Book picks similar to
Poker Face by Jess Sturman-Coombs


character
dashing-heroines
detective
drama

Read the Warning Label First


B.M. Hardin - 2015
    She was always picky about who she gave her heart and her time to and she always paid attention to the "signs". She didn't mind being alone, but at some point everybody wanted to be loved; even a successful, arrogant, impossible to please, woman like Tori. Tori refused to be a statistic and as she finally found herself back in the dating game, finding a man that had everything on her list was like finding gold at the end of a rainbow; he didn't exist. An upbeat, hilarious story of love, lies and deceit with more than enough twists and turns to knock your socks off, this story proves why it is so important to "Read the Warning Label First"

In My Dreams It Was Simpler


Tolulope Popoola - 2010
    They have been through many ups and downs together, from their pre-university days to the present time as young career women. They constantly have to deal with the measures of success - striking the perfect balance in all aspects of their lives - careers, relationships, cultural expectations, moral dilemmas and the demands of 'having it all'. Then there are the men: Tade - a guy from Temmy's recent past who is now stalking her, Dayo - who Titi is initially reluctant to introduce to her friends, and Wole who appears to tick all the boxes that Lola is looking for but has a shady past she wants to uncover by all means. They are thrown together in a series of intriguing events and twists, their dreams are shattered, and loyalties are tested to breaking point. Against all odds, the six friends have tried to stay afloat, but they don't know what the future holds.Will they pull through and become stronger? Or will they become victims of circumstances they cannot control? Find out in this intriguing and exciting new fiction series!

The Monkey's Raincoat / Free Fall / Lullaby Town


Robert Crais - 2003
    The search for Ellen's errant husband leads Elvis into the seamier side of Hollywood. He soon learns that Mort Lang is a down-on-his-luck talent agent who associates with a schlocky movie producer, and the last place he was spotted was at a party thrown by a famous and very well-connected ex-Matador. But no one has seen him since - including his B-movie girlfriend. At the same time the police find Mort in his parked car with four gunshots in his chest - and no kid in sight - Ellen disappears. Now nothing is what it seems, and the heat is on. It's up to Elvis Cole and his partner Joe Pike to find the connection between sleazy Hollywood players and an ex-Matador. FREE FALL Read by James Daniels (Sandra Burr, Jill Sovis) Elvis Cole is just a detective who can't say no, especially to a girl in a terrible fix. And Jennifer Sheridan qualifies: Her fiance, Mark Thurman, is a decorated LA cop with an elite plainclothes unit, but Jennifer's sure he's in trouble - the kind of serious trouble that only Elvis Cole can help him out of. Five minutes after his new client leaves his office, Elvis and his partner, the enigmatic Joe Pike, are hip-deep in a deadly situation as they plummet into a world of South Central gangs, corrupt cops, and conspiracies of silence. And before the case is through, every cop in the LAPD will be gunning for a pair of escaped armed-and-dangerous killers - Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. LULLABY TOWN Read by James Daniels (Joyce Bean, Russell Byers) Hollywood's newest wunderkind is Peter Alan Nelson, the brilliant, erratic director known as the King of Adventure. His films make billions, but his manners make enemies. What the boy king wants, he gets, and what Nelson wants is for Elvis to comb the country for the airhead wife and infant child the film-school flunkout dumped en route to becoming the third biggest filmmaker in America. It's the kind of case Cole can handle in his sleep - until it turns out to be a nightmare. For when Cole finds Nelson's wife in a small Conneticut town, she's nothing like what he expects. The lady has some unwanted - and very nasty - mob connections, which means Elvis could be opening the East Coast branch of his P.I. office . . .at the bottom of the Hudson River.

Goose Girl


Joy Dettman - 2001
    Sally De Rooze is almost thirty. She survived the accident that killed her father and brothers. Her mother never forgave her for that. But she survived her mother too. Surviving is what she does best. Farmer Ross Bertram, who offers her his acres and safety, is the answer for a while. Until he starts pushing for a wedding. Sally wants ... wants more. Wants to know great love. Wants to find herself. One year. That's what she wants. One year of freedom in the big, bad city. Her survival skills are tested in the urban sprawl and she discovers more about herself than she had ever dared to imagined.

