Book picks similar to
Unexpected (Bittersweet Book 2) by Karen Lenfestey
contemporary-romance
romance
chick-lit
fiction
Peakview Series Box Set: Books 1-4
Jill Haymaker - 2019
Jill Haymaker had bundled the first four books in her Peakview series. In book one, we arrive in Peakview with June Meyers as she looks for a new start in life and finds romance with the handsome widower, Jeff Walker, at his Walker Horse Ranch. In book two, Violet Woods, the owner of the town's café and self-appointed match-maker finds her own second chance at romance with Howard Crandall, the local mechanic. Although Violet is great at finding the perfect match for everyone else, can she find a happy ending for herself? In book three, we go back to Walker Ranch, where the handsome young cowboy, Luke Walker, is forced to confront his feelings when his high school sweetheart, Penny Anderson, returns for the summer. Having just finished college, Penny can't deny the feelings she still has for Luke, but can Peakview County provide a career for her? She's not willing to give up everything she's worked so hard to achieve. And finally in book four, Howard's daughter, Melanie Gentry, moves to Peakview to give herself and her daughter the chance to get to know the father she never knew. Little did she know, that she'd also have a chance at love with the dashing cowboy, Hank Dalton. Add a foster child and a rescue dog into the mix, and sparks are sure to fly. Can they all create a home and a family? Come home to Peakview, Colorado, where everyone has a chance at love.
Mark of the Loon
Molly Greene - 2012
She struggles with the inability to put down roots years after the sudden death of her beloved parents. Madison and her three wise, hilarious friends all wonder if she uses her busy, work-centric lifestyle as an excuse to avoid connection with anyone but them.When Madison checks out a probate sale outside Healdsburg, California, she falls in love with the European-style house on a private tract of land overlooking Lake Sonoma. In fact, she likes the place so much she climbs in the window for a private tour. With help from lawyer and friend Genevieve Delacourt, Madison soon learns that the estate’s corrupt attorney has manipulated the sale and is attempting to steer the purchase to an anonymous client in a deceitful plan for personal gain.Good fortune enables her to purchase the Blackburne’s property, but far more than a new home and lush gardens await discovery during this renovation. As Madison works on the remodel, she’s drawn into an old love story with dangerous consequences. In the process, she discovers herself as she unearths buried secrets. The series of events both endanger Madison and lead her to love – and a permanent home. Mark of the Loon is the skillful combination of history, mystery, and romance in a novel that explores deep friendship, choices, and how individuals cope with loss.
The Fortune Quilt
Lani Diane Rich - 2007
And it does. She loses her job and her best friend (who proclaims his unrequited love for her). And her mother, who deserted the family seventeen years ago, returns, sending Carly into a serious tilt. Convinced it's the quilt's fault, Carly races down to the small artists' community of Bilby, Arizona, to confront its maker, and ends up renting a cabin from her. Carly even starts to enjoy her reimagined life, until her old life comes calling. Now Carly has to decide what parts of each world she wants to patchwork in...and how much she's willing to leave to fate.
Once Broken
D.M. Hamblin - 2016
It's a story about a single mother, Jackie Martin, who has two objectives: First to raise her daughter, Gina with her self-esteem unscathed by her father’s abandonment; Second, to see her daughter’s father, Tony Salvucci suffer for his abandonment. Both objectives come to pass. With lots of twists and turns and memorable characters, Once Broken is an inspirational story about forgiveness vs. revenge and living one's life moving forward, no matter how painful the past.
Three Girls and a Baby
Rachel Schurig - 2011
Finished with college, she should have been planning her wedding. After all, Ginny and Josh were made for each other—everyone said so. Except the love of her life didn't agree. Now Ginny is back in her hometown, unwillingly single, and stuck in a dead-end job. When she discovers she's pregnant, Ginny is convinced her life is ending. Instead of planning a future with Josh, she's learning the truth about morning sickness, juggling bills, and seeing just how far designer jeans can stretch.Her life-plan never included dating again (not even with her too-hot new boss), or being a single mother at 23. Now, with the help of her best friends, Annie and Jen, Ginny must try to re-imagine—and rebuild—a life she never wanted.
