Love Convenient Lies? Readers share 100 books like Convenient Lies...

By Robin Patchen,

Here are 100 books that Convenient Lies fans have personally recommended if you like Convenient Lies. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Her Darkest Secret

Elle E. Kay Author Of Grave Pursuits

From my list on Christian thrillers with heartbeats and hideaways.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm an author of more than twenty Christian fiction books. I write true romantic suspense with equal parts engaging romance and thrilling suspense. My debut novel was a semi-finalist in the Genesis contest, and many of my subsequent titles have reached bestseller status. I engage with readers through my blog, which is recognized as a top 25 Christian fiction blog on Feedspot, and my Facebook group, "Heartbeats and Hideaways."

Elle's book list on Christian thrillers with heartbeats and hideaways

Elle E. Kay Why did Elle love this book?

I loved this book by Jessica R. Patch for its perfect blend of relentless suspense and second-chance romance. The mystery kept me guessing with its clever suspects and red herrings. Asa and Fiona, seasoned FBI agents with a complex history, drew me in with their dynamic and emotional depth.

The tension and anticipation throughout this thriller made it impossible to put down. Patch's ability to weave crime-solving with romance kept me hooked and eager for more. This book was an unforgettable read for me as someone who loves mystery with heart.

By Jessica R. Patch,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Her Darkest Secret as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?



When a cold-case serial killer returns, FBI special agent Fiona Kelly has one last chance to stop him before he claims the prize heā€™s always wantedā€”her.

The sight of a goose feather at a murder scene modeled after a childrenā€™s poem is enough to make FBI special agent Fiona Kelly's blood turn to ice. Almost two decades ago, a feather was left with her sister's bodyā€”and with every subsequent victim of the Nursery Rhyme Killer. Now he's back. Only this time, his latest gruesome murder is a message to the only one who ever got away: Fiona.

Finding ā€œRhymeā€ isā€¦


Book cover of Cape Refuge

Elle E. Kay Author Of Grave Pursuits

From my list on Christian thrillers with heartbeats and hideaways.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm an author of more than twenty Christian fiction books. I write true romantic suspense with equal parts engaging romance and thrilling suspense. My debut novel was a semi-finalist in the Genesis contest, and many of my subsequent titles have reached bestseller status. I engage with readers through my blog, which is recognized as a top 25 Christian fiction blog on Feedspot, and my Facebook group, "Heartbeats and Hideaways."

Elle's book list on Christian thrillers with heartbeats and hideaways

Elle E. Kay Why did Elle love this book?

I loved Terri Blackstock's book for its compelling blend of mystery, faith, and family drama. The murder of Thelma and Wayne Owens, who ran Cape Refuge and ministered to those in need, sets off a gripping chain of events and implicates a family member.

The daughters are complex, unforgettable characters, and their determination to clear the accused's name and uncover the whole truth about their parents' deaths is intense and believable.

The plot twists and shady characters kept me guessing until the end. Blackstock's addictive writing style kept me glued to the pages, and her addition of faith without being preachy was welcome.

By Terri Blackstock,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cape Refuge as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A gripping tale from New York Times bestselling suspense author Terri Blackstock. When the kindest couple in Cape Refuge is found murdered at their church, their daughter will have to find the killer . . . before her own husband is convicted.

Wade and Thelma Owens run a halfway house on the small island of Cape Refuge that caters to wayward souls just out of prison. So when Wade and Thelma turn up brutally murdered, the town goes into shock, concerned that one of the Hanover House residents is a murderer who could strike again.

Shattered by her parents' deaths,ā€¦


Book cover of The Inn at Ocean's Edge

Elle E. Kay Author Of Grave Pursuits

From my list on Christian thrillers with heartbeats and hideaways.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm an author of more than twenty Christian fiction books. I write true romantic suspense with equal parts engaging romance and thrilling suspense. My debut novel was a semi-finalist in the Genesis contest, and many of my subsequent titles have reached bestseller status. I engage with readers through my blog, which is recognized as a top 25 Christian fiction blog on Feedspot, and my Facebook group, "Heartbeats and Hideaways."

Elle's book list on Christian thrillers with heartbeats and hideaways

Elle E. Kay Why did Elle love this book?

I loved this book by Colleen Coble for its romance, suspense, and mystery blend. The unique storyline immediately drew me in, with the heroineā€™s repressed memories unraveling upon her return to the scene of her childhood trauma. 

The twists and turns in this gripping thriller kept me guessing. The female lead is relatable, and the love interest adds something special to the story. The subplot about the injured orca was an endearing addition to the novel.

By Colleen Coble,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Inn at Ocean's Edge as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this USA TODAY bestselling romantic suspense, Claire's visit to a luxury hotel in Maine awakens repressed memories that undermine all she holds dear.

