Author: Empress DJ

Empress DJ AKA Honolulubelle is a Rabid Reader, Unabashed Reviewer, and All-Purpose Goddess
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Book Review: Death at the Dance (A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery #2) by Verity Bright

Death at the Dance
(A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery #2)
by Verity Bright

Amazon / B&N 

A masked ball, a dead body, a missing diamond necklace and a suspicious silver candlestick? Sounds like a case for Lady Eleanor Swift!

England, 1920. Lady Eleanor Swift, adventurer extraordinaire and reluctant amateur detective, is taking a break from sleuthing. She’s got much bigger problems: Eleanor has two left feet, nothing to wear and she’s expected at the masked ball at the local manor. Her new beau Lance Langham is the host, so she needs to dazzle.

Surrounded by partygoers with painted faces, pirates, priests, and enough feathers to drown an ostrich, Eleanor searches for a familiar face. As she follows a familiar pair of long legs up a grand staircase, she’s sure she’s on Lance’s trail. But she opens the door on a dreadful scene: Lance standing over a dead Colonel Puddifoot, brandishing a silver candlestick, the family safe wide open and empty.

Moments later, the police burst in and arrest Lance for murder, diamond theft, and a spate of similar burglaries. But Eleanor is convinced her love didn’t do it, and with him locked up in prison, she knows she needs to clear his name.

Something Lance lets slip about his pals convinces Eleanor the answer lies close to home. Accompanied by her faithful sidekick Gladstone the bulldog, she begins with Lance’s friends – a set of fast driving, even faster drinking, high-society types with a taste for mischief. But after they start getting picked off in circumstances that look a lot like murder, Eleanor is in a race against time to clear Lance’s name and avoid another brush with death…

Fans of Agatha Christie, T E Kinsey, and Downton Abbey will adore this tremendously fun cozy whodunnit, full of mystery, murder, and intrigue!

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Let’s hope this gown fools them and they don’t realise I’m as unladylike underneath as a frog in Wellington boots.

 

The poor old coot is as mad as a bucket of frogs.

 

Her tongue, it’s so sharp it’s incredible she doesn’t cut her own throat just by swallowing.

My Review:

 

I adore this clumsy and impetuous redhead with her infallibly omniscient butler and portly elderly bulldog. They make an exceptional crime-busting team as they bounce around their country lanes in their Rolls Royce. Her inner musings and personal observations were delightful engaging and whimsical, as was the crafty duo of authors’ smooth and seamless storytelling. The writing was pleasantly entertaining, cleverly amusing, and unpredictable and intriguing as well as true to the period with the deployment of colorful vernacular such as “you simple pimple,” “darling fruit,” and “the cat’s pyjamas.”   I can’t wait to see what rib-tickling calamity this unlikely group of sleuths embroil themselves with next.

About the Author

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Verity Bright is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing partnership that has spanned a quarter of a century. Starting out writing high-end travel articles and books, they published everything from self-improvement to humor, before embarking on their first historical mystery. They are the authors of the fabulous Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery series, set in the 1920s.
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Book Review: A Very English Murder (A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery #1) by Verity Bright

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A Very English Murder
(A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery #1)
by Verity Bright

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU / B&N 

Move over Miss Marple, there’s a new sleuth in town! Meet Eleanor Swift: distinguished adventurer, dog lover, dignified lady… daring detective?

England, 1920. Eleanor Swift has spent the last few years traveling the world: taking tea in China, tasting alligators in Peru, escaping bandits in Persia and she has just arrived in England after a chaotic forty-five-day flight from South Africa. Chipstone is about the sleepiest town you could have the misfortune to meet. And to add to these indignities – she’s now a Lady.

Lady Eleanor, as she would prefer not to be known, reluctantly returns to her uncle’s home, Henley Hall. Now Lord Henley is gone, she is the owner of the cold and musty manor. What’s a girl to do? Well, befriend the household dog, Gladstone, for a start, and head straight out for a walk in the English countryside, even though a storm is brewing…

But then, from the edge of a quarry, through the driving rain, Eleanor is shocked to see a man shot and killed in the distance. Before she can climb down to the spot, the villain is gone and the body has vanished. With no victim and the local police convinced she’s stirring up trouble, Eleanor vows to solve this affair by herself. And when her brakes are mysteriously cut, one thing seems sure: someone in this quiet country town has Lady Eleanor Swift in their murderous sights…

If you enjoy witty dialogue, glamorous intrigue, and the very best of Golden Age mysteries, then you will adore Verity Bright’s unputdownable whodunnit, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T E Kinsey, and Downton Abbey!

