Shelley's Book Nook

☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 400 pages Expected publication: May 30th 2019 by Avon Books UK About the Book: I disappeared on a Tuesday afternoon. I was there one minute and the next I was gone. They’ve never found my body. It’s six in the morning during the hottest summer on record when Elizabeth O’Loughlin, out walking her dog, comes across Clare, a victim of a horrific knife attack, clinging onto life at the side of the road. Clare dies minutes later, but not before whispering her haunting last words to Elizabeth. When it becomes clear that Clare’s killer has more than one murder on his mind, Elizabeth has to take drastic action or face losing everything. But what if she can’t stop a killer determined never to be forgotten? This is a story that explores the consequences when a good person makes a bad decision that she finds impossible to live with, and who becomes trapped by the deceptions and manipulations by a psychopath. Frustrations turn to fear and terror that keep the reader gue...

☆☆☆☆ ebook, 336 pages Expected publication: May 30th 2019 by Hodder & Stoughton About the Book: Would you take the chance that could change everything? After leaving university at the age of twenty-five with no idea what to do with her life, Hannah is stunned when she is left a mystery bequest by her rich, estranged great-uncle Donald. But there's a catch: before she can find out what she's inherited, she must undertake a series of unknown tasks alongside Alec, Donald's reluctant (but rather gorgeous) PA. As the tasks progress and she and Alec grow closer, Hannah begins to think that Donald's real gift might have more to do with love than money . This funny, romantic and entertaining novel is a debut from Beth Corby. I was very impressed with her witty writing and flowing style. Absolutely loved this book. I loved the characters. And I loved that this was not as predictable as it easily could have been. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised on more than one ins...

☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 368 pages Expected publication: May 28th 2019 by Hanover Square Press & HARLEQUIN–Trade Publishing About the Book: Charlotte wants to start fresh. She wants to forget her past, forget prison and, most of all, forget Sean. But old habits die hard. Despite the ankle monitor she must wear as part of her parole agreement and frequent visits to her therapist, she soon finds herself sliding back toward the type of behavior that sent her to prison in the first place. The further down that path she goes, however, the closer she gets to the crime that put her in prison all those years ago. And that’s the one memory she can’t face. Until, one day, Sean tracks her down. This is the first book I read by this author. I found it to be increasingly engaging. The twists and turns and unexpected events throughout the story result in a read that it’s hard to put down. This book has all the hallmarks of a great suspense book: interesting premise, excellent character develo...

☆☆☆☆ ebook, 400 pages Expected publication: May 28th 2019 by Scribner & Simon & Schuster Canada About the Book: A profoundly moving novel about two neighboring families in a suburban town, the friendship between their children, a tragedy that reverberates over four decades, and the power of forgiveness. Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope are two NYPD rookies assigned to the same Bronx precinct in 1973. They aren’t close friends on the job, but end up living next door to each other outside the city. What goes on behind closed doors in both houses—the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne, sets the stage for the stunning events to come. Ask Again, Yes by award-winning author Mary Beth Keane, is a beautifully moving exploration of the friendship and love that blossoms between Francis’s youngest daughter, Kate, and Brian’s son, Peter, who are born six months apart. In the spring of Kate and Peter’s eighth grade year a violent event divid...

☆☆1/2 Kindle Edition, 352 pages Expected publication: May 28th 2019 by Kensington Books About the Book: Sienna has no memory of her late mother, yet every significant day of her life—birthdays, the first day of high school, graduation—has been marked by a letter written during her last weeks of life. Sienna knows her father feels grateful to be able to offer up these connections to the loving, talented woman his daughter never got a chance to know. Yet for Sienna herself, the letters have become a dreaded burden, a reminder that every milestone is less than it would be if both parents were still living. A month before her twenty-fifth birthday, Sienna finds a lump. Facing a cancer dignosis, Sienna begins to ask questions about her mother’s terminal illness—questions that reveal unsettling inconsistencies and voids in the stories she’s been told. The deeper she digs, the more the image of her mother as a contented homemaker warps into something much darker and far more troubling. I...

☆☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 304 pages Expected publication: May 28th 2019 by Kensington Books & A John Scognamiglio Book About the Book: Set against the backdrop of a 1970s commune in Northern California, Clover Blue is a compelling, beautifully written story of a young boy’s search for identity. There are many things twelve-year-old Clover Blue isn’t sure of: his exact date of birth, his name before he was adopted into the Saffron Freedom Community, or who his first parents were. What he does know with certainty is that among this close-knit, nature-loving group, he is happy. Here, everyone is family, regardless of their disparate backgrounds—surfer, midwife, Grateful Dead groupie, Vietnam deserter. But despite his loyalty to the commune and its guru-like founder Goji, Blue grapples with invisible ties toward another family—the one he doesn’t remember. With the urging of his fearless and funny best friend, Harmony, Clover Blue begins to ask questions. For the first time, Goji’s ans...

