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Empress DJ AKA Honolulubelle is a Rabid Reader, Unabashed Reviewer, and All-Purpose Goddess
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Book Review: The Treble With Men by Piper Sheldon

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The Treble With Men, an all-new secret identity romantic standalone from Piper Sheldon, is now available in Kindle Unlimited!

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As far as Green Valley is concerned, Kim Dae disappeared into the Wraiths a decade ago. They were sort of right. Kim has spent her life since Jethro fighting her curious nature and trying to blend into the background. Unfortunately for her, a mysterious Maestro comes to town and takes quick notice of her for reasons unknown to anybody.

The masked conductor, known simply as Devlin, was already a source of much gossip thanks to his reputation for getting fired. Now, his sudden interest in the quiet fourth chair cellist has added fuel to the rumor fire. The new conductor of the symphony needs to learn to control his temper and finish his latest musical masterpiece and only the reluctant star of his symphony can help him do that. If Devlin can’t convince Kim to help to finish his latest composition he’ll lose everything.

Can Devlin and Kim compose without losing composure?

‘The Treble with Men’ is a full-length contemporary romance, can be read as a standalone, and is book #2 in the Scorned Women’s Society series, Green Valley World, Penny Reid Book Universe.

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Download your copy today or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Richard Firmin and Andrew Gill were the co-presidents of the SOOK… Nobody else called them Andy-Dick, but as they were a package deal, it was just easier.

 

He pulled his baton from his coat jacket like it was Harry Potter’s wand…

 

“I hate guys like that. Don’t worry. If you want, I’ll kick his ass.” He flexed and kissed his biceps. “These guns haven’t lost their bullets.”

 

If you ever tell anybody I screamed like that, they’ll never find your body.

 

I’ll never agree to anything without hearing it first. That’s how people end up with a tattoo of a platypus on their ass.

 

Sleep had hit me so hard, I woke up in the same exact position I’d fallen asleep in, wondering what year it was.

My Review:

 

I enjoyed this installment twice as much as the first one, it was a wicked funny, multi-faceted, slow-burn romance. The multiple storylines were actively paced and written in my favorite dual POV featuring extremely complicated and oddly fractured characters who were struggling with themselves and each other.   Both were ducking for cover from their pasts by using dual personas while doing a rather pitiable job of functioning as either one. They were intelligent people who were living in their heads and essentially emotional and social idiots. I’m curious to see where this series goes next.

 

 

About Piper Sheldon

Piper Sheldon writes Contemporary Romance and Magical Realism books that hope to be New York Times bestsellers when they grow up. For now, she works as a technical writer during the day and writes about love the rest of the time. Of course, she also makes room for her husband, toddler, and two needy dogs at home in the Desert Southwest.

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Book Review: The German Heiress by Anika Scott

 

 

The German Heiress
by Anika Scott

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU /

B&N /HarperCollins /Apple /GP

 

 Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (April 7, 2020)

“Meticulously researched and plotted like a noir thriller, The German Heiress tells a different story of WWII— of characters grappling with their own guilt and driven by the question of what they could have done to change the past.” —Jessica Shattuck, New York Times bestselling author of The Women in the Castle

For readers of The Alice Network and The Lost Girls of Paris, an immersive, heart-pounding debut about a German heiress on the run in post-World War II Germany.

Clara Falkenberg, once Germany’s most eligible and lauded heiress, earned the nickname “the Iron Fräulein” during World War II for her role in operating her family’s ironworks empire. It’s been nearly two years since the war ended and she’s left with nothing but a false identification card and a series of burning questions about her family’s past. With nowhere else to run to, she decides to return home and take refuge with her dear friend, Elisa.

Narrowly escaping a near-disastrous interrogation by a British officer who’s hell-bent on arresting her for war crimes, she arrives home to discover the city in ruins, and Elisa missing. As Clara begins tracking down Elisa, she encounters Jakob, a charismatic young man working on the black market, who, for his own reasons, is also searching for Elisa. Clara and Jakob soon discover how they might help each other—if only they can stay ahead of the officer determined to make Clara answer for her actions during the war.

Propulsive, meticulously researched, and action-fueled, The German Heiress is a mesmerizing page-turner that questions the meaning of justice and morality, deftly shining the spotlight on the often-overlooked perspective of Germans who were caught in the crossfire of the Nazi regime and had nowhere to turn.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

What a slippery thing conscience could be. It had driven her in two directions. To her father, with all the duties of family and work… And then she had been driven to help the workers, an act that put everything else at risk. One side of her conscience undermining the other. And still she had listened to both. She had thought she could do justice to both.

