Book picks similar to
Reasonable Lies by T.A. Rosewood
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Everyone is Beautiful
Katherine Center - 2009
She’s piled everything she owns into a U-Haul and driven with her husband, Peter, and their three little boys from their cozy Texas home to a multiflight walkup in the Northeast. She’s left behind family, friends, and a comfortable life–all so her husband can realize his dream of becoming a professional musician. But somewhere in the eye of her personal hurricane, it hits Lanie that she once had dreams too. If only she could remember what they were.These days, Lanie always seems to rank herself dead last–and when another mom accidentally criticizes her appearance, it’s the final straw. Fifteen years, three babies, and more pounds than she’s willing to count since the day she said “I do,” Lanie longs desperately to feel like her old self again. It’s time to rise up, fish her moxie out of the diaper pail, and find the woman she was before motherhood capsized her entire existence.Lanie sets change in motion–joining a gym, signing up for photography classes, and finding a new best friend. But she also creates waves that come to threaten her whole life. In the end, Lanie must figure out once and for all how to find herself without losing everything else in the process.Katherine Center’s Everyone Is Beautiful is a hugely entertaining, poignant, and charming new novel about what happens after happily ever after: how a woman learns to fall in love with her husband–and her entire life–all over again.
Your Hand in Mine (Glen Avich to Seal Island)
Daniela Sacerdoti - 2016
If you love embarking on an emotional journey with Jojo Moyes or Amanda Prowse, you will adore Daniela Sacerdoti.
Pamela has devoted her life to providing a safe haven in the village of Glen Avich for her daughter Mairi, a happy little girl with a big heart. Since her daughter's medical results came in and Mairi's father Douglas walked out, Pamela has vowed that no one would hurt Mairi again, least of all Douglas's bully of a father, who forbade his wife Morag to have anything to do with her granddaughter. When Pamela loses her mother, and her brother moves away, she finds herself alone and longing for a family for Mairi. So when a letter arrives from the recently widowed Morag, inviting them to visit her at home on the tiny island of Seal, Pamela agrees to go. Will it be another failed attempt to build bridges with Douglas's family? Or is Seal waiting for them with unexpected gifts?
Back Trouble
Clare Chambers - 1994
It only needed a discarded chip on a South London street to lay him literally flat.
So, bedbound and bored, Philip naturally starts to write the story of his life. But the mundane catalogue of seaside holidays and bodged DIY, broken relationships and unspoken truths, reveals more surprises, both comic and touching, than Philip or his family ever bargained for. Even, perhaps, a happy ending ...
Benjamin Ashwood Series
A.C. Cobble - 2018
A young man leaves his small village with mysterious strangers on an epic journey. Life is simple in Ben’s village until an unexpected attack brings the arrival of exciting strangers. Before he understands what is happening, the strangers have recruited his sister to go with them on an adventure. Ben leaves with them to ensure her safety. Soon, they venture into a more dangerous world than he ever imagined. Mages, demons, thieves, and assassins are just a few of the perils they will face on an epic journey to a city shrouded in myth and legend. As the story unfolds, the stakes get higher, and much more than Ben’s life is at risk. Against the backdrop of warring political, economic, and military factions, Ben and his friends battle a threat to all of mankind. Ben's knowledge and skill grows, but he must decide if he will live under the control of the unscrupulous leaders who rule the land, flee from them, or break them. Packed full of action and adventure, Benjamin Ashwood is perfect for fans of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, or Jeff Wheeler’s Muirwood.
