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When self-styled ‘lady of the manor’, Margot Duckett-Trimble, announces she wouldn’t be seen dead drinking the stuff, who could have foreseen that, only a few days later, she’d be found, face down, in a vat of it?

Kat Latcham’s no stranger to murder. Indeed, the once ‘sleepy’ Somerset village of Much Winchmoor is fast gaining a reputation as the murder capital of the West Country and is ‘as sleepy as a kid on Christmas Eve’ when it’s discovered there’s a murderer running loose in the community again.

Kat has known Abe all her life, and she is sure that, although he had motive, he didn’t kill Margot. But as she investigates, the murderer strikes again. And the closer Kat gets to finding out who the real killer is, the closer to danger she becomes.

This second Much Winchmoor mystery is once again spiked with humor and sprinkled with romance – plus a cast of colorful characters, including a manic little dog called Prescott whose bite is definitely worse than his bark.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I’m parched and it doesn’t do for people of my age to get de-hibernated.

She gave a small, tinkly and oh-so-feminine laugh. How did she do that? If I tried it, it would come out as somewhere between a hiccup and a sneeze.

I kid you not, if someone sneezed at one end of the village, someone at the other end would hear it and speculate as to what they’d been doing to catch a cold, where, and with whom.

He was a short, dapper little man, who looked more like a bank manager than a policeman. The sort of bank manager who would take great pleasure in calling in your overdraft.

She’s also got a new coffee machine – that she has no idea how to work – even though she thinks coffee is the drink of the devil and it gives her ‘paltry-patians’.

 My Review:

While a continuation of a series and picked up shortly after the first book Murder Served Cold ended, it did not appear necessary to have read the previous book as the story had strong legs and could dance well enough on its own. Although, it was an amusing and fun read and I’d recommend reading it anyway. The storylines were highly amusing, pleasantly entertaining, and contained several interesting unrelated yet clever twists along with an unpredictable and well-plotted mystery.

Katie was still ensconced in her childhood bedroom within her parents’ home; still struggling to find full-time employment; still deeply in debt after her louse of a boyfriend took off with her car, money, and Dr. Who swag; and after crashing her mother’s car, her transportation was limited to a pink bike she’d received on her thirteenth birthday. Her dad was eager for her luck to improve as he had plans for her room that involved a snooker table.

Unable to find a full-time job, Katie was taking on small jobs to at least make payments on her looming overdraft, and one such position was as a helper to the injured elderly Elsie who appeared to be the town’s epicenter of information and gossip, the crankiest of residents, and the owner of Prescott – the most annoying and yappiest of little dogs.

This tiny village hosted a bevy of the quirk and was a hotbed of gossip. Adding to the mix and delighting the residents with something new to speculate about was the arrival of Katie’s rather vile Aunty Tanya, an opportunistic and pink obsessed drama queen who apparently enjoyed blackmail, stirring up trouble, a lavish lifestyle, gross exaggeration, and who somewhat resembled and dressed like a skinny Dolly Parton with a deflated chest.

After indulging in several tense thrillers, I enjoyed the generous dollops of humor and snickered and smirked my way through this delightful tale.   I also scored three new additions to my Brit Word List with po-faced – which is a solemn facial expression; trolleyed – drunk; and she’s no better than she should be – a woman with loose morals. I’m not sure about the last one but I’d much rather be trolleyed than po-faced.

Paula Williams is living her dream. She’s written all her life – her earliest efforts involved blackmailing her unfortunate younger brothers into appearing in her plays and pageants. But it’s only in recent years that she discovered to her surprise that people with better judgment than her brothers actually liked what she wrote and were prepared to pay her for it.

Now, she writes every day in a lovely, book-lined study in her home in Somerset, where she lives with her husband and a handsome but not always obedient rescue Dalmatian called Duke. She started out writing fiction for women’s magazines (and still does) but has recently branched out into longer fiction. She also writes a monthly column, Ideas Store, for the writers’ magazines, Writers’ Forum.

But, as with the best of dreams, she worries that one day she’s going to wake up and find she still has to bully her brothers into reading ‘the play what she wrote’.

Social Media Links 

Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/paula.williams.author

Blog. paulawilliamswriter.wordpress.com

Twitter. @paulawilliams44

Website. paulawilliamswriter.co.uk

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Hardcover: 320 Pages

Publisher: Atria Books (May 7, 2019)

Berlin, 1939. Bookseller Amanda Sternberg and her husband, Julius, dreamed of blissful summers spent by the lake at Wannsee and unlimited opportunities for their children. But that all falls apart when the family bookshop is destroyed and Julius is sent to a concentration camp. Now, desperate to flee Nazi Germany and preserve what’s left of her family, Amanda heads toward the south of France with her two young daughters—only to arrive with one. In Haute-Vienne, their freedom is short-lived, and soon she and her eldest daughter are forced into a labor camp, where Amanda must once again make an impossible sacrifice.

