Book picks similar to
Meredith, Alone by Claire Alexander


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fiction
contemporary
womens-fiction

Up and In


Deborah Disney - 2014
    But when Kate befriends the spoilt and moody Mirabella, Maria must learn to play nicely with Mirabella's mother, Bea - the beguiling yet beastly queen of the toffee-nosed school mothers at Riverton.A series of social blunders and intentional snubs make Maria determined to ensure Kate's rightful position both at school and on the Saturday morning netball team, but as Maria works hard to negotiate the social hierarchy, her previously contented life with Joe falls far from view.With her mastery of dialogue and character, Australian author Deborah Disney skillfully balances keen and witty observations about daily life with the more serious issues of schoolyard bullying and social isolation.You will laugh, you will nod along, and you will want to take the increasingly neurotic Maria aside and point out that in all her desperate, gaffe-filled attempts to fit in with the well-heeled, champagne-swilling mummies of Riverton, she might just be risking all that she holds dear.'My stand-out fiction read for 2015' Rebecca Sparrow, author, Mammamia columnist and host of So What Are You Reading?'This story showcases a world where motherhood is a competitive sport ... highly recommended' Chicklit Club (High Raters)'While the book is satirical and clearly a mummy-mafia-on-speed version of events, it has so many nuggets of truth that Up and In is destined to become the next must-read for any mum navigating schoolyard politics' Kidspot Parenting Magazine'I am so excited that this is Deborah Disney's debut novel. It's accomplished, compelling and one of those novels that will tug at the heartstrings one minute and have you giggling the next. Warm, extremely well-written and a complete delight to read. If you're looking for a light, funny, yet insightful novel then congratulations - you've found it!' Bookaholic Holly

Love, Iris


Elizabeth Noble - 2018
    But Iris is slipping further away each day.Then chance brings a stranger into Tess's life. Gigi's heart goes out to Tess, knowing what it's like to feel alone. She's determined to show her that there's a silver lining to every cloud.As their unlikely friendship blossoms, Tess feels inspired to open up. But something still holds her back - until she discovers Iris has a secret of her own. A suitcase of letters from another time, the missing pieces of a life she never shared.Could the letters hold the answers that Tess thought lost for ever?An uplifting, unforgettable story about keeping secrets, taking chances and finding happiness where you least expect it.Published in a previous edition under the title Letters to Iris. 'Nobody weaves a complex web of stories with quite the same skill as Elizabeth Noble. An uplifting read written with wry humour, insight and sensitivity' Sunday Express'Noble specialises in warm-hearted tearjerkers with strong connections between women' Daily Mail 'A beautiful tale of love, loss and hope' Sun'A heart-warmer' Prima'Packed with intrigue' Yours Magazine

The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes


Anna McPartlin - 2014
    And she knows that she's one of the lucky ones. She loves her life, ordinary as it is. And she loves the extraordinary people in it: her spirited daughter, Juliet; her colorful, unruly family; the only man in her big heart, Johnny Faye. Rabbit has big ideas, full of music and love and so much life. She has plans for the world. But the world, it turns out, has other plans for Rabbit: a devastating diagnosis. Rabbit is feisty. And with every ounce of love and strength in her, she promises that she will overcome. She will fight fight fight. She will be with those who love her for as long as she can, and she will live as long as she can with music and love and so much life. And as her friends and family rally round to celebrate Rabbit's last days, they look to her for strength, support, and her unyielding zest for life. Because she is Rabbit Hayes and she will live until she dies.

It Must Be Love


Caroline Khoury - 2022
     Fifteen years. A lifetime of love. When Abbie met Oz, they were young, idealistic students from different backgrounds, but their connection was unmistakable. Then Oz went home to Istanbul and life moved on. Now Abbie is with the man she thinks she's going to spend the rest of her life with, until she meets Oz again - a chance encounter that might change everything. They find themselves drawn to each other once more, but have commitments, jobs and families that take priority, and too much time has passed, hasn't it? Abbie and Oz are about to find out that no matter how many miles and obstacles are between them, fate might just have another plan, and that their love story isn't over yet. From London to Istanbul, Paris to Beirut, It Must Be Love is a heart-wrenching story that will leave you believing in the power of fate and destiny. For fans of Cecilia Ahern, Dani Atkins and Sophie Cousens.