In 1989, Claire Dellamare disappeared from her own fourth birthday party at the Hotel Tourmaline on the island of Folly Shoals, Maine. She showed up a year later at the same hotel, with a note pinned to her dress but no explanation. Nobody knows where Claire spent that year-and until now, Claire didn't even know she had ever been missing.

But when Claire returns to the Hotel Tourmaline for a business meeting with her CEO father,ā€¦


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Book cover of The Ballad of Falling Rock

The Ballad of Falling Rock by Jordan Dotson,

Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect voice. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: ā€œAre his love songs closer to heaven than dying?ā€ Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard itā€¦

Book cover of Cold Terror

Elle E. Kay Author Of Grave Pursuits

From my list on Christian thrillers with heartbeats and hideaways.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm an author of more than twenty Christian fiction books. I write true romantic suspense with equal parts engaging romance and thrilling suspense. My debut novel was a semi-finalist in the Genesis contest, and many of my subsequent titles have reached bestseller status. I engage with readers through my blog, which is recognized as a top 25 Christian fiction blog on Feedspot, and my Facebook group, "Heartbeats and Hideaways."

Elle's book list on Christian thrillers with heartbeats and hideaways

Elle E. Kay Why did Elle love this book?

I loved this book by Susan Sleeman for its gripping combination of action, suspense, and romance. The story hooked me right from the start, with forensic artist Hannah Perry's determination to solve a murder even while on vacation. Her strength and courage were truly inspiring.

The book's thrilling pace kept me on edge, especially when Hannah and her son faced life-threatening danger. Former SEAL Gage Blackwell's daring rescue and subsequent protectiveness added a powerful layer of romance. Their dynamic, filled with history and emotions alongside current threats, made the story engaging.

Susan Sleeman's writing is well-crafted and meticulously edited, making Cold Terror an even more enjoyable read. This novel beautifully intertwines faith, family, and friendship, creating a rich, multi-dimensional experience.

By Susan Sleeman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cold Terror as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

Mark Rowlands Author Of Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons from the Wild on Love, Death, and Happiness

From my list on humans and other animals.

Why am I passionate about this?

The most important formative experiences of my life were contained in the years I spent living and traveling with Brenin, a wolfdog. I can safely say that just about every worthwhile idea I have had ā€“ I am a professor of philosophy and ideas are supposed to be my thing ā€“ stemmed from those years. I have written many books since Brenin died, all of them, in one way or another, concerned with the question of what it is to be human. I am convinced that we can only understand this if we begin with the idea that we are animals and work from there.

Mark's book list on humans and other animals

Mark Rowlands Why did Mark love this book?

Commonly thought to be about death, and our fear thereof, what I find most striking about this book is its piercing and utterly haunting analysis of the role of memories in making us who we are. The most important memories are the ones that are lost, and then return in a new form, deeply woven into our bodies, emotions, and feelings ā€“ as blood, as glance and gesture, as Rilke puts it. Rilke was a poet; this was his only excursion into the art form of the novel. So, the book falls apart after a while. But if anyone has written anything better than the first fifty pages or so, I am unacquainted with it.

By Rainer Maria Rilke, Burton Pike (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

First published in 1910, Rilke's "Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge" is one the first great modernist novels, the account of poet-aspirant Brigge in his exploration of poetic individuality and his reflections on the experience of time as death approaches. This new translation by Burton Pike is a reaction to overly stylized previous translations, and aims to capture not only the beauty but also the strangeness, the spirit, of Rilke's German.


Book cover of The Witch of Matonge

Wayne Johnson Author Of Don't Think Twice

From my list on exploring the hidden sides of life, while being entertained, amused, and horrified.

Why am I passionate about this?

Murder mysteries, thrillers, whodunnits, all in the context of the "Indian," or Native American, experience, that's my subject. But really I'm writing about family and friends. Love letters to a people and life. My mother's father was native, and I lived and worked near and on two reservations growing up, White Earth and Red Lake. My novel, for example, was written out of my experience of being a hunting/fishing guide for Sabaskong Bay Lodge. My current work, about the Indian Boarding School genocide, has been inspired by first-person witness to that atrocity.   

Wayne's book list on exploring the hidden sides of life, while being entertained, amused, and horrified

Wayne Johnson Why did Wayne love this book?

A tour de force thriller set in Paris, this book assembles, through a mysterious observer, a disparate and culturally rich cast of characters, all of whom, ultimately, converge over an act of terrorism.

The book's beauty is in its finely nuanced and richly sympathetic portrayal of otherwise marginalized individuals, the Witch, the tale-teller, being one of them. It has brilliant execution, is sly, mysterious at times, and profound.

