Book picks similar to
Sea Peach by Catherine Kidd


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montrealers
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Drug Gang


Neil Walker - 2017
     What would you be prepared to do to have everything you ever wanted? How far would you go and where would you draw the line? These are the questions facing John Kennedy in Drug Gang, as he arrives in Manchester in the summer of 2001 and finds the sinister but exciting world of The Brotherhood. If he is prepared to sell drugs, risk his life and commit vicious acts without limits, a life of luxury and huge sums of money can be his. As events spiral out of control, are the money and the glamorous lifestyle enough to keep him locked in a destructive cycle of cruelty and violence?

Out of Breath


Susan Salluce - 2011
    Her mother, Alyssa Buchanan, is wild with rage and regret for placing her trust in her husband Seth, a former pro surfer who has a drug problem. Seth is adamant that he was clean the night of Nevaeh’sdeath, yet a dirty drug test contradicts his story. His parental rights ripped and criminal charges looming, he battles to prove his innocence, love, and family devotion. Adding to the couple’s grief, their five-year-old daughter Daisy hasn’t uttered a word since her sister’s death. Alyssa turns to childhood friends and local police officer, Greg Wallace, for comfort and support. Although Greg portrays heroic devotion and justice, inwardly he swims with loss, narcissism, and explosive rage. He has long despised Seth and is more than willingto meet Alyssa’s needs that reach far beyond friendship.Into this fragile scene steps therapist Katherine Middlebrook. Her practice consumes nearly all her time–time that is even more precious now that her mother’s cancer has returned. She hesitantly accepts three new clients­–Greg Wallace, and Seth & Alyssa Buchanan, unaware oftheir intertwined history. Buried deep in Katherine’s past is the loss of her own child. She’s sure she can keep the boundaries of her past and her clients’ lives clear until their intersecting tragedies awaken old demons.An award winner in the South West Writer’s Contest for literary and mainstream novel, Out of Breath is an exploration of parental grief, addiction, compassion fatigue, and suicide; it’s the prodigal story of grace undeserved. Salluce’s expertise as a psychotherapist and grief specialist enables her to create dynamic characters that will leave you breathless as you jeer their shadow sides and cheer their heroic journeys.

The Lover: A heartwarming novel of love and courage


Amanda Brookfield - 2000
    With no career to fall back on and her son and daughter leaving home, the solitude of bereavement hits particularly hard. When new love beckons, in the form of a handsome young man fifteen years her junior, Frances is torn. She longs to open her heart again but does not dare to trust her feelings. Turning to her closest friends for help, she is met by a wall of judgemental attitudes and envy. Distracted by the predicament, her fragile confidence wavering, she fails to observe the crises spiralling out of control in the lives of her two children. A sudden tragic accident brings her to her senses, but it may already be too late. Not even the strongest love cannot sit around for ever.

How to Stay Bitter Through the Happiest Times of Your Life


Anita Liberty - 2006
    But I wrote a lot of good poems.”So maintains Anita Liberty, the caustically funny New York City performance artist who was going along happily healing her hurt by hating and humiliating her detestable ex-boyfriend on stage and in print until the unthinkable happened: she had a good date. And one good date deserves another. And another. And another. And, all of the sudden, Anita Liberty finds herself in a predicament. Getting dumped launched Anita’s career–Will falling in love finish it? Who’s more important: her devoted audience or her newly devoted boyfriend? And on top of everything, Hollywood won’t stop calling and Anita can’t figure out if It wants a serious commitment or just a little bit of no-strings-attached fun. From digging mercilessly into the minutiae of her new relationship to dramatically torching every professional bridge she crosses in L.A., Anita refuses to let a big load of bliss get dumped right in the middle of her career path.“He said that my work was amazing and hilarious and smart and that he can’t wait to see me perform.So I had sex with him.”“My boyfriend asked me to change my look.To something other than contemptuous.”{BARGAIN} Whatever Hollywood ends up paying me for the rights to the story of my life.“It’s easier to go back to fantasizing about perfection . . .than to accept that perfection is just a fantasy.”“Boyfriend thinks I’d rather be right than happy.Boyfriend’s right.But I’m not telling him that.”Through blog entries, film scenes, poems, and to-do lists, Anita Liberty documents the perils and pitfalls of dating, sex, relationships, artistic success, and the kind of true love that sucks the creative life out of you to the point where you just end up staring at a blank computer screen and thinking gooey thoughts about your new boyfriend even though you should be writing.

Tangled Threads


Margaret Dickinson - 2002
    Although the work is hard, the attentions of young Master Stephen Dunsmore - the son of the Hardcastles' employer - provide Eveleen with a welcome distraction. Mary's disapproval of the unsuitable match drives the young lovers to meet in secret. But it seems deception has a cruel price when Walter is found dead from a heart attack. The final blow comes with Stephen's callous rejection of Eveleen, and as the Hardcastles are forced to leave Lincolnshire, she resolves never to allow love to enter her heart again - until a stunning discovery about Mary's past causes her to reassess her mother and herself...

The Counterfeit Candidate


Brian Klein - 2021
    Their bodies are burned and buried in the Reich Chancellery garden, above the Führer's bunker.Buenos Aires, 9th January, 2012Three audacious thieves carry out the biggest safe depository heist in Argentine history, escaping with more than one hundred million dollars' worth of valuables. Within hours, an encrypted phone call to America triggers a blood-soaked manhunt as the thieves are tracked down, systematically tortured, then murdered.San Francisco, 18th January, 2012Senator John Franklin, hailed as the 'Great Unifier', secures the Republican Presidential nomination and seems destined for the Oval Office. Despite the sixty-seven year interval and a span of thirteen thousand miles, these events are indelibly linked.Chief Inspector Nicolas Vargas of the Buenos Aires Police Department and Lieutenant Troy Hembury of the LAPD are sucked into a dark political conspiracy concealing an incredible historical truth stretching from the infamous Berlin bunker to Buenos Aires and to Washington, which threatens the very heart and soul of American democracy.