Wish Upon a Shell
Kay Correll - 2016
She’s not interested in any entanglements or anything that takes her mind off her goal—including the handsome stranger who is only in town for a month. But her traitorous heart won’t listen to reason as she starts to fall for the man who is just going to leave when he returns to his own life in Seattle. Just add yet one more name to the list of people who have walked out of her life. Forced to take time off work, Reed Newman makes a spur-of-the-moment decision and books a trip across the continent to Belle Island, Florida. This choice goes against everything in the rigid, well-planned life he fills with constant activity to keep from dealing with his pain and guilt. As he struggles to make peace with his past—and learn to relax—he finds himself falling for the charming owner of The Sweet Shoppe. When Reed's past and Julie's present collide and history threatens to repeat itself, will love win? Wish Upon a Shell is book one in the Lighthouse Point series set on beautiful Belle Island. Three friends—Tally, Susan, and Julie—support each other through triumphs and failures, love and loss. Fall in love with Belle Island and the friendly—or not so friendly—townsfolk on this small southern island.
The Goodbye Storm
Danielle Stewart - 2015
When an icy road and a dark night leave her a young widow, she’s forced to trade in her perfectly planned future for the unknown. Like a child hiding from a monster, she pulls her covers up over and head with the intention of sheltering herself forever. But once an unexpected stranger shows up on her doorstep, Autumn has to choose between being alone or connecting with someone who is hurting as badly as she is. Noah Key, an emergency room doctor. He has solemnly informed countless families that their loved one could not be saved. However, when his own wife dies suddenly there are no words to bring him comfort. His in-laws want him to fall to pieces to confirm his love for his late wife. His colleagues want him to take time off to grieve. The only thing Noah wants is to work enough hours in the day to forget his wife is gone. He’s written himself a prescription for a cocktail of distraction and exhaustion in order to trick his brain into thinking his life isn’t in shambles. When the world keeps moving on without them, Noah and Autumn will need to decide if they’ll survive the storm or allow themselves to swept away by it. Rough Waters Series: Book 1: The Goodbye Storm Book 2: The Runaway Storm
Borrowing Amor Boxed Set: Books 1-3
Kat Bellemore - 2020
Chile peppers, hot air balloons and white sand dunes mix with a small town mayor, a fake fiance, and a second chance at love.
Borrowing Amor:
Love is a nuisance when all you want is to disappear.
Two weeks before Christmas, Katie is kicked out of her apartment. Again. Rather than wander the streets and continue to work for a dirty cop, she decides to leave the city and disappear for good. But her car breaks down in a small New Mexican town, and everything is threatened when she falls for the charming mayor. Sam Freedman is the first bachelor mayor of Amor. After convincing the locals that having a mayor without family responsibilities means he can dedicate all his time to the community, townspeople watch his every move. Then Katie Andersen shows up. Against Sam’s better judgement, he hires her to replace his event coordinator. Now he can barely think straight, let alone run a town. In the midst of half-truths and outright lies, Katie and Sam desperately search for the place where honesty and trust lead to love. But they have to find it before the past catches up with them.
Borrowing Love:
It’s better to have loved and lost, they said. They were wrong.
Ruby Freedman hasn’t left the small town of Amor in four years--not since her husband died. The memory of his fateful accident was enough to cause her to sell her airplane, and never ride in a car again. Then Parker Loveland comes back to town. Now she has to add him to her list of things she intends to avoid.After years away, Parker Loveland is back in Amor to celebrate his parents’ thirtieth wedding anniversary. He has worked hard to escape the clutches of his hometown, but when he runs into Ruby, the only girl he cared about in high school, and the only one that ever stood him up on a date, he’s torn between the embarrassment he felt more than a decade before, and his desire to be around her.Caught between memories of the past and fear of the future, it will take leaving Amor to help Ruby and Parker find the second chance they didn’t know they were looking for.
Borrowing a Fiance:
She wanted freedom. She got a fiance instead.
Melinda Garrett has been stuck managing her parent’s diner for over a decade, when all she had wanted was to go to college. When her younger sister gets married, Melinda reluctantly agrees to attend with her friend, Daniel, as her date. But when the pressure is on, she claims he is her fiance, in hopes that her parents’ opinion of selling the diner will change.Daniel Armstrong isn’t the kind of guy a girl takes home to meet her parents, but when he offers to attend a wedding as Melinda’s date, he finds himself labeled as her future spouse. Now, challenges lie around every corner, testing Melinda’s claim that she and Daniel are in love.
Cowboy for a Season
Janalyn Knight - 2019
Years of trying and failing to bear a child have given her an air of sadness overlaid with a hardened determination to persevere. Hiring Brazilian Professional Bull Rider, Alex, who is on a slow road to recovery from potentially career-ending injuries, will help Hanna get her wheat in before the fall rains come. The handsome cowboy makes it clear that he will return to bull riding before the start of the new PBR season in January. Alex didn’t count on his ex-wife dropping off his toddler daughter Chloe without warning. Hannah didn’t count on caring for the cowboy or his precious daughter. Despite his love for Chloe and the way he cares for Hannah, Alex’s goal remains the same—to return to bull riding, the only life he’s ever wanted. Three hearts hang in the balance, and one decision will break them all. If you like hot cowboys, strong women, and ranching in the new West, then this book will have you burning through the pages.
