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Showing posts from March, 2022

The Mother’s Secret by Kathryn Croft

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☆ .ePUB, 283 pages Expected Publication: 12 May 2022 By: Canelo About The Book: A dream come true, a nightmare that is just beginning...Eve wanted nothing more than to be a mother. She and her husband, Aidan, planned to have a family, but with each devastating miscarriage her hopes dwindled. When she eventually gave birth to her daughter, Kayla, it should have been the happiest time of her life. Instead, it was a waking nightmare for Eve, and one she was desperate to escape. Now, Eve has left all that behind. She pretends that she never had a child, and keeps her secrets close. But someone knows the truth. They know that Eve told a lie, and the clock is ticking before her shocking decision is revealed. Once the story comes out, there’ll be no way out for Eve. If people learn about the crime she covered up, they’ll never look at her the same way again. She must get her little girl back, before it’s too late. If she can’t, running away won’t be an option. This time, Eve will face the co

The Matchmaker's Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman

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☆☆☆ ☆ .ePUB, 278 pages Expected Publication: 20 Sep 2022 By: St. Martin's Press About The Book: Even as a child in 1910, Sara Glikman knows her gift: she is a maker of matches and a seeker of soulmates. But among the pushcart-crowded streets of New York’s Lower East Side, Sara’s vocation is dominated by devout older men—men who see a talented female matchmaker as a dangerous threat to their traditions and livelihood. After making matches in secret for more than a decade, Sara must fight to take her rightful place among her peers, and to demand the recognition she deserves. Two generations later, Sara’s granddaughter, Abby, is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, representing the city’s wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals recording the details of Sara’s matches. But among the faded volumes, Abby finds more questions than answers. Why did Abby’s grandmother leave this library to her and what did she hope Ab

The Feud by Gemma Rogers

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☆☆☆1/2 .ePUB 308 pages Expected Publication: 10 May 2022 By: Boldwood Books About The Book: The day my path crossed with Simon Fox I thought I’d already lost everything but then he almost ran me off the road with his flash car and belittling jibes. The men in my life had undermined me for too long. Enough was enough. Fuelled by alcohol and the desire to get even, I decided a spot of petty vandalism would make me feel a whole lot better. Wrong. Very wrong...I hadn’t realised that Simon Fox was not a man to be messed with. He showed me just how much I still had left to lose. My Review: This is my first read by this author and it is a hard one to rate and review. I didn't like it at first as the main character was whiney and a man hater. There is also a lot going on in this book and one of the surprises wasn't a surprise at all. BUT the book got better as it went along and I ended up flipping pages to find out what was going to happen. I was floored by some reveals and the story

The People on Platform 5/Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley

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   ☆☆☆ ☆ ☆ .PDF 354 pages Expected Publication:  26 May 2022 07 June 2022 By:  Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Bantam Press Penguin Random House Canada, Viking About The Book: Every day Iona, a larger-than-life magazine advice columnist, travels the ten stops from Hampton Court to Waterloo Station by train, accompanied by her dog, Lulu. Every day she sees the same people, whom she knows only by nickname: Impossibly-Pretty-Constant-Reader and Terribly-Lonely-Teenager. Of course, they never speak. Seasoned commuters never do. Then one morning, the man she calls Smart-But-Sexist-Manspreader chokes on a grape right in front of her. He'd have died were it not for the timely intervention of Sanjay, a nurse, who gives him the Heimlich maneuver. This single event starts a chain reaction, and an eclectic group of people with almost nothing in common except their commute discover that a chance encounter can blossom into much more. It turns out that talking to strangers can teach you

