Author: Empress DJ

Empress DJ AKA Honolulubelle is a Rabid Reader, Unabashed Reviewer, and All-Purpose Goddess
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Book Review: Tell That To My Heart (Heartshaped Series #1) by Eliza J. Scott

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Tell That To My Heart
(Heartshaped Series #1)
by Eliza J. Scott

 

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA 

Jemima Dewberry wears her heart on her sleeve. Her weakness for bad boys, coupled with her track record for making bad decisions has led to endless heartbreak. The only trouble is, she can’t seem to kick the habit.

On top of that, her “dream” job at Yorkshire Portions magazine hasn’t turned out to be what she’d hoped, and she seems to have developed the knack of annoying her boss without even trying. It doesn’t help that the new girl seems to have taken an instant dislike to her. All that’s keeping her there are her best friends Anna-Lisa and Aidey, who have picked up the pieces of her shattered heart more times than they care to remember.

When Jemima’s latest boyfriend turns out to be no better than the rest, the hurt and humiliation are almost unbearable. She declares she’s finally through with love and swears off men for life. But when charismatic Caspar De Verre walks into the office with his dangerous good looks and mesmerizing smile, she’s utterly captivated, and her promises to Anna-Lisa and Aidey not to let her heart rule her head are soon forgotten.

But is Caspar all he seems? Anna-Lisa and Aidey have their doubts. And Herbert, the happy-go-lucky black Labrador Jemima’s looking after, doesn’t seem to like him either.

As Jemima falls for Caspar’s charms she finds herself being forced to confront the struggle between her head and her heart. But which one will prove the most powerful?

And will Jemima get the happy-ever-after she so desperately craves?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Mim gazed after him, her libido raging into life; the effect Caspar De Verre was having on her, anyone would think he bathed in concentrated pheromones.

 

Well, it actually had everything to do with her dubious choice of boyfriends. Just when she thought she’d found “the one”, and she was in a relationship that might actually be going somewhere, she’d discover that the said boyfriend had other ideas and, more often than not, other girlfriends.

 

… kind of like Dracula in that handsome, irresistible sort of way; you know he’s bad but the temptation’s too great to resist, kind of thing.

 

Mim resisted the temptation to make eye contact with her; she had a suspicion Honey’s black looks had the power to turn people to stone.

My Review:

 

This was a slowly developing and somewhat circular story featuring the self-effacing and timorous Mim and her best friends/co-workers. The three enjoyed their work but were struggling with a hostile work environment that was becoming increasingly toxic on an exponential level. When it came to her sexy new co-worker, Mim’s dog knew at first whiff, but Mim chose to wear blinders when it came to men and as was her pattern as well as that of her mother before her, she made yet another disastrous choice. I wanted to give her a few pinches and/or whacks to the back of her head to knock some sense loose, but Mim had horrible taste in men and purposely ignored and denied her own niggles as well as the concerns of her friends. I enjoyed the characters, the friends’ relationships, the humor, the lovable Labrador Herbert, and the office intrigue, but I smirked with glee at the shenanigans they played on the local busybody and curtain-twitching gossip to catch her out on her rumor spreading.

 

About the Author

Eliza is proud to be a member of the RNA. She lives in a 17th-century cottage in a village in the North Yorkshire Moors with her husband, their two daughters and two mischievous black Labradors. When she’s not writing, she can usually be found with her nose in a book/glued to her Kindle or working in her garden, fighting a losing battle against the weeds.

When she’s not reading or gardening, Eliza also enjoys bracing walks in the countryside, rounded off by a visit to a teashop where she can indulge in another two of her favorite things: tea and cake.

Her biggest weakness is ginger biscuits dunked in tea.

Eliza is inspired by her beautiful surroundings and loves to write heartwarming romance stories with relatable female characters. She enjoys exploring the dynamics of female friendship, with a key feature of her books being how women pull together and support one another when things get tough.

Eliza’s novels will always have happy endings.

