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Showing posts from August, 2022

Happiness is a Thing With Wings by Susi Osborne

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⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 .ePUB, 281 pages Expected Publication: August 28, 2022 By: Book Guild Publishing WOB  |  Booktopia   About The Book: Joanna is approaching the end of her forties and the empty nest syndrome looms. She consoles herself with gin and chocolate, realising that apart from raising her son Jack, she has achieved absolutely nothing. Somewhat on the plus side of plump and barely five feet tall, she finds it difficult not to envy her younger, prettier sister. Such elevated elegance seems so unfair – as does Hannah’s successful marriage. Joanna, in contrast, has remained in a loveless marriage for the past thirty years, stuck in a rut with the most miserable man on the planet but not having the impetus to get out. It takes an embarrassing but hilarious encounter in the supermarket to make her realise what she’s been missing. It’s exactly the push she needs to make her change her life. With a little encouragement, Joanna starts to regain her independence, finally leaving her grumpy husba

Run Time by Catherine Ryan Howard

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ .ePUB, 417 pages Published: 16 Aug 2022 By: Blackstone Publishing Amazon | Goodreads About The Book: Lights Feeling her stardom fading, struggling soap-actress Adele Rafferty is ready to give up on her dreams when she gets a last-minute offer to play the lead in upcoming horror film Final Draft. Could this be her big break? Will she have redemption for what happened the last time she was on a film set? Adele doesn’t think twice before signing the dotted line. Camera Adele quickly makes her way to set, deep into the isolated and wintry woods of West Cork, Ireland, miles away from civilization and cell service. Action When real life on set starts to somehow mirror the sinister events portrayed in the script, Adele fears the real horror lies off the page. Isolated and unsure who in the crew she can trust, is there anywhere or any time left to run? My Review: This book was pretty unique in that it is a book about a movie script that contains a book. Yes, that means three plot th

Bernice Runs Away by Talya Tate Boerner

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ .ePUB, 360 pages Expected Publication: 01 Oct 2022 By: One Mississippi Press, LLC Amazon  |  Goodreads About The Book: Life hasn’t always been easy for Bernice, but she is reasonably content at the ripe age of eighty-one. She has raised two children, buried both her husband and son, and is doing okay despite a few minor health issues. When Bernice’s daughter, Sarah, insists the time has come for Bernice to forfeit her independence and move into her backyard carriage house, Bernice refuses. “I have a perfectly good house in Arkansas. Why on earth would I move to Atlanta?” Despite Bernice’s protestations, Sarah moves forward with death cleaning and estate sale planning as though Bernice has no say in the matter. Bernice has plenty to say about a variety of things. With Miss Fiona packed stem to stern with only those things that spark joy (thank you, Marie Kondo) and inspired by an old black-and-white photograph of her first true love, Bernice leaves her cozy home in Savage Cros

Perfectly Ordinary People by Nick Alexander

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ .ePUB, 399 pages Published: 26 July 2022 By: Lake Union Publishing About The Book: In occupied France, two people sacrificed everything. Now their granddaughter has come looking for the truth…Ruth’s childhood was a happy one, and her family—on her mother’s side—large and loving. But her father’s French origins have always remained a mystery. Now, with aged relatives beginning to die, Ruth decides to research her father’s family before it’s too late. When she discovers a series of long-lost cassettes, everything she thought she knew about them shatters. The tapes expose an unimaginable truth – an epic wartime story of hidden love and sacrifice, stretching back to occupied France. These long-buried confessions will rock Ruth’s family—and finally piece together the puzzle of her father’s heritage. But are any of them ready for the truth? My Review: Love isn’t like a cake.  It doesn’t get smaller when you give bits of it away.  Love is more like a tree. The more you nurture it,

The New House by Tess Stimson

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 .ePUB, 376 pages Expected Publication: 4 Aug 2022 By: Avon Amazon  |  Goodreads About The Book: Three couples. Three houses. One home to die for…Stacey and Felix are the glamorous owners of the stylish, modern Glass House, with its pool and floor-to-ceiling windows. Now they’re downsizing, but Stacey can’t sell to just anyone. She needs the right buyer, who will keep her secrets. Millie and Tom have always imagined living in the Glass House. Now it’s for sale. With property prices booming, if they can sell quickly, it could be theirs. But are the house and its charming owners all they seem? Harper and Kyle are moving up in the world. They need a new house, in the right school district, to give their children the start in life they never had. Millie and Tom’s is perfect. It’ll take every penny they have, and more, but it’ll be worth it. Won’t it? When one of the sales falls through, how far will someone go to get everything they’ve always wanted? My Review: Maybe moving to

