Book picks similar to
Brunch At Ruby's by D.L. White
fiction
chick-lit
romance
contemporary
Conklin's Blueprints
Brooke Page - 2013
Following college, Becca attempts to bury the pain by retreating into a dangerous lifestyle with her best friend, Jamie Rae. She decides it's time to grow up after being irresponsible, broken, and out of control. To Becca's horror, her only option is to return to her hometown of Grand Rapids. Worried she will forever live in the shadow of her prominent family's notability, Becca decides moving is her only opportunity to get her feet back on the ground. With her best friend in tow, Becca reluctantly heads home to attempt to live her ideal life. Little does Becca know the owner of the architecture firm she lands a job with has an intriguingly mysterious son. Tyler Conklin is infatuated with Becca, yet is apprehensive about a public relationship because of his hidden baggage. Not wanting anyone to know about his slight obsession with her, their potential relationship must be kept a secret. Will Becca put up with Tyler's untold story for long? Will she tolerate being his secret?
The Last Goodbye
Caroline Finnerty - 2013
. . and sometimes we cannot shake off the shackles of decisions made by others in the past.Kate Flynn has spent her whole life running away. She reckons the best decision she ever made was to leave Ireland the day after she finished school. Having seldom returned since, she would be perfectly happy if she never had to go back there. She is happy in London where she runs a successful photography gallery with her best friend Nat, though their relationship is going through a rocky patch since Nat began an affair with a married man. When Kate becomes pregnant and her partner Ben persuades her to make the trip home, she is forced to confront everything she left behind and memories of Eva, the mother she feels betrayed her. Kate finds it impossible to forgive Eva who chose to refuse cancer treatment while pregnant and died, leaving a young family motherless. Do some wounds go too deep to ever heal? Must Eva's Choice forever deny Kate real happiness?The Last Goodbye is a powerful story of love and loss, forgiveness and new beginnings - a heart-wrenching and emotional page-turner for mothers and daughters everywhere.
Let Love In
Melissa Collins - 2013
Ripped from her home and everything that she has ever loved, she is forced to start all over again. The only way for her to move on is to build walls around her heart and keep everyone at a safe distance. Her logic: she can't get hurt if she doesn't fall in love. That theory is blown to pieces when she meets Reid Connely during her freshman year at college. He is gorgeous and darkly mysterious. He understands Maddy's pain all too well, but sharing his pain would mean breaking down the walls he put up around his own heart. Conflicted between loving Maddy and hiding his dark past, Reid starts to reevaluate his world. Maddy's inner strength, snarky personality and breath taking beauty help Reid to make peace with his past. Together they find out what happens when they let love in.
My Journey to the Ocean
Lena Mikado - 2015
Her whole picture-perfect existence is planned out and allows for no deviation. She is engaged to be married and intends to be happy. Along with three of her girlfriends, she takes a summer trip across the ocean, to St. Simons Island, United States. Her whole world is about to be rock-n-rolled, and she will have to face a pretty hard choice. It all sounds like a setup for a summer-fling novel, but is it really like that in actuality, or does Miss Real Life have something more conniving under her sleeve? Are there happy endings in real life? This book is a love story. It's about love in all possible representations, forms and masks it can wear. It's a love story of a girl in her 20s, looked back on by a woman in her 30s, who is also trying to take a peek into the future. It's an ageless book, it's a borderless book, it’s a book that focuses on and laughs at our cultural differences, yet sweeps away all man-made boundaries on its way. But I made it sound too complex. It's first and foremost a story about a summer away from home, it's a story about falling in and out of love - it's a story about My Journey to the Ocean.
Her Name Is Knight
Yasmin Angoe - 2021
Her Name Is Knight is a propulsive character story and action thriller driven by retribution, passion, strength — and coming to terms with your own true self, regardless of what anyone calls you.
