Here are 57 books that A Heart in the Right Place fans have personally recommended if you like
A Heart in the Right Place.
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Maurice Sendak said, "Children do live in fantasy and reality, they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do." In other words, children do the impossible. Growing up, stories where the real and imagined collided were like fresh air when I felt like I couldn't breathe. They've always been important to me, and for many reasons, hold a special place in our literature. Now, as a full-time teacher, writer, and daddy, I get to be on the other side of that joy equation, guiding new readers and writers as they become travelers of the fantastic.
I love this book because it really erases the line between the real and the fantastic. I’ve been a Neil Gaiman fan since Sandman. This is a middle-grade book written for me. The path I took through this book led me back to my childhood and reminded me of Where the Wild Things Are, with its nearly seamless transition between the “real” world and the imagined.
Neil’s done this before with Caroline and the Graveyard. But Ocean is different. Here, I never lose touch with the real world. The turn to fantasy just makes the real world more dangerous. I think that’s an important change. When I was a child, when I daydreamed or pondered the things and people and dark corners that I didn’t understand, when I added the additional layer of the fantastic, it wasn’t really an escape.
'Neil Gaiman's entire body of work is a feat of elegant sorcery. He writes with such assurance and originality that the reader has no choice but to surrender to a waking dream' ARMISTEAD MAUPIN
'Some books just swallow you up, heart and soul' JOANNE HARRIS
'Summons both the powerlessness and wonder of childhood, and the complicated landscape of memory and forgetting' GUARDIAN
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'My favourite response to this book is when people say, 'My childhood was nothing like that - and it was as if…
As someone who has experienced a lot of loss in my life, I’ve done a good amount of research and exploration into the soulful nature in all of us (the living and the dead) through reading nonfiction (Laura Lynn Jackson, Brian Weiss, Edgar Cayce, Jane Roberts, John Edward and Suzane Northrop among them) and fiction that deals with strong soulful connections. Through my own work as an author, I seek to provide the message love, in any form, transcends life and death. We only have to be open to the possibility to know it and experience it. Nothing is a coincidence and we are all connected. I hope these selections open you to the possibility.
Mitch Albom creates a heavenly world for the main character, Eddie, who has just ascended from earth after saving someone at the carnival where he worked; thus, meeting his own tragic demise.
What strikes me most in this story are the seemingly irrelevant connections we make in life and how those connections could have a deep and lasting impact. Every single thing we do or say or the people we touch is purposeful here, and drives us, our souls, to seek grace in all that we do.
A STUNNING 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF THE MASTER STORYTELLER'S INSPIRATIONAL CLASSIC
To his mind, Eddie has lived an uninspiring life. Now an old man, his job is to fix rides at a seaside amusement park.
On his eighty-third birthday, Eddie's time on earth comes to an end. When a cart falls from the fairground, he rushes to save a little girl's life and tragically dies in the attempt. When Eddie awakens, he learns that the afterlife is not a destination, but a place where your existence is explained to you by five people - some of whom you knew, others…
I have always had a greater interest in supernatural horror compared to the other subgenres of horror. Another way to describe it is fantasy horror. However, sometimes the fantasy can take away from the overall story. I find the best stories with supernatural elements also have a lot of real-life horror to balance with the fantasy. Magic realism is also a trope of Post-Modern Culture and I find myself drawn to stories with post-modern elements versus those that don’t. These are my top five pics for the best “Real-Life Horror Meets Supernatural Horror” novels.
This is perhaps my favorite book of all time. Marlowe Higgins is a werewolf who uses his monthly change to hunt and kill the worst of criminals. The setting mostly takes place in 1993 with a few flashbacks including some time the main character spent in Vietnam during the war. There’s a serial killer targeting young women and Marlowe is hunting for him. He needs a scent or a name before the wolf can find them. And some people suspect Marlowe is the serial killer. The real tragedy of this story is the author died a few months before the book was published. The story is well written. There are plenty of funny moments to go along with the scary parts. If you like werewolves and anti-heroes, you’ll love this novel.