Social Media Links –

Twitter: Eliza J Scott – @ElizaJScott1

Instagram: Eliza J Scott – @elizajscott

Facebook: Eliza J Scott – @elizajscottauthor

Blog: www.elizajscott.com

Bookbub: www.bookbub.com/authors/eliza-j-scott

Amazon Author Page: UK: www.amazon.co.uk/Eliza-J-Scott/e/B07DMQWPMH

US: www.amazon.com/Eliza-J-Scott/e/B07DMQWPMH

 

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Book Review: Summer Strawberries at Swallowtail Bay (Swallowtail Bay #2) by Katie Ginger

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Summer Strawberries at Swallowtail Bay
(Swallowtail Bay #2)
by Katie Ginger

 

Amazon  US / UK / 
B&N / Apple / Google

 

Grab your strawberries and cream and get ready to return to the beautiful Swallowtail Bay!

Summer is in full swing and the locals are getting excited for the launch of the Swallowtail Bay strawberry food festival. But will all run smoothly when festival organizer Hetty’s heart is torn between lord of the manor John Thornhill and successful bakery owner Ben?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Stanley was the limpy seagull Hetty had adopted and fed regularly from a special little plate. They’d both grown very fond of him as they imagined his deformed foot meant all the other seagulls teased him and wouldn’t let him join their gangs.

 

His family didn’t need any more egg on their faces. They had a whole omelette there already.

 

She hadn’t mentioned camping to Macie yet. Hetty and Macie had a shared loathing of this particular outdoor pursuit. Neither of them could understand the appeal of sleeping on the ground and were terrified that ants might crawl into their knickers in the middle of the night. Admittedly, it would probably be more traumatic for the ant, but it would leave an emotional scar on them too.

 

I thought rule number one was always go to the toilet before a kids’ party started because you definitely won’t want to go in there afterward?

 

A man who even after a year gave her the kind of kisses that made cartoon stars appear over her head and the world burst into song.

My Review:

This was a delightful diversion and pleasant and sweet read, something light and frothy to relax with and ease the tension from my shoulders after reading too many thrillers in a row. The writing was smooth and amusing, the characters were earnest and endearing, and the storylines were easy to follow and engaging with a bit of family drama that plucked at my curiosity as to how it would all play out.

 

About the Author

 

KATIE GINGER lives in the South East of England, by the sea, and she really wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Summer Strawberries at Swallowtail Bay is her fifth novel. The first, Spring Tides at Swallowtail Bay is available now. Her debut novel The Little Theatre on the Seafront was shortlisted for the Katie Fforde Debut Novel of the Year award, and her stand-alone Christmas novel Snowflakes at Mistletoe Cottage was a US Amazon bestseller.

When she’s not writing, Katie spends her time drinking gin, or with her husband, trying to keep alive their two children, Ellie and Sam. And there’s also their adorable King Charles Spaniel, Wotsit (yes, he is named after the crisps!).

For more about Katie, you can visit her website: www.keginger.com, find her on Facebook: www.facebook.com/KatieGAuthor, or follow her on Twitter: @KatieGAuthor

Instagram: @katie_ginger_author

 

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Book Review: I KNOW YOU LIED by Lesley Sanderson

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I KNOW YOU LIED
by Lesley Sanderson

The news of her mother’s death hits Nell as if she’s been shot. The letter must be some kind of prank, but who could be so cruel? Because Nell’s mother died nearly thirty years ago.

When Nell was just a tiny baby, her parents died in a car crash, leaving her to be raised by her devoted grandmother, Lilian. So when the lawyer’s letter arrives, informing her of her mother Sarah’s very recent death, it destroys everything Nell thought she knew. Her grandmother loved her, so why did she lie? And why did her mother abandon her?

Nell knows she can never recapture the years with her mother that were taken from her, and fears this will haunt her forever. Now she won’t rest until she finds out why she was so cruelly deceived. But her family’s past has been kept secret for a reason, and someone is desperate for it to stay that way. How much danger will Nell risk for the truth?

If you loved The Silent Patient, The Secret Mother, and The Wife Between Us, then this addictive thriller about dark family secrets and obsession will have you on the edge of your seat.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

Lilian always pronounces her name as if it’s something distasteful she’s extracting from a plughole.

