Book picks similar to
Mattie's Story by Margaret A. Westlie
young-adult
first-reads
freebie
historical-fiction
Hidden in the Heart
Beth Andrews - 2006
High-spirited Lydia expects a very dull visit, but her sojourn to the village of Diddlington is not as idyllic as she anticipates . . .A charred and bludgeoned corpse is found in the woods, and suspicion falls on Lydia’s aunt’s suitor, an intriguing Frenchman. Convinced of his innocence, Lydia enlists the help of her new friend, John Savidge, to catch the real killer. But before their dangerous adventure ends there will be more than one unexpected discovery.
The Last Day For Rob Rhino (Twisted Crime #2)
Kathleen O'Donnell - 2013
I became more immersed with every page, as the plot twisted and turned its way to the end. Kathleen O'Donnell has done an outstanding job with her first book. Can't wait to hear more from her. Hurry! – Ryker, five star review on Amazon. Claire’s a rich widow on a mission, who partakes with abandon from the pharmacy stored in her Prada purse. Rob’s an aging reality show celebrity. Stuck on the same flight, bound for the same eccentric town, she hates him on sight. She thinks she knows all there is to know about him but is dying to find out more. He’s disinterested but somehow still sees right through her. But they’ve both got big problems. Hers is in the Louis Vuitton carryon in the overhead. His is in his pants. To Claire’s dismay, Rob turns up everywhere she goes, yet they form the unlikeliest of friendships. He cares for her in ways she’s never known before. He could be the best thing in her life—or the worst. In a place full of secrets, including their own, they help each other find answers they didn’t even know they were looking for, yet some questions linger. What happened to Rob’s first wife? What happened to Claire’s husband? Will they live through the answers? The Last Day for Rob Rhino is a dark, tragic, and funny novel about the bonds of family and friendship. If you’d love a Gillian Flynn, Paula Hawkins, or Stieg Larsson novel with a humorous twist, this would be it.
The Baron Without Blame
Katherine Grant - 2021
Even though he was only freeing her skirts from the railing. Even though he doesn’t know her name. The next morning, he faithfully offers for her hand in marriage.Lolly Turner has nothing against Lord Preston. He is handsome, kind, and honorable. Yet she can’t bring herself to marry a man solely because of gossip. When she knows she should say yes, she says no. Instead, they concoct a false engagement: they tell the world they plan to marry, while in reality Lolly will jilt Martin once the scandal has died down.Martin invites Lolly and her family to spend the Easter holiday at his country home to keep up appearances. As he and Lolly spend more time together, they share visions for the future and realize they both hope for a world very different from the one into which they were born. But when Lolly’s father catches wind of their shared politics, he changes his mind about the wedding. Which means it is up to Lolly and Martin to choose: should they do the right thing, or follow their hearts?
Saddle The Wind
Jess Foley - 2004
For little Blanche the future appears bleak. Then one fateful day Blanche's mother is requested at the 'big house' to nurse Marianne, the motherless daughter of John Savill whose wife has died in childbirth. The two girls, so different in their hopes, are brought up together caring for each other as sisters.
Blanche is torn between her love for her real mother and her desire for a life of wealth and ease. Her friendship with Marianne remains the one constant in her life. But then she meets Marianne's intended husband, with tragic consequences for them all.
In this original and vivid saga, Jess Foley weaves a tale of passion and pain against a background of unsentimentalized rural England.
House of Catesby - The Complete Collection
Sunny Brooks
On the day of his death, in the blink of an eye, the lives of one woman and her six grown children changed irrevocably. The matriarch Countess Margaret Lilias Catesby was now a dowager countess; her strength and maternal duty the sole driving force pushing herself through the grief. Each of the Catesby children are left to carry on their father’s legacy, shown physically through their father’s green eyes and spiritually through his impassioned attitude for living. Eldest son Francis had barely a day to cope with his father’s death before the title of Lord Catesby was immediately thrust upon him. With Francis assuming ownership of the estate and his five siblings left to sort out the pieces, each must now find a way to navigate the world without their dear father’s guidance. Will siblings Francis, Emily, Helena, Sophia and the twins, Charles and Henry, be able to move forward into society and proudly carry on the Catesby name? There’s only one way to find out…---Book 1: ”Lady Emily’s Escape”Book 2: ”Charles and the Intruder”Book 3: ”The Mysterious Lord Livingstone”Book 4: ” Lady Sophie and the Proper Gardener”Book 5: ” Mr. Henry Catesby and the Rebellious Redhead”Book 6: ” Dilemma of the Earl's Heart”EXCLUSIVE BONUS! Book 7:” The Scandalous Dowager Countess”
Risky Hero
Jenna Gunn - 2021
Cocky as a god. Alpha TROUBLE. V-card slayer. Stranger Danger, indeed... And I just let him in my car!Jackson’s the best disaster a girl could run into.Eight pack abs. Hang-on-baby biceps. Devil-may-care-panty-dropping grin.Then he goes and saves me. Not once. But twice.And I hand over my V-card at long last. Because Mr. Wrong Side of the Road makes me hot in all the right ways.Not like I planned on carrying it around forever. But my father taught me about all the things I didn’t want in my life.So an affair with Jackson was perfect. No strings. No complicated messes.My protective walls would keep doing their job.But turns out Jackson’s touch unraveled my orderly world from the inside out. Only as my walls come down, his go up.Can my scars and his untethered life mesh?Fire fuses some things and tears other things in half. But the heat’s got to get really hot to find out which will happen to us.From the queen of smoking hot action adventure romance Jenna Gunn - an alpha rescuer first lover romance set in on the beautiful beaches of Outer Banks or North Carolina.. Full of unexpected twists, window-steaming heat, and a hero so tasty you’ll be sizzling for days. A full length book with a happy ever after that will send you dreaming.