Lost Luggage by Samantha Tonge

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🧳🧳🧳🧳🧳 .ePUB, 268 pages Expected Publication: 22 Sept 2022 By: Boldwood Books Amazon  |  Goodreads About The Book: or almost fifty years, sisters Dolly and Greta have lived together – getting each other through the good times and the bad. Except this year, Greta isn’t there and Dolly is feeling lost and alone. In memory of her sister, Dolly heads to the lost luggage auction where she and Greta go each Christmas. But her bid reveals a gift she never imagined. Amongst the clothes is the notebook of a reclusive woman who has hardly been outside for an entire year, but who isn’t ready to give up on life. The notebook’s contents resonate with Dolly. With the support of her neighbours, retired Leroy and eleven year old Flo, Dolly decides to take on the year of firsts Phoebe had planned. But, can you have a year of firsts when you’re seventy-two? And is Dolly ready to discover the notebook’s secrets, or are some secrets better left lost at the airport? My Review: She’d always imagined he

I Know Your Secret by Ruth Heald

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⭐️ .ePUB, 278 pages Published: June 10th 2020 By: Bookouture About The Book: She thinks she knows me. She believes my marriage is falling apart at the seams, that my husband can barely look me in the eyes. She thinks I’m desperate for a baby, that my longing for a family keeps me up at night. As much as I hate to admit it, all of this is true. She thinks I listen to her advice, that I care about her opinion. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Because she has no idea who I am. She has no clue that I know everything. I know her secret. I know that she did the unforgivable. I know how many lives she ruined. I know exactly what she did. And I’m here for her. My Review: Attention authors...taking one antidepressant does not a cure make. It takes WEEKS of being on a prescribed amount for any positive effects. I see this all the time in psychological thrillers, a character takes one pill and starts to feel better. Also, DO NOT DO THIS "An absolutely gripping psychological thrille

Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer

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🥚🥚🥚🥚🥚 .ePUB, 227 pages Published: 09 Aug 2022 By: Headline Books/Review Amazon | Goodreads About The Book: Isaac stands alone on a bridge and screams. Something screams back. And that, like everything which follows, is unforgettable. This is a book about a lot of things - grief, hope, friendship, love. It's also about what you'd do if you stumbled into the woods at dawn, found something extraordinary there, and decided to take it home. It's a tale that might seem familiar. But how it speaks to you will depend on how you've lived until now. Sometimes, to get out of the woods, you have to go into them. Isaac and the Egg is one of the most hopeful, honest and wildly imaginative novels you will ever read. My Review: This book was everything. It is sort of a feel-good book, but not completely, it is also a very sad book but has many funny moments. It is definitely literary fiction but the plot is divine. This is undeniably a character-driven novel and Egg and Isaac ar

The Eternal Return of Clara Hart by Louise Finch

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❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ .ePUB, 198 pages Published: 04 August 2022 By: Little Island Books Amazon | Goodreads About The Book: Spence and Anthony have been friends for years, but it’s only when he witnesses a classmate die in what looks like a tragic accident at a house party that a flicker in the fabric of time helps Spence ‘see’ Anthony for the first time. When Spence wakes up to the same day again and sees Clara, the girl who died, alive and well, it’s clear he’s been granted a second chance. And a third. And a fourth…Caught in a loop, condemned to experience the same 24 hours over and over, Spence tries to prevent the terrible events of the party. To break the spell he has to re-evaluate everything he previously took for granted and find the courage to call out his own and others complicity in events that marked the life and death of Clara Hart. My Review: This book broke me. I am not really into science fiction but I love a good time travel or time loop story. This book is also classified as y

Someone We Know by Shari Lapena

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⭐️⭐️⭐️ ✨ .ePUB, 320 pages Expected Publication: 20 May 2020 By: Penguin Books Amazon | Goodreads About The Book: Maybe you don't know your neighbors as well as you thought you did . . ."This is a very difficult letter to write. I hope you will not hate us too much. . . My son broke into your home recently while you were out." In a quiet, leafy suburb in upstate New York, a teenager has been sneaking into houses--and into the owners' computers as well--learning their secrets, and maybe sharing some of them, too. Who is he, and what might he have uncovered? After two anonymous letters are received, whispers start to circulate, and suspicion mounts. And when a woman down the street is found murdered, the tension reaches the breaking point. Who killed her? Who knows more than they're telling? And how far will all these very nice people go to protect their own secrets? In this neighborhood, it's not just the husbands and wives who play games. Here, everyone in th

