Book picks similar to
Home Before Dark by Eileen Bassing
fiction
mental-illness
tbr-mystery-thriller
teen-reads
The Obstacle Course
J.F. Freedman - 1994
F. Freedman presents The Obstacle Course, a coming-of-age story that recounts the adventures of a colorful, profane, street-smart, and appealing fifteen-year-old boy growing up in 1957 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Roy Poole has to be smart because he is almost always on his own. His father is a drinker, womanizer, and wife-beater. His mother can't cope with her husband or her children; Roy copes by running with his own gang, whose escapades sometimes border on the criminal. And this young man is eminently available when the girls come after him, which is often. But there is another side to Roy. He builds model ships and regularly hitchhikes to Annapolis to run the Naval Academy's grueling obstacle course. For Roy Poole's one ambition in life, his consuming dream, is to become a midshipman. One day, like a gift from heaven, Roy meets a retired admiral who also builds model ships. The admiral is immediately attracted to the youngster, and he becomes almost a second father to the boy. Admiral Wells arranges for Roy to be admitted to a military prep school that sends most of its graduates to the Naval Academy. And then, suddenly, Roy's innocence brings about an explosion in this exotic world he has entered. Embittered and lost, Roy strikes out blindly for parts unknown. And on that adventure, particularly in an encounter with members of a black church, people that he, a Southerner in the fifties, has never known except as stereotypes, he begins the process of understanding that offers him a chance for his own redemption. This powerful and gritty coming-of-age novel will evoke memories of Holden Caulfield and Huck Finn. It also bears comparison to the novels of Pat Conroy. Best of all, The Obstacle Course confirms Freedman's talent for telling a compelling story in a full and rich original voice that marks him as a novelist with a limitless future.
The Bank Robber Diaries
Danny King - 2002
He aspires to be like him in every way and moulds his whole personality around armed robbery so that this is all he lives for. He holds normal working people (or plebs, as he calls them) in contempt and tries to ape Gavin without truly understanding what it is that makes him tick. When Gavin gets sentenced to 15 years in prison, Chris steps into his boots and tries to take over as head of a small crew of blaggers. He complicates things further by having an affair with Heather, Gavin's wife, while neglecting his own treacherous, money-grabbing partner, Debbie. A mistake that could cost him his life.
Like Father Like Daughter
Anne Baker - 1992
Seduced and left pregnant by the son of the family, she feels forced to marry the butler, but finds herself condemned to a life of abuse and poverty.Only her love for her daughter, Laura, keeps Elin going. Laura grows up with her natural father's intelligence and drive, as well as his talent for business, and when she seizes the chance to buy an ailing company, it is the start of a meteoric career. But Laura's personal life is less of a success, and it will take a twist of fate to enable Laura and her mother to find love and happiness.
The Crossroads Brotherhood Trilogy
Robert Fabbri - 2014
In each of these exclusive e-novellas, Marcus Salvius Magnus, leader of the Crossroads Brotherhood, must overcome his own problems whilst battling his way through Rome's savage and corrupt political arena.
The Quilting Bee
De-ann Black - 2019
She plans to bake cakes and sew quilts.Romance isn’t on her agenda, especially as she’s been unlucky in love in the past. But when she joins the ladies quilting bee, they encourage her to believe that romance is brewing when a couple of the local men take an interest in her.While setting up her quilting and baking business in the cottage, Abby becomes a busy bee, but will she make time to take a chance on love?
Apache Snow
William L. Casselman - 2015
While the characters are fictional, the battle was very real and when it was over 70 Americans were killed in action, 420 were wounded and 633 North Vietnamese were confirmed dead. Matthew Kendal, a pastor’s youngest son from a white middle-class California background, enlists in the army and volunteers for service in Vietnam to avenge his brother’s death; a Green Beret sergeant killed in 1968. During training Matthew becomes close friends with John Adams, a tough-skinned Afro-American youth from the poorer neighborhoods right outside our nation’s capital, and Jose Martinez, a street wise Chicano from East Los Angeles. Together they experience the rigors of Airborne training and journey to Vietnam to become Screaming Eagles, of the 101st Airborne. Placed in 2nd Squad, the story follows the actual events surrounding D Company during the intense battle for Hill # 937, which would later be known as the “Battle for Hamburger Hill”.
SORROW - The Sighted Sister (The Revenge Series)
Ann Robbins-Phillips - 2013
Enticed by promises of work with good pay, people flock to textile mills in the South. Many leave their beloved mountains for what they hope is a step up from their grinding poverty. It’s guaranteed pay and housing. Being the sighted sister of the Hooper/Watson family, Lottie is grieved by a dream that sorrow will come to her home. Yet, she leaves Cocke County, Tennessee, with Beck Radford, her new husband, and her four children from a previous, abusive marriage, and goes to Clifton, South Carolina. Lottie is a stranger to village life and close neighbors. Life is harder than any of them imagined. In spite of hard work, widespread poverty remains a fact of life for everyone in the mill town. Lottie’s “gift” of second sight into the future is not an ability she would’ve chosen. One event she didn't see coming, yet someone else did, rips apart their life, as well as everyone’s around them.
