Shelley's Book Nook

☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 348 pages Expected publication: October 1st 2019 by HARLEQUIN - Graydon House Books About the Book: One sultry summer, Maureen Haddaway arrives in the wealthy town of Opal Beach to start her life anew—to achieve her destiny. There, she finds herself lured by the promise of friendship, love, starry skies, and wild parties. But Maureen’s new life just might be too good to be true, and before the summer is up, she vanishes. Decades later, when Allison Simpson is offered the opportunity to house-sit in Opal Beach during the off-season, it seems like the perfect chance to begin fresh after a messy divorce. But when she becomes drawn into the mysterious disappearance of a girl thirty years before, Allison realizes the gorgeous homes of Opal Beach hide dark secrets. And the truth of that long-ago summer is not even the most shocking part of all. This was such an unexpected surprise, it was a psychological thriller, a domestic suspense, a twisted relationship tale a...

☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 304 pages Published September 17th 2019 by Minotaur Books and St. Martin's Press About the Book: Rose Dennis wakes up in a hospital gown, her brain in a fog, only to discover that she's been committed to an Alzheimer's Unit in a nursing home. With no memory of how she ended up in this position, Rose is sure that something is very wrong. When she overhears one of the administrators saying about her that she's "not making it through the week," Rose is convinced that if she's to survive, she has to get out of the nursing home. She avoids taking her medication, putting on a show for the aides, then stages her escape. The only problem is—how does she convince anyone that she's not actually demented? Her relatives were the ones to commit her, all the legal papers were drawn up, the authorities are on the side of the nursing home, and even she isn't sure she sounds completely sane. But any lingering doubt Rose herself might have ...

☆☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 384 pages Published September 17th 2019 by HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing and Park Row About the Book: Even good people are drawn to do evil things…Twelve-year-old Rain Winter narrowly escaped an abduction while walking to a friend’s house. Her two best friends, Tess and Hank, were not as lucky. Tess never came home, and Hank was held in captivity before managing to escape. Their abductor was sent to prison but years later was released. Then someone delivered real justice—and killed him in cold blood. Now Rain is living the perfect suburban life, her dark childhood buried deep. She spends her days as a stay-at-home mom, having put aside her career as a hard-hitting journalist to care for her infant daughter. But when another brutal murderer who escaped justice is found dead, Rain is unexpectedly drawn into the case. Eerie similarities to the murder of her friends’ abductor force Rain to revisit memories she’s worked hard to leave behind. Is there a vigilante at...

☆☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 347 pages Published September 11th 2019 by Bookouture About the Book: It’s a beautiful day for a wedding. White roses scent the air and the summer sunlight streams in. A spoon chimes against a champagne flute and the room falls silent. And there he is – my husband – getting to his feet to propose a toast. He’s still handsome. His new wife is next to him, gazing upwards, oblivious. I’m not supposed to be here. All these years in the same town and I had no idea until I saw his name on the seating plan. He lived with me, once. Loved me. Small-town memories are long, but the people in this room don’t want to remember. They say the healing is in letting go, but after what he did, he needs to know we haven’t gone away just because he’s shut his eyes. So I take Daisy by the hand and step forward from the shadows. He notices us and his eyes widen. The champagne glass falls from his hand and smashes. Then he sags forward, making a terrible sound – a sort of strangled ...

☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 400 pages Published August 23rd 2019 by Harper Impulse, Killer Reads and One More Chapter About the Book: A story of love not a story of a war. A daring WWII pilot who grew up among the clouds, Juliet Caron’s life was one of courage, adventure – and a love torn apart by war. Every nook of her Cornish cottage is alive with memories just waiting to be discovered. Katherine Henderson has escaped to Cornwall for Christmas, but she soon finds there is more to her holiday cottage than meets the eye. And on the eve of Juliet’s 100th birthday, Katherine is enlisted to make an old lady’s final Christmas wish come true. The whole time I was reading this book I kept thinking of Juliet looking like this... I am a big Bette Davis fan and for some reason, while I was reading about Juliet and Edward (starting in 1938), I kept picturing and hearing Ms. Davis and Gary Merrill in all about Eve. I absolutely loved this book. I am always looking for stories like this, it is s...

