Book picks similar to
Outbound Train by Renea Winchester


fiction
southern
vintage-contemporary
hist-american-fiction

Go Set a Watchman


Harper Lee - 2015
    Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—"Scout"—returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in a painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past—a journey that can be guided only by one's conscience. Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humor and effortless precision—a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context and new meaning to an American classic.

A Captivating Lady's Love Storm


Bridget Barton - 2020
    After her first dance with a charming gentleman, her instinct tells her that he might be the one. While she can't stop daydreaming about her life by his side, everything is about to change when she discovers that his family is her father's lifelong feud. When her father announces that he will never allow her to see him again, Marianne's life falls into pieces. Desperate to escape her grim future, she tries to find the cause of her father's hate and soothe his resentful heart. Will she manage to put an end to an endless clash? Will she finally have the happy ending she has always been dreaming of?Edmund Stapleton is a kind gentleman with an intrepid mind. Even though he has never enjoyed balls and such social events, he has no choice but to fulfil society's expectations. When he first sees Marianne, he cannot help being smitten by her beauty. But a storm is brewing when he learns that the woman who is about to haunt his dreams would be the daughter of his father's most obnoxious enemy. Will Edmund stick to his father's demand to forget about Marianne, or will he start a relentless pursuit of claiming the woman he loves?Against all odds, Marianne and Edmund do everything in their power to spend a few moments together. But when her father finds out about their secret meetings, furious as he is, he forces her back to the countryside. To make matters worse, he finds an eligible man to betroth her at the earliest opportunity. In the end, will the two romantic souls escape from a terrible fate? Will their love withstand the obstacles that keep them apart?"A Captivating Lady's Love Storm" is a historical romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

If Only I Could Tell You


Hannah Beckerman - 2019
    Her two grown-up daughters, Jess and Lily, are estranged, and her two teenage granddaughters have never been allowed to meet. A secret that echoes back thirty years has splintered the family in two, but is also the one thing keeping them connected.As tensions reach breaking point, the irrevocable choice that one of them made all those years ago is about to surface. After years of secrets and silence, how can one broken family find their way back to each other?

Forsaken by Love (His Heart's Long Journey Book 1)


Jeanne Hardt - 2019
    . . Eight-year-old, Vern Harpole, wakes up on the front porch of a bakery he's never seen before. The frightened boy is discovered by the kind baker who returns him to the hotel where he'd been staying with his mother and young sister, only to learn they've left and have no intention of returning. With no trace of where they’ve gone or by what means they’re traveling, a search is impossible. Even the authorities have little help to offer. Being childless, the baker and his wife decide to give Vern a home. Initially, they see him as a means of cheap labor. But over time, a bond of love grows between them, and they find joy as a family. Yet Vern can't dismiss the hurtful feelings of abandonment, as well as many unanswered questions about his mother. Margaret Jordan has recently immigrated from Ireland to America. Like Vern, she's troubled by painful reminders of traumatic experiences that have irrevocably altered her life. She settles in Kansas City, where she finds employment at a local restaurant. When she and Vern cross paths, he immediately recognizes her pain and wants to help her, but it will take more than kindness to break through the protective walls she's built around herself. Determination pushes him to be persistent, needing to believe that love can be something more than forsaken.

The Sisters


Nancy Jensen - 2011
    A choice made in desperate haste sets off a chain of misunderstandings that will divide the sisters and reverberate through three generations of women.What happens when nothing turns out as you planned? From the Depression through World War II and Vietnam, and smaller events both tragic and joyful, Bertie and Mabel forge unexpected identities that are shaped by unspeakable secrets. As the sisters have daughters and granddaughters of their own, they discover that both love and betrayal are even more complicated than they seem.  Gorgeously written, with extraordinary insight and emotional truth, Nancy Jensen’s powerful debut novel illuminates the far-reaching power of family and family secrets.

My Forbidden Courtship with the Haunted Duke


Emma Linfield - 2020
    Mocked and ridiculed all her life for her appearance, she’s resigned herself to a loveless marriage.Still mourning his father’s death, marriage is the last thing on Cornelius Kingman, the Duke of Nightwell’s mind. Until the day he meets the one woman the ton can’t stop whispering about: Lady Arabella.And while society’s scorn is a thorn in their side, the real monster hides in plain sight.When Arabella’s betrothed is murdered, Cornelius is the prime suspect. Broken glass and the glint of a knife are all Arabella sees before she is taken. With Cornelius’ fate hanging by a thread, she is offered one choice: to drink from the same glass that killed her fiancé...