Must Love Dogs
Claire Cook - 2002
Then the romantic comedy movie adaptation starring Diane Lane and John Cusack. Now MUST LOVE DOGS is a series!"Voluptuous, sensuous, alluring and fun. Barely 40 DWF seeks special man to share starlit nights. Must love dogs."Divorced preschool teacher Sarah Hurlihy's first mistake is letting her bossy big sister write her personal ad. Her second mistake is showing up to meet her first date in more than a decade. Now she's juggling her teaching job, her big, rollicking, interfering south-of-Boston Irish family, and more men than she knows what to do with. And what's up with all these dogs that are suddenly galloping into her life?"A hilariously original tale about dating and its place in a modern woman's life." -BookPage"If Must Love Dogs is any indication of her talents, readers will hope that Claire Cook will be telling breezy summer stories from the South Shore of Massachusetts for seasons to come." -The Washington Post"A laugh-out-loud novel . . . a light and lively read for anyone who has ever tried to re-enter the dating scene or tried to 'fix up' anyone else." -Boston Herald"This utterly charming novel by Cook is a fun read, perfect for whiling away an afternoon on the beach." -Library Journal "Claire Cook's Must Love Dogs, a book that's got more giggles than soda bread has raisins." -Hartford Courant"Claire Cook (Must Love Dogs) has built a brand writing light-hearted women's fiction blending kernels of the absurd and comedic in compulsively readable combinations." -Shelf Awareness"The exuberant and charming Claire Cook is one of the sassiest and funniest creators of contemporary women's fiction." -The Times-Picayune
The Secret Baby
Ava Storm - 2020
Pregnant and alone.It was the worst night of my life.My brother passed away ten years ago.The same night his best friend left me too.But now he's back in town.And he has no idea I have his son.Or that he had one to begin with.After everything, I don't know if I can trust him again.Love is a powerful thing though.Unstoppable even.
The Last Bathing Beauty
Amy Sue Nathan - 2020
Back then Betty Stern was an eighteen-year-old knockout working at her grandparents’ lakeside resort. The “Catskills of the Midwest” was the perfect place for Betty to prepare for bigger things. She’d head to college in New York City. Her career as a fashion editor would flourish. But first, she’d enjoy a wondrous last summer at the beach falling deeply in love with an irresistible college boy and competing in the annual Miss South Haven pageant. On the precipice of a well-planned life, Betty’s future was limitless.Decades later, the choices of that long-ago season still reverberate for Betty, now known as Boop. Especially when her granddaughter comes to her with a dilemma that echoes Boop’s memories of first love, broken hearts, and faraway dreams. It’s time to finally face the past—for the sake of her family and her own happiness. Maybe in reconciling the life she once imagined with the life she’s lived, Boop will discover it’s never too late for a second chance.
The Rejected Writers' Book Club
Suzanne Kelman - 2014
This quirky group of women would much rather celebrate one another’s rejected manuscripts over cups of tea and slices of lemon cake than actually publish a book. But good friends are exactly what Janet needs after moving to the small town of Southlea Bay, Washington. Just as the ladies are about to raise a teacup to their five hundredth rejection letter, they receive bad news that could destroy one member’s reputation—and disband the group forever. To save the club, Janet joins her fellow writers on a wild road trip to San Francisco in search of the local publisher who holds the key to a long-buried secret. As they race to the finish line, they’ll face their fears—landslides, haunted houses, handsome strangers, ungrateful children—and have the time of their lives.
The Hideaway
Lauren K. Denton - 2017
She intends to quickly tie up loose ends then return to her busy life and thriving antique shop in New Orleans. Instead, she learns Mags has willed The Hideaway to her and charged her with renovating it—no small task considering her grandmother’s best friends, a motley crew of senior citizens, still live there.Rather than hurrying back to New Orleans, Sara stays in Sweet Bay and begins the biggest house-rehabbing project of her career. Amid drywall dust, old memories, and a charming contractor, she discovers that slipping back into life at The Hideaway is easier than she expected.Then she discovers a box Mags left in the attic with clues to a life Sara never imagined for her grandmother. With help from Mags’s friends, Sara begins to piece together the mysterious life of bravery, passion, and choices that changed her grandmother’s destiny in both marvelous and devastating ways.When an opportunistic land developer threatens to seize The Hideaway, Sara is forced to make a choice—stay in Sweet Bay and fight for the house and the people she’s grown to love or leave again and return to her successful but solitary life in New Orleans.