An Autograph For Anjali


Sundari Venkatraman
    It’s not just his looks that Anjali’s attracted to, but his gentle and understanding nature.At 42, Parth Bhardwaj is an internationally famous author, writing under a pseudonym. Always having steered clear of married women, he has a difficult time keeping away from Anjali, feeling drawn to her from the moment he sets eyes on her. Just when the two finally realise that they are meant for each other, the unthinkable happens. Anjali’s husband Jayant is found murdered in his bed, making both Parth and Anjali the prime suspects.Will Anjali ever find happiness in her lonely life?

Padma Nadir Majhi


Lambert M. Surhone - 2010
    Padma Nadir Majhi ( Bengali:,English title: Boatman of the River Padma or The Padma Boatman ) (1993) is an award-winning Indian Bengali feature film directed by Goutom Ghosh from novel,the same name Manik Banerjees Padma Nadir Majhi.Hossian Miya (Utpal Dutta),Bengali Muslim, a trader who offers to take this community to with an idealistic vision: he wants to establish a little utopia on an island (Moynadeep) in the Padma delta . and offer them a better life there. It is apparent that Hossian Miya has a flourishing business there, because he has recently purchased a huge boat because of expanding business.

To Live


C.G. Cooper - 2018
    What started as an outreach program to make sure no one spent Christmas alone, turned into a story in my head, and then a journey of soul searching that I hadn't intended to take. This novel is a work of fiction, but I hope it encapsulates the fear so many of us face in living up to our potential, and more importantly, I hope it highlights the brave life so many choose to live after the loss of a loved one. Because it is a choice; a hard choice with so many possible endings. This novel is for the readers who have shared their stories, and for those who have yet to tell. Thank you for your honesty, your bravery and your incredible will to live. I've learned so much from you all. God bless. - C. G. Cooper BOOK DESCRIPTION Elmore Thaddeus Nix, it's retirement time. You're sixty-five and ready. Take that final physical and then it's adios to your old life and hello to the new. Not so fast. Sorry, Elmore. Your plan's about to change. It's Elmore's last day of work. As part of his retirement, he heads to the family doctor for the follow-up to a routine physical. That's when the universe shifts on its axis. Cancer. Then we find out that Elmore's wife lies at home with only days to live. The stroke of injustice falls hard. And so, with a final word from his wife, and the buck passed to the opposition's corner, Elmore must decide whether to take his wife's advice or just wither away. To Elmore, the choice seems easy. Which path will he choose? Only time will tell, but time is not on our friend's side. Along the way, we'll find out what secrets Elmore's been hiding from the world, and maybe even himself...

Free


Lisa Litberg - 2014
    Usually when I tell people that they laugh and ask me what my real name is. I just look them dead on and repeat, 'Free.' I left my old name behind with my old life; shed both of them like a useless layer of skin. When I stepped free of that world, I took the name Free. It is my real name. I picked it myself. What could be more real than that?"Since leaving home at the age of 18, Free has traveled the country searching for home. Her travels afford a variety of experiences, from following the Grateful Dead to waitressing in Chicago to selling jewelry in New Orleans' French Market, but nothing seems to quell her sense of unrest. All the while her estranged brother Alfie is in her thoughts. Once she finds him, perhaps she'll finally feel at home. But her world is filled with bad choices and unsavory characters, and she finds that freedom sometimes comes at a cost. The reader will feel as if they are traveling right alongside Free in this moving coming-of-age story.

