About the Author

An ancient secret hidden within a mother’s song …

When young widow, Marie-Ange Norton is invited to Beauregard in France by the mysterious Monsieur Malleval to collect an inheritance, she has no choice but to accept.

But when she embarks on the voyage with her fiery-tempered traveling companion Capitaine Hugo Saintclair, little does she know what waits for her across the sea in turbulent nineteenth-century France on the eve of Napoleon’s return from exile. When she arrives, she is taken aback by Malleval’s fascination with her family – seemingly inspired by his belief they are connected to a sacred relic he’s read about in coded manuscripts by the Knights Templar.

As it becomes clear that Malleval’s obsession has driven him to madness, Marie-Ange is horrified to realize she is more the man’s prisoner than his guest. Not only that, but Hugo is the only person who might be able to help her, and he could represent a different kind of danger.

The Girl She Wanted
by K.L. Slater

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

He was dog-tired most of the time these days, even on his day off. Exhaustion was like a fusty smell that clung to his clothes no matter how often he washed them. It was always there.

My Review:

I rarely write negative reviews as I generally stop reading, so keep in mind, this is just my highly unqualified opinion. But I felt all itchy and prickly reading this one – it just wasn’t doing it for me.   The storylines were all over the place and were extremely far-fetched and didn’t hold water while cast with characters who were too annoying for words, or maybe I can’t seem to find the right words to express my discontent.

The main character was painfully exasperating and working my last nerve as she was terminally naïve and living in a death spiral of gullibility while suffering a stubbornly fatal case of denial. Yet the author kept me reading, damn my insatiable curiosity and need for closure, they are a plague and will most likely be the death of me!

My friend Shalini has niggles, I have moanings, carpings, grumbles, grousings, and with this tale, I dare say I’ll go all fancy pants with remonstrances. Yet I kept reading, and I will confess – I never saw this ending coming, at all! So I was glad I hung in there, but again, this is just my highly unqualified opinion.

The Wife’s House
by Arianne Richmonde

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Since my husband’s death, I’d been making foolish decisions. Buying stuff I didn’t need, not being able to follow my instincts, losing and misplacing things, my brain scatty and unfocused. I couldn’t rely on myself to do the right thing. It’s a strange feeling when you can’t trust your intuition anymore. I was a cat without whiskers, a black sky without stars.

There were several “Klinics,” though, in and around Zurich. One was a sort of “quack” place— not that I’m against alternative medicine— but when someone has stage four cancer, a colonic irrigation, suction massages, and injections of mistletoe (really?) are unlikely to do the trick.

My Review:

I struggled with this book, valiantly I might add, as I despised ALL the characters, and I do mean ALL of them.   I only had positive feelings for the dog. The human characters were either manipulative or vile beings, stone-cold sociopaths, selfishly annoying, or in the case of the main character – incredibly limited in functioning brain cells. One character had snarkily noted, “How you ever got to be an attorney, I’ll never know” I had the same thought – all the way through – how could she have been so gullible?

But then again, I couldn’t seem to help myself either. I wanted to unravel this tangled mess as I was curious to know the real secrets buried beneath all the sinister maneuvering and deceit, and I had a feeling those secrets would be huge. While the pacing of the vast majority of this tense tale was agonizingly slow, the last few chapters zipped and pinged with action-packed and clever twists and reveals that almost made up for the disappointing lead-up, almost.   The wily author did keep me reading with cunning elements and an intriguing premise, but the framing and tedious execution were a disappointment and could have been so much better.

Arianne Richmonde is the USA TODAY bestselling author of the psychological thriller, THE WIFE’S HOUSE (released by Bookouture Aug 24, 2020) and suspense and romance. Her Pearl series has sold more than half a million copies worldwide. Her stories are always character-driven and full of unexpected twists and turns.

When not writing about the passions and fragilities of human nature, she loves to spend time with her husband and their animals, including a femme fatale Husky with one blue eye and one golden eye. Arianne’s a chocaholic and sometimes sneaks off to sunny, exotic locations, all in the name of research.

Author Social Media Links:

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/A_Richmonde

THE SEA GLASS COTTAGE
by RaeAnne Thayne

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

He’d never been sure why there was a mirror in their office. Most of his colleagues usually looked like they’d gotten dressed in the dark and had never seen a hairbrush before, but it was coming in handy to check he didn’t have anything between his teeth…

There was something a little ‘jumble sale’ about the whole office. Was that a sword crafted out of foam sticking out a milk crate? What on earth went on in this office?

It had been rather remarkable, but not long after Granny Fitzgerald passed away, Sharon had turned up at their house with a cat under her arm, swearing it was Granny Fitzgerald reincarnated. Or ‘reincatinated’ as their brother Luke had suggested. Despite Luke’s joking, oddly enough, the cat did look like his late grandmother. As much as a feline could look like a human, that was.

My Review:

This was a sweet and predictable novella that was chaste enough for my elderly mother’s Sunday School Book Club. The characters were likable and varied with a large family and open-ended storylines to set the stage for a new series.