Book picks similar to
Ready-Made Family by Charlotte Hughes


loveswept
contemporary-romance
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loveswept-series

The Gingerbread Man


Maggie Shayne - 2001
    When the FBI takes over the case, Vince agrees to take time off. Traveling to a small upstate New York town, he meets Holly Newman--a fragile woman whose sister was abducted and killed years ago. Convinced that Holly's sister's death is linked to the recent murders, he attempts to unearth clues hidden deep in Holly's mind.

Love, Love Me Do


Mark Haysom - 2014
    The year the Beatles first top the charts. The year Martin Luther King has a dream. The year Truman Bird moves his family from their home in Brighton to a dilapidated caravan in the Ashdown Forest - then disappears. Truman's a charmer, a chancer. He is, inevitably, a liar. He's always got away with it, too. But now he's gone a dangerous step too far and only has one day to put things right - before he loses everything. For Truman's wife, Christie, life has not turned out the way she'd imagined. How has she, that young girl of not that many years ago, ended up like this? In a caravan. With three children. And an absent husband. In this most unique, wise and addictive of British debuts, we discover that life has a habit of getting in the way of dreams - but that people find their own extraordinary ways of bouncing back.

Chicago's Best


Katharine E. Hamilton - 2017
    However, her life is turned upside down when she finds herself as the newest target of the city's largest crime boss. Ian O'Dell, the newest detective on the Chicago police force, only wishes to serve and protect the quirky cafe owner. But as bullets fly and emotions tangle, he finds himself torn between what his heart wants and what his duty demands.

The Vineyard


Barbara Delinsky - 2000
    To her family, Natalie Seebring is a woman who prizes appearances. She is exquisitely mannered, socially adept, a supportive wife, and head of a successful wine-producing enterprise. So when she announces plans to marry a vineyard employee mere months after the death of her husband of fifty-eight years, her son and daughter are stunned. Faced with their disapproval, Natalie decides to write a memoir. There is much that her children don't know about her life -- about her love of the vineyard, her role in fighting to build it up, and the sacrifices she made for her family. Olivia Jones is a dreamer, living vicariously through the old photographs she restores. She and her daughter, Tess, have no one but themselves, so they cling to the fantasy that a big, happy family is out there somewhere, just waiting to welcome them home. When Olivia is hired by Natalie to help with her memoir, a summer at Natalie's beautiful vineyard by the sea seems the perfect opportunity to live out that fantasy -- an elegant home by the shore, a salary that allows her to hire a tutor for her dyslexic daughter, a job that is creative, hours spent with a woman who has led a charmed life. But all is not as it seems, Olivia and Tess discover when they arrive at Asquonset, the vineyard in Rhode Island. While welcoming, Natalie is not quite the mothering type, as is quickly evident in the hostility her daughter and son have toward her -- it's a hostility that Olivia must buffer. Another dose of stark reality comes in the form of Simon Burke, who runs the vineyard's day-to-day operation and sees in Olivia and Tess an unwelcome reminder of the wife and daughter he tragically lost. And then there is the cruel reality of Olivia's own life -- the mother who never wanted her, and a career that has floundered. Natalie's story, intended for her own children, enlightens Olivia as well. The lives of these two women of different generations, parallel in so many ways, become, in The Vineyard, a powerful and moving story as the fantasy of an idealized life, complete with perfect romance, crashes headlong into reality.

The Way Life Should Be


Christina Baker Kline - 2007
    She is single in New York City, stuck in a job she doesn’t want and a life that seems to have, somehow, just happened.  She inherited a flair for Italian cooking from her grandmother, but she never seems to have the time for it—these days, her oven holds only sweaters. Tacked to her office bulletin board is a photo from a magazine of a tidy cottage on the coast of Maine—a charming reminder of a life that could be hers, if she could only muster the courage to go after it.On a hope and a chance, Angela decides to pack it all up and move to Maine, finding the nudge she needs in the dating profile of a handsome sailor who loves dogs and Italian food.  But her new home isn’t quite matching up with the fantasy. Far from everything familiar, Angela begins to rebuild her life from the ground up. Working at a local coffeehouse, she begins to discover the pleasures and secrets of her new small-town community and, in the process, realizes there’s really no such thing as the way life should be.

Collecting Scars


Tee Smith - 2016
    She left home at seventeen to start a new life for herself, to follow her dreams of becoming a nurse.For more than ten years she has not needed anyone in her life, well at least that's what she has told herself. Until she met the man with the gorgeous smile and piercing green eyes.Xavier Arnold has had his own share of trouble in his life. He is still grieving for his younger sister Maddie, who has been missing without a trace for more than six years.Will these two find love?One night walking home from work, Asha is snatched off the street and held captive by a mysterious stranger. She is forced to re-evaluate her life. Not knowing if she will ever escape to see Xavier or her family again.

Sweet Vengeance


Cindy Stark - 2012
    She’s finally going to have the family she longs for. But her dreams fade to black when her mobster-wanna-be boyfriend is executed at her feet. She’s spared the same fate by a muscle-bound vigilante who tosses her over his shoulder and turns her life upside down, in more ways than one. Jase Tyler has one goal in life—to exact revenge on the Chicago mobsters who slaughtered his family. But when he rescues Allie, things begin to change. The last thing he wants is to be responsible for a woman who reminds him he has a soul, but there’s a price on her head, and he refuses to let the mob have her. Love and danger are now a packaged deal, and they can't have one without the other. The true test will come when she discovers what he's been keeping from her.

