Book picks similar to
The Diary of Nancy Grace by Starlette Summers


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starlette-summers

The Lottery


Shirley Jackson - 1948
    Everything has been prepared for the town’s annual tradition—a lottery in which every family must participate, and no one wants to win. “The Lottery” stands out as one of the most famous short stories in American literary history. Originally published in The New Yorker, the author immediately began receiving letters from readers who demanded an explanation of the story’s meaning. “The Lottery” has been adapted for stage, television, radio and film.

Every Girl Needs a Thug


Shantay - 2014
    Shanice is just a young vibrate teenage girl that is trying to focus on graduating college and making something out of herself. When she meets Money, a young rapper that captures her heart and changes the course that she is directed in, instead of only doing her she does him, but will loving him get her burned in the end? JaeCia is going through the motions being that her dad is locked up and her mother doesn’t care about her. She finds solace from her crazy world in TJ, someone who has always been there for her but will she allow her heart to open and be loved? Amora is living her days in hell, hiding secrets left and right but trying to keep a cool exterior. She just wants to be loved and focus on school but when she meets Bangga she finds herself doing things she would have never done and telling him things she never would tell even her two bffs. Will Bangga he be her diary? Or will their pages be burned?Authors Shantay, Yanni and Lola Bandz weave together a story of young love, heartbreak, truth and lies and will have you asking yourself is it worth it to really love a thug in this 1 part of a 2 book explosive love series. Come find out why Every Girl Needs a Thug.

Out There: A Short Tale of the Weird and Wonderful


Justine Avery - 2014
    until something utterly unfamiliar suddenly lands in your back yard.Susan is the epitome of the happy housewife, contentedly conducting her daily ritual of cleaning her home and keeping everything just as it should be. Wrapped up in her own little world within those familiar walls, she hardly notices the altogether different arrival in her own back yard. She may ignore the sudden shaking beneath her slippered feet, she might even neglect to spot the conspicuous sight itself—but she can't evade the stench. Something's wrong. Very wrong. And Susan's incapable of determining just what to do about the uninvited eyesore in her back yard. Turning to her best friend for help with the impromptu emergency threatening to shake up her very existence and happy home, Susan combines efforts with neighbor Trisha to decipher the composition and meaning of the frightfully large and utterly unpleasant new arrival. But are these two women really capable of realizing the gift of new awareness they've just been given by an unseen entity? Or will they continue to fail to see the world that exists out there? What a difference a day makes... unless you choose to ignore it. Start Reading Now...What are you waiting for? Unexpected surprises, urban fantasy, unveiled mysteries, a touch of humor, a dab of "new weird", and so much more await you.

Just In Case


Chrissie Manby - 2014
    Though they were born within three minutes of each other and spent their childhoods dressed in matching outfits, they’ve grown up to have less in common than Kim Kardashian and the Duchess of Cambridge. So both women are horrified when a luggage mix-up means that sensible Clare must attend a company conference in the United States with Rosie’s suitcase full of pink, frills and stripper heels, while flamboyant Rosie heads for a friend’s destination wedding in Italy's Tuscany with Clare’s case full of suiting and sensible courts. Both believe wearing the other’s clothes is going to ruin their chances: Clare’s of getting a promotion and Rosie’s of getting a snog. But as three days of literally having to walk in each other’s shoes unfold, will the sisters discover they should try to be more like each other after all? This exclusive new novella (short novel at around 100 pages) by Chrissie Manby explores sisterhood, identity and love in a thoroughly summery way.

Rolling in the Deep


Mira Grant - 2015
     They didn't expect actual mermaids.  They certainly didn't expect those mermaids to have teeth. This is the story of the Atargatis, lost at sea with all hands.  Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a maritime tragedy.  Whatever the truth may be, it will only be found below the bathypelagic zone in the Mariana Trench…and the depths are very good at keeping secrets.

Hood Misfits (Volume 2)


Brick - 2013
    Trigga found out in book 1 that the enemy who got away was right under his nose. The one man that he had been hunting to seek vengeance for his father’s death and mother’s brutal rape and murder was the man he called his boss, Street King, Damien Orlando. He only has one thing in mind, payback. With his boy Big Jake along with Gina, and Ray-Ray forming their own family, Dame and every goon in his circle are targets. Chaos is coming and Dame’s most trusted are about to bring him pain and death. E.N.G.A. Every Nigga Gotta Agenda

Scream Angel


Douglas Smith - 2011
    Imagine a drug that flips the valleys and makes them peaks, too. You react now to an event based not on the pleasure or pain that it brings, but solely on the intensity of the emotion created. Pain brings pleasure, grief gives joy, horror renders ecstasy.Now give this drug to a soldier. Tell them to kill. Not in the historically acceptable murder of war, but in a systematic corporate strategy--of xenocide.They will kill. And they will revel in it.Welcome to the world of Scream.Jason Trelayne is a Screamer, a soldier forced to take part in the destruction of entire races. But when Trelayne falls in love with a beautiful Scream Angel, an alien who produces the addictive drug, he sets off a chain of events that pits him and a small group of followers against an empire.An award winning novelette of rebellion, love, and an unlikely hero."A dark and powerful story with a first line that sets the tone for what is to come: 'They stopped beating Trelayne when they saw that he enjoyed it.' (A++)" --Fantasy Book Critic"A visceral work. A true pearl of the fantastic literature. Breath-taking." --Café de Ontem"...the book's most skillfully crafted story...quickly becomes one that holds the reader's attention until the very end." --SpecFicWorld"...remind me of the reasons I love the author's writing: his characterization, attention to detail and recurring themes of love, faith and redemption." --SF Crowsnest Reviews"The story has so many layers that I'm still sorting them out. And like an onion, I'm not sure if I'll ever find the final layer." --Tangent Online"One of those rare ideas that seems at once so perfect and so natural that someone must have come up with it before; but if someone has, I haven't heard about it, and regardless Smith exploits the potential of the idea extraordinarily well here." --Strange Horizons