New York City, 2015. Eighty-year-old Elise Duval receives a call from a woman bearing messages from a time and country that she forced herself to forget. A French Catholic who arrived in New York after World War II, Elise is shocked to discover that the letters were from her mother, written in German during the war. Despite Elise’s best efforts to stave off her past, seven decades of secrets begin to unravel.

Based on true events, The Daughter’s Tale chronicles one of the most harrowing atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II. Heartbreaking and immersive, it is a beautifully crafted family saga of love, survival, and redemption.

After being jilted at the altar, high-flying journalist Sam doesn’t believe in love anymore – and she certainly doesn’t believe in fairy tales! So, when she’s asked to cover the Royal Wedding, it’s the last thing she wants to do.

And when she crashes into a ridiculously handsome stranger, Anders, things go from bad to worse. But as the big day draws closer, Sam finds herself being swept up in the excitement – as well as swept off her feet by Anders!

But there’s something that Anders is hiding from her – and when he finally reveals his secret, might Sam just have the happy-ever-after she never thought she wanted…?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Trust me, I am not normally a head-turner. At least not for the right reasons. There was one time at work when I noticed that people’s eyes were following me across the office and then I realised I was trailing a six-foot long piece of loo roll from my shoe. I was a head-turner that day. And then there was another time when people kept glancing at me on the tube. I thought maybe they were checking me out. It was only when I got off that I realised I had bird shit in my hair. I was definitely turning heads that day.

There are five images of my butt in total, bulging in white lace. My bum looks so big that I’m beginning to wonder if the photos have been edited or taken with a fish-eye lens or something… ‘Someone has described me as a “cheeky mare”,’ I say, reading one of the comments aloud… I look down to find another comment, with hundreds of up-ratings. ‘That’s ANUStonishing view!’

My Review:

I enjoy the engaging manner in which Zoe May spins a tale while generously weaving in clever levity, endearingly quirky and awkward characters, insightful observations, and wryly-comical descriptions and inner musings. I enjoyed the storylines as well as all the creative extra touches tossed in as added treats, such as the witty puns used in the creation of greeting cards by Samantha’s friend and roommate.

Samantha was a political reporter who was well acclimated to covering Westminster with no interest in the royals but when a co-worker went on maternity leave, Samantha’s boss reassigned her to cover all the hoopla and madness leading up to and following the upcoming nuptials of a British reality star and a Norwegian prince. Samantha was greatly annoyed by the switch to fluffy news as well as the extravagance and ridiculousness of how her fellow associates in the press rapturously swooned over each minuscule detail of the event. However, she kept running into one particularly appealing and charismatic reporter who always seemed to have an inside scoop as well as familiarity with all the wedding vendors. And then she really ran into him, with her car.

Zoe May lives in Oxford and writes romantic comedies. Zoe has dreamt of being a novelist since she was a teenager. She spent her twenties living in London, where she worked in journalism and copywriting before writing her debut novel, Perfect Match. Having experienced the London dating scene first hand, Zoe could not resist writing a novel about dating, since it seems to supply endless amounts of weird and wonderful material!

Perfect Match was one of Apple’s top-selling books of 2018. It was also shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Joan Hessayon Award, with judges describing it as ‘a laugh out loud look at love and self-discovery – fresh and very funny’.

As well as writing, Zoe enjoys walking her dog, painting and, of course, reading.

Social Media Links –

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/zoe_writes/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoe_writes/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zoemayauthor/

by Susan Schild 

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ISBN: 9780778308393

Publication Date: 5/7/19

Publisher: Park Row Books

THE EAST END opens with Corey Halpern, a Hamptons local from a broken home who breaks into mansions at night for kicks. He likes the rush and admittedly, the escapism. One night just before Memorial Day weekend, he breaks into the wrong home at the wrong time: the Sheffield estate where he and his mother work. Under the cover of darkness, their boss Leo Sheffield — billionaire CEO, patriarch, and owner of the vast lakeside manor — arrives unexpectedly with his lover, Henry. After a shocking poolside accident leaves Henry dead, everything depends on Leo burying the truth. But unfortunately for him, Corey saw what happened and there are other eyes in the shadows.

Hordes of family and guests are coming to the estate the next morning, including Leo’s surly wife, all expecting a lavish vacation weekend of poolside drinks, evening parties, and fireworks filling the sky. No one can know there’s a dead man in the woods, and there is no one Leo can turn to. With his very life on the line, everything will come down to a split-second decision. For all of the main players—Leo, Gina, and Corey alike—time is ticking down, and the world they’ve known is set to explode.