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

She was convinced that all butlers were born a certain age at which they stayed until they disappeared in a puff of discreet smoke. For a good servant would never die on his employer, that would be just too inconvenient.

The thought of childbirth made Eleanor shudder. Bringing a new life into this world might be the work of God, but the mechanics of childbirth were surely the work of the devil. And triplets! What had the poor woman done to deserve that?

I should have banished him to roam the fields with his favourite hunting gun, rather than pouring him into a morning suit and inflicting him on our guests…

Now he was standing in front of her, she couldn’t help thinking whoever had moulded this man’s features had done the bulk of it with a boxing glove. And finessed the edges with a heavy plank of wood.

Their eyes widened. ‘Are those meat pies, miss?’ … She’d guessed that some of the young lads’ families would rarely be able to afford such luxuries. ‘Whatever it is, we’re your men!’ Alfie cried. They stood to attention and saluted.

I say gang, what a wheeze!

My Review:

 

Though far from my usual fare, I adored this cleverly amusing cozy mystery set in the 1920s, it was an enjoyable and pleasantly entertaining read and good fun from beginning to end. I definitely need to add more such cozy tales into my reading rotation. I relished the author’s smooth and easy flow, colorfully quirky cast of characters, and delightfully detailed scenes with oddly curious observations and amusing descriptions.

I was particularly captivated by the enigmatic and sublimely complex character of the ever-efficient butler. Clifford was multi-layered and prone to imparting lesser-known facts, UBIs, and timely quotes from an unusual variety of sources ranging from Sir Isaac Newton to Oscar Wilde. Eleanor was also a treat and I reveled in her tendency to indulge, anthropomorphize, and talk things through with her departed uncle’s old bulldog, as I tend to behave in a similar manner with my precocious fur babies.

The crafty writing duo of Verity Bright was an instant addition to my favorites list. I was so taken by this one I already have their next missive locked and loaded on my beloved Kindle.    

About the Author

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Verity Bright is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing partnership that has spanned a quarter of a century. Starting out writing high-end travel articles and books, they published everything from self-improvement to humor, before embarking on their first historical mystery. They are the authors of the fabulous Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery series, set in the 1920s.
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Book Review: She’s Faking It by Kristin Rockaway

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You can’t put a filter on reality.

Bree Bozeman isn’t exactly pursuing the life of her dreams. Then again, she isn’t too sure what those dreams are. After dropping out of college, she’s living a pretty chill life in the surf community of Pacific Beach, San Diego…if “chill” means delivering food as a GrubGetter, and if it means “uneventful”.

But when Bree starts a new Instagram account — @breebythesea — one of her posts gets a signal boost from none other than wildly popular self-help guru Demi DiPalma, owner of a lifestyle brand empire. Suddenly, Bree just might be a rising star in the world of Instagram influencing. Is this the direction her life has been lacking? It’s not a career choice she’d ever seriously considered, but maybe it’s a sign from the universe. After all, Demi’s the real deal… right?

Everything is lining up for Bree: life goals, career, and even a blossoming romance with the chiseled guy next door, surf star Trey Cantu. But things are about to go sideways fast, and even the perfect filter’s not gonna fix it. Instagram might be free, but when your life looks flawless on camera, what’s the cost?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I could almost hear the squeak and clank of wheels turning in her head as she tried to piece together the solution to this problem.

 

Everyone always talked about finding your passion as if it was this evasive creature you had to smoke out of a burrow. They also seemed to operate under the assumption that everyone had a passion to find. But I had long since accepted the sad reality that I was born passionless.

 

“Did you Google me?” He looked horrified, as if I’d admitted to hacking his email or rifling through his underwear drawer.

My Review:

 

The main character in this story was a hot mess.   Bree was barely eking by and subsisting on ramen and protein bars while living in a hovel at the intersection of denial and procrastination and begrudgingly relied on her older sister Natasha to constantly bail her out. Bree annoyed me and in no small measure, and while Natasha was her exact opposite, she annoyed me even more, yet their tale and antics kept me smirking in my exasperation. I was more than a bit fraught and a cauldron of conflicted energy until in the middle of a ridiculous desert retreat with a successful charlatan, Bree smartened up that faking it wasn’t making it. As par for the course with this wily author, her writing was wryly amusing, insightfully observant, colorfully detailed, and slyly entertaining.

