Books like 'After the Fire'

Readers who enjoyed After the Fire by Belva Plain also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

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  • Her Scream in the Silence by Denise Grover Swank

    Her Scream in the Silence by Denise Grover Swank

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    >b>In the second book of the USA Today bestselling series, Carly looks into a young woman’s disappearance while trying to hide her own dark secrets. Carly Moore is finally feeling settled in Drum, Tennessee. She likes her job waitressing at Max’s Tavern AND her boyfriend… she should have known both were too good to be true...
  • Flare by Helen Hardt

    Flare by Helen Hardt

    Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    The wildly popular Steel Brothers Saga continues with Flare, which ramps up the suspense as Brock Steel tries to uncover his family’s secrets while Rory Pike does everything in her power to keep her own secrets buried. The Steel family won’t go down on his watch… Rory Pike never imagined she’d fall for a Steel, but she has—Brock Steel, a renowned womanizer, no less...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  friendship  suspense  adult  book  contemporary  fiction
  • Saturdays at Sweeney's by Ashley Farley

    Saturdays at Sweeney's by Ashley Farley

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Members of the Sweeney family, young and old, chart their courses for the future in this final installment of the bestselling Sweeney Sisters Series. When the seafood business Lovie Sweeney established sixty years ago is destroyed by fire, she finds herself at the center of an arson investigation...
    Categorized as:
    epic  family  female-mc  friendship  adult  book  contemporary  fiction
  • The Hope Chest by Carolyn Brown

    The Hope Chest by Carolyn Brown

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    A grandmother’s loving bequest changes three lives forever in a heartwarming novel about finding love, hope, and family by New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Brown.An inheritance has reunited three estranged cousins...
  • Temp Girl: part 2 of 6 by Stephanie Bond

    Temp Girl: part 2 of 6 by Stephanie Bond

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    In TEMP GIRL, an entitled diva who loses her lucrative job is forced to take temp work, and takes a tumble into...
  • Thug-A-Licious by Noire

    Thug-A-Licious by Noire

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    “Have you ever wanted something so bad you was willing to crawl over bodies to get it? I mean, fiend for it so hard it didn’t matter who you hurt, how low you had to scrape, it was gonna be yours? That’s what music and balling did for me. They were the fundamentals behind my rise . . . and the perpetrators of my fall...
  • Kentucky Heat by Fern Michaels

    Kentucky Heat by Fern Michaels

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    In the second book of the powerful new series that reunites the beloved Coleman and Thornton families, New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels brings readers into the turbulent lives of a Kentucky horseracing clan headed by the incomparable Nealy Coleman Diamond. A woman of substance, Nealy rides fast, loves hard, and lives with an appetite for winning no one can match...
    Categorized as:
    epic  family  female-mc  suspense  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary
  • Happy Truth About Love by Karice Bolton

    Happy Truth About Love by Karice Bolton

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    After receiving a rather odd inheritance from an uncle she barely knew, Autumn Tucker decides to do something she’s never done before. Instead of overthinking what’s right in front of her, she embraces the freedom of the unknown and the thrill of leaving everything behind and moves to the small mountain town of Silver Ridge...
  • Seduced by Sunday by Catherine Bybee

    Seduced by Sunday by Catherine Bybee

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    She swore off love forever…but he just might change her mind. The sixth sweet, thrilling book in the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling Weekday Brides series from Catherine Bybee.Meg Rosenthal: Matchmaker by day, realist by night, Meg is not about to get swept away by a charming, darkly handsome businessman in a designer suit...
  • The Gift by Mia Kent

    The Gift by Mia Kent

    Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    From the ashes of war emerges a hero, and a tale of bravery eighty years in the making…A young boy and his mother in mourning. A handsome fighter pilot who arrives on their doorstep. And a story of heroism and sacrifice that helped change the course of history...
  • Whispering Pines by Kimberly Diede

    Whispering Pines by Kimberly Diede

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    A shocking job loss will force Renee to remember the beauty of new beginnings.Summers at Whispering Pines defined Renee's childhood. Days meant swimming and sun, nights meant ghost stories and campfires. Best of all, Whispering Pines meant time with Celia, her favorite aunt...
  • Through the Storm by Diane Greenwood Muir

