Posts

Showing posts from March, 2021

The Silent Suspect (Paige Northwood #3) by Nell Pattison

Image
☆☆☆1/2 .ePUB, 297 pages Expected Publication: April 29th 2021 by Avon Books UK About the Book: On a quiet street, one house is burning to the ground…By the time sign language interpreter Paige Northwood arrives, flames have engulfed her client’s home. Though Lukas is safe, his wife is still inside. But she was dead before the fire started…Lukas signs to Paige that he knows who killed his wife. But then he goes silent – even when the police arrest him on suspicion of murder. Is he guilty, or afraid? Only Paige can help him now. My Review: He’d thought that she’d be easy to fool, and to control, because she was deaf.  In fact, she’d been completely the opposite. This one was a little different from the first two books because this time it is the suspect who is deaf. This is a dark story that deals with flawed characters. You never know what secrets people are hiding, even those closest to you. This book will keep you guessing...Just when you think you understand what’s happening and set

Relative Secrets by Helen Stancey

Image
  ☆☆☆1/2 .ePUB, 226 pages Expected Publication: September 1st 2021 by Fairlight Books About the Book: Mary has a secret that she mustn’t tell. But in a care home, with her mind wandering, she’s starting to slip up. Clearing out her grandmother’s old room, Lucy finds something hidden that wasn’t supposed to be found – a locket sheltering a shameful family secret. She can’t tell her mother. Not with their father gone, one brother absent and another acting up. Her mother was struggling with her mental health just a few years ago. Lucy will have to make sense of it all herself. My Review: I just finished this novel by Helen Stancey and it sucked me in from the beginning. I love books where the characters take turns telling the story, so this was perfect. But the characters were so vivid and realistic. I was prepared for some sort of twist because it seemed inevitable but this one threw me for a loop. I wish I was one who savored a great book slowly but I don't - I devour them, unable t

Her Last Holiday by C.L. Taylor

Image
☆ .PDF, 339 pages Expected Publication: April 29th 2021 by Avon Books UK About the Book: You come to Soul Shrink to be healed. You don’t expect to die. Two years ago, Fran’s sister Jenna disappeared on a wellness retreat in Gozo that went terribly wrong. Tom Wade, the now infamous man behind Soul Shrink Retreats, has just been released from prison after serving his sentence for the deaths of 2 people. But he has never let on what happened to the third suspected victim: Jenna. Determined to find out the truth, Fran books herself onto his upcoming retreat – the first since his release – and finds herself face to face with the man who might hold the key to her sister’s disappearance. The only question is, will she escape the retreat alive? Or does someone out there want Jenna’s secrets to stay hidden? My Review: This was such a unique premise, I have never been to a wellness retreat and thought it would be interesting to read about one. Well...if this is what a retreat is count me out! I

Finding Ashley by Danielle Steel

Image
☆☆1/2 .ePUB, 221 pages Expected Publication: April 27th 2021  Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine - Delacorte Press About the Book: Melissa Henderson is leading a quiet life. Once a bestselling author, she now pours all her energy into renovating a Victorian house nestled in the foothills of rural New England. Six years ago, she lost her young son to cancer, and her marriage dissolved. She stopped writing. It was only when she bought the old house that Melissa found a purpose, and came alive as she made it beautiful again. After a wildfire that threatens her home appears on the news, Melissa receives a call from her sister, Hattie. They were close once, but that was before Melissa withdrew from the world. Now Hattie, who became a nun at twenty-five, is determined to help Melissa turn a new page, even if it means reopening one of the most painful chapters of her life. At sixteen, a pregnant Melissa was sent to a gloomy convent in Ireland to have— and give up—her baby, to spare th

The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean

Image
☆☆☆ ☆ ☆ .ePUB, 205 pages Expected Publication: April 20th 2021 by Atria/Emily Bestler Books About the Book: On an isolated farm in the United Kingdom, a woman is trapped by the monster who kidnapped her seven years ago. When she discovers she is pregnant, she resolves to protect her child no matter the cost, and starts to meticulously plan her escape. But when another woman is brought into the fold on the farm, her plans go awry. Can she save herself, her child, and this innocent woman at the same time? Or is she doomed to spend the remainder of her life captive on this farm? My Review: There is no handcuff keeping me here, there is no manacle locked around my ankle.  And yet I am imprisoned. Oh my gosh, this book! It was so absorbing I read it in one sitting. It was painful and heart wrenching and loving and hateful. It had me feeling all emotions possible and it was so suspenseful and beautifully written. How is it possible to have a thriller as good as this also be literary fiction

