Book picks similar to
Yellow Mesquite by John J. Asher


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Cicada Spring


Christian Galacar - 2015
    . .On a warm May evening in the spring of 1979, the people of Heartsridge, Massachusetts, are living the American dream. Families are gathered for barbecues. Kids are playing in front yards. Gardens are being kept. Meanwhile, Kara Price stumbles home through the woods, raped and beaten, her life shattered by a wicked act of violence, perpetrated by one of the town’s most beloved and public figures. Surrounding Kara is a cast of compelling and nefarious characters—a violent-tempered mayor who can do no wrong in the eyes of the town, a sheriff bound by the rules and plagued by a guilty conscience, a father bent on revenge, a serial killer in the midst of an identity crisis. And at the center of it all there's Kara, who just wants to move on with her life and forget everything that happened to her. But how can she do that when everyone thinks she is a liar who is only out for attention? With plot and emotion braided together by a careful hand, this haunted group of people all acting on behalf of their own interests begs the question: How far would you go to protect your own?

The Sky Buries All Sorrow


Roger DeBlanck - 2013
    After she instructs him to “grow up first,” he joins the Army Air Corps. Stationed at Hickam Field, the air base adjacent to Pearl Harbor, John survives the devastation of December 7. The aftermath of the attack only begins his odyssey through the South Pacific, four years that burden him with guilt and shame. Returning home a wearied man, John seeks to start a family with Nora, but the young couple confronts hardships intensified by the harrowing memories both carry from their pasts. Amid the unrest of the Cold War and John’s worries about the arms race, he and Nora find solace in raising their daughter, Cassie. But it is not until the impact of September 11 leaves John’s grandson, Johnny DeRosa, overrun with anguish and despair that John fully comprehends how the sacrifices of his generation will have a profound influence on the decisions his grandson makes.The Sky Buries All Sorrow is a riveting, momentous novel that bridges Pearl Harbor with 9/11 and examines how those two tragic events changed the world and shaped the lives of one family over three generations. From the pivotal battles in the Pacific to the homesteads outside of Pittsburgh, and from the beaches of Southern California to the desert terrain of the Nevada Test Site, it is an unforgettable family saga and an intimate story of personal struggle and the challenges of enduring love. In the same vivid fashion as his first novel, The Ramos Brothers Trust Castro and Kennedy, Roger DeBlanck’s second epic novel explores the lives of an array of fascinating characters. The narrative also brings back Juan and Alberto Ramos, as the brothers and their father, Florencio, make appearances in The Sky Buries All Sorrow.

Before the Fall (Irish Trilogy, #2)


Orna Ross - 2012
    "A highly ambitious, engaging, and evocative novel and a hauntingly captivating read." -The Sunday IndependentWhat happens when a woman is haunted by the sins of her foremothers–and the men who betrayed them?Facing the birth of her child, and single motherhood, Jo Devereux has spent the last six months in Mucknamore, the Irish village she fled twenty years ago.A trunk of letters and diaries left by her grandmother and great-aunt has revealed a heartbreaking legacy of bitter secrets that have haunted the women of her family for four generations.Now she must find out the ultimate truth: What other secrets and lies lie under her mother’s and grandmother’s unshakeable silence? How does it connect with her failed life as a gender-bending agony aunt in San Franciso? And what of Rory… her lost love, son of her family’s sworn enemies?Will Jo’s mission to uncover the past unlock a possible future together? Or are they about to lose everything all over again?As she pieces together the poisonous fragments of the past, Jo must now face into the guilt and shame that were her legacy and see how she might best redeem them in her own life.

Uneasy Lies the Crown, A Novel of Owain Glyndwr


N. Gemini Sasson - 2012
    But when Henry of Bolingbroke, the Duke of Lancaster, usurps the throne of England from his cousin Richard II, that tranquility is forever shattered. What starts as a feud with a neighboring English lord over a strip of land evolves into something greater—a fight for the very independence of Wales.Leading his crude army of Welshmen against armor-clad columns of English, Owain wins key victories over his enemies. After a harrowing encounter on the misty slopes of Cadair Idris, the English knight Harry Hotspur offers Owain a pact he cannot resist.Peace, however, comes with a price. As tragedies mount, Owain questions whether he can find the strength within himself not only to challenge the most powerful monarch of his time, but to fulfill the prophecies and lead his people to freedom without destroying those around him.

The Glassblower's Daughter


Frances Clarke - 2010
    Even when she finds a way out betrayal and treachery threaten her.

The Practice House


Laura McNeal - 2017
    Aldine’s sister converts and moves to America to marry, and Aldine follows, hoping to find the life she’s meant to lead and the person she’s meant to love.In New York, Aldine answers an ad soliciting a teacher for a one-room schoolhouse in a place she can’t possibly imagine: drought-stricken Kansas. She arrives as farms on the Great Plains have begun to fail and schools are going bankrupt, unable to pay or house new teachers. With no money and too much pride to turn back, she lives uneasily with the family of Ansel Price—the charming, optimistic man who placed the ad—and his family responds to her with kind curiosity, suspicion, and, most dangerously, love. Just as she’s settling into her strange new life, a storm forces unspoken thoughts to the surface that will forever alter the course of their lives.Laura McNeal’s novel is a sweeping and timeless love story about leaving—and finding—home.