The Last Act of Adam Campbell


Andy Jones - 2020
    Particularly when it's your last.Adam had a good life: a job he enjoyed, a nice house, a loving partner and a bright six-year-old daughter. Then he cheated on his partner. Then she kicked him out of their home. And then he was given approximately twelve months to live.Despite the devastating news, Adam is determined to turn his life around before it finally runs out. Help comes in the form of an ex-junky, a cantankerous train driver, a nun experiencing a crisis of faith, and a teenager intent on losing her virginity - all living on borrowed time, all desperate to feel alive before their time is up.Praise for Andy Jones:'What happens the morning after the night before, when the night before was when you did the most reckless thing of your life? I loved Andy Jones's stylish portrayal of four people who make way too much history in one night, and just couldn't put it down until I found out the fate of each of them' Catherine Isaac'Andy Jones continues to be one of my favourite authors' Bella Magazine

Lizzie & Dante


Mary Bly - 2021
    Once settled into a luxurious seaside resort, Lizzie has to make big decisions about her future, and she needs the one thing she may be running out of: time.She leaves the yacht-owners and celebrities behind and sneaks off to the public beach, where she meets a sardonic chef named Dante, his battered dog Lily, and his wry daughter Etta, a twelve-year-old desperate for a mother. While Dante shows Lizzie the island's secrets, and Etta dazzles with her irreverent humor, Lizzie is confronted with a dilemma. Is it right to fall in love if time is short? Is it better to find a mother briefly, or to have no mother at all? And the most difficult question of all: What if falling in love inevitably leads to broken hearts?A transporting, all-consuming story about love, courage, and Italian wine, Lizzie & Dante demands to know how far we should travel to find a future worth fighting for.

Hadley & Grace


Suzanne Redfearn - 2021
    A woman who can’t even kill a spider, Hadley soon finds herself pushed to the limits as she fights to protect her family.Grace, new mother of baby Miles, desperately wants to put her rough past behind her for good, but she finds it impossible when her path crosses with Hadley’s, and her quest for a new start quickly spirals out of control and turns into a terrifying flight for survival.Stronger together than apart, the two find their fates inextricably entwined, and as the danger closes in, each must decide how much she is willing to risk for the other.A powerful story of self-discovery, Hadley and Grace is the heart-racing tale of two women facing insurmountable odds, racing to stay one step ahead of the trouble that is chasing them, and discovering new kinds of love and family along the way.

The Silent Treatment


Abbie Greaves - 2020
    Six months of silence. One last chance. By all appearances, Frank and Maggie share a happy, loving marriage. But for the past six months, they have not spoken. Not a sentence, not a single word. Maggie isn’t sure what, exactly, provoked Frank’s silence, though she has a few ideas.Day after day, they have eaten meals together and slept in the same bed in an increasingly uncomfortable silence that has become, for Maggie, deafening.Then Frank finds Maggie collapsed in the kitchen, unconscious, an empty package of sleeping pills on the table. Rushed to the hospital, she is placed in a medically induced coma while the doctors assess the damage.If she regains consciousness, Maggie may never be the same. Though he is overwhelmed at the thought of losing his wife, will Frank be able to find his voice once again—and explain his withdrawal—or is it too late?

Another Mother's Life


Rowan Coleman - 2008
     For wealthy Alison James, moving with her family to her hometown of Farmington presents more than a case of relocation jitters. Fifteen years ago, she fled town, eloping with her best friend's boyfriend. Now, blessed with three children, but uneasy in her marriage, she wonders if that decision led her away from the life she was meant to lead. Catherine Ashley, broke, the mother of two and almost divorced, can't help but wonder the same thing. Although she's content with her children, she finds herself returning again and again to those few weeks fifteen years ago when she fell deeply in love, only to be betrayed by her most trusted friend. Now, once more living in the same town, Alison and Catherine are about to find out just how different their lives could still be. But this time around they are adults, and while their own happiness is at stake, so is their children's. Wise and warmhearted, Another Mother's Life will make you laugh and cry -- and think about what you would do when confronted by some of life's most difficult choices.