 

My Review:

 

I was riveted, chilled, and itching with curiosity about this maddeningly paced, tautly written, and brilliantly plotted tale. I tumbled right into the writing and even though I knew the villain was vile from the get-go, I just didn’t realize how truly evil she was. Lesley Sanderson is one twisted sister and turned out a shrewd and cunningly penned story that held me captive and tethered to my Kindle while impatient with any fool who dared to distract me from solving this tragic mystery and peeling back all the secrets. I was deeply invested and admittedly, near rabid in my need to know.   There was sleight of hand, decades of lies, misdirections, and well-buried clues. It was divine.

About the Author

Lesley attended the Curtis Brown Creative 6 month novel writing course in 2015/6, and in 2017 The Orchid Girls (then On The Edge) was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish fiction prize.

Lesley is the author of psychological thrillers and spends her days writing in coffee shops in Kings Cross where she lives and works as a librarian. She loves the atmosphere and eclectic mix of people in the area. Lesley discovered Patricia Highsmith as a teenager and has been hooked on psychological thrillers ever since.

 

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Book Review: Eliza Starts a Rumor by Jane L. Rosen

Eliza Starts a Rumor
by Jane L. Rosen

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU /
B&N / GP/ Apple

 

The author of Nine Women, One Dress delivers a charming, unforgettable novel about four women, one little lie, and the big repercussions that unite them all.

It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. When Eliza Hunt created The Hudson Valley Ladies’ Bulletin Board fifteen years ago she was happily entrenched in her picture-perfect suburban life with her husband and twin preschoolers. Now, with an empty nest and a crippling case of agoraphobia, the once-fun hobby has become her lifeline. So when a rival parenting forum threatens the site’s existence, she doesn’t think twice before fabricating a salacious rumor to spark things up a bit.

It doesn’t take long before that spark becomes a flame.

Across town, new mom and site devotee Olivia York is thrown into a tailspin by what she reads on the Bulletin Board. Allison Le is making cyber friends with a woman who isn’t quite who she says she is. And Amanda Cole, Eliza’s childhood friend, may just hold the key to unearthing why Eliza can’t step out of her front door.

In all this chaos, one thing is for sure…Hudson Valley will never be the same.

Funny, romantic, raw, and hopeful, this is a story about being a woman and of the healing power of sisterhood.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

There was no way Eliza’s polished, stick-thin mother, with her shiny golden hair, would have admitted that her daughter, who did not receive her skinny gene or her shiny gene, had only inherited her crazy gene.

 

The only thing worse than being cheated on was being made a fool of, and if that was what was going on, she would take him down.

 

She assumed that those first accusations against Carson were only the tip of the iceberg. Her gut told her that her husband would be going down like the Titanic, and like on the Titanic, all women and children belonged in lifeboats.

 

I am a twenty-eight-year-old feminist woman intent on raising a feminist daughter. We are just starting out on this journey together. There are no circumstances that would make me suck it up.”

 

“Do you want a protein shake?” “If by protein you mean tequila, then yes.”

 

“Alison could defend me. Temporary insanity.” “One can only hope it’s temporary,”

My Review:

This was a highly amusing yet thoughtfully written, perennially relevant, timely, engaging, and cleverly paced tale with multiple story threads that tangled and converged into a smoothly woven unit. The large cast of characters was diverse, endearing, deeply flawed, and interestingly quirky while dealing with humorous and curious conundrums as well as common and uncommon issues. There were a few mysteries to solve and personal and professional snooping was required to mete out the appropriate justice to make most things right in the end.   And it all started with an impulsively spread yet titillating and synergetic rumor that had been posted in haste in a desperate attempt to stay relevant.

About the Author

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Jane L. Rosen is an author and Huffington Post contributor. She lives in New York City and Fire Island with her husband and three daughters. She often takes inspiration from the city she lives in and the people she shares it with. She is the author of a young adult novel, The Thread, which she self-published. In addition to writing, she has spent time in film, television, and event production and is the co-founder of It’s All Gravy, a web, and app-based gifting company.
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Book Review: Can I Give My Husband Back? by Kristen Bailey

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Can I Give My Husband Back?
by Kristen Bailey

Amazon /B&N/ Kobo/ Apple/ GP 

 It’s normal to prefer getting a filling at the dentist’s to spending time with your husband, right?

I thought I was sorted on the life front. I was a heart surgeon with a loving partner and two gorgeous little girls. Except my husband’s version of ‘loving’ is lying, cheating, and sleeping his way around London. Which means I definitely deserve a refund.