The Alliance Trilogy
Michael Wallace - 2019
The aliens are Adjudicators, an ancient race whose ethos is to judge other species and reduce their survivors to a stone age existence.Tolvern sends a desperate message back to headquarters and retreats with her damaged ship to friendly systems. By the time she returns, the aliens have already invaded Alliance territory with a powerful fleet of star fortresses and accompanying dragoon ships, trapping and laying siege to the allied fleet.While repairing her ship, Tolvern cobbles together a squadron of damaged allied warships, former raiders, and the local survivors of an Adjudicator attack to drive off the alien fleet.The following books are included in this set:Alliance StarsAlliance ArmadaAlliance Insurgent
Keep Swinging (Kindle Single)
Rick Marin - 2012
Until his 6-year-old son utters the four most powerful words in the English language: “Dad, will you coach?”Keep Swinging chronicles the rookie season of an indoorsy TV writer raising two alpha boys whose life turns around when he gets off the sidelines, puts on a jersey that’s three sizes too big and and throws himself into the world of kids sports. An inspiring, funny, at times gut-wrenching tale for every father and son who’ve ever picked up a bat, ball or hockey puck, it’s also a story about marriage, career, surviving life’s slumps and how you’re supposed to make men out of your boys, but they end up making a man out of you. The author of the bestselling memoir Cad: Confessions of a Toxic Bachelor writes his next chapter.
Up Sticks: Spain: Book two follows the happy go lucky couple as they discover the Costa Brava
Tim Thomas - 2015
The plan now was to gradually work their way down the Mediterranean coast over the rest of the summer before finding somewhere nice and warm in the South of the country to spend the winter months. More rib tickling escapades unfold on their road trip as they find themselves in often hilarious, sometimes scary and sometimes toe curling predicaments. So why not travel along with them now as they realize their dreams of a life in the sun, exploring the beautiful Spanish countryside. 'Having met this couple in person, I know they are the real deal ! I have had the privilege of hearing their true life stories, warts and all, for real, and yet reading them all over again still brings laughter! If you are thinking of travelling, or not, read THIS, if it does not bring a smile to you face...nothing will.' by Squidly. 'These two and their dogs!!!! I don't know how or why they're still alive??? Absolutely hilarious exploits by this crazy couple. Love it !!!' by Mr. J. Radcliffe.
From Condos to Castles: A Medieval Time Travel Romance (The Time Orb Series Book 5)
Callie Berkham - 2021
The Noble Widow: A Lodero Western Adventure
Robert R. Peecher Jr. - 2018
A widow trying to save the ranch she inherited. Lodero is no ordinary drifter. He is fast and deadly accurate with his Colt Peacemakers. And now he is on the trail to discover why his father left for the gold fields and all that returned home was an empty trunk. Maria Noble is no ordinary rancher. The widow of a wealthy man, Maria’s future is threatened by her dead husband’s son who believes he should have rightful claim to his father’s ranch. When their paths cross, Maria Noble can give Lodero a glimpse of his future, but he’ll never live that future if he cannot first resolve the past. And if she is going to protect her ranch, Maria must look to the Peacemakers on the gun belt of her new cowpuncher. Joined by his Tejano friend who served with the Texas Rangers, Lodero is on a quest to discover the truth of what happened to his father. But he is bound by honor to do what he can for The Noble Widow. If you enjoy high-action Westerns set on the high plains, rich characters who are haunted by their pasts but with great aspirations for their futures, and a mystery unfolding against the backdrop of the American Southwest, then you will love the Lodero Western series. So check that your Peacemakers are loaded, cinch up your saddle, and join the ride with Lodero and Juan Carlos Baca in The Noble Widow, Book 1 of the Lodero Western Series. Click "Buy Now" and start this epic Western with Lodero and Juan Carlos Baca today.
Blood on the Island
Stewart Giles - 2020
There is no indication of where the man came from - his hands and teeth have been removed and he has a crude tattoo of a dragon on his back.When another similarly mutilated body is found, O'Reilly and his new team realise they're on the hunt for a deranged killer.O'Reilly is getting closer to the truth when the case is suddenly taken away from him. The Guernsey Border Agency, headed up by the arrogant DCI Franklin Urban has their own ideas as to who is behind these brutal murders and argue that the jurisdiction is now theirs.O'Reilly left Dublin behind but his past soon catches up with him in the form of a Belfast thug employed by a man O'Reilly owes money to. When O'Reilly's daughter is threatened by these people he persuades her to join him on the island so he can keep an eye on her. Soon he's faced with a choice - he can either do what these people tell him and risk everything he has, or he can defy them and spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder.Meanwhile, as DCI Urban and the Border Agency believe they're getting closer to the truth, O'Reilly has his own theories and as these suspicions are proved correct he comes face to face with one of the most depraved killers he's ever come across.BOOKS BY STEWART GILESDS JASON SMITH SERIESBook 0.5-PhobiaBook 1-SmithBook 2-BoomerangBook 3-LadybirdBook 4-Occam’s RazorBook 5-HarlequinBook 6-SeleneBook 7-HorsemenBook 8-UnworthyBook 9 – VenomBook 10 – SeveredBook 11 – DemonsBook 12 - DeadeyeDC HARRIET TAYLOR SERIESBook 1-The BeekeeperBook 2-The Perfect MurderBook 3-The BackpackerTrotterdown a box set of DC Harriet Taylor books 1-3DS JASON SMITH &DC HARRIET TAYLOR SERIESBook 1 - The EnigmaBook 2 – DropzoneBook 3 – The Raven Girl (coming soon)PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERSMirandaMistressMedusa (coming soon)STANDALONE HORRORThe DivideDI O’REILLY MYSTERIESBlood on the Island
The Luxury Orphanage
Grant Finnegan - 2020
Ravenstone House, built in the early 1800s, was once a majestic home. Then it was used as an orphanage for decades. When it closed its doors in 1956, the building lay derelict for more than thirty years.In its neighbourhood, the house is well known for being haunted. But only when it is converted into luxury flats do the dark secrets from its past come to light. The unexpected events that follow will upend the lives of the residents as the tortured souls trapped beneath Ravenstone reveal themselves to demand justice.Get us to where we belong.It's not our fault.We did nothing wrong.