About the Author

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Kristin Rockaway is a native New Yorker with an insatiable case of wanderlust. After working in the IT industry for far too many years, she traded the city for the surf and chased her dreams out to Southern California, where she spends her days happily writing stories instead of software. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with her husband and son, and planning her next big vacation.
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SOCIAL LINKS:

http://kristinrockaway.com/

 Facebook: /KristinRockaway

Twitter: @KristinRockaway

Instagram: @KristinRockway

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Book Review: Flying Solo by Zoe May

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Flying Solo
by Zoe May

 

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA / 

 

Rachel Watson has it all worked out. By 30, she’s ticked off most of the goals on her Life List. She’s a homeowner, a partner at her law firm, she has a gorgeous boyfriend, lots of hobbies and loads of good friends. The only thing that’s missing is a ring on her finger.

According to her Life List, Rachel should be getting hitched around now, so when her boyfriend, Paul, plans a romantic date, Rachel’s pretty confident he’s going to propose. Except Paul has other ideas. He’s jetting off to India to find himself.

Distraught, Rachel doesn’t know what to do. Not one to easily admit defeat, she embarks on a mission to win him back.

Flying solo to India is definitely not on Rachel’s Life List, but could her trip teach her some unexpected lessons about love, life, and herself? Could she realize that perhaps her Life List wasn’t exactly what she wanted, after all?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

‘No make-up? … But I look like a sick Victorian child without make-up,’ … ‘India’s hot. Even if you do want to wear make-up, it’s only going to melt off your face within seconds!’ ‘Hmmm…’ I mumble, wondering whether false eyelashes can melt off your face too. That’s something to Google while I’m waiting for my flight. The last thing I need is spidery lashes crawling down my cheeks while I’m trying to get my boyfriend to fall for me again.

 

Go with the flow, I tell myself, trying to breathe evenly. If you smile at India, India smiles back. I remind myself of Priya’s words as my driver continues to cut through the traffic like a five-year-old playing Grand Theft Auto after too many sweets.

My Review:

 

I enjoyed this light-hearted and cleverly amusing tale, but I always enjoy Zoe May’s wry sense of humor and quirky characters and Flying Solo was well within her forte. Ms. May’s lively storylines were unique and engaging and put a smile on my face while her main characters were often ridiculous yet still believable, as who among us has not been ridiculous at times, or in my case, often still is?  😉

About the Author

Zoe May is an author of romantic comedies. Zoe has dreamt of being a novelist since she was a teenager. She worked in journalism and copywriting in London 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! She adores animals and if she’s not taking a photo of a vegan meal, she’s probably tweeting about the dairy industry. She is half Greek and half Irish and can make a mean baklava. Zoe has a thing for horror films, India, swimming, hip hop, and Radiohead. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of handbags having spent several years working in fashion copywriting and could probably win Mastermind if this was her specialist subject!

Zoe loves to hear from readers, you can contact her on Twitter and Instagram at: @zoe_writes. Zoe’s Facebook page is: www.facebook.com/zoemayauthor/

She posts updates and blogs on her website, www.zoemayauthor.co.uk

Social Media Links –

https://www.twitter.com/zoe_writes

https://www.instagram.com/zoe_writes

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

 

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Book Review: The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton

The Last Train to Key West
by Chanel Cleeton

 

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU /

B&N / GP/ Apple / Kobo

In 1935 three women are forever changed when one of the most powerful hurricanes in history barrels toward the Florida Keys in New York Times bestselling author Chanel Cleeton’s captivating new novel.

Everyone journeys to Key West searching for something. For the tourists traveling on Henry Flagler’s legendary Overseas Railroad, Labor Day weekend is an opportunity to forget the economic depression gripping the nation. But one person’s paradise can be another’s prison, and Key West-native Helen Berner yearns to escape.

The Cuban Revolution of 1933 left Mirta Perez’s family in a precarious position. After an arranged wedding in Havana, Mirta arrives in the Keys on her honeymoon. While she can’t deny the growing attraction to the stranger she’s married, her new husband’s illicit business interests may threaten not only her relationship but her life.

