Books like 'GUIDE STAR a gripping and emotional rollercoaster of a novel about love, life and not giving up'
Readers who enjoyed GUIDE STAR a gripping and emotional rollercoaster of a novel about love, life and not giving up by Joy Ellis also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary mystery psychological sad crime female-mc family breakup domestic-drama literary-fiction
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Blue Ink by Tess Thompson
Rated: 4.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCharlotte Wilde gives her heart to the wrong men. The last one left with her life savings and their nubile neighbor. Her first published cozy mystery is a flop. Her literary agent’s about to dump her. She has a serious case of writer’s block. And she’s dead broke. Which is how she finds herself in rural Idaho looking after her former boss's elderly mother-in-law. While Mrs... -
![Blue Twilight by Tess Thompson]()
Blue Twilight by Tess Thompson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDeath came between them in high school. Will solving a painful cold case bring them together at last?Carlie Webster remains haunted by the past. After a messy failed marriage sends her packing for her small hometown, she relives the memories of her sister’s thirty-year-old unsolved murder... -
![Stone Sober by Gwyn McNamee]()
Stone Sober by Gwyn McNamee
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsStone Hawke is precisely the kind of man women are warned about—handsome, intelligent, arrogant, and intricately entangled with some dangerous people. I should stay away, but he manages to strip my soul bare with just a look and dominates my thoughts. Bad decisions are in my past. My life is (mostly) on track, even if it is no longer the one to medical school... -
![The Boy Under the Table by Nicole Trope]()
The Boy Under the Table by Nicole Trope
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTina is a young woman hiding from her grief on the streets of the Cross. On a cold night in the middle of winter she breaks all her own rules when she agrees to go home with a customer.What she finds in his house will change her life forever.Across the country Sarah and Doug are trapped in limbo, struggling to accept the loss that now governs their lives... -
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![My Husband's Daughter by Emma Robinson]()
My Husband's Daughter by Emma Robinson
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsCara took a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘She’s not just my daughter,’ she said as she turned in her seat to face Jack. This man she had once loved, but who she hadn’t seen for nearly five years. ‘Sophie is your daughter too.’It is past ten o’clock on a cold Friday night when Rebecca and her husband Jack’s doorbell rings... -
![A Day Like This by Kelley McNeil]()
A Day Like This by Kelley McNeil
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWhat if everything you’ve ever loved, ever known, ever believed to be true…just disappeared?Annie Beyers has everything—a beautiful house, a loving husband, and an adorable daughter. It’s a day like any other when she takes Hannah to the pediatrician…until she wakes hours later from a car accident. When she asks for her daughter, confused doctors tell Annie that Hannah never existed... -
![Maria in the Moon by Louise Beech]()
Maria in the Moon by Louise Beech
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLong ago my beloved Nanny Eve chose my name. Then one day she stopped calling me it. I try now to remember why, but I just can't.' Thirty-one-year-old Catherine Hope has a great memory. But she can't remember everything. She can't remember her ninth year. She can't remember when her insomnia started. And she can't remember why everyone stopped calling her Catherine-Maria... -
![To Provence, with Love by T A Williams]()
To Provence, with Love by T A Williams
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsEscape to the south of France with this perfect feel-good summer romance! Anything is possible… Struggling writer Faye Carter just can’t believe her luck... -
![The Day She Came Back by Amanda Prowse]()
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...Categorized as:
domestic-drama family female-mc literary-fiction audiobook book coming-of-age contemporary -
![What She Saw by Wendy Clarke]()
What She Saw by Wendy Clarke
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsShe lied to her daughter to save her family. Everyone knows Leona would do anything for her daughter Beth: she moved to Church Langdon to send Beth to the best school, worked hard to build a successful business to support them and found them the perfect little cottage to call home. Leona and Beth hike together, shop together, share their hopes and fears with one another... -
![The Secret Child by Kerry Fisher]()
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... -
![What I Remember Most by Cathy Lamb]()
What I Remember Most by Cathy Lamb