☆☆☆ ebook, 416 pages Expected publication: May 28th 2019 by Park Row Books First Published as Forget My Name On: October 4th 2018 About the Book: Who can you trust if you don't know who you are? She arrives at the train station only to realize her bag had been stolen--her passport, credit cards, laptop, house key now all gone. And even more disturbing, when she goes to report the incident, she can't recall her own name. All she has on her is a train ticket home.Suffering from stress-induced amnesia, the woman without a name is a source of mystery when she appears at the sleepy Wiltshire village where she thought she lived. She quickly becomes a source of conspiracy and fear among the townspeople. Why does one think he recognizes her from years earlier? And why do the local police take such a strong interest in her arrival?From the critically acclaimed author of Find Me comes a shocking new tale of dark pasts and deception, leaving us breathlessly analyzing the role memory...

☆☆☆☆☆ ebook, 320 pages Expected publication: May 21st 2019 by Lake Union Publishing About the Book: Raymond Jaffe feels like he doesn’t belong. Not with his mother’s new family. Not as a weekend guest with his father and his father’s wife. Not at school, where he’s an outcast. After his best friend moves away, Raymond has only two real connections: to the feral cat he’s tamed and to a blind ninety-two-year-old woman in his building who’s introduced herself with a curious question: Have you seen Luis Velez? Mildred Gutermann, a German Jew who narrowly escaped the Holocaust, has been alone since her caretaker disappeared. She turns to Raymond for help, and as he tries to track Luis down, a deep and unexpected friendship blossoms between the two. Despondent at the loss of Luis, Mildred isolates herself further from a neighborhood devolving into bigotry and fear. Determined not to let her give up, Raymond helps her see that for every terrible act the world delivers, there is a mirror ...

☆☆☆☆☆ ebook, 396 pages Expected publication: May 21st 2019 by Thomas & Mercer About the Book: No matter what you see, no matter what you’ve heard, assume nothing. Adam and Sophie Warner and their three-year-old daughter are vacationing in Washington State’s Hood Canal for Memorial Day weekend. It’s the perfect getaway to unplug—and to calm an uneasy marriage. But on Adam’s first day out on the water, he sees Sophie abducted by a stranger. A hundred yards from shore, Adam can’t save her. And Sophie disappears. In a nearby cabin is another couple, Kristen and Connor Moss. Unfortunately, beyond what they’ve heard in the news, they’re in the dark when it comes to Sophie’s disappearance. For Adam, at least there’s comfort in knowing that Mason County detective Lee Husemann is an old friend of his. She’ll do everything she can to help. She must. But as Adam’s paranoia about his missing wife escalates, Lee puts together the pieces of a puzzle. The lives of the two couples are converg...

☆☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 368 pages Expected publication: May 21st 2019 by HARLEQUIN - Graydon House About the Book: The perfect home. The perfect family. The perfect lie. Jane Harris lives in a sparkling home in an oceanfront gated community in Orange County. It’s a place that seems too beautiful to be touched by sadness. But exactly one year ago, Jane’s oldest daughter, Mary, died in a tragic accident and Jane has been grief-stricken ever since. Lost in a haze of anti-depressants, she’s barely even left the house. Now that’s all about to change. It’s time for Jane to reclaim her life and her family. Jane’s husband, David, has planned a memorial service for Mary and three days later, their youngest daughter, Betsy, graduates high school. Yet as Jane reemerges into the world, it’s clear her family has changed without her. Her husband has been working long days—and nights—at the office. Her daughter seems distant, even secretive. And her beloved Mary was always such a good girl—dutiful...

☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 420 pages Expected publication: May 17th 2019 by Harper Impulse and Killer Reads About the Book: It was supposed to be the happiest day of her life. Alice Tandy has dreamed of her wedding since she was a little girl. The perfect venue, the perfect dress, the perfect groom. It’s all going exactly to plan. But then her whole world comes tumbling down. Just as she and her new husband Ben are cutting their wedding cake, three policemen storm in and arrest Ben. Alice looks on in horror, unable to comprehend what is happening. Did they say murder? The next day, Ben is released on bail, but for Alice, the nightmare is only just beginning. And as more details about the murder of Kerry Valentine emerge she starts to realise that everyone around her is keeping secrets. Can she trust anyone? And who really killed Kerry? This is the second book I’ve read by Stephen Edger. The first book, Little Girl Gone, was one of those perfect binge worthy thrillers that you read in ...