    Through the Storm by Diane Greenwood Muir

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Once things start falling apart around Polly Giller, chaos takes over and all she can do is hold on for the ride. Sylvie Donovan has finished school and things are supposed to be rainbows and unicorns. Not in Bellingwood. Her oldest son, Jason, has just started high school and isn't handling the transition well...
  • The Oyster Diver's Secret by Caroline Säfstrand, A.A. Prime

    The Oyster Diver's Secret by Caroline Säfstrand, A.A. Prime

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Set on the beautiful Swedish coast, this is a story of deep friendship and hope, about facing the worst parts of ourselves and stepping into a new future.Inez is ready to clean out her life. Seventy years old and no longer working as a women’s fiction author, her life has been accumulating in piles around her Swedish cottage by the sea. But it’s not just the house that needs cleaning...
  • Beyond the Moonlit Sea by Julianne MacLean

    Beyond the Moonlit Sea by Julianne MacLean

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    From the bestselling author of These Tangled Vines comes a gripping novel about one woman’s search for answers when her husband vanishes in the night.Olivia Hamilton is married to the love of her life, Dean, a charismatic pilot who flies private jets for the rich and famous. But when he vanishes over the Bermuda Triangle, Olivia’s idyllic existence unravels...
  • Somewhere Only We Know by Barbara Freethy

    Somewhere Only We Know by Barbara Freethy

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    #1 NY Times Bestselling Author delivers a romantic, emotional and suspenseful novel in SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW. Firefighter Burke Callaway has been living in the shadows since the tragic death of his fiancée. He had no interest in coming out of the dark, until the beautiful and unpredictable Maddie came back to town...
  • Callie by Sharon Srock

    Callie by Sharon Srock

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    A baby is dead and Callie Stillman blames herself. Haunted by memories of a tiny coffin, Callie can’t understand how God could expect her to put her heart on the line a second time. But the evasive little girl attending her Sunday School class is so obviously in trouble that Callie finds her resolve cracking. Iris and Samantha Evans are living on borrowed time...
  • The View from Prince Street by Mary Ellen Taylor

    The View from Prince Street by Mary Ellen Taylor

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    From the author of The Brighter the Light comes the story of two women connected by the grief they never got over and the journey they embark on to finally move forward.It’s been fifteen years since her sister died, and Rae McDonald still hasn’t recovered from the accident—or the ways she tried to cope with it. Not even a PhD in psychology has helped her deal with her feelings...
  • The Secrets She Kept by Brenda Novak

    The Secrets She Kept by Brenda Novak

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Exciting, emotional, intense. The thrilling follow-up to New York Times bestselling author Brenda Novak's highly acclaimed The Secret Sister. The things that happen in families are always surprising and sometimes shocking! The rich and powerful Josephine Lazarow, matriarch of Fairham Island, is dead. The police say it's suicide, but Keith, her estranged son, doesn't believe it...
  • Identity by Nora Roberts

    Identity by Nora Roberts

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    A new thriller about one man's ice-cold malice, and one woman's fight to reclaim her life.Former Army brat Morgan Albright has finally planted roots in a friendly neighborhood near Baltimore. Her friend and roommate Nina helps her make the mortgage payments, as does Morgan's job as a bartender...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  friendship  suspense  adult  audiobook  book
  • Heat: A Single Dad/Hot Chef Romance by Annie Dyer

    Heat: A Single Dad/Hot Chef Romance by Annie Dyer

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Steam isn’t just for the kitchen… Hot headed, no social skills and she knew more swear words than a sailor. I was beginning to think I had a thing for my boss. It didn’t matter that she barely knew the name of her employees or that she worked more hours than there were in a day running her restaurants, as soon as I knew she liked to dance, I wanted a taste of more than just her summer menu...
    Categorized as:
    epic  female-mc  suspense  adult  book  contemporary  fiction  mystery
  • A Dollop of Delight by Kelly Collins