The Marchioness Who Tempted Fate
Hanna Hamilton - 2020
The day she finds herself at the mercy of a peculiar Marquess, she realizes that trying to steal from a nobleman, was a very bad idea.When Percival Dandridge, Marquess of Northbury, apprehends a suspiciously feminine thief in his house, he decides to offer her a position in his kitchen. He never intended to fall in love with her.But when an attempt against his life is made, all clues point to her.Realizing she is being framed, she becomes a ghost, working to prove her innocence. A dagger, an old gold pouch, and a diligent constable are all she has to solve this mystery and uncover a string of old ones…
A Wanton Heiress for the Duke: A Steamy Historical Regency Romance Novel
Olivia T. Bennet - 2021
Missing Love
Hannah Schrock - 2019
Esther fell in love at the age of five. When she finally married the boy of her dreams she knew her future would hold nothing but happiness. Jacob was the love of her life and had they only been blessed with a boppli; their lives couldn’t have been happier. The one dream that wouldn’t come true. After just three years of wedded bliss Jacob died unexpectedly, leaving Esther shattered, alone, and pregnant. After six weeks of trying to keep Jacob’s business open, Noah Miller can’t continue burning the candle at both ends. He hires a store manager, Daniel Fischer, to take charge of the store until Esther is in a better state of mind to make decisions about the store’s future. When Esther finds out her father hired a replacement for her husband in his own business, she is devastated. And then a life changing revelation is made, and Esther fears she is losing her faith. Why would God take her husband with one hand and answer her prayers with the other? She tries her best to be indifferent to Daniel Fischer but something about him makes her dream of the future again. Will Esther learn to open her heart to love again? Can Daniel accept another man’s child as his own? Follow this sweet heartfelt journey as Esther works through the grief of losing a husband and the scary prospect of falling in love again.
Brides Of Grasshopper Creek
Faith-Ann Smith - 2016
She and her new husband Bradley have been planning this trip for as long as they have been planning their lives together it seems, and now that they've left Independence, Missouri on the wagon train west, it appears that all of their dreams are coming true. Within just a few short weeks of leaving, however, the harsh realities of life on the wagon train strike Hannah hard and she is forced to realize that the adventure she envisioned with Bradley is not at all what it seemed. Will Hannah overcome hardship when her adventure out west takes a tragic turn for the worse? Book 2: Mail Order Bride Caroline: The Lord guides Caroline to an ad in the newspaper from a gold miner in Bannack who is searching for a lovely woman to become his bride. Soon, she joins the wagon train and anxiously makes the journey out west to start her new life. When she arrives, however, she discovers that the man she chose may not be the man she thought he was. She must decide where her loyalties lie—and if she can find it in herself to look beyond Bailey’s past and accept him for the man he is today. Book 3: Mail Order Bride Louisa: After the death of her sweetheart, Louisa feels that there is nothing left in life for her, and wonders what she could possibly do to fill the years that lie ahead. When her sister suggests for Louisa to become a mail order bride for one of the men in the frontier, Louisa is appalled, but with the prospect of her sister and brother leaving on the wagon train with their cousins, Louisa knows that she must make the decision to either be left alone without any relatives and only her painful memories, or to enter marriage with a man she doesn't know. Book 4: Mail Order Bride Emily: Emily has never quite fit in with the rest of the high society young women who are supposed to be her peers. Raised in privilege—and expected to live up to the part now that she is old enough to marry—Emily cares more about her dream of becoming a teacher than the idea of hosting fancy tea parties and being courted by potential suitors. Feeling that she cannot continue being told what to do any longer, Emily makes the bold decision to go out west so that she can start a school and teach the children of the Frontier. In order to fulfill her dream, however, she must become a mail order bride. Book 5: Mail Order Bride Charlotte: After the death of their parents, Charlotte and her brother Victor only have each other left in the world. Well past marrying age at thirty years old, Charlotte has nearly resigned herself to spending her life taking care of Victor when she suddenly discovers that he has been planning for them to move away from Philadelphia and seek out their futures in the Frontier town of Bannack. Though Victor refuses to admit it, Charlotte knows that having a single sister following him around is limiting to him, so she decides to take responsibility for herself and find a man who is looking for a wife. Book 6: Mail Order Bride Betsy: Betsy always knew that love would find her eventually, and until then, she would be happy watching the young men who lived in her mother's boarding house court their sweethearts on the front porch.