Elizabeth Preston’s trip from New York to Key West is a chance to save her once-wealthy family from their troubles as a result of the Wall Street crash. Her quest takes her to the camps occupied by veterans of the Great War and pairs her with an unlikely ally on a treacherous hunt of his own.

Over the course of the holiday weekend, the women’s paths cross unexpectedly, and the danger swirling around them is matched only by the terrifying force of the deadly storm threatening the Keys.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

The only things I’ve ever heard John say in addition to his name pertain to his order, as though God only gave him a certain number of words to use each day, and he’d already expended his quota before he sat in my section.

I envy men the freedom to choose their own spouses. They snap us up as though they are purchasing a piece of fruit at the market, and we are expected to have no say in the matter.

 

The running of this world is left to men, and quite frankly, I’m not impressed with what they’ve done with it.

 

It’s strange how your life can change so quickly, how one moment you can barely eke by, desperation filling your days, and suddenly, out of the unimaginably horrific, a glimmer of something beautiful can appear like a bud pushing through the hard-formed earth.

My Review:

 

I was relatively new to Chanel Cleeton when I started this series featuring a fascinating family of Cuban sisters and had generally avoided historical fiction prior to this as being a strong feminist, I bristle at the limitations placed on women and how poorly they were treated, even by their families. The Cuban sister featured in this installment was Mirta, who had been forced into marrying a man of questionable ethics and criminal ties and whom she did not personally know, to clear her father’s mistakes in judgment.   Meanwhile, the same situation had also occurred to a former New York socialite named Elizabeth. Both women crossed paths in Key West during Mirta’s honeymoon and were served by the same heavily pregnant waitress who, for me, had the most compelling storylines featured in this dynamic tale. The three women could not have been more diverse yet they were sharing an overlapping experience during the most challenging period in their lives.

All of this drama happened to occur during hurricane season, and it got a bit breezy when the worst storm ever hit the area.   The storylines were slowly and craftily constructed with a writing style that was stunningly emotive, compelling, and mesmerizingly immersive. I fell right into each woman’s anxious vortex and enjoyed their various journeys and travails as their lives briefly intersected.

I had no idea it wasn’t just women and minorities who were so devastatingly maltreated and was appalled by the shameful and horrific conduct and attitude of the US government toward the returning Veterans of WWI. I mean no slur to the brave souls currently serving but why anyone still bothers to join the military given their heinous history of atrocities boggles my tiny brain and scorches the little pea lying therein.

About the Author

Chanel Cleeton is the USA Today bestselling author of Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick for Next Year in Havana. Originally from Florida, Chanel grew up on stories of her family’s exodus from Cuba following the events of the Cuban Revolution. Her passion for politics and history continued during her years spent studying in England where she earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Richmond, The American International University in London, and a master’s degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics & Political Science. Chanel also received her Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law. She loves to travel and has lived in the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia.

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Book Review: A Dog’s Chance by Casey Wilson

 

  A Dog’s Chance
by Casey Wilson

 

Amazon / B&N 

 

Sometimes the dogs we rescue… also rescue us.

A heart-wrenching and beautiful story perfect for dog lovers everywhere. Fans of A Dog’s Purpose, The Art of Racing in the Rain, and Marley and Me will be utterly entranced by this gorgeous page-turner.

Madison knows her fourteen-year-old daughter Abbie is struggling. She wishes she could give Abbie stability, the promise of a forever home in Millbury, but she is scared to stay in one town for too long, and every day Abbie seems more anxious. Until a chance encounter with a beautiful, boisterous golden retriever puppy called Duke changes everything…

Duke bounces into the community center where Madison is working and when Abbie meets him she stops pacing the room. Duke is tugging his owner, seventy-five-year-old Arthur, along for the ride, and instantly Madison sees a way she and Arthur can help each other. She offers to train Duke so that Abbie gets to see him, and from that moment the four of them become a family.

Madison finally feels like she has a second chance at life and a reason to stay in town, but when her past catches up with her they are all at risk. Duke may have united this family, but will he be able to keep them together?

A reminder of the unbelievable bonds we form with the dogs in our lives. No matter how broken you are, the unconditional love of a dog can piece you back together.

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

That’s the beautiful thing about sharing the love in your heart— it doesn’t mean you have less of it. Love is the only thing that grows the more you give away.

