Book picks similar to
Twenty-One Trees by Linda Cousine


fiction
romance
cheating
contemporary-fiction

The Things We Need to Say


Rachel Burton - 2018
    Fran loves Will with all her heart. They had a whirlwind romance, a perfect marriage and a wonderful life. Until everything changed. Now Fran needs to find her way again and teaching a yoga retreat in Spain offers her just that. Leaving behind a broken marriage she has some very important decisions to make.Will needs his wife, he needs her to open up to him if they’re to ever return to the way things once were. But he may have damaged any possibility he had of mending their relationship and now Fran is in Spain and Will is alone.As both Fran and Will begin to let go of a life that could have been, fate may just find a way of bringing them back together.Perfect for fans of Katie Marsh, Amanda Prowse and Sheila O’FlanaganFrom the best-selling author of The Many Colours of Us comes an emotional story of grief, relationships and ultimately hope. Coming May 2018.

Having the Soldier's Baby


Tara Taylor Quinn - 2019
    So when Winston arrives on her doorstep very much alive, Emily’s overjoyed. Winston’s a changed man, though. He may have survived the unthinkable. But he believes he doesn’t deserve Emily—or their unborn child. And Winston’s secret shakes Emily to the core. But at that core is still love…

All We Never Knew


Elena Aitken - 2020
    On the cusp of her fortieth birthday and with her only child almost grown, it's time to start putting herself and her marriage first. But when the butterflies in her tummy turn out to be morning sickness, Maren’s world is flipped upside down with an unplanned, high risk pregnancy—one she's ashamed to admit is unwanted.Overnight, everything changes and the ripple effect of the baby she's so unsure of is felt in every corner of her life. Her perfect life slowly disappears. Her teenage daughter looks for attention in the wrong places. Her best friend inexplicably blows up and stops speaking to her. And worse, her once doting husband pulls away when she needs him the most.Just when she's sure things couldn't possibly be worse, a shocking discovery rocks Maren's world. Faced with a devastating deception, a truth she can no longer ignore, and an impossible choice, can Maren stop her life from completely unraveling? Or is All We Never Knew too much for love to overcome?

The Girl He Loves


Roya Carmen - 2019
    Pragmatic. Perfectionist. Neurotic. Diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder at the age of eleven, she can’t remember being any other way. Thankfully, with the assistance of medication and therapy, her life is well under control. Some might even say it’s perfect: a beautiful husband, her sons Trevor and Tristan, a fabulous condo, work she enjoys and great friends. Yet she’s still extremely fragile. It’s the reason she always guards her emotions very carefully. And unfortunately, nothing can help her when, by chance, she discovers her husband’s secret — Ava, a beautiful young woman. She was so sure she knew her husband, but now she desperately needs to uncover the truth. It’s no surprise when she becomes obsessed with Ava, with every trivial detail of her life; her friends, her beautiful mother, and most of all, her gentle and sweet father. Driven not only by curiosity and obsession, but also by jealousy and lust, she heads down a turbulent path as she sets out to uncover everything about her husband’s secret life and all the mysterious people in it. Author's note: Contains some sexual content and coarse language - for adult audiences 18+. The Girl He Loves is Book One of the Orchard Heights Series but can be read as a standalone. Genre: Psychological Romance Suspense

Bound


Stephie Walls - 2014
    I may be flawed; we all are.But I'm smart, driven, and ready to take on the world. No one needs to know the rest.I wasn't counting on him, couldn't imagine someone like him coming into my life.The blue eyes, the chiseled body, the man I can't resist.Truthfully, I have no plans of ever resisting him. He has the carefree, playboy life he wants, The one he created and refuses to give up.But he didn't count on me waltzing in and changing everything.Gray can't deny his passion for me—all parts of me, Even the truth I try to bury—the flaws he knows I'm hiding.And trust me, he's imperfect too.But sometimes, we need more than love—more than we can give.

Repercussions


B.L. Olson - 2019
    I think somewhere along the way it just became who I was and I gracefully accepted the role… I feel so utterly stuck. Unwanted by anyone I could ever see myself with and alone despite having two “roommates” who constantly hover and meddle in my life. There are definitely repercussions for not pushing myself to be who I want to be. When I met my new next door neighbor Wyatt, I didn’t think he would be the one to constantly challenge me. Tear me open and put me back together again in an entirely different way. The one who is dealing with his own repercussions as well...

The Ingredients of Us


Jennifer Gold - 2019
    But when she discovers her husband’s infidelity, she doesn’t know what to make of it. Jam, maybe? Definitely jam.Fed up with the stale crumbs of her marriage, Elle revisits past recipes and the events that inspired them. A recipe for scones reminds her of her father’s death, cinnamon rolls signify the problematic courtship with her husband, and a batch of chocolate cookies casts Elle in a less-than-flattering light. Looking back, Elle soon realizes that some ingredients were missing all along.After confronting her husband, Elle indulges her sweet tooth in other ways, including a rebound that just leaves her more confused. As secrets from the past collide with the conflicts of the present, Elle struggles to manage her bakery business and maintain the relationships most important to her. In piecing her life back together, will Elle learn to take the bitter with the sweet?

Matter of Choice


R.M. Alexander - 2014
    Her husband's constant affairs and harsh treatment means Shannon must fight to find the love she lost.Triston needs closure in the form of forgiveness of the woman he'd hurt in high school. On a business trip, he finds himself face to face with the very person living rent free in his heart and mind.Shannon and Triston find the chemistry continues to haunt them both. More powerful than they remember and more tempting than they can fight, both must face fears, loss, and memories to choose the right path.