Loving From Afar
Mona Ingram - 2013
Ten years later, he returns home, telling himself he will avoid the woman who broke his heart.But nothing goes as planned. Can Allison and Cole forget the past and come to terms with the events that tore them apart?
Healing Hearts
Mary Jane Morgan - 2018
After a disastrous marriage, Angie Jamison has no interest in giving her heart to another man. Angie now devotes her life to training and placing therapy dogs. When her German shepherd pup bonds instantly with a friend’s brother, Angie offers to loan him the shepherd on one condition: he socialize the pup and teach her basic obedience under Angie’s instruction. Ryan figures he has nothing to lose by giving the pup a temporary home. The dog’s companionship might even help him cope with the all-consuming guilt that has plagued him since the night his best friend died in his arms. Can the love of a therapy dog help heal Ryan and Angie’s damaged hearts and give them the courage to trust in love?
Thoroughbreds and Trailer Trash
Bev Pettersen - 2012
But when the Thoroughbred Wellness Center experiences a hostile takeover headed by a charming but ruthless corporate shark, both her heart and career are in jeopardy.
Coming Home
Holly Kerr - 2014
Liking them is the hard part. After her cheating husband destroys her career, Brenna has nowhere to go but home. Home means her four sisters in the tiny Northern Ontario town with no Starbucks and well-meaning townsfolk who know her every move. Every mistake.And Brenna is making more than a few mistakes. From falling asleep at the local bar to hooking up with her niece’s boyfriend, Brenna’s life is giving the town a lot to talk about.Her sister Cat wants nothing to do with her. Content living in the family home with the ghost of their mother, Cat’s left a trail of broken hearts and failed marriages on the road to Brenna’s ex, Seamus Todd. Brenna’s return brings back old insecurities and unanswered questions for Cat. Sibling rivalries, old grudges and a least one knock-out, drag-down kitchen fight ensue as Brenna and Cat are forced to live under the same roof.And to make it worse, Brenna’s not the only one coming home.
Summer of Firefly Memories
Joan Gable - 2009
One cabin on a lake. Four thirtysomething sisters. Anything can and does happen.Imagine spending an entire summer in a cabin on a lake - simply because you can. That’s exactly what Samantha McGreggor, a thirtysomething eco-journalist, does in SUMMER OF FIREFLY MEMORIES. She trades Arizona’s summer heat for Minnesota’s cool lake breezes by spending her summer at the same resort her family used to go to when she was young. Her summer agenda - relaxation, beach reads, soul-searching, bonding with her three grown sisters. Her concerns - she and her sisters haven’t been back to the resort since their parents’ death twenty years ago when they were all practically teenagers, and, well, they tend to act like emotional teenagers when they’re all together. Her summer reality – fun in the sun, secrets, sibling rivalries, lost memories, new love, hope. If you enjoy feeling nostalgic any time of the year, then you'll enjoy SUMMER OF FIREFLY MEMORIES! Come dive in!
Dream Big, Stella!
Ashley Farley - 2020
At least, that’s what her parents have led her to believe. Imagine her surprise when she learns he’s none other than rock legend Billy Jameson, and that Billy has died and left Stella a historic inn on a sprawling farm in the mountains of Virginia. A city girl at heart, Stella can’t imagine living anywhere but New York. Her first inclination is to sell the property. But the terms of Billy’s will stipulate she manages the inn for three years before putting it on the market.Stella considers what’s really keeping her in New York. Her hotel management career is off to a rocky start; she's lost three jobs in less than a year. She's grown apart from her best friend, and her so-called boyfriend is only interested in late-night booty calls. Something is missing from Stella's life. On impulse, she hops on the next train headed to Virginia hoping to find happiness.When she sees the dilapidated state of the inn, Stella realizes she’s in over her head. But the more she learns about the fascinating Jameson family, the more she wants to know. Why did her mother keep Billy Jameson a secret? Were her biological parents in a relationship, or was she the result of a one-night stand? And why did her father wait until after his death to bring Stella to Virginia?On her journey to discover answers, Stella learns to have faith in herself and take a chance on love. Join an unforgettable cast of characters in the first installment of the Hope Springs Series.