Book picks similar to
Vengeance by Susan Lewis


susan-lewis
fiction
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If Only You Knew


Claire Allan - 2012
    But fate is about to throw them together.When their beloved aunt Betty, the free spirited black sheep of the Scott family, dies in France the girls find themselves flying to the picturesque village of Saint Jeannet, tasked with sorting through her belongings and fulfilling her last wishes.To guide them on their way, Betty has left them a series of letters detailing her own life, the heartbreak that lead her to move to France and the peace she found there with her beloved Claude.As the women find each letter, Betty's secrets are uncovered one by one with lifechanging results. Can Ava find her self confidence again? Can Hope let go of the love of her life? Can either of them ever be the same again?If Only You Knew is a heartwarming story of secrets, love, loss, longing and purple shoes.

Close Relations


Deborah Moggach - 1997
    The wife is released like a loose cannon into the lives of her three daughters, and chaos ensues.

Moving Target


Elizabeth Lowell - 2001
    Seeking answers, Serena turns to Erik North of Rarities Unlimited, a reclusive manuscript appraiser with a passion for the past. Without warning, they are thrust together into the center of a lethal firestorm that rages between two worlds -- one long dead, yet living on in an ancient text, the other chillingly alive and fraught with peril. In the blink of an eye, Serena and Erik have become targets of an unseen and determined stalker as they get closer to shocking revelations about Serena's legacy, the cold murder of an eccentric old woman in the heat of the Mojave Desert...and just how far a remorseless killer is willing to go. And now their only slim hope of survival is to keep moving.

Cicada


J. Eric Laing - 2011
    After John Sayre starts slipping off at odd hours from the family farm, his wife Frances begins to suspect that he's joined a newly-revived chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. By the time their young son discovers the corpse of a lynched black man along the side of a nearby dirt road, Frances Sayre has had enough. But John hasn't joined the ranks of the murderous KKK as his wife fears. Just the same, John's secret has the potential to destroy their marriage, if not so much more. What comes to pass over those heated days of summer, none on any side could have imagined, or wanted.

The Smoke Jumper


Nicholas Evans - 2001
    For Julia Bishop is the partner of his best friend and fellow “smoke jumper,” Ed Tully. Julia loves them both–until a fiery tragedy on Montana’s Snake Mountain forces her to choose between them, and burns a brand on all their hearts.In the wake of the fire, Connor embarks on a harrowing journey to the edge of human experience, traveling the world’s worst wars and disasters to take photographs that find him fame but never happiness. Reckless of a life he no longer wants, again and again he dares death to take him, until another fateful day on another continent, he must walk through fire once more…

Hot Pursuit


Gemma Fox - 2004
    Right all her life but even she didn't expect him to be delivered to her door, giftwrapped in a skimpy towel, one sunny summer morning. Sexy Nick Lucas seems almost too good to be true—and maybe he is. Arriving out of nowhere, he seems to have no past, no family, no history: things just don't add up. But then again he's not the first man Maggie's been out with to have lead a double life. As Nick's past starts to catch up with him, Maggie becomes embroiled in an exciting cat-and-mouse chase across the country. Temperatures rise and passion sizzles but although Maggie has the hots for Nick, can she take the heat?