Shifter Squad
Clara Kendrick - 2018
Lots of suspense, mystery, and romance. No cliffhangers! Bonus book included. Book 1: Alex – The Panther Alex is assigned to work with the gang’s point of contact, a beautiful, clever woman named Tony, who immediately manages to get the dark Alex to open up to her and to himself in a way that nobody ever has before. As Alex and Tony fall for each other, they do their best to take down Sanchez’s operation in the city using Alex’s dark connects, but he doesn’t know that Tony has a dangerous secret, one that could destroy them both before the end of the mission. Book 2: Nick – The Bear Nick is a bear shifter on the verge of death the day he is wheeled into Dr. Lilith Cole’s office, his body ravaged by a brutal fight with a roomful of Sanchez’s shifters. Lilith finds that she feels a connection to him before he even wakes up, and though she tries to deny it, she can’t resist how she feels about him the moment he opens his eyes. Awake and alert, Nick is determined to prove to himself and to his commander that he is capable of working the dangerous missions. Lilith finds herself irresistibly drawn to the big shifter, drawn into a conflict so deep that she might just be risking her life as well as her heart. Book 3: Noah – The Powerful Noah is a multi-shifter with the ability to change into any animal, but his remarkable, rare ability doesn’t help him when faced with one of Sanchez’s people, a beautiful witch named Fiona. Noah is surprised when Fiona saves him from the fire that he sets to free Lilith Cole from her imprisonment, especially considering the fact that shifters and witches have a blood feud that goes back for centuries. Fiona and Noah hate each other, but they can’t deny their attraction for one another, fierce and powerful in the face of their disdain for one another. Book 4: Gabriel – The Witch Gabriel is too powerful. A rare combination of a shifter and witch, he is unable to control either side of his powers. Knowing his potential and how powerful he can be, Liam sends him on a mission to search the addresses that they found to places possibly belonging to Sylvester Sanchez, along with a psychic who has the ability to read the history of places she enters. Sophie is the opposite of Gabriel in every way—excited and charming, nothing like the dark, brooding witch. Chapter 5: Liam – The Leader After they finally locate Sylvester Sanchez’s main headquarters in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, Elise insists on going on the mission with them, not convinced that Liam’s personal vendetta against Sanchez won’t get in the way of completing the mission successfully. The closer they get to the compound, the more it becomes obvious that Elise has been hiding something dark and dangerous, something that has the ability to either save the entire squad or watch them burn in front of her.
Disturbance in the Wake
S.A. Ison - 2020
Ten-year-old Hiroki Tanaka grew up in a fishing village on an island just off the coast of Honshu, Japan. While he helps his father fishing, a large earthquake hits his island. Hiroki falls from the boat as the waters become choppy and he is pulled under water. He is desperate to get back to his father. When he surfaces, his father and the boat are gone. When Hiroki swims to shore, he realizes that he has been swept back in time to an era of violence and the samurai. Amy Ohara is celebrating her twenty-first birthday by going on a cruise, off the coast of Honshu, Japan. She had grown up in Tokyo and is well acquainted with Japan's rich traditions and ancient history. Betrayed by the man she had been dating, Amy is now awaiting transport as human cargo. As her life swings in the balance, Amy has a choice, dive into the black waters and perhaps drown or be taken by the human traffickers. When the yacht blows up, Amy feel lucky to be alive and swims for shore. Yet she has arrived at the shore of distant past. Amy has been washed back in time nearly 700 years, 300 years before Europeans stepped foot in Asia. With her red hair and green eyes, she stands out.
The Daring Girls of Guernsey: a Novel of World War II
Gayle Callen - 2021
Innocent young teacher Catherine is forced to house a German officer. Shrewd waitress Betty seeks to elude the persistent Nazi determined to conquer her. And courageous nurse Helen cares for her patients – both British and German – while hiding a British spy in her seaside cottage.Their fight against the injustices being enacted on their island home brings the women, the spy, and their enemies together in one night that will change all of their lives forever. Though none of them could foresee that the battle they fought that night would reach across time to 1997, when the tragic fallout ensnares Helen once more.
Secret Days in Pretty Beach
Polly Babbington - 2021
But just as she is starting to wonder if she is in a fairytale, complete with its very own castle, real life throws in a spanner and she finds herself wondering how things always seem to get a little bit complicated just to keep her on her toes.