Books like 'The Smash-Up'
Readers who enjoyed The Smash-Up by Ali Benjamin also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary literary-fiction family politics realistic female-mc
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Finding Billie Romano by Jean Grainger
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsUSA Today bestselling author wants to take you to Ireland for a story that will leave you wanting more long after you turn the last page... Twenty-five year old Billie Romano is struggling. She is grieving the death of her beloved dad and nothing in her life is going right... -
The Reunion At Sugar Sand Inn by Leigh Duncan
Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsEscape to Sugar Sand Beach with Erin Bradshaw and her best friends for a second chance at all life has to offer.Forty-five year old Erin has grown restless with her life. Which is odd because she’s spent the past thirty years roaming the globe... -
Sweet Tea & Wedding Rings by Rachel Hanna
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn book 4 of this USA Today bestselling series. Mia and Kate are still working on building their new honey business while Travis and Cooper are keeping a big secret that could wreak havoc in both of their relationships.Meanwhile, a former guest of the B&B shows up in the dead of night, and she needs a place to hide... -
Fragile Hearts by the Loch by Hannah Ellis
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsHow long does it take to mend a broken heart?Jess expects life on the Isle of Skye to be calm and peaceful. But when she falls for her colleague things quickly become complicated. Rory comes with a whole load of baggage, but she just can’t seem to stay away from him. When Elspeth is forced to take a break from work, she evaluates what her future holds... -
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Coming Home by Judith Keim, Angela Dawe
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLength: 8 hrs 15 minCamilla “Cami” Chandler comes home from France to take over the Chandler Hill Inn and Winery for her recently-deceased grandmother, Lettie, as she’d always promised... -
The Summer Escape by Hannah Ellis
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCould it be more than just a holiday romance?Single-mother Beth desperately needs a break.Grieving the loss of her mother, she sets off to the Isles of Scilly with her five-year-old daughter, Ellie.Their holiday cottage is utterly charming, but it’s meeting Trystan – the owner of the cottage – that makes Beth’s stay so perfect... -
Finding Love by Judith Keim
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAs Regan Sullivan continues to work with her sisters, Sheena and Darcy, to meet their Uncle Gavin’s challenge to make the Salty Key Inn a success, she wonders why she can never find the man of her dreams. Her sisters are happily settled with men they love... -
Finding Family by Judith Keim
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSheena Sullivan Morelli and her sisters, Darcy and Regan, work to complete their Uncle Gavin’s challenge of turning his rundown hotel into a profitable operation within one year. Winning means earning a share in their uncle’s sizable estate. More than that, it determines how they’ll spend the rest of their lives. Sheena wants to stay on at the hotel, overseeing the hotel operation... -
Home At Last by Judith Keim
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLouise “Lulu” Kingsley is thrilled to discover after years of wishing for a sibling, Cami Chandler is her half-sister. When Cami invites her to live with her at Chandler Hill, Lulu jumps at the chance to leave behind all the heartache in her recent life... -
The Gin Sisters' Promise by Faith Hogan
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThree estranged sisters. Six months to come back together.When Georgie, Iris and Nola's mother died and their father disappeared into his grief, the sisters made a pact: they would always be there for one another, no matter what.Now, decades later, they haven't spoken for years and can barely stand to be in the same room... -
Because of You by Olivia Miles
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the USA Today bestselling master of small-town sagas comes the third book in the Blue Harbor series. Maddie Conway has always dreamed of opening her own bakery, but following in the footsteps of her three successful sisters is turning out to be a lot of pressure... -
Whisling Island Miracles by Julia Clemens
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSometimes all we need is a bit of a miracle. Join the women of Whisling as they find theirs... -
The Reunion by Roisin Meaney
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt's their twenty-year school reunion but the Plunkett sisters have their own reasons for not wanting to attend ... Caroline, now a successful knitwear designer, spends her time flying between her business in England and her lover in Italy. As far as she's concerned, her school days, and what happened to her the year she left, should stay in the past... -
Summer at the Country Practice by Sharon Booth
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe sun is shining on Bramblewick, the little village on the North York Moors. At Bramblewick Primary School the teachers are preparing for their much-needed break, and Izzy and Ash are busy making wedding plans. But for their friend and colleague, Jackson Wade, the long summer holiday isn't so welcome... -
