Book picks similar to
Music From Home by Geraldine O'Neill


fiction
christmas
historical-fiction
e-books

Bound By Blood


Kimberly Hoyt - 2010
    She didn't believe in the supernatural. Not until she met the enigmatic and darkly alluring Sebastian Thorn, a man shrouded in mystery and intrigue. Discovering he was a Prince turned out to be only the beginning of a harrowing journey that took them back to the Tudor Court during the reign of King Henry the Eighth. Caught up in the conspiracy of Whitehall, Laurel's love and devotion were put to the ultimate test.Would she return to the future to find her Dark Prince waiting? Or had the executioner's blade taken more from her than just Sebastian's head?

The Happy Home for Ladies


Lilly Bartlett - 2018
    Terrence, the owner’s mean-spirited father, is about to move into their famously all-female senior living home. Far from coasting into their twilight years, these women have a lot of living to do. And they’re planning to do it where the toilet seats stay firmly down.The home’s chef, Phoebe, is desperate to help her friends plot to keep the all-women community that means so much to them. It’s become her life raft, too. Her job might be the only thing that finally makes her parents proud. If only Phoebe’s (probably hopeless) love, Nick, wasn’t lining up on the other side of the battle.The stakes couldn’t be higher for everyone. Unless the home’s owner can improve business by moving men in, he’s going to close it down. Then the women will lose everything.

Before and Again


Barbara Delinsky - 2018
    Now she lives in Vermont under the name Maggie Reid, in a small house with her cats and dog. She’s thankful for the new friends she’s made―though she can’t risk telling them too much. And she takes satisfaction in working as a makeup artist at the luxurious local spa, helping clients hide the visible outward signs of their weariness, illnesses, and injuries. Covering up scars is a skill she has mastered.Her only goal is to stay under the radar and make it through her remaining probation. But she isn’t the only one in this peaceful town with secrets. When a friend’s teenage son is thrust into the national spotlight, accused of hacking a powerful man’s Twitter account, Maggie is torn between pulling away and protecting herself―or stepping into the glare to be at their side. As the stunning truth behind their case is slowly revealed, Maggie’s own carefully constructed story begins to unravel as well. She knows all too well that what we need from each other in this difficult world is comfort. But to provide it, sometimes we need to travel far outside our comfort zones.

Twisted River


Siobhán MacDonald - 2014
    American Oscar Harvey opens the trunk of his hosts’ car and finds the body of a woman, beaten and bloody. But let’s start at the beginning. Kate and Mannix O’Brien live by Curragower Falls in Limerick, in a lovely house they can barely afford. Their son Fergus is bullied at school, and their daughter Izzy blames herself, wishing she could protect him. Kate decides that her family needs a vacation, and is convinced her luck’s about to change when she spots a gorgeous Manhattan apartment on a home-exchange website.Hazel and Oscar Harvey and their two children live on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Though they seem successful and happy, Hazel has mysterious bruises, and Oscar is hiding things about his dental practice. They, too, need a change of pace. Hazel has always wanted her children to see her native Limerick, and the house swap offers a perfect chance to soothe two troubled marriages. But this will be anything but a perfect vacation. And the body in the trunk is just the beginning.

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?

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year


Joanna Bolouri - 2016
    Perfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane, Tracy Bloom & Chrissie Manby. Thirty-eight year old Emily has a satisfying job, fab friends, an amazing car and, most importantly, a wonderful flat, exactly 411 miles away from the judgemental, batshit crazy, interfering family she reluctantly sees twice a year. In fact, the only minor stress in her life is her twenty-something neighbour Evan and his penchant for flirting, loud music and even louder sex . . . but he's nothing she can't handle. Emily also has a boyfriend called Robert and it's going really well. So well, in fact, that this year Emily is hoping to take him home for Christmas to meet her family. Finally she won't be subject to five days of nosy questions from her parents and pity looks from her younger married siblings.But when Robert breaks up with her a week before Christmas, Emily is gutted. How on earth is she going to face her family now? Enlisting the help of party boy Evan (in exchange for one month's rent and the use of her convertible) Emily is determined to take Robert home for Christmas come hell or high water, even if it isn't the real Robert . . .

An Event to Remember. . .or Forget


Melissa Baldwin - 2014
    Her days of slaving away at Carrie’s Classic Events and More are numbered as she is on the brink of launching her own event planning company. Her relationship with Luke Price is headed in the right direction and they are approaching their one-year mark. The future is looking bright and she knows that life could not get any better . . . That is until her perfectly planned world is thrown upside down by the unexpected arrival of someone from Luke’s past. She receives the shock of her life on the night of the biggest event of her career. Sienna will now have to pull it all together without a list or a plan. The question is, can she do it?

The Color of Secrets


Lindsay Ashford - 2015
    Neither wife nor widow, she lives in a numb state of limbo until, in the heat of an English summer, she meets Bill, a black American GI. Despite their vastly different backgrounds, neither can deny the love that overcomes them in the frantic weeks that follow, when every day could be their last.After Eva discovers she’s pregnant, Bill is shipped off to join the D-day fight, leaving her alone in a bigoted world. As her mixed-race daughter, Louisa, grows up, how far will Eva go to keep her safe and bury the past? And how far will Louisa go to uncover the truth?