 

In Jakob’s experience, you had to watch the Tommies when they were being too nice. You never knew when they’d turn on you, remind you of what a Nazi you’d been, regardless of the truth. The Tommies would call you a lowly foreigner in your own country.

 

My Review:

 

She was called The Iron Fräulein, Clara Falkenberg was a curiously captivating and intriguing study of contrasts. Her mother was British yet appeared far more fanatic about the Nazi agenda than her opportunistic German father.   Clara was the only daughter and the publicity darling for her wealthy family’s ironworks business, which made several more fortunes during the war using forced labor. Clara was also the former Reich’s most eligible heiress and graced magazines on both sides of the ocean. However, in post-war Germany, her notoriety worked against her.

 

This was my introduction to the powerful and emotive word voodoo of Anika Scott and wow, does this gal have some major skills! The storylines were smartly crafted and absorbing, intricate, well scaffolded, intriguing, thoughtfully observant, and heart-squeezing while cast with a peculiar assortment of broken, flawed, complex, and often unlikable yet deeply compelling characters. I felt conflicted yet totally engaged from start to finish. And all this in a debut novel… the little pea in my brain just exploded.

 

I was provided with a review copy of this cunningly crafted book by  TLC Book Tours and HarperCollins. 

About the Author

Anika Scott was a journalist at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Chicago Tribune before moving to Germany, where she currently lives in Essen with her husband and two daughters. She has worked in radio, taught journalism seminars at an eastern German university, and written articles for European and American publications. Originally from Michigan, she grew up in a car industry family. This is her first novel.

Find out more about Anika at her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

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Book Review: Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer

 

Truths I Never Told You 
Kelly Rimmer

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU

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After finding disturbing journal pages that suggest her late mother didn’t die in a car accident as her father had always maintained, Beth Walsh begins a search for answers to the question — what really happened to their mother? With the power and relevance of Jodi Picoult and Lisa Jewell, Rimmer pens a provocative novel told by two women a generation apart, the struggles they unwittingly shared, and a family mystery that may unravel everything they believed to be true.

With her father recently moved to a care facility because of worsening signs of dementia, Beth Walsh volunteers to clear out the family home to prepare it for sale. Why shouldn’t she be the one, after all? Her three siblings are all busy with their families and successful careers, and Beth is on maternity leave after giving birth to Noah, their miracle baby. It took her and her husband Hunter years to get pregnant, but now that they have Noah, Beth can only feel panic. And leaving Noah with her in-laws while she pokes about in their father’s house gives her a perfect excuse not to have to deal with motherhood.

Beth is surprised to discover the door to their old attic playroom padlocked, and even more shocked to see what’s behind it – a hoarder’s mess of her father’s paintings, mounds of discarded papers, and miscellaneous junk. Her father was the most fastidious, everything-in-its-place man, and this chaos makes no sense. As she picks through the clutter, she finds a handwritten note attached to one of the paintings, in what appears to be in her late mother’s handwriting. Beth and her siblings grew up believing Grace Walsh died in a car accident when they were little more than toddlers, but this note suggests something much darker may be true. A frantic search uncovers more notes, seemingly a series of loose journal entries that paint a very disturbing portrait of a woman in profound distress, and of a husband that bears very little resemblance to the father Beth and her siblings know.

A fast-paced, harrowing look at the fault in memories and the lies that can bond families together – or tear them apart.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Alicia came with him a few times, then suddenly stopped helping out. As far as I can tell, she’s very busy being a “media personality.” Given she hasn’t had an acting or modeling gig for at least a decade, “media personality” seems to mean she spends her mornings at the gym and her afternoons with her socialite friends, hoping she’ll make it into the frame of a paparazzi photo so she can complain about her lack of privacy.

 

Here, more than anywhere, I feel his absence. The room smells like Dad— his aftershave and deodorant linger in the air. This scent is warm hugs on sad days, and laughter over the breakfast bar, and suffering through the sheer boredom of the old black-and-white movie marathons he so loved to inflict upon us on rainy weekends.

 

Mrs. Hills and Aunt Nina insisted on taking me out for a bachelorette party the weekend before the wedding. I protested furiously at this, mostly because I wasn’t exactly excited by the idea of suffering through two octogenarians offering me sex advice.

 

“For your generation, these problems have names, and because they are defined, solutions can be found for them. But for my generation, we didn’t have access to those solutions and it made life endlessly complicated… and for women like your mother, endlessly cruel.” Two weeks ago I stuffed a script for Prozac into my tote bag, and it’s still there— resting between baby wipes and spare pacifiers and my purse. I clutch the strap tighter in my hand… Sometimes moments of change happen during quiet conversations like this, when a simple shift in perspective empowers you to make a choice you just haven’t been able to make before.

