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Showing posts from December, 2020

We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida

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☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 240 pages Expected publication: February 5th 2021 by Ecco About the Book: Teenage Eulabee and her magnetic best friend, Maria Fabiola, own the streets of Sea Cliff, their foggy oceanside San Francisco neighborhood. They know Sea Cliff’s homes and beaches, its hidden corners and eccentric characters—as well as the upscale all-girls’ school they attend. One day, walking to school with friends, they witness a horrible act—or do they? Eulabee and Maria Fabiola vehemently disagree on what happened, and their rupture is followed by Maria Fabiola’s sudden disappearance—a potential kidnapping that shakes the quiet community and threatens to expose unspoken truths. My Review: We Run the Tides is a fantastic novel that you won’t want to put down. The author paints pictures with her words allowing you to feel you are part of the story. It awakened memories, it brings to life ordinary lives and portrays how the bonds of true friendship help three young girls weather the storms and und

Whisper Island by Carissa Ann Lynch

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☆☆1/2 .ePUB, 245 pages Expected publication: February 9th 2021 by Ecco About the Book: Six of us are going to the island. Only one of us will make it back. That one of us will be me. For friends Riley, Sam, Mia and Scarlett, their trip to Whisper Island was meant to be a once in a lifetime adventure – just four young women, with everything to live for...But as soon as they arrive things start to go wrong. First there is the unexpected arrival of Sammy’s drug addict brother and his girlfriend Opal – why are they here? And then the deaths begin. As the dream trip quickly turns into a nightmare, suspicion is high. Are they really alone on the island? Or is there a killer hiding in the shadows? And as each of the girls reveals a dark secret of their own, perhaps the truth is the killer is closer than they think…just a whisper away. My Review: With vibes of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie Whisper Island had a wonderful setting for a creepy mystery...a run down house on a desolat

The Shadow Man by Helen Fields

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☆☆☆☆ .PDF, 329 pages Expected publication: February 4th 2021 by Avon Books UK About the Book: He collects his victims. But he doesn’t keep them safe. Elspeth, Meggie and Xavier are locked in a flat. They don’t know where they are, and they don’t know why they’re there. They only know that the shadow man has taken them, and he won’t let them go. Desperate to escape, the three of them must find a way out of their living hell, even if it means uncovering a very dark truth. Because the shadow man isn’t a nightmare. He’s all too real. And he’s watching. My Review: Helen Fields is a new author to me and I really enjoyed this book, on the strength of this one I will check out more of her work. I liked the way all the characters were portrayed , especially the female characters who were realistic , with no simpering and complete change of character whenever a male character is involved. I also liked the way the darker character was portrayed , chillingly normal in everyday situations but dea

The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.

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☆☆☆☆1/2 .ePUB, 368 pages Expected publication: January 5th 2021 by Penguin Group Putnam/G.P. Putnam's Sons About the Book: Isaiah was Samuel's and Samuel was Isaiah's. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man--a fellow slave--seeks to gain favor by preaching the master's gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel's love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation's harmony. My Review: If you’re looking for a fast paced, plot-centered novel this book is not for you. The Prophets reads more like an in-depth character study than anything else. This novel is about Isaiah and Samuel their life, their experiences and their feelings

Bad Habits by Amy Gentry

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  ☆☆☆ ☆ ☆ .ePUB, 280 pages Expected publication: February 2nd 2021 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Mariner Books About the Book: Claire "Mac" Woods--a professor enjoying her newfound hotshot status at an academic conference--finally has the acceptance and admiration she has long craved. But at the conference's hotel bar, Mac is surprised to run into a face from a past she'd rather forget: the moneyed, effortlessly perfect Gwendolyn Whitney, Mac's foil, rival, and former best friend. When Gwen moved to town in high school, Claire--then known as Mac, a poor kid from a troubled family who had too much on her plate--saw what it meantto have. Money, sophistication, culture, the very blueprints to success. Mac had almost nothing, except the will to change. Change she did, habitually grinding herself to work as hard as straight-A Gwen, even eventually getting admitted into the same elite graduate program as Gwen. But then Mac and Gwen become entangled with the department’s

