Contemporary
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Shatter My Rock by Greta Nelsen
From the ashes of a traumatic upbringing, forty-six-year-old Claire Fowler has forged an idyllic life in an affluent Rhode Island enclave with her college-sweetheart husband, Tim, and their ten-year-old daughter, Ally. Even the family dog is convinced he’s arrived at the sweet spot of life.
But things are about to change.
When a last-minute business trip sends Claire to Cincinnati with her hypersexual subordinate, she is vexed but resigned. And when a vicious migraine sends her to a saggy hotel bed and him to the marketing conference in her place, she is first relieved and then thankful.
Weeks later, upon discovering she’s pregnant, Claire has no reason for concern. With the help of genetic counselors and fertility specialists, she and Tim have been striving for a miracle-sibling for Ally.
And now they have one: a precious baby boy they name Owen.
But all is not well, and soon Claire begins spotting alarming quirks in Owen’s behavior that suggest he is stricken with Batten Disease, the terminal illness that took her brother in 1979.
If Claire is right and Owen is sick, other disturbing things may also be true. Things like: Claire has been raped; Owen is not Tim’s son; and Owen is going to die.
As the truth of Owen’s conception emerges, Claire finds herself at the mercy of an unthinkable choice. Her decision—and its harrowing consequences—threaten not only her career and her marriage, but even her freedom.
Pieces of a Puzzle by Jenny Gill
Baby Boomer fiction – No 1 in the Southhill Sagas, set in leafy Surrey, to the south of London.
Happily married Alison and Mark are chatting about their coming holiday. She goes to the kitchen to finish supper preparations. When she comes out he has disappeared without a trace, taking nothing with him.
She never sees him again.
Then 17 years later a solicitor’s letter starts her on a search for answers. She needs to piece together the whole puzzle in order to put it behind her and get on with her life.
The story is told in two main interleaving threads, one from when Mark vanishes, the other from when Alison receives the letter from the solicitor, interspersed with flashbacks to her life with Mark and earlier happier times.
A family saga of love, loss, despair, betrayal, and above all hope
Pushing over 40 by S M Mala
Maya wants a baby but at forty two there’s one problem… she hasn’t got a man to help her get pregnant. She created and runs a website called ‘Pushing over 40’ to help women of a certain age trying to have a child. It’s a place where can they give each other advice, support and hope.
And as she tries to find a man to help her with this small task, other than the sperm donation clinic regular taking her money, there are two people who could deliver the goods.
Her brother’s new neighbour Tony or her sister in law’s brother, the wayward Adam. Both of whom she really likes but the pair aren’t your usual run of the mill suitors.
But you have to be very careful for what you wish for as Maya then finds out the downside of getting pregnant and how it can really destroy your soul and diminish your hope if things go unexpectedly wrong.
A heart wrenching story dedicated to all women who have loved and lost in the battle to become pregnant when they’re ‘Pushing over 40’… or not.
The Secret History of Hatty Ha Ha … ends by S M Mala
Each person is still trying to come to terms of what happened that fateful night when ‘Hurricane Hatty’ took beautiful Hatty away and the devastation and joy it made to their lives.
After six years, further unexpected twists and turns take place for Murray, Delores and Jake, each one carrying their own weight of guilt after Hatty was cruelly swept away… but was she?
Could that really have been the end of Hatty Ha Ha or is someone hiding a secret?
Life’s twists and turns continue in this tale of young and old love, desire and lust set against the backdrop of tropical heat.
Enemies show their real claws and secrets are eventually revealed which will bring great, life changing, joy for some and complete tragedy for others.
The mystery and sexually charged relationships continues until the secret life of Hatty Ha Ha … ends.
What he did to her by S M Mala
Conor’s life consists of drugs, drink and getting dirty with as many women as possibly. He doesn’t care about the size, shape or colour as long as they want uncomplicated fun then he’s happy. For him love and relationships come with dire consequences and that’s not how he wants to live his life.
To Conor’s dismay, he finds his married boss Marcus, is having a fling with his very own sister Debs, and Conor has been asked to cover the trail by lying to the boss’s wife. The only problem is that he works with Neve and she’s no pushover.
When everything comes out into the open, his loyalty to friends and family are put to the test as people he thought he knew well are not what they seem. And when an ex walks back into his life he is once again ruled by the snake in his pants knowing she’s more than a handful to deal with.
Conor begins to find his simple hedonistic life being taken over by other people’s clouded judgement on their need for love, while he tries to avoid the same thing happening to him.
Except ‘love’ is creeping up on him in an unexpected place that he would just about do anything to avoid. And temptation is going to lead him and his loved ones into trouble with serious consequences.
Shadow Sanctuary by Inge H. Borg
Attractive and successful, Monika Lenz has had it.
With the city. With her job. And with men.
A year alone in a Sierra Nevada mountain cabin should bring the fifty-year-old back on track. There will be beauty, and there will be peace and quiet. But there are also shadows that invade her sanctuary. Foreboding and relentless, they grasp at her and lure her soul deeper into its recesses.
Will the elusive Jack MacGreedy pull her back from the abyss she has created in her mind, and in her heart?