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn a new novel rich in grace, warmth, and courage, acclaimed author Cathy Lamb tells of one woman's journey of reinvention in the wake of deep betrayal.Grenadine Scotch Wild has only vague memories of the parents she last saw when she was six years old. But she's never forgotten their final, panicked words to her, urging Grenadine to run... -
![Her First Mistake by Kendra Elliot, Stephanie Németh-Parker]()
Her First Mistake by Kendra Elliot, Stephanie Németh-Parker
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratings10 hours, 7 minutes When a very personal cold case murder is reopened, a detective’s secrets come to light in a novel of shocking twists and suspense by a Wall Street Journal bestselling author.Thirteen years ago, Assemblyman Derrick Bell was murdered in his home by an intruder. His wife, Noelle Marshall, was left for dead. The crime was unsolved, but it wasn’t forgotten... -
![Wall of Silence by Tracy Buchanan]()
Wall of Silence by Tracy Buchanan
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsHer children have a deadly secret. Can she uncover it before the police do?Melissa Byatt’s life in Forest Grove seems as perfect as can be: a doting husband, three loving children and a beautiful house in a close-knit community. But appearances can be deceiving... -
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![No More Lies by Kerry Lonsdale]()
No More Lies by Kerry Lonsdale
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSecrets and lies shadow a woman on the run in the second novel in the No More trilogy by Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Kerry Lonsdale.Jenna Mason’s life seems perfect: a successful career as an animator, a town house near the beach, and an adoring son, Josh, whose artistic talent looks as promising as his mother’s. But there’s something nobody realizes about Jenna... -
![Who's Lying Now by Susan Lewis]()
Who's Lying Now by Susan Lewis
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsYou think you’re safe.You think you know your neighbours.But can you ever really know who’s telling the truth? Jeannie Symonds is a force to be reckoned with – an eccentric, award-winning publisher, spending lockdown with her husband in a house near Kesterly-on-Sea. She seems to have it all: a high-flying career, a happy marriage, a niece she adores. And then one day, she vanishes... -
![Riverstar by Tess Thompson]()
Riverstar by Tess Thompson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAfter ending an affair with a married movie producer, feisty Hollywood makeup artist Bella Webber finds herself back in the quaint Oregon town of River Valley, the location of a famous director’s latest film... -
![Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister]()
Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt is June 21, the longest day of the year, and the life of new mother Camilla is about to change forever. After months of maternity leave, she will drop off her infant daughter at daycare for the first time and return to her job as a literary agent. Finally. But when she wakes, her husband Luke isn’t there, and in his place is a cryptic note.Then it starts... -
![Deserve To Die by Miranda Rijks]()
Deserve To Die by Miranda Rijks
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDom and Stacey have the perfect life. Until they meet Tamara. Brilliant, beautiful, she hides a horrifying secret. One that may destroy them all.Happily married with two wonderful children, Dom and Stacey are living the dream. He runs a successful design agency, she is finding fame as an author of children’s books.Everything is perfect... -
![The Marriage Mender by Linda Green]()
The Marriage Mender by Linda Green
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe only relationship she can't save is her own . . .Alison is a marriage counsellor. Her job is to help couples who fear they have reached the end of the line. But the trouble with spending your time sorting out other people's problems is that you tend to take your eye off your own. Even when her husband's ex Lydia arrives on the doorstep demanding to see her son, Alison thinks she can handle it... -
![The Thorn Girl by Laura Elliot]()
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... -
![You Need to Know by Nicola Moriarty]()
You Need to Know by Nicola Moriarty
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of The Ex and Those Other Women comes a thrilling family drama about the secrets we keep, the lies we tell and the truths that won't stay hidden.The holidays are here. The extended family has gathered. The cars are packed and the convoy sets off.The cottage is a few hours' drive - but not everyone will live to see it .. -
![The Lodger by Valerie Keogh]()
The Lodger by Valerie Keogh
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsShe’s in your home…Leigh Simons can’t say for sure what made her do it. A moment of madness, perhaps, but when the young, loud and gorgeous waitress at her favorite coffee shop reveals she is homeless, Leigh offers her the empty room in her house.In your head…Gina is the perfect lodger; Leigh, lonely and frustrated with her life, becomes infatuated with the woman – her boldness, her zeal... -
![Trespassing by Brandi Reeds]()
Trespassing by Brandi Reeds
