Book picks similar to
More Than by Diane Barnes


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Bedside Manners


Heather Frimmer - 2018
    Always the caregiver, Joyce feels uncomfortable in the patient role, especially with her husband and daughter. As she progresses through a daunting treatment regimen including a biopsy, lumpectomy, and radiation, she distracts herself by planning Marnie’s wedding. When the sudden death of a young heroin addict in Marnie’s care forces Marnie to come face-to-face with mortality and her professional inadequacies, she also realizes she must strike a new balance between her identity as a doctor and her role as a supportive daughter. At the same time, she struggles with the stark differences between her fiancé’s family background and her own and comes to understand the importance of being with someone who shares her values and experiences. Amid this profound soul-searching, both Joyce and Marnie’s futures change in ways they never would have expected.

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.

The Things We Keep


Julee Balko - 2021
    You know, the typical easy life of a woman.There is one thing Serena thought she knew. Her mother hated her. But now Serena must come face to face with the truth she learns after her mother’s death. Maybe her mother didn’t hate her, but loved her so much that she changed everything for her.

Chocolate Cake for Breakfast: (Little Duck Pond Cafe, Book 20)


Rosie Green - 2022
    With her confidence shattered, even leaving the house is scary, and a promising romance with gorgeous Logan is over before it even had a chance to begin. But cheered on by her dad and her great friend, Madison, she makes a decision that could change everything. Can Martha find the courage to step out into the world and love again?

The Book of Carolsue


Lynne Hugo - 2020
    . . and goes on.CarolSue and her sister, Louisa, are best friends, but haven't had much in common since CarolSue married Charlie, moved to Atlanta, and swapped shoes covered with Indiana farm dust for pedicures and afternoon bridge. Louisa, meanwhile, loves her farm and animals as deeply as she'd loved Harold, her late husband of forty years.Charlie's sudden death leaves CarolSue so adrift that she surrenders to Louisa's plan for her to move back home. But canning vegetables and feeding chickens are alien to CarolSue, and she resolves to return to Atlanta--until Louisa's son, Reverend Gary, arrives with an abandoned infant and a dubious story. He begs the women to look after the baby while he locates the mother--a young immigrant who fears deportation.Keeping his own secrets, Gary enlists the aid of the sheriff, Gus, in the search. But CarolSue's bond with the baby is undeniable, and she forms an unconventional secret plan of her own. How many mistakes can be redeemed?Praise for the novels of Lynne Hugo "Sparkling prose, wry humor, and timely, relevant themes abound."--Donna Everhart, USA Today bestselling author of The Moonshiner's Daughter "A tender hymn of hope and rebirth that stays with you long after the last page." --Kim Michele Richardson, author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek "I lost hours of sleep as I raced to finish this extraordinary novel."--Randy Susan Meyers, bestselling author of Waisted "Delivered with humor and heart."--Terri-Lynne DeFino, author of The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses)

When Robins Appear


Densie Webb - 2020
    But her daughter, Amanda, is heading to college soon, and Deborah worries about having an empty nest. She thinks another child might be the answer. Her husband, Richard, however, may not be willing to start over so late in life.Amanda is excited about attending NYU next year, but she meets Graham, a handsome older boy, falls hard, and considers postponing her education to stay close to him. Her mother takes an instant dislike to Graham, but Amanda refuses to let her keep them apart.As Deborah watches her daughter rush headlong toward heartache on an all-too-familiar path, the secrets lurking in Deborah’s past continue to echo in her present. When tragedy strikes, Deborah faces a future she could never have imagined.

As the Light Fades


Catherine West - 2019
    With the family estate under renovations, the solitude she craves seems out of reach. Matthew Stone intends to steer clear of his new tenant. She’s carrying a load of baggage, but as long as she pays the rent, he’ll let her be. He’s got enough to deal with caring for his wayward niece, Mia. Liz doesn’t have time for teenagers and her track record with men is abysmal, but an unlikely friendship forms between the three. When her former boyfriend is charged with assault, Liz is called to testify against him. But he knows the darkest secrets of her life—secrets she’d hoped to keep buried forever, and he’s ready to reveal them. Telling the truth is the right thing to do, but it may cost her everything she’s worked so hard for, and all she’s come to love.***NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR*** As the Light Fades is published as a standalone novel, but features some characters from one of Catherine's earlier novels, The Things We Knew, published in 2016 by Thomas Nelson.

The Child from the Ash Pits


Chrissie Walsh - 2019
    Can little Cally break free from poverty, and forge a successful life for herself? When Cally loses her beloved mum, she hopes her father will comfort and protect her. But instead she soon acquires a cruel and vengeful stepmother, and Cally begins to fear that she is on her own. Through uncomfortable years in service, to a terrifying brush with the streets, through hard work and determination, Cally finally finds a place for herself. She even trusts enough in the future to create her own family, despite being so cruelly abandoned by her own. At last in a place of peace and contentment, Cally has all she ever hoped for, but with World War 2 looming, how long can she hold on to the people she loves? Taking us from 1926 all the way to end of the Second World War, Chrissie Walsh has written a heart-breaking tale of love and survival, perfect for fans of Dilly Court and Lyn Andrews.