My Review:

 

I finished Kelly Rimmer’s latest work with tears in my eyes and hot rocks in my throat, a condition I had experienced several times during my perusal of this poignant and keenly written piece. Poignant is the word that keeps circling in my gray matter, and while accurate, poignant falls short of doing justice to this thoughtful penned story. Let me add a few more adjectives and adverbs in my paltry attempt to express my scattered thoughts, including – profoundly insightful, real-world issues, extremely relevant, heart-squeezing, painfully honest, highly emotive, sensitively handled, cleverly nuanced, masterfully written, and brilliantly paced.   Ms. Rimmer seems to have an adept and nimble skill at walking the line of both sides of a controversial subject and deftly and thoughtfully exposing the grim disparities, inequities, and nitty-gritty parts that neither side can ignore. I covet her mad skills and will ever remain her ardent fangirl for life.

About the Author

Kelly Rimmer is the worldwide and USA TODAY bestselling author of Before I Let You Go, Me Without You, and The Secret Daughter. She lives in rural Australia with her husband, two children, and fantastically naughty dogs, Sully and Basil. Her novels have been translated into more than twenty languages. 

 

 

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Book Review: The Gin Lover’s Guide to Dating by Nina Kaye

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 The Gin Lover’s Guide to Dating
by Nina Kaye

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA / 

B&N / GP / Apple

When life gives you lemons… add a splash of gin

Two parts sparkling comedy. One dose of romantic tension. Mix well with a second chance, a splash of mystery, and garnish with a twist of fate…

When Liv’s high-flying career goes off the rails, she finds herself working at a glitzy new gin bar to pay the bills. Yes, she’s got a knack for reading the customers, she’s finally got time to have some fun, and she might have just found some real friends – but it’s just until she gets her life back on track, right?

But between humiliating encounters with her old workmates, one very hot bartender, and a lot of soul searching to do, Liv’s life is even more muddled than a Blackberry Bramble…

Can Liv face up to her past, seize her future, and mix her own recipe for happiness?

A hilarious, feel-good romantic comedy for fans of Mhairi McFarlane and Sophie Ranald

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

By the time she’s done, I’ve only heard, and taken in, a fraction of what she’s said. But I have developed, in my head, a full technicolour adaptation of how, given the chance, I would inflict the slowest and most painful death possible upon her. This beast needs to be slain.

 

‘She is clever. With Aaron she is like butter that would not spread.’ ‘You mean melt.’ … ‘She is a real jacket and hype.’ ‘You mean Jekyll and Hyde!’

 

I don’t have time for men in my life… My rule is to enjoy looking, but not to touch. They never turn out to be as good as the fantasy anyway.

 

‘So, you are older. This is good. You can teach him. You can be his puma… You know.’ Reyes searches for the explanation. ‘The older woman who takes a young hombre.’ ‘The word you’re looking for is cougar,’ I say flatly.

 

‘You are not over this hill.’ Reyes swipes her hand through the air, causing me to instinctively duck. ‘You are only thirty-one. This world is still your oyster sauce.’ ‘Oyster,’ I correct her. ‘It’s just oyster.’

My Review:

 

This was a slowly developing character-driven novel of women’s fiction with random yet frequent sparkles of amusing levity. I initially struggled with this one as I had difficulty working up much empathy for the main character as Liv came off as snobbish and just far too over-served with her own self-importance. Her goals were serious yet she lived a frivolous and shallow life while contemptuous of anything that appeared beneath her desired standing – Liv was not someone whom I would enjoy sharing my air. But I felt her devastation and inner turmoil and understood her issues once her history was revealed.

The secondary characters were an entertaining and interesting collection of likable personalities and the impetus of most of the humorous content with malaprops from an adorable English as a second language speaker. And the character’s surreptitious blog posts were beyond clever with tasty gin pairings that I was eager to replicate and consume. However, I nearly spluttered my Tom Collins at the idea of Liv waking up and discovering her new blog had amassed over twelve thousand subscribers without effort, that and her expectation to make serious coin from said blog. I laughed and laughed…

I stumbled upon a fun addition to my British Isles word list while enjoying this highly fictional account – with stonker, which is something that is large or impressive. I had a stonker of a bill for bar supplies after reading this thirst-inducing missive.

About the Author

Amazon
Goodreads
Twitter

Nina Kaye is a Romantic Comedy author who writes fast-paced, entertaining reads with a deeper edge.

