Book picks similar to
A Hard Man is Good to Find by James W. Lewis


first-reads
trade-paperback
african-american-fiction
romance

Mothers and Daughters


Leah Fleming - 2009
    Crete, present day. A woman anxiously awaits the arrival of someone who could change her life for ever…Lancashire, the 1950s. Three young girls make their way in a brave new post-war world. But can they escape the trappings of the past?Bookworm Connie dreams of university. Brought up on myths about her mysterious father, her life is turned upside down when she accidentally discovers the truth about him.Former ugly duckling Joy is determined to snare a man now she's finally a swan. Winning the "Miss Mercury" competition she bowls over local heart-throb Denny Gregson. But she quickly finds he's not all he seems…Convent-educated Rosa is a born rebel, desperate to flee the strict nuns for a life on the stage. But sometimes you need to be careful what you wish for…As all three girls face heartbreak and tragedy, can they learn from the mistakes of their mothers? Or will history repeat itself?For everyone who loves Maureen Lee and Maeve Binchy, this emotionally charged tale of that most special relationship of all will capture your heart.

A Notting Hill Christmas


Jon Rance - 2015
     One family. A tiny flat in Notting Hill. A beautiful neighbour. A very angry dog. A horny Welshman. An enormous turkey. On the biggest day of the year. What could possibly go wrong? Meet Ben Canterbury, 29, single, lives in a poky flat in Notting Hill with horny Welshman, Rufus. His life has been one disappointment after another. What makes it worse is that his brother, Jamie, is the complete opposite - a Barrister to Ben’s Barista - with a family and a proper house in Twickenham. In an attempt to compete with his perfect brother, Ben insists he hosts the family Christmas, but it isn’t long before he realises he’s way out of his depth. Ben’s flat isn't big enough for everyone (including one very angry dog), the Christmas tree’s from the £1 shop, the decorations are hung with Blu-Tack, and the turkey might not fit in the oven. Ben’s definitely not feeling the Christmas spirit. But when beautiful new neighbour, Mhairi McGregor, appears at his door, Ben’s Christmas worries go out of the window and he begins to wonder if it might not be the worst Christmas in history after all. Amid all the drama, drinking and carnage of Christmas Day, will Ben find true love or will it be another disappointment to add to the list? A Notting Hill Christmas is a brilliantly funny, feel-good, festive novella perfect for fans of romantic comedies like Love Actually and Notting Hill.

Valencia and Valentine


Suzy Krause - 2019
    To confront those fears, Valencia’s therapist suggests that she fly somewhere—anywhere—before her upcoming birthday. And as Valencia begins a telephone romance with a man from New York, she suddenly has a destination in mind. There’s only one problem—he might not actually exist.Mrs. Valentine is an eccentric old woman desperate for company, be it from neighbors, telemarketers, or even the funeral director (when you’re her age, you go to a lot of funerals). So she’s thrilled when the new cleaning girl provides a listening ear for her life’s story—a tale of storybook love and incredible adventures around the world with her husband before his mysterious and sudden disappearance.The stories of Valencia and Mrs. Valentine may at first appear to have nothing in common…but then again, nothing in life is as straightforward as it seems.

A Daughter’s Courage


Kitty Neale - 2018
    But then an unexpected pregnancy puts everything at risk, and Dorothy is left alone – with Robbie nowhere to be seen.Heartbroken, Dorothy picks up the pieces of her life as a working girl in Battersea helping to support her mother and father. But before long, things start to become difficult. Her father’s health is worsening, money is tight and worst of all, Robbie hasn’t come back for her.Can Dorothy find a way back to happiness in the face of real adversity? Will she have the courage to make it on her own – or is someone else waiting in the wings to save her?Gritty and moving, this is the perfect read for fans of Dilly Court and Maggie Hope.

See You


Dawn Lee McKenna - 2014
    See You is not a romance, but it is a love story; one filled with the rawness of and risk and redemption and the dry humor that is the backbone of the South.Emma has loved Jack since she was a little girl. But he was more than 20 years older and was raised by her grandmother, Miss Margret, so he's always been more of an uncle than anything else. He's never seen Emma as anything but a child.Jack's been gone since Miss Margret died ten years ago, and Emma has become content with her small life in her small Alabama town, raising her daughter in the same house where both she and Jack were raised. She tells herself that nothing is missing, but she's never been able to love anyone other than Jack.Now Jack has come home and he has a plan. If Emma agrees to it, she knows she'll be volunteering for a pain she can't prepare for. Jack has made no secret of the fact that he'll be dead within a year. He does have one secret though, a secret he's protected for years; and that secret could change everything. Can something be so good that it's worth allowing it to break your heart? Emma and Jack are about to find out, because this homecoming won't be anything either of them expected. You will laugh loudly. You will cry ugly. But you will find it hard to forget Jack and Emma.

