Book picks similar to
Grains of Paradise by B.A. Collins
e-books
gave-up-on
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The Nest
Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney - 2016
Leo’s bad behaviour, culminating in a car crash while under the influence—a nineteen-year-old waitress beside him—has endangered the Plumbs’ joint trust fund, or “the Nest,” as they’ve taken to calling it. The four siblings are at very different places in their lives, but all believe that this money will solve a host of self-inflicted problems and their consequences. And until Leo’s accident, they’d been mere months away from receiving it.Can Leo get the Plumbs out of this mess, as he’s always been able to do for himself before? Or will the Plumb siblings have to do without the money and the future lives they’ve envisioned? As the siblings grapple with family tensions, old histories and the significant emotional and financial cost of the accident, Sweeney introduces an unforgettable cast of supporting characters: Leo’s stalwart ex-girlfriend who now thinks that maybe, just maybe, he is capable of change; the waitress whose life was shattered in the accident and the Iraqi war veteran who falls in love with her; and a retired, grieving firefighter with a very big secret.Tender, funny and deftly written, The Nest explores what money does to relationships, what happens to our ambitions over the course of our lives, and the fraught but unbreakable ties we have with our families.
The Other Side of Heartache
Sarah Jo Smith - 2013
Summoned to her childhood home to sort through Penny’s belongings, the timing couldn’t be worse. Grieving over her losses and exhausted from a demanding teaching schedule, she worries that her marriage is collapsing under the pressure. While packing her mother’s closet, Grace discovers a box filled with mysterious keepsakes and old diaries written in Penny’s hand and takes them home. After reading pages filled with typical musings of a teenage girl from a generation ago, she stumbles upon a dark secret and is devastated to learn that what she believed her whole life about her family was based on lies.As Grace digs beneath the Rose family tree, she unearths more than one skeleton buried there. All the while, she must endure the wrath of her grandmother, Eleanor, who is determined to block her efforts to find out what happened when Penny was seventeen, as well as the underlying cause of her premature death. Yet Eleanor harbors a well-kept secret of her own, one more deceitful and calculating than Penny’s sin. Grace’s journey through an emotional labyrinth of passion, shame, and manipulation not only leads to more shocking revelations but also changes the course she had mapped for her life.Through a story told in alternating voices between the past and present where old morals and double standards from the historical 1950s and ‘60s clash with modern day values, Grace must decide if it’s worth taking an unforeseen risk to reaffirm her belief in the power of love. BOOK GROUP GUIDE INCLUDED.
The Bad Boyfriends Bootcamp
Poppy Dolan - 2012
. . Sam’s average relationship lasts seven weeks. And that’s when he really tries. So Molly decides to give Sam the woman’s point of view in the complicated game of dating. And when a freshly made-over Sam quickly meets – and keeps − the love of life, his desperately single friends are soon lining up to experience Molly’s Bad Boyfriends’ Bootcamp. For Molly, whose dot com business combusted into a dot bomb disaster, it presents a whole new profit-making opportunity. She’s providing a valuable service to these witless blokes, after all. Together with best friend and local fashionista Rachael and the gorgeous but deadly gym instructor Josie, Molly is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to reforming bad boyfriends. Fixing other people's problems also provides Molly with a handy distraction from her own. Namely, an over-achieving mother, a sparse love life and a very sorry-looking overdraft. Add into the mix Sam’s best friend Patrick, who seems oddly immune to Molly’s makeover techniques but determined to hang around nonetheless, and it soon becomes one problem too many . . .
Caterpillar Without A Callsign (ATLAS)
Isaac Hooke - 2013
I don't have a callsign, not yet. I'm just a caterpillar. A baby moth.I joined up because, well, I've always wanted to pilot an ATLAS mech. What can I say? We're talking three meters of pure, mobile destructive power here. A thousand hydraulically actuated joints. Head-mounted sensor package with built in LIDAR, night vision, flash vision, zoom. Crash protection. Jump jets. Active protection countermeasures. Swappable weaponry. Deployable ballistic shield. Sound like the war machine of your dreams?It is.I finally got my chance to pilot one of these babies on a little deployment out in Mongolia.Under a rather unusual set of circumstances...CATERPILLAR WITHOUT A CALLSIGN is a 7,800 word military science-fiction story set in the ATLAS universe.ATLAS, the full-length military science-fiction novel from Isaac Hooke, is now out. To download your copy, visit: http://amzn.to/1oIndEj
Laid Bare
Lauren Dane - 2009
Their power exchange in the bedroom got under his skin. But love wasn't in the cards just yet...Now, life has thrown the pair back together. But picking up where they left off is tough, in light of a painful event from Erin's past. As Todd struggles to earn her trust, their relationship takes an unexpected and exciting turn when Todd's best friend, Ben, ends up in their bed--and all three are quite satisfied in this relationship without a name. As the passion they share transforms Erin, will it be enough to help her face the evil she thought she had left behind?
