Books like 'pretending to dance'
Readers who enjoyed pretending to dance by Diane Chamberlain also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary mystery psychological thriller family drama coming-of-age realistic suspense historical-fiction
-
Dying Truth by Angela Marsons
Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsHow far would you go to protect your darkest secrets? When teenager Sadie Winter jumps from the roof of her school, her death is ruled as suicide – a final devastating act from a troubled girl. But then the broken body of a young boy is discovered at the same school and it’s clear to Detective Kim Stone that these deaths are not tragic accidents... -
The Light Through the Leaves by Glendy Vanderah
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsOne unbearable mistake at the edge of the forest.In a moment of crisis, Ellis Abbey leaves her daughter, Viola, unattended—for just a few minutes. But when she returns, Viola is gone. A breaking point in an already fractured marriage, Viola’s abduction causes Ellis to disappear as well—into grief, guilt, and addiction... -
Life of Crime by Kimberley Chambers
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIf you could get away with the perfect crime - would you? HEAVEN HAS NO RAGE, LIKE LOVE TO HATRED TURNED.NOR HELL A FURY, LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED... -
-
-
Our Stolen Pieces by James Hunt
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen the morning after a slumber party reveals two missing girls, a newly minted Detective and a young veteran are assigned the case. Recently partnered, the pair of detectives must set aside their troubled pasts to recover the pair of girls who may have been coerced by a stranger who had kidnapped before...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc law-enforcement literary-fiction suspense thriller action-adventure -
Night Road by Kristin Hannah
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsJude Farraday is a happily married, stay-at-home mom who puts everyone’s needs above her own. Her twins, Mia and Zach, are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill enters their lives, no one is more supportive than Jude. A former foster child with a dark past, Lexi quickly becomes Mia’s best friend. Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic suspense -
The Surrogate's Gift by L.G. Davis
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHer one good deed is about to turn into her worst nightmare.Becoming a surrogate for Marcia and Travis Thorpe is Grace’s chance to overcome her inner demons.Nothing can go wrong. Her life depends on it.Determined to focus on the pregnancy, she drops everything and accepts the Thorpes’ offer to move in with them until the baby is born. A simple decision. One big mistake... -
Truth and Lies by Caroline Mitchell
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsMeet Amy Winter: Detective Inspector, daughter of a serial killer.DI Amy Winter is hoping to follow in the footsteps of her highly respected police officer father. But when a letter arrives from the prison cell of Lillian Grimes, one half of a notorious husband-and-wife serial-killer team, it contains a revelation that will tear her life apart... -
In Her Father's Shadow by Quinn Avery
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSienna Rivers’s aspirations for a normal childhood came crashing down the night they discovered her father was a serial killer. Once her mother’s illusion of a perfect family is destroyed, Sienna is sent to live with the only other “family” she knows... -
The Weight of Silence by Gregg Olsen
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA heart-pounding novel of unspeakable crimes and unforgivable sins from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Sound of Rain. Homicide detective Nicole Foster has finally balanced an unsteady life and is anxious for a second chance... -
Breaking the Silence by Diane Chamberlain
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsLaura Brandon had promised her dying father she would visit Sarah Tolley, but her own agony is drowning out the old woman's ramblings. Her husband killed himself, and the only witness--her daughter, Emma--now refuses to speak. Desperate, Laura turns to a man she met once five years ago: Emma's real father... -
The Day She Came Back by Amanda Prowse
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen her loving, free-spirited grandmother Primrose passes away, Victoria is bereft, yet resilient—she has survived tragedy before. But even her strength is tested when a mysterious woman attends Prim’s funeral and claims to be the mother Victoria thought was dead... -
The Secret Child by Kerry Fisher
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsJust for a moment, I was young and invincible again, back before I made the decision that changed the rest of my life… Susie did something that she knows she will always regret: giving her baby son up for adoption, to keep her infidelity secret from her family... -