Nina started writing her first novel when she was seventeen (and locked in her room, supposedly studying for her future). It was a short-lived experience that ended as soon as Nina’s exams did, but the dream of writing never left her.

Nina lives in Edinburgh with her husband and much-adored side-kick, James. In addition to writing, Nina enjoys swimming, gin, and karaoke (preferably all enjoyed together in a sunny, seaside destination).

 

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Book Review: The Perfect Couple by Jackie Kabler

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The Perfect Couple
by Jackie Kabler

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA /

 B&N / GP / Apple

The perfect couple…or the perfect lie?

A year and a half ago, Gemma met the love of her life, Danny. Since then, their relationship has been like something out of a dream. But one Friday evening, Gemma returns home to find Danny is nowhere to be seen.

After two days with no word from her husband, Gemma turns to the police. She is horrified with what she discovers – a serial killer is on the loose in Bristol. When she sees the photos of the victims she is even more stunned…the victims all look just like Danny.

But, the detectives aren’t convinced by Gemma’s story. Why has no one apart from Gemma seen or heard from Danny in weeks? Why is there barely a trace of him in their flat? Is she telling them the truth, or are there more secrets and lies in this marriage than meets the eye?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

In the hallway, a plaster statue of Jesus, arms outstretched, greeted visitors, while the rest of the house was dominated by paintings and figurines depicting the Madonna and Child, Saint Bernadette (‘patron saint of illness’, Danny had hissed, one eyebrow raised, as he’d given me the tour), Saint Jude (‘he’s for desperate causes’) and Saint Clare (‘eye diseases. And, weirdly, patron saint of laundry and television,’ he’d said). Wildly sceptical, I’d googled Saint Clare at the first available opportunity, only to find out he’d been absolutely right. Laundry? Why did laundry need a patron saint?

 

They’re complicated sometimes, family relationships, aren’t they? Love and hate, hate and love, so tightly entwined that they almost become one.

 

DS Clarke was looking at me with a new interest, the gentleness I’d seen in his eyes previously replaced with something more piercing, as if I was a fascinating exhibit in a museum.

 

Karma, I thought yet again. The number of times I’d been part of a press pack, staking out the home of a politician or a paedophile, desperate to get that shot, that interview. I’d barely given a thought to how awful it must be for those trapped inside their homes. Well, I knew now, didn’t I?

 

My Review:

 

This tale had me chewing on my lips and wanting to pull my own hair, it was cunning, deviously clever, and maddeningly paced. I devised numerous wild and far-fetched theories and while partly correct, I hadn’t worked it all out as this plot was so twisty I doubt anybody could have and dare anyone to claim they had. The little pea in my brain was scorched from the effort and during the big reveal I wanted to shout at the idiocy of the main character, but I’m not sure how I feel about the conclusion other than brain bruised and distressed. Several of these characters were chillingly abhorrent and I despised the nearsighted and mono-focus of the police. Oh the sheer guile and artifice of this crafty author, Jackie Kabler is a full-blown trickster who ruthlessly tipped her own special blend of itching powder into my gray matter.

About the Author

Amazon
Goodreads
Website

Jackie Kabler is a journalist, TV presenter and author. She spent twenty years as a TV news reporter for GMTV, ITV and BBC news, and now works as a presenter for shopping channel QVC and is author of the Cora Baxter Mysteries, a series of murder mysteries set in a television newsroom.

Jackie lives in Gloucestershire with her husband, who is a GP.

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Book Review, Giveaway: The Gift of Cockleberry Bay by Nicola May

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Amazon US / UK / AU / CA 

 

From the author of the #1 BESTSELLING The Corner Shop in Cockleberry Bay

All of our favorite characters from Cockleberry Bay are back in this final, heart-warming story in the series. Including Hot, Rosa Smith’s adorable dachshund and his new-born puppies.

Now successfully running the Cockleberry Café and wishing to start a family herself, Rosa feels the time is right to let her inherited Corner Shop go. However, her benefactor left one important legal proviso: that the shop cannot be sold, only passed on to somebody who really deserves it.

Rosa is torn. How can she make such a huge decision? And will it be the right one? Once the news gets out and goes public, untrustworthy newcomers appear in the Bay . . . their motives uncertain. With the revelation of more secrets from Rosa’s family heritage, a new journey of unpredictable and life-changing events begins to unfold.