Or Else by Joe Hart

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☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 218 pages Expected Publication: 01 Apr 2022 By: Thomas & Mercer About The Book: When novelist Andy Drake returns to his hometown to care for his ailing father, a reconnection with his childhood friend Rachel escalates into a secret love affair. For Rachel, struggling to maintain the facade of a picture-perfect life, it’s an escape from an emotionally abusive marriage. Then Andy receives an anonymous note warning him to end the affair. Or else. Whoever’s been watching is going to make Andy pay. Weeks later, Rachel’s husband, David, is shot to death. Rachel and her two young sons vanish without a trace. One misstep, one careless reveal, and Andy could look as guilty as sin. Clue by clue, as his investigation into the mystery unfolds, Andy discovers that he and Rachel weren’t the only ones keeping secrets. Nothing in this quiet neighborhood is as it seems. No one peeking from behind the curtains of their homes can be trusted. And the worst is yet to come. Because David is

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen

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☆☆☆ ☆ ☆ .ePUB, 241 pages Expected Publication: 13 Sep 2022 By: St. Martin's Press About The Book: Between the real and the imaginary, there are stories that take flight in the most extraordinary ways. Right off the coast of South Carolina, on Mallow Island, The Dellawisp sits—a stunning cobblestone building shaped like a horseshoe and named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy. When Zoey comes to claim her deceased mother's apartment on Mallow Island, she meets her quirky and secretive neighbors, including a girl on the run, two estranged middle-aged sisters, a lonely chef, a legendary writer, and three ghosts. Each with their own story, Each with their own longings. Each whose ending isn't written yet. My Review: “It was an odd feeling, when she really thought about it, not having anyone in the world who knew everything about you and loved you anyway.”    This book was so engaging, just like the characters in i

The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream by Jeannie Zusy

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☆☆☆ ☆ ☆ .ePUB, 296 pages Expected Publication: 20 Sep 2022 By: Atria Books About The Book: Every family has its fault lines, and when Maggie gets a call from the ER in Maryland where her older sister lives, the cracks start to appear. Ginny, her sugar-loving and diabetic older sister with intellectual disabilities, has overdosed on strawberry Jell-O. Maggie knows Ginny really can’t live on her own, so she brings her sister and her occasionally vicious dog to live near her in upstate New York. Their other sister, Betsy, is against the idea but as a professional surfer, she is conveniently thousands of miles away. Thus, Maggie’s life as a caretaker begins. It will take all of her dark humor and patience, already spread thin after a separation, raising two boys, freelancing, and starting a dating life, to deal with Ginny’s diapers, sugar addiction, porn habit, and refusal to cooperate. Add two devoted but feuding immigrant aides and a soon-to-be ex-husband who just won’t go away, and you

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin

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☆☆☆ ☆ ☆  .ePUB, 295 pages Expected Publication: 09 Aug 2022 By: St. Martin's Press About The Book: Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she’s dropped off at the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers―a stranger who now lives in her apartment and forces her out in the cold. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it’s missing, and in its place is a bloodstained knife. That’s when she sees that her hands are covered in black pen, scribbled messages like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE. Two years ago, Liv was living with her best friend, dating a new man, and thriving as a successful writer for a trendy magazine. Now, she’s lost and disoriented in a New York City that looks nothing like what she remembers. Catching a glimpse of the local news, she’s horrified to see reports of a crime scene where the victim’s blood has been used to scrawl a message across a window, the same message that’s inked on her

The Floating Girls by Lo Patrick

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☆☆☆ ☆ ☆ .ePUB, 274 pages Expected Publication: 12 Jul 2022 By: Sourcebooks Landmark About The Book: One hot, sticky summer in Bledsoe, Georgia, twelve-year-old Kay Whitaker stumbles across a stilt house in a neighboring marsh and upon Andy Webber, a boy about her age. He and his father have recently moved back to Georgia from California, and rumors of the suspicious drowning death of Andy's mother years earlier have chased them there and back. Kay is fascinated and enamored with Andy, and she doesn't listen when her father tells her to stay away from the Webbers. But when Kay's sister goes missing, the mystery of Mrs. Webber's death—and Kay's parents' potential role in it—comes to light. Kay and her brothers must navigate the layers of secrets that emerge in the course of the investigation as their family, and the world as they knew it, unravels around them. My Review: My mother would surely ask about the dress.  She kept a close watch on everything she made, e