The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsIn 1977, pregnant Genevieve Russell disappeared. Twenty years later, her remains are discovered and Timothy Gleason is charged with murder. But there is no sign of the unborn child. CeeCee Wilkes knows how Genevieve Russell died, because she was there. And she also knows what happened to the missing infant, because two decades ago she made the devastating choice to raise the baby as her own...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic secrets -
-
What's Left Unsaid by Emily Bleeker
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAn enthralling novel of secrets, second chances, and confronting the past by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of When I’m Gone.After a series of devastating losses, Chicago journalist Hannah Williamson has landed in Senatobia, Mississippi, to care for her bedridden grandmother and endure grunt work at a small newspaper...Categorized as:
family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense thriller adult audiobook -
Good as Dead by Susan Walter
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIt all starts with a promise from a stranger: We’ll take care of everything.Holly Kendrick’s husband is dead. Holly saw it all. In one violent moment, a hit-and-run accident turns Holly’s life upside down. Then a fixer for the high-powered guilty party approaches Holly with an offer she is in no position to refuse... -
Never Tell by Lisa Gardner
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratings#1 New York Times bestseller Lisa Gardner returns with an unpredictable thriller that puts fan favorites D. D. Warren and Flora Dane on a shocking new case that begins with a vicious murder and gets darker from there.A man is dead, shot three times in his home office. But his computer has been shot twelve times, and when the cops arrive, his pregnant wife is holding the gun.D. D... -
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsIf you knew your future, would you try to fight fate? Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed. Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die... -
The Thorn Girl by Laura Elliot
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA swallow flutters its wings into a dimly lit attic as Adele Foyle stumbles across the secret diary of the mother she has never met, and a shocking account of a crime committed over twenty-five years ago... -
No More Words by Kerry Lonsdale
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author comes the first book in a trilogy about love, betrayal, and the secrets families keep.Forced to choose between abortion or adoption, Olivia Carson’s younger sister, Lily, runs away from home. Sixteen and pregnant, she never returns. But she writes... -
The Last Thing She Told Me by Linda Green
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsEven the deepest buried secrets can find their way to the surface...Moments before she dies, Nicola's grandmother Betty whispers to her that there are babies at the bottom of the garden.Nicola's mother claims she was talking nonsense. However, when Nicola's daughter finds a bone while playing in Betty's garden, it's clear that something sinister has taken place... -
Found by Erin Kinsley
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen 11 year old Evan vanishes without trace, his parents are plunged into their worst nightmare.Especially as the police, under massive pressure, have no answers. But months later Evan is unexpectedly found, frightened and refusing to speak. His loving family realise life will never be the same again.DI Naylor knows that unless those who took Evan are caught, other children are in danger... -
The Art of Hiding by Amanda Prowse
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhat would you do if you learned that the life you lived was a lie? Nina McCarrick lives the perfect life, until her husband, Finn, is killed in a car accident and everything Nina thought she could rely on unravels.Alone, bereft and faced with a mountain of debt, Nina quickly loses her life of luxury and she begins to question whether she ever really knew the man she married... -
The Love of my Life by Rosie Walsh, Imogen Church
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Ghosted comes a love story wrapped in a mystery: an up-all-night page-turner with a dark secret at its coreI have held you at night for ten years and I didn't even know your name. We have a child together. A dog, a house. Who are you?Emma loves her husband Leo and their young daughter Ruby: she’d do anything for them... -
-
The Rise by Shari King, Shari Low
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen we bury our secrets, they always come back to haunt us...Their rise was meteoric.Only a few years before, they had been three friends from Glasgow, just trying to survive tough lives of danger and dysfunction.But on one Hollywood evening in 1993, they were on the world’s biggest stage, accepting their Oscar in front of the watching world.That night was the beginning of their careers... -
A Lovely Lie by Jaime Lynn Hendricks
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIs it better to believe a lovely lie or know the horrible truth?1999: The night of their senior picnic, Scarlett Russo and her best friend Pepper were involved in a car accident that left two of their classmates dead. Afterward, they lied to the police, protecting each other from the consequences... -