Marlowe Higgins is a hard man; a wanderer. Since being dishonourably discharge after a tour in Vietnam, he's been in and out of prison, moving from town to town, going wherever the wind takes him. He's not really the kind of guy who can stay in one place too long. Every full moon he kills someone. Marlowe Higgins is a werewolf. For years he struggled with his affliction, until he found a way to use his unfortunate curse for good - he only kills really bad people. After years of being on the road, Higgins has found a home in…
I am a freelance anatomy educator, artist, author, mother, and dog owner. I like to fill my time by engaging the public with science, meeting them where they are and exploring their boundaries. If they are interested in zombies, or flying unicorns then let's start there and mix fantasy and reality to make them think.
In quite a challenging tale Lorna Love
finds herself dead and on a spaceship. As the memories of her life return we find a question being posed; does
the way you remember things affect the influence they have on your life? It’s
quite a quirky book but generates a lot of thought about the way you view
events and the way you let them affect you.
The Things We Learn When We're Dead is about how small decisions can have profound and unintended consequences, but how we can sometimes get a second chance.
On the way home from a dinner party, Lorna Love steps into the path of an oncoming car. When she wakes up she is in what appears to be a hospital - but a hospital in which her nurse looks like a young Sean Connery, she is served wine for supper, and everyone avoids her questions.
It soon transpires that she is in Heaven, or on HVN, because HVN is a lost, dysfunctional…
I love everything Scottish. My grandfather was Scottish. I never met him, but mom passed the pride of her heritage and culture to me. Mom used to throw out an occasional phrase or poem that I thought was Gaelic. (I later learned it was Scotts but that’s another story.) I decided I wanted to learn the language and found a short course at a small college on the Isle of Skye and it changed my life. After that short course I committed to learning the language and enrolled in the distance learning program. I travel to Skye for the short courses between my semesters and have made lifelong friends.
This is the first in the Whisky Business Mystery series. I loved this series and was sad to see it end. I swear I know at least two of the characters personally. There is enough romance to make this romance reader happy but there was also a great murder mystery sprinkled—or should I say—splattered with humor. I loved it.
Abigail Logan never expected to inherit a whisky distillery in the Scottish Highlands. But in the first novel of an engaging new series blending fine spirits with chilling mystery, Abi finds that there are secrets lurking in the misty glens that some will go to any lengths to protect...even murder.
When Abi inherits her uncle's quaint and storied single malt distillery, she finds herself immersed in a competitive high-stakes business that elicits deep passions and prejudices. An award-winning photojournalist, Abi has no trouble capturing the perfect shot - but making the perfect shot is another matter. When she starts to…
Historical romance author Emmanuelle lives on the bonny banks of Loch Fyne with her husband and beloved haggis pudding Archie McFloof—connoisseur of bacon treats and squeaky toys. She’ll never tire of dreaming up brooding, kilted heroes.
A heart-tugger ‘secret baby’ medieval romance, featuring a ruthless mercenary assassin and another heroine disguising herself, this time as a widow to protect her illegitimate daughter. When the brooding Scot appears—with the goal of murdering her father no less—our heroine can no longer hide. There’s a whole lot of dark alpha warrior deliciousness going on, and chemistry that had me cheering for a happy ending.
He’s a Highland assassin. She’s the noblewoman he abandoned nine years ago. Can forgiveness give them a second chance at love this Christmas?
The Scottish Highlands, 1308. Infamous mercenary Hamish Dunn betrayed a powerful clan and is now pursued by killers almost as ruthless as himself. Deep in the snowy wilderness, a Highland faerie convinces Hamish to travel to the Border Lands for one last job.
Deidre Maxwell has a dangerous secret. She’s not the widow she claims but a disowned noblewoman with an illegitimate daughter. After being cast aside by Hamish, the man she loved, she’ll never let herself…
I’ve been fortunate enough to have had a different kind of life. I was brought up by two writers who took me to magical places, far away from cities, to meet magical people. I spent my childhood searching for horse chestnuts and looking for otters. I wasn’t interested in electronic games and loud music: I wanted instead to be out in nature, watching for wild things and listening to the song of birds. It comes back to Iona, to this tiny little island on the west coast of Scotland which I will feel always is my spiritual home. In that place, I have everything I need. Nothing that a big city can offer tempts. Ever.
I choose this book because it gives me the most haunting sense of landscape and place. The author was from the northeast corner of Scotland and it was in his blood. I find it incredible that he’s able to capture it so deeply. We can feel these things, but to put them on paper is something else, a different skill. But somehow he manages to take you with him and to bring that landscape to life in the most incredible and powerful way. I suppose my greatest compliment to this book is that I wish I’d written it myself.
