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Life From Scratch
Melissa Ford - 2010
And so is her kitchen.Divorced, heartbroken and living in a lonely New York apartment with a tiny kitchen, Rachel Goldman realizes she doesn't even know how to cook the simplest meal for herself. Can learning to fry an egg help her understand where her life went wrong? She dives into the culinary basics. Then she launches a blog to vent her misery about life, love and her goal of an unburnt casserole. To her amazement, the blog's a hit. She becomes a minor celebrity. Next, a sexy Spaniard enters her life. Will her souffles stop falling? Will she finally forget about the husband she still loves? And how can she explain to her readers that she still hasn't learned how to cook up a happy life from scratch?
Stable Mates
Zara Stoneley - 2014
Home to lords and ladies, horsemen and farmers, and plenty of secrets and scandals…Leaving a scumbag ex behind her, Lottie Brinkley has hotfooted it out of Spain and back home to the country in serious need of some flirtatious fun to soothe her aching heart.Luckily for her she’s spoilt for choice with not one but three eligible bachelors offering a steamy romp in the hay! But faced with the attentions of roguish eventer Rory Steel, the smiling Irish eyes of hunky farrier Mick O’Neal, and mysterious newcomer Tom Strachan, how can she possibly choose?When billionaire landowner Marcus James drops dead unexpectedly, his WAGish wife Amanda threatens to sell the heart of the village and sets her sights on Tom! It seems things are heating up for little Tippermere… both in and out of the saddle.A hilarious, sexy rom com perfect for fans of Jilly Cooper!
A Secret Worth Keeping
Lakisha Johnson - 2013
They are all career women with different businesses or careers, husbands and even children but something is missing, something they can't find at home, in a store or even in a book. So, they search for this missing piece in the beds, arms, cars, offices and even in storage rooms of other men who don't mind paying for what Dem Dam Divas can offer. They enjoy the thrill of sneaking, creeping and even vacationing on someone else's dime but what happens when it all becomes too much? From being found guilty with no evidence, secretly wanting someone who doesn't want you, loving only to not be loved back, caught up in a dream that you're about to be awaken from; will it be worth it in the end? Will their secret lives be revealed and will it become too much to handle? Will they regret their actions or stand by them? Will they finally question whether this secret is really worth keeping?
Promises, Promises
Patricia Scanlan - 1997
The saying "love is blind" could have been invented for the wayward Ellen, whose life changes for ever when she leaves the ebony darkness and winding country roads of Glenree for the bright lights of the city. It is there she falls in love with Chris Wallace, a skunk of the highest order. A tale of love and heartbreak, laughter and tears, this is a moving novel will strike a chord with anyone who has loved a scoundrel.
The Lost Hours
Karen White - 2009
For twelve years, it remained untouched.Now a near fatal riding accident has shattered Piper’s dreams of Olympic glory. After her grandfather’s death, she inherits the house and all its secrets, including a key to a room that doesn’t exist—or does it? And after her grandmother is sent away to a nursing home, she remembers the box buried in the backyard. In it are torn pages from a scrapbook, a charm necklace—and a newspaper article from 1939 about the body of an infant found floating in the Savannah River. The necklace’s charms tell the story of three friends during the 1930s— each charm added during the three months each friend had the necklace and recorded her life in the scrapbook. Piper always dismissed her grandmother as not having had a story to tell. And now, too late, Piper finds she might have been wrong.
William Walker's First Year Of Marriage: A Horror Story
Matt Rudd - 2009
The happy couple live in a small flat in Finsbury Park while William labours away at his magazine, revelling in his recent promotion from a column for which he was required to taste different brands of cat food to more dignified reportage. So far, so perfect.But William has a Bridget Jones-ish knack for messing up the happiest of situations - he can′t help shouting at the obnoxiously precocious work experience girl and has an embarrassing tendency to forget names of women he has previously tried to sleep with. It doesn′t help that Isabel′s creepy best friend Alex is very obviously in love with her. Nor that Saskia, a vixen-ish old flame of William′s, has just moved in downstairs. As Alex slithers his way into Isabel′s heart, Saskia seems intent of resuming relations with William - or at least giving Isabel that impression.Increasingly beset, increasingly unlucky, and increasingly hilarious, William battles his way through a series of comic disasters that threaten to destroy his relationship and reduce him to a state of sad bachelorhood - a fate, he soon realises, worse than death.