Margot Durand Cozy Mystery Boxed Set: Books 1 - 12


Danielle Collins - 2018
     Twelve Culinary Cozy Mysteries from #1 Best Selling author Danielle Collins Margot Durand runs a French Bakery in the charming town of North Bank, Virginia. She thought it was a charming town of friendly folks, but murders soon reveal a darker side of crime and corruption. Margot must get involved to protect her friends and family, and to keep a dozen killers from getting away. This collection of cozy mysteries includes all twelve books in the Margot Durand Cozy Mystery series. If you like cozy mysteries with interesting characters and unexpected turns, the Margot Durand Cozy Mystery series is for you. Buy the Margot Durand Cozy Mystery Boxed Set and start solving your next mystery (or 12) today! Always FREE on Kindle Unlimited Included Books Each book in the series is a stand-alone story, but your enjoyment of each story will be increased if you read them all. Be sure to check them all out. Croissants and Corruption - When Margot's troublesome niece comes for a summer visit, she knows she is going to have her hands full. After an unexpected murder, the girl is labeled as the prime suspect and Margot is forced to fight for her niece's freedom. Desserts and Deception - When a man is murdered in the craft store run by her friend, Margot does everything she can to catch the killer and protect her friend. In the process, she uncovers a story of lies and deception. Pastries and Pilfering - When Margot attempts to take a vacation on a cruise ship, mystery follows. What starts as a small time case of robbery, quickly turns into murder. Muffins and Murder - After a conversation over breakfast muffins turns to an old treasure hunt, she gets pulled into a tale of deceptions and double-crosses. When a dead body turns up, Margot must unravel a plot that began decades ago. Vacations and Violence - Margot is excited about leaving her bakery behind for a weekend vacation at the Blue Ridge Mountain Resort. When a dead body is found on a mountain trail, it seems there will be no vacation from violence. Margot must be at her sleuthing best if she is going to bring this killer to justice and protect her friend…and herself. Boating and Bodies - Life is going well for Margot and she takes time to go on a romantic boat ride with Adam. But when the son of a wealthy mogul washes up on shore to ruin the date, Margot is forced into another murder mystery. Murder in Maine - A dangerous crime syndicate, an FBI sting, and an undercover agent with mixed loyalties. Just another case for baker-turned-detective, Margot Durand. Bakeries and Bodies – A local baking competition. One of the “friendly” competitors winds up dead. Who said Christmas in a small town was going to be relaxing? A Deadly Engagement – A long lost child, a barely-kept secret, and an unidentified body make for a deadly engagement. A Killer Cover Up – Margot is busy preparing for her new life, but she soon learns there is no escaping treachery and deception. After a body is found along her running trail, the death of an old friend gets a new focus.

The Alchemist's Apprentice


Jeremy Dronfield - 2001
    And yet you've never heard of him. Or his book. The whole thing is a little hard to explain. To unravel the tangled threads of reality you have to go back to the beginning. To a New Year's Eve party in Cambridgeshire in 1996. Or earlier, when an unsuccessful novelist called Roderick Bent embarked on a train journey that turned into a nightmare. Actually, it doesn't matter where you start from. The point is that you'll soon understand why there's never been another book like it. And, more importantly, why you can't remember that you've already read it.

Backseat Saints


Joshilyn Jackson - 2010
    Now, as demure Mrs. Ro Grandee, she's living the very life her mother abandoned. She's all but forgotten the girl she used to be-teenaged spitfire, Alabama heartbreaker, and a crack shot with a pistol-until an airport gypsy warns Rose it's time to find her way back to that brave, tough girl . . . or else. Armed with only her wit, her pawpy's ancient .45, and her dog Fat Gretel, Rose Mae hightails it out of Texas, running from a man who will never let her go, on a mission to find the mother who did. Starring a minor character from Jackson's bestselling gods in Alabama, BACKSEAT SAINTS will dazzle readers with its stunning portrayal of the measures a mother will take to right the wrongs she's created, and how far a daughter will travel to satisfy the demands of forgiveness.

The Little Book of Sweets and Cake: A Jenny Colgan Sampler


Jenny Colgan - 2011
    

What We Keep


Elizabeth Berg - 1998
    Ginny Young is on a plane, en route to see her mother, whom she hasn't seen or spoken to for thirty-five years. She thinks back to the summer of 1958, when she and her sister, Sharla, were young girls. At that time, a series of dramatic events--beginning with the arrival of a mysterious and sensual next-door neighbor--divided the family, separating the sisters from their mother. Moving back and forth in time between the girl she once was and the woman she's become, Ginny at last confronts painful choices that occur in almost any woman's life, and learns surprising truths about the people she thought she knew best. Emotional honesty and a true understanding of people and relationships are combined in this moving and deeply satisfying new book by the novelist who "writes with humor and a big heart about resilience, love and hope. And the transcendence that redeems" (Andre Dubus).