    A Dollop of Delight by Kelly Collins

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    She’s tired of coming in second. He needs to be first. Will a baking competition chill the air or bring heat to the kitchen? Pastry chef Chloe Mason is always chosen last, so when she has to fill a space for a no-show contestant on the popular reality cooking show The Big Bake-off, she vows to settle for nothing less than first place...
  • Neighbors: A Novel by Danielle Steel

    Neighbors: A Novel by Danielle Steel

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In Danielle Steel’s gripping new novel, a reclusive woman opens up her home to her neighbors in the wake of a devastating earthquake, setting off events that reveal secrets, break relationships apart, and bring strangers together to forge powerful new bonds.Meredith White was one of Hollywood’s most recognizable faces...
    Categorized as:
    drama  epic  family  female-mc  friendship  suspense  adult  audiobook
  • The Lighthouse Keeper by Cynthia Ellingsen

    The Lighthouse Keeper by Cynthia Ellingsen

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Dawn Conners’s parents are famous for finding historic treasures, but she has a knack for losing things—her job, her boyfriend, and now, her reputation. Thanks to a mud-slinging exposé, Dawn’s late great-grandfather is assumed guilty of stealing silver from a century-old shipwreck...
  • Vegas Heat by Fern Michaels

    Vegas Heat by Fern Michaels

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    With A Simple Twist Of Fate, Fortunes Rise And Fall. . .Vegas Heat is the story of the Thornton dynasty. . .of Fanny Thornton, who takes over Babylon, the family's magnificent Las Vegas casino, when her ex-husband Ash falls desperately ill. . .of Fanny's twin sons, Sage and Birch, one content in his conventional life, while the other's search for happiness leads to tragedy--and renewed hope. .
    Categorized as:
    drama  epic  family  female-mc  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary
  • The Cottage in the Highlands by Julie Shackman

    The Cottage in the Highlands by Julie Shackman

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    When Leonie Baxter finds herself out of a job and out of a relationship, she’s at her wits end. Her life has just been turned upside down and she needs a plan, fast.By chance, on a walk with her rescue puppy, Leonie stumbles across a striking house in the woods; fully furnished but unoccupied. As a journalist, she is determined to find out more, after all, reporting is in her nature...
  • Recipes for Melissa: The heartbreaking story of a mother's goodbye to her daughter by Teresa Driscoll

    Recipes for Melissa: The heartbreaking story of a mother's goodbye to her daughter by Teresa Driscoll

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Is it ever too late for the gift of goodbye? As I write now, you are eight years old – asleep in the bed next door in princess pyjamas, with a fairy costume discarded on the floor.Twenty-Five. The age I had you. The age our story began. And the age, I hope, that will see you truly ready for the things that I need to say to you… Melissa Dance was eight years old when her mother died...
    Categorized as:
    drama  epic  family  female-mc  friendship  adult  book  contemporary
  • In Plain Sight by Fern Michaels

    In Plain Sight by Fern Michaels

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    THE BOND OF SISTERHOOD For years Myra Rutledge and Annie de Silva, founding members of the Sisterhood, have funded an underground network run by former Supreme Court Justice Pearl Barnes to help women escape abusive relationships...
  • The Heart of the Garden by Victoria Connelly

    The Heart of the Garden by Victoria Connelly

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Morton Hall, with its beautiful, ruined grounds and its reclusive mistress, Emilia Morton, is full of mysteries. For freelance editor Anne Marie, the wild garden has become a serene and secret refuge from her loveless marriage. The only other regular visitor is Cape, the hall’s part-time gardener, who is forbidden to tend to anything except the magnificent maze or to meet his enigmatic employer...
  • One Minute Later: A Novel by Susan Lewis

    One Minute Later: A Novel by Susan Lewis

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    International bestselling author Susan Lewis’ riveting, unforgettable novel of a woman whose life changes in an instant and the handsome young man with whom she shares a secret history—perfect for readers of Jodi Picoult, Diane Chamberlain, and Susan Wiggs.  How well do you know the people you love? For one young woman returning to the past, the answer could be heart-shattering..
  • A Bittersweet Surprise by Cynthia Ellingsen