Miami Jones: Toes in the Sand Collection
A.J. Stewart - 2015
Stiff Arm Steal The prize possession of former football hero, part-time media personality and full-time blowhard BJ Baker has been stolen from his palatial Palm Beach home. Baker has called in the Mayor, the police, the sheriff and everyone else he can co-opt into the search. But if he really wants the person who can find it, one name keeps coming up. Miami Jones. Problem is, he can't stand Jones. And the feeling is mutual.Miami takes on a jealous husband, a feisty ex-con and a police detective desperate to claim everyone else's 15 minutes of fame, and he finds that Florida is home to so many retired athletes he could start a pensioner football league. But can Miami hunt down the culprit before they graduate from theft to something far more deadly? Offside Trap A university president with delusions of grandeur. A property developer with mob ties. A crooked politician fast-tracking projects for cash. Just another day in South Florida.When Miami Jones is hired by an old college friend to investigate the drug overdose of a star student-athlete, he is thrust into the dark intersection of academia, politics and the Miami drug world, where he finds himself fighting to not just solve the crime, but to save those he loves most. High Lie Miami Jones knows that South Florida has its fair share of sharks, and not all of them live in the ocean. When a young boy is dumped in the water off the coast, Miami goes looking for answers. What he finds is a world of crooked bookmakers, slick Las Vegas Casino moguls and a desperate band of brothers playing a forgotten sport. Forgotten by everyone except the person who wants the players dead.Miami takes Florida sliding down a sinkhole rather personally, so now he’ll stop at nothing to prevent the circling sharks from consuming his beloved home. Dead Fast To most people Jamaica is sun, sea and rum drinks by the pool. But Miami Jones and Danielle Castle don't vacation like most people. After witnessing an assault on a young man in Montego Bay, Miami and Danielle are hired to protect a young athlete with Olympic dreams.But there are lots of athletes with those dreams, and not all of them play by the rules. Miami and Danielle find themselves up against corrupt officials, athlete managers with a kit-bag full of dirty tricks, and a local police force that might be in it up to their necks. In a paradise where running fast is the national pastime, Miami and Danielle must go at full throttle to protect their client and help him hit the finish line alive.
Valencia and Valentine
Suzy Krause - 2019
To confront those fears, Valencia’s therapist suggests that she fly somewhere—anywhere—before her upcoming birthday. And as Valencia begins a telephone romance with a man from New York, she suddenly has a destination in mind. There’s only one problem—he might not actually exist.Mrs. Valentine is an eccentric old woman desperate for company, be it from neighbors, telemarketers, or even the funeral director (when you’re her age, you go to a lot of funerals). So she’s thrilled when the new cleaning girl provides a listening ear for her life’s story—a tale of storybook love and incredible adventures around the world with her husband before his mysterious and sudden disappearance.The stories of Valencia and Mrs. Valentine may at first appear to have nothing in common…but then again, nothing in life is as straightforward as it seems.
Harvesting the Heart
Jodi Picoult - 1993
Now, having left her father behind in Chicago for dreams of art school and marriage to an ambitious young doctor, she finds herself with a child of her own. But her mother's absence and shameful memories of her past force her to doubt whether she could ever be capable of bringing joy and meaning into the life of her child, gifts her own mother never gave.Harvesting the Heart is written with astonishing clarity and evocative detail, convincing in its depiction of emotional pain, love, and vulnerability, and recalls the writing of Alice Hoffman and Kristin Hannah. Out of Paige's struggle to find wholeness, Jodi Picoult crafts an absorbing novel peopled by richly drawn characters, and explores motherhood with a power and depth only she is capable of.“A brilliant, moving examination of motherhood, brimming with detail and emotion.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch“Jodi Picoult explores the fragile ground of ambivalent motherhood in her lush second novel. This story belongs to… the lucky reader.” —The New York Times Book Review
Kate's Crew
Jayne Rylon - 2010
No one could blame Kate for leaning out the window for a better view of the manscape. The nasty fall that follows isn't part of her fantasy--but the man who saves her from splattering the sidewalk is definitely the star.When Mike personally attends to her injuries, she realizes her white knight in a hard hat has a tender side, giving her no choice but to surrender to the lust that's been arcing between them since day one. In the aftermath of the best sex of her life, she whispers her most secret desire: to be ravaged by his crew.She never expected Mike would dare her to take what she wants--or that the freedom to make her most decadent desires come true could be the foundation for something lasting...
