Book picks similar to
A Cup of Ambition by Cathy Bramley
chick-lit
cathy-bramley
romance
fiction
Katie's Cornish Kitchen
Rosie Chambers - 2020
She has local restaurant owner and new friend Agatha to thank for providing a listening ear in her moment of need. When Katie confides she’s worried about going back to what’s left of her life in London, Agatha has just the opportunity for Katie – to manage her old café in the beautiful, picturesque village of Perrinby in Cornwall.Although reopening the café and making it profitable won’t be easy, Katie is determined to make the most of her fresh start. She quickly makes new friends in florist Jay, waitress Talia and handsome neighbour Oscar, and focuses on making the café a welcoming place for the community – from hosting floristry workshops to pizza-making nights and even the local knit-and-natter group. But, with the café under threat from the local property developers circulating just as she’s starting to grow closer to Oscar and finally feeling at home, can Katie find the recipe to make her Cornish Kitchen a success?Escape to Cornwall in this heartwarming romance – perfect for fans of Julie Caplin, Phillipa Ashley and Debbie JohnsonReaders LOVE Rosie Chambers‘A good bit of escapism fiction’ NetGalley reviewer‘Fabulous, feel good, fun and romantic’ NetGalley reviewer‘LOVE LOVED LOVED! Feel good and romantic’ NetGalley reviewer‘I was hooked and couldn’t put it down’ NetGalley reviewer
Return To Me
Katie Winters - 2021
The mother she's resented for over twenty years. A return to Martha's Vineyard, where healing can finally begin.Janine Potter grew up on the other side of the tracks. Her mother, Nancy, struggled with just about everything: alcohol, men, money -- and Janine made a pledge to herself that she would never be like her.At age nineteen, Janine met Jack Potter, the son of an oil tycoon, and never looked back. Her life became a series of cocktail parties and multi-million-dollar apartments all across the world and rubbing elbows with celebrities. Slowly, memory of her mother faded -- although the trauma never really did.Fast-forward to the present. Janine is forty-three, with two beautiful daughters, a perfect apartment, a handsome husband who betrays her beyond her wildest dreams.Soon, Janine is cast out from her picture-perfect life. She has nothing.Her mother, Nancy, who's gone through trials and triumphs of her own over the previous twenty years, sees Janine's very public devastation as an opportunity to reach out to the daughter she's missed so desperately over the years."Come to Martha's Vineyard. Return to me. Let's heal together, after the shared trauma of our past."Janine has nowhere else to turn. For the first time in twenty-five years, her mother is her only answer.But the world that awaits her on Martha's Vineyard is beyond her wildest dreams. There are new friends, two step-sisters, beautiful ocean waters, and even a potential love interest -- a summer she'll never forget.Can Janine and her mother find a way to heal the wounds of their past? Can Janine overcome the ultimate betrayal?Dive into book one of The Katama Bay Series -- a heartwarming journey of motherly and sisterly love, healing, and promise for better days, all on the island of Martha's Vineyard, with its gorgeous ocean views, its endless summer days, and its bubbly cast of islanders.For fans of Susan Mallery, Jill Shalvis, and Debbie Macomber.
One Enchanted Christmas
Melissa Tagg - 2015
On a glimmering winter evening, she got to watch the photo shoot for her very first book and ended up on a magical date with the cover model himself—Colin Renwycke. Fast forward one year. This December, with a looming deadline, restless spirit and her creative spark long since gone, Maren is desperate to get unstuck. And she can’t get Colin out of her head…or his year-old open invitation to spend a couple weeks writing at his family’s farm. Drew Renwycke never planned to come home and take over the Renwycke family farm. But he’s spent too many years watching his siblings unravel, including his brother, Colin, after one terrible family mistake. If moving to Maple Valley, Iowa, renovating an old farmhouse and switching careers is what it takes to put the Renwycke family back together, he’ll do it. But his simple plan upends when a scrappy author lands on his doorstep. And she just might be the key to coaxing his brother home. But what if he wants her all to himself? Drew will have to choose between his Christmas wish and the enchantment of a holiday romance that just might be the happy ending they all long for.