The Seven Day Switch


Kelly Harms - 2021
    What a difference a week makes in a heartfelt, laugh-out-loud novel by the Washington Post bestselling author of The Overdue Life of Amy Byler.Celeste Mason is the Pinterest stay-at-home supermom of other mothers’ nightmares. Despite her all-organic, SunButter-loving, free-range kids, her immaculate home, and her volunteering awards, she still has time to relax with a nice glass of pinot at the end of the day. The only thing that ruins it all is her workaholic, career-obsessed neighbor, who makes no secret of what she thinks of Celeste’s life choices every chance she gets.Wendy Charles is a celebrated productivity consultant, columnist, and speaker. On a minute-by-minute schedule, she makes the working-mom hustle look easy. She even spends at least one waking hour a day with her kids. She’s not apologizing for a thing. Especially to Celeste, who plays her superior parenting against Wendy whenever she can.Who do Celeste and Wendy think they are? They’re about to find out thanks to one freaky week. After a neighborhood potluck and too much sangria, they wake up—um, what?—in each other’s bodies. Everything Celeste and Wendy thought they knew about the “other kind of mom” is flipped upside down—along with their messy, complicated, maybe not so different lives.

Dreaming Under An Island Skye


Lisa Hobman - 2021
    It’s clear that divorced Reid is struggling and scarred by his own painful experiences.Can these two lost souls find a lifeline to rescue each other?Or will their pasts scupper their second chance at real happiness?

The Summer We Danced


Fiona Harper - 2016
    So she returns to the small Kent village where she grew up to make a fresh start. Little did she know that would mean saving her beloved childhood dance school or falling for her old school crush Tom too!

The Roxy Letters


Mary Pauline Lowry - 2020
    She’s a sometimes vegan, always broke artist with a heart the size of Texas and an ex living in her spare bedroom. Her life is messy, but with the help of a few good friends and by the grace of the goddess Venus she’ll discover that good sex, true love, and her life’s purpose are all closer than she realizes.Bridget Jones penned a diary; Roxy writes letters. Specifically: she writes letters to her hapless, rent-avoidant ex-boyfriend—and current roommate—Everett. This charming and funny twenty-something is under-employed (and under-romanced), and she’s decidedly fed up with the indignities she endures as a deli maid at Whole Foods (the original), and the dismaying speed at which her beloved Austin is becoming corporatized. When a new Lululemon pops up at the intersection of Sixth and Lamar where the old Waterloo Video used to be, Roxy can stay silent no longer. As her letters to Everett become less about overdue rent and more about the state of her life, Roxy realizes she’s ready to be the heroine of her own story. She decides to team up with her two best friends to save Austin—and rescue Roxy’s love life—in whatever way they can. But can this spunky, unforgettable millennial keep Austin weird, avoid arrest, and find romance—and even creative inspiration—in the process?

Distant Shores


Kristin Hannah - 2002
    From a distance, their lives look picture perfect. But after the girls leave home, Jack and Elizabeth quietly drift apart. When Jack accepts a wonderful new job, Elizabeth puts her own needs aside to follow him across the country. Then tragedy turns Elizabeth’s world upside down. In the aftermath, she questions everything about her life—her choices, her marriage, even her long-forgotten dreams. In a daring move that shocks her husband, friends, and daughters, she lets go of the woman she has become—and reaches out for the woman she wants to be.--back cover

The Christmas Sisters


Sarah Morgan - 2018
    Her three adopted daughters are coming home for the holidays and she can’t wait to see them. But tensions are running high…Workaholic Hannah knows she can’t avoid spending the holidays with her family two years in a row. But it’s not the weight of their expectations that’s panicking her—it’s the life-changing secret she’s hiding. Stay-at-home mom Beth is having a personal crisis. All she wants for Christmas is time to decide if she’s ready to return to work—seeing everyone was supposed to help her stress levels, not increase them! Posy isn’t sure she’s living her best life, but with her parents depending on her, making a change seems risky. But not as risky as falling for gorgeous new neighbor Luke…As Suzanne’s dreams of the perfect McBride Christmas unravel, she must rely on the magic of the season to bring her daughters together. But will this new togetherness teach the sisters that their close-knit bond is strong enough to withstand anything—including a family Christmas?