The Gift of Cockleberry Bay concludes this phenomenally successful series in typically brisk and bolshy style and will delight the many thousands of Rosa’s fans

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

‘It always seems to be loving families who lose a parent or a child. I do believe the good die young. ’‘My mum wasn’t that young.’ ‘She wasn’t that good either.’ ‘Oi.’ They both then laughed nervously.

 

‘I’m internet dating, you see, and there are very few handsome men to be found in this area, as you can imagine.’ She picked up a thick church candle from the shelf and held it at the base with both hands. Danny blinked and cleared his throat.

 

‘Show me again.’ Rosa held up the grey and white picture. ‘Aw. That’s our baby, that is.’ Josh was beaming. ‘Look to the right, I’m sure I can see a willy.’ Rosa laughed. ‘I don’t ever want to see one of those again if it makes me feel this sick.’

 

Christmas Eve and the Cockleberry Bay Village Hall had not seen so much activity since the adult version of the nativity play twenty-five years ago, when Joseph had outed his wife for having an affair with the Angel Gabriel; in his hurry to escape the humiliation, the latter got his wings caught in a wise man’s stick and fell off the stage, breaking his ankle.

My Review:

 

I enjoy Ms. May’s wry comedic humor and she is a wily one as her amusing levity kept my lips twitching with a ready smirk. She is rather sneaky and slipped in jocularity in the midst of other scenes in unexpected places such as when a character was adding their coins to the café’s communal gratuities jar, which was described as “a ceramic burlesque dancer money box that held a sign saying Nice Tips.”

 

In addition to her clever and playful use of wit, several hefty social and personal issues were tapped and used as a positive platform for dispersal of thoughtful information and awareness, which I always appreciate. Ms. May’s characters tend to be diverse, quirky, deeply flawed, and uniquely intriguing. And despite his stinky breath and proprietary barking, I adore that little Hot Dog, AKA, Mr. Sausage to “where the sky touches the sea.”

About the Author

Nicola May lives in the UK, five miles from the Queen’s castle in Windsor, with her black-and-white rescue cat, Stan. Her hobbies include watching films that involve a lot of swooning, crabbing in South Devon and devouring cream teas.

Her bestselling The Corner Shop in Cockleberry, the 1st book in the Cockleberry Bay series, went to #1 on Amazon and stayed there for an unprecedented 6 weeks.

She classes her novels as ‘chicklit with a kick,’ writing about love, life, and friendships in a real, not fluffy kind of way. She likes burgers, mince pies, clocks, birds, bubble baths and facials – but is not so keen on aubergines.

Follow Nicola May

Website – www.nicolamay.com

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/NicolaMayAuthor

Twitter – https://twitter.com/nicolamay1

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/author_nicola/

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 Win a signed copy of The Gift of Cockleberry Bay

(Open INT)

*Terms and Conditions –  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will be passed to the giveaway organizer and used only for the fulfillment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data.  I am not responsible for dispatch or delivery of the prize.

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Book Review: Been There Done That by Hope Ellis

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Theirs was a forever kind of love, until it was stolen.

Been There Done That, an all-new second-chance romantic standalone by debut author Hope Ellis, is available now!

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ZORA LEFFERSBEE’S once perfect life is no longer perfect. Her tenure at the university is in question, funding for her employees uncertain, and her faux-fiancé, Jackson James’s unpredictability is wearing on her last nerve. Just when Zora is convinced things can’t get more complicated, life proves her wrong.

What the heck is he doing here?

NICK ROSSI’s complicated life is still extremely complicated. He’s used to fighting for everything he has, but he’s also used to winning. Now a man of power and influence, his return to Green Valley after so many years hasn’t gone according to plan, especially with the woman he’s always wanted.

She can’t know why I left, or why I’m back.

A powerful woman intent on righting the wrongs of the world, Zora doesn’t have time or energy to deal with the man who broke her young heart.

A powerful man intent on righting the wrongs of the past, Nick can’t help wanting to protect Zora, even if his devotion is unrequited.

‘Been There Done That’ is a full-length contemporary romance, can be read as a standalone, and is book #1 in the Leffersbee series, Green Valley World, Penny Reid Book Universe.

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Download your copy today or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2sEcF4a

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“You remind me of that stripper in the movie. The really big one? Dark hair?” I coughed. “Uh, stripper?” One corner of her mouth went up in a sly smile. “Don’t sound so shocked. I might look like an old lady to you, but this girl’s still got a little oil left in her can.”

 

By all rights, this guy should be a stooped-over accountant with the eyesight of a mole. Justice demands it.

 

I don’t want one of your conquests to brain me with a can of peas in the middle of the Piggly Wiggly and post the footage online.

