Book picks similar to
Snow in July by Heather Barbieri


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adult-fiction

Starting Out Sideways


Mary E. Mitchell - 2007
    Rosie is very happy with her handsome husband and a fulfilling career as job counselor for the developmentally challenged. It might not be glamorous work, but Rosie is proud of the fact that she cares more about people than Prada. What more could a woman want in life? Except maybe being able to wear a sexy thong that doesn't make her behind look like a rump roast in butcher string…  But when Rosie's incredible husband turns out to be an incredible putz--sleeping with her best friend Inga--her life goes from Seventh Heaven to Jerry Springer in the blink of an eye and the tip of a wine glass.  Alone and deceived, but with her sense of humor still intact, Rosie turns to her wonderfully wacky mother to help her bounce back. Of course, Ma's recipe for mental recovery leaves much to be desired.  And after Rosie discovers a painful family secret, hidden behind years of lies, she must set out to find herself and what really matters in life.  Along the way, Rosie is surprised to find help from Mickey Hamilton, a.k.a. Ham, who is kind, generous, and has a great butt to match.  If only Rosie can overlook the fact that he's nicknamed after the meat section at the local supermarket he manages.  Milton, one of Rosie's endearing mentally challenged clients--and Ham's employee--also becomes a source of comfort along the way, always ready to defend "Miss Plow's" honor and warm her heart, even as it's breaking. And can a twenty-five-year-old punk office assistant with hair like candy corn really become Rosie's new best friend?  As she moves along the twisted road to self-discovery, Rosie finds happiness, acceptance, and even love - though none of it in the places she'd expected.   With laugh-out-loud scenes seamlessly interspersed among gut-wrenching moments of heartache, Starting Out Sideways is a unique and utterly delightful novel that will make you laugh, cry, and remember what's truly important in life.

Best Seller


Terry Tyler - 2016
    A twenty-three year old with model girl looks and a book deal with a major publisher, she's outselling the established names in her field and is fast becoming the darling of the media.Becky Hunter has money problems. Can she earn enough from her light-hearted romance novels to counteract boyfriend Alex's extravagant spending habits, before their rocky world collapses?Hard up factory worker Jan Chilver sees writing as an escape from her troubled, lonely life. She is offered a lifeline—but fails to read the small print...In the competitive world of publishing, success can be merely a matter of who you know—and how ruthless you are prepared to be to get to the top.BEST SELLER is a novella of 40k words (roughly half as long as an average length novel), a slightly dark, slightly edgy drama with a twist or three in the tale.

The Land of Women


Regina McBride - 2003
     She tries to remember her mother's voice and the pitch and treble of it passes through her; the rhythm of it so clear that for a moment they are...connected by frail strings. So begins The Land of Women, and we are swept into Fiona O'Faolain's last summer in Ireland, the season of her burgeoning sexuality. It is a time, too, when mother and daughter step toward friendship among the voluminous gowns they make for local brides. Yet that giddy summer also delivers betrayal. Fiona's journey from the shame that ended her girlhood takes her to Santa Fe and to Carlos Aragon, a restorer of antiquities, whose ancestry is mysteriously linked to hers. As he explores their pasts with the precision of an artisan, Fiona must face her excruciating memory. In The Land of Women the past lives in the present, and physical and emotional geography touch.