The Child I Never Had
Kate Hewitt - 2022
She opens the door to see a teenage girl standing in the shadow beyond the porch light—and in an instant she knows who it is. Daisy, the daughter she gave up as a baby. Daisy steps forward, as she says tearfully “I’m sorry I didn’t call first. But something happened. And I really needed… you.”Seventeen years before, knowing she couldn’t possibly give her beautiful little girl Daisy the future she deserved, Mia made the hardest decision of her life—to give her up. And Suzanne seemed the perfect adoptive mother: calm, stable, and full of love for the daughter she’d always dreamed of having. The two mothers promised to keep communication open, so Daisy could have Mia’s love and support along with Suzanne’s. But as the years passed, Mia moved away, and their visits happened less. Now Daisy is almost a stranger to Mia—angry, closed and broken—nothing like the tiny girl she once couldn’t bear to say goodbye to.But now Daisy has arrived on Mia’s doorstep, and she says she has a terrible secret. One she can never tell Suzanne. And she believes the only person who can help her is Mia. Her birth mother.Mia, however, has secrets of her own. Ones she is afraid to let Daisy or anyone else know. And while Suzanne desperately seeks a way to bring her child home, can Mia overcome her past to help the girl they both call their daughter in her darkest hour before it’s too late? Totally gripping emotional women’s fiction from the author guaranteed to make readers cry. Kate Hewitt’s story will grab you by the heartstrings and never let you go. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Diane Chamberlain and Jojo Moyes.
Three Fat Singletons
J.M. Bartholomew - 2013
Together they explore the fat-underworld of London including blind dates, Internet dating, phone sex and the possibilities of lifetime celibacy.When a week-long getaway to Greece turns into a whirlwind of romance, sex and horrific embarrassment, each one of them will have to decide what they really want in life.
All the Beautiful Girls
Elizabeth J. Church - 2018
When she was eight years old, Lily Decker somehow survived the auto accident that killed her parents and sister, but neither her emotionally distant aunt nor her all-too-attentive uncle could ease her grief. Dancing proves to be Lily's only solace, and eventually she receives a "scholarship" to a local dance academy--courtesy of a mysterious benefactor.Grown and ready to leave home for good, Lily changes her name to Ruby Wilde and heads to Las Vegas to be a troupe dancer, but her sensual beauty and voluptuous figure land her work instead as a showgirl performing everywhere from Les Folies Bergere at the Tropicana to the Stardust's Lido de Paris. Wearing costumes dripping with feathers and rhinestones, five-inch heels, and sky-high headdresses, Ruby may have all the looks of a Sin City success story, but she still must learn to navigate the world of men--and figure out what real love looks like.With her uncanny knack for understanding the hidden lives of women, Elizabeth J. Church captures both the iconic extravagance of an era and the bravery of a young woman who dances through her sadness to find connection, freedom, and, most important, herself.Advance praise for All the Beautiful Girls"A riveting novel, at once raw and tender, of a woman's struggle to heal the wounds of a devastating childhood . . . Elizabeth J. Church makes us feel Ruby Wilde's pain and root for her to survive. This is a heartbreaking story, passionately told."--Ellen Feldman, author of Next to LovePraise for Elizabeth J. Church's The Atomic Weight of Love"Oh, what an incandescent debut! Church follows one extraordinary woman who is brave to enough to challenge the times, take defiant wing, and chart her own extraordinary flight path. The Atomic Weight of Love is so engrossing I couldn't wait to read another page, and so alive I never wanted the story to end."--Caroline Leavitt, author of Is This Tomorrow"A tightly crafted novel."--The New York Times Book Review"Exquisite . . . the beautifully written story of a woman who must negotiate the tricky terrain of love, responsibility, ambition, and sacrifice. . . . It shows the impossible choices women faced--and still face--between family and self."--Tara Conklin, author of The House Girl"What does love require of us? How does one strike a balance between compromise and self-fulfillment? In her debut novel, Church writes to these issues in a style that is thoughtful and elegant. . . . Church hits the mark in this emotionally driven debut."--Library Journal"A striking story of a woman forced to choose between the future she desires or the path society insists she take."