Things We Never Say by Caitlin Weaver
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThree mothers. Three secrets. One devastating scandal.Anna has always been the quiet one, the soft-spoken mother who kept her head down and her secrets close. But when she's thrown together with Maggie and Rhea on a PTA project, they begin to bond over wine and gossip, and slowly share the truths behind their picture-perfect lives... -
Gone... But Not Missed by A.R. Kennedy
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsLillian Brannon wakes up on Valentine's Day in an exact replica of her bedroom but the only item that she believes is authentic is her dog, Laude. She is held captive in her kidnapper's basement apartment, summoned upstairs once a week for a chaste dinner... -
The Perfect Family Man by M.M. DeLuca
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFive years ago, my little boy went missing. Now my husband’s vanished, too.I wish I could say that the tragedy of little Jack disappearing brought me and Nate closer together. But my husband is more distant from me now than he’s ever been. Perhaps that’s why I don’t ask him exactly where he’s going when he sets off on another business trip...Categorized as:
suspense female-mc literary-fiction family thriller psychological crime contemporary -
Closet Full of Bones by A.J. Aalto
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsEver since they were children, Gillian Hearth has been her sister Frankie’s guardian, her sounding board, and her best friend. Together, the Hearth sisters quietly bury their secrets and form a formidable team during any crisis. Purchasing the old Blymhill house with the hopes of turning it into an artists’ retreat, the sisters are finally living their dream... -
One Little Mistake by Emma Curtis
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsVicky Seagrave is blessed: three beautiful children, a successful, doting husband, great friends and a job she loves. She should be perfectly happy. When she risks everything she holds dear on a whim, there's only person she trusts enough to turn to. But Vicky is about to learn that one mistake is all it takes; that if you're careless with those you love, you don't deserve to keep them . .Categorized as:
drama family female-mc law-enforcement literary-fiction suspense thriller 21st-century -
My Sister and Other Liars by Ruth Dugdall
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSam is seventeen, starving herself and longing for oblivion. Her sister, Jena, is mentally scarred and desperate to remember. Between them, they share secrets too terrible to recall. Eighteen months earlier, Sam was still full of hope: hope that she could piece together Jena's fragmented memory after the vicious attack that changed their family forever... -
The Competition by Marcia Clark
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn Marcia Clark's most electrifying thriller yet, Los Angeles District Attorney Rachel Knight investigates a horrifying high school massacre. A Columbine-style shooting at a high school in the San Fernando Valley has left a community shaken to its core. Two students are identified as the killers. Both are dead, believed to have committed a mutual suicide... -
The Halo Effect by Anne D. LeClaire
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn this tour de force, a father, shaken by tragedy, tries to avenge his daughter’s murder—and restore his family’s shattered life. It was supposed to be a typical October evening for renowned portrait artist Will Light... -
-
In Her Eyes by Sarah Alderson
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsYou're at home with your family. You think you're safe. You're wrong... Ava's life is the kind other people envy: loving husband; great kids; beautiful house. Until the night a violent home invasion turns the dream into a nightmare, and leaves her beautiful daughter fighting to survive.And then things get worse. Ava realises that the attack wasn't random. Someone is targeting her family... -
The Darkest Flower by Kristin Wright
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsYou’ll never believe the terrible things being said about the perfect president of the PTA. Attempted murder? Inexplicable accident? Either way, a PTA mom struggled for her life in an elementary school cafeteria, poisoned by wolfsbane. Now all eyes are on the accused, the victim, and a woman hired to look deeper... -
The Beach Trees by Karen White
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of After the Rain, Sea Change, and The Color of Light...From the time she was twelve, Julie Holt knew what a random tragedy can do to a family. At that tender age, her little sister disappeared-never to be found. It was a loss that slowly eroded the family bonds she once relied on... -
Everything We Left Behind by Kerry Lonsdale
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Everything We Keep comes the highly anticipated sequel. Told from one man’s two perspectives, Everything We Left Behind effortlessly blends suspense, mystery, and romance in an exploration of loss, resilience, and the compelling need to protect the ones we love at all cost... -
