Book picks similar to
Parallel Pasts by Julia Blues


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giveaway-books
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A Boss Chic


Shantay - 2014
    From the moment he saw Jasmine he wanted nothing more than to be with her in every way that he could, but will it be that easy to win her love? A Boss Chic takes you on a journey with Jasmine you’ll see why she’s first place with her mouthpiece and even quicker on her toes. Will love conquer all or will this be another fail attempt at hood love? Will Jared still remain the same understanding, loving, and caring man that Jasmine first met?

Til My Casket Drops


Ca$h - 2014
    But what he soon discovers is that New Orleans' niggas are even grimier than the dudes he left dead in Atlanta. Lines are crossed; friends turn into bitter rivals and the only certainty in Mayhem's life is death and bloodshed until he stumbles upon Keedy, a diamond in the hood. When they meet, it's true love at first sight-hood style. But the price they must pay to be together could be death. Mayhem fears nothing. Keedy has nothing to lose. All they have is each other as death closes in on them, threatening to obliterate their epic love. Will they succumb to the laws or their enemies? Or will true love and their always handy guns be their shield?

Summer Secrets


Jane Green - 2015
    She lives in London, works as a journalist, and parties hard. Her lunchtimes consist of several glasses of wine at the bar downstairs in the office, her evenings much the same, swigging the free booze and eating the free food at a different launch or party every night. When she discovers the identity of the father she never knew she had, it sends her into a spiral. She makes mistakes that cost her the budding friendship of the only women who have ever welcomed her. And nothing is ever the same after that.June, 2014: Cat has finally come to the end of herself. She no longer drinks. She wants to make amends to those she has hurt. Her quest takes her to Nantucket, to the gorgeous summer community where the women she once called family still live. Despite her sins, will they welcome her again? What Cat doesn’t realize is that these women, her real father’s daughters, have secrets of their own. As the past collides with the present, Cat must confront the darkest things in her own life and uncover the depths of someone’s need for revenge.

The Man You Meet in Heaven


Debbie Viggiano - 2018
     When Hattie Green pops to the shop one afternoon, she never expects her life to flash before her eyes between the tins of baked beans and a special offer on sliced white. One minute she’s loading her trolley and thinking about what to give her son for dinner, and the next she’s speaking to a gorgeous man in a glowing white suit about what her life could have been… If you had the chance to go back and relive it all, what would you do differently? Go on that date, take that promotion… eat that second biscuit? Hattie is about to discover where she went wrong, but will her mystery second chance reveal some STONKING secrets in her past that probably should have stayed hidden? A gorgeous romantic comedy with a few twists that will make you say OMG! Perfect for fans of Tracy Bloom, Marian Keyes and Dawn French.

Addicted


Nigel May - 2014
    Meet four fabulous women – all of them hold a dark secret… one of them won’t live to tell the tale. Nancy Arlow – the fading entertainer determined to gamble and charm her way out of a mountain of debt. Laura Everett– behind the façade of the perfect politician’s wife lies a woman with an outrageous past and a spiraling drug habit. Portia Safari– the world famous opera diva, adored by millions, has it all, but could her secret drinking problem cost her everything? Martha Éclair– The millionaire wine heiress whose appetite for kinky sex could bring down her father’s business empire. Each woman must face their own addiction before they pay the ultimate price… Switch off your phone, grab a glass of bubbly and escape into an outrageous word of thrills, glamour and passion. You’ll be addicted…

The Mother Keeper


Paula Scott - 2017
     Shawn Klein has it all. The beautiful girlfriend. The scholarship to play football at Vanderbilt after he graduates high school. At eighteen, he leads worship at his father’s prosperous megachurch. His life is perfect. So why isn’t he happy? Everything changes when Shawn’s parents bring Ellie into their home to care for her until she gives birth. It’s the life with a real family that Ellie has always dreamed about, and the kind of future Shawn never knew he wanted, until Ellie’s past threatens to destroy everything. Jenny McBride has lost her faith and her reason to live in a terrible accident in Colorado Springs, but meeting the pregnant teenager, Ellie just might turn things around. When Jenny arrives in Tennessee to adopt Ellie's baby, only one thing is certain. A baby will be born, along with a crime of passion, and a desperate struggle to bury the truth.

Remember Last Summer


David Heilwagen - 2016
    Still reeling from a bitter divorce, she is finally starting to move forward when the unthinkable happens. Kristen is diagnosed with an incurable form of heart disease. Unless she receives a heart transplant, the doctors say she will be dead within the year. With summer vacation fast approaching, Kristen enlists the help of her thrice-divorced sister, Jackie. She packs-up her two teenage daughters, Alison and Emily, and together they drive to an old family beach house on the shores of Sunset Cove, Michigan. It’s here that Kristen hopes to reconnect with her girls, while at the same time building memories that will live on long after she's gone. But the beach house is in a ramshackle state of disrepair – the paint is peeling, the shutters are hanging off, and there’s no television or internet, much to the despair of sixteen-year-old Alison. But Kristin is determined to bring her emotionally fractured family back together. And there, over one memorable summer, Kristen and her girls embark on an emotional journey that will raise them to the heights of love, forgiveness, and self-discovery, as well as plunging them into the dark depths of heartache and despair. Will Kristin be able to open her heart again? And more importantly, will she be able to bring her fractured family back together before time runs out…? Reminiscent of Nicholas Sparks, Remember Last Summer will have you reaching for a tissue, whilst praying for a miracle.