Unfortunately, moving on isn’t that simple. Just because I know how to operate on a heart doesn’t mean I know how to fix my broken one. Plus, I lost the receipt for him years ago so I’m definitely getting short-changed.

But now I’m single, am I ready to mingle? There are a few minor issues:

1) The last time I went on a date double denim was in fashion and my eyebrows were horrendously overplucked.
2) Men wear stupidly skinny jeans now.
3) I don’t know how to use dating apps but at least I don’t have to get changed out of my pyjamas.
4) Sometimes the most promising thing you have in common with a guy is a shared love of prawns.
5) I don’t know whether to open a date with ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ or ‘hey’ and once I ended up saying ‘howdy’.

Everything happens for a reason, they say. There’s plenty more fish in the sea. But what happens when everything falls apart and you haven’t got a clue how to go fishing?

An absolutely hilarious and utterly relatable tale for anyone who has ever survived a nightmare relationship, felt a little lonely or nursed a broken heart with wine and carbs. This feel-good novel will get you back on your feet and genuinely laughing out loud. Perfect for fans of Why Mummy Drinks, Sophie Ranald, and Sophie Kinsella.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“I could be kidnapped and killed for my body parts. Look after my girls. Make sure Si doesn’t ruin them.” “Two things: Don’t mention that man’s name to me. And you’re too old to be kidnapped. Your organs would be a hard sell.”

 

She looks like the eighties ate her up and spat her back out again. That’s some slick hair and a strong shoulder. She stands on my doorstep expecting to be invited in; I’m pretty sure that’s what you traditionally have to do with vampires.

 

‘I also don’t eat blueberries, for future information,’ I carry on. ‘But blueberries are delicious?’ ‘My sister once told me they are Smurf testicles so I can’t bring myself to eat them now.’

 

He normally wears glasses but Meera didn’t want them in her photos so forced him to wear contact lenses for the first time. So the poor boy’s eyes are bulging like his pants are too tight.

 

… she told the thirty-odd people present that she was glad she didn’t marry me because I’m very hairy and she didn’t want my furball babies.

My Review:

 

This was a wicked funny tale laced with all varieties of humor from acerbic snark to highly comical events and everything in between. I haven’t had this much fun giggle-snorting into my Moscato in ages. While there were also parts of the storylines that were quite tragic as the loathsome husband was an unrepentant serial adulterer, the writing sparked with clever wit and wry humor. I was frequently smirking and a few times nearly apoplectic with laughter.

 

Being more prone toward the Lorena Bobbitt methodology for dealing with such issues, I was occasionally impatient and annoyed with the main character’s spineless inability to face her husband’s blatant and repeated infidelities as well as her overly forgiving nature once she finally did so, I still appreciated her journey and reveled in the manner her sisters and friends were shoring her up which enabled her to retrieve her own identity and sense of worth. Every single character was riotously amusing with my favorite being the fierce and mischievously salacious younger sister Lucy, whom I hope to see featured in her very own book soon with more Frozen Fiesta Fracas adventures.

 

About the Author

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Mother-of-four, gin-drinker, binge-watcher, receipt hoarder, enthusiastic but terrible cook. Kristen also writes. She has had short fiction published in several publications including Mslexia & Riptide. Her first two novels, Souper Mum and Second Helpings were published in 2016. In 2019, she was long-listed in the Comedy Women in Print Prize and has since joined the Bookouture family. She hopes her novels have fresh and funny things to say about modern life, love, and family.

You can find out more about her on Twitter (@mrsbaileywrites), Instagram (@kristenbaileywrites), and Facebook.

 

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Book Review: The Sea Gate by Jane Johnson

The Sea Gate
by Jane Johnson

One house, two women, a lifetime of secrets…

Following the death of her mother, Becky begins the sad task of sorting through her empty flat. Starting with the letters piling up on the doormat, she finds an envelope post-marked from Cornwall. In it is a letter that will change her life forever. A desperate plea from her mother’s elderly cousin, Olivia, to help save her beloved home.

Becky arrives at Chynalls to find the beautiful old house crumbling into the ground, and Olivia stuck in hospital with no hope of being discharged until her home is made habitable.

