Book picks similar to
Five of Hearts by Sonali Dabade


asian-literature
short-stories-tbr
src-prime-or-ku

The Gamekeeper's Wife


Clare Flynn - 2018
    Christopher Shipley is the reluctant heir to a substantial family fortune. He has more money than he needs or wants – but responsibilities he can’t shirk. She has nothing, and now stands to lose even her home. They were never meant to fall in love …but sometimes you know the wrong person is the right one. Until one day a terrible secret is revealed which will force them apart. A story of love, duty, sacrifice and determination in the aftermath of the First World War. From an English country house to the jungles of Borneo The Gamekeeper’s Wife is sure to keep you up reading all night.

From Rufio to Zuko


Dante Basco - 2019
    Basco ruminates on the formative power of his Filipino-American heritage, his family, the dynamics that evolved throughout his career, and his experiences behind playing a couple of America's most popular characters.

Passing Under Heaven


Justin Hill - 2004
    Set in the 9th century, Passing Under Heaven tells the tragic love story of Lily, a Chinese poet and documents a time when Chinese women enjoyed a window of unprecedented personal freedom - including the freedom to fall in love. But when Lily pushes that freedom to its limits disaster ensues, leaving her child and husband to forever mourn her loss.Based on historical fact, Passing Under Heaven is more than the story of the end of a love affair, this book also chronicles the passing of the Chinese golden age into civil war and ruin.

The Youthful You Who Was So Beautiful


Jiu Yue Xi - 2016
    She is preparing for university exams at a cram school. When the police begins to investigate the suicide of her classmate, Chen Nian, who had inadvertently witnessed a bullying scene, decides to stay silent in fear of getting bullied herself. However, Chen Nian ultimately manages to gather her courage and expose the bullies for who they are, thus ending up as their new target. To protect herself from the wrath of the bullies, Chen Nian attempts to seek protection from various sources to no avail. Finally, Chen Nian is reduced to seeking protection from the tough street kid Bei Ye, who has a soft spot for Chen Nian.Resource: Dramas, Books & Tea

His Guardian Angel


David Horne - 2018
    The next time he meets the handsome trauma nurse, he’s hiding from the world in his twin brother’s luxurious beach house, trying to heal the wounds in his soul. He still can’t wrap his mind around losing his partner on that fateful night. The last thing Caesar wants on his vacation is company. He wants to hide until he can bury his pain. He isn’t expecting to fall for anyone, either. But he can’t hide from his feelings for Lucas. Lucas Cameron has accepted his friend’s invitation to spend his holiday in Gary’s vacation home on a small island, after six years as a trauma nurse in the ER at Bellhaven General. This will be his first real vacation since he started there. He doesn’t expect Caesar Polanco, the hard-nosed police detective he had cared for on that horrific night months ago, to be his vacation neighbor. The man had made an impression on him back then, despite his injuries, and now, six months later, even his grouchiness does nothing to stop Lucas' attraction to him. Neither man is looking to start a relationship, but they’re falling for each other. Can they find common ground, despite Caesar’s overwhelming grief? Please Note: This book contains adult language & steamy adult activities, it is intended for 18+ Adults Only. Novel, approx. 31,000 words in length. HEA (happy ever after ending). Does not end with a "cliffhanger."

Uncaged Hearts


Sloane Easton - 2017
     Declan's adoptive daughter, Katie, has struggled with her shyness for years, but after a few weeks with Ivan, her new English teacher, she's suddenly coming out of her shell. When Declan meets this miracle worker, he can't help but fall for the scholarly man. No wonder his daughter has improved so much: Ivan has an inspiring way about him. But does Ivan have any interest in other men? Ivan thought he had achieved his purpose in life. He managed to land a job at a respectable private elementary school, and has a small class of students who hang on to his every word. However, life at home is rather empty and quiet—save for his blasphemous parrot. After he meets Katie's father, he can't get his thoughts off the man, until finally they both decide to start meeting outside the school grounds. What follows is an emotional awakening neither of them knew they needed. Uncaged Hearts is a standalone novel featuring two hot men, a cute kid, a mischievous parrot, and a happy ending for all four of them!