Emergence
Nick M. Lloyd - 2014
On Earth, Jack Bullage survives a horrendous car accident. Reporter Louise Harding has a score to settle with Jack. She investigates all the options, even the most unbelievable ones. How did he get to be so lucky? The Gadium have the answers. They know why Jack is special. It’s just evolution; he’s developing the ability to ‘ride the parallels.’ This could herald Earth's Emergence, a new era, an end to its isolation in the galaxy – but Gadium approval is not assured and Jack may be evolving too fast for their plans. ------ www.nickmlloyd.com ------
His Secret Baby (The Billionaire's Secret #3)
R.S. Elliot - 2020
The Surrogate
Toni Halleen - 2021
A divorced attorney and the father of two teenage boys, Hal is open to having another child. But more than anything he wants Ruth to be happy—to become the mother she’s always wanted to be. Their hope rests with Cally, a nineteen-year-old who wants to go to college—but doesn’t have the cash. The arrangement seems perfect for everyone. All through the pregnancy, Ruth and Hal look forward to the new baby that will make their family complete. But within a day of the baby’s birth, Cally has a change of heart – and engineers a harrowing escape from the hospital with the newborn. When Ruth and Hal discover that she and their daughter are gone, a whole series of doubts and secrets are revealed, and it’s no longer clear what’s “right” and what’s “wrong.”Set in the vast, sparsely populated upper reaches of northern Minnesota in the middle of winter, The Surrogate follows Ruth, Hal, Cally, and her boyfriend through the ice and snow, from the city to the dark, frozen north country as they run away from, and ultimately towards, one other.In The Surrogate, Toni Halleen raises thought-provoking questions about the nature of family, love, and relationships. What would you do for your partner, when the going gets tough? How much is a pregnancy “worth?” And who, if anyone, “deserves” to be a mother?
Only You
S. Williams - 2020
Since Athene has nowhere to stay, Mary suggests that she checks in to a local pub for the night.What Athene doesn’t know is that the burnt-out house was where Mary’s friend, Bella, lived. The only person she ever loved, who died in terrible circumstances.Brought on by Athene’s arrival, Mary feels her past leaking into the present. There is a secret to Bella’s death; something she has kept buried for years. But is Athene really who she says she is? Then Trent, a man convicted of starting the fire that burnt down the cottage, contacts Mary. He has received an anonymous email that refers to the past.And when Mary starts to feel like she is being watched, she is terrified the past is coming back to haunt her.Because some things cannot stay buried...
Inheriting Edith
Zoe Fishman - 2016
Courtney Sullivan and Elin Hilderbrand, about a single mother who inherits a beautiful beach house with a caveat—she must take care of the ornery elderly woman who lives in it. For years, Maggie Sheets has been an invisible hand in the glittering homes of wealthy New York City clients, scrubbing, dusting, mopping, and doing all she can to keep her head above water as a single mother. Everything changes when a former employer dies leaving Maggie a staggering inheritance. A house in Sag Harbor. The catch? It comes with an inhabitant: The deceased’s eighty-two-year old mother Edith.Edith has Alzheimer’s—or so the doctors tell her—but she remembers exactly how her daughter Liza could light up a room, or bring dark clouds in her wake. And now Liza’s gone, by her own hand, and Edith has been left—like a chaise or strand of pearls—to a poorly dressed young woman with a toddler in tow.Maggie and Edith are both certain this arrangement will be an utter disaster. But as summer days wane, a tenuous bond forms, and Edith, who feels the urgency of her diagnosis, shares a secret that she’s held close for five decades, launching Maggie on a mission that might just lead them each to what they are looking for.
Perfectly Impossible
Elizabeth Topp - 2020
An artist at heart, Anna works a day job as a private assistant for Bambi Von Bizmark, a megarich Upper East Side matriarch who’s about to be honored at the illustrious Opera Ball.Caught between the staid world of great wealth and her unconventional life as an artist, Anna struggles with her true calling. If she’s supposed to be a painter, why is she so much more successful as a personal assistant? When her boyfriend lands a fancy new job, it throws their future as a couple into doubt and intensifies Anna’s identity crisis. All she has to do is ensure everything runs smoothly and hold herself together until the Opera Ball is over. How hard could that be?Featuring a vibrant array of characters from the powerful to the proletarian, Perfectly Impossible offers a glimpse into a world you’ll never want to leave.