Please Join Us by Catherine McKenzie

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☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 267 pages Expected Publication: 23 Aug 2022 By: Atria Books About The Book: At thirty-nine, Nicole Mueller’s life is on the rocks. Her once brilliant law career is falling apart. She and her husband, Dan, are soon to be forced out of the apartment they love. After a warning from her firm’s senior partners, she receives an invitation from an exclusive women’s networking group, Panthera Leo. Membership is anonymous, but every member is a successful professional. It sounds like the perfect solution to help Nicole revive her career. So, despite Dan’s concerns that the group might be a cult, Nicole signs up for their retreat in Colorado. Once there, she meets the other women who will make up her Pride. A CEO, an actress, a finance whiz, a congresswoman: Nicole can’t believe her luck. The founders of Panthera Leo are equally as impressive. They explain the group’s core philosophy: they’re a girl’s club in a boy’s club world. Nicole is all in. And when she gets home, she soon see

As Seen On TV by Meredith Schorr

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☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 284 pages Expected Publication: 07 Jun 2022 By: Forever (Grand Central Publishing) About The Book: Emerging journalist Adina Gellar is done with dating in New York City. If she’s learned anything from made-for-TV romance movies, it’s that she’ll find love in a small town—the kind with harvest festivals, delightful but quirky characters, and scores of delectable single dudes. So when a big-city real estate magnate targets tiny Pleasant Hollow for development, Adi knows she’s found the perfect story—one that will earn her a position at a coveted online magazine, so she can finally start adulting for real . . . and maybe even find her dream man in the process. Only Pleasant Hollow isn’t exactly “pleasant.” There’s no charming bakery, no quaint seasonal festivals, and the residents are more ambivalent than welcoming. The only upside is Finn Adams, who’s more mouthwatering than the homemade cherry pie Adi can’t seem to find—even if he does work for the company she’d hoped to br

Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier

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☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 341 pages Expected Publication: 19 Jul 2022 By: St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books About The Book: When Paris Peralta is arrested in her own bathroom—covered in blood, holding a straight razor, her celebrity husband dead in the bathtub behind her—she knows she'll be charged with murder. But as bad as this looks, it's not what worries her the most. With the unwanted media attention now surrounding her, it's only a matter of time before someone from her long hidden past recognizes her and destroys the new life she's worked so hard to build, along with any chance of a future. Twenty-five years earlier, Ruby Reyes, known as the Ice Queen, was convicted of a similar murder in a trial that riveted Canada in the early nineties. Reyes knows who Paris really is, and when she's unexpectedly released from prison, she threatens to expose all of Paris's secrets. Left with no other choice, Paris must finally confront the dark past she escaped, once and for al

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan

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☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 376 pages Expected Publication: 31 May 2022 By: Random House Publishing Group About The Book: After renowned fashion designer Cressida Westcott loses both her home and her design house in the London Blitz, she has nowhere to go but the family manor house she fled decades ago. Praying that her niece and nephew will be more hospitable than her brother had been, she arrives with nothing but the clothes she stands in, at a loss as to how to rebuild her business while staying in a quaint country village. Her niece, Violet Westcott, is thrilled that her famous aunt is coming to stay--the village has been interminably dull with all the men off fighting. But just as Cressida arrives, so does Violet's conscription letter. It couldn't have come at a worse time; how will she ever find a suitably aristocratic husband if she has to spend her days wearing a frumpy uniform and doing war work? Meanwhile, the local vicar's daughter, Grace Carlisle, is trying in vain to repair h