Autumn Bridge


Takashi Matsuoka - 2004
    As she calmly awaits her fate, she begins to write, carefully setting down on a scroll the secret history of the Okumichi clan…of the gift of prophecy they share and the extraordinary destiny that awaits them. For six centuries, these remarkable writings lay hidden—until they are uncovered by an American woman, a missionary named Emily Gibson, who arrived in Edo harbor in 1861, in flight from a tragic past. Soon an extraordinary man would enter her life: Lord Genji of the Okumichi clan, a nobleman with a gift of prophecy who must defend his embattled family—and confront forbidden feelings for an outsider in his midst. Emily, too, soon finds herself at a turning point; courted by two westerners, she knows her heart belongs to the one man she cannot have. But Emily has found a mission of her own: translating Genji’s ancestral history, losing herself in an epic tale of heroism and forbidden love. For here is the story of Lady Shizuka, the beautiful witch-princess who has enchanted Okumichi men for generations…of Genji’s ancestors, Lord Hironobu and Lord Kiyori, and of the terrible betrayals that befell them…and of Genji’s parents: a wastrel father and his child bride whose tragic love has shaped Genji as a leader and as a man. As Emily sifts through the fragile scrolls, she begins to see threads of her own life woven into the ancient writings. And as past and present collide, a hidden history comes to life, and with it a secret prophecy that has been shrouded for centuries, and may now finally be revealed. Takashi Matsuoka’s spellbinding novel is infused with spectacle, intricately woven, magically told. Autumn Bridge is a feast for the senses, a work of truly dazzling storytelling.From the Hardcover edition.

Blow Me


Mari Thorne - 2020
    That was, until he kissed me at my graduation party and I freaked out, ran away, and didn’t come back for three years. Now I’m home, conflicted about my future, and determined to repair our broken friendship, though it seems he’ll never forgive me for hurting him.Aaron: Three years ago, I made a huge mistake. I kissed my friend at his graduation party. My very straight friend that I had a huge crush on. Because I couldn’t keep my lips to myself, he ran away and ghosted me. Oh well, his loss, right? Since then, I’ve moved on with my life, or so I thought.Brady’s back in town, and I don't want anything to do with him. Then, he kisses me, leaving me reeling once again. But that doesn’t mean I plan on forgiving him. I didn’t think I’d find myself in a position to need his help, though. When he steps up to help my brass band out, he’s in my life again whether I want him there or not.Blow Me is a 55,000 word friends-to-lovers novel about finding your soulmate through music, the unbreakable bond of high school band, forgiveness, and choosing what makes you happy. It features a bisexual awakening, humorous moments, steamy scenes, a small-town brass band, a pug named Petunia, and trumpets.

Reportage on Lovers: A Medley of Factual Romances, Happy or Tragical, Most of Which Made News


Quijano de Manila - 1977
    Plus the portrait of a hip chick from then Swinging London as she discourses indelicately on a most delicate topic: the Filipino as Lover.

Into the Deep End


Leesa Freeman - 2015
    He once dreamt of winning Olympic gold and escaping his crappy little New Mexico town, but that dream shattered the night a drunk driver took his twin sister and confined him to a wheelchair. Mourning Bethany and struggling to cope with his new paraplegic life, Luke is blind with rage at everyone and everything. Adriana Toomey, the only other survivor of the crash, can barely crawl out of bed after burying her fiance, Luke's best friend. But what haunts her most, she has no memory of that fatal night. An old friend who manages a camp for special needs kids, strong-arms the broken pair to act as counselors for three weeks. Seeing each other again is painful. Luke reminds Adriana too much of the man she was going to marry. Luke, who secretly loves his best friend's girl, has no idea how to be the kind of man any woman would want. Disabled and destroyed, what could he possibly have to offer now? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything."

Jumping from Helicopters: A Vietnam Memoir


John Stillman - 2018
    Quickly falling in love with the rush of being a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne, he believed his service would honorably help the South Vietnamese protect their country from the ruthless communist North and their Southern allies. But once in the volatile jungles of Vietnam, the merciless hunting and killing of the enemy, constant threat of landmines and booby traps, ambushes that could easily backfire, and deaths of his comrades made Stillman question how any man—if he survived—could ever return to his life as he’d known it. Written with John’s daughter, Lori Stillman, Jumping from Helicopters is a vivid and moving memoir that unearths fifty years of repressed memories with stunning accuracy and raw details. Interwoven with the author’s own journal entries and including thirty-five photographs, it is a story that will open your eyes to what these brave young men witnessed and endured, and why they returned facing a lifetime of often unspoken unrest, persistent nightmares, and forced normalcy, haunting even the strongest of soldiers.

