Shelley's Book Nook

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 .ePUB, 277 pages Publication Date: 12 Nov 2019 By: Mulholland Books About The Book: After fifteen years of growing up in the Ozark hills with his widowed mother, high-school freshman Boady Sanden is beyond ready to move on. He dreams of glass towers and cityscapes, driven by his desire to be anywhere other than Jessup, Missouri. The new kid at St. Ignatius High School, if he isn’t being pushed around, he is being completely ignored. Even his beloved woods, his playground as a child and his sanctuary as he grew older, seem to be closing in on him, suffocating him. Then Thomas Elgin moves in across the road, and Boady’s life begins to twist and turn. Coming to know the Elgins--a black family settling into a community where notions of “us” and “them” carry the weight of history--forces Boady to rethink his understanding of the world he’s taken for granted. Secrets hidden in plain sight begin to unfold: the mother who wraps herself in the loss of her husband, the neighbor who c...

🌟🌟🌟🌟 .ePUB, 272 pages Publication Date: May 10th, 2022 By: Viking About The Book: hey say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser that has felt too true for the last decade, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart. Until the day she gets a call that sends her racing back to Barry's Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek. For five summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family restaurant and curling up together with books--medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her--Percy and Sam had been inseparable. And slowly that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart. When Percy returns to the lake to attend Sam's mother's funeral, their conn...

🌟🌟 🌟🌟 .ePUB, 269 pages Expected Publication: 04 Oct 2022 By: Sourcebooks Landmark About The Book: There was always an old woman dying in the back room of her family’s house when Isla was a child...Isla Larsen Sanchez’s life begins to unravel when her father passes away. Instead of being comforted at home in New Jersey, her mother starts leaving her in Puerto Rico with her grandmother and great-aunt each summer like a piece of forgotten luggage. When Isla turns eighteen, her grandmother, a great storyteller, dies. It is then that Isla discovers she has a gift passed down through her family’s cuentistas. The tales of dead family storytellers are brought back to life, replaying themselves over and over in front of her. At first, Isla is enchanted by this connection to the Sanchez cuentistas. But when Isla has a vision of an old murder mystery, she realizes that if she can't solve it to make the loop end, these seemingly harmless stories could cost Isla her life. My Review: What a ...

🌟🌟 🌟🌟 .PDF, 296 pages Expected Publication: 18 Oct 2022 By: Lake Union Publishing About The Book: Blythe Harmon is on the fast track to a life she never wanted. On her thirtieth birthday, just as she’s about to lock herself into a high-powered job and accept a marriage proposal to match, an unusual bequest from her beloved late grandmother, Nomi, offers an escape and an invitation to adventure. Equipped with Nomi’s urn of ashes and a treasure map, Blythe sets off for a small island in the San Juans where she rents the mysterious and unsettling Improbable House. Secret by secret, clue by cryptic clue, she begins to unravel the puzzle her grandmother has left her to piece together. Her quest is complicated, though, by a powerful attraction to an enigmatic islander and empathy for his orphaned niece, both of whom are inexorably tied to the old house. Just when Blythe thinks she’s on the verge of solving the mystery, her quest takes an unexpected turn and she discovers that the treasur...

🌟🌟 🌟🌟 .PDF, 239 pages Expected Publication: 18 Oct 2022 By: Lake Union Publishing About The Book: Twenty-two years of marriage, and all Becca Larkin’s divorce settlement includes is a live-aboard sailboat and a huge helping of heartache. So when normally cautious Becca proposes a girls’ trip with her daughter, Liv, boating from Maine to a ready buyer for the boat in Miami, it seems like a recipe for a fun summer and a fresh start. After all, how hard can this sailing thing be? Enter Grant Murphy, a stunning Irish sailing coach that Liv can barely stand—and Becca can’t seem to resist. Grant’s too young for Becca, but he’s insightful and kind, and his passion for sailing is contagious. Through his eyes, Becca sees for the first time in years a future she might want to navigate toward. There are seventeen hundred miles between Maine and Miami, but the journey Becca’s on can’t be charted on any map. And the only way to get there is to hoist the sails and throw caution to the wind. From...