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn a novel of mounting psychological suspense, a young mother follows a dangerous path to find her missing husband.Veronica Cavanaugh’s grasp on the world is slipping. Her latest round of fertility treatments not only failed but left her on edge and unbalanced. And her three-year-old daughter, Elizabella, has a new imaginary friend, who seems much more devilish than playful...Categorized as:
crime domestic-drama family female-mc literary-fiction action-adventure adult audiobook -
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![The Art of Hiding by Amanda Prowse]()
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 Silent Wife by Kerry Fisher]()
The Silent Wife by Kerry Fisher
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWould you risk everything for the man you loved? Even if you knew he'd done something terrible? Lara’s life looks perfect on the surface. Gorgeous doting husband Massimo, sweet little son Sandro and the perfect home. Lara knows something about Massimo. Something she can’t tell anyone else or everything Massimo has worked so hard for will be destroyed: his job, their reputation, their son... -
![Between You and Me by Carol Mason]()
Between You and Me by Carol Mason
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsIs her new husband really who she thinks he is?When young doctor Lauren Matheson meets Joe, an older divorced businessman, at a glittering poolside in California, it’s a chance encounter that seems life-changing for them both. Back home in London, their feelings only strengthen... -
![The Perfect Family Man by M.M. DeLuca]()
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... -
![Amen Maxine by Faith Gardner]()
Amen Maxine by Faith Gardner
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA new marriage.A perfect home.A machine that says it’s all a lie.Welcome to Silicon Valley, where the weather is perfect, the income is high … and Rowena Snyder is miserable. A transplant from New York, Rowena moved into her husband Jacob’s idyllic childhood home with their new baby. But suburbia isn’t Rowena’s cup of Starbucks. And she’s got serious anxiety and depression to boot... -
![Exquisite by Sarah Stovell]()
Exquisite by Sarah Stovell
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBo Luxton has it all - a loving family, a beautiful home in the Lake District, and a clutch of bestselling books to her name. Enter Alice Dark, an aspiring writer who is drifting through life, with a series of dead-end jobs and a freeloading boyfriend. When they meet at a writers' retreat, the chemistry is instant, and a sinister relationship develops .. -
![Cause for Alarm by Erica Spindler]()
Cause for Alarm by Erica Spindler
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsCause For Alarm by Erica Spindler released on Jan 25, 1999 is available now for purchase... -
![The Lies We Hide by S.E. Lynes]()
The Lies We Hide by S.E. Lynes
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThirty years ago, Nicola Watson lived with her parents and older brother in a respectable suburb... -
![Hurt Mountain by Angela Crook]()
Hurt Mountain by Angela Crook
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn estranged mother and father join forces to uncover the truth about their missing daughter in a haunting novel about trauma, loss, family, and hope. When patrolman Brandon Hall comes upon a broken-down car on a Colorado highway, he finds a young girl in a bloodied nightgown at the wheel. In the back seat, the brutalized body of a teenage boy. The girl will say only one Hurt... -
![One Little Mistake by Emma Curtis]()
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 . . -
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![Dear Mother by Angela Marsons]()
Dear Mother by Angela Marsons
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA story about three sisters brought together by the death of their cruel and abusive mother. Alex, the youngest, is a bitter, unforgiving woman who refuses to face the events of her childhood. She hides in a bottle and destroys any chance of happiness that comes her way. Her life is spiralling dangerously out of control but she doesn't have the strength to stop it... -
![The Halo Effect by Anne D. LeClaire]()
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... -
![The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen]()
The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe Golden Couple is an addictive page-turning psychological thriller from Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, the authors of the bestselling The Wife Between Us and An Anonymous Girl, that will keep you guessing to the very end.Marissa and Mathew Bishop seem like the golden couple . . . until Marissa cheats... -
![Service: A Novel by Sarah Gilmartin]()
Service: A Novel by Sarah Gilmartin
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA “powerful and compelling” novel about power, consent, and complicity in our #MeToo era — for fans of Rebecca Makkai’s I Have Some Questions for You (Joseph O’Connor, author of My Father’s House)Tensions are at an all-time high in an upscale Dublin restaurant as its employees grapple with the fallout from a shocking scandal involving its head chefThe waitress, the chef, and the chef’s wife may...Categorized as:
literary-fiction crime breakup domestic-drama female-mc europe british-isles ireland -
![Her Perfect Family by Teresa Driscoll]()
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... -
![The Secret Mother by Shalini Boland]()
The Secret Mother by Shalini Boland
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAre you my mommy?Tessa Markham returns home to find a child in her kitchen. He thinks she is his mother. But Tessa doesn't have any children.Not anymore.She doesn't know who the little boy is or how he got there. After contacting the police, Tessa is suspected of kidnapping the mystery child. Her whole life is turned upside down. And then her husband reveals a secret of his own.. -
![The Night the Lights Went Out by Karen White, Carolyn Cook]()
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... -
![The Accident by Natalie Barelli]()
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 Widow by Valerie Keogh]()
The Widow by Valerie Keogh
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsGrieving or guilty?When Allison’s wealthy and charming husband Peter is found dead, she appears distraught, devastated….delighted?Because despite an apparently picture-perfect marriage, Allison knows it was all built on a bed of lies.And as the truth regarding Peter’s life and death are revealed, Alison must try to keep her own dark past buried... -
![Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman]()
Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSeven Types of Ambiguity is a psychological thriller and a literary adventure of breathtaking scope. Celebrated as a novelist in the tradition of Jonathan Franzen and Philip Roth, Elliot Perlman writes of impulse and paralysis, empty marriages, lovers, gambling, and the stock market; of adult children and their parents; of poetry and prostitution, psychiatry and the law... -
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![Faultlines by Barbara Taylor Sissel]()
Faultlines by Barbara Taylor Sissel
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIt’s the phone call every parent dreads: in the middle of the night, Sandy Cline learns that her twenty-year-old son, Jordan, has been in a car accident. Her nephew, Travis, was also in the car, along with Travis’s girlfriend. All three are alive—but barely. The car was smashed against a tree along a remote and winding road, beautiful but deadly, in their rural Texas Hill Country town... -
![What It Seems by Emily Bleeker]()
What It Seems by Emily Bleeker
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA page-turning novel of suspense about the perfect family, and the perfect lies, by the bestselling author of When I’m Gone and The Waiting Room.Adopted by her controlling foster mother at the age of eight, twenty-year-old Tara has seen little of the outside world. Lonely, punished for the slightest offense, her only distraction comes from watching the Feely family’s online videos... -
![Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán, Sophie Hughes]()
Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán, Sophie Hughes
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsINTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!From a global star and International Booker Prize finalist, a razor-sharp, unforgettable novel about a maid who’s seen too much and a family at a breaking pointA young girl has died and the family’s maid is being interrogated. She must tell the whole story before arriving at the girl’s death... -
![The Girl Who Came Back by Susan Lewis]()
The Girl Who Came Back by Susan Lewis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFor readers of Diane Chamberlain and Heather Gudenkauf comes a gripping novel of suspense about a mother determined to avenge her daughter’s murder—no matter the cost to her husband, to her family, and to herself. When Jules Bright hears a knock on the door, the last person she expects to find is a detective bringing her the news she’s feared for the last three years... -
![Behind Closed Doors by Susan Lewis]()
Behind Closed Doors by Susan Lewis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe powerful new novel about how life can change course in a heartbeat. From the Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling author of Never Say Goodbye. When fourteen-year-old Sophie Monroe suddenly vanishes one night it looks at first as though she's run away from home.Her computer and mobile phone have gone, and she's taken a bag full of clothes... -
![No Hiding in Boise by Kim Hooper]()
No Hiding in Boise by Kim Hooper
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Angie is awakened by a midnight call from an officer with the Boise Police Department, she thinks there must be a misunderstanding. The officer tells her that her husband was involved in a shooting at a local bar, but how can that be possible when her husband is sleeping right next to her? Except when she turns to wake him, he isn’t there...
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