☆☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 281 pages Expected publication: May 17th 2019 by Bookouture About the Book: Dear Lily, It’s me, Joy, your much wiser and (very slightly) older sister. I thought I’d start a new tradition of letter writing – now that we’re long distance. On the plane over here, I began to cry in seat 21C. I think the magnitude of it finally hit me, after everything that happened. I haven’t even unpacked yet – the only thing I’ve taken out of my suitcase is Harville, your beloved childhood teddy. Sorry for stealing him, but I need him more than you do. Every time I look at that little brown bear I think about our childhood. Remember that dance we made up to Annie’s ‘It’s a Hard Knock Life’? (Remember the broom choreography?) I’m also sorry for abandoning you – I’ve always been your agony aunt, and a buffer in your infamous shouting matches with Mum. But I had to leave, Lily, I had to. Anyway, I’m here now. I’m here to start over, and to face up to the past. I want to learn to ...

☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 379 pages Expected publication: May 14th 2019 by Bookouture About the Book: If you think photos aren’t important… wait until they’re all you have left of your child. Your life isn’t perfect, but you’re still happy. Your husband has stuck by you and he’s a good dad. Your daughter Becca makes your heart explode with love. And then, in the time it takes to say ‘bad mother’, there’s no longer a place for you in your own family. Your right to see your child has disappeared. Life goes on in your house – family dinners, missing socks and evening baths – but you aren’t there anymore. Becca may be tucked up in bed in Rose Cottage, but she is as lost to you as if she had been snatched from under your nose. Everyone knows you deserve this, for you what you did. Except you’re starting to realize that things maybe aren’t how you thought they were, and your husband isn’t who you thought he was either. That the truths you’ve been so diligently punishing yourself for are buil...

☆☆☆☆ ebook, 348 pages Expected publication: May 14th 2019 by Lake Union Publishing About the Book: Caroline Corbett wants nothing to do with her father, Hoff, a man who abandoned her as a young girl and then vanished from her life almost thirty years ago. But when her beloved aunt expresses a dying wish to see him once more, Caroline, despite her failing marriage and other personal troubles, drops everything to look for him. Harris Fenton found the father figure he’d dreamed of when he turned eight and his mother married Hoff—but his disappearance four years later left Harris with scars he carries even now that he is a father himself. While he has a beautiful family and a great job, he’s hiding a shameful secret and a nightmare from his childhood. Caroline’s search for Hoff soon uncovers a host of disturbing clues and draws a threat of violence. Her mind churns with memories of her troubled history, while Harris is losing the battle against his own demons. But for both of them, dr...

☆☆☆☆ ebook, 320 pages Expected publication: May 7th 2019 by Atria Books & Simon & Schuster Canada About the Book: The internationally bestselling author of The German Girl delivers an unforgettable family saga of love and redemption during World War II, based on the true story of the Nazi massacre of a French village in 1944. New York City, 2015: Elise Duval, eighty years old, receives a phone call from a woman recently arrived from Cuba bearing messages from a time and country that she’s long forgotten. A French Catholic who arrived in New York after World War II, Elise and her world are forever changed when the woman arrives with letters written to Elise from her mother in German during the war, unravelling more than seven decades of secrets. Berlin, 1939: Bookstore owner and recent widow Amanda Sternberg is fleeing Nazi Germany with her two young daughters, heading towards unoccupied France. She arrives in Haute-Vienne with only one of her girls. Their freedom is short-...

☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 338 pages Published September 20th 2018 by Mirror Books About the Book: After years living in London, costume shop owner Becky Finn is trying to build a new life for herself and fiancé Cole in her old home of Egglethwaite, a sleepy village in the Yorkshire Dales. Keen to raise funds for the struggling village hall she loved as a child, Becky soon finds herself at the head of a colourful group intent on resurrecting Egglethwaite s Christmas pantomime. But, as she quickly discovers, there s more to panto than innuendo and slapped thighs. As opening night grows closer, Becky starts to wonder if her embattled panto will ever make it to the stage and, with handsome co-star Marcus on the scene, if she s picked the right man for her after all. The Perfect Fit is the second installment of the Love in the Dales series. I have not read the first one but it isn't necessary, The Perfect Fit is wonderful as a stand alone. Every single chapter made me smile at least o...

☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 320 pages Expected publication: May 7th 2019 by HarperCollins Publishers About the Book: Dr. Kate English has it all. Not only is she the heiress to a large fortune; she has a gorgeous husband and daughter, a high-flying career, and a beautiful home anyone would envy. But all that changes the night Kate’s mother, Lily, is found dead, brutally murdered in her own home. Heartbroken and distraught, Kate reaches out to her estranged best friend, Blaire Barrington, who rushes to her side for the funeral, where the years of distance between them are forgotten in a moment. That evening, Kate’s grief turns to horror when she receives an anonymous text: You think you’re sad now, just wait. By the time I’m finished with you, you’ll wish you had been buried today. More than ever, Kate needs her old friend’s help. Once Blaire decides to take the investigation into her own hands, it becomes clear that all is not as it seems in Baltimore high society. As infidelity, lies, a...