🌟🌟 🌟🌟 .ePUB, 260 pages Expected Publication: 01 Nov 2022 By: Sourcebooks Fire About The Book: When 17-year-old Hunter Gifford wakes in the hospital on the night of homecoming, he's shocked to learn he and his girlfriend, Chloe Summers, have been in a terrible car accident. Hunter has no memory of the crash, and his shock turns to horror when he is told Chloe's blood has been found in the car―but she has disappeared. Back at school, his fellow students taunt him, and his former best friend starts making a true-crime documentary about the case―one that points the finger directly at Hunter. And just when things can't get any worse, Chloe's mother stands in front of the entire town at a candlelight vigil and accuses Hunter of murder. Under mounting pressure from the police, Hunter takes matters into his own hands by questioning anyone who might know the truth and posting videos to prove his innocence. When Hunter learns he and Chloe were seen arguing loudly outside the ...

🌟🌟 🌟🌟 .ePUB, 368 pages Expected Publication: 02 Aug 2022 By: Random House Publishing Group About The Book: As a teenager, Kate found a safe harbor from her parents' constant fighting in the company of the four Gonne sisters, who lived with their strict grandparents next to Small Angels, a church on the edge of dense green woods. The first outsider to ever get close to the sisters, Kate eventually learned the family's secret: The woods are home to a capricious, menacing ghost whom generations of Gonnes had been charged with stopping from venturing into the village itself. But as the sisters grew older, braver, and more independent, bucking against the family's burden, the bulwark began to crack, culminating in a horrifying act of violence that drove a terrible wedge between the sisters and Kate. Chloe has been planning her dream wedding for months. She has the dress, the flowers, and the perfect venue: Small Angels, a charming old church in the village where her fiancé, ...

🌟🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 .PDF, 235 pages Expected Publication: 06 Dec 2022 By: Lake Union Publishing About The Book: Lewis Madigan is young, gay, out of work, and getting antsy when he’s roped into providing end-of-life care for his insufferable homophobic neighbor, Chester Wheeler. Lewis doesn’t need the aggravation, just the money. The only requirements: run errands, be on call, and put up with a miserable old churl no one else in Buffalo can bear. After exchanging barbs, bickering, baiting, and pushing buttons, Chester hits Lewis with the big ask. Lewis can’t say no to a dying wish: drive Chester to Arizona in his rust bucket of a Winnebago to see his ex-wife for the first time in thirty-two years—for the last time. One week, two thousand miles. To Lewis, it becomes an illuminating journey into the life and secrets of a vulnerable man he’s finally beginning to understand. A neighbor, a stranger, and a surprising new friend whose closure on a conflicted past is also just beginning. My Review: C...

🌟🌟 🌟🌟 .ePUB, 232 pages Expected Publication: 15 Sep 2022 By: Sandstone Press About The Book: The public think Ava’s a monster. Ava thinks she’s blameless. In prison, they called her Butcher Bird – but Ava’s not in prison any more. Released after 25 years to a new identity and a new home, Ava finally has the quiet life she’s always wanted. But someone knows who she is. The lies she’s told are about to unravel. My Review: I loved being inside Ava/Robin's head. Everyone hated her (including me) because they thought she was the reason a child died.  She feels innocent and should be treated that way, it was really easy for me to hate her but the author also made me feel some sympathy too. That was pretty amazing to me. The story itself was very captivating and I was surprised by the emotions I felt reading it. I had so much anger and hate for Ava/Robin.  Although this started a little on the slow side for me it picked up the pace eventually when I new character was introduced a...

🌟🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 .ePUB, 186 pages Expected Publication: 20 Sep 2022 By: Random House Publishing Group About The Book: As a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by her ex-husband and on-again, off-again friend, William. For the next several months, it's just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the moody, swirling sea. My Review: I adore Elizabeth Strout's books so much. She is such a wonderful storyteller and the simplicity of her words and her subjects are what make them so special. The fact that this takes place during the pandemic doesn't necessarily make this a COVID story, it is more about how one woman =, and her extended family, deal with things during it. It felt very real and true to life and Lucy's feelings on the subject and the time she is in reflect what a lot of people were thinking and feeling. I don't know how Elizabeth ...

🌟🌟 🌟🌟 .ePUB, 295 pages Expected Publication: 13 Sep 2022 By: Sourcebooks Landmark About The Book: Natalie Walker is the reason her older brother and sister went to prison more than fifteen years ago. She fled California shortly after that fateful night and hasn't spoken to anyone in her family since. Ten years later, Natalie receives a letter from a lawyer saying her estranged mother has died and left the family's historic Santa Cruz house to her--sort of. To inherit it, Natalie and her siblings must claim it together. Natalie drives cross-country to Santa Cruz with her willful cat in tow expecting to sign some papers, see siblings Lynn and Jake briefly, and get back to sorting out her life in Boston. But Jake, now an award-winning ornithologist, is missing, and Lynn, working as an undertaker in New York City, shows up with a teenage son. While Natalie and her nephew look for Jake--and meeting a very handsome marine biologist along the way--she unpacks the guilt she has hel...