Broken (In the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson

Image
  ☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 256 pages Expected Publication: April 6th 2021 2021 by Henry Holt & Company About the Book: As Jenny Lawson’s hundreds of thousands of fans know, she suffers from depression. In Broken, Jenny brings readers along on her mental and physical health journey, offering heartbreaking and hilarious anecdotes along the way. With people experiencing anxiety and depression now more than ever, Jenny humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we’re not alone and making us laugh while doing it. From the business ideas that she wants to pitch to Shark Tank to the reason why Jenny can never go back to the post office, Broken leaves nothing to the imagination in the most satisfying way. And of course, Jenny’s long-suffering husband Victor—the Ricky to Jenny’s Lucille Ball—is present throughout. My Review: A refreshing, real life take on mental illness and the funny things that make life worth living.  Lawson's book kept me laughing from the first chapte

The Perfect Daughter by D.J. Palmer

Image
☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 350 pages Expected Publication: April 20th 2021 by St. Martin's Press About the Book: A thriller that explores the truth or lies behind a teenage girl's multiple personality disorder. Meet Ruby, who speaks with a British accent. Then there’s Chloe, a perfectionist who strives for straight A’s in school. And along comes Eve, who is spiteful and vicious. All of them live inside Penny… Or do they? Penny Francone, age sixteen, is a murderer. Her guilt is beyond doubt: she was found alone in the victim’s apartment, covered in blood, holding the murder weapon. The victim’s identity and her secret relationship to Penny give her the perfect motive, sealing the deal. All the jury needs to decide now is where Penny will serve out her sentence. Will she be found not guilty by reason of insanity, as her lawyer intends to argue? Or will she get a life sentence in a maximum-security prison? Already reeling from tragedy after the sudden passing of her beloved husband a few years

The Single Dad's Handbook by Lynsey James

Image
  ☆☆☆1/2 .ePUB, 245 pages Expected Publication: April 2nd 2021 by HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter About the Book: It’s been two years since cancer stole Evan Harper’s wife, Claire, from their lives. Although Evan’s doing everything he can to be Super Dad for his five year old, Violet, he can’t seem to get anything right. So he turns to the one person who gives the best advice – Claire herself. Before she died she wrote him a book of letters to see him through the ups and downs of raising their daughter and her words soon help him see that there is life after loss – and maybe even a second shot at love – when you find the courage to start living again. My Review: How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. How is it that a book can make you laugh and cry simultaneously? I found The Single Dad’s Handbook extremely easy to read, in that it didn't take much effort the way some books do. The characters are warm and life like and maybe the best thing about this

Ruby Falls by Deborah Goodrich Royce

Image
☆☆☆1/2 .PDF, 227 pages Expected Publication: May 4th 2021 by Post Hill Press About the Book: On a brilliantly sunny July day, six-year-old Ruby is abandoned by her father in the suffocating dark of a Tennessee cave. Twenty years later, transformed into soap opera star Eleanor Russell, she is fired under dubious circumstances. Fleeing to Europe, she marries a glamorous stranger named Orlando Montague and keeps her past closely hidden. Together, Eleanor and Orlando start afresh in LA. Setting up house in a storybook cottage in the Hollywood Hills, Eleanor is cast in a dream role—the lead in a remake of Rebecca. As she immerses herself in that eerie gothic tale, Orlando’s personality changes, ghosts of her past re-emerge, and Eleanor fears she is not the only person in her marriage with a secret. My Review: Whatever fate awaits me inside the walls of this cottage, I am in its possession.  It can have me now. I can no longer resist it. This was a very quick read for me, one sitting. Not on

Things Are Looking Up by Maxine Morrey

Image
☆☆☆1/2 .ePUB, 305 pages Expected Publication: May 25th 2021 by Boldwood Books About the Book: Milly has been waiting for this moment forever and finally it’s just an hour away – an interview with Vogue magazine and the opportunity to get her Louboutin-clad foot in the door. There’s just one problem – totally engrossed in her mobile phone, Milly doesn’t see the bus that is fast approaching – until it’s too late…When Milly next opens her eyes, the consequences of her accident become clear. Everything she has worked for and dreamed of suddenly feels out of reach. But there is one bright spot on her horizon – the reappearance of her ex Jed, in all of his six-foot-four, broad-shouldered glory, with the most piercing ice blue eyes Milly ever saw. Once used to working in a whirlwind, Milly now has the chance to reconsider how to live. Will she rush back to the treadmill, get her head down and back to business, or is there a whole other life waiting for her, if she’ll just look up to see it?