Safe at Home
Christina Kirby - 2015
The Georgia townsfolk’s true Southern charm is the unexpected prescription needed to heal her soul, and the sexy carpenter who touches her heart are distractions she didn’t plan on, but they might offer her a chance at a new life, if she can let go of her past. Town heartbreaker Spencer Malloy isn’t looking for anything serious. His days are perfect working as a contractor, attending his nephew’s baseball games, or taking him fishing. He never expects to fall for the big city girl, Samantha. She’s not his type, timid and closed off, but in her unguarded moments, he’s intrigued by the woman he can’t get out of his mind. The urge to get closer to her grows stronger each day, and when the shadow of evil resurfaces, he vows to protect Samantha, even if it means abandoning his home and joining her on the run. When confronted by the man who’s bent on revenge, Samantha must choose between running again to save the people she loves, or, if she has the strength, to stay and fight for her new life.
This Is Not How It Ends
Rochelle B. Weinstein - 2020
Weinstein comes a moving novel of hearts lost and found, and of one woman torn between two love stories.
When Charlotte and Philip meet, the pair form a deep and instant connection. Soon they’re settled in the Florida Keys with plans to marry. But just as they should be getting closer, Charlotte feels Philip slipping away.Second-guessing their love is something Charlotte never imagined, but with Philip’s excessive absences, she finds herself yearning for more. When she meets Ben, she ignores the pull, but the supportive single dad is there for her in ways she never knew she desired. Soon Charlotte finds herself torn between the love she thought she wanted and the one she knows she needs.As a hurricane passes through Islamorada, stunning revelations challenge Charlotte’s loyalties and upend her life. Forced to reexamine the choices she’s made, and has yet to make, Charlotte embarks on an emotional journey of friendship, love, and sacrifice—knowing that forgiveness is a gift, and the best-laid plans can change in a heartbeat.This Is Not How It Ends is a tender, moving story of heartbreak and healing that asks the question: Which takes more courage—holding on or letting go?
Bring on the Blessings
Beverly Jenkins - 2009
She was hurt—angry, too—but she didn't cry woe is me. Nope, she hired herself a top-notch lawyer and ended up with a cool $275 million. Having been raised in the church, she knew that when much is given much is expected, so she asked God to send her a purpose.The purpose turned out to be a town: Henry Adams, Kansas, one of the last surviving townships founded by freed slaves after the Civil War. The failing town had put itself up for sale on the Internet, so Bernadine bought it. Trent July is the mayor, and watching the town of his birth slide into debt and foreclosure is about the hardest thing he's ever done. When the buyer comes to town, he's impressed by her vision, strength, and the hope she wants to offer not only to the town and its few remaining residents, but to a handful of kids in desperate need of a second chance. Not everyone in town wants to get on board though; they don't want change. But Bernadine and Trent, along with his first love, Lily Fontaine, are determined to preserve the town's legacy while ushering in a new era with ties to its unique past and its promising future.
The Likely Resolutions of Oliver Clock
Jane Riley - 2020
Is there really room for something as unpredictable as love?
Oliver Clock has everything arranged just so. A steady job running the family funeral parlour. A fridge stocked with ready meals. A drawer full of colour-coded socks. A plan (of sorts) to stay trim enough for a standard-sized coffin. And in florist Marie, he’s even found the love of his life—not that she’s aware of it.When a terrible tragedy takes Marie out of his life but leaves him with her private journal, he discovers too late that she secretly loved him back. Faced now with an empty love life, a family funeral business in trouble, a fast-approaching fortieth birthday and a notebook of resolutions he’s never achieved, Oliver resolves to open himself up to love—and all the mess that comes along with it.But, with a habit of burying his feelings, can he learn to embrace his lovability and find the woman who will make him feel whole?