Though daunted by the enormity of the task, Becky sets to work. But as she peels back the layers of paint, plaster, and grime, she uncovers secrets buried for more than seventy years. Secrets from a time when Olivia was young, the Second World War was raging, and danger and romance lurked around every corner…

The Sea Gate is a sweeping, spellbinding novel about the lives of two very different women, and the secrets that bind them together.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Estelle swore in vehement French, which Olivia mentally noted down for future use.

 

She still did not believe there had ever been a Mr. Ogden. And if there had been he was probably, judging by his offspring, a hobgoblin.

 

The long mirror on the inside of the wardrobe door throws my image at me. There is little worse in life than being caught unawares by your reflection, before you’ve made the small adjustments all women make – I have avoided mirrors for so long that I have forgotten to look out for them – and there I am, thin and white and strangely shaped…

 

Olivia hated Sundays. Who on earth thought it was a good idea to have a day of rest and then make you get up early to go to church?

 

I feel nothing. Not regret, or hatred or even repulsion. Nothing at all. All my emotions appear to have burst out of me in that one punch. I imagine them flowing down my arm like Popeye’s spinach, pumping up the muscles, exiting in a cartoon-bubble POW!

 

 

My Review:

 

I adored this brilliantly crafted tale! The storylines were highly engaging, emotively written, colorfully and effusively detailed, insightfully observant, staggeringly eventful, and cleverly paced while hitting all the feels with a powerful punch and taunting my curiosity with a constant itch. The cast of characters was vastly diverse and well-drawn with despicable villains and endearingly flawed protagonists, but my favorite was the highly astute and humorously profane parrot. This was an epic tale that intrigued, squeezed my heart, amused me, and kept me well entertained and actively engaged while reading. This sly missive was my introduction to the wily Jane Johnson and has me greedy for more.

About the Author

Facebook

Twitter

Jane Johnson is a British novelist and publisher. She is the UK editor for George R.R. Martin, Robin Hobb, and Dean Koontz and was for many years publisher of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Married to a Berber chef she met while researching The Tenth Gift, she lives in Cornwall and Morocco.

Follow Head of Zeus:

Website: www.headofzeus.com

Twitter: @HoZ_Books

Facebook: @headofzeus

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Book Review: Sweet Pea Summer by Alys Murray

Sweet Pea Summer
by Alys Murray

Amazon / B&N / GP/ Apple

 

Can you ever really forget your first love?

It’s been eight long years since May Anderson’s high school sweetheart Tom Riley drove down Main Street in his truck, leaving Hillsboro—and May—in his rearview mirror. Now he’s back and, try as they might, the pair can’t avoid each other.

As Hillsboro prepares to host the prestigious North West Food and Wine Festival, Tom and May are reluctantly called in to plan the big event. Tom needs May’s help to repair his bad-boy reputation and, with the whole town counting on them, May and Tom need to learn to trust each other again.

May is determined to protect her heart, but a lot has changed since high school. She can’t help but notice how the skinny boy she used to know is now a man who perfectly fills out his button-down, and Tom can’t seem to tear his gaze away from May’s sweet smile. It’s clear old feelings are surfacing again, but there is a secret keeping them apart and, until they find the courage to face it, their second chance summer will be only that…

A heartwarming story about first love, family, and the importance of second chances. Fans of Jenny Hale, Debbie Macomber, and Robyn Carr will adore Sweet Pea Summer.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

In the small town of Hillsboro, California, rumors were like honey. Sweet. Addictive. And, once stained, impossible to get out except with a good, long, painful scrubbing.

 

I look like a puddle of sweat made sentient by an evil witch.

 

Small town decorum dictated that if you said something with enough polite charm, you could get away with pretty much anything.

 

I’d rather be hated for telling the truth than loved for being a liar.

My Review:

 

This tale combined several genres, women’s fiction, family drama, small town, and contemporary and second chance romance.   The storylines were light and sizzle free and would receive a seal of approval from my elderly mother’s book club.   Small town issues and amusing characters and quirks were front and center, although I had a difficult time appreciating the character of May as I found her lacking in integrity, as she was essentially a selfish and cowardly weasel. But I also know that condition is one of the pitfalls of being small-town and having a gossipy social conscious snob for a mother, and also one of the reasons why I beat feet and couldn’t get away from the inbred hillbilly haven of my youth fast enough. Despite my lack of regard for the self-serving and deceitful May, I was curious and enjoyed the amusing observations, peculiar characters, and continuing storylines from the first book.