The Unwilling by John Hart

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☆☆☆ ☆ ☆ .ePUB, 345 pages Expected publication: February 2nd 2021 by St. Martin's Press About the Book: Gibby's older brothers have already been to war. One died there. The other came back misunderstood and hard, a decorated killer now freshly released from a three-year stint in prison. Jason won't speak of the war or of his time behind bars, but he wants a relationship with the younger brother he hasn't known for years. Determined to make that connection, he coaxes Gibby into a day at the lake: long hours of sunshine and whisky and older women. But the day turns ugly when the four encounter a prison transfer bus on a stretch of empty road. Beautiful but drunk, one of the women taunts the prisoners, leading to a riot on the bus. The woman finds it funny in the moment, but is savagely murdered soon after. Given his violent history, suspicion turns first to Jason; but when the second woman is kidnapped, the police suspect Gibby, too. Determined to prove Jason innocent, Gi

A Mother's Promise by K.D. Alden

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☆☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 333 pages Expected publication: January 19th 2021 by Forever (Grand Central Publishing) About the Book: Based on the true story behind a landmark U.S. Supreme Court Decision, K.D. Alden's debut is a rich and moving story of one woman's courage and determination to get her child back when all odds are stacked against her. Virginia, 1927: All Ruth Ann Riley wants is a chance to have a family. But because she was poor and unwed when she became pregnant, she was sent to an institution and her child was given to another woman. Ruth Ann can't stand the thought of never seeing little Annabel's face again, never snuggling up to her warmth or watching her blue eyes crinkle with laughter. And now they want to take away her right to have any other babies? She is not going to let that happen. All the rich and fancy folks may call her feeble-minded, but Ruth Ann is smarter than any of them have bargained for. Because no matter how high the odds are stacked against her,

Exit by Belinda Bauer

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☆☆☆ ☆ ☆ .ePUB, 249 pages Expected publication: February 2nd 2021 by Grove Atlantic/Atlantic Monthly Press About the Book: Felix Pink is retired. Widowed for more than a decade, a painfully literal thinker, he has led a life of routine and is, not unhappily, waiting to die a hopefully boring death. He occupies himself volunteering as an Exiteer—someone who sits with terminally ill people as they die by suicide, assisting with logistics and lending moral support, then removing the evidence so that family and friends are not implicated in the death. When Felix lets himself in to Number 3 Black Lane, he’s there to perform an act of kindness and charity: to keep a dying man company as he takes his final breath. But just fifteen minutes later Felix is on the run from the police—after making the biggest mistake of his life. Now his routine world is turned upside down as he tries to discover whether what went wrong was a simple mistake—or deliberate. Murder. My Review: Question: What do you g

Little One by Sarah A. Denzil

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☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 323 pages Expected publication: January 14th 2021  ARC provided by Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op About the Book: Fran finds her standing by the swings. A little girl, Esther, no older than seven years old, by herself in the dead of night, her pretty but old-fashioned yellow dress covered in grass stains and her hair dishevelled. She says she's waiting for Father, and that strikes Fran as particularly odd. After Esther is reunited with her family, Fran can't stop thinking about this pious child whose imaginary friend is God. Fran's instincts tell her something is very wrong. Why does Esther keep running away from home, and how did she get that bruise on her leg? Fran's husband warns her not to get too close, but one morning, Esther and her family disappear. Where did they go? Why did they leave their furniture behind? Fran knows in her gut that something terrible is going to happen to that child, and she can't stand by while it happens. No matter the c

The Push by Ashley Audrain

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☆☆☆☆☆ .PDF, 246 pages Expected publication: January 5th 2021 by Penguin Random House Canada/Viking About the Book: Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, supportive mother she never had to her new baby Violet. But in the thick of motherhood's exhausting early days, Blythe doesn't find the connection with her daughter she expected. She's convinced that something is wrong with Violet--the little girl is distant, rejects affection, and becomes increasingly disruptive at preschool. Or is it all in Blythe's head? Her husband, Fox, says she is imagining things. Fox doesn't see what Blythe sees; he sees a wife who is struggling to cope with the day-to-day challenges of being a mother. And the more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity...Then their son Sam is born--and with him, Blythe has the natural maternal connection she'd always dreamed of. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know