The Best of Friends by Alex Day

Image
☆☆☆1/2 .ePUB, 297 pages Expected Publication: April 9th 2021 by HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter About the Book: Susannah is rebuilding her life… Susannah has had a tough year. After a knotty divorce, moving to a small town in the south of England with her two sons is exactly the fresh start she needs. Charlotte seems to have it all… Charlotte is delighted when Susannah arrives in town. Charlotte may appear to have the perfect husband, family, house, but she needs someone to confide in. But one of them is not who they pretend to be… The two women become best friends. But underneath the surface, secrets, lies and betrayals are hiding. And when the truth comes out, not everyone will live to tell… My Review: Tout est juste dans l’amour et la guerre... This book started off really slow and I didn't think I was going to like it...also both main characters were such whiny bitches, they got on my last nerve and I hated them both. But then a little more than a third of the way in things

Other People's Children by R.J. Hoffmann

Image
  ☆☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 286 pages Expected Publication: April 6th 2021 by Simon & Schuster About the Book: What makes a family? Gail and Jon Durbin moved to the Chicago suburbs to set up house as soon as Gail got pregnant. But then she miscarried—once, twice, three times. Determined to expand their family, the Durbins turn to adoption. When several adoptions fall through, Gail’s desire for a child overwhelms her. Carli is a pregnant teenager from a blue-collar town nearby, with dreams of going to college and getting out of her mother’s home. When she makes the gut-wrenching decision to give her baby up for adoption, she chooses the Durbins. But Carli’s mother, Marla, has other plans for her grandbaby. In Other People’s Children, three mothers make excruciating choices to protect their families and their dreams—choices that put them at decided odds against one another. My Review: Oh this book...crushingly sad throughout. Yet, I loved this novel from start to end. It is authentic and a true t

At First Sight by Hannah Sunderland

Image
☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 314 pages Expected Publication: April 1st 2021 by Avon Books UK About the Book: Two strangers. Two chance meetings. One extraordinary love story…Nell and Charlie feel a spark when they meet by chance in a cafe. But they don’t trade numbers, or surnames, so there’s no way they’ll meet again. But the next day, Nell’s phone rings at work. Somehow, impossibly, Charlie is on the other end. And he needs her help. Nell is about to save a life, fall in love … and risk everything for a perfect stranger. My Review: This is a different kind of love story and I absolutely adored it! Nell and Charlie meet in the most usual way, at first. Over coffee, at a busy cafe, Nell chats Charlie up and then they part...no numbers or sir names exchanged. Nell thinks she's blown her chance at meeting someone new....And then they meet again, in the most unconventional way...Charlie calls Nell at work...not knowing she works there.  This was such a lovely read, full of emotion but with some light

The Perfect Nanny by Karen Clarke

Image
☆☆☆1/2 .ePUB, 286 pages Expected Publication: March 31st 2021 by HQ Digital About the Book: You trust her with your home, your husband, your baby… but she is about to destroy it all. Sophy Pemberton is struggling to cope with the pressures of becoming a new mother. Her nine-month-old son never settles in her arms and the unrelenting tiredness from late night feeds is all consuming. So, when Liv Granger from the mother and baby group offers her services as a nanny, Sophy is overcome with relief. Now she can finally get some sleep… She can stop failing at being a mother. But Liv has a secret. She is convinced that Sophy was accountable for her brother’s tragic death and she has been searching for her for years. And now that Liv’s found her, she’s outraged Sophy seems oblivious to the pain she has caused her family. Sophy’s perfect house, perfect husband and perfect baby are too much for Liv to bear… and she’s going to make her pay. My Review: This one started off really slow for me, but

Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters by Andrew Morton

Image
☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 350 pages Expected Publication: March 30th 2021 by Grand Central Publishing About the Book: They were the closest of sisters and the best of friends. But when, in a quixotic twist of fate, their uncle Edward Vlll decided to abdicate the throne, the dynamic between Elizabeth and Margaret was dramatically altered. Forever more Margaret would have to curtsey to the sister she called 'Lillibet.' And bow to her wishes. Elizabeth would always look upon her younger sister's antics with a kind of stoical amusement, but Margaret's struggle to find a place and position inside the royal system—and her fraught relationship with its expectations—was often a source of tension. Famously, the Queen had to inform Margaret that the Church and government would not countenance her marrying a divorcee, Group Captain Peter Townsend, forcing Margaret to choose between keeping her title and royal allowances or her divorcee lover. From the idyll of their cloistered early life, throu