About the Author

Alys Murray is an author who writes for the romantic in all of us. Though she graduated with a degree in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a Master’s in Film Studies from King’s College London, her irrepressible love of romance led her to a career as an author, and she couldn’t be happier to write these stories! Currently splitting time between her home state of Louisiana and London, she enjoys kissing books, Star Wars, and creating original pie recipes for all of her books. Tobey Maguire is her Spider-Man.
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Book Review: The Magnolia Sisters by Alys Murray

The Magnolia Sisters
by Alys Murray

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU /
B&N / GP/ Apple

 

Harper Anderson has a to-do list longer than the Colorado River, and fields of tulips to tend to at her family’s flower farm in Hillsboro County, California. It’s her dream to run the business with her sisters when their father retires, keeping up traditions that began with her great-great-grandmother.

That is, if there’s a farm left to run. Rich out-of-towners looking for a slice of country living are hiking up the prices in town and it’s putting her family out of business. So she has no time for the arrogant LA tech mogul who makes her an offer to use their farm as his sister’s wedding venue. No amount of money could make up for the destruction it would wreak on next season’s crop. The sooner Luke Martin is on his way, the better.

But Luke isn’t willing to go. He’s been looking out for his sister ever since their deadbeat parents left them to fend for themselves, and he’ll do whatever it takes to make her happy. So when Harper’s newest farmhand leaves her in the lurch, he sees an opportunity to strike a deal. He’ll work on the farm for free if she’ll give him the chance to change her mind.

Harper and Luke each expect the other to crack first. What they don’t expect is the chemistry that sparks between them as they work side by side among the budding roses. But Luke’s presence is turning over more than the earth, and just as Harper is starting to let her guard down, he stumbles upon a secret that could spell disaster for the entire Anderson clan.

With her family’s happiness at stake, can Harper put her trust in a man who is worlds apart from everything she knows?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

She yawned, practically tripping down the stairs with half-open eyes, probably following the scent of coffee instead of using her sight like some kind of millennial badger.

 

Harper noticed something about May she’d never noticed before. It was there in her walk, there in her sitting. She carried herself straight and broken, like she was trying not to disturb an open stab wound right in the center of her back. How had she never noticed before? How had she never taken the time to actually see the pain she’d been carrying around for years now?

 

One mystery solved. Well, not a mystery, more like a Scooby-Doo cartoon where the true culprit was before them all along.

 

My Review:

 

This was my first experience reading the agile and smoothly penned tales of Alys Murray and I have since added more of her books to my TBR. Her relatable characters were uniquely quirky and likable and inhabited storylines that were engaging, easy to follow, and well balanced between humor, family drama, and angst. I would classify the genre of this entertaining story as women’s fiction with a bit of light romance that only went as far as earth-rattling and heart-racing smooching. I was smiling throughout most of this pleasant and amusing tale until the author unfortunately tossed in one of my least favorite tropes near the end which took a bit off the shine, but I would still read it again and look forward to more from this clever storyteller.

About the Author

Alys Murray is an author who writes for the romantic in all of us. Though she graduated with a degree in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a Master’s in Film Studies from King’s College London, her irrepressible love of romance led her to a career as an author, and she couldn’t be happier to write these stories! Currently splitting time between her home state of Louisiana and London, she enjoys kissing books, Star Wars, and creating original pie recipes for all of her books. Tobey Maguire is her Spider-Man.
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Book Review: Stranger in the Lake by Kimberly Belle

 

 

Stranger in the Lake
by Kimberly Belle

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When Charlotte married the wealthy widower Paul, it caused a ripple of gossip in their small lakeside town. They have a charmed life together, despite the cruel whispers about her humble past and his first marriage. But everything starts to unravel when she discovers a young woman’s body floating in the exact same spot where Paul’s first wife tragically drowned.