Perdido River Bastard


D.B. Patterson - 2014
    He is going home, to a place where generations of his eccentric storytelling kin await his first visit since his father went missing. Home to where a powerful river carves an age-old border between Florida and Alabama. Home to a family tree of hidden secrets, lies, memory, and skin colors—but there is nothing black and white about the mysteries buried in its roots. Haunted by the trauma of a terrifying childhood accident and the love of i too many Southern women, Duddy begins to excavate the bones of his family history and put his broken life back together. When tragedy suddenly strikes, a promise to return home becomes a quest to reclaim the remains of his father from a long-lost uncle living deep in the Alabama swampland.For Duddy Doogan, a journey into the heart of darkness will lead him to a shattering revelation about his own past, and a secret truth hiding in plain sight could change the lives of everyone living on the Perdido River. A Southern Multi-generational Family Saga About Race, Secrets, Truths, Love, Hate, Life, Death, and History

The Woman on the Painted Horse


Angela Christina Archer - 2014
    *NO LONGER IN PRINT*

Harm


Kathy T. Kale - 2014
    When Cory tries to describe the benefit of the cheap harmless drug in a medical journal, she incurs the wrath of the most profitable and powerful industry in America. A large pharmaceutical company, backed with the authority of the FDA and AMA, will stop at nothing to silence her. Threatened with losing everything—her reputation, career, ancestral home and more, Cory wrestles with a difficult choice and its consequences…

Lyla


Sean Dietrich - 2015
    Quinn must learn how to exist in his mother's troubled world, without being consumed by her selfishness. Written with fervor and affection for a wounded past, Lyla is an intense and personal epic about a restless woman, and the children caught in her spurring draft. Set during the Great Depression, on the upper coast of Florida, this touching story is about growing up in an achingly anguished household, and finding a way to survive. A stirring memoir that delivers the reader to a sepia-tinted world that is heartbreaking, at times shocking, and triumphant.

The Last Day For Rob Rhino (Twisted Crime #2)


Kathleen O'Donnell - 2013
    I became more immersed with every page, as the plot twisted and turned its way to the end. Kathleen O'Donnell has done an outstanding job with her first book. Can't wait to hear more from her. Hurry! – Ryker, five star review on Amazon. Claire’s a rich widow on a mission, who partakes with abandon from the pharmacy stored in her Prada purse. Rob’s an aging reality show celebrity. Stuck on the same flight, bound for the same eccentric town, she hates him on sight. She thinks she knows all there is to know about him but is dying to find out more. He’s disinterested but somehow still sees right through her. But they’ve both got big problems. Hers is in the Louis Vuitton carryon in the overhead. His is in his pants. To Claire’s dismay, Rob turns up everywhere she goes, yet they form the unlikeliest of friendships. He cares for her in ways she’s never known before. He could be the best thing in her life—or the worst. In a place full of secrets, including their own, they help each other find answers they didn’t even know they were looking for, yet some questions linger. What happened to Rob’s first wife? What happened to Claire’s husband? Will they live through the answers? The Last Day for Rob Rhino is a dark, tragic, and funny novel about the bonds of family and friendship. If you’d love a Gillian Flynn, Paula Hawkins, or Stieg Larsson novel with a humorous twist, this would be it.

Don't Wait For Me


Dan Kolbet - 2012
    The end is near, but he won't accept it. The store is all he has left of his wife and he can't let it go. Failure and loss have led him to a dark place.After a chance encounter with a shoplifter, he stumbles upon the help of Amelia Cook, who is struggling with her own loss. Through one holiday season the two of them hatch a plan to save the store and in turn touch the lives of everyone they know. What follows is a wonderful, but tragic tale of love, loss and new beginnings.

Dandelion Summer


Mary Ellen Bramwell - 2019
    But missing him is soon replaced with the challenges and surprises right in front of her. What is her mother hiding? Why has her grandfather disappeared from their lives? Unraveling the mysteries brings about unexpected discoveries and connections, ultimately leading her to know herself and understand what matters most.

Black Sands


Carl Goodman - 2014
    "You. I recognise you. Why did you say that? Why did you say that about the bank?"She knelt. Frozen, too scared to move or speak. He snapped open the barrel.“You really are going to tell me,” he whispered, and slipped another blood-red round into the gun.Danny Bowen is the reluctant hacktivist who founded Nameless, the collective with attitude and ability whose exposure of global surveillance shook the world. But bringing down governments wasn’t part of Danny’s plan, and he got out before things went too far. Most of the collective found themselves in jail, only the brilliant Cassandra managed to outwit the security services. Danny might have retained his freedom but he’s lost everything else. His best friends, his job, and part of himself. Now he’s a lonely ex-black hat with a mark against his name, scraping a living in information security. But someone wants his attention. Hired to investigate an attack on Hamilton Private Equity he instead uncovers a plot on an unimaginable scale. It’s no coincidence somebody wants him to take the job. Danny knows that on Zero Day ordinary people will bear the brunt of this next attack. It’s his last chance to atone for his failures, and to prove he’s still the best. Hooked into a deadly race with a group of ultra-violent Russian Mafia and a sociopathic search-engine billionaire Danny must find the key before it’s too late. He has nothing to lose. They have everything to gain. Literally, everything.

The Last Encore


Julia Butler - 2014
    From a family of poor factory workers, Katherine rises far above her station in life and moves to the United States with her successful-though-controlling husband, yet knowing in her heart that her soul mate is still out there. Meanwhile, Daniel Adler, a young German writer is enveloped by a deep sadness from which he cannot escape, sensing a dark secret in his family’s past. Searching for the love he has never known, he embarks on a journey to Los Angeles, obsessed with a red-haired beauty who disappeared after their brief and inexplicable encounter in an ominous forest. An old actress, Lily Bernard, is tormented by guilt for some horrible act she’d been a part of in a distant past. A music appassionato, she finds a chance to atone for her sins when her path crosses Katherine’s. The Last Encore is an erotic tale of unspeakable passion, a sophisticated, timeless-but-modern romance laced with mysterious interconnections of love, conspiracy, and fate.