The Education of Dixie Dupree


Donna Everhart - 2016
    Sometimes the lies are for her mama, Evie’s sake—to explain away a bruise brought on by her quick-as-lightning temper. And sometimes the lies are to spite Evie, who longs to leave her unhappy marriage in Perry County, Alabama, and return to her beloved New Hampshire. But for Dixie and her brother, Alabama is home, a place of pine-scented breezes and hot, languid afternoons.Though Dixie is learning that the family she once believed was happy has deep fractures, even her vivid imagination couldn’t concoct the events about to unfold. Dixie records everything in her diary—her parents’ fights, her father’s drinking and his unexplained departure, and the arrival of Uncle Ray. Only when Dixie desperately needs help and is met with disbelief does she realize how much damage her past lies have done. But she has courage and a spirit that may yet prevail, forcing secrets into the open and allowing her to forgive and become whole again.Narrated by her young heroine in a voice as sure and resonant as The Secret Life of Bees’ Lily or Bastard Out of Carolina’s Bone, Donna Everhart’s remarkable debut is a story about mothers and daughters, the guilt and pain that pass between generations, and the truths that are impossible to hide, especially from ourselves.

A Tangled Mercy


Joy Jordan-Lake - 2017
    Haunted by unanswered questions and her own uncertain future, she flees to Charleston, South Carolina, the place where her parents met, convinced it holds the key to understanding her fractured family and saving her career in academia. Kate is determined to unearth groundbreaking information on a failed 1822 slave revolt—the subject of her mother’s own research.Nearly two centuries earlier, Tom Russell, a gifted blacksmith and slave, grappled with a terrible choice: arm the uprising spearheaded by members of the fiercely independent African Methodist Episcopal Church or keep his own neck out of the noose and protect the woman he loves.Kate’s attempts to discover what drove her mother’s dangerous obsession with Charleston’s tumultuous history are derailed by a horrific massacre in the very same landmark church. In the unimaginable aftermath, Kate discovers a family she never knew existed as the city unites with a powerful message of hope and forgiveness for the world.

Her Sunray in the Storm


Carol Colyer - 2019
    Her whole world and dreams are falling apart. She is broken-hearted, and cannot think of life with anyone else. When her parents insist on her getting married to a rich rancher in order to secure her future, will Abigail manage to find happiness in this man’s arms? When her thoughts get darker and darker how will an unexpected arrival brighten Abigail’s day? The only thing that allowed Edward Porter to survive the war was the thought of the girl he is in love with. However, this painful experience traumatized him for life. Now that he is finally free to go back home and ask Abigail in marriage, he feels ready to put everything behind and write a new chapter. To his misfortune, he will soon find out that Abigail is engaged to another man. Will he have the courage and strength to fight for her? Will he help her escape from her misery? Abigail and Edward would do anything to be back together. The circumstances though are far from ideal, and there are too many obstacles to overcome. What is the secret that will bring them closer? Is getting back together even an option or their fate has already been predetermined? "Her Sunray in the Storm" is a historical western romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

Betrothed


Elsa Holland - 2019
    Fourteen years later the Petroski brothers arrived in London setting it alight with their breathtaking presence, bone melting accents and heart fluttering masculinity; eligible women were all interested in their availability. And yet the Prince’s betrothed, Miss Georgina Franklin, was yet to receive a visit.

What Could Be Saved


Liese O'Halloran Schwarz - 2021
    When a stranger contacts Laura claiming to be her brother who disappeared forty years earlier when the family lived in Bangkok, Laura ignores Bea’s warnings of a scam and flies to Thailand to see if it can be true. But meeting him in person leads to more questions than answers. Bangkok, 1972: Genevieve and Robert Preston live in a beautiful house behind a high wall, raising their three children with the help of a cadre of servants. In these exotic surroundings, Genevieve strives to create a semblance of the life they would have had at home in the US—ballet and riding classes for the children, impeccable dinner parties, a meticulously kept home. But in truth, Robert works for American intelligence, Genevieve finds herself drawn into a passionate affair with her husband’s boss, and their serene household is vulnerable to unseen dangers of a rapidly changing world and a country they don’t really understand. Alternating between past and present as all of the secrets are revealed, What Could Be Saved is an unforgettable novel about a family shattered by loss and betrayal, and the beauty and hope that can exist even in the midst of brokenness.