By Madison Smartt Bell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Witch of Matonge as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Witch of MatongĆ© by Madison Smartt Bell, Concord Free Press, 2022, 258 pages. ISBN 978-0-9835851-8-3 The first thing that will strike you about Madison Smartt Bellā€™s new novel, The Witch of MatongĆ©, is the beautiful language. This is not a typical narrative. It is startling, and the depth of what is described is thrilling. In the beginning, the viewpoint appears to be omniscient. However, the witch of the novelā€™s title is actually narrating and her unique manner of speaking is exquisite. She uses a bowl of water to understand what is happening in order to tell the story. Andā€¦


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Book cover of Returning to Eden

Returning to Eden by Rebecca Hartt,

Looking for clean romantic suspense with spiritual undertones?

Look no further than the Acts of Valor series by Rebecca Hartt. With thousands of reviews and 4.7-5.0 stars per book, this 6-book series is a must-read for readers searching for memorable, well-told stories by an award-winning author.

A dead man standsā€¦

Book cover of Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light

Janet Hulstrand Author Of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You

From my list on understanding and appreciating the French.

Why am I passionate about this?

I became fascinated with France and the French as a child, and over the past 40 years I have spent as much time as I can here. Iā€™ve been fortunate to be able to combine my dual passionsā€”for France and for literatureā€”in creating a series of classes for CUNY study abroad programs and for the Politics & Prose bookstore. Through this work, over the past 20+ years I have spent much of my time reading and teaching works of literature that explore France and the French people in depth. I now live in France, and I continue to find the French endlessly fascinating. I think I always will. 

Janet's book list on understanding and appreciating the French

Janet Hulstrand Why did Janet love this book?

People often ask me what is the best book to take with them to Paris if they can only take one, and this is the book I always recommend. This collection of essays, which can easily fit into a purse or a backpack, is brimming over with fascinating stories about ā€œthe people, places, and phenomenaā€ of Paris. Downieā€™s encyclopedic knowledge of history, and the idiosyncratic curiosity that draws him (and his readers along with him) into a variety of offbeat situations make for fun as well as highly informative reading. Itā€™s a great book to take with you to read in Paris, or sitting at home dreaming of or remembering Parisā€”and the selection of topics is varied enough that I believe thereā€™s something in it to interest almost anyone

By David Downie, Alison Harris (photographer),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Paris, Paris as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

ā€œBeautifully written and refreshingly original . . . makes us see [Paris] in a different light.ā€ā€”San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
 
Swapping his native San Francisco for the City of Light, travel writer David Downie arrived in Paris in 1986 on a one-way ticket, his head full of romantic notions. Curiosity and the legs of a cross-country runner propelled him daily from an unheated, seventh-floor walk-up garret near the Champs-ElysĆ©es to the old Montmartre haunts of the doomed painter Modigliani, the tombs of PĆØre-Lachaise cemetery, the luxuriant alleys of the Luxembourg Gardens and the aristocratic Ǝle Saint-Louis midstream in the Seine.ā€¦


Book cover of Les Parisiennes: Resistance, Collaboration, and the Women of Paris Under Nazi Occupation

Katrina Lawrence Author Of Paris Dreaming: What the City of Light Taught Me About Life, Love & Lipstick

From my list on the history of Paris (and Parisians).

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve been obsessed with Paris since the age of five. For most of my life Iā€™ve travelled there regularly and read every book on the subject I could find. After working as a beauty editor, I decided to try to make my passion my day job. That inspired me to write Paris Dreaming: What the City of Light Taught Me About Life, Love & Lipstick, and launch a travel consultancy business, Paris for Dreamers. I work with like-minded lovers of Paris, who constantly yearn for the cityā€™s beguiling beauty and fascinating history, and who are always planning their next tripā€”or visiting Paris virtually, through the pages of a book!

Katrina's book list on the history of Paris (and Parisians)

Katrina Lawrence Why did Katrina love this book?

How Parisians survived Nazi Occupationā€”to what extent they resisted or collaboratedā€”has been debated for decades but Sebba looks through a new lens: What did Parisiennes, specifically, do during these years? She was just in time to interview some key women who, having survived concentration camps, went on to live defiantly long lives. Others wouldnā€™t speak, still traumatised by their experiences. But Sebba has plenty to work with, and the pace at which she pulls it all together propels this bookā€™s sense of importance. One canā€™t help but feel relieved that these stories have now been told. Some of it is shameful, sure, but you ultimately remember the tales of until-now-unsung heroines, whose fierce love for their city, above even their own welfare, makes them well deserving of a place in Paris history.