 

My Review:

I relished this tender and sweet story.   Duke’s tale squeezed my heart, stung my eyes, and caused my lips to quiver, and more than a few times. This lovely story included a rescued puppy’s point of view and Duke’s observations were my favorites. The characters were endearing and highly likable, realistically flawed, and each struggling with significant personal challenges.   However, they found their burdens were easing once their paths had crossed – which was all due to the exuberant introduction and interventions of Duke. The writing style and storylines were easy to follow, emotive, relevant, and quite moving. I am an animal lover and adore stories featuring clever animals almost as much as the precious animals themselves.

 

About the Author

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Casey Wilson is the author of A Dog’s Hope and A Dog’s Chance, published with Bookouture.

Born and raised in the United States in Nevada, she is the owner of a gorgeous golden retriever, who may or may not have inspired the dogs in her novels.

 

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Book Review: That Summer in Maine by Brianna Wolfson

 

That Summer in Maine
by Brianna Wolfson

A novel about mothers and daughters, about taking chances, about exploding secrets and testing the boundaries of family

Years ago, during a certain summer in Maine, two young women, unaware of each other, met a charismatic man at a craft fair and each had a brief affair with him. For Jane, it was a chance to bury her recent pain in raw passion and redirect her life. For Susie, it was a fling that gave her troubled marriage a way forward.

Now, sixteen years later, the family lives these women have made are suddenly upended when their teenage girls meet as strangers on social media. They concoct a plan to spend the summer in Maine with the man who is their biological father. Their determination puts them on a collision course with their mothers, who must finally meet and acknowledge their shared past and join forces as they risk losing their only daughters to a man they barely know.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

It would have been better if that silence between them was thick and heavy with sadness or regret, but it had become light and comfortable now. Hazel and her mother were now connected by only the loosest stitch.

 

And from that moment on, every subsequent message that Hazel received from Eve was a supernova. Each text blew everything that once was, wide-open. Started life anew. Illuminated every fiber of her being. And it was all happening in Hazel’s own personal universe.

 

She felt that there was something deep within her that was better than her life allowed for.

 

Looking down at you, I felt as if I had gone out and bought something too precious and too expensive. It was as if I had walked around a shop I knew I shouldn’t have been in and walked out with something I couldn’t afford.

My Review:

 

This book was a pleasant surprise and I was rather besotted and bewitched by the outstanding writing quality, which frequently leaped out at me in the most unexpected places. However, the insightfulness and depth of the characters as well as the unexpected corners and nuances of the storylines often left me delightfully stunned and needing to reread passages more than once. This talented wordsmith obviously has a keen memory and profound understanding of the chaotic, confusing, conflicting, calamitous, and crushingly catastrophic emotions and thoughts of a teen as she developed the multi-faceted character of Hazel with devastating clarity. Did I have enough /c/ words there?

Each character was cleverly textured, multi-layered, captivatingly complicated, and endlessly intriguing, even when they greatly annoyed or frustrated me. Ms. Wolfson’s writing was thoughtfully emotive and cleverly observant with deftly penned and well-crafted prose that was often so elegant it snagged my breath.  She is definitely going on my list of Ones to Watch.  Fangirl down!

About the Author
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Brianna Wolfson is a New York native living in San Francisco. Her narrative nonfiction has been featured on Medium, Upworthy, and The Moth. She buys a lottery ticket every Friday.

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Book Review: The Life She Left Behind by Nicole Trope

The Life She Left Behind
by Nicole Trope

 

When I wake up in the middle of the night, it’s not a sound that disturbs me. It’s a feeling. Silently, I creep to my daughter’s room, breathing a sigh of relief when I see her sleeping, her night-light twirling, butterfly shapes moving their pink wings. Quickly, I lock the door. I won’t let anything happen to my little girl.

You tell him everything. The husband you adore, the father of your child, your best friend.He knows, just by looking at your sage-green eyes, when something is wrong. The two of you can communicate with a glance or a touch of the hand.

Except what if you can’t?

What if your happy marriage has plastered over one huge lie? A lie you have even started to believe yourself, in order to survive?

What if you have a secret, something you have hidden from your beloved husband and your strawberry-scented baby girl, to keep them safe? What if the guilt has kept you up, night after night, for as long as you can remember?

What happens when suddenly, after twenty-eight years, that secret refuses to stay buried? What will you do now everyone you love, everything you cherish, is in harm’s way?