 

Listen. The last time we were together, I was eighteen. My breasts had more ‘giddy-up’ and less ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.’

My Review:

 

Laced with clever and biting humor this second chance romance was a solid performer in the continuation of the Green Valley Smartypants Romances. Told in my favorite dual POV, the storylines were heavier on the angsty and regretful inner musings and antagonized resistance when I would have preferred more of the irreverent and snappy levity that sparkled throughout.   However, Ms. Ellis more than made up for all that conflict once the rapturous warmth seeped back into the fated lovers’ relationship and their steamy sensual scenes charred the linens beyond repair. Kudos to a debut author for pulling a rabbit out of her hat. I am eager to see her next treatise featuring this quirky family.

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Excerpt

My Grandmother Leffersbee used to say, “Life isn’t perfect, but that’s what makes it so interesting.” Then she’d wink before adding, “Do you want interesting? Or do you want boring?”

Right now? I could use some boring perfection. Just a little. Just a smidge. Please.

“Zora.” A vaguely familiar-sounding voice said my name from someplace in the vicinity of my office doorway. I ignored it, hoping they’d take my silence as an invitation to go away.

You’re almost out of time.

My eyes stung, but I wasn’t going to cry. There is no crying in clinic communication research; there is only more research, more grant applications, more trying, more doing. But, damn, I really thought we had this one in the bag. Folks’ livelihoods depended on it. My tenure, my job, depended on it. Not to mention the research itself was important—so incredibly important.

“Zora,” that voice said again, firmer this time. Closer.

Given my present state of mind and eau de sweat fantastique, I can’t help barking out, “Now isn’t a good time.”

The man didn’t respond for a beat, but then once more said, “Zora,” this time with a hint of grit and impatience.

My glare cut away from the offending rejection email and I opened my mouth to volley something scathingly polite and dismissive, but then every nerve and muscle in my body seized. The clouds outside my office window parted at that very moment, emitting a biblical shaft of light that illuminated my overstuffed bookcases—and the breathtaking specimen of man standing in my office doorway on the fifth floor of the medical research building.

What the . . .?

Shock choked me. I couldn’t breathe. The cracked vinyl of the office chair’s armrests bit into the tender flesh of my palms.

I recognized him immediately even though he looked very, very different. All the awkward lankiness and unformed promise of his youth had been ruthlessly fulfilled in the intervening years. But after twelve years of empty, aching absence, of wondering and worrying, of resignation and sadness . . . he was here.

Was he real?

“I thought . . . I thought you were dead.” The whispered words left my mouth at the same time they formed in my brain.

Nick Armstrong stood silent and unmoving, a stolid sentry, looking at me. Just . . . looking.

The width of his shoulders filled the doorway, leaving scant space between his head and the door frame. I couldn’t help devouring the sight of him, half-wondering if he were a mirage. Despite being as fashion challenged as I was, I easily identified the perfect fit of a bespoke suit, noting how the high-quality fabric closely followed the muscled bulk of his shoulders and arms. The unassuming dark jacket, white dress shirt, and trousers did little to hide his tapered waist and well-developed thighs.

His hulking presence alone ensnared my attention, but his face arrested it. He was striking. Thick, ink-black hair just starting to curl over his collar matched the dark stubble shadowing his square jaw. His slightly off-center nose, likely the result of a break, ruined the pure symmetry of his features. But his eyes were a startling shade of green, the same showy, verdant hue of summer leaves under an ominously gunmetal sky.

So unsettlingly familiar. And yet . . . No, it couldn’t be him. There was no way it was Nick. Not after all these years.

This isn’t possible.

I lurched up and made a spectacle of myself as I struggled to stand. Panic weighted my feet. Disbelief severed any connection with my brain’s higher processing, leaving me stuck to my chair with my mouth hanging ajar. “Letting in flies,” as my Grandma Leffersbee would have said.

I blinked back confusion as I stared at him, captured by a whisper, an echo of a memory. “Who . . . ?”

His mouth moved, like maybe he was going to introduce himself. But instead, he repeated my name for a fourth time, “Zora . . .”

This voice was different from the Nick I had loved. Deeper. But the way he said my name, slowly, as if savoring the taste of something rich? I could never forget that.

It is him.

About Hope Ellis

Hope Ellis is a health outcomes researcher by day and writes romances featuring sexy nerds by night. She hopes to one day conquer her habit of compulsively binge-watching The Office.

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Book Review: The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni

The Ancestor
by Danielle Trussoni

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU / 

B&N / HarperCollins /GP

 Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: William Morrow (April 7, 2020)

From the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of the Angelology series comes a bewitching gothic novel of suspense that plunges readers into a world of dark family secrets, the mysteries of human genetics, and the burden of family inheritance.

