Book picks similar to
Looking Back by Josephine Cox


fiction
josephine-cox
friendship
hardship

The Singing Trees


Boo Walker - 2021
    After losing her parents in a car accident, aspiring artist Annalisa Mancuso lives with her grandmother and their large Italian family in the stifling factory town of Payton Mills. Inspired by her mother, whose own artistic dreams disappeared in a damaged marriage, Annalisa is dedicated only to painting. Closed off to love, and driven as much by her innate talent as she is the disillusionment of her past, Annalisa just wants to come into her own.The first step is leaving Payton Mills and everything it represents. The next, the inspiring opportunities in the city of Portland and a thriving New England art scene where Annalisa hopes to find her voice. But she meets Thomas, an Ivy League student whose attentions—and troubled family—upend her pursuits in ways she never imagined possible. As their relationship deepens, Annalisa must balance her dreams against an unexpected love. Until the unraveling of an unforgivable lie.For Annalisa, opening herself up to life and to love is a risk. It might also be the chance she needs to finally become the person and the artist she’s meant to be.

Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground


Annie Garrett - 1996
    Ten years after leaving her home to seek a career in New York, Tess, a successful celebrity journalist, returns to the Ozarks and to Branson to interview famed country artist Buck Campbell, the orphaned football player and talented singer whom she had loved in her youth.

Echoes


Maeve Binchy - 1985
    But it was years before Dr. Power's cherished only son saw in the huckster's daughter the answer to his own heart's desire. Here in Castlebay, perched precariously on the seaside cliffs, the lines between them were clearly drawn. Clare's only hope is to leave the town where time stopped, propelled by scholarships to Dublin, fueled by her own drive and brilliance, far from the insular, gossipy world of Castlebay and those in its thrall... Angela O'Hara, beautiful, isolated, a teacher trapped in the convent school, who risks everything to help Clare escape... Gerry Doyle, the town charmer who finds in Clare the woman he vows to have at any price... Caroline Nolan, the beautiful, rich outsider who comes to plunder...For Clare, that was before the wild freedom of Dublin, and love. And David.  Before fate drove them back to Castlebay, and the past...

The Rosamunde Pilcher Collection


Rosamunde Pilcher - 1992
    Reaching back into the past provides the key to true happiness in three piercingly romantic novels from the best-loved author

The Quality of Love


Rosie Harris - 2009
    Studying hard to please them, she earns a place at Cardiff University. Here she is swept off her feet by handsome Gwyn Roberts, but when she becomes pregnant her parents are devastated and turn her from their door. All Gwyn and Sarah can afford are two squalid rooms in the infamous slums of Cardiff and Sarah soon realises she's made a terrible mistake. Gwyn becomes increasingly distant and when the baby dies in infancy, he leaves Sarah with little choice but to fall on her parents' mercy. But just when Sarah is starting to pull her life back together again, she is drawn to the charms of Stefan Vaughan and finds herself in trouble once more...

Mrs. Hemingway


Naomi Wood - 2014
    Hemingway reveals the explosive love triangles that wrecked each of Hemingway's marriages.The Paris Wife was only the beginning of the story... Paula McLain's New York Times bestselling novel piqued readers' interest about Ernest Hemingway's romantic life. But Hadley was only one of four women married, in turn, to the legendary writer. Just as T.C. Boyle's bestseller The Women completed the picture begun by Nancy Horan's Loving Frank, Naomi Wood's Mrs. Hemingway tells the story of how it was to love, and be loved by, the most famous and dashing writer of his generation. Hadley, Pauline, Martha and Mary: each Mrs. Hemingway thought their love would last forever; each one was wrong. Told in four parts and based on real love letters and telegrams, Mrs. Hemingway reveals the explosive love triangles that wrecked each of Hemingway's marriages. Spanning 1920s bohemian Paris through 1960s Cold War America, populated with members of the fabled "Lost Generation," Mrs. Heminway is a riveting tale of passion, love, and heartbreak.

Somewhere to Belong


Judith McCoy Miller - 2010
    Although she's always longed to see the outside world, Johanna believes her future is rooted in the community. But when she learns a troubling secret, the world she thought she knew is shattered and she is forced to make difficult choices about a new life and the man she left behind.Berta Schumacher has lived a privileged life in Chicago, and when her parents decide they want a simpler life in Amana, Iowa, she resists. Under the strictures of the Amana villages, Berta's rebellion reaches new heights. Will her heart ever be content among the plain people of Amana?

The Dark Side of the Earl


Ella Edon - 2020
    Being a wallflower, dedicated to philanthropy, was her choice and she was happy with it.When her father sells her hand to settle his debts, Eleanor is shocked. Mainly because she has met her betrothed before. All alone, in secret, in the dark.Captain Nathan Reynolds, Earl of Brixton, was a soldier, who didn't need a bride. Upon his return to England, he is thrust, by his mother, into an arranged engagement to a heavenly creature who has never seen before. What confuses him more is that his intended seems to know him already.Despite their attraction and his sinister thoughts for Eleanor, Nathan cannot go through with the marriage until he discovers why his future was orchestrated behind his back. What begins as harmless research, quickly turns to a dangerous path.For a man with the same face as Nathan may destroy their lives before they ever walk down the aisle…Torn between light and dark, she must choose the side she belongs to…

Love the One You're With


Emily Giffin - 2008
    This is the story for anyone who has ever wondered: How can I truly love the one I'm with when I can't forget the one who got away?Ellen and Andy's first year of marriage doesn't just seem perfect, it is perfect. There is no question how deep their devotion is, and how naturally they bring out the best in each other. But one fateful afternoon, Ellen runs into Leo for the first time in eight years. Leo, the one who brought out the worst in her. Leo, the one who left her heartbroken with no explanation. Leo, the one she could never quite forget. When his reappearance ignites long-dormant emotions, Ellen begins to question whether the life she's living is the one she's meant to live. Love the One You're With is a powerful story about one woman at the crossroads of true love and real life.