Iris in the Dark by Elissa Grossell Dickey

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☆☆☆1/2 .PDF 271 pages Expected Publication: 07 Jun 2022 By: Lake Union Publishing About The Book: Iris Jenkins knows that bad things happen. She’s tried to escape these things for years. So when Iris is entrusted to house-sit at a lodge on the South Dakota prairie, she thinks she’s prepared for anything. But one surprise is Sawyer Jones, the property’s neighbor and caretaker. He’s a caring, reassuring presence who’s making her feel safe and alive again. Then late one night, Iris hears a chilling cry for help coming from a walkie-talkie buried in a box of toys. As the calls get more desperate, personal, and menacing, Iris realizes the person on the other end isn’t reaching out for help. They’re reaching out to terrorize her. Now the only way for Iris to move forward in life is to confront the past she’s been running from…a threat that has now followed her into the dark. My Review: Sometimes when we can’t see light anywhere, we need to make it for ourselves.  We need to reach deep withi

Meant to Be by Emily Giffin

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☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 304 pages Expected Publication: 31 May 2022 By: Random House Publishing Group About The Book: The Kingsley family is practically American royalty, beloved for their military heroics, political service, and unmatched elegance. When Joseph S. Kingsley III is born in 1960, he inherits the weight of that legacy. Growing up with all the Kingsley looks and charisma, Joe should have no problem taking up the mantle after his father’s untimely death. But he is also a little bit reckless, and can’t seem to figure out how to channel the expectations of an entire country. No one ever expected anything of Cate, on the other hand. She, too, grew up in a single-parent household—just her and her mom scraping by in their small apartment. As a teenager, though, Cate is discovered for her looks. Modeling may be her only ticket out of the cycle of disappointment that her mother has always inhabited. Before too long, her face is everywhere, though she is always aware that she’d be a pariah in h

A Rip Through Time (A Rip Through Time #1) by Kelley Armstrong

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☆☆☆ ☆ ☆ .ePUB, 352 pages Expected Publication: 31 May 2022 By: St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books About The Book: May 20, 2019: Homicide detective Mallory is in Edinburgh to be with her dying grandmother. While out on a jog one evening, Mallory hears a woman in distress. She’s drawn to an alley, where she is attacked and loses consciousness. May 20, 1869: Housemaid Catriona Mitchell had been enjoying a half-day off, only to be discovered that night in a lane, where she’d been strangled and left for dead . . . exactly one-hundred-and-fifty years before Mallory was strangled in the same spot. When Mallory wakes up in Catriona's body in 1869, she must put aside her shock and adjust quickly to the reality: life as a housemaid to an undertaker in Victorian Scotland. She soon discovers that her boss, Dr. Gray, also moonlights as a medical examiner and has just taken on an intriguing case, the strangulation of a young man, similar to the attack on herself. Her only hope is that catch

When We Let Go by Rochelle B. Weinstein

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☆☆☆☆ .MOBI, 255 pages Expected Publication: May 17th 2022 By: Lake Union Publishing About The Book: When Avery Beckett is proposed to by Jude Masters, a widowed father and the man she loves, it should be a time of great joy. Instead, Avery is on edge. She’s wary of the idea of family, doubtful of happy endings, and too afraid to take the leap. It’s the kind of fear that comes from having secrets. Before Avery commits to a new life, she must reconcile with the one she left behind. When Avery returns to her childhood farm in the North Carolina mountains, she’s surprised to be saddled with a companion: Jude’s teenage daughter, Elle, who’s grappling with the loss of her mother and the complicated emotions of first love. On a path of mending wounds and breaking down walls, Avery and Elle form an unexpected alliance. It’s giving them the courage to move forward. And for Avery, everything she needs to confront the past. My Review: This is my first book by  Rochelle B. Weinstein, but it won&#

My Wife Is Missing by D.J. Palmer

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☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 384 pages Expected Publication: May 10th 2022 By: St. Martin's Press About The Book: A family vacation turns into a nightmare for Michael Hart when he discovers his wife and two children have disappeared from their New York City hotel room. Horrified, he fears they’ve been kidnapped. Michael’s frantic search to find them takes a shocking turn when he discovers that his wife, Natalie, appears to have left quite willingly, taking their children with her. The police want to know why, and so does Michael. But there may be a reason why Natalie ran, something Michael can’t tell the police—the truth about his past. While untangling his deceptions might be the key to locating Natalie, Michael knows it could also be his undoing. To find his wife, he must now turn to the one person capable of exposing all that he’s been hiding. Natalie thinks she has Michael all figured out and has hatched a plan to escape from him permanently. One detail, though, threatens to derail her efforts:

Dreaming of Flight by Catherine Ryan Hyde

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☆☆☆ ☆ ☆ .PDF, 324 pages Expected Publication: 03 May 2022 By: Lake Union Publishing About The Book: Never knowing his parents, eleven-year-old Stewie Little and his brother have been raised on a farm by their older sister. Stewie steadfastly tends the chickens left by his beloved late grandmother. And every day Stewie goes door to door selling fresh eggs from his wagon—a routine with a surprise just around the corner. It’s his new customer, Marilyn. She’s prickly and guarded, yet comfortably familiar—she reminds the grieving Stewie so much of the grandmother he misses more than he can express. Marilyn has a reason for keeping her distance: a secret no one knows about. Her survival tactic is to draw a line between herself and other people—one that Stewie is determined to cross. As their visits become more frequent, a complicated but deeply rooted relationship grows. That’s when Stewie discovers how much more there is to Marilyn, to her past, and to challenges that become more pressing

Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey

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☆☆☆1/2 .ePUB, 296 pages Expected Publication: 19 Apr 2022 By: Simon & Schuster Canada About The Book: Sarah Goldman, mother to six-year-old Jacob, is relieved to move across the country. She has a lot she wants to leave behind, especially Holly Monroe, the pretty twenty-two-year-old babysitter she and her husband, Daniel, hired to take care of their young son last summer. It started out as a perfect arrangement—Sarah had a childminder her son adored, and Holly found the mother figure she’d always wanted. But Sarah’s never been one to trust very easily, so she kept a close eye on Holly, maybe too close at times. What she saw raised some questions, not only about who Holly really was but what she was hiding. The more Sarah watched, the more she learned—until one day, she saw something she couldn’t unsee, something so shocking that all she could do was flee. Sarah has put it all behind her and is starting over in a different city with her husband and son. They’ve settled into a frien

What Next? by Shari Low

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☆☆☆☆ .ePUB, 285 pages Expected Publication: 13 Apr 2022 By: Boldwood Books About The Book: Val Murray and her best friend, Josie had been planning a ‘Thelma and Louise’ bucket list style holiday. Now Josie is gone, and Val needs to make the trip before it’s too late. But Val doesn’t want to do it alone, so she enlists the help of her nieces, Carly and Carole, and their best pal, Jess, who jump at the chance to join Val on a trip of a lifetime. What Val doesn’t realise is that Carly, Carole and Jess are all at turning points in their own lives, nursing crushing secrets, lies and betrayals. Somewhere between Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York they all hit a crossroads and have to decide if they want to return to the lives they left behind or let Josie’s last wishes take them on a brand new adventure. My Review:  I love Shari Low's books. I have read both The Story of Our Secrets and One Summer Sunrise and they were five star reads for me. Ms. Low has done it yet again with What N

Our Little World by Karen Winn

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☆☆☆ ☆ ☆ .ePUB, 352 pages Expected Publication: May 3rd 2022 By: Penguin Group, Dutton About The Book: July 1985. It’s a normal, sweltering New Jersey summer for soon-to-be seventh grader Bee Kocsis. Her thoughts center only on sunny days spent at Deer Chase Lake, evenings chasing fireflies around her cul-de-sac with the neighborhood kids, and Max, the boy who just moved in across the street. That and the burgeoning worry that she’ll never be as special as her younger sister, Audrina, who seems to effortlessly dazzle wherever she goes. But when Max’s little sister, Sally, goes missing at the lake, Bee’s long-held illusion of stability is shattered in an instant. As the families in her close-knit community turn inward, suspicious, and protective, things in Bee’s own home become increasingly strained, most of all with Audrina, when a shameful secret surfaces. With everything changed, Bee and Audrina’s already-fraught sisterhood is pushed to the limit as they grow up—and apart—in the wake