Told through multiple points of view, THE EAST END highlights the socio-economic divide in the Hamptons, but also how the basic human need for connection and trust can transcend class differences. Secrecy, obsession, and desperation dictate each character’s path. In a race against time, each critical moment holds life in the balance as Corey, Gina, and Leo approach a common breaking point. THE EAST END is a propulsive read, rich with character and atmosphere, and marks the emergence of a talented new voice in fiction.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Time passed as Leo sat cockeyed on one of the lounge chairs beside the pool with an elbow on one knee and the bag of ice pressed to the back of his head, staring at the water, his vision like that of an old television set with poor reception, blurring between two channels.

They stared at each other, locked in that tension like animals at a watering hole— one predator, one prey, but who could say which was which now?

The water kept on running, the pills still cradled in her palm. This loneliness, she thought, should be classified as a disease.

The thing about regrets, Corey— it’s much better to regret something you have done than something you haven’t done.

My Review:

I am in need of a spa day after reading this brilliantly crafted suspense/thriller. It was masterfully written, taut with tension, devilishly paced, and cast with an intriguing set of deeply flawed and fractured characters who were reaching a peak period of crisis or transition, and I couldn’t help but root for them. Each riveting storyline was thrumming with stress and the disses – dismay, despair, discontent, and distress. This tale had a bit of everything; abuse of all types from people to substances, a gamut of personality disorders and vices, blackmail, adultery, bribery, rich vs. poor, and a closeted gay who had more than that one skeleton in his closet.

The writing was simply stellar.   Mr. Allen’s writing style was lushly descriptive with evocative and emotive word choices that conjured keen visuals and kept me on edge. I was chewing my lower lip and feeling rather conflicted as while I wanted to savor every well-chosen word, I also felt as if I couldn’t read fast enough as I sensed the build-up to a shattering crescendo. I am doubly impressed since noticing this was his first novel. I hope the cunning Mr. Allen isn’t easily frightened as he now has a rather rabid fangirl…

Author Website

Twitter: @EathanJason

Facebook: @jasonallenauthor

Goodreads

Jason Allen grew up in a working-class home in the Hamptons, where he worked a variety of blue-collar jobs for wealthy estate owners. He writes fiction, poetry, and memoir, and is the author of the poetry collection A MEDITATION ON FIRE. He has an MFA from Pacific University and a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from Binghamton University and currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he teaches writing. THE EAST END is his first novel.

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• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (April 23, 2019)

The Lowcountry of South Carolina is where By Invitation Only begins at a barbecue engagement party thrown by Diane English Stiftel, her brother Floyd, and her parents to celebrate her son’s engagement. On this gorgeous, magical night, the bride’s father, Alejandro Cambria, a wealthy power broker whose unbelievably successful career in private equity made him one of Chicago’s celebrated elite, discovers the limits and possibilities of cell phone range. While the mother of the bride, Susan Kennedy Cambria, who dabbles in the world of public relations and believes herself deserving of every square inch of her multimillion-dollar penthouse and imaginary Carrara marble pedestal, learns about moonshine and dangerous liaisons.

Soon By Invitation Only zooms to Chicago, where the unraveling accelerates. Nearly a thousand miles away from her comfortable, familiar world, Diane is the antithesis of the bright lights and super-sophisticated guests attending her son Fred’s second engagement party. Why a second party? Maybe it had been assumed that the first one wouldn’t be up to snuff? Fred is marrying Shelby Cambria, also an only child. The Cambrias’ dearest wish is for their daughter to be happy. If Shelby wants to marry Frederick, aka Fred, they will not stand in her way—although Susan does hope her friends won’t think her daughter is marrying more than a few degrees beneath her socially. At the same time, Diane worries that her son will be lost to her forever.

By Invitation Only is a tale of two families, one struggling to do well, one well to do, and one young couple—the privileged daughter of Chicago’s crème de la crème and the son of hard-working Southern peach farmers.

Dorothea Benton Frank offers a funny, sharp, and deeply empathetic novel of two very different worlds—of limousines and pickup trucks, caviars and pigs, skyscrapers and ocean spray—filled with a delightful cast of characters who all have something to hide and a lot to learn. A difference in legal opinions, a headlong dive from grace, and an abrupt twist will reveal the truth of who they are and demonstrate, when it truly counts, what kind of grit they have. Are they living the life they want, what regrets do they hold, and how would they remake their lives if they were given the invitation to do so?

By Invitation Only is classic Dorothea Benton Frank—a mesmerizing Lowcountry Tale that roars with spirit, humor, and truth, and forces us to reconsider our notions of what it means to be a Have or a Have Not.

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New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank was born and raised on Sullivans Island, South Carolina. She resides in the New York area with her husband.

Find her on the web at www.dotfrank.com, or like her on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.