Saner wants to organize and label the world, but loves with a great big heart and Sylvie Donovan, with her two young sons is trying to make it as a single mother. The men in Polly's world are just as interesting. Henry Sturtz is the carpenter and contractor in charge of construction and might have a little crush on his boss, while Doug Randall and Billy Endicott are her Jedi Knights in Shining Armor. Polly's immediate family might be gone, but her new family offers a great deal of love, fun and entertainment.Read along as the extraordinary, yet quite ordinary, people in Bellingwood tell their stories.

Ready to Fall


Daisy Prescott - 2013
    With rugged good looks, his ever present plaid shirt, and a dog named Babe, John is a modern alpha male lumberjack.After his favorite neighbor rents out her beach cabin for the winter, John finds himself playing tour guide to Diane Watson, a beautiful brunette with her own messy past and recent battle scars.Will he be ready to fall in love? Or will he go back to his old, flirty ways?Hold onto your heart as John Day tells his story in this male POV contemporary adult romance/romantic comedy.Ready to Fall is the first novel in the Wingmen series of standalone, lighthearted small town romances set in the Pacific Northwest. Each book can be read without having read the previous titles.

Everything You Are


Kerry Anne King - 2019
    Now, unable to play, adrift in an alcoholic daze, and with only fragmented memories of his past, Braden wants desperately to escape the darkness of the last eleven years.When his ex-wife and son are killed in a car accident, Braden returns home, hoping to forge a relationship with his troubled seventeen-year-old daughter, Allie. But how can he hope to rescue her from the curse that seems to shadow his family?Ophelia “Phee” MacPhee, granddaughter of the eccentric old man who sold Braden his cello, believes the curse is real. She swore an oath to her dying grandfather that she would ensure Braden plays the cello as long as he lives. But he can’t play, and as the shadows deepen and Phee finds herself falling for Braden, she’ll do anything to save him. It will take a miracle of forgiveness and love to bring all three of them back to the healing power of music.

F*ck Marriage


Tarryn Fisher - 2019
    Shamed and divorced, Billie retreated to her family home in Port Townsend, far from her old life in New York. After a near-death encounter, Billie decides to return to the city that took everything from her. But sometimes in the midst of heartache, hope suffocates the pain. Satcher Gable has carried a torch for Billie for ten years. When she suddenly returns to New York a single woman, he can't believe his good fortune. But convincing her to walk away from her heartache is proving more difficult than Satcher anticipated. A changed woman, Billie's only goal is revenge.

I Always Cry at Weddings


Sara Goff - 2015
    At least until she realizes her relationship isn't what it should be. Then, in a move as daring as a red satin dress, she does the unthinkable - she calls it all off and makes a promise to God that from now on, she'll save sex for marriage.She's convinced the future is hers for the taking, especially when an undercover cop promises a new romance...and an unexpected friendship with the homeless guy under her stoop brightens her days.But when her carefully balanced life teeters out of control, weddings aren't the only thing to make her cry. Ava has to figure out what life she really wants to live... and what is the world love really means.

Never Greener


Ruth Jones - 2018
    Always thinking the grass is greener on the other side. But it never is. It’s still grass. Just a different patch of it, that’s all.’*****The past has a habit of tracking us down. And tripping us up.When Kate was twenty-two, she had an intense and passionate affair with a married man, Callum, which ended in heartbreak. Kate thought she’d never get over it.Seventeen years later, life has moved on – Kate, now a successful actress, is living in London, married to Matt and mother to little Tallulah. Meanwhile Callum and his wife Belinda are happy together, living in Edinburgh and watching their kids grow up. The past, it would seem, is well and truly behind them all.But then Kate meets Callum again.And they are faced with a choice: to walk away from each other . . . or to risk finding out what might have been.Second chances are a rare gift in life. But that doesn’t mean they should always be taken . . .