The Trip by Rebecca Ley

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ .ePUB, 340 pages Published: 11 July 2022 By: Orion Amazon  |  Goodreads About The Book: The trip was supposed to be the perfect holiday. Six friends, reuniting after two decades, spending the weekend in a beautiful riad in Marrakesh. Only, these friends are linked by more than their university days. Together, they've kept a dark secret that changed the course of all their lives forever. And as the truth threatens to surface in the stifling Moroccan heat, they all begin to question what really happened that terrible night twenty years ago. My Review: This book wasn't what I was expecting at all, and I liked that about it. This was a study of long-term friendships and how the secrets of our younger selves affect us later in life. It is told in two timelines and I enjoyed getting to know the characters when they were at university. There is an air of mystery as the friends meet for a weekend away, both old news and new. I didn't like these characters very much but t

The Cabin in the Woods by Sarah Alderson

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⭐️⭐️⭐️ .ePUB, 252 pages Publication Date: 07 July 2022 By: Avon Amazon | Goodreads About The Book: In a cabin in a wood, A woman by the window stood. Glancing out, she thought she heard Footsteps, whistling, something stirred. Hiding here, she fears the night, For what’s done in the dark will come to light. She must run fast to escape her lie Or she’ll be the next to die… My Review: This is my fourth book by this author, The Weekend Away , In Her Eyes , and especially The Stalker were all amazing books and four or five star reads for me. I was so disappointed with this one and it is a hard book to review. On the one hand, I was furiously flipping pages anxious to see what happened next but on the other hand, it was a little too far-fetched for me. I was really enjoying this until the halfway mark when things got a little out there. I liked the two different timelines and that they finally converge into an explosive revelation. The writing is definitely suspenseful and the

This Is Us by Helen McGinn

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ .ePUB, 246 pages Expected Publication: 14 Sept 2022 By: Boldwood Books Amazon  |  Goodreads About The Book: Stella fell in love with Simon hard and fast. He was everything she wanted in a husband, and he seemed to feel the same way about her. More than a decade of marriage later, life is sweet. They have three much-wanted children, a successful business, and a comfortable London home. What more could Stella possibly want? But then, out of the blue, Simon is gone. Vanished. No one knows where he’s gone or why. Now Stella, with the help of her friends and family, has to pick up the pieces of her and her children’s life, all the while wondering what she missed. Was her husband who he said he was, and can she trust her own memories of their life together? My Review: Remember to face the sunshine I liked this book a lot. The characters were very relatable, the type of ladies I would like to be friends with. They really had each other's backs and were so capable and independent

Always the First to Die by R.J. Jacobs

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⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 .ePUB, 250 pages Expected Publication: 14 Sept 2022 By: Sourcebooks Landmark Amazon  |  Goodreads About The Book: After her husband's death, Lexi has refused to return to the Pinecrest Estate on the Florida Keys, too many hard memories on that strip of land. Memories of meeting her husband on the set of an iconic horror movie. Of being cast as an extra, of watching herself get killed on screen. And of scoffing at the rumors of the Pinecrest Estate "curse," until she witnessed a cast member die that very summer. But when her daughter sneaks away to visit her grandfather, legendary horror movie director Rick Plummer, Lexi is forced to face her past. That's when a Category Four hurricane changes course, and hits the southern coast. Unable to get through to her daughter, Lexi drives to the Keys in the wake of the storm. What she finds is an island without cell service, without power, and with limited police presence. A desolate bit of land, with only a few remain

Gallows Hill by Darcy Coates

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😱 😱 😱 😱 .ePUB, 350 pages Expected Publication: 06 Sep 2022 By: Poisoned Pen Press Amazon | Goodreads About The Book: The Hull family has owned the Gallows Hill Winery for generations, living and working on the beautiful grounds where they grow their famous grapes. Until the night Mr. and Mrs. Hull settle down for the evening...and are dead by morning. When their daughter, Margot, inherits the family business, she wants nothing to do with it. The winery is valued for its unparalleled produce, but it's built on a field where hundreds of convicts were once hanged, and the locals whisper morbid rumors. They say the ground is cursed. It's been more than a decade since Margot last saw her childhood home. But now that she's alone in the sprawling, dilapidated building, she begins to believe the curse is more than real―and that she may be the next victim of the house that never rests. My Review: I have read three other books by this author; The Whispering Dead , The Ravenous D