Shanghai Girl


Vivian Yang - 2001
    Shan Hai Gaaru". This 2011 U.S. edition features an excerpt of the author’s WNYC Leonard Lopate Essay Contest-winning new novel "Memoirs of a Eurasian". In the post-Cultural Revolution Shanghai of 1984, university senior Sha-fei Hong longs to study in the U.S. for graduate school, ostensibly to pursue the American Dream, but partly to escape her sexually-harassing Communist cadre stepfather. She meets the visiting Chinese-American businessman Gordon Lou, who has political ambitions and ties to the Chinatown underworld in the U.S. He takes Sha-fei to the American Consulate in Shanghai to look into studying in America. There, Sha-fei meets the intern Edward Cook, a young, Caucasian American lawyer who has a strong preference for all things Asian. Within a year, these three people of entirely different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds cross paths in New York. Value systems and self-interests clash. The curtain falls on a dramatic stage of ambition, sex, intrigue, and murder.

Lost Angel


Ben Cheetham - 2018
    Fifteen-year-old Grace Kirby kisses her mum and heads off to school. It’s a day like any other, except that Grace will never return home.Fifteen years have passed since Grace went missing. In that time, Stephen Baxley has made millions and now he’s lost millions. Suicide seems like the only option, but Stephen has no intention of leaving behind his wife, son and daughter. He wants them all to be together forever, in this world or the next.Angel is on the brink of suicide too. Then she hears a name on the news that transports her back to a windowless basement. Something terrible happened in that basement. Something Angel has been running from most of her life. But the time for running is over. Now is the time to start fighting back.At the scene of a fatal shooting, Detective Jim Monahan finds evidence of a sickening crime linked to Grace Kirby. Then more people start turning up dead. Who is the killer? Are the victims also linked to Grace? Who will be next to die? The answers will test to breaking-point Jim’s faith in the law he’s spent his life upholding.

ADELAIDE, The Royal Mistress


Takalani M. - 2019
    It follows an interesting life of a princess, Rotshidzwa, who doesn’t believe in love but is given an ultimatum to get married to a prince in order to access her father’s estate. The princess was wild and needed a tame, hence her father left a condition on his will – a condition which she did not want fulfil. Forced by her kind of lifestyle, she agreed to fake a marriage in the hope of receiving her portion of the estate and getting divorced afterwards. The prince agreed to enter into a fake marriage, provided that he gets a share of the money. Things did not go to plan as she was expected to prove the legitimacy of her marriage. In the process of proving the legitimacy of the marriage, she ends up falling in love with the prince and complicating his relationship with his partner named Adelaide. Their relationship ended up into a complicate love triangle.

Mermaids of Bodega Bay (Terrence Reid Mystery Series)


Mary Birk - 2014
     Anne, a talented historic garden designer, doesn’t know whether to bless or curse the luck that had her husband show up on her doorstep just as disaster strikes the Grainger Art Colony. Moving on after he left her was hard, but she’d done it with Andrew Grainger’s help. When Anne and her lover become the FBI’s chief suspects, Reid, compelled to exonerate the woman he still loves, steps in to investigate—and in the process, uncovers a shocking web of deceit and danger.

The Language of Good-bye


Maribeth Fischer - 2001
     For Annie and Will, who have left their marriages to be together, the future is fraught with the complications of starting over. Both have left pieces of themselves behind: For Annie, it is the husband and friend she has known since childhood; for Will, it is the five-year-old daughter he adores. And for the Korean-born Sungae, one of Annie's English-as-a-second-language students, it is a search for the words that will help her resolve the sorrows of her tragic history. As Sungae struggles with the new language and with her memories, her story unfolds in ways that will have profound consequences not only for Sungae, but for Annie, Will, and their former spouses. A lyrical and deeply moving novel about love, loss, and language-and about confronting life's tough choices-The Language of Good-bye "weaves a wonderful story [about] letting go of the past and moving forward into the future" (Gail Tsukiyama, author of The Language of Threads).

Essential Self-Defense: A Play


Adam Rapp - 2007
    Meanwhile, all's not well on the unassuming Midwestern streets of Bloggs: with local children vanishing at an alarming rate, our hero, his lady friend, and a motley assortment of poets, butchers, and punk librarians prepare to battle the darkness on the edge of town.

Guardians Of Mayhem MC Box Set (Books 1-10) (MC Romance Box Set Collection Book 3)


Hope Stone - 2021