Scarlet Ribbons


Emma Blair - 1991
    Left with only a pair of scarlet ribbons from her mother, she is given up for adoption. It's 1927, and an operation fixes her hip. She can now walk and run as well as any other child. Sent off to Canada as an orphan, Sadie meets Robbie on the Trikhardt's farm. Although he becomes her good friend, Sadie finds it difficult to overcome her cruel past...

The Comet Seekers


Helen Sedgwick - 2016
    And everything changes.While Róisín grew up in a tiny village in Ireland, ablaze with a passion for science and the skies and for all there is to discover about the world, François was raised by his beautiful young mother, who dreamt of new worlds but was unable to turn her back on her past.As we loop back through their lives, glimpsing each of them only when a comet is visible in the skies above, we see how their paths cross as they come closer and closer to this moment.Theirs are stories filled with love and hope and heartbreak, that show how strangers can be connected and ghosts can be real, and the world can be as lonely or as beautiful as the comets themselves.

Embers of Love


Tracie Peterson - 2010
    Unexpectedly, her best friend, Lizzie Decker, accompanies her back home--fleeing a wedding and groom she has no interest in. Deborah, the determined matchmaker, puts her sights on uniting her brother and dear friend in a true love match.Deborah soon meets Dr. Christopher Clayton, a much-needed addition to the town. As their lives intersect, Deborah realizes that she has a much greater interest in medicine and science than the bookkeeping she was trained in. But when typhoid begins to spread and Lizzie's jilted fiance returns, Deborah wonders if true love can overcome such obstacles...for those dearest to her, and for herself.

To Charm a Scarred Cowboy (Brides of Bethany Springs Book 1)


Charlotte Dearing - 2021
    The gruff cowboy is a man of honor. He’s never hesitated to risk his life and his scars bear the proof. The old wounds frighten most folks. His scarred face certainly scared off a fiancée a few years back.Since then, he’s resolved to lead a solitary life. He spends his days tending his family’s vast herds of longhorns. It’s just him, his animals, and the rugged Texas range. Life’s a tad lonesome but there’s no one to judge him.When his path crosses a woman on a runaway horse, Daniel forgets to hide his scars. The girl is in grave danger. His quick thinking saves Molly Collins, and the chance meeting draws Daniel out of seclusion.Molly is unlike any girl he’s met. Headstrong. Impossible. Aggravatingly beautiful. To his surprise, Molly leads a quiet life with no intention of marriage. Instead, Molly vows to fulfill a promise.She has no use for romance. But when Daniel learns of the danger that threatens Molly’s safety, he’ll stop at nothing to keep her safe. Even if it risks his stubborn heart.

The Prussian Captain


Ann Brough - 2017
    But life and love may be found in the most unlikely places—the poverty-stricken streets of Neck End. 1898… Edward turned twenty nine-years-old on the ship. Looking out over the gray water back towards America, his heart ached for both the country he had adopted and loved, and for the woman he had lost there. He was returning to England without having 'made good'. Without any fortune. When Edward meets Gertrude and is captivated by her youth and beauty, his hope for the future is transformed. But this is an era when the rich and poor of England each have their own firmly defined limits. More than any social boundary is a far greater problem—he’s already married. Giving a glimpse into the realities of the very wealthy and the desperately impoverished of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, The Prussian Captain is the story of two opposite lives colliding. One is marked by finery, decorum, servants, and first-class adventures crisscrossing the Atlantic. The other is stuck in a life of abuse, alcoholism, and the depressed state of the working poor of industrialized England. Start reading The Prussian Captain today and discover if Edward and Gertrude risk it all to overcome their stations in life. Will they each find what they are looking for? Find out today!

Calling Me Home


Julie Kibler - 2012
    Eighty-nine-year-old Isabelle McAllister has a favor to ask her hairdresser Dorrie Curtis. It's a big one. Isabelle wants Dorrie, a black single mom in her thirties, to drop everything to drive her from her home in Arlington, Texas, to a funeral in Cincinnati. With no clear explanation why. Tomorrow. Dorrie, fleeing problems of her own and curious whether she can unlock the secrets of Isabelle's guarded past, scarcely hesitates before agreeing, not knowing it will be a journey that changes both their lives. Over the years, Dorrie and Isabelle have developed more than just a business relationship. They are friends. But Dorrie, fretting over the new man in her life and her teenage son's irresponsible choices, still wonders why Isabelle chose her. Isabelle confesses that, as a willful teen in 1930s Kentucky, she fell deeply in love with Robert Prewitt, a would-be doctor and the black son of her family's housekeeper - in a town where blacks weren't allowed after dark. The tale of their forbidden relationship and its tragic consequences makes it clear Dorrie and Isabelle are headed for a gathering of the utmost importance and that the history of Isabelle's first and greatest love just might help Dorrie find her own way.