Gumbeaux


Kimberly Vargas - 2011
    After the death of her parents, she is placed in the care of her alcoholic uncle. For years, she assists her uncle in growing the family empire, all the while plotting his demise and / or her escape. A college scholarship gives her the opportunity to break free of her life to start a new one - under a new name.Follow Mary and her often hilarious misadventures in the early 1990's while attending college in a small town in Louisiana. The story reads as a series of diary entries which chronicle the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of the main character during this time in her life. The novel's title refers to a cajun restaurant in which the main character works as a waitress. The colorful descriptions of the town of Bayou Bend, the college, its inhabitants and the surrounding areas paint a vivid and amusing tale of life in the South.

Stealing Jenny


Ellen Gable - 2011
    A neighbor, however, is secretly hatching a sinister plot which will find Jenny and her unborn baby fighting for their lives.

Ridiculous!


D.L. Carter - 2012
    Funny. Sexy. Cross Dressing. Not your mother's Regency Romance.After the death of her miserly cousin, Anthony North, Millicent Boarder is determined her family should never be poor or vulnerable again. To protect them she conceals her cousin's death and assumes his identity. Now she must face the Ton and the world as Mr. North and accept the price she must pay for her family's safety -- she will never be loved.Which means, of course, at this point she will meet the perfect man.

The Irish Cottage: Finding Elizabeth


Juliet Gauvin - 2014
    Book 1 of 3. Elizabeth Lara built a perfect life as San Francisco’s top divorce attorney, but when she loses her great-aunt Mags, the woman who raised her, she boards a plane and leaves it all behind.The Irish shores welcome her as she learns a shocking truth, kept secret for thirty-five years. Devastated and now alone in the world, Beth tries to find peace in a beautiful cottage by Lough Rhiannon, but peace isn’t what fate had in mind. Almost as soon as she arrives, Beth’s solitary retreat into the magic wilds of Ireland is interrupted by Connor Bannon. A man with light brown hair, ice blue eyes and a secret of his own. He’s gorgeous, grieving, and completely unexpected. With the help of Mags’ letters, the colorful townspeople of Dingle, and Connor, Elizabeth might just find a way back to the girl she lost long ago and become the woman she always wanted to be.

Dodge the Bullet


Christy Hayes - 2011
    But Sarah doesn’t know a Colorado Senator has earmarked her ranch for purchase and he’ll do anything to get it. Unwilling to sell, she dismisses his continued offers and moves ahead by improving the land with the help of a sexy stranger. A.J. Dodge is a man with a past. He’s returned to his hometown ready to set down roots and make things right with his family and whatever anyone else thinks he doesn’t give a damn. Until his old friend Tommy Thornton asks a favor, a favor he can’t refuse, and Dodge becomes involved with the beautiful widow Sarah Woodward. She’s alone with her young sons on a dilapidated ranch she’s determined to get up and running with or without his help. Under pressure to deliver the Woodward ranch to a land developer with shady connections, the senator sets in motion a dangerous plot to convince Sarah to sell. Dodge will risk everything to protect Sarah and the boys including his heart.

The Trouble with Goodbye


Sarra Cannon - 2013
    She’s always been the girl who does what she’s told. Except that time two years ago when she shocked everyone in the small town of Fairhope by breaking up with the richest guy in town and heading off to Boston to follow her dreams.It was the single most exciting thing she’s ever done for herself, and it felt like the start of something big…Until one terrifying night ripped it all away.With no place else to go, Leigh Anne heads home to reclaim what’s left of her old life. On the outside, she seems like the same reliable girl everyone knows and loves. But deep inside, she’s hiding a terrible secret.That’s when she meets Knox Warner, a troubled newcomer to Fairhope. His eyes have the same haunted look she sees every day in the mirror, and when she’s near him, the rest of the world fades away. But being with Knox would mean disappointing everyone all over again.If she wants to step back into that old life, she has no choice but to say goodbye to him forever.Only, the Trouble with Goodbye is that sometimes it’s about courage and sometimes it’s about fear. And sometimes you’re too broken to know the difference until it’s too late.

The Dressmaker


Posie Graeme-Evans - 2010
    Ellen Gowan is a famous dress designer for ladies of high society and one of the very few women in England who owns her own business. But her life wasn't always one of such privilege.The only surviving daughter of a Cambridge scholar-turned village minister and a beautiful woman who was disowned by her family for marrying for love, Ellen had a childhood plentiful in affection, if not in currency and dresses made of fine silks. Tragedy strikes on her thirteenth birthday, when her father dies suddenly, leaving Ellen and her mother penniless and dependent upon the kindness of her mother's estranged family.Life takes Ellen down various roads of opulence and depravity until she lands in the arms of the devlishly handsome Raoul de Valentin, whom she marries. Just when Ellen realizes that she is with child, Raoul abandons her. Determined to survive, she begins her long climb to success, first by toiling at a dress factory, then opening up her own salon in the fashionable Battle Square.Years pass, and Ellen has evolved into Madame Gowan, dress maker to royalty and the Great Six Hundred. All is truly well, until the day Raoul de Valentin unexpectedly arrives at her doorstep once more, threatening to destroy all that she has achieved.The Dressmaker is a romantic odyssey that takes readers into the most luxurious of ballrooms and the most squalid of brothels. It is the sweeping story of a true heroine and her quest to live life fully-to find success, love, and to find herself in an era when such ideas were unheard of for a woman. Brimming with romance, social intrigue and rich, detailed illustrations of Victorian London and its varied inhabitants, The Dressmaker will captivate readers.