A Hire Love


Candice Dow - 2007
    After three years of widowhood, she's ready to date again, but dating services are enough to put any woman off men forever. Her friend Mya jokingly suggests that Fatima will only find the perfect guy if she writes a script and hires an actor to play the role, and Fatima decides to do just that. Good-looking, intelligent, and talented, Rashad Watkin's acting career is going nowhere. The money Fatima offers is good--but her companionship is even better. What he feels for Fatima is the real thing, but now he has to prove he's not just acting...

The Other Side of Heartache


Sarah Jo Smith - 2013
    Summoned to her childhood home to sort through Penny’s belongings, the timing couldn’t be worse. Grieving over her losses and exhausted from a demanding teaching schedule, she worries that her marriage is collapsing under the pressure. While packing her mother’s closet, Grace discovers a box filled with mysterious keepsakes and old diaries written in Penny’s hand and takes them home. After reading pages filled with typical musings of a teenage girl from a generation ago, she stumbles upon a dark secret and is devastated to learn that what she believed her whole life about her family was based on lies.As Grace digs beneath the Rose family tree, she unearths more than one skeleton buried there. All the while, she must endure the wrath of her grandmother, Eleanor, who is determined to block her efforts to find out what happened when Penny was seventeen, as well as the underlying cause of her premature death. Yet Eleanor harbors a well-kept secret of her own, one more deceitful and calculating than Penny’s sin. Grace’s journey through an emotional labyrinth of passion, shame, and manipulation not only leads to more shocking revelations but also changes the course she had mapped for her life.Through a story told in alternating voices between the past and present where old morals and double standards from the historical 1950s and ‘60s clash with modern day values, Grace must decide if it’s worth taking an unforeseen risk to reaffirm her belief in the power of love. BOOK GROUP GUIDE INCLUDED.

Adulting


Liz Talley - 2021
    She’s been written off as a Hollywood casualty by almost everyone, including her own mother. But handsome superstar Spencer Rome has her back. So does an uncompromising stranger determined to start Chase at square one and help her pull her future into focus. If Chase is willing.Life coach Olivia Han is devoted to “adulting” boot camp therapy. It’s not just her professional specialty, though—it’s also one way to avoid focusing on building a life of her own. To escape the pressures of Tinseltown, the two women head to Olivia’s cabin in the wilds of Northern California. There they discover a place in need of TLC. As they work together to rehab the once-charming cabin, they create a refuge where Chase can come to terms with her unsettled past, and where Olivia has an unexpected reckoning with her own troubling history.For two women doing damage control, this is a time for second chances—in life, in finding love, in forgiving family, and in an emerging friendship that might be exactly what each of them needs to heal.

Weight Till Christmas


Ruth Saberton - 2013
    At least she will if she can squeeze into her party dress...Without a fairy godmother to wave a magic wand, Ellie Summers needs more than a pumpkin to impress her gorgeous boss. She works hard, not as a scullery maid but as a super sassy saleswoman, but he doesn't notice her. Their company's lavish Christmas party is the opportunity Ellie's been waiting for to make a big impression. And she doesn't intend it to be winning the mince pie eating competition.With the help of fellow dieter Sam, a sleigh load of will power and a sprinkling of Christmas magic, Ellie knows finding her Prince Charming is just a mistletoe kiss away.But is her prince really so charming? Or is Christmas romance closer than she thinks?

A Hustler's Promise


Jackie Chanel - 2011
    Faced with the task of raising her two sisters, Jaicyn reluctantly resorts to boosting clothes and selling them.Rayshawn and his twin brother, Dayshawn, were 11 when their father killed their mother. In order to avoid foster care, they were taken in by their grandparents. The situation is unbearable, but Rayshawn has a plan...link up with the city's drug kingpin, Andre "King" Carter.When Jaicyn and Rayshawn meet, it's not teenage puppy love. It's fate. Shouldered with the task of making a better life for them and their siblings, the pair take on the streets as washington Height's teen Bonnie and Clyde. They earn their money the old fashioned way...guns and drugs.Full of ambition and goals, Rayshawn and Jaicyn's lives are full of high points and the lowest of lows. Their need to survive for each other as well as with each other is the fuel that keeps them hustling. A Hustler's Promise is the story of two young lovers who are commited to one another, their family, and their dream.