Kenn returns to the Highlands of his youth, back to the river which has haunted his dreams since boyhood. Determined to walk all the way back to its source, Kenn embarks on a journey that will lead him deep into the wilderness of his own heart.
Profound and moving, Highland River is a stirring tale of what is lost and what endures, and the unexpected ways we can be renewed.
I’m a thrill seeker when it comes to reading, and I want to be so immersed in a story that I have to read it in one sitting and then can be completely taken by surprise by a plot twist. It was extremely hard to pick only five titles, so to narrow it down, I 1) made an attempt to pick from a few different sub-genres and, 2) stipulated that Agatha Christie could populate the entire list. All of these titles blend wonderful writing with great twists, and I hope you enjoy them. I did my best to avoid spoilers in the descriptions, although by being on this list, it’s a little bit of a spoiler…
Skip this one if masterful suspense and paranoia aren’t your thing. In this book, a woman is facing life in prison, and the story is told through letters she writes to a lawyer, pleading with him to help her with her defense.
Ware sucks you in with writing that feels effortless, then she ratchets up the tension, again and again, until you can’t stand it, and then just when you think you’re going to get some relief, it gets turned up to eleven.
Growing up in a snowy, rural mountain town of less than 500 people, I became fascinated with humanity's will to survive the elements at an early age because I often had to do so myself. Add in a mysterious force or an escaped killer wandering through the hills outside a secluded cabin, and you've got my favorite thriller subgenre: Trapped and secluded. It wasn't until my third novel, The Excursion, that I realized my longtime dream of writing a survival thriller influenced by dozens of books and movies. Today, I live in a suburb of Denver, Colorado, but the mountains are close. And so are the secluded cabins.
Many of my favorite secluded thriller novels have a high degree of complexity—multiple point-of-view chapters, complex subplots, and morally ambiguous characters. This book had all these elements and a super plus: An immersive and authentic setting in the Scottish Highlands.
I disappeared into the snowbound setting and felt like a part of the group of old friends, caught up in their personal dramas and driven to finish the book to see who did what, when, and why. It was a great escape for me, but not so much for them.
EVERYONE'S INVITED.
EVERYONE'S A SUSPECT.
AND EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT IT.
'Ripping, riveting' A. J. Finn 'Clever, twisty and sleek' Daily Mail 'Unputdownable' John Boyne 'Foley is superb' The Times 'Chilling' Adele Parks 'Terrific, riveting' Dinah Jefferies
In a remote hunting lodge, deep in the Scottish wilderness, old friends gather for New Year.
The beautiful one The golden couple The volatile one The new parents The quiet one The city boy The outsider
“We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!” Wayne and Garth said it best. This is how I felt when I read my first time-travel romance almost twenty years ago. It was a masterpiece, and it’s since gone on to sell in record numbers and become a Starz network TV series. You know the one. I enjoyed this immense tome full of gritty history and realistic romance, but for my next read, I found myself gravitating toward lighter fare. If, like me, you prefer the literary equivalent of fluffy, buttery popcorn to the steak dinner of heavier stories, you’ll love my bestselling time-travel romance series, starting with Wishing for a Highlander.
This is the book that kicked off my infatuation with Highlanders and time-travel. From page one to the happy ending, I was riveted. Hawk and Adrienne are one of those H/h pairs that truly match each other in intelligence, likability, and uncompromising strength. What separates them, though, is the vast canyon between their ideals. Oh, and this little bet the ever-meddling Fae have going on. Pick this one up for a rich, realistic historical backdrop, deeply moving characters, and a slow-burn romance for the ages.
He would sell his warrior soul to possess her. . . .
An alluring laird...
He was known throughout the kingdom as Hawk, legendary predator of the battlefield and the boudoir. No woman could refuse his touch, but no woman ever stirred his heart—until a vengeful fairy tumbled Adrienne de Simone out of modern-day Seattle and into medieval Scotland. Captive in a century not her own, entirely too bold, too outspoken, she was an irresistible challenge to the sixteenth-century rogue. Coerced into a marriage with Hawk, Adrienne vowed to keep him at arm's length—but his sweet seduction played havoc with…