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In Little Stars by Linda Green
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn a divided northern England, love and hate are about to collide . . .Sylvie and Donna travel on the same train to work each day but have never spoken. Their families are on different sides of the bitter Brexit divide, although the tensions and arguments at home give them much in common... -
All The Colours In Between by Eva Jordan
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEva Jordan's much-anticipated follow up to the bestselling 183 Times a Year It's not a life, it's an adventure! Lizzie is fast approaching 50. Her once angst ridden teenage daughters, now grown and in their twenties, have flown the nest, Cassie to London and Maisy to Australia... -
Moonlight and Promises by Michele Brouder
Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsRead the generational saga about three sisters and their grandmother and her friends in the beachside town of Hideaway Bay.Always the rebel and the oldest of the Monroe sisters, Isabelle returns to Hideaway Bay at the request of one of her sisters. She’s never stayed long enough in any one place. The last thing Isabelle Monroe wants is to be tied down...Categorized as:
literary-fiction family female-mc romance fiction contemporary anthologies small-town -
Meet Me at Sunset (Evening Island) by Olivia Miles
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe Morgan sisters spent many blissful summers at their family’s lake house growing up, but as they grew older, their lives took very different paths. Hope adores her twin girls, but she doesn’t love being a stay-at-home mom... -
Second Chance Summer by Olivia Miles
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the USA Today bestselling master of small-town sagas comes the second installment in the Blue Harbor series—a second-chance romance about finding love when you least expect it. Amelia Conway spent the past twelve years doting on her widowed father and playing mother hen to her younger sisters—and conveniently hiding her heart from love after her high school sweetheart moved away... -
Then Comes Love by Olivia Miles
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the USA Today bestselling author of Feels Like Home comes a fun, flirty, sweet summer romance...It’s wedding season in Blue Harbor, and that means warm lake breezes, starry nights, and the promise of a happy ending…for some. Florist Gabby Conway is a hopeless romantic, but lately, she’s starting to feel exactly that: hopeless... -
Heaven Adjacent by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde comes a bittersweet novel about healing old wounds and finding a new place to call home… Roseanna Chaldecott spent her life as a high-powered lawyer in Manhattan. But when her best friend and law partner dies suddenly, something snaps. Unsure of her future, Roseanna heads upstate on one tank of gas and with no plans to return... -
Daughters of Wild Rose Bay by Susanne O'Leary
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA heart-warming page-turner set on the Irish coast, where secrets hide, romance is waiting and there is every chance to make a new beginning… Jasmine Delon feels completely lost: having just broken up with the man she thought was the love of her life, all she knows is that she can’t face living alone in her empty apartment in Paris... -
The Havoc of Choice by Wanjiru Koinange
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratings2007, KenyaLong held captive by her father’s shadow of corruption, Kavata has spent her life suffocated by political machinations. When her husband decides to run in the next election, these shadows threaten to consume her home. Unable to bear this darkness,Kavata plots to escape. As her family falls apart, so too does her country...Categorized as:
politics literary-fiction family female-mc fiction historical-fiction contemporary corruption -
Amazing Grace by Lesley Crewe
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe new novel from bestselling author Lesley Crewe! Grace Willingdon has everything she needs. For fifteen years she’s lived in a trailer overlooking Bras d’Or Lakes in postcard-perfect Baddeck, Cape Breton, with Fletcher Parsons, a giant teddy bear who’s not even her husband... -
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When We Were Young by Michele Brouder
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe orderly, sterile life of Martha Hahn Cotter is disrupted by the unexpected arrival of the teenage granddaughter she’s never met. Quick to send the girl back home, she reaches out to her estranged daughter. Days later, her daughter arrives, resulting in an inevitable showdown as old wounds and past secrets surface... -
A Happy Catastrophe by Maddie Dawson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of Matchmaking for Beginners comes a novel about love, loss, and the beautiful mess of family.Marnie MacGraw and Patrick Delaney have been in love for a few years now, enough to realize that they are imperfectly perfect together. Still, there are some things that maybe need a little attention. Marnie’s ebullient; he’s brooding... -
The Idea of You by Amanda Prowse