Cowboy for a Season
Janalyn Knight - 2019
Years of trying and failing to bear a child have given her an air of sadness overlaid with a hardened determination to persevere. Hiring Brazilian Professional Bull Rider, Alex, who is on a slow road to recovery from potentially career-ending injuries, will help Hanna get her wheat in before the fall rains come. The handsome cowboy makes it clear that he will return to bull riding before the start of the new PBR season in January. Alex didn’t count on his ex-wife dropping off his toddler daughter Chloe without warning. Hannah didn’t count on caring for the cowboy or his precious daughter. Despite his love for Chloe and the way he cares for Hannah, Alex’s goal remains the same—to return to bull riding, the only life he’s ever wanted. Three hearts hang in the balance, and one decision will break them all. If you like hot cowboys, strong women, and ranching in the new West, then this book will have you burning through the pages.
Shattered Rose
T.L. Gray - 2013
GrayAvery Nichols knows how to wear the mask. Perfect student, perfect daughter and perfect friend. Nobody would ever guess that inside, Avery is a prisoner to her own self loathing. Then she meets him…and everything changes. Handsome, charming and self assured, Jake Matthew sweeps Avery off her feet in an effortless fashion. Avery knows that Jake is everything she needs and all she has ever wanted. She would destroy herself to be loved by him…until he walks away.Broken and lost, Avery meets Parker. His genuine, caring nature reaches past the mask and the shattered pieces her heart begin to slowly heal. But just when Avery starts to feel whole again, she realizes the impossible.Jake never really left.
A Matter of Trust
Kat Faitour - 2015
But did she also steal his fortune? British financier Bennett Sterling steers his world with iron control and cold determination. Burned by a lover long ago, he guards his heart and business with wary resolve. Devon Sinclair is a brilliant economist, poised for sure success. Intent on making her own way, she tells no one of her complicated past and grifter family. Passions explode when Devon meets Bennett and neither can deny their fiery attraction. But when corporate accounts are stolen, the evidence points to her and the stakes climb higher. Will Bennett see beyond the lies to trust the woman he loves? Or will Devon condemn them both by doubting his loyalty? In the powerful world of London finance, it turns out trust is the most valuable commodity of all.
Honeymoon for One
Chris Keniston - 2013
Coaxed by a thrill seeking hunk she never expects to see again, she slowly sheds her good girl persona to have some well deserved fun. But unlike Vegas, what happens on the high seas doesn't always stay there.
A Love That Never Tires
Allyson Jeleyne - 2014
As the daughter of a famous archaeologist, she’s been everywhere and seen everything—except London. When the Talbot-Martin team travels there for her father’s investiture, Linley finally gets her wish. But when the time comes to trade her jodhpurs and work boots for silk gowns and kid gloves, she may be in over her head.Even though she can out-ride, out-shoot, and outsmart any girl in London society, Linley is destined to be the failure of the season. No one she meets cares about ancient pottery or lost Buddhist texts, and fundraising efforts for future expeditions keep coming up short. If the Talbot-Martin team doesn’t find money soon, they will be out of a job, and Linley will lose everything she holds dear.Patrick Wolford, Marquess of Kyre (pronounced 'Keer'), is a man who knows his place. Well-connected and respected, he is everything everyone expects him to be, but beneath his façade, he is as neglected and crumbling as the family estate. Now the strain of keeping up appearances is taking its toll. The smart thing would be to marry the heiress nipping at his heels and be done with it, but when he meets Linley Talbot-Martin, who dares to shake up his seemingly proper world, he must choose between the life he’s always known and one he never dared to dream of.
Small Town Rumors
Carolyn Brown - 2018
The former high school queen bee—and wealthy darling of Bloom, Texas—has returned home after all these years, riding on a common bus and bearing two bounced alimony checks. In a town that thrives on gossip, Jennie’s fall from grace has shamed her mother, set the town buzzing, and caused old, jealous enemies to whisper in delight. They say she’s taken a job as a housekeeper, gotten a garage apartment, and might be crushing on Rick Lawson, a simple farmer with modest dreams.As romance starts to bud, Jennie relishes what it means to follow her heart, find real new friends, and finally be herself—regardless of all the lying town chatter. But fate has another twist in store. Rumor has it that Jennie now stands to lose what matters most…unless she can convince Rick of one true thing—and that’s love.