--Harper's Bazaar
"An elegant glimpse into the evolution of love and womanhood."--Kirkus Reviews
That Girl From Nowhere
Dorothy Koomson - 2015
‘I'm from nowhere.'‘Everyone's from somewhere,' he says.‘Not me,' I reply silently.Clemency Smittson was adopted as a baby and the only connection she has to her birth mother is a cardboard box hand-decorated with butterflies. Now an adult, Clem decides to make a drastic life change and move to Brighton, where she was born. Clem has no idea that while there she'll meet someone who knows all about her butterfly box and what happened to her birth parents.As the tangled truths about her adoption and childhood start to unravel, a series of shocking events cause Clem to reassess whether the price of having contact with her birth family could be too high to pay...An emotional story about love, identity and the meaning of family, That Girl From Nowehere is the new novel from the bestselling author of The Ice Cream Girls, The Woman He Loved Before and My Best Friend's Girl.
The Waitress
Melissa Nathan - 2004
In the meantime, she's waiting tables and waiting for "Mr. Right" to arrive out of the blue -- which seems unlikely, considering her romantic track record is as pitiful as her job history.The Main CourseStill, a girl can dream, even when she's rushing a hot plate of linguini over to the nasty customer at table six. So when gorgeous, sensitive, perfect Dan Crichton asks her out, Katie's over the moon. But once again, commitment phobia rears its ugly head and dinner turns into the Great First Date Disaster -- and Katie's ideal romance is over before the goodnight kiss.The Just DessertsThings are tough when a woman wants it all and will not settle -- and has a little trouble making up her mind. But it's about to get really complicated for the Queen of Complications.The BillNot only is Dan coming back -- as her new boss and engaged to someone else -- but persistent Ex-Boyfriend #3 Hugh's back too, with a vengeance. And suddenly there's a lot more on her tray than even the most able food service professional could safely handle ...
For All the Wrong Reasons
Louise Bagshawe - 2002
She's rich, British and beautiful, with a designer wardrobe to die for. Recently married to the head of a publishing empire, she fills her days with shopping, gossiping, and hosting the hottest parties in town.But when she discovers her husband is having an affair, her glamorous bubble bursts. She suddenly finds herself without any money or job skills, shunned by the glittering society she once ruled. On her own for the first time, she takes the only job she can get, exchanges her Manolo Blahniks for Payless, and tries to settle into the life of a woman who does her own laundry, buys her own groceries, and takes the bus. Along the way, she discovers that her handsome new boss might be interested in more than her pretty face, and that she just might make it on her own.
Foreign Fruit
Jojo Moyes - 2003
That is, in the eyes of young Lottie and Celia, members of the respectable Holden family who like nothing more than escaping the family home to explore.So when a group of Bohemians move into Arcadia, a grand Art Deco house on the seafront, Lottie and Celia are tempted into their alternative way of living . What ensues at the house has tragic and long-lasting consequences for all.Now almost fifty years on, Arcadia is being renovated, once again arousing strong feelings for the town's veterans. And as the house returns to life, so do the secrets buried within it from all those years ago, prompting the question: can you ever leave your past behind?
Meg's Melody
Kaylee Baldwin - 2010
She gives birth to a little girl, Melody, and finds comfort in her music and in the friendship of a tender-hearted gynecologist.
The Other Family
Joanna Trollope - 2010
Yet there is one more shock to come when Richie’s will is read. It seems he never forgot the wife and son he left behind years ago—Margaret, who lives a quiet life of routine and work, and Scott, who never knew his famous father. Now two families are left to confront their losses and each other, and none of them will ever be the same. Witty, intelligent, and insightful, The Other Family is a story of modern family life from one of our most beloved authors of domestic fiction.