A Woman of Angkor


John Burgess - 2013
    In a village behind a towering stone temple lives a young woman named Sray, whom neighbors liken to the heroine of a Hindu epic. Hiding a dangerous secret, she is content with quiet obscurity, but one rainy season afternoon is called to a life of prominence in the royal court. There her faith and loyalties are tested by attentions from the great king Suryavarman II. Her husband Nol, palace confidante and master of the silk parasols that were symbols of the monarch's rank, struggles to keep her devotion.This lovingly crafted first novel by former Washington Post correspondent John Burgess revives the rites and rhythms of the ancient culture that built the temples of Angkor, then abandoned them to the jungle. In telling her tale, Sray takes the reader to a hilltop monastery, a concubine pavilion and across the seas to the throne room of imperial China. She witnesses the construction of the largest of the temples, Angkor Wat, and offers an explanation for its greatest mystery--why it broke with centuries of tradition to face west instead of east.

Hot Mess


Zane Menzy - 2020
    It is a humiliating ordeal for the uptight 26-year-old who swore he would never return to the place he was bullied mercilessly as an unpopular teen.A welcoming distraction comes Kieran's way though when his brother's best friend, the fun-loving Ziggy Zurakowski, invites him for a weekend away to a secluded cabin. Kieran jumps at the opportunity, keen to try and forget his troubles for a few days. However, it soon becomes apparent Ziggy has more than just rest and relaxation on his mind.Kieran doesn't know what to do. Sure, Ziggy is an incredibly handsome guy but Kieran's straight... Isn't he? As Ziggy turns up the charm, and the sexual tension between them increases to boiling point, Kieran realizes he's fighting a losing battle. What follows is a night of reckless passion filled with deviant exploits that take Kieran places he needed to go, exploring things he needed to explore, but...But what happens now?HOT MESS is a standalone gay romance packed with scorching hot scenes and the promise of new beginnings. It was very briefly released as a novella titled Something So Right but has been rewritten and extended by 25,000+ words.

Blurred Lines


L.C. Davis - 2020
    I don't just play by the rulebook, I've devoted my life to it as a law student--much to the chagrin of the alpha males around me. When my twin falls for a heavily inked alpha who runs a tattoo studio alongside his equally disreputable brother, James, my buttoned-up world is turned on its head. I'm planning a tattoo of my own, but having just one is different, isn't it?Beautiful yet stuffy Shan and I have never gotten along. When he shows up at my studio and shocks me by announcing he's there for a tattoo, I end up being the one to leave my mark on his skin--and after a reckless one-time encounter, he leaves a mark on my heart that I'm afraid will never fade...Blurred Lines is a short and sweet novella prequel to the Inked & Marked series, which revolves around inked alpha males and the omegas who keep them in line. Blurred Lines features a snarky, driven omega and a gentle giant alpha who helps him learn to embrace his wild side.Themes Include: Mate marking, surprise baby, enemies-to-lovers romance, and a guaranteed HEA.

Ben Singkol


F. Sionil José - 2001
    He ran away again from his foxhole in Bataan when the Japanese were closing in. and through much of his life, even when he had become comfortable, he still ran away, haunted by the poverty of his boyhood, of the treachery that he may have committed. This is Benjamin Singkol—perhaps the most interesting character ever created by F. Sionil José. After World War II, Sionil Jose enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas and came under the wing of Paz Latorena, one of the country’s foremost writers and literature teachers and the Dominican writer, Juan Labrador. He worked in journalism and developed his distinctively direct narrative style.Sionil José is best known for his epic work, the Rosales saga—five novels which encompass a hundred years of Philippine history, from 1872 when the three Filipino priests—Gomez, Burgos and Zamora—were martyred, to 1972 when Marcos declared Martial Law.