Waiting for Sunshine by Jane Sanderson

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☀️☀️☀️☀️ .ePUB, 397 pages Publication Date: 21 July 2022 By: Transworld Books Amazon | Goodreads About The Book: Who would name a child Sunshine, then give her away? Chrissie has always wanted to be a mother. After years of trying to adopt, she and her husband Stuart finally get the news that a little girl named Sunshine is waiting for them. Abandoned at a young age, the child comes to them without a family history, and it feels like a fresh start for all of them. But when fragments from Sunshine's previous life start to intrude on her new one, the little girl's mysterious past quickly becomes Chrissie's greatest fear. My Review: This book was both terribly sad and laugh-out-loud funny. I don't know how she did it but Jane Sanderson managed to write the voice and thoughts of a three-year-old girl so real and true to life I could picture Sunny clearly and wanted to pick her up and take her home with me. In fact, all the characters were believable and Chrissie was my

The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie by Rachel Linden

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🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋 .ePUB, 352 pages Expected Publication: 02 Aug 2022 By: Berkley About The Book: Lolly Blanchard's life only seems to give her lemons. Ten years ago, after her mother's tragic death, she broke up with her first love and abandoned her dream of opening a restaurant in order to keep her family's struggling Seattle diner afloat and care for her younger sister and grieving father. Now, a decade later, she dutifully whips up the diner's famous lemon meringue pies each morning while still pining for all she's lost. As Lolly's thirty-third birthday approaches, her quirky great-aunt gives her a mysterious gift--three lemon drops, each of which allows her to live a single day in a life that might have been hers. What if her mom hadn't passed away? What if she had opened her own restaurant in England? What if she hadn't broken up with the only man she's ever loved? Surprising and empowering, each experience helps Lolly let go of her regrets and realize

Before I Go by Brian Charles

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ .ePUB, 230 pages Expected Publication: 27 Sep 2022 By: Kensington Books, A John Scognamiglio Book Amazon | Goodreads About The Book: A year after her husband's plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean, Abby Gamble knows she needs to start moving beyond her grief. She and Ben shared a deep love, made even stronger by the heartache they went through together. But Ben would want her to keep living. So Abby throws herself once more into her cosmetics company--only to find herself at a crossroads when she meets Joel, a physician whose past is as scarred as hers. Joel has never forgiven himself for a fateful childhood decision. That guilt has spurred him on to save other lives. When he meets Abby he begins to see a way forward, though Abby is holding back, struggling with the idea of finally leaving Ben behind. Yet Ben isn't gone. Ever since his plane went down, he's been trying to make his way back to Abby. That journey begins on an island thousands of miles away, as Ben

Let It Snow by Beth Moran

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❄️ ❄️❄️❄️ .ePUB, 317 pages Expected Publication: 30 Aug 2022 By: Boldwood Books Amazon | Goodreads About The Book: After the end of a long-term relationship, local weather girl Bea Armstrong has been avoiding her family, and their inevitable ‘I-told-you-sos.’ But with Christmas fast approaching, she is finally on her way home to Charis House, the school in Sherwood Forest that her mum and dad run in their old family home. And to top it all off, the insufferable Henry Fairfax – who her parents have always wanted her to marry – has also been invited. Relief comes in the shape of a last-minute interview for her dream job. There are just a few minor problems… The interview is in Scotland, Bea has no car, and the snow is falling already. The only solution is for Henry to drive her – could this Christmas get any worse…But during an unforgettable two-day interview, a stay in a log cabin and a nightmare journey through the snow, Henry turns out to be nothing like she thought. And when Bea’s f

The Guest House by Robin Morgan-Bentley

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ .ePUB, 257 pages Publication Date: 13 Sept 2022 By: Poisoned Pen Press Amazon | Goodreads About The Book: Jamie and Victoria are expecting their first baby. With a few weeks to go, they head off for a final weekend break in a remote part of the North Pennines. The small and peaceful guesthouse is the ideal location to unwind together before becoming parents. Upon arrival, they are greeted by Barry and Fiona, the older couple who run the guesthouse. They cook them dinner and show them to their room before retreating to bed themselves. The next morning, Jamie and Victoria wake to find the house deserted. Barry and Fiona are nowhere to be seen. All the doors are locked. Both their mobile phones and car keys have disappeared. Even though it's a few weeks early, Victoria knows the contractions are starting. The baby is coming, and there's no way out. My Review: This book gripped me right away, I was so wrapped up in the suspense I didn't even realize I was holding my