We Live and Breathe Books: Five on My TBR

#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook. Learn more about it here.

Grief Books

I love any opportunity to feature more books and found this meme an interesting way to take a look at my TBR. I hope to also get some feedback from you. Should I keep these books on my TBR? Should I push them up the list? Without further ado, below are five books that include the theme of grief.

Do Me a Favor by Cathy Yardley

Willa Lieu-Endicott moved from California to the Pacific Northwest to start over. Since her husband’s death, she’s been struggling to get back her old career as a cookbook ghostwriter. Unfortunately, her latest project—ghostwriting for a viral cooking sensation known more for his washboard abs than his meals—has her stuck.

Until she meets her new neighbor.

Hudson Daws, the handyman next door, lives on a farm with his parents and two adult children. He’s the opposite of everything she’s ever known. His happily chaotic life includes biker barbecues, an escape artist dog, and adorably menacing goats. He’s also got a sinfully sexy smile and a rumbling bass voice that makes her shiver. He inspires her.

From their first meeting, the two fall into an escalating cycle of favors, paybacks…and attraction, even though Willa’s trying to keep her distance.

They both have their own pasts to deal with. Now, they just have to figure out if they have a future.

A delectable rom-com about a widowed cookbook writer and a divorced handyman who find that it’s never too late for a fresh start.

What Happens in Idaho by Bonnie Jo Pierson

Despite saving people's lives every day as a successful trauma surgeon, nothing can mend Dr. Liliana Chase's heart after the loss of her husband and baby girl. When her mother convinces her to come back to Clear Springs, Idaho, for the first time in seven years, she intends to make the visit as short as possible. What she didn't expect was to wreck her car while avoiding a cow with a death wish.

Blake Richardson, a mechanic and single dad, isn't used to helping fiery physicians, but he can't leave Lili planted in a potato field and facing off with a cow. He swears he'll never let another woman into his world after the way his ex-wife left him, but something about Lili keeps him from seeing her as just another big-city doctor.

While Lili is stuck waiting for her car to be repaired in the tiny rural town, she can't resist the pull Blake has on her. Blake's fun-loving and genuine personality might be enough to make her believe in love again. But there's a secret weighing heavily on Blake, and his connection to the death of Lili's family will force them both to confront their fears of loss and abandonment, or risk being alone forever.

A wholesome romance, What Happens in Idaho is perfect for fans of Nicolas Sparks and Jojo Moyes.

The Promise of Tomorrow by Mary Ellen Taylor

When Olympia leaves her small Virginia town, she doesn’t expect to look back, much less ever come home. But after a year on the road, her sister’s engagement pulls Olympia into everything she left behind: her family, her husband, and the grief she’s been trying to forget.

She’s determined to stay a few days, maybe a week―just enough time to visit gravestones and sign off on the divorce her husband, Spencer, asked for. But he’s reeling from their shared loss, as well as complications with his aging parents, leaving his heart just as fragile as Olympia’s. The more time they spend in each other’s orbit, the less sure they are they’ll be able to walk away for good.

As family secrets come to light and family bonds stretch to the breaking point, Olympia must decide where she’s going next and where she belongs. She’s used to coping with life’s complications alone, but maybe the best way to heal is together.

When We Were Widows by Annette Chavez Macias

In this heartfelt story about finding love in loss, three widows are forced under the same roof, where they’ll need to overcome grief, anger, and old secrets to put their family back together.

Since her husband’s death six months ago, Yesica Diaz-Taylor seems to be taking her grief in stride. Then an angry outburst at work shatters the illusion. Her mandated support group counseling doesn’t help much. Yesica has always kept her feelings close, so even when an unlikely friendship blossoms with the group’s facilitator, she still has reasons for holding back. She’s just not ready to share.

Ana Diaz has been widowed for five years and continues to live life exactly as she did with her late husband. When her house floods, she’s forced to shake things up. Although it was never part of her plan, Ana moves in with her eldest daughter, Yesica. But the new living arrangement tests their already strained relationship.

Shadowed by unresolved tensions, Yesica, Ana, and matriarch Mama Melda must learn to share a home, their heartbreak, and, once and for all, the haunting family secrets that have kept them apart.

The Summer We Started Over by Nancy Thayer

Two sisters reconnect and pursue their dreams on the beautiful island of Nantucket, overcoming life’s challenges and finding new love, in this heartwarming and hopeful novel by New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer.

Eddie Grant is happy with her life and her work as a personal assistant to Dinah Lavender, one of the most famous and renowned romance authors in the business. But being a spectator to notoriety and glamour isn’t as fulfilling as she once thought. Thankfully, Eddie has the perfect excuse for a vacation: Her hardworking younger sister, Barrett, is opening her gift shop on Memorial Day weekend, and could use all the help she can get.

But going home to the beautiful island of Nantucket means facing the family’s difficult past. Shortly after the death of Eddie and Barrett’s brother, their mother left them and their father made the spontaneous decision to buy a small farm. Eddie stayed there for only a year before her family’s grief threatened to consume her as well, and had been living in Manhattan ever since. Now that she is back, Eddie must face all she left behind: her father’s increased eccentricities, which has led to a house bursting at the seams with books; her sister’s resentment over Eddie’s escape; and a past love connection, one that is still undeniable and complicated, all these years later. But the Grant sisters are nothing if not resilient and capable, opening a used bookstore in their father’s abandoned barn to manage his hoarding, and navigating the discovery of a long-buried family secret that will change all of them forever.

In The Summer We Started Over, beloved storyteller Nancy Thayer transports readers with a moving story about family, courage, and the resiliency of young women.