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Like No Other Boy by Larry Center


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The Things We Wish Were True


Marybeth Mayhew Whalen - 2016
    But behind the white picket fences lies a web of secrets that reach from house to house.Up and down the streets, neighbors quietly bear the weight of their own pasts—until an accident at the community pool upsets the delicate equilibrium. And when tragic circumstances compel a woman to return to Sycamore Glen after years of self-imposed banishment, the tangle of the neighbors’ intertwined lives begins to unravel.During the course of a sweltering summer, long-buried secrets are revealed, and the neighbors learn that it’s impossible to really know those closest to us. But is it impossible to love and forgive them?

Addressed to Greta


Fiona Sussman - 2020
    She swallowed hard and looked out of her cabin window. The plane had just broken through a clump of clouds and below was an undulating patchwork of reds and greens. It was what she’d been expecting. The ruralness. Yet also different from the image she’d held in her head. The vastness. The intense terracotta colour. The relentless blue of the sky.’Greta Jellings blushes and bumbles her way through her carefully ordered existence, forever constrained by what her mother would have said and done. No expectation, no disappointment was one of her mother’s mantras. It serves Greta well too. It is the death of her dear friend Walter, and his unusual bequest, that finally forces Greta to escape the shackles of her safe life. Revealed in a series of letters, Walter has set Greta a challenge that leads her across the world, and so far outside her comfort zone, that she has no choice but to confront who she really is. It is in the foreignness of strangers that she finds the familiar, and in the expanse of the vista that she gains perspective.'Addressed to Greta' is a captivating novel about a woman learning to express her true self. A story about finding the courage to be seen, and a testament to the transformative power of friendship.

Jessica's Promise


Jill Childs - 2018
    It is emotional and thrilling and just plain amazing.’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars Teresa’s heart stops when she enters her daughter’s bedroom to find that her sweet, trusting little girl is gone. Teresa can’t bear to think who would take a terrified three-year-old from her mother in the middle of the night, but all the signs point to someone close to home. Hasn’t Jessica’s stepfather been acting a little oddly? Or is it, as Teresa is beginning to fear, something to do with Angie, her daughter’s babysitter who lives next door...? Gentle, retired Angie – she must be lonely, with only her memories to keep her company in that big, old house. And she’s always had a special connection with Jessica... was trusting Angie with her precious daughter the biggest mistake of Teresa’s life? What do we really know about those who watch our children? Jessica’s Promise is a compelling domestic drama for fans of Jodi Picoult, Lisa Wingate and Kerry Fisher. Readers absolutely love Jessica’s Promise… ‘Wow! There is no other word for this book. It is emotional and thrilling and just plain amazing! I cannot wait to read more of the writer's books in the future!’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars ‘Absolutely brilliant, brilliant and brilliant, didn't think Jill could “do it again” after reading Gracie's Secret but how wrong could I be? Loved everything about this book.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars ‘Riveting… Emotional! This was a brilliant fast-paced domestic drama!... A compelling story full of all the twists and turns.’ Audio Killed the Bookmark ‘Fast paced and wonderfully told story about mother-love, secrecy, trust and family. The characters are so true to life… I was very surprised by the shock revelation of what had really happened to Jessica.’ Goodreads reviewer ‘WOW… this book was just beautifully written throughout and had you gripped from the first few pages…. I just loved this book and the last few chapters will keep on your toes.’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars ‘Absolutely brilliant! A poignant, touching and thrilling take from an amazing writer. Tense and pacy, and yet written with heart. A truly stunning tale.’ Renita D’Silva ‘The characters are flawed but show great emotion… The author has tremendous insight into the mind of a young child… If you like domestic thrillers, emotion-packed drama, and a gripping storyline, this book is definitely for you.’ Waggy Tales Dog Blog, 5 stars ‘A brilliant thriller all the way through, I really enjoyed it.’ Goodreads reviewer ‘You did not know who to trust and who kept which secret. Everybody seemed suspicious… When the culprit was finally revealed and all secrets were in the open, I could not believe my eyes. Not even in my wildest dream could I have guessed that! Fast paced… emotional.

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell


Robert Dugoni - 2018
    Born with red pupils, he was called “Devil Boy” or Sam “Hell” by his classmates; “God’s will” is what his mother called his ocular albinism. Her words were of little comfort, but Sam persevered, buoyed by his mother’s devout faith, his father’s practical wisdom, and his two other misfit friends.Sam believed it was God who sent Ernie Cantwell, the only African American kid in his class, to be the friend he so desperately needed. And that it was God’s idea for Mickie Kennedy to storm into Our Lady of Mercy like a tornado, uprooting every rule Sam had been taught about boys and girls.Forty years later, Sam, a small-town eye doctor, is no longer certain anything was by design—especially not the tragedy that caused him to turn his back on his friends, his hometown, and the life he’d always known. Running from the pain, eyes closed, served little purpose. Now, as he looks back on his life, Sam embarks on a journey that will take him halfway around the world. This time, his eyes are wide open—bringing into clear view what changed him, defined him, and made him so afraid, until he can finally see what truly matters.