Girlfriend, Interrupted: From carefree twenty-something to instant mother-of-two...


Patricia Caliskan - 2018
     Enjoys walking barefoot across shards of broken home. Likes loaded silences, resentment and insomnia. Dislikes romantic weekends, lie-ins and any chance of future happiness. Former GSOH. Developing PTSD. Ella Shawe was undomesticated, unattached and uninhibited. Until she met Dan. Sexy, charming and funny, Dan ticked all the right boxes and Ella threw herself head-first into the whirlwind romance. But now she’s moved into his family home, complete with two demanding children and a hyperactive dog. Throw in Dan’s impossibly perfect ex-wife, Ella’s interfering sex therapist mother and the snooty and dismissive mother-in-law from Hell, and Ella is almost ready to throw in the towel. But, ready or not, Ella is part of the family now, and getting it right for Dan’s kids means getting it right for everyone. She just needs to figure out how to include herself in the mix… Girlfriend, Interrupted will have you laughing-out-loud, gasping in embarrassment and rooting for Ella all the way. This British romantic comedy is packed full of humour and has a delightful contemporary heroine at its heart.

Insatiable


Marne Davis Kellogg - 2001
    loyal, trustworthy, and discreet. But his adored employer — the internationally famed portrait painter Jacqueline di Fidelio — suddenly finds herself in hot water with the IRS, the FBI, and two dangerous, attractive men. And Nigel discovers his duties expanding in a most unexpected way....As Madam jets from one glamorous playground to the next, Nigel turns spy and protector to fend off those who would do Jacqueline wrong. For in Nigel’s opinion, his irresistibly alluring employer’s torturous past has rendered her as unstable as a house of cards. Yet when one of Jacqueline’s simpering socialite clients is murdered — and then another mysterious death follows while Jacqueline is on the scene — Nigel begins to wonder if he has it all wrong. Is the woman to whom he has dedicated his life simply an innocent victim of careless, callous men? Or is she a heartless manipulator whose mask of black Prada and pearls hides the tortured secrets of a ruthless killer?

The Forgotten Girl


Heather Chapman - 2018
    Her only hope of surviving is to travel to America, a land of freedom and opportunity, and reunite with her brother in Baltimore. There she'll find new challenges, and perhaps, if she can put her painful past behind her, a new chance for love and lasting happiness.

the dreamer examines his pillow


John Patrick Shanley - 1998
    The first scene of the play is a conversation between two lovers, Tommy and Donna, who broke up some time earlier but who are obviously still attracted to each other. Donna is enraged because Tommy, a would-be artist, is now having an affair with her younger sister, but Tommy, stretched out on his recliner (which, apart from a refrigerator full of beer, comprises the entire furnishings of his spartan apartment), is seemingly unmoved by her harangue. In the second scene Donna visits her father, a once successful artist who stopped painting at the death of his wife, whom he had bullied and betrayed despite his professed love for her. Combative and complex (but also very funny) the father sits and drinks and eventually gives in to his daughter's demand that he force Tommy to marry her or beat him up. Then, in the third and final scene, the father and Tommy confront each other, with results that are sometimes menacing, sometimes antic, with a lively discussion about art and women eventually leading to a sort of tenuous truce—and a grudging recognition of the responsibility that love, in its various guises, imposes.

Oh the Moon: Stories from the Tortured Mind of Charlyne Yi


Charlyne Yi - 2015
    Along the way she meets Cassady, an Elvis impersonator with his own, mysterious gripe with the Dark Lord.Short, one-page anecdotes, poems, reflections, and imagery are also included.Strange, heartfelt, and wonderful, Oh the Moon shows you love in the way that only Charlyne Yi’s brilliant, witty mind can.

Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal


Amy Krouse Rosenthal - 2016
     In the ten years since the publication of her beloved, groundbreaking Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, #1 New York Times bestselling author Amy Krouse Rosenthal has been quietly tinkering away. Using her distinct blend of nonlinear narrative, wistful reflections, and insightful wit, she has created a modest but mighty new work.Why the title T​extbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal?​ • Because the book is organized into chapters with classic subject headings such as Social Studies, Music, Language Arts, Math, etc. • Because textbook ​is an expression meaning “quintessential,” as in, Oh, that wordplay and unconventional format is so typical of her, so textbook Amy. • Because for the first time ever, readers can further engage with a book via text messaging. • Because if an author’s previous book has E​ncyclopedia i​n the title, following it up with a ​Textbook would be rather nice.Not exactly a memoir, not just a collection of observations, Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal is an exploration into the many ways we are connected on this planet and speaks to the awe, bewilderment, and poignancy of being alive.

Edgar Allan Poe: Poems and Poetics


Edgar Allan Poe - 1909
    Richard Wilbur explores the philosophical depth of verse more widely noted for its macabre and gothic surfaces and uniquely matches the whole canon of Poe's mature poetry with a judicious selection of essays and stories that illuminate his poetic goals.

Tales From the Perilous Realm


J.R.R. Tolkien - 2020
    

Designated Survivor


John H. Matthews - 2016
    The contingency is one cabinet member who is kept at a secure location in case of such a tragic event. This is the Designated Survivor.Elite NSA operator Grace is called in to run the mission to attempt to recover the leadership and to track down the people responsible.  Designated Survivor is a fast paced thriller through the streets of Washington DC.