The Things We Keep


Sally Hepworth - 2016
    She also knows there's just one other resident her age, Luke. What she does not expect is the love that blossoms between her and Luke even as she resists her new life at Rosalind House. As her disease steals more and more of her memory, Anna fights to hold on to what she knows, including her relationship with Luke.When Eve Bennett is suddenly thrust into the role of single mother she finds herself putting her culinary training to use at Rosalind house. When she meets Anna and Luke she is moved by the bond the pair has forged. But when a tragic incident leads Anna's and Luke's families to separate them, Eve finds herself questioning what she is willing to risk to help them.

When Polly Met Olly


Zoe May - 2019
    Polly and Olly were never supposed to meet…Polly might spend her days searching for eligible matches for her elite list of clients at her New York dating agency, but her own love life is starting to go up in smoke.Even worse, she can’t stop thinking about the very person she’s meant to be setting her latest client up with… surely it can’t get any worse!But then Polly bumps into oh-so-handsome Olly, who heads up a rival agency, and realizes that perhaps all really is fair in love and dating war…

If You Must Know


Jamie Beck - 2020
    Amanda follows the rules—at the school where she works; in her community; and as a picture-perfect daughter, wife, and mother-to-be. Erin follows her heart—in love and otherwise—living a bohemian lifestyle on a shoestring budget and honoring her late father’s memory with a passion for music and her fledgling bath-products business.The sisters are content leading separate but happy lives in their hometown of Potomac Point until everything is upended by lies that force them to confront unsettling truths about their family, themselves, and each other. For sisters as different as these two, building trust doesn’t come easily—especially with one secret still between them—but it may be the only way to save their family.

What's Left Untold


Sherri Leimkuhler - 2020
    Then during college, Lia inexplicably walked out on their friendship and disappeared, leaving Anna hurt, confused, and disillusioned.Twenty years later, Anna discovers a letter Lia wrote the summer after high school — a letter that contains a cryptic postscript concealing a devastating truth. With her twenty-year high school reunion approaching, Anna moves closer to uncovering the secret in Lia’s letter and the heartbreaking consequences it set in motion.As the layers of deceit and betrayal begin to unravel, Anna is forced to question everything she believes and come to terms with what it means to forgive the one person who hurt her in the worst way imaginable.

Decanted


Linda Sheehan - 2021
    Dreading the desk job that awaits her after high school, eighteen-year-old Vivian Goodyear takes off for pre-World War ll Paris, where she supports herself as an artist's model.Flash forward to modern day Manhattan where, inspired by Vivian's courage, her grand-niece Samantha leaves her pressure cooker career to work the grape harvest in France. There, between picking grapes in the vineyard and crushing them in the cellar, she gets lessons in the art of making wine and in the art of making love. But when her world is turned upside down, a link from Aunt Vivian's past could right it in a tale of being on top, sinking to the bottom, and coming up for glorious air.

The Art of Hiding


Amanda Prowse - 2017
    Forced to move out of her family home, Nina returns to the rundown Southampton council estate—and the sister—she thought she had left far behind.But Nina can’t let herself be overwhelmed—her boys need her. To save them, and herself, she will have to do what her husband discouraged for so long: pursue a career of her own. Torn between the life she thought she knew and the reality she now faces, Nina finally must learn what it means to take control of her life.Bestselling author Amanda Prowse once again plumbs the depths of human experience in this stirring and empowering tale of one woman’s loss and love.

Heart Like Mine


Amy Hatvany - 2013
    But when she meets Victor Hansen, a handsome, charismatic divorced restaurateur who is father to Max and Ava, Grace decides that, for the right man, she could learn to be an excellent part-time stepmom. After all, the kids live with their mother, Kelli. How hard could it be?At thirteen, Ava Hansen is mature beyond her years. Since her parents’ divorce, she has been the one taking care of her emotionally unstable mother and her little brother—she pays the bills, does the laundry, and never complains because she loves her mama more than anyone. And while her father’s new girlfriend is nice enough, Ava still holds out hope that her parents will get back together and that they’ll be a family again.But only days after Victor and Grace get engaged, Kelli dies suddenly under mysterious circumstances—and soon, Grace and Ava discover there was much more to Kelli’s life than either ever knew.Narrated by Grace and Ava in the present with flashbacks into Kelli’s troubled past, Heart Like Mine is a poignant and hopeful portrait about womanhood, love, and the challenges of family life.