The Overdue Life of Amy Byler


Kelly Harms - 2019
    So when the guilt-ridden husband who abandoned her shows up and offers to take care of their kids for the summer, she accepts his offer and escapes rural Pennsylvania for New York City.Usually grounded and mild mannered, Amy finally lets her hair down in the city that never sleeps. She discovers a life filled with culture, sophistication, and—with a little encouragement from her friends—a few blind dates. When one man in particular makes quick work of Amy’s heart, she risks losing herself completely in the unexpected escape, and as the summer comes to an end, Amy realizes too late that she must make an impossible decision: stay in this exciting new chapter of her life, or return to the life she left behind.But before she can choose, a crisis forces the two worlds together, and Amy must stare down a future where she could lose both sides of herself, and every dream she’s ever nurtured, in the beat of a heart.

Pardner's Trust: Cowboy Up


Randall Dale - 2015
    Hard working and honest to the core Ricky Richardson, taught by one of the best, is injured in a freak horse accident that leaves him in the hospital and the horse dead. After six weeks of recovery and without work he is desperate for a job. An offer comes with a catch, he must show up with a horse to ride and the only horse in his price range is a mistrusting black with a history of having been mistreated. He is cheap for a reason as Ricky would soon learn. Both stubborn, one will have to give. Which one will it be?A tender and emotional story of the bond that develops between a horse and his owner. That bond is tested as the young man and his horse endure an almost unbearable hardship. It will take all the fortitude Ricky can muster and all the help his friends can give as he faces the possibility of losing his favorite horse forever.If you’ve ever owned a horse, or ever wanted to, this book is for you.

Nobody's Girl


Antonya Nelson - 1998
    Birdy spends her days trying to teach her students to appreciate the beauty of literature and her nights getting high with Jesus, her gay colleague and confidant.Birdy regards Pinetop as merely an escapade. But the desultory quality of her life is interrupted when a middle-aged widow asks Birdy to edit her rambling memoir. Combining superb storytelling with good humor, Antonya Nelson follows Birdy as she helps Mrs. Anthony reconstruct the history surrounding the bizarre and mysterious deaths of Mrs. Anthony's husband and daughter years earlier. As Birdy is drawn deeper into her subject's story, she begins a love affair with Mrs. Anthony's surviving son -- a young man who just happens to be one of Birdy's students. With its sensuous and lovingly rendered Southwestern setting, "Nobody's Girl" is a startling novel that showcases the striking talents of an emminently gifted writer.

Grizzly Killer: The Making of a Mountain Man


Lane R. Warenski - 2017
    After a grizzly kills his pa, Zach struggles to survive a cold and brutal winter alone. After killing a rouge grizzly and fighting hostile Indians on his own, he becomes known as Grizzly Killer and is respected throughout the West. Along with his dog, Jimbo, whom the Indians call the Great Medicine Dog, he finds Running Wolf, an injured Ute warrior, and together they fight off a hostile war party. They rescue two Shoshone sisters from the brutality of a French trapper and take them as wives. After Zach saves Running Wolf’s beautiful sister, Shining Star, he is expected to take her as a second wife, but his Christian beliefs conflict with the Indian traditions, and he struggles within himself to accept the Indian ways. Set in the rugged Uinta Mountains of Northern Utah, this is a story of survival against nature and hostile Indians and the clash of cultures between the Indians and mountain men that were the first to brave this uncharted wilderness, seeking their fortune from the pelts of the beaver.

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?

Wish Me Home


Kay Bratt - 2017
    Stranded in Georgia with only her backpack and a few dwindling dollars, she already has too much baggage. Like her twin sister, Hana, who has broken Cara’s heart one too many times. After a lifetime of family troubles, and bouncing from one foster home to another, Cara decides to leave it all behind and strike out alone—on foot.Cara sets off to Florida to see the home of her literary hero, Ernest Hemingway, accompanied only by Hemi, the stray dog who proves to be the perfect travel companion. But the harrowing trip takes unexpected turns as strangers become friends who make her question everything, and Cara finds that as the journey unfolds, so does her life—in ways she could never imagine.

True Places


Sonja Yoerg - 2019
    As Suzanne rushes her to the hospital, she never imagines how the encounter will change her—a change she both fears and desperately needs.Suzanne has the perfect house, a successful husband, and a thriving family. But beneath the veneer of an ideal life, her daughter is rebelling, her son is withdrawing, her husband is oblivious to it all, and Suzanne is increasingly unsure of her place in the world. After her discovery of the ethereal sixteen-year-old who has never experienced civilization, Suzanne is compelled to invite Iris into her family’s life and all its apparent privileges.But Iris has an independence, a love of solitude, and a discomfort with materialism that contrasts with everything the Blakemores stand for—qualities that awaken in Suzanne first a fascination, then a longing. Now Suzanne can’t help but wonder: Is she destined to save Iris, or is Iris the one who will save her?

The Mayhem Children (A Project Specter Mystery Book 1)


Paul Seiple - 2018
    Psychopath, Elvin Hayes was convicted and executed for the presumed murders. He went to his grave with the secrets of what happened to the children dubbed The Silent Six. Thirty years later, the six are no longer silent. A curse has been summoned. The children have come home to play a demonic game called The Mayhem. Detective Kim Strode must find out who conjured The Mayhem before it destroys everyone connected to the case. There’s one major problem. Kim is connected. Her father sent Elvin Hayes to the electric chair. THE MAYHEM CHILDREN, a terrifying tale of witchcraft, demons, and revenge, is an ode to classic eighties horror.

The Mulligan


Nathan Jorgenson - 2007
    So was this any improvement over a motel room? It made him think about what he'd left behind. That warm bed, the couch in his library? He hoped for sleep to come. The rich man ain't the one who has the most; he's the one who needs the least.