Hard To Love


S. Jones - 2017
     From that very moment when the stranger's hand takes her by the wrist, she is thrust into a world where she is flooded with feelings she cannot ignore. Torn between her head and her heart, she quickly realizes that fighting her attraction to Chase Newman is an impossible task. He's a man who always gets what he wants and with his sights set on Emily, she doesn't stand a chance. A one-night stand will never be enough though, when she wants so much more than that. When secrets and lies threaten to destroy the trust between them, Emily starts to question her own decisions. With doubt and suspicion plaguing her mind, is what they have worth fighting for? Or will the truth tear them apart?

Ranch Hand For Auction: A Western Romance Novella


Kimberly Krey - 2016
    But now her life is in limbo. Stay in Colorado with a man who won’t commit, or call it quits and move back to her home state. Her answer comes in the form of Jake Billings, a woman-courting, dimple-sporting cowboy her father bids on at the county fair. The auctioned ranch hand is meant to help Meg process grapes on her father’s land, but along the way he steals her heart. Can Meg trust this sudden shift in direction, or will she be drawn back to the man she left behind?

Secrets, Lies & Family Ties


Sylvia Hubbard - 2007
    Reluctantly, he is convinced to go to his high school reunion, but upon meeting the mysterious woman, Ezekiel forgets what he wants and focuses on what he desires. Too bad he won't be able to keep her. When Grae is given the opportunity to sleep with the man of her dreams since high school without him knowing her identity, this shy reclusive young woman steps outside of her shell and transforms herself into the woman of his dreams. From the author that brought readers the steamy sensual noir, MISTAKEN IDENTITY, other books by Sylvia Hubbard can be purchased or downloaded at her website: www.sylviahubbard.com

The House by the Cypress Trees


Elena Mikalsen - 2019
    Not a perfect trip.Daniel Stafford wants to visit his family in Tuscany—after his girlfriend dumps him for their Italian driver, he botches a work presentation in Rome, and an assertive American falls in front of his car.When their two disastrous lives collide, they end up sleeping on the side of the road. Falling in love with Italy—and each other—is the least of their concerns.

Provenance


Donna Drew Sawyer - 2015
    Southern civility turns savage when Hank Whitaker’s dying words reveal the unimaginable. No one—not his socialite wife, Maggie, or young son, Lance—ever suspected the successful businessman, husband and father they loved, and thought they knew, was a black man passing for white. In 1931, in the segregated South, marriage between whites and blacks is illegal. Maggie faces jail for her crime of interracial marriage, but when Lance receives death threats to atone for his father’s betrayal, the family decides to flee the U.S. for freedom in racially and socially liberal society in Paris, France.Still grieving Hank’s death and fearful of their uncertain future as Europe marches toward war, Lance and Maggie mourn the lives they loved but lost. As they struggle to create new identities for themselves, they find a surprising community of artists and American expats that are on the same journey. In a new city, with new friends, new loves and exciting possibilities, they start to believe that it might be possible to change everything, even the past.Provenance is a sweeping historical saga about love, betrayal, tragedy, triumph, passion, privilege and the universal desire for acceptance—regardless of who you are or where you’re from.

If The Shoes Fit


Pauline Lawless - 2010
     Niamh, at 23, the mother of a five-year-old and twin girls aged four, is desperate to have a home of her own. She longs to escape the house of her vicious mother-in-law but her charming, irresponsible husband and the mountain of debts they have makes this seem ever more unlikely. Amber, former air stewardess whose husband Dermot left her for a younger woman, has lost all her confidence and is drowning her sorrows with alcohol. Tessa, beautiful former model, paid the price for living life in the fast lane when she almost died from a heart attack. Her reliable friend, George, persuaded her to come and live with him in Ireland. She now realises that she's made a dreadful mistake. Rosie, recently widowed, can't come to terms with the loss of the man she loved so much. Life without him doesn't seem worth living. All of them, needing a way out, find it with the Italian designer shoe company, 'If The Shoes Fit'. This leads them to a new career, great friendships and a life-changing experience.

Table for Five


Susan Wiggs - 2005
    Thrown into this strange semblance of family, Sean McGuire and Lily Robinson work together to establish some kind of normalcy for the grief-stricken children—and in the process discover the possibilities that make everything seem worthwhile.

Billionaire Games: Boxed Set


Sandra Edwards - 2013
    Three Marriages. Three BooksPraise for Billionaire Games ~ "The Billionaire Games series is a delectable feast, as rich and sumptuous as a wedding cake. Sandra Edwards whips up sensuously romantic love stories set amid the lush countryside of France. I devoured every sweet nuance in these remarkable tales of everlasting love." ...Award-winning author Cara MarsiIn THE MARRIAGE BARGAIN Julian de Laurent needs a temporary wife. Camille Chandler needs a job after he inadvertently gets her fired. If she agrees, he'll pay her five million to marry him. It's just a business deal, but neither could have foreseen what happens next, especially Camille, when she learns he's capable of stealing her heart. In THE MARRIAGE CAPER Andre de Laurent, Julian's little brother finds himself in a predicament. Is it possible that Tasha Gordon, his new sister-in-law's best friend, is the answer to his prayers?In THE MARRIAGE FIX little sister Lecie travels to America where she may well have found her Prince Charming--who's in desperate need of help.