☆☆ Kindle Edition, 359 pages Published September 10th 2019 by Bookouture About the Book: You’d be lost without her. She’s the shoulder you cry on when the father of your children disappears. She’s the person you turn to when he comes back, begging for forgiveness. She’s by your side when you discover his guilty secrets. She helps rock your babies to sleep when they cry. She’s your friend when you have no one else. She’s the woman upstairs, whose feet you hear treading around as you drift off at night, thankful you aren’t alone. But what if you’re about to lose everything because of her? Oh, I so dislike being in this position. I didn't like this book. The short explanation: The story is implausible and the main characters' behavior is ridiculous. Also I couldn't believe how meek Katie was, she continued to whine about not be able to look after her twins alone, yet having a nuts-o help out is okay? I did not like one character in this book, sometimes that it ok but a...

☆☆☆☆1/2 Kindle Edition, 288 pages Published September 10th 2019 by Crooked Lane Books and Meryl L. Moss Media Relations About the Book: Claire Abrams’s dreams became a nightmare when she passed on a genetic mutation that killed her little boy. Now she wants a second chance to be a mother, and finds it in Robert Nash, a maverick fertility doctor who works under the radar with Jillian Hendricks, a cunning young scientist bent on making her mark—and seducing her boss. Claire, Robert, and Jillian work together to create the world’s first baby with three genetic parents—an unprecedented feat that could eliminate inherited disease. But when word of their illegal experiment leaks to the wrong person, Robert escapes into hiding with the now-pregnant Claire, leaving Jillian to serve out a prison sentence that destroys her future. Ten years later, a spunky girl named Abigail begins to understand that all is not right with the reclusive man and woman she knows as her parents. But the family’...

☆☆☆☆ ebook, 519 pages Published September 10th 2019 by IBPA About the Book: Sometimes we’re placed in the strangest of circumstances for the most important reasons. After her carefully constructed life crumbles, Liz Carlisle finds herself back on Nantucket, picking up the pieces. With the family estate under renovations, the solitude she craves seems out of reach. Matthew Stone intends to steer clear of his new tenant. She’s carrying a load of baggage, but as long as she pays the rent, he’ll let her be. He’s got enough to deal with caring for his wayward niece, Mia. Liz doesn’t have time for teenagers and her track record with men is abysmal, but an unlikely friendship forms between the three. When her former boyfriend is charged with assault, Liz is called to testify against him. But he knows the darkest secrets of her life—secrets she’d hoped to keep buried forever, and he’s ready to reveal them. Telling the truth is the right thing to do, but it may cost her everything she’s wo...

☆☆☆☆ ebook, 200 pages Published September 5th 2019 by Black Rose Writing About the Book: In public, Jim Handler is a well-respected, small-town hero, and homicide detective who solved the case of the Will’s Creek Massacre. But at home, in the shadows, Jim’s childhood demons come alive to feast upon his family in the form of sexual, physical, and mental abuse. But his three teenage children have had enough. They have devised a plan for redemption. Empowered by the legal system’s lack of accountability, a judge who offers a quiet and meager plea deal to save face, Jim feels enabled to do whatever he wants to his family. With no one to keep Jim in check, this cycle of sexual and physical abuse is rampant. It is up Nikki, Tyler, and Ally to end the evil that is devouring the Handler family. This book is tricky for me to review because I understand the importance of it. It’s not really designed to be an enjoyable read, so it’s hard to measure why things worked. I will start by saying...

☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 346 pages Published September 5th 2019 by Boldwood Books About the Book: Winter, Liverpool 1947. Evie Kilgaren is a fighter. Abandoned by her mother and with her father long gone, she is left to raise her siblings in dockside Liverpool, as they battle against the coldest winter on record. But she is determined to make a life for herself and create a happy home for what's left of her family. Desperate for work, Evie takes a job at the Tram Tavern under the kindly watch of pub landlady, and pillar of the community, Connie Sharp. But Connie has problems of her own when her quiet life of spinsterhood is upturned with the arrival of a mysterious undercover detective from out of town. When melting ice reveals a body in the canal, things take a turn for the worst for the residents of Reckoner's Row. Who could be responsible for such a brutal attack? And can Evie keep her family safe before they strike again? A book about the lengths a sister will go to to h...

☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 310 pages Published September 5th 2019 by Aria About the Book: Two best friends. Eight pub quizzes. One shot at love. There are some people who seem like they have all the answers in life. Clarrie Midwinter isn't one of them. At the age of 26, tomboy Clarrie is still struggling to become a 'proper' grown-up. She's eternally strapped for cash, she hasn't had a date in nearly a year and her attempts to quit smoking tend to take a nosedive after the second pint. Most annoyingly of all, her ladykiller best friend Simon just won't stop asking her out. The only thing keeping her sane is her pub quiz team, the Mighty Morphin Flower Arrangers. But when Simon bets her a date their team will win the quiz league, Clarrie is forced to confront what she really wants out of life – and love. Is it finally time for her to grow up? This book is VERY dialog driven and by that I mean it is mostly dialogue. I don't mean that in a bad way as it was ve...

☆☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 464 pages Published September 3rd 2019 by Atria Books and Simon & Schuster Canada About the Book: 1932, Minnesota—the Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to an orphan named Odie O’Banion, a lively boy whose exploits earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee, he and his brother Albert, their best friend Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own. Over the course of one unforgettable summer, these four orphans will journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an en­thralling, big-hearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us a...

☆☆☆☆ ebook, 271 pages Published September 3rd 2019 by Sourcebooks Landmark About the Book: Why would four women admit to committing the same murder? Four different women offer four very different confessions to the death of a man found in the midst of a rehearsal dinner at an luxurious resort, each insisting they acted alone. Their stories are contradicting and confusing, posing a conundrum for the detective who must untangle their secrets. Truth and friendship surface in surprising ways, but who is the guiltiest of them all and what really happened on that rooftop? I really enjoyed the format of this book. Each chapter is from one characters point of view and beginning or ending with a police interview. It made it easy to get to know each character and to be honest I didn't like many of them, but in a good way. In the a way that made them interesting and leaving me wanting more. Excellent, multi-layered characters and multi-layered plot. Without spoilers, I can say that t...

☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 384 pages Published September 1st 2019 by HQ Digital About the Book: Sometimes one moment can change your life forever. Rebecca Riley has always been a bit of a pushover. When her glamorous boss, Vanessa, asks her to jump, she doesn’t just ask how high… she asks if her boss would like her to grab a coffee on the way back down! So whilst overseeing the renovation of Vanessa’s beautiful countryside home, the last thing Rebecca ever expected was to be mistaken for her boss – or that she would even consider going along with it! Far away from the bustling city and her boss’s demanding ways, could she pretend to be Vanessa and swap lives, just for a little while? Oh how I loved this book. This is not my usual genre but I was pulled in by the cover (I love this new trend of cartoonish covers) and the description and was completely engrossed in the story until the very last page. I laughed out loud, I cried, and just when I thought I knew what was going to happen, t...

☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 380 pages Published September 1st 2019 by Amazon Publishing UK and Thomas & Mercer About the Book: Gemma Robinson comes into Elliot’s life like a whirlwind, and they marry and settle into his home. When she asks him if her parents can come to stay for a couple of weeks, he is keen to oblige – he just doesn’t quite know what he’s signing up for. The Robinsons arrive with Gemma’s sister, Chloe, a mysterious young woman who refuses to speak or leave her room. Elliot starts to suspect that the Robinsons are hiding a dark secret. And then there are the scars on his wife’s body that she won’t talk about. As Elliot’s in-laws become more comfortable in his home, encroaching on all aspects of his life, it becomes clear that they have no intention of moving out. To protect Gemma, and their marriage, Elliot delves into the Robinsons’ past. But is he prepared for the truth? A mystery with unrelenting suspense, Here To Stay will grab your heart and never let go. This...

☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 313 pages Expected publication: September 12th 2019 by Canelo About the Book: When a time travelling Jane Austen gets stuck in modern-day Bath it's up to avid Janeite Rose Wallace to save her… because she's the only one who knows that Jane exists! Rose Wallace’s world revolves around all things Austen, and with the annual festival in Bath – and the arrival of dishy archaeologist, Dr Aiden Trevellyan – just around the corner, all is well with the world. But then a mysterious woman who bears more than a passing resemblance to the great author moves in upstairs, and things take a disastrous turn. Rose’s new neighbour is Jane Austen, whose time travel adventure has been sabotaged by a mischievous dog, trapping her in the twenty-first century. Rose’s life is instantly changed – new home, new job, new friends – but she’s the only one who seems to have noticed! To right the world around her, she will have to do whatever it takes to help Jane get back home to ...