What's Never Said


Susan Shapiro - 2015
    What if you find him—and he doesn’t remember you? In her captivating new novel, Susan Shapiro explores the perils of revisiting past passion. Lila Penn leaves Wisconsin for graduate school in the big city, where she falls for her professor Daniel Wildman. Decades after their tangled link, she arranges a tête-à-tête in downtown Manhattan. But the shocking encounter blindsides Lila, causing her to question her memory—and sanity. Switching between Greenwich Village and Tel Aviv, the saga unravels the sexual secret that’s haunted Daniel and Lila for thirty years.“Frank, darkly funny, entertaining...”—New York Times Book Review“A promiscuously readable guilty pleasure...”—Elle Magazine“Funny and original, with a soulfulness beneath the humor.”—Ian Frazier“Sly, candid, disarming...”—Pam Houston“Shapiro’s voice is so passionate and honest,it’s bewitching.”—Erica Jong“Irresistible energy, winning humor... breathtakingly frank honesty.”—Philip Lopate“Unputdownable.”—Gael GreenePublisher’s Weekly, October 2015:In raw and elegant prose, Shapiro (Five Men Who Broke My Heart) sensitively examines the subject of the one who got away—and what happens when you try to revisit an old romance. When brash, naive graduate student Lila Lerner arrives in New York City from Baraboo, Wisc., she immediately falls for her poetry professor, Daniel Wildman, who is 20 years her senior. As the tale opens, a now-happily married Lila attends the book signing of her former love, and is appalled when he doesn't seem to recognize her. But is his forgetfulness real, or simply a defense mechanism? Shapiro then leads the reader into the past, skillfully illustrating why Daniel's reaction is so upsetting to Lila and even leads her to think that her own memory is faulty. The author deftly toggles through decades, opening in 2010 and often moving to the early '80s, and from New York City to Israel, telling the story from Daniel's point of view as well as Lila's—lending empathy to a character who could have been the stereotypical older man taking advantage of a younger woman. Shapiro's witty, flawed characters leap off the page, showing the before, during, and after of a love affair. Library Journal, October 15, 2015: Lila Penn came to New York City from Wisconsin in 1980 as an idealistic young student in a graduate writing program. She fell in love with the city and with her professor and mentor, Daniel Wildman, but their relationship ended abruptly when he left for Tel Aviv. Professor Wildman turned out to be more indecisive than wild, and Lila was very young. Now, 30 years later, both are happily married to other people. But is there still a spark between the former student and her much older professor? Forward to 2010: Wildman has just won a Pulitzer Prize for his writing. Lila nervously decides to go to his reading and book signing, but it doesn't go well. Could it be that her former love doesn't even remember her? This wistful story of love and poetry is told from the viewpoints of both characters, then and now. Shapiro (Overexposed) is especially clever in her portrayal of the petty dramas and rivalries of creative writing programs. VERDICT This wry look back at a complicated and doomed romance is a sophisticated and witty novel about academia and New York publishing.—Leslie Patterson, Rehoboth, MA

Very Nearly Dead


A.K. Reynolds - 2019
     At the age of 16, she was in a gang of youths that committed a horrendous crime. As members of the gang start being killed one by one, Jasmine fears for her life. Desperate to uncover who is responsible for the murders, Jasmine starts to investigate. But can she uncover the truth before it’s too late?  Very Nearly Dead is a gripping and suspenseful psychological thriller with an ending you won't see coming. The perfect read for fans of authors like K.L. Slater, Mark Edwards and C.L. Taylor.

Mister Roberts


Alexei Sayle - 2008
    In a bid for freedom a lone spaceship hurtled through space before crashing in the hills outside a small village in Spain. On Christmas Day a strong, silent man with blank eyes entered Bar Noche Azul. Only a 13-year-old boy could have guessed that there was any connection between the two.

My Husband the Stranger


Rebecca Done - 2017
    A terrible injury. And in a moment, the man you fell in love with is transformed into a total stranger. How would you cope? What would you do? Would you be strong enough to stay? But what if you found out that it wasn't an accident at all...?