At first, it seems like a horrific coincidence, but the stranger in the lake is no stranger. Charlotte saw Paul talking to her the day before, even though Paul tells the police he’s never met the woman. His lie exposes cracks in their fragile new marriage, cracks Charlotte is determined to keep from breaking them in two.

As Charlotte uncovers dark mysteries about the man she married, she doesn’t know what to trust—her heart, which knows Paul to be a good man, or her growing suspicion that there’s something he’s hiding in the water.

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

People say I married Paul for the money, but that’s just not true. I married him because I love him, and I love him for all the things he provides. A mortgage-free roof over my head and a belly stuffed with nutritious, organic food… And really, when you think about it, isn’t security just another word for love?

Annalee loves drama, and she loves when others share in hers.

Even if she had Paul when she was a teenager, even if she slept hanging upside down by her ankles every night, there’s no way someone her age— I’ve done the math, and the woman is well into her fifties— looks that good, not without a little help. But either her surgeon is really, really good, or somewhere along the line, Diana Keller made a deal with the devil.

As far as I’m concerned, this part of my life is like Vegas: what happened here stays here, hanging from velvet hangers upstairs in the closet.

 

Money can’t buy happiness or bravery. It can’t save a marriage or bring a drug dealer back from the dead. But in these United States of America, especially here in the South, it can keep a white man out of prison.

My Review:

 

This cleverly penned mystery kept my attention rapt and my curiosity sharply honed. This was my first experience with the wily Kimberly Belle and it greedily whetted my appetite for more. Her writing was easy to follow, expertly paced, colorfully descriptive, wittily amusing, and engagingly phrased. I was quickly lured into Ms. Belle’s intriguing yet somewhat smoky vortex where I couldn’t quite grasp who was trustworthy as this was such a slippery bunch. The ones I thought wouldn’t be actually were, and the ones I had higher aspirations for were rather tepid after all. I had hoped for a different ending as I always crave a romantic HEA, but I can accept the one written just as well.

About the Author

Kimberly Belle is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of six novels, including the forthcoming Stranger in the Lake (June 2020). Her third novel, The Marriage Lie, was a semifinalist in the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Mystery & Thriller, and a #1 e-book bestseller in the UK and Italy. She’s sold rights to her books in a dozen languages as well as film and television options. A graduate of Agnes Scott College, Belle divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam.

Social Links:

Author website: https://www.kimberlybellebooks.com/

Facebook: @KimberlyBelleBooks

Twitter: @KimberlySBelle

Instagram: @kimberlysbelle

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/kimberlybelle

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Book Review: I Know Your Secret by Ruth Heald

 

I Know Your Secret
by Ruth Heald

You’re not who you say you are. Neither is she.

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.

An utterly gripping, addictive, and shocking read about the dark secrets we’re ashamed to admit, and the lengths people go to for revenge. Fans of K.L. Slater, My Lovely Wife, and The Wife Between Us will be racing through the pages, gasping at the twists, and reeling from the explosive ending of this unmissable page-turner.

My Rating:

My Review:

 

This was a slowly evolving tale fraught with interpersonal conflicts, marital discord, mind games, stalking, hidden agendas, habitual liars, cheating spouses, and mentally and emotionally unstable characters. I couldn’t decide who was the most unbalanced between the therapist and her new client, as they were both less than prime human beings in need of serious chemical assistance and a reality check. The tale was multi-layered and well textured with hidden clues and well placed red herrings. I was reluctant to put my Kindle down for fear I would miss something and was feeling rather smug thinking I had it cracked, yet I was well fooled by this sly and duplicitous wordsmith. Ruth Heald may appear to be a pleasant suburbanite like any other in your neighborhood coffee shop, but don’t you believe it. She is undoubtedly a crafty and cunning trickster and quite likely quietly plotting someone’s demise while sipping her coffee.

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Ruth Heald is a psychological thriller writer from a suburban Buckinghamshire town. She studied Economics at Oxford and then worked in an eclectic mix of sectors from nuclear decommissioning to management consulting.

Seeking a more creative environment, she found a role at the BBC and worked there for nine years before leaving to write full time. Ruth is fascinated by psychology and finding out what drives people to violence, destruction, and revenge. She’s married with one daughter and her novels explore our greatest fears in otherwise ordinary, domestic lives.