The Little Island Secret


Emma Davies - 2021
    For now, at least, Beth is safe from the bullies making her life a misery, and perhaps Abby might find out more about the mysterious man behind the letters she’s been receiving…Cameron first got in touch to see if Abby’s shop stocked his favourite book. And has written every day since to tell her of his life on his rugged little island, where buttercups dance on rolling fields and the sky never stops moving. The weekend he once came to visit her - singing with Beth in the kitchen, kissing Abby’s lips so tenderly - is a memory she will treasure forever. But then, one day, the messages stopped. Abby received the heartbreaking news that Cameron had passed away.As she watches her daughter run laughing along the windswept beaches he described so perfectly, Abby wonders if this goodbye trip could also be a new beginning. But then she sees a face across the street that she recognises instantly, and her heart shatters. If Cameron is dead, who is this man? What devastating secrets has this little island been keeping? The truth will change Abby and her daughter’s life forever – but only if they let it…

My Sisters


Ann Roth - 2008
    — When sisters Margaret, Rose, and Quincy Lansing receive the tragic news that a car accident has claimed the life of their mother, they must return to their childhood home-and to one another's company. Although they are shocked and heartbroken, none of the Lansing sisters is eager to be back. For the painful memories they thought they'd left behind have suddenly resurfaced...But there is also an unbreakable bond of love.The Lansings were never a close or loving family. And each sibling had long ago found her own means of escape-Margaret into her lab work, Rose into her "perfect" marriage, Quincy into her acts of rebellion. So when crisis forces them together again, they discover that they know as little about one another as they did about their mother. And in unraveling her secrets, they find not only revelation, but also strength, hope, sisterhood, and a chance for love...

Bluesday


Adrienne Thompson - 2011
    A life full of music, success, and love-or so it seems. Suddenly, her perfect world shatters, leaving her alone, broken, and penniless. In order to heal, Bobbie must confront the demons of both her past and present. Will she be strong enough to move into her future and make a new start with an old flame? *disclaimer - this is not your ordinary inspirational novel* Excerpt: I wrapped my arms around him and waited for my better judgment to kick in. I waited for the voice in my head to tell me to stop, that I was a married woman, and that this was wrong. I never heard it...

If You Must Know


Jamie Beck - 2020
    Amanda follows the rules—at the school where she works; in her community; and as a picture-perfect daughter, wife, and mother-to-be. Erin follows her heart—in love and otherwise—living a bohemian lifestyle on a shoestring budget and honoring her late father’s memory with a passion for music and her fledgling bath-products business.The sisters are content leading separate but happy lives in their hometown of Potomac Point until everything is upended by lies that force them to confront unsettling truths about their family, themselves, and each other. For sisters as different as these two, building trust doesn’t come easily—especially with one secret still between them—but it may be the only way to save their family.

Lulu's Cafe


T.I. Lowe - 2014
    By a stroke of fate, Leah is drawn to the Southern hospitality of a small caf�, looking for a warm meal but finding so much more. Lulu, the owner, offers her a job, a place to stay and a new lease on life. Through Lulu's tenacious warmth and generosity, Leah quickly finds herself embraced by the quaint community as she tries to put herself back together. Given she's accustomed to cruelty, the kindness is overwhelming.Soon Leah meets Crowley Mason, the most eligible bachelor in town. A lawyer and friend of Lulu's, Crowley is wary of Leah's sudden, mysterious arrival. Despite his reserve, something sparks between them that can't be denied. But after all she's been through, can Leah allow herself to truly love and be loved, especially when her first urge is to run?Exploring the resiliency of both the heart and the spirit, Lulu's Caf� gorgeously illustrates how old scars can finally heal no matter how deep they seem.

The Apology Project


Jeanette Escudero - 2021
    She’s been fired for not compromising her principles in a high-profile case and then punching her partner in the nose for the misogynistic comment he made in retort (not her finest moment). Leaving a career that gave her purpose, Amelia can only ask, What next?Let it be better than her epic failure of a fortieth birthday party: an open bar full of no-shows except for John Ellis, a total stranger and the new associate at her ex-firm. As it turns out, though, he’s very good company—and a wake-up call. With the help of John and a lot of champagne, Amelia considers the people she’s wronged, from old besties to former boyfriends to coworkers. Amelia resolves to make amends—to those who really deserve it.One apology at a time, Amelia’s looking at the choices she’s made in the past, the new ones she’s making with John, and those she’s making for herself. What next? Maybe a second chance she never expected.

Over and Over Again


Ni'cola Mitchell - 2009
    Until]. Dionni has found the love of her life once again in a compromising situation. For Dionni, this is the final heart break. With the love and support of her family and friends, she concentrates on her business, and its there she meets new client, Xavier Zay Grey, an investment banker that hires her to plan a surprise graduation party for his baby sister. Timidly, Dionni begins to think she might have found the one for her, but a devastating secret finds her world once again shaken. It also finds her back in the arms of an unlikely man, and even more pain than even she could imagine. Over and Over Again is a funny and sensual tale that weaves between lies and love, deceit and truth, teaching Dionni the ultimate meaning of what is honesty, passion, and friendship.

All Fall Down


Jennifer Weiner - 2014
    But while waiting in the pediatrician’s office, she opens a magazine to a quiz about addiction and starts to wonder…Is a Percocet at the end of the day really different from a glass of wine? Is it such a bad thing to pop a Vicodin after a brutal Jump & Pump class…or if your husband ignores you?The pills help her manage the realities of her good-looking life: that her husband is distant, that her daughter is acting out, that her father’s Alzheimer’s is worsening and her mother is barely managing to cope. She tells herself that they let her make it through her days…but what if her increasing drug use, a habit that’s becoming expensive and hard to hide, is turning into her biggest problem of all?With a sparkling comedic touch and a cast of unforgettable characters, this remarkable story of a woman’s slide into addiction and struggle to find her way back up again is Jennifer Weiner’s most masterful work yet.