    A Bittersweet Surprise by Cynthia Ellingsen

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    A mysterious, heartwarming tale of small-town intrigue, family secrets, and the possibility of new love from the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Lighthouse Keeper.Emma Laurent has always preferred helping others to asking for help. But now, she’s the one in need...
  • When Never Comes by Barbara Davis

    When Never Comes by Barbara Davis

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 29 ratings
    Author Barbara Davis deftly explores an emotionally charged landscape of pain, loss, and despair—and the risk one woman will take in the hope of loving again.As a teenage runaway and child of an addict, Christy-Lynn learned the hard way that no address was permanent, and no promise sacred...
    Categorized as:
    drama  epic  family  female-mc  suspense  abuse  adult  audiobook
  • The Perfect Deception by Lutishia Lovely

    The Perfect Deception by Lutishia Lovely

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    For four years, Jessica Bolton has thought about what she'd do once released from the mental institution where she's been held. The only thing better than finally getting out is entering a bar and laying eyes on Jonathan willoughby. Within minutes she's been given both a free drink and the sexy businessman's number and knows that for her, life is about to get really, really good...
    Categorized as:
    drama  epic  family  female-mc  friendship  suspense  adult  audiobook
  • True North by M.E. Montgomery

    True North by M.E. Montgomery

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Alex and Kayla have found in each other what they need to move moved beyond the tragedies of their pasts and are ready to embrace their future together. But the problem with the past is it doesn’t always agree to be left behind, and sometimes it follows, unwilling to let go. Now everything they thought they knew to be true is suddenly turned up on end...
    Categorized as:
    epic  family  female-mc  suspense  adult  book  contemporary  fiction
  • Spirited Away by Fern Michaels

    Spirited Away by Fern Michaels

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Part Two of the New Three-Part Godmothers Serial!The best of friends, Toots, Ida, Mavis, and Sophie have been there for each other through thick and thin. Now Sophie needs the rest of the Godmothers to help her through something they’ve never faced before . . .There are no secrets between best friends. At least, Teresa “Toots” Loudenberry has always believed that to be the case...
    Categorized as:
    drama  epic  family  female-mc  friendship  adult  book  contemporary
  • High Blue Sky by Victoria Connelly

    High Blue Sky by Victoria Connelly

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    What would you sacrifice to be with the person you love?Summer has arrived and it’s over a year since strangers Abigail and Edward bought Winfield Hall at auction and restored it together. Now, two new tenants are about to join them at their beautiful Georgian home...
  • Treasure Me by Christine Nolfi

    Treasure Me by Christine Nolfi

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Finalist, 2012 Next Generation Indie Awards "Highly recommended" by The Midwest Book Review Welcome to Book Two of The Liberty Series, where love, friendship and family life arrive with a second chance in the most heartwarming circumstances. Petty thief Birdie Kaminsky has arrived in Liberty, Ohio to steal a treasure hidden since the Civil War...
  • Lady Luck's Map of Vegas by Barbara Samuel

    Lady Luck's Map of Vegas by Barbara Samuel

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    A successful Web designer, forty-year-old India has a fabulously hip life in Denver and a sexy Irish lover in New York who jets out to see her on bi-weekly visits. The long-distance romance suits India just fine: Though Jack is the only man who has ever made India feel truly alive, she doesn’t want things to get too serious...
  • Almost Home by Mariah Stewart

    Almost Home by Mariah Stewart

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    New York Times "bestselling author Mariah Stewart presents a captivating contemporary romance novel in the tradition of Robyn Carr, Susan Mallery, and Barbara Freethy. When she was young, Steffie Wyler always knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life: 1. Make ice cream. 2. Marry the coolest boy in town. 3. Live happily ever after...
  • The Passions of Chelsea Kane by Barbara Delinsky

    The Passions of Chelsea Kane by Barbara Delinsky

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    After the death of her adoptive mother, thirty-six-year-old Chelsea Kane is consumed by the need to uncover her biological heritage. Taking a break from her successful architecture career, she arrives in the New Hampshire town where she was born, determined to learn the truth, her only clue a tarnished silver key...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  friendship  suspense  adult  audiobook  book
  • No Safe Secret by Fern Michaels