It feels like a fairy tale when Alberta ”Bert” Monte receives a letter addressed to “Countess Alberta Montebianco” at her Hudson Valley, New York, home that claims she’s inherited a noble title, money, and a castle in Italy. While Bert is more than a little skeptical, the mystery of her aristocratic family’s past, and the chance to escape her stressful life for a luxury holiday in Italy, is too good to pass up.

At first, her inheritance seems like a dream come true: a champagne-drenched trip on a private jet to Turin, Italy; lawyers with lists of artwork and jewels bequeathed to Bert; a helicopter ride to an ancestral castle nestled in the Italian Alps below Mont Blanc; a portrait gallery of ancestors Bert never knew existed; and a cellar of expensive vintage wine for Bert to drink.

But her ancestry has a dark side, and Bert soon learns that her family history is particularly complicated. As Bert begins to unravel the Montebianco secrets, she begins to realize her true inheritance lies not in a legacy of ancestral treasures, but in her very genes.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Listen to me, child. I saw it. The beast came for me on the mountain pass like a ghost with its white hair and devilish blue eyes. Its teeth were sharp as razors. But worst of all, it was so like us. Monstrous and yet so human. The legends were true.

 

… inheritance is a trickster. One generation may hide its genetic treasures, while the next will put them fully on display.

 

Leopold had described the village as a seed pressed into a rocky furrow, and it seemed exactly that: a furtive garden in a fold of stone.

 

How strange it felt, to sit there so openly, my feet exposed. A lifetime of hiding them had made me self-conscious to the point of neurosis. But there was no reason to hide my feet from these people.

 

My Review:

 

The Ancestor was a bracing and chilling tale of an epic legacy of dark secrets and unknown wealth hidden in the ice and snow.   While not my typical read, I was quickly pulled into an oddly captivating vortex of unnerving and itchy intrigue. It was easy to follow, highly creative, monstrously eerie, and the most distressing part was that it was conceivably plausible. Despite feeling edgy, unsettled, and nibbling on my cuticles – I was enslaved by my curiosity and unable to put my Kindle down.

The narrative was richly textured, cunningly conceived, and maddeningly paced. I was engrossed and conflicted while I cycled between feeling appalled and entranced.   To illustrate Ms. Trussoni’s exceptional word voodoo, I was mentally frostbitten by her descriptive depictions of the harsh Alpine weather that entrenched the beset characters while in reality, I was barefoot, clad in shorts, and comfortably lounging with an open window and ceiling fan on a balmy day in the tropics. She has mad skills.

I was provided with a review copy of this oddly compelling tale by TLC Book Tours and HarperCollins.

About the Author

Danielle Trussoni is the New York Times, USA Today, and Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling author of the supernatural thrillers Angelology and Angelopolis. She currently writes the Horror column for the New York Times Book Review and has recently served as a jurist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Trussoni holds an MFA in Fiction from the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she won the Michener-Copernicus Society of America award. Her books have been translated into over thirty languages. She lives in the Hudson River Valley with her family and her pug Fly.

Find out more about Trussoni at her website, and connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Book Review: The Silent Treatment by Abbie Greaves

The Silent Treatment
by Abbie Greaves

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Hardcover: 304 pages

 Publisher: William Morrow (April 7, 2020)

For readers of The Light We Lost and Me Before You, a life-affirming, deeply moving story about lies, loss and a love that is louder than words.

“The premise alone had me, but The Silent Treatment itself is just heartrendingly lovely. It’s beautiful, so moving and clever. I truly adored it.”   — Josie Silver, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December

A lifetime together.
Six months of silence.
One last chance.

By all appearances, Frank and Maggie share a happy, loving marriage. But for the past six months, they have not spoken. Not a sentence, not a single word. Maggie isn’t sure what, exactly, provoked Frank’s silence, though she has a few ideas.

Day after day, they have eaten meals together and slept in the same bed in an increasingly uncomfortable silence that has become, for Maggie, deafening.

Then Frank finds Maggie collapsed in the kitchen, unconscious, an empty package of sleeping pills on the table. Rushed to the hospital, she is placed in a medically induced coma while the doctors assess the damage.

If she regains consciousness, Maggie may never be the same. Though he is overwhelmed at the thought of losing his wife, will Frank be able to find his voice once again—and explain his withdrawal—or is it too late?