The Crown in Crisis: Countdown to the Abdication by Alexander Larman

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☆☆☆☆ .PDF, 364 pages Expected publication: January 19th 2021 by St. Martin's Press About the Book: The thrilling and definitive account of the Abdication Crisis of 1936. On December 10, 1936, King Edward VIII brought a great international drama to a close when he abdicated, renouncing the throne of the United Kingdom for himself and his heirs. The reason he gave when addressing his subjects was that he could not fulfill his duties without the woman he loved—the notorious American divorcee Wallis Simpson—by his side. His actions scandalized the establishment, who were desperate to avoid an international embarrassment at a time when war seemed imminent. That the King was rumored to have Nazi sympathies only strengthened their determination that he should be forced off the throne, by any means necessary. Alexander Larman’s The Crown in Crisis will treat readers to a new, thrilling view of this legendary story. Informed by revelatory archival material never-before-seen, as well as by

The Visitors by Miranda Rijks

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☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 248 pages Expected publication: December 13th 2020 by Inkubator Books About the Book: Hannah’s life is almost perfect. She’s a full-time mother to two young children and married to successful cardiologist Daniel. The only thing missing is a project of her own. So she has poured heart and soul into converting their stone barn into a beautiful holiday rental. Things take a dark turn when visitors Mike and Nadia come to stay. They are noisy, dirty and disrespectful. Hannah is incensed by their behaviour, worried they may wreck her lovingly restored barn. But she gradually realises that property damage is the least of her worries. Nadia and Mike aren’t here just for a holiday - they have a deeper, darker purpose, one that threatens to destroy Hannah’s entire life. Spiraling into a nightmare that grows worse with each passing day, Hannah has to find the courage to fight back. But Mike and Nadia are clever and ruthless and they know something that Hannah doesn’t - a shocking sec

Open House by Katie Sise

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☆☆ .ePUB, 238 pages Expected publication: December 1st 2020 by Little A About the Book: A decade ago in upstate New York, art student Emma McCullough walked into the woods and was never seen again. It’s a mystery that still haunts her bucolic university town and her broken family, especially her sister Haley, whose need for closure has become an obsession. But now, finally, the first piece of evidence in the vanishing has been found: Emma’s bracelet, lodged in a frozen piece of earth at the bottom of a gorge. For Emma’s three best college friends, for a beloved former teacher, and for Haley, the chilling trinket is more than a clue in a resurrected cold case. It’s a trigger. Then a woman is attacked during an open house, and the connections between the two crimes, ten winters apart, begin to surface. So do the secrets that run as deep and dark as the currents in this quiet river town. My Review: This book was not for me. What stared as a promising plot turned into a hot mess. It wasn

Every Last Secret by A.R. Torre

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☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 272 pages Expected publication: December 1st 2020 by Thomas & Mercer About the Book: Cat Winthorpe has worked hard to get what she has: a gorgeous home; social standing; and William, her successful, handsome husband. Then a friendly new couple moves into the estate next door. While cautious, a good neighbor like Cat greets them with open arms and warm hospitality. Neena Ryder isn’t a fellow lady of leisure. A life coach with off-the-rack dresses, personal issues, and a husband who hasn’t delivered, she’s anxious to move up in the world. This beautiful new town is a step in the right direction. It’s also making Neena aware of what she doesn’t have. Namely, William. When Neena’s infatuation escalates into obsession, it’s just a matter of eliminating a few obstacles to get the life she wants. The life next door. As Neena’s secret fixation grows, so does her friendship with Cat. But beneath their cordial interactions is a wealth of temptations, secrets, and toxic jealousy

Hadley and Grace by Suzanne Redfearn

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☆☆☆☆ .PDF, 267 pages Expected publication: February 1st 2021 by Lake Union Publishing About the Book: Needing to escape her abusive marriage, Hadley flees with her two kids, knowing it might be her only chance. A woman who can’t even kill a spider, Hadley soon finds herself pushed to the limits as she fights to protect her family. Grace, new mother of baby Miles, desperately wants to put her rough past behind her for good, but she finds it impossible when her path crosses with Hadley’s, and her quest for a new start quickly spirals out of control and turns into a terrifying flight for survival. Stronger together than apart, the two find their fates inextricably entwined, and as the danger closes in, each must decide how much she is willing to risk for the other. A powerful story of self-discovery, Hadley and Grace is the heart-racing tale of two women facing insurmountable odds, racing to stay one step ahead of the trouble that is chasing them, and discovering new kinds of love and fa