An emotional, thought-provoking, and beautifully written novel which examines the pieces of ourselves we are afraid of, and the impossible decisions we make when we are desperate. Fans of Jodi Picoult, Kerry Fisher, and Liane Moriarty will be moved by this heartbreaking tale.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Poor Dad. Things have definitely not worked out the way he hoped. He had a plan for perfection. The perfect house, the perfect kids and the perfect wife. He had an idea of this Christmas card, picture-perfect family, all smiling widely in matching red sweaters. The trouble is, we live in Australia. It’s too hot around Christmastime to wear sweaters. You have to wear T-shirts and T-shirts don’t hide bruises very well. The trouble is, his wife and children hate him. The trouble is, you can’t beat perfection into someone. Although he tried, he really tried.

 

His mercurial nature kept us all on our toes. We were his dancing monkeys.

My Review:

 

This wasn’t an easy read, it was a painfully realistic, intensely insightful, tragic, and cringe-worthy tale of family drama with long-held secrets, shame, guilt, anger, violence, emotional battering, mind games, and regrets. The storylines were well scaffolded and cleverly paced with powerful and emotive word choices. There were times I wanted to scream at the characters in disgust for allowing and enabling a long-standing pattern of abusive and violent behaviors, and other times I wanted to comfort them, ease their pain, and assuage their confusion. I despised the male contingent of the family in near equal measure as they were vile and heinously twisted, while the females were nearly inert in their learned helplessness – until they weren’t. I fell into this challenging read and had a hard time resurfacing as while my experiences were paltry in comparison to the horror of this monstrous family, Ms. Trope’s strong word voodoo resurrected and stirred some uncomfortable feelings and memories that left me more than a bit rumpled.

About the Author

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Nicole Trope went to university to study Law but realized the error of her ways when she did very badly on her first law essay because, as her professor pointed out, ‘It’s not meant to be a story.’

She studied teaching instead and used her holidays to work on her writing career and complete a Master’s degree. In between raising three children, working for her husband, and renovating houses, she has published six novels. She lives in Sydney, Australia.

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Book Review: Two Truths and a Lie by Meg Mitchell Moore 

 

Two Truths and a Lie
by Meg Mitchell Moore 

 

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU /

B&N / GP/ Apple / Kobo

 

From the author of The Islanders comes a warm, witty and suspenseful novel filled with small-town secrets, summer romance, big time lies, and spiked seltzer, in the vein of Liane Moriarty.

Truth: Sherri Griffin and her daughter, Katie, have recently moved to the idyllic beach town of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Rebecca Coleman, widely acknowledged former leader of the Newburyport Mom Squad (having taken a step back since her husband’s shocking and tragic death eighteen months ago), has made a surprising effort to include these newcomers in typically closed-group activities. Rebecca’s teenage daughter Alexa has even been spotted babysitting Katie.

Truth: Alexa has time on her hands because of a recent falling-out with her longtime best friends for reasons no one knows—but everyone suspects have to do with Alexa’s highly popular and increasingly successful YouTube channel. Katie Griffin, who at age 11 probably doesn’t need a babysitter anymore, can’t be left alone because she has terrifying nightmares that don’t seem to jibe with the vague story Sherri has floated about the “bad divorce” she left behind in Ohio. Rebecca Coleman has been spending a lot of time with Sherri, it’s true, but she’s also been spending time with someone else she doesn’t want the Mom Squad to know about just yet.

Lie: Rebecca Coleman doesn’t have a new man in her life, and definitely not someone connected to the Mom Squad. Alexa is not seeing anyone new herself and is planning on shutting down her YouTube channel in advance of attending college in the fall. Sherri Griffin’s real name is Sherri Griffin, and a bad divorce is all she’s running from.

A blend of propulsive thriller and gorgeous summer read, Two Truths and a Lie reminds us that happiness isn’t always a day at the beach, some secrets aren’t meant to be shared, and the most precious things are the people we love.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

The woman was Sherri “with an i” (that was how she introduced herself, as though the i were of particular value, a bonus).

 

It was summer, obviously. But in a funny way it felt like it was Christmas morning and Cameron Hartwell was a present Alexa hadn’t yet unwrapped.

 

Outside the door stood a shriveled specimen of a woman. She was holding a small dog with giant ears. The woman made Alexa think of what would happen if somebody took a walnut and glued it on top of an old rag doll. She was looking at Alexa sternly.

 

The zinc she had applied to her face was uneven, making her look like a clown who’d partied too hard after last night’s circus.