“A remarkably assured debut which doesn’t go where you expect it to go. I very much look forward to seeing what she writes next.” — Jojo Moyes, #1 New York Times bestselling author

 

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My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

I have no intention of being cruel, really I don’t, I never do. The sad reality is that often our behavior will do it for us, unwilled and unwilling. My silence is the very best example.

My Review:

 

Never have I read prose so elegantly detailed with an uncommon poignancy of tiny movements that continually plucked at my heartstrings while taunting my inquisitive nature to an unbearable level. The characters were devastatingly fractured, highly idiosyncratic, and oddly captivating.   Narrated from a dual POV in two separate sections, each was evocatively written in an arresting style that held me transfixed to my Kindle while growing increasingly fretful and taut with tension. Ms. Greaves is a crafty and cunning wordsmith who kept me ensnared and suspended in an eager and avid state of curiosity. I was engaged, engrossed, and intrigued by the characters, their history, and the prickly and precarious unfolding story of their guarded present. And all this from a debut author. I am in complete and utter awe.

I was provided with a review copy of this insightfully observant book by TLC Book Tours and HarperCollins.
 

About the Author

Abbie Greaves studied English Literature at Cambridge University. She worked in publishing for three years before leaving to focus on her writing. She now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Silent Treatment is her first novel.

Find out more about Abbie at her website, and connect with her on Instagram and Twitter.

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Book Review: My Greek Island Summer by Mandy Baggot

My Greek Island Summer
by Mandy Baggot

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA /

 B&N / GP / Kobo

Two weeks. One unforgettable trip to Corfu. A chance to change her life.

Becky Rose has just landed her dream job house-sitting at a top-end villa on the island of Corfu. What could be better than two weeks laying by an infinity pool overlooking the gorgeous Ionian waters while mending her broken heart.

Elias Mardas is traveling back to Corfu on business whilst dealing with his own personal demons. Late arriving in Athens, Becky and Elias have to spend a night in the Greek capital. When they have to emergency land in Kefalonia, Becky’s got to decide whether to suck up the adventure and this gorgeous companion she seems to have been thrown together with or panic about when she’s going to arrive at Corfu…

Finally reaching the beautiful island, Becky is happy to put Elias behind her and get on with her adventure. Until he turns up at the villa…

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

He could imagine the raised eyes in the village… the not-so-whispered gossip of the village’s president like a rally bullhorn. Greek men didn’t get left like that. Greek men absolutely never got left for a woman… if it didn’t happen in mythology it didn’t exist.

 

Are you a prostitute? You know, not one of those ones who stand on street corners wearing clothes that look like the 1980s threw up all over them. I mean one of the ones who suck off politicians and pop stars in classy hotels… Oh my God! I guessed it right, didn’t I?! Well, you’re a dark horse. I didn’t really have you pegged for that when you said you hadn’t ever had sex in a plane toilet.

 

‘The army?’ Petra said, screwing up her face as if ‘the army’ was gone-off chicken no longer fit for human consumption. ‘To be honest the sex trade was more believable. What are you? A captain or something? Sitting behind a desk all day planning assaults?’

 

Only me. My mother will tell you that as I was ten pounds in weight and it felt like she was evacuating a watermelon. There was no way she was going to repeat the experience… You laugh at me? Being a child on my own growing up. No one to play with because my head was too large?… You are now thinking of me with a watermelon for a head, are you not?

 

My Review:

 

At five-hundred-twenty-eight pages, this slowly developing story was cleverly interwoven with humorous yet emotive subplots and secondary story threads that provided vibrant strokes of color and a great deal of texture to the uniquely quirky and oddly captivating characters. I was pleasantly surprised how all the sneakily placed little tidbits skillfully merged together at the end for my highly prized HEA. I smirked, giggle-snorted, and gasped my way through this gastronomical delight, which teased and taunted my various appetites and was rather destructive to my dieting efforts – but any excuse will do 😉

About the Author

Mandy Baggot is an international bestselling and award-winning romance writer. The winner of the Innovation in Romantic Fiction award at the UK’s Festival of Romance, her romantic comedy novel, One Wish in Manhattan, was also shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association Romantic Comedy Novel of the Year award in 2016. Mandy’s books have so far been translated into German, Italian, Czech, and Hungarian. Mandy loves the Greek island of Corfu, white wine, country music, and handbags. Also a singer, she has taken part in ITV1’s Who Dares Sings and The X-Factor. Mandy is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Society of Authors and lives near Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK with her husband and two daughters.

Follow Aria

Website: www.ariafiction.com

Twitter: @aria_fiction

Facebook: @ariafiction

Instagram: @ariafiction

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