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWith her fortieth birthday approaching, Lucy Carpenter dares to hope that she finally has it all: a wonderful new husband, Jonah, a successful career and the chance of a precious baby of her own. Life couldn’t be more perfect. But the reality of becoming parents proves much harder than Lucy and Jonah imagined... -
Baby Talk by Judith S. Keim
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsReaders of the Hartwell Women Series asked for more. I listened. Baby Talk is Book 4. When Marissa Crawford and her husband Brad decide to start a family, Marissa has serious doubts about her ability to be a good mother--she was raised by one of the worst... -
Straight Talk by Judith Keim
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsStraight Talk - Book Three in the Hartwell Women Trilogy Samantha Hartwell’s life changes completely when she’s attacked by a client’s boyfriend. She leaves Boston and Straight Talk, her consulting business, and escapes to California wine country to heal and to help her sister and brother-in-law with their vineyard’s growth... -
Fighting for Tara: a novel by Sunanda J. Chatterjee
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHow far will a mother go to save her child? “I have no use for a baby girl. Get rid of her tonight!” He towered over her as she cringed in fear. But Hansa, a thirteen-year-old child-bride in rural India, refuses to remain a victim of the oppressive society where a female child is an unwanted burden. Instead of drowning her baby, Hansa escapes from her village with three-month-old Tara... -
Signals: New and Selected Stories by Tim Gautreaux
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsONE OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL AND NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF 2017Containing twelve new stories and nine classics from previous collections, Signals is Tim Gautreaux at his best. Effortlessly conjuring the heat and humidity of the author's beloved South, these stories of men and women grappling with faith, small town life, and blue-collar work are alternately ridiculous and sublime...Categorized as:
literary-fiction politics family fiction contemporary anthologies audiobook 21st-century -
3 stepbrothers by Animallover55
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTori lived with her dad and little sister. She never expected to have a stepmother, much less a stepbrother. But whats worse is not only one stepbrother, not two either. No three stepbrothers. But it gets worse, the three boys just happen to be the three triplet sport stars of the school. The same three boys that have gone out with nearly all those girls that wear short short skirts... -
The Pitch Queen by Karin Gillespie
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA hilarious send-up of the publishing business and a delight for readers who love books about books. If "Yellowface" and "Book Lovers" had a baby, it would be named "The Pitch Queen.". Claire Wyld, a literary agent, is the queen of the flashy pitch and is fighting to be the number one dealmaker in debut novels... -
The Shore House by Heidi Hostetter
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen the Bennett family arrive at the shore house to spend the summer together, they bring more baggage than just suitcases…When Kaye Bennett, matriarch of the Bennett family, summons her adult children to the shore house, she anticipates a vacation full of nostalgia... -
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No Honour by Awais Khan
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA young woman defies convention in a small Pakistani village, with devastating results for her and her family. A stunning, immense beautiful novel about courage, family and the meaning of love, when everything seems lost… In sixteen-year-old Abida’s small Pakistani village, there are age-old rules to live by, and her family’s honour to protect...Categorized as:
family female-mc literary-fiction adult book contemporary fiction historical-fiction -
Those Summer Nights by Olivia Miles
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLicensed therapist Evie Donovan’s life plan was simple: work hard, stay focused, and everything would fall into place. Losing her dream job and having a summer fling were never part of that plan... -
Rhoda: A Life in Stories by Ellen Gilchrist
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOver the past ten years, Gilchrist fans have enjoyed glimpses of headstrong, redheaded Rhoda in five previous collections. Here, for the first time, are the collected Rhoda stories - including two new ones - offering a full-blown portrait of a woman worth waiting for: one of contemporary literature's most enchanting characters, in all her wicked glory... -
The Teacher by Meg Gray
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn life, there are no certainties. Emma Hewitt finds herself facing a number of uncertain challenges as she tries to find her footing in the big city of Portland, Oregon. The safety and simplicity of the small town she once knew is a distant memory as she embarks on her toughest year of teaching in her young career... -
Das Glück der hellen Tage by Teresa Driscoll