The Very Picture of You
Isabel Wolff - 2011
At thirty-five, Gabriella Graham—“Ella” to her family and friends—has already made a name for herself as a successful portrait artist in London. She can capture the essential truth in each of her subjects’ faces—a tilt of the chin, a glint in the eye—and immortalize it on canvas. This gift has earned Ella commissions from royals and regular folks alike.But closer to home, Ella finds the truth more elusive. Her father abandoned the family when she was five, and her mother has remained silent on the subject ever since. Ella’s sister, Chloe, is engaged to Nate, an American working in London, but Ella suspects that he may not be so committed. Then, at Chloe’s behest, Ella agrees to paint Nate’s portrait.From session to session, Ella begins to see Nate in a different light, which gives rise to conflicted feelings. In fact, through the various people she paints—an elderly client reflecting on her life, another woman dreading the prospect of turning forty, a young cyclist (from a photograph) who met a tragic end—Ella realizes that there is so much more to a person’s life than what is seen on the surface, a notion made even clearer when an unexpected email arrives from the other side of the world. And as her portraits of Nate and the others progress, they begin to reveal less about their subjects than the artist herself.A picture is worth a thousand words, and in Isabel Wolff’s vibrant and textured story, these words are brilliantly crafted to convey the humor, mystery, and beauty that exists within each of us.
When Archie Met Rosie: An Unexpected Love Story
Lynda Renham - 2018
The first is to move off the Tradmore Estate, and the second is to see Paris. Archie wants for nothing. He has his five-bedroom house but no one to share it with now that his beloved wife, Cath, has died. And then … Holly has a disastrous night out and, against all the odds, Archie meets Rosie.
A funny, sad and poignant tale of how love can be found in the strangest of places.
Memory House
Bette Lee Crosby - 2015
She knows because she’s been granted the unique gift of finding and caring for those forgotten memories. But now she’s nearing ninety, and Browne women seldom live beyond ninety. Before time runs out Ophelia must find a successor. Someone who can take hold of the gifts and keep the memories from fading. When broken-hearted Annie Cross shows up on the doorstep of The Memory House Bed and Breakfast, Ophelia knows she is the one. The two women forge a bond of friendship as they sip magical dandelion tea and share stories. When Annie starts to sense the memories Ophelia is delighted, but then a thread of violence begins to unravel and Ophelia fears things have gone too far.
Small Town Secrets
Alys Murray - 2021
One year’s room and board provided.”I should have known it was too good to be true when I first saw the ad. It turns out that Fortune Springs, Colorado isn’t just a one-horse town, it’s a two-woman one, and this is their attempt to keep the community alive. I want to say the scheme is ridiculous, totally outdated, but I’m carrying everything I own in my canvas backpack and the greyhound I stepped off this morning is long gone. If this is my chance at a fresh start, I’d better grab it with both hands.I know I should feel guilty about pretending to be a lonely heart willing to help repopulate this rural logging town, but all I feel is relief at having escaped the apartment in Savannah. And after all, what’s one more secret to add to the pile? I only hope I’ve hidden my tracks well enough, and that the kind Fortune Springs locals who’ve opened their doors to me will never find out what made me run away in the first place…An emotional, gripping story full of family drama. Fans of Carolyn Brown, Robyn Carr and Debbie Macomber will be hooked.
How to Get a (Love) Life
Rosie Blake - 2014
Not Nicola Brown. Nicola is the kind of girl who double-locks the front door, leaves the plastic covering on new furniture, sticks to a super-strict diet and definitely, absolutely Does Not Date. Her colleague Caroline – loopy, warm and exasperated by her, knows that Nicola's reluctance to lose control means she's living only half a life. And so she lays down the gauntlet: Nicola must cast aside her hang ups and go on as many dates as it takes to find true love in time for Valentine's Day. The pick of local men is, quite frankly, a bit rubbish. And there are only three months until February 14th. Surely it's an impossible task? But, as Nicola is about to find out on her dodgy dates, letting go isn't quite as scary as she imagined. In fact, it's rather a lot of fun...