🌟🌟 .ePUB, 292 pages Expected Publication: 28 Jul 2022 By: Boldwood Books About The Book: She loves him. Lizzie Green once loved Tom Murphy with a passion that bordered on obsession. All she wanted was his love to be returned. Then one night something terrible happened and Tom left Lizzie broken hearted. She swore she would never let him hurt her again. She loves him not. Now, ten years later, Tom turns up on Lizzie’s doorstep still as charming as ever. Lizzie knows he still has the power to break her heart and destroy her life again. But Lizzie can’t say no to him. My Review: I really hate writing bad reviews as I know the author has put a lot of work into writing their book. BUT...this one was not for me. It is told from a single point of view, that being the main character Lizzie. All she does throughout the entire book is hem and haw about what she's going to do about Tom. Over and over again she keeps going back and forth...ad nauseam. There is a lot of internal dialogue that...

🌟🌟 🌟🌟 .PDF, 222 pages Expected Publication: 20 Sep 2022 By: Lake Union Publishing About The Book: It was supposed to be a good day. On the one-year anniversary of her divorce, Alex Martinez is getting closure—and margaritas with her two best friends. But just before the celebratory meetup, Alex is clobbered by life once again. Damping the cheer is the diagnosis of a brain tumor she can’t pronounce, a procedure she’d rather postpone, and the prospect of what to say to an already heartbroken mother. Not that Alex plans to tell her anything anytime soon. Going from blissful to blindsided in one afternoon, Alex has other plans: to be impulsive and embark on an adventure she’ll never forget. Expected destinations: the Grand Canyon, Puerto Rico, and zip-lining through Costa Rica. Unexpected companion: a hiker named David who’s found a woman after his own heart. But no matter how enriching the journey, how long can Alex keep running? It’s time to accept past griefs, reconnect with her mot...

🌟🌟 .ePUB, 263 pages Expected Publication: 21 Jul 2022 By: Boldwood Books About The Book: Nameless. Faceless. Deadly? Waitress Kit Lowman knows that people look down on her and the job she does. But being anonymous offers Kit safety and security and allows her own terrible secrets to remain hidden. And then Kit’s luck changes, and she suddenly faces a terrible dilemma: reveal her true identity and accept that life will never be the same. Or stay in the shadows…where she hopes she’ll be safe? But secrets can’t stay hidden forever. And the more Kit tries to hide away, the more someone makes it clear that they are going to make her pay for what she did. My Review: Around this time last year I read and enjoyed The Bridesmaid by Nina Manning  so I was so happy to get this one from NetGalley. I am unhappy to report that The Waitress did not meet my expectations. It isn't a bad book but it was really slow-paced and I just could not get into it. Were are told the story from Kit's poin...

🌟🌟 🌟🌟 .ePUB, 369 pages Expected Publication: 16 Aug 2022 By: Atria Books/Emily Bestler Books About The Book: A Hollywood has-been, Sarah Lai’s dreams of success behind the camera have been put to the wayside. Now a lecturer at an obscure college, this former producer wants nothing more than to forget those youthful ambitions and push aside any feelings of regret…or guilt. But when a journalist reaches out to her to discuss her own experience working with the celebrated film producer Hugo North, Sarah can no longer keep silent. This is her last chance to tell her side of the story and maybe even exact belated vengeance. As Sarah recounts the industry’s dark and sordid secrets, however, she begins to realize that she has a few sins of her own to confess. Now she must confront her choices and ask herself, just who was complicit? My Review: This is very much a literary thriller that is intricately and intelligently written. The timely subject matter of the #metoo movement is absorbing....

🌟🌟 .ePUB, 219 pages Expected Publication: 03 Jul 2022 By: Inkubator Books About The Book: Single mum Anni would do anything for her little boy, Tobi, he is the center of her world. So she is utterly devastated when Tobi is run over and killed by drunk driver, Carl. Anni hates Carl for what he’s done and takes some comfort from the lengthy prison sentence he is serving. But she can’t live on hate and after a time spent grieving for her son, Anni returns to work and tries to move on with her life. She is lonely without Tobi and glad to make a new friend, Jo. But Jo has a secret. She is connected to the fatal accident in a way that Anni never suspects. And Jo is determined that Anni will never discover the awful truth about what really happened that day. As the two women grow closer, Anni begins to feel that her new friend is keeping something from her. A terrible suspicion begins to dawn and Anni starts to dig deeper into Jo’s past. Will she discover the horrifying truth? Or will she f...