My Review:

 

I am enamored with Meg Mitchell Moore’s smooth writing style and well-crafted story. I fell right into this seamlessly plotted, shrewdly paced, and absorbing tale of women’s fiction. Her storylines were well textured and expertly nuanced with generous servings of family drama, personal grief, coming of age issues, wry humor, romance, small-town living, and suspense. While selfishly resenting any interruption to my perusal I may have accidentally on purpose let all calls go to voicemail.

The complex characters were multi-layered, cunningly drawn, cleverly depicted, and realistically flawed. Each had a distinct voice and arresting aspects to their inner musings, painful insights, and observations. The most amusing threads involved the devilish petty members of the Mom Squad, which was a tight-knit clique of the ostensibly in-group of uber moms found in every small-town, who guarded and groomed their daughters’ social standing with as much self-aggrandizing importance as they did their own, and did so with judgmental eyes and sharply wagging tongues.

This was my first exposure to the agility of Ms. Moore’s pen and brain-tickling storytelling. I consider her found treasure and covet her entire listing while planning to follow her future endeavors like a bloodhound on the trail of an escaped convict.

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Meg Mitchell Moore’s fifth novel, The Islanders, will be published by William Morrow in June 2019 and is a July Indie Next Pick. She lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts, with her husband and their three teenaged and almost-teenaged daughters.

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Book Review: Show Time (Juniper Ridge Romantic Comedies #1) by Tawna Fenske

 

Show Time
(Juniper Ridge Romantic Comedies #1)
by Tawna Fenske

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It’s a wacky concept. Take an abandoned cult compound and cast the cops, teachers, farmers, and nurses needed for a self-contained community. Throw in some cameras and presto! Instant TV hit.

​​​​​​​There’s only one family with the chops to make it work, so the Judsons pack up their LA lives for a fresh start in rural Oregon. Big brother Dean has brokered billions in Hollywood deals. Surely he can produce a tiny town from scratch? He just needs a finance guru to help him prep for showtime while Dean does his best to forget having his heart smashed to withered bits.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I only caught the end of that, but if we’re suggesting Dean spends his days in here buffing the banana, we should rethink letting him have the big office.

 

“It was pretty great.” Pretty great? Chocolate lava cake is pretty great. A trip to Greece is pretty great. Eating chocolate lava cake on the balcony of a Greek villa with Oprah Winfrey and Meryl Streep would be pretty great, and none of it compares with what just happened between Dean and me.

 

You know what my mom used to call me? A free spirit. No, it wasn’t a good thing. I know it might be for some people, but trust me. The way she said it was like “satan” or “calories” or “polyester.” I guess to her, that was the worst thing I could be.

My Review:

 

Oh, happy day! One of my favorite funny ladies has started a new smirk-worthy series of rom/coms.  I adore and covet the amusing and mischievous wit, comfortable style, and comedic articulacy of Tawna Fenske. Reading her stories is like indulging in a supersized wedge of my favorite flavor of cheesecake after dieting. Her tales are painlessly easy to fall into with the ideal amount of tension, delicious steam, low angst, and amusing insights and observations. I also find I am quickly enamored and rooting for her quirky characters.   Vanessa and Dean were perfectly cast, a lovely pair, and well-matched for each other – both in and out of the office. I have noted down the devilishly clever pet names of Puma Thurman and Catrick Swayze to steal for future usage and am keen to get my abysmally manicured hands on the next installment of this playfully entertaining series.

 

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About the Author    

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When Tawna Fenske finished her English lit degree at 22, she celebrated by filling a giant trash bag full of romance novels and dragging it everywhere until she’d read them all. Now she’s a RITA-nominated, USA Today bestselling author who writes humorous fiction, risqué romance, and heartwarming love stories with a quirky twist. Publishers Weekly has praised Tawna’s offbeat romances with multiple starred reviews and noted, “There’s something wonderfully relaxing about being immersed in a story filled with over-the-top characters in undeniably relatable situations. Heartache and humor go hand in hand.”

Tawna lives in Bend, Oregon, with her husband, stepkids, and a menagerie of ill-behaved pets. She loves hiking, snowshoeing, standup paddleboarding, and inventing excuses to sip wine on her back porch. She can peel a banana with her toes and loses an average of twenty pairs of eyeglasses per year. To find out more about Tawna and her books, visit www.tawnafenske.com.