The Great Betrayal


Millenia Black - 2009
    But castles built on sand are eventually washed away by the sea... ★☆★ Meet the Players ★☆★Leslie Cavanaugh—she’s not the woman she claims to be. Once Leslie Phillips, she's hiding a painful secret that's about to shake her family to its core. Luke Cavanaugh—Leslie’s second husband, but he looks eerily like her first. An award-winning architect, Luke’s got designs on getting to the bottom of his wife’s past...in more ways than one. Kathryn Cavanaugh—Luke and Leslie’s only daughter. In competition for her mother’s affection, Kate risks much more than the family’s good name with exploits of all the wrong places... Dawn Chadwick—Leslie’s only friend and sister in widowhood. What would Leslie have done without Dawn all these years And what would Luke? Grace Cunningham—abandoned at birth...and she's pissed about it. What makes a mother abandon her child, not once, but twice in a lifetime? Meanwhile, a mysterious couple secretly rendezvous in a Palm Beach bungalow... In this steamy saga of lost love, marriage and motherhood, hidden secrets and shocking truths collide as Leslie Cavanaugh’s past rocks the present with the most intimate betrayal of all! THE GREAT BETRAYAL will keep you up all night!

After Love Leaves: The Story of Us


Michelle Alstead - 2017
    When she met Brad Sorenson, Zoe was convinced her bad luck with men had finally changed. He saw past her insecurities and the Oreo addiction she just couldn’t shake, inspiring her to chase her dreams. Brad was looking for a good time online, not love. But Zoe was so sweet, so kind. Everything about her was perfect—until she fell for him. Doesn’t she understand he’s the wrong guy for a woman like her? Zoe doesn’t know why Brad left her standing in an airport; he won’t return her calls or texts. With her self-esteem and dreams shattered, she can’t imagine ever loving anyone else… When a devastating diagnosis changes Brad’s life forever, he’s forced to finally face the truth: there’s only one woman he’s ever truly loved.Will Zoe give Brad a second chance or is she done with love for good?***This is not your typical romance. Real love is complicated and messy. This story is written for those who have loved the wrong person for all the right reasons.

Ditch Flowers


Amanda Linsmeier - 2015
    Just holding one sets Julia’s heart thumping. She’s wanted a child for so long. When she finally gets pregnant, she’s bursting to tell the world….until a checkup from the doctor confirms a miscarriage.Julia’s world feels like it’s dissolving. This second tragedy following her father-in-law’s death, shakes her and her husband Greg. To support his mother, they uproot their lives and move to Greg’s childhood home. Under the bright Midwestern sky, Julia can feel a new world and new hope beginning.But trouble comes in threes, and soon a boy shows up at Julia’s new daycare whose blue eyes and freckled face look eerily like Greg’s. Despite her love for her husband, Julia finds her thoughts haunted by the boy’s face, and she can’t shake the feeling that her husband has a secret.

The Last Round


E.L. Montes - 2015
    Boxing is my life, but the money and the fame mean nothing to me without her by my side.This fight is for the woman that I love.And I can’t lose.I won’t lose.

The Long Way Home


Jasinda Wilder - 2017
    For you. For touch. For a kiss. For the scrape of your hand down my stomach. For the slide of your lips across my hipbone. The sweep of your thigh against mine in the dulcet, drowning darkness. For the warm huff of your breath on my skin and the wet suck of your mouth around me and the building pressure of need reaching release...I am mad with need.Wild with it.I cannot have you. I have lost you, as I have lost myself. And so I go in search. Of myself, and thus the man who might return to you, and take you in his arms.I loathe each of the thousands of miles between us, but I cannot wish them away, for I hope at the end of my journey I shall find you. Or rather, find myself, and thus…you. Myself, and thus us. I am taking the long way home, Ava. ***Christian,I’m losing my mind, and I don’t know how to stop it. I shouldn’t be writing to you, but I am. I’m friendless, loveless, and lifeless. You’re out there somewhere, and still you’re all I really have. I hate my reliance and dependence on you, emotionally and otherwise, and that reliance is something I’m coming to recognize. I hate that I can’t hate you as much as I want to. I hate that I still love you so much. I hate that there’s no clear solution to our conundrum. Even if we could forgive each other, what then? I hate you, Christian. I really do.But most of all, I don’t. It’s complicated. Complicatedly (still) yours,AvaTHE LONG WAY HOME is the story of a married couple, Christian and Ava, both writers, as they cope with the loss of their son and the damage that loss causes to their marriage. This moving story, alternately heartbreaking and heartwarming, is the first in a brand-new contemporary romance series by bestselling author Jasinda Wilder.

Outback Promise


Maggie Bolitho - 2015
    Betrayal. Hope.After losing their only child, Roslyn and Grady Balfour's lives are destroyed, shattering their perfect marriage. When Ros discovers Grady's infidelity, it sets their love on a destructive downward spiral. Grady hopes that three months together camping will rekindle what was lost so long ago. Attempting to repair their broken marriage, Ros and Grady set out on a journey of self-discovery and redemption deep into the Australian outback. Packing resentment and bitterness along with them on their quest, the couple struggles with what they've lost. Forced to battle the challenges of the other travelers along with the dangers of the harsh outback, their only chance for survival lies in facing the secrets of the past. Will Ros and Grady find a way to hold onto each other when everything else has fallen apart?

Love War


Cary Hart - 2017
    Until her.Second chances...Until them.Deceit...Doubt.The past may have won the battles, but can Love win the War?