A Reluctant Bride For A Heartbroken Rancher


Evelyn Boyett - 2020
    But her life wasn’t bad and at least she has her sisters. They aren’t blood but they’re family. When they lose their lodgings, Mercy isn’t sure what to do. When she loses her job immediately after, she knows she’s going to have to come up with a plan — and quick. She never thought she’d become a mail order bride but desperate times call for desperate measures.Cap McKenney has to get married. It’s the only chance he has to save their family ranch. Problem is, the woman he wants to marry, spurned him and marrying anyone else is unthinkable. Cap’s in a tight spot. The only choice he has is to find a nice mail order bride, get married, save the ranch, and spend the rest of his life nursing a broken heart.So Mercy and Cap get married, having no other choice except to join their lives together. But all is not well in paradise and neither of them is sure if their fragile union is going to survive.Then a band of outlaws rustles almost all their cattle. With the danger of losing the ranch hanging over them, Mercy and Cap will need to work together and summon all their courage because they are going to do something that no one has ever done. They’re going to get their cattle back.Will they, and their precarious new feelings for each other, survive taking on a band of dangerous outlaws? Or will they both lose everything they hold dear?

A Challenge of Love and Faith


Lilah Rivers - 2019
    He’s fled from a tragic past, but his heartache is far from over, when his brother, a rising literary star and his wife are both killed. Right then, he decides to step up and take care of the orphaned son they left behind. While Aaron and his nephew attempt to create a new family, a kind, beautiful woman will unexpectedly enter their lives. Her positivity is refreshing, but she has troubles of her own. Can the three of them find the courage to mend their broken hearts and start anew?Mae has had her fair share of loss in her life, but faith is what kept her strong in the face of all the obstacles thrown her way. Her kindness and grace impress the new salesman in town, when she goes to work for him as a seamstress. As they draw closer, her faith seems to bring him solace but Mae keeps secrets of her own. Can she help bring the new family together, or will her own troubles tear them apart?Relentless, greedy publishers will try to discredit Aaron, and other forces will try to keep him apart from Mae. In this tale of love and faith, will the new family’s courage shine through or will a storm of envy and chaos wash them away forever?"A Challenge of Love and Faith" is a historical romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

Olivia, Mourning


Yael Politis - 2013
    Her father’s will bequeathed the land to whichever of his offspring would put in a crop and stake a claim to it. Olivia insists, “I’m sprung off him just as much as Avis or Tobey.”The problem: she’s seventeen, female, and it’s 1841.She has a friend who would make a perfect partner for this endeavor. Mourning Free knows how to run a farm, having worked many years for local farmers. More importantly, Olivia has complete trust in him and no fear of a romantic entanglement developing between them. Mourning will put in the crop for her and she will then help him buy land of his own.The problem: Mourning is black, the orphaned son of runaway slaves, and reluctant to travel and work with a white girl. He especially fears the private agents from the south who patrol the free states, hunting fugitive slaves.Olivia believes she and Mourning can make their partnership work and they set off together. All goes well, despite the drudgery of survival in an isolated log cabin. Incapable of acknowledging her feelings for Mourning, Olivia thinks her biggest problem is her unrequited romantic interest in their young, single neighbor. Then she is betrayed and violated and her world falls apart.Strong-willed, vulnerable, and compassionate, Olivia is a compelling protagonist on a journey to find a way to do the right thing in a world in which so much is wrong.Awards2010 YWO Book of the Year2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, Quarter-Finalist

The Nix


Nathan Hill - 2016
    He hasn't seen his mother, Faye, since she walked out when he was a child. But then one day there she is, all over the news, throwing rocks at a presidential candidate. The media paints Faye as a militant radical with a sordid past, but as far as Samuel knows, his mother never left her small Iowa town. Which version of his mother is the true one? Determined to solve the puzzle--and finally have something to deliver to his publisher--Samuel decides to capitalize on his mother's new fame by writing a tell-all biography, a book that will savage her intimately, publicly. But first, he has to locate her; and second, to talk to her without bursting into tears. As Samuel begins to excavate her history, the story moves from the rural Midwest of the 1960s to New York City during the Great Recession and Occupy Wall Street to the infamous riots at the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention, and finally to Norway, home of the mysterious Nix that his mother told him about as a child. And in these places, Samuel will unexpectedly find that he has to rethink everything he ever knew about his mother--a woman with an epic story of her own, a story she kept hidden from the world.