☆ Kindle Edition, 251 pages Published August 30th 2019 by Sapere Books About the Book: What do you do when the unthinkable happens? 8 August, 2000...A carefree birthday party goes horribly wrong. The children scatter to play hide and seek. But one little girl never returns. Three-year-old Grace has vanished without a trace. Fourteen years later...With the case long-since gone cold, Grace’s family have done their best to move on. But her sister, Elise, has never given up hope. And now Elise thinks she may have found her… Is Elise going crazy? Could Grace really have returned? And if she has, where was she taken? The positives first. This was a VERY short book and I finished it in one sitting. I thought this was supposed to be a page turning thriller. It’s not thrilling reading plots that you have to suspend your beliefs for. Bottom line Grace is gone and it seemed almost immediately everyone had given up....the fourteen years between here and now was jumped through rather quick...

☆☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 304 pages Published August 27th 2019 by Kensington Books About the Book: Liv Ridgely prides herself on being the responsible wrangler of all things family: stay at home mom, caretaker of elderly parents, supporter of husband Oscar's career, savior of her wayward sister. Now, with her son off to college, and her ambitious daughter, Hazel, a year away from following him, it's Liv's turn. She's even established her dream career of bringing beautiful old homes back to life in the most picturesque part of Maine. Until she learns that 16-year-old Hazel is three months pregnant. Hazel insists she will have the baby and raise him with her boyfriend, Tyler, who's no one's idea of a model father. Clearly, there are going to be some conflicts to iron out. Liv just doesn't expect them to be with her husband. As it turns out, Liv and Oscar have very different ideas about what to do. Perhaps it's because Liv, who was adopted, has a unique pe...

☆☆☆☆ ebook, 243 pages Published August 27th 2019 by Bookouture About the Book: Tess and Simon Sparrow may have a few more grey hairs and wrinkles than they used to, but that doesn’t stop them being swept up in a whirlwind romance and starting over again. Swapping their city lives for an escape to the countryside, they fall in love with a crumbling hotel and impulsively buy it as their forever home to grow old in together. Renovating the glorious, wisteria-clad property on the gorgeous cliff-tops of Cornwall was meant to be a delightful retirement project. But the dream soon turns into reality and practical Tess and optimist Simon are faced with leaky bathrooms, creaky stairs and a roof that’s just about holding up. Running out of money fast, the couple decide to rent out a few rooms to save their new home. Along come mysterious Celia, hapless romantic Benedict and tarnished, lovelorn actress Titania – all looking for a fresh start. Everyone in this eclectic group has their own rea...

☆☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 384 pages Published August 27th 2019 by Simon & Schuster Canada About the Book: When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family. What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder. Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t ju...

☆☆1/2 Kindle Edition, 238 pages Published August 20th 2019 by Jodi Gibson About the Book: Can you trust your memories? When Laura Murphy returns home ten years after the death of her childhood sweetheart Ryan Taylor, her past begins to unravel and memories she’d long pushed aside begin to surface. Having trouble reconciling truth and memory, Laura reconnects with her friend Tom to try and find closure, but Tom has issues of his own. Not only is he faced with the threat of losing his farm, but he is also hiding a secret that could change everything for them both. Will Laura and Tom find the answers they need to move forward, or will they discover that memories can’t always be trusted? Secrets are only secrets if you keep them. I have to say I wanted to just give up on this book for about two thirds of it. I kept thinking; why is it so boring? Maybe it's just me, as a reader, expecting something to break a bit earlier to hold my interest. I hate not finishing a book, however, ...

☆☆☆☆☆ Kindle Edition, 350 pages Published August 20th 2019 by Bookouture About the Book: Returning early from a disastrous date night with my husband, I know something is wrong the moment the wheels crunch the gravel drive of our home. Inside, the TV is on and a half-eaten meal waits on the table. My heart stops when I find our little girl is alone in the house and our babysitter, Sasha, is missing. Days later, when I’m arrested for Sasha’s murder and torn away from my perfect little family, I’ll wish I had told someone about the threatening note I received that morning. I’ll hate myself for not finding out who the gift hidden inside my husband’s wardrobe was for. I’ll scream from the rooftops that I’m innocent – but no one will listen. I will realise I was completely wrong about everything that happened that night. But will you believe me? Date Night is a fast-paced, gripping domestic thriller that hooked me from the first pages and never let go until the stunning ending. There...