🌟🌟 🌟🌟 .ePUB, 387 pages Expected Publication: 15 Sep 2022 By: Sea Dragon Press About The Book: Her mother dead from a drug overdose, thirteen-year-old Olivia is rescued by Cathie Tulloch, her mother’s friend throughout the years they were held captive in Japanese prison camps in Sumatra in WWII. Welcomed into the Tulloch’s remote family home in the Australian tropics, introverted Olivia is claimed by dramatic, generous, controlling Cassandra Tulloch as her sister and best friend. Moving to the UK at 18, Olivia finds her independence — and partner Ben. But in 1970, after five years away, she is homesick, and ready to fulfill her long-held dream: to make a family of her own. In Brisbane she and Ben share a hippie lifestyle with Cassandra and husband, Sebastian. But while earth-mother Cassandra effortlessly produces beautiful babies, for Olivia, becoming a mother is hard. Even harder is discovering the truth about her own mother. And when the unimaginable happens, destroying the friend...

🌟🌟 🌟🌟 🌟 .ePUB, 331 pages Expected Publication: 09 Aug 2022 By: Simon & Schuster Canada, Atria Books About The Book: London. Early morning, June 2019: on the foreshore of the river Thames, a bag of bones is discovered. Human bones. DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene and quickly sends the bag for forensic examination. The bones are those of a young woman, killed by a blow to the head many years ago. Also inside the bag is a trail of clues, in particular the seeds of a rare tree which lead DCI Owusu back to a mansion in Chelsea where, nearly thirty years previously, three people lay dead in a kitchen, and a baby waited upstairs for someone to pick her up. The clues point forward too to a brother and sister in Chicago searching for the only person who can make sense of their pasts. Four deaths. An unsolved mystery. A family whose secrets can't stay buried for ever. My Review: Has it really been three years since book one!? My gosh time flies. I adored The Family Upstairs ...

☆☆☆ ☆ ☆ .ePUB, 446 pages Expected Publication: 04 Oct 2022 By: Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine About The Book: Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life--living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher--was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's beekeeping business. Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start. And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can't help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him compl...

☆☆☆☆ .PDF, 251 pages Expected Publication: 30 Aug 2022 By: Lake Union Publishing About The Book: Nona “Peaches” Davenport, abandoned by the man she loved and betrayed by family, left her Natchez, Mississippi, home fifteen years ago and never looked back. She’s forged a promising future in Chicago as a professor of African American Studies. Nona even finds her once-closed heart persuaded by a new love. But that’s all shaken when her father’s death forces her to return to everything she’s tried to forget. Julia Curtis hasn’t forgiven her sister for deserting the family. Just like their mother, Nona walked away from Julia when she needed her most. And Julia doesn’t feel guilty for turning to Nona’s old flame, Marcus, for comfort. He helped Julia build a new life. She has a child, a career, and a determination to move on from old family wounds. Upon Nona’s return to Natchez, a cautious reunion unfolds, and everything Nona and Julia thought they knew—about themselves, each other, and those...

☆☆☆ ☆ ☆  .PDF, 352 pages /.ePUB 267 pages Expected Publication: 15 Sep 2022 / 27 Sep 2022 By: Pan Macmillan / Simon & Schuster Canada / Atria Books About The Book: The Other Side of Night begins with a man named David Asha writing about his biggest regret: his sudden separation from his son, Elliot. In his grief, David tells a story. Next, we step into the life of Harriet Kealty, a police officer trying to clear her name after a lapse of judgment. She discovers a curious inscription in a secondhand book—a plea: Help me, he’s trying to kill me. Who wrote this note? Who is “he”? This note leads Harri to David Asha, who was last seen stepping off a cliff. Police suspect he couldn’t cope after his wife’s sudden death. Still, why would this man jump and leave behind his young son? Quickly, Harri’s attention zeroes in on a person she knows all too well. Ben Elmys: once the love of her life. A surrogate father to Elliot Asha and trusted friend to the Ashas. Ben may also be ...