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsI stroked the top of my baby’s head and whispered to him gently that I would find a way. I will not let them take you… Once upon a time Kate’s life was full of love and smiles and laughter. A time where she dared to dream and hope. But then her perfect family unit is shattered in the most unthinkable way. And now Kate is silently and steadily falling apart... -
Katie and the Cupcake War by Coco Simon
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSydney Whitman, leader of Popular Girls Club has moved away! Does that mean Callie will try to be friends with Katie again? Just when Katie thinks things might get back to normal, Callir announces that the Popular Girls Club is baking cupcakes for this year's school fund-raiser...Categorized as:
realistic family female-mc middle-grade children-books fiction children contemporary -
Caitlin's Lucky Charm by Lisa Schroeder
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFour best friends, one lucky bracelet, and an utterly charming new middle-grade series!Caitlin would stay at summer camp forever if she could. Her new best friends in the world, Hannah, Mia, and Libby are there... -
Wild Things by Jo Carnegie
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen an A-list film set descends on the quiet village of Churchminster, so begins the village's most scandalous year... Meet the glamorous cast of Wild Things! Sophia - the leading lady who gets what she wants. And she wants...Jed - the village's gorgeous gardener, living with devoted girlfriend...Camilla - sweet-natured and desperate for a baby, unlike her sister.. -
Before You Found Me by Brooke Beyfuss
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHow far would you go to save a child who isn't even yours?Before You Found Me explores the unlikely bond that develops between two abuse survivors and takes a deep dive into personal sacrifice, morality, and the healing powers of family―both blood and found――from the author of After We Were Stolen.Rowan McNamara doesn't open the door to her new life―she's thrown through it... -
These Numbered Days by Anna E. Collins
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHow do you ask forgiveness for the unforgivable?When Annie Wolff’s ex-husband dies unexpectedly, she breaks her self-imposed exile and returns home to Snohomish, Washington. Annie hasn’t seen her children, Grace and Connor, in eight years, and now, her in-laws are making a bid to adopt them. She only hopes the depression that once sent her running will remain in check...Categorized as:
literary-fiction realistic family female-mc womens-fiction contemporary self-harm mental-illness -
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Breaking All the Rules by Amy Andrews
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSometimes you gotta toss your whole life into a burning dumpster to find what’s most important...Beatrice Archer has always done everything she’s supposed to —worked her ass off, ignored her non-existent personal life, and kept her mouth shut. Now she’s over it. The rat race, respectability…the underwire bras. She’s taking her life back... -
A Good Time by Shannyn Schroeder
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA passionate free spirit and a sweet-talking playboy sound like a match made in heaven—until life gets in the way of all the fun and games… Indy Adams values her freedom above all else. She works hard to support herself, moonlighting as a waitress while she fights for her first big sale in the Chicago real estate market... -
I'm Virtually Yours by Jennifer Bohnet
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNeed a virtual PA? Then Polly Jones is your girl!Polly Jones is taken aback when a new client asks her to investigate the Robertson family business in Devon, after all, a ‘virtual assistant’ doesn’t usually leave their home office! But she needs the work – and less proximity to an endless supply of tea and biscuits can only be a good thing right? So she sets off, with energetic puppy Rosie close...Categorized as:
realistic female-mc family literary-fiction fiction womens-fiction anthologies romance -
The Service by Frankie Miren
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLori works illegally in a rented flat in central London, living in fear of police raids which could mean losing her small daughter and her dream of a new life.Freya is a student who finds she can make far more money as an escort than she could in an office; life, after all, is already a tangle of madness and dissociation... -
Seven Letters by Sinéad Moriarty
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsHow can a family live without its heart? Sarah is a loving mum to seven-year-old Izzie, a doting wife to stressed-out husband Adam and a best friend to her sister Mia, and is also pregnant with her second child. When she suddenly collapses and slips into unconsciousness, it’s the first time the family will have to face life without their beloved Sarah, the glue who holds them together... -
The Daughters Join the Party by Joanna Philbin
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThey didn't ask for fame. They were born with it. In the third Daughters novel, The Daughters Take the Stage, Hudson found her own place in "the family business," aka: show business. Now, for the first time, readers will meet Emma Conway, daughter of a powerful New York State Senator...
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