The Last One Home by Victoria Helen Stone

Image
☆☆☆☆ .PDF, 266 pages Expected Publication: March 30th 2021 by Lake Union Publishing About the Book: Lauren Abrams wants nothing to do with her damaged mother, whose spurious testimony sent Lauren’s father to prison for murder years ago. After a serial killer’s confession to the crime restored justice, Lauren chose to live with her father and grandmother. Now an adult, Lauren has come home to the Sacramento family estate for good, her mother’s lies be damned. It’s been decades since Donna made her cheating boyfriend pay, but she hasn’t forgotten the past. She knows her estranged daughter has made a terrible mistake by returning to the estate. There’s more to the story of the welcoming old homestead—and her childhood—than Lauren knows. As Lauren settles in, she is haunted by the questions of what really happened with her father, what her mother might be hiding, and what secrets the family ranch holds. It’s getting so dark, Lauren may not be able to see the truth to save her life. My Rev

When I Ran Away by Ilona Bannister

Image
☆☆☆☆ ☆ .PDF, 247 pages Expected Publication: March 30th 2021 by Doubleday Books About the Book: As the Twin Towers collapse, Gigi Stanislawski flees her office building and escapes lower Manhattan on the Staten Island Ferry. Among the crying, ash-covered, and shoeless passengers, Gigi, unbelievably, finds someone she recognizes--Harry Harrison, a British man and a regular at her favorite coffee shop. Gigi brings Harry to her parents' house, where they watch the television replay the planes crashing for hours, and she waits for the phone call that will never come: the call from Frankie, her younger brother. Ten years later, Gigi, now a single mother consumed with bills and unfulfilled ambitions, meets Harry, again by chance, and they fall deeply, headlong in love. But their move to London and their new baby--which Gigi hoped would finally release her from the past--leave her feeling isolated, raw, and alone with her grief. As Gigi comes face-to-face with the anguish of her brother&

All The Little Things by Sarah Lawton

Image
☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 256 pages Expected publication: March 25th 2021 by Canelo About the Book: Rachel has made poor decisions in the past, but she has always tried her best for her daughter. When Vivian needed a fresh start, Rachel didn’t hesitate to move them far from London. She just wishes she could shake the nagging doubt that Vivian is hiding something. Vivian isn’t like other teenagers. On the surface she seems the same as her friends, but she knows she is different. When enigmatic Alex takes an interest in her, Vivian’s cool demeanour hides an intensity of feeling she has never known before. His touch sets her skin on fire. Mother and daughter are both keeping secrets. But just how dangerous are they? As lust and anger give way to violence Rachel will have to decide: is she prepared to give up everything for her child? Even her own life? My Review: With chapters alternating between Vivian and Rachel’s points of view, All The Little Things is a chilling and somewhat disturbing novel. The

A Question Mark Is Half a Heart by Sofia Lundberg

Image
☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 294 pages Expected publication: March 23rd 2021 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt About the Book: By age 50, Elin Boals has created for herself a perfect life: her wildly successful business as Manhattan’s preeminent fashion photographer is flourishing. Her handsome, patient husband is devoted to her; her teenaged daughter, Alice, has been accepted to the ballet academy of her dreams. But then Elin receives an innocuous looking envelope. Folded inside is a star-chart, with an address written by a familiar hand. Shaken, Elin begins to have startling flashbacks, to a life very different from the childhood in a Paris bookstore that she has so lovingly recounted to Alice. In these images, a poverty-stricken little girl cares for her two ragged baby brothers, laughing with her family on the good days, sheltering them from her mother’s sadness and her father’s wrath on the bad days. Elin also remembers vivid walks with a young classmate, Fredrik, whose steadfast friendship and starli

Who Do You Trust? by Kirsty Ferguson

Image
☆ .ePUB, 315 pages Expected publication: March 18th 2021 by Boldwood Books About the Book: A perfect sunny day, a family celebration, a heart-stopping hour that changes everything. Dana has all she ever wanted – a husband she loves, her four-year-old daughter Kelsey who is the apple of her eye, and another baby on the way to complete her perfect family. But then the worst fear that Dana has, comes true, and everything she thought she knew, she now starts to doubt. As her world comes crashing around her, who can Dana trust? Her husband Logan who seems to be getting worryingly close to Dana’s best friend Pippa? Her new friend Melanie who has a sinister habit of turning up in the strangest places? Her parents and her sister, who Dana knows are keeping a terrible secret from her? Matt, who says he’s Dana’s friend, but sometimes she’s not so sure? Or will Dana discover that it’s a dangerous mistake to trust anyone. My Review: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD This book was all over the place and I am no