The Disgrace Trilogy #1-3


Dee Palmer - 2018
    Be warned. DISGRACE This is the story of Grace, a woman who barely survives a heart wrenching childhood and an abusive first relationship. She leaves home on her eighteenth birthday, changes her name (Sam) and starts a new life. A chance meeting with Leon sets her on a path to become Queen of the London urban BDSM club scene. As Mistress Selina, she can bring any man to his knees without so much as a crack of her whips. A taboo one-night stand at a friends wedding with Jason becomes so much more than she bargained for. Jason Sinclair, is the dominant alpha male sex club owner and king of kink in the London sex scene. Rich and possessive, he secretly buys the club where she works to protect what he sees as his. His proposition is simple – he wants her to submit to him. But “Two Doms don’t make a right. We would not play well together.” Our sassy heroine has been hurt before: Can she risk it all again? As the two start this erotic dirty romance together, Sam’s past comes back to haunt her. Their future is filled with danger and uncertainty. Can the two overcome all to have their extraordinary HEA? DISGRACEFUL - The dust settles on the most erotic night in her life, a fantasy-fulfilling experience that not only brought Sam back to life, but also laid her brutal demons to rest. Her lust for life returns with her irrepressible passion and she embraces the changes in her life, almost without reservation…almost. Jason Sinclair is just the Dominant to take a woman like Sam on. She’s fearless and feisty, but when she lost herself, he nearly lost her all over again. By giving her that one night, he became more than her savior…he became her everything. Opening her up to what the future could hold with a potential life of hedonistic heaven together. Or could one fantasy have been too far? Can the two super kinky souls really settle down together? As much as Sam dreams of a happily ever after, she’s much too realistic and can’t seem to shake the dark clouds of doubt rolling in. Is the promise of domestic bliss bound to be cursed from day one or does the King of Kink have more tricks up his sleeve? Grace - Surprise is the understatement of the year and it hits Sam and Jason like a freight train. Rocked and shocked, Sam needs to determine if this is a really good surprise, because as much as she loves Jason, any future they may have together could be doomed if he’s not 100 percent all-in. She can’t afford to settle for anything less since there’s so much at stake now. Jason Sinclair will stop at nothing to protect the woman he loves and keep her safe and shielded when ghosts of her brutal past rear their ugly head. Truth is the biggest challenge these two face when confronted with the future, a truth in which Jason made his position crystal clear on.

The Winter Garden


Johanna Verweerd - 2001
    Her choice could open the door to answers she's long wondered about, or it could forever chill a heart too long without love.

Bookclub-in-a-Box Discusses Cutting For Stone, the novel by Abraham Verghese


Marilyn Herbert - 2010
    The narrative begins in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, when twin boys, Shiva and Marion, are born to a nun (who dies) and a surgeon (who runs away). The babies, conjoined at the head, are successfully separated immediately after birth. The original conjoinment and separation of the boys becomes the operating theme of the novel and we are given situation after situation in which to consider the concepts of fusion and partition. Bookclub-in-a-Box looks at all that Verghese provides: history (Ethiopia and Eritrea), medicine (blood and liver disease), psychology (the search for identity), sociology (human relationships) and philosophy (of both science and religion). The narrative's real facts and descriptions are especially interesting for their thematic implications. Every Bookclub-in-a-Box printed discussion guide includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style, and interesting background information on the novel and the author.

My Former Heart


Cressida Connolly - 2011
    She thought she could even pinpoint the exact moment at which Iris had made up her mind to go, leaving her only child behind. Neither of them could have guessed then that they would never live together again.Spanning the second half of the last century, ‘My Former Heart’, Cressida Connolly’s mesmerising first novel, charts the lives of three generations of Iris’s family. Ruth will be deserted again, many years later, by a husband she loves, but not before she has had two children by him. She leaves London to live with her uncle, where she creates a new life for herself with another woman. And we follow the lives of her two children, trying to make a place for themselves in the world in the shadow of the family that precedes them.With its large cast of fascinating characters, this is an outstanding novel about families and their ability to adapt. It surely marks the beginning of a long career as a novelist for Cressida Connolly.