Venom


Christian Cantrell - 2011
    Gabriel Kane goes from a struggling architect to one of the most powerful men in the world; Armonía Solorsano -- a young Hispanic girl who grew up in a dilapidated suburban McMansion-turned-tenement -- invents one of the most important and influential pieces of technology in history; a non-profit organization goes from a charity to a decentralized domestic terrorist group; and the greatest democracy in the world finds itself falling into the ever-tightening grip of a dictator.As five people come together with the shared goal of changing the world, they discover that their approaches are fundamentally and irreconcilably at odds. Their partnership becomes a bitter political and high-tech rivalry from which only one of them can emerge.This novella by Christian Cantrell (about 16,000 words) portrays an intersection of politics and technology which is both extremely relevant, and frighteningly feasible.

COFFEE AND CREAM: A CINCINNATI LOVE STORY


Tirzah Lee - 2016
    For as long as she can remember its just been Cream and Jackie. Bouncing from city to city with her mom was hard. She had to leave friends behind and move on with her life. Jackie is hiding a secret from Cream that may or may not cause harm to her family. Once Jackie back is against the way she has no choice but to tell the truth. The Finally settle in Cincinnati, Ohio and her life changes for the better.. Or worst. She meets and fall in love with Coffee, but does Coffee have what it take to keep Cream in Cincinnati? Coffee was the man in the streets. Even at a young age he was a boss. But Coffee has always had a problem with "keeping it in his pants". Now that he has Cream will he change his ways or lose her forever?

The Billionaire's Mistletoe Baby (a short Christmas story...) (Holiday Babies)


Tabitha Robbins - 2013
     Laurel Ashwood needs a miracle. All her six-week old daughter wants for Christmas is a daddy...just for the holidays while Nana visits from Montana. Laurel and her former boss, construction tycoon Nick St. John, used to share a chemistry. But will Nick want to cooperate? Six months ago, she’d left him without a word. Nick can’t believe Laurel is back. Now he can finish what they’d begun months before. But he won’t accept a “couple of days.” If Laurel wants him to play along with a fake engagement, he’s got his own naughty and nice list. A kiss under the mistletoe is just the beginning.

A Christmas Miracle


S.J. Hermann - 2018
    Having lost faith in the most magical part of the year, her father, Jim, desperately tries to bring back the magic she has lost. When an unforeseen change of events takes over their little family on the morning of Christmas Eve, Jim's faith and spirits are really put to the test. Will the magic of Christmas be enough to bring back the joy to their family once more? Or will they really depend on a Christmas miracle?

The Book Case


Nelson DeMille - 2011
    New York City bookstore owner Otis Parker is dead, killed by a falling bookcase. A tragic accident? Corey isn’t so sure. With deadpan humor and skeptical eye, the determined detective is on the case, and everyone who has the misfortune to be connected to Parker is a suspect—the failing mystery writer in town to sign books; the beautiful young wife, and the bookstore employee who appears to be more nervous than aggrieved. In his debut Kindle Single, DeMille deftly maneuvers through the twists and turns of this fast-moving story, delivering his legion of fans yet another gripping read.

Fidelity: Stories


Michael Redhill - 2003
    With his unflinching attention to emotional detail, Redhill proves once again to be "a writer of considerable humanity and insight" (A.L. Kennedy) .

The Night Library


T.L. Barrett - 2012
    Searching these sinister stacks you will find:A church picnic at a haunted reservoir where only a twelve year-old boy is aware that something waits in the water…A burnt-out teacher that finds a friend… in his cancer…The secret to surviving the zombie apocalypse…An inoculation for Lycanthropy which may be more horrible than the disease…Young lovers that, on the eve of World War II, partake of a most forbidden fruit…A haunted carnival ride which delivers its passengers into the unexpected…21 tales of night terror, night madness, nightmares, night woe and night wonder…Welcome to The Night LibraryBe warned: The late fees are killer!

A Girl From Flint


Treasure Hernandez - 2010
    Hailing from New York and raised by a junkie mother, she had to learn early how to use her beauty to her advantage. Tasha thinks she's seen it all on the streets of New York, but when she follows a childhood friend to the little city of Flint, Michigan, she realizes that sometimes the smallest cities breed the grimiest of individuals. When Tasha and her friends link up with Manolo, one of Flint's known stick-up kids, they take the hustlers of Flint for all they're worth. Any man who falls for a pretty face is a target, and under the guidance of Manolo, the girls quickly learn the game of manipulation and deceit. They become known as The Manolo Mamis, and their skills gain them thousands of dollars in no time. Tasha is living the life of the young and fly, but when tragedy strikes and the stakes are raised, she has to choose between loyalty and self-sacrifice. When the only man she's ever loved becomes her target, will she decide to save him, or will she remain loyal to The Manolo Mamis?