The Good Neighbour by R.J. Parker

Image
☆☆☆1/2 .ePUB, 250 pages Expected publication: March 18th 2021 by HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter About the Book: He isn’t who you think he is…When Leah Talbot hits a deer on a deserted road near her village she spots a light on in a nearby house and approaches, hoping that someone is home. He is. Charming, handsome, Martin Tate answers the door to the bedraggled and traumatised Leah, inviting her in. Though she’s not there for long, Leah feels an indescribable pull to the man who has helped in her hour of need. But when she returns the next morning to say thank you, it isn’t Martin who answers the door this time. It’s the police. There’s been a brutal murder and the sole female resident is dead. There’s no sign of Martin…Until he comes looking for Leah. My Review: I thought this book was an absolute page turner - could not go to sleep without an extra chapter, and the chapters are not too lengthy , so it was easy to get carried away...beautifully crafted and gripping right up until

What You Never Knew by Jessica Hamilton

Image
☆☆☆ .ePUB, 268 pages Expected Publication: April 13th 2021 by Crooked Lane Books About the Book: Idyllic Avril lsland, owned by the Bennett family, where their hundred-year-old cottage sat nestled in acres of forest. Forty-year-old June Bennett believed that the island had been sold after the summer of her father's disappearance when she was only twelve years old. It's months after the shocking death of her older sister May in a fatal car accident, that June finds out that the cottage was never sold. Avril Island is still owned by the Bennett family and now it's hers. Still reeling from the grief of losing her sister, June travels back to Avril lsland in search of answers. As she digs, she learns that the townspeople believe her father may in fact have been murdered rather than having abandoned his family in the dead of night, as she was led to believe by her mother. And that's when she begins to notice strange things happening on the island--missing family possessions

The Sweet Taste of Muscadines by Pamela Terry

Image
☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 298 pages Expected Publication: March 16th 2021 by Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine About the Book: Lila Bruce Breedlove never quite felt at home in Wesleyan, Georgia, especially after her father’s untimely demise when she was a child. Both Lila and her brother, Henry, fled north after high school, establishing fulfilling lives of their own. In contrast, their younger sister, Abigail, opted to remain behind to dote on their domineering, larger-than-life mother, Geneva. Yet despite their independence, Lila and Henry know deep down that they’ve never quite reckoned with their upbringing. When their elderly mother dies suddenly and suspiciously in the muscadine arbor behind the family estate, Lila and Henry return to the town that essentially raised them. But as they uncover more about Geneva’s death, shocking truths are revealed that overturn the family’s history as they know it, sending the pair on an extraordinary journey to chase a truth that will dramatically al

After Alice Fell by Kim Taylor Blakemore

Image
☆☆☆ ☆ ☆ .PDF, 288 pages Expected publication: March 1st 2021 by Lake Union Publishing About the Book: Until she discovers the truth of her sister’s death, no one will rest in peace. New Hampshire, 1865. Marion Abbott is summoned to Brawders House asylum to collect the body of her sister, Alice. She’d been found dead after falling four stories from a steep-pitched roof. Officially: an accident. Confidentially: suicide. But Marion believes a third option: murder. Returning to her family home to stay with her brother and his second wife, the recently widowed Marion is expected to quiet her feelings of guilt and grief—to let go of the dead and embrace the living. But that’s not easy in this house full of haunting memories. Just when the search for the truth seems hopeless, a stranger approaches Marion with chilling words: I saw her fall. Now Marion is more determined than ever to find out what happened that night at Brawders, and why. With no one she can trust, Marion may risk her own lif

The Memory Collectors by Kim Neville

Image
☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 327 pages Expected publication: March 16th 2021 by Atria Books About the Book: Ev has a mysterious ability, one that she feels is more a curse than a gift. She can feel the emotions people leave behind on objects and believes that most of them need to be handled extremely carefully, and—if at all possible—destroyed. The harmless ones she sells at Vancouver’s Chinatown Night Market to scrape together a living, but even that fills her with trepidation. Meanwhile, in another part of town, Harriet hoards thousands of these treasures and is starting to make her neighbors sick as the overabundance of heightened emotions start seeping through her apartment walls. When the two women meet, Harriet knows that Ev is the only person who can help her make something truly spectacular of her collection. A museum of memory that not only feels warm and inviting but can heal the emotional wounds many people unknowingly carry around. They only know of one other person like them, and they fea