By Anne Sebba,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Les Parisiennes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

ā€œAnne Sebba has the nearly miraculous gift of combining the vivid intimacy of the lives of women during The Occupation with the history of the time. This is a remarkable book.ā€ ā€”Edmund de Waal, New York Times bestselling author of The Hare with the Amber Eyes

New York Times bestselling author Anne Sebba explores a devastating period in Paris's history and tells the stories of how women survivedā€”or didnā€™tā€”during the Nazi occupation.

Paris in the 1940s was a place of fear, power, aggression, courage, deprivation, and secrets. During the occupation, the swastika flew from the Eiffel Tower and danger lurkedā€¦


Book cover of Two Dozen Eggs

Kate van den Boogert Author Of The Paris Flea Market: Les Puces de Paris, Saint-Ouen

From my list on connecting with a few true Paris ā€˜Makersā€™.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love Paris. This city endlessly stimulates both my head and my heart. Always in movement, everchanging, it, like all cities, is a living organism, manifesting the spirit of all those who live here, past and present. Through a bunch of different projects and a handful of books, Iā€™ve been trying to map its creative DNA, seeking out and championing the people and places who contribute to forging Parisā€™s own distinctive identity today. Makers Paris (Prestel) and Makers Paris 2 (Ofr. Ɖditions) evolved out of more than a decade running slow-travel pioneer Gogo City Guides, and my latest book The Paris Flea Market (Prestel) is a new stop on this journey.

Kate's book list on connecting with a few true Paris ā€˜Makersā€™

Kate van den Boogert Why did Kate love this book?

Paris has an incredibly vibrant food scene, and some of that energy is generated by a shapeshifting community of expat chefs and foodies. Hugh Corcoran, a Belfast born writer and cook, spent the most part of the last decade living and working in France, in Paris and beyond.

This lovely book is a collection of vignettes from his travels, simply and honestly written, remembering people he met along the way and the meals they shared. Each story ends with a recipe, including some French classics like roast chicken, gratin dauphinois, or carottes rĆ¢pĆ©es.

If the bookā€™s tone is gentle, itā€™s actually an urgent call to action, as the epigraph confirms: ā€œFriends and neighbors, wet your mouths, for after death you wonā€™t touch another drop.ā€

By Hugh Corcoran,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Two Dozen Eggs as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Two Dozen Eggs by Hugh Corcoran is a pocketbook collection of short stories and recipes.

Hugh Corcoran is a cook from Belfast who has spent the most part of the last decade living and working in the Basque Country and France.

This book contains a collection of short stories written over the period of a few months but based on the memories and experiences of those places and his childhood in Ireland.

Two Dozen Eggs features an introduction by Rachel Roddy and is illustrated by Peter Doyle.


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Book cover of Deadly Revenge

Deadly Revenge by Patricia Bradley,

Deputy Jenna Hart has only been working in her sleepy hometown of Pearl Springs for seven months when city officials begin to be targeted by a killer. Twenty years ago, the construction of a dam caused people to lose their land to eminent domain. That wound has not healed withā€¦

Book cover of Lost Property

Sally Jenkins Author Of Little Museum of Hope

From my list on life-affirming.

Why am I passionate about this?

I like books driven by characters who ride the same emotional rollercoaster as we all do in real life. Characters who love the wrong people or who lose the people they were right to love or who fail to match the norms expected by society. Characters I can empathise with, root for, and learn from. A fairytale happy ending is not necessary and can detract from the magic of a book. But I do like to be left with a feeling of hope. If a fictional character can learn to approach life more positively, then maybe I can too! This is what I try to achieve in my own books.

Sally's book list on life-affirming

Sally Jenkins Why did Sally love this book?

I have a very large ā€˜To Be Readā€™ pile and occasionally I discover a book has stagnated there for far longer than it deserves. Lost Property is one of those ā€“ I wish Iā€™d read it and discovered the language of Helen Paris much sooner.

Itā€™s the story of Dot Watson whose life veered off course when she lost her father and, instead of an exciting career, she makes do with working in the London Transport Lost Property Office. When a lost purse turns up, she finds her purpose and sets off on a mission.

Dot, like most of us, just needs a little help finding out who she really is.

By Helen Paris,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Lost Property as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'An enthralling read, full of rich descriptions and characters you can't help but love.' Hazel Prior

'A wonderfully rich, funny and brimming with heart book.' Beth Morrey
_________________________

Dot Watson has lost her way.

Twelve years ago her life veered off course, and the guilt over what happened still haunts her. Before then she was living in Paris, forging an exciting career; now her time is spent visiting her mother's care home, fielding interfering calls from her sister and working at the London Transport Lost Property office, diligently cataloguing items as misplaced as herself.

But when elderly Mr Appleby arrivesā€¦


Book cover of Her Darkest Secret
Book cover of Cape Refuge
Book cover of The Inn at Ocean's Edge

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