How To Break A Cowboy
Daire St. Denis - 2012
With no fixed address, Tessa travels the world for business...and in search of pleasure. From the Rocky Mountains to the Greek Islands, there's no place Tessa won't explore and very few sexual positions she won't try. At the end of the day, Tessa believes that love is love, no matter who you are, where you live and what your tastes.Tessa shows up at the Lazy L Ranch looking forward to another threesome romp in the hay. But a conflict between her two favorite cowboys threatens to ruin her chances of a repeat performance. Undeterred, Tess has an idea...why not invite the 'conflict' to join them? The question is, can the men's relationship handle another set of ranch hands? Can Tessa?Join Tessa in her journey of sexual discovery. Check out, SAVAGE SHORTS, an erotic series.Warning: This is an erotic tale with explicit language and content including male/male/female lovin' - western style. Hold onto your hat, because it's going to be a wild ride!Watch for HOW TO TRAIN A LOVER - A Savage Interactive - a fun new way to read erotica!
When You Run with Wolves
Robb T. White - 2015
But it all comes crashing down when his cheating wife leaves him and the brother he hasn’t seen in years shows up at his doorstep. The meeting between long-lost siblings is hardly a warm family reunion because, along with his ex-con brother, comes Randall Calderone, a hulking, psychopathic Aryan Brotherhood member with vicious skills honed in the Mexican cartel drug trade. The two ex-cellmates have a “favor” to ask Jack: they want him to help them rob the local bank by kidnapping the bank manager and holding her family hostage. Before Jack knows what to do, he’s in possession of almost a million dollars in stolen cash with a relentless FBI Agent hounding him, his brother’s psycho partner threatening mayhem (and his brother’s life) unless he hands over the cash, and an attractive girl playing him for the small-town loser he seems to be. Can Jack tap into the skills learned in a bizarre upbringing save his and his brother’s life? The hours are ticking down on Jack as he walks a tightrope with everyone watching his every move; will he survive or will the forces of darkness and justice closing in fast take him down like a house of cards under strobe lighting?
Short Shockers: Collection One
Peter James - 2013
Funny, sad, but always shocking, each tale carries a twist that will haunt readers for days after they turn the final page . . .This 25,000 word collection, available exclusively in this ebook edition, includes:12 Bolingbroke Avenue (First published in 1998)Number Thirteen (First published in 2010)Just Two Clicks (First published in 2004)Dead on the Hour (First published in 2006)Virtually Alive (First published in 1997)Meet Me at the Crematorium (First published in 2009)Venice Aphrodisiac (First published in 2011)Time Rich (First published in 2013)Christmas is for the Kids (First published in 1993)
Brownie Points
Jennifer Coburn - 2012
They’re the only interracial family in the neighborhood. Lisa is a snarky sculptor. And 13-year-old Logan is gay.After Logan is repeatedly bullied at school, he finds his niche in an unusual place –his twin sister’s Girl Scout troop. When he tries to join, the organization refuses, so the boy sues for gender discrimination and sets off a firestorm of national media coverage. This only makes matters worse between the Logan and his father, a macho firefighter who is already struggling with his son’s sexual orientation.Adding to the strife is Lisa’s increasing distaste for Junta Moms who wish each other “Namaste” while rigging school elections and stealing each other’s husbands.Join the Taylors on their hilarious journey as they face the fight of their lives and,in the process, discover what it means to be a family.
A Life Without Water
Marci Bolden - 2019
But on the day before their daughter’s thirtieth birthday, John barges back into Carol’s life with a request that threatens the fragile stability she has built.John Bowman is sick. Very sick. While he still can, he has some amends to make and some promises to fulfill. But to do that, he not only needs his ex-wife’s agreement…he needs her.With the past hovering between them like a ghost, Carol and John embark on a decades-overdue road trip. Together they plunge back into a life without water…but which may ultimately set them free.