. . . and Baby Makes Two: A Novel


Judy Sheehan - 2005
    But that’s before she sees the perfect child. There he sits in his stroller, angelic and beautiful, magnetic and serene– and he makes Jane question everything she has and everything she thought she wanted. Suddenly all she can see are babies and pregnant woman everywhere. Were there always so many of them? And while there was once a man in her life–her one true love, Sam, gone from this world too soon–there is no man now. Jane must make a choice: possibly become a bitter and childless old lady, letting her biological clock tick on ’till menopause, or tend the ache in her heart now, by becoming a single mother. As Jane struggles to make the most important decision of her life, friends and family offer no shortage of opinions. There’s Ray, her “hubstitute” and gay best friend who would be jealous of any kid who got Jane as a mom; Sheila, her sister, who went from zero to sixty when she eloped with Raoul–who had two young twin sons– and has mixed feelings about being a new mommy; her strict, Catholic father who can’ t imagine what level of hell Jane would banish herself to if she becomes a single mother; and the women of Families with Children from China who are preparing to adopt orphan daughters–without a man in sight. Just as she thinks she’s made up her mind, Jane discovers one small wrench in her plans: handsome, charming, funny Peter, who just happens to be (unhappily) married. . . . And Baby Makes Two is a heartbreakingly honest, wonderfully addictive, and funny novel about love and loss, family and friendship. Judy Sheehan, co-creator of the smash hit Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, has perfectly captured the delights and dilemmas of the scariest job in the world: motherhood.From the Hardcover edition.

The SW19 Club


Nicola May - 2015
    ‘This book will twang your funny bone – and your heartstrings. I totally loved it. Nicola May is a talent to watch!’ Milly Johnson‘A funny and fast-paced romp … thoroughly enjoyable’ Deborah Hughes, Woman‘The kind of special book that only comes along once in a while’ Miranda DickinsonWhat would you do if you were told you could never have children?Faced with this news, Gracie Davies is at an all-time low. But with the support of some new Wimbledon friends, an unorthodox therapist, her hippy-chick sister Naomi and Czech call-girl Maya, she sets up The SW19 Club and begins her rocky journey to inner peace and happiness. Add in a passionate fling with handsome landscaper Ed, a fairytale encounter with a Hollywood filmstar and the persistence of her adulterous ex, life is anything but predictable…

Winds of Change


Anna Jacobs - 2012
    Miranda Fox has devoted much of her life to caring for her elderly father. After his tragic death, she starts to make plans for her future, funded by the inheritance she is sure will be coming her way, but it seems her arrogant and domineering half-brother has very different ideas . . . Then a chance encounter with a man who has been given months to live boosts Miranda’s confidence, and as their friendship grows she finally learns to stand up for herself and her dreams. Can Miranda find the happiness that she deserves?

No Foolin'


Lisa Scott - 2012
    This may be their biggest scoop ever.When sexy Hollywood bad-boy Teague "T-Rex" Reynolds comes to this quiet Southern town, he needs a fake girlfriend to hide the secret that brought him there. School nurse Kate Riley takes the job, but she won't fall for a movie star, no ma'am. That's fine with Teague. He hung a closed sign on his heart years ago.Convincing the press they're in love is one thing. Fooling each other they're not is getting harder each day. Despite scandal, heartache, and misunderstandings galore, they might just find the sweet thrill of true love. Book one of The Willowdale Romances.Lisa Scott is a former TV news anchor who now makes up stories instead of sticking to the facts. Learn more about where her ideas come from and what's on the way at ReadLisaScott.com

Cupidity


Holly Hepburn - 2013
    Modern day matchmaking is tough – people are busy, their hearts are harder to hit and he’s had enough of wall-to-wall romance. And St Valentine has noticed…Annelise is a Lost Cause. She runs a dating agency but her heart is colder than a penguin’s feet. She thinks love is about compatibility and has no time for passion.Can Cupid prove to St Valentine that he hasn’t lost his touch by melting Annelise’s heart? Or is it curtains for Cupid?A romantic comedy novella - 23,000 words long'Gorgeously romantic, unputdownable and utterly delicious!' Miranda Dickinson, Sunday Times Bestseller (Fairytale of New York, It Started With A Kiss, When I Fall In Love)'A completely charming, fantastically funny, romantic romp, perfect reading for a sunny afternoon.' Scarlett Bailey (Married by Christmas, The Night Before Christmas, Santa Maybe)