Mishaps & Mistletoe
Tilly Tennant - 2014
The bills are piling up and she’s desperate enough to find herself working as a Christmas elf in the grotto of Hendrick’s Toy Store. As if the job description isn’t bad enough, Phoebe doesn’t like children. There’s nothing wrong with them, they’re just not for her. Neither is there any escape from a boss whose only language is sarcasm, and an alcoholic Santa. Then one morning Maria comes into the grotto – a little girl unlike any she has met before. Phoebe doesn’t know it yet, but Maria and her dad are about to shake her life up in ways she could never have imagined…
Under an Amber Sky
Rose Alexander - 2017
But when she stumbles into an old, run-down house on the Bay of Kotor she surprises even herself when she buys it.Surrounded by old furniture, left behind by the former inhabitants, Sophie becomes obsessed by a young Balkan couple when she discovers a bundle of letters from the 1940s in a broken roll-top desk. Letters that speak of great love, hope and a mystery Sophie can’t help but get drawn into.Days in Montenegro are nothing like she expected and as Sophie’s home begins to fill with a motley crew of lodgers the house by the bay begins to breathe again. And for Sophie, life seems to be restarting. But letting go of the past is easier said than done…
The Cottage at Hope Cove
Hannah Ellis - 2018
Lizzie Beaumont has it all: a great career, a wealthy fiancé, and the wedding of her dreams just months away. But when her fiancé puts work before her again, she sets off for a week in the picturesque town of Hope Cove. She’s hoping for time away from the chaos to find herself. Instead, she finds Max. When the gorgeous guy next door asks her for decorating help, Lizzie finds herself all too eager to please. The week she expected to drag suddenly flies by, and before she knows it, she has to return to her other life. The life with the impending marriage and the fiancé she loves. Or does she? One week with Max has left her questioning her life choices. Is her fiancé the man of her dreams, or just the man who asked? Now Lizzie must decide what her life will be. Will she go for the safe and predictable route, or take a chance on a man she hardly knows? No matter what she does, someone’s heart is going to break. She just doesn’t want it to be hers.
Second Time Lucky
Sophie King - 2007
Now, however, the house has been divided into separate residences for financial purposes. The Lord is forced to live in one of the humble apartments alongside his newly acquired housemates, among them a newly-divorced mother-of-three, a legendary screen goddess of the 1940s, and an American PhD student. Over an eventful year their children, a burglar, a friendly dog, a very capable cleaner, and at least one ghost will transform all of the residents' lives.
Pillow Talk
Freya North - 1983
And suddenly they're in front of each other - in a tiny sweet shop in the middle of nowhere. Neither can quite believe it. These days, Petra works in London as a jeweller while Arlo has left his rock-and-roll lifestyle for the wilds of North Yorkshire. Out of the blue, their paths have just crossed. But for first love to have a second chance both must put their pasts to bed. However, there are skeletons in Arlo's closet which keep him up at night. And just what is it that causes Petra to sleepwalk?
The Likely Resolutions of Oliver Clock
Jane Riley - 2020
Is there really room for something as unpredictable as love?
Oliver Clock has everything arranged just so. A steady job running the family funeral parlour. A fridge stocked with ready meals. A drawer full of colour-coded socks. A plan (of sorts) to stay trim enough for a standard-sized coffin. And in florist Marie, he’s even found the love of his life—not that she’s aware of it.When a terrible tragedy takes Marie out of his life but leaves him with her private journal, he discovers too late that she secretly loved him back. Faced now with an empty love life, a family funeral business in trouble, a fast-approaching fortieth birthday and a notebook of resolutions he’s never achieved, Oliver resolves to open himself up to love—and all the mess that comes along with it.But, with a habit of burying his feelings, can he learn to embrace his lovability and find the woman who will make him feel whole?
Unexpected (Bittersweet Book 2)
Karen Lenfestey - 2017
Sure, she loves fostering shelter dogs, but she never imagined herself as a mother. Anxious to be an aunt, her sister starts pressuring her to be someone she’s not. Her new friend wants her to stay fun and unencumbered. When Hope’s ex says he wants back in her life, she feels like it might be what’s best for her baby. Pulling away from her sister, Hope spends more time with her new friend and risks letting her ex break her heart all over again.