    No Safe Secret by Fern Michaels

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    In her powerful new novel, #1 New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels weaves a story of betrayal, courage, and starting over… From her silver Mercedes to her designer kitchen, Molly's life is gleaming and beautiful--at least on the surface. Married to Tanner, a top cosmetic dentist, she has a wonderful daughter finishing high school and twin stepsons from Tanner's first marriage...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  friendship  suspense  adult  book  breakup
  • Forgive Me by Lesley Pearse

    Forgive Me by Lesley Pearse

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Cheltenham, 1991 When Eva Patterson returns home from work one day, a devastating scene awaits her. Her mother, Flora, lies dead in the bath. Beside her is a note saying only: 'Forgive Me'. Until then, Eva always believed her family's life would be comfortable and secure - but Flora's suicide changes everything...
  • Vanishing Act by Fern Michaels

    Vanishing Act by Fern Michaels

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    It’s a hot, sunny afternoon on the mountain top, and the sisters are enjoying sitting around the pool chatting and laughing, frosty glasses of lemonade to keep them cool and relaxed. It’s a welcome hiatus after their last harrowing mission, and the only cloud over the happy occasion is that Charles, their mentor, is still mysteriously absent...
  • Lesser Evil by Lesley Pearse

    Lesser Evil by Lesley Pearse

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Would you cross the street if wickedness lived there? When Fifi moves to London with her bricklayer boyfriend Dan, her mother is outraged. Despite initial feelings of horror at her new surroundings, Fifi finds the freedom from her middle-class family background exhilarating...
  • The Guest List by Fern Michaels

    The Guest List by Fern Michaels

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    The Guest...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  suspense  adult  book  contemporary  crime
  • Home for Winter by Rebecca Boxall

    Home for Winter by Rebecca Boxall

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Serena Meadows and her twin sister, Luna, are identical in appearance—but the similarity ends there. Luna always had a mean streak and, as a teenager, her selfishness culminated in an almighty betrayal from which Serena thought she’d never recover.Years later the twins are reunited by tragedy and Luna is a changed woman...
    Categorized as:
    drama  epic  family  female-mc  suspense  adult  book  contemporary
  • The Passing Storm by Christine Nolfi

    The Passing Storm by Christine Nolfi

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    A gripping, openhearted novel about family, reconciliation, and bringing closure to the secrets of the past.Early into the tempestuous decade of her thirties, Rae Langdon struggles to work through a grief she never anticipated. With her father, Connor, she tends to their Ohio farm, a forty-acre spread that itself has enjoyed better days...
  • Accidental Heroes by Danielle Steel

    Accidental Heroes by Danielle Steel

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    A decorated former Air Force pilot. A pregnant flight attendant. A dedicated TSA agent. The fates of these three, and many others, converge in Danielle Steel's gripping new novel--a heart-stopping thriller that engages ordinary men and women in the fight of their lives during a flight from New York to San Francisco. On a beautiful May morning at New York's John F...
  • Finding Ashley by Danielle Steel

    Finding Ashley by Danielle Steel

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Melissa Henderson is leading a quiet life. Once a bestselling author, she now pours all her energy into renovating a Victorian house nestled in the foothills of rural New England. Six years ago, she lost her young son to cancer, and her marriage dissolved. She stopped writing. It was only when she bought the old house that Melissa found a purpose, and came alive as she made it beautiful again...
  • Seaside Sunrise by Nellie Brooks

    Seaside Sunrise by Nellie Brooks

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    It's summer in Maine, and the sun shines on old friends, new neighbors, and secrets by the sea as mothers and daughters start over in Bay Harbor.Amelie gets a surprise visitor from the past and finally has a chance at uncovering an old mystery that changed her life. Depending on what she finds, she might have to share a secret of her own..
  • A Play for Revenge by Cynthia Ellingsen

    A Play for Revenge by Cynthia Ellingsen

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    In this emotional story from Starlight Cove, a single mother must solve the mystery of the town theater to learn why it was shut down and stop the unknown forces trying to keep it closed.Newly divorced Lily Kimura returns to her hometown to start fresh with her daughter and her recently retired parents. She’s committed to rebuilding her life, starting with a new job at the town theater...
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