After the End by Clare Mackintosh
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsMax and Pip are the strongest couple you know. They're best friends, lovers—unshakable. But then their son gets sick and the doctors put the question of his survival into their hands. For the first time, Max and Pip can't agree. They each want a different future for their son... -
The Friend by Teresa Driscoll
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsOn a train with her husband, miles from home and their four-year-old son, Ben, Sophie receives a chilling phone call. Two boys are in hospital after a tragic accident. One of them is Ben.She thought she could trust Emma, her new friend, to look after her little boy. After all, Emma’s a kindred spirit—someone Sophie was sure she could bare her soul to, despite the village rumours... -
The Wrong Daughter by Dandy Smith
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThe phone starts vibrating in my hand. It's my father. He never calls. Pulse racing in trepidation, I sit up in bed and answer. 'Caitlin,' he says. 'You need to come to the house. Right now. It's Olivia. She's back.'On the night when Caitlin and Olivia's parents leave them to go to a dinner party both girls are full of excitement about being old enough to stay home alone... -
The Stillwater Girls by Minka Kent
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsTwo sisters raised in fear are about to find out why in a chilling novel of psychological suspense from the author of The Thinnest Air.Ignorant of civilization and cautioned against its evils, nineteen-year-old Wren and her two sisters, Sage and Evie, were raised in off-the-grid isolation in a primitive cabin in upstate New York...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc historical-fiction realistic suspense thriller action-adventure -
The Ones We Choose by Julie Clark
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLisa Genova meets 23andMe in this exploration of the genetic and emotional ties that bind, as debut author Julie Clark delivers a compelling read about a young boy desperate to find his place in this world, a mother coming to terms with her own past, and the healing power of forgiveness... -
Her Perfect Family by Teresa Driscoll
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsA gripping psychological thriller from the bestselling author of I Am Watching You. The perfect family? Or the perfect lie?It’s their daughter’s graduation and Rachel and Ed Hartley are expecting it to be one of their family’s happiest days... -
-
One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsIn her most emotionally charged novel to date, New York Times bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf explores the unspoken events that shape a community, the ties between parents and their children and how the fragile normalcy of our everyday life is so easily shattered.In the midst of a sudden spring snowstorm, an unknown man armed with a gun walks into an elementary school classroom... -
The Back Road by Rachel Abbott
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn a quiet country village, secrets abound.When a young girl, Abbie Campbell, is knocked over and left for dead on the back road of the village of Little Melham, waves of shock ripple through the small community and a chain of events, which threatens to expose long-kept secrets, is triggered... -
The Night the Lights Went Out by Karen White, Carolyn Cook
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratings15 hours, 19 minutesFrom the New York Times bestselling author of the Tradd Street series comes a stunning new novel about a young single mother who discovers that the nature of friendship is never what it seems....Recently divorced, Merilee Talbot Dunlap moves with her two children to the Atlanta suburb of Sweet Apple, Georgia...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic secrets suspense -
Secrets She Left Behind by Diane Chamberlain
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOne afternoon, single mother Sara Weston says she's going to the store--and never returns. In her absence, she leaves her teenage son alone with his damaged past and a legacy of secrets... -
The Accident by Natalie Barelli
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIf only she'd said no... Katherine knew she’d had too many drinks, but they were only going a short distance. And as Eve pointed out, it was late, there was no traffic anyway... Now, Katherine would do anything to turn back the clock. If anyone ever found out about the accident, it would ruin Katherine’s life... -
The Shadow Wife by Diane Chamberlain
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsGet swept up in this emotional tale of regret and rebirth by bestselling author Diane Chamberlain.Joelle D’Angelo’s best friend, Mara, is left with brain damage after she suffers an aneurysm giving birth to her son. Alone and grieving, Joelle turns to the only other person who understands her pain: her colleague—and Mara’s husband—Liam...
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.