Orange Juice in Bishop’s Garden by Otessa Ghadar
You know that summer, right… the summer where EVERYTHING changed? Orange Juice in Bishop’s Garden (OJBG) is that summer. And Bishop’s Garden is the place where it all happens. It’s the summer of ’94 and naive and rebellious teens are engaging in all kinds of underage tomfoolery. Think grunge, Doc Martens, raves, the invincibility of youth, and epic first loves.
This book details the lives of a group of teenagers navigating high school and growing up in DC during the 1990’s. It’s all about teen magic– creating new and marvelous mischief with best friends, listening to mix-tapes and reading Sassy magazines, missing the last Metro, and getting stuck miles from payphones. Accompany the young heroine, Sarah, as she gets herself into idle summer misbehaving, love triangle betrayals, and friendship fallouts. This is a story about what her life is like before school’s truly over and she knows it’s all going to change for good. It’s about the friends she’ll never forget, those first mistakes, and her childish dreams not yet polluted by reality. She and her friends will engage in typical teen idolatry of hot musicians and renegades. They’ll set each other up and tear each other down. They’ll crash house parties and realize that sometimes in life, there are no ‘do-overs.’ They’ll steal cars, candies, and hearts. They’ll make you wish you were a teen again.
This book contains the full collection of scripts from season one of the oldest and longest running teen web series, “Orange Juice in Bishop’s Garden.” And it’s the prequel to the epic romance between two teen girls that has become known as “The Sarah & Gwen Experience.” The love story develops in season 2 and spans to season 6. It’s part recollection, part urban legend, and part pure fiction, and completely inspired by the author’s memories of growing up in DC and the enchantment of her youth. The author, Otessa Ghadar, captures teen life as it is lived–dramatic, filled with self-discovery, and the pain of growing up. Together, as a whole, the stories and the characters ring true. Read the book and you’ll realize you’ve either been– or known– one of these characters before.
Venture into Bishop’s Garden and remember what it feels like to have your whole life ahead of you! Best part is, when you’re done reading, you can meet the characters by watching the webseries adaptation online (www.ojinbg.com).
Good Vibration by S M Mala
Sylvie works in an e-commerce company, ‘Good Vibration’, specializing in the distribution of adult toys. She’s surrounded by colorful people as well as interesting items she refuses to use.
The place has been her lifeline, even though it’s made out of silicone and plastic, for two and a half years as she still tries to come to terms with the devastation of losing of her husband while bringing up their daughter, alone.
Her world is turned upside down when her work partner collapses and his stepson, Finlay, comes in to sort out the business, which his family own.
The consummated snob isn’t impressed with it and wants it to shut it down. He finds the product and people distasteful … and it shows. And he has his own problems, as his beautiful French wife has just told him she’s pregnant but he might not be the father.
Determined to keep the place open, against someone fixed on closing it down, the pair fight tooth and nail to achieve what they want, both poles apart on how they see the world and why.
But could opposites really attract?
Or is it that they want to be with that person, but all for the wrong reasons?
It’s about finding unexpected love in the most extraordinary place when faced with every possible obstacle to stop having a ‘Good Vibration’.
Black & White by Erol Rashit
A young man, Igor, adopts as his mother a middle aged woman, Sylvia, after meeting her in a café, each having come from the nearby cemetery. He had been visiting his mother’s grave; she, her son’s. In taking it upon himself to investigate the death of Sylvia’s son, Igor soon finds himself confronting racists. Sylvia is black; Igor is white. The deeper he delves, the more intricately embroiled he becomes and the more he becomes the focus of a police investigation himself.
Alongside the surface interplay of the characters, Igor remains preoccupied with an inquiry into the nature of existence. Within the field of human activity, notions of ‘good and bad’ and ‘pleasure and pain’ are perhaps bound to prevail, but the essence of existence must precede such differentiation. The presence of suffering in the world should not be taken as proof that the world cannot be perfect. A photograph consisting only of black or only of white would probably seem pretty boring. A world consisting only of good or only of bad would perhaps be comparable to such a photograph. Each extreme acquires its significance by being in juxtaposition with its opposite. Happiness does not result from the elimination of suffering; rather, happiness may ensue when the realm of pleasure and pain has been transcended.
One aspect of the title, Black & White, relates to issues of race. Another aspect relates to Igor’s ability in violent situations to interpret matters in black and white terms. However, it is as a general phrase covering all dualities that the title derives its primary import. The use of the ampersand character in the title imitates its usage by photographers when referring to ‘black & white’ images, and is intended to denote a synthesis of the individual terms into a unitary whole.
The book includes some brief passages depicting scenes of polyamorous sex (pleasure) and homicidal violence (pain).
The Runaway Roommate by C.S. Mae
Casey Peters has a problem and that problem is the half-Korean hottie that moved in when her former roommate moved out.
Now her life has become like an episode from one of her favorite dramas, complete with: crazy exes, roommate shenanigans and confusing plot twists.
This story is a Naughty Niblet: the perfect amount of sexy to satisfy, but not make your hips big.