Waiting


Bonnie Dodge - 2014
    But they all share a secret. They wait. For love, for attention, for life, for death, for Idaho's warm, but promising summer to return. In their journeys between despair and happiness, they learn there are worse things than being alone, like waiting for the wrong person's love. With sensitivity and humor, Waiting carries readers into the hearts of three women who learn that happiness comes from within.Waiting won 2014 Top Ten Fiction by Idaho Author Awards

Anything for Jane


Cheryl Mendelson - 2007
    Talented, troubled, and self-centered, Jane Braithwaite makes her well-meaning upper-middle-class family miserable, enmeshing them in the complicated lives of a homeless family, a poor teenager with no family, and a would-be family foundering on childlessness. When catastrophe finally threatens, all their dilemmas are resolved by the same stunning and unexpected means.All the while, the Braithwaites involve old and new friends in their struggles–a lovesick clergyman, a lonely doctor and his baby-obsessed wife, a libertarian billionaire, a money-loving philosopher, and a hard-bitten but sexy poverty activist. Their social and political clashes provide entertainment both comic and serious.

Host Family


Mameve Medwed - 2000
    So Daisy should have seen it coming when Henry dumps her for the extremely French Giselle.

Love Before Midnight: A Sweet Contemporary Western Romance


Kathleen Ball - 2019
    Having nowhere to go she walks to the small-town diner to get warm. The owner calls cowboy, Maverick Cole for help. Maverick takes one look at Anora and grows angry. He knows she and her husband are part of a horse stealing operation. But when she runs out of the door into the storm, he takes pity on her and gives her a ride to his place. Never in a million years would he have suspected her secret. She’s listed as a missing person. Once reunited with her family, she leaves town. She also leaves a hole in Maverick’s heart. A year later, she returns to start a new life, but trust doesn’t come easy for Anora. Can Maverick help to heal her soul? New Years is approaching and he’s anxiously waiting to find out if she’ll accept his kiss at midnight. Will Anora accept Maverick’s Heart? Only a long-awaited New Year’s kiss at midnight will tell. ** This book was once offered for free with newsletter sign up. A different book is now offered.

The Weight of Birds


Amanda Lewis - 2020
    

Summary of Fates and Furies: A Novel by Lauren Groff | Summary & Analysis


aBookaDay - 2015
    If you have not yet bought the original copy, make sure to purchase it before buying this unofficial summary from aBookaDay. SPECIAL OFFER $2.99 (Regularly priced: $3.99) SUMMARY/SYNOPSIS INTRO Fates and Furies is not a story about a marriage – it is a story about two people and how their marriage determines the trajectory of their lives. Lotto – short for Lancelot - and Mathilde seem like the perfect dream team when they first elope in their final year of college. Lotto is the tall and charismatic pack leader, who plans to pursue a career on the stage. Mathilde is a tall, blonde scholarship student. Theirs is a love story that inspires jealousy from all who know them. But as the novel progresses, it becomes clear that Lotto and Mathilde have two very different perspectives of a shared life – and some of the secrets they hide from each other could have explosive consequences. Piece by piece, truth is revealed, and there is plenty of romance, intrigue and heartbreak to fill several marriages. This is an ambitious and dynamic novel, and Groff executes exquisite prose. Lotto and Mathilde are protagonists who will not be soon forgotten. Available on PC, Mac, smart phone, tablet or Kindle device. © 2015 All Rights Reserved

An American Tune


Barbara Shoup - 2012
    Not even her husband knows that back in the ‘60s she was Jane Barth, a student deeply involved in the antiwar movement. An American Tune moves back and forth in time, telling the story of Jane, a girl from a working-class family who fled town after she was complicit in a deadly bombing, and Nora, the woman she became, a wife and mother living a quiet life in northern Michigan. An achingly poignant account of a family crushed under the weight of suppressed truths, An American Tune illuminates the irrevocability of our choices and how those choices come to compose the tune of our lives.

Bingo Queens of Paradise: A Novel


June Park - 1999
    But as she plans her escape to New York City, turmoil erupts and the demands of family stand between her and her suitcase. Darla must, for the first time in her life, cast an unflinching eye on the hard-to-accept truths regarding love, responsibility, and survival. The Bingo Queens of Paradise lyrically blends a powerful comic voice with a poignant tale of a woman who longs to pursue her dreams.