My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Ronan didn’t date much these days—he’d tried it once or twice, and it always ended up in tears. Never his.

The llama let out the same bleating, hollering sound, which could only be described as Chewbacca on helium crossed with angry cat gurgling. In other words, a sound that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

He loved his grandmother to bits… But her stubborn Irish blood made her tough as nails and twice as sharp.

Maybe it was the worry festering in his brain about his grandmother getting old. But his resentment was hot and angry, and it was so close to the surface he was sure that if he turned his wrist over he would see it bubbling in his veins.

She had dark hair and darker eyes and looked so effortlessly glamorous that Audrey suddenly felt like a cave troll having a bad hair day.

“…their coffee tastes like dishwater.” “That’s putting it mildly,” Audrey quipped. “I would have said it tastes like Satan’s backwash.”

My Review:

I enjoyed this kickoff installment for a new series; it was a fun and cleverly amusing read, yet it hit all the feels with insightful observations, realistic issues, heartbreaking family concerns, delicious sensual steam, and enigmatic personalities.   The characters were appealing and endearing as well as earnest, hard-working, and sincere. I loved that the Rubenesque and uneducated high school dropout Audrey was a trivia genius with a brain bulging with obscure facts on an endless array of topics that could stump a panel of college professors on their best days. I gleaned a considerable amount of UBIs from Audrey that may prove useful someday such as the fact that babies have extra bones, wombats poo in cubical form, and male elephants have highly impressive personal units… all information that was previously unknown to me. I had such a good time with this one I am eager to see what Ms. London does with the rest of the series.

The Perfect Liar
by Beverley Harvey

Throughout Beverley’s many years spent working in advertising and PR, she had always wanted to write fiction. In 2015 a creative writing course inspired her debut novel, Seeking Eden, which was published in 2017. The sequel, Eden Interrupted, soon followed. Beverley’s third novel – her first with Bookouture – fulfills a long-time goal to publish a psychological thriller.

Born in Yorkshire, and raised in Kent, Beverley currently lives in West Sussex with her partner and their adorable terrier. When not writing, you’ll find her reading, walking the dog, or listening to rock music.

The House at Magpie Cove
by Kennedy Kerr

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

He gave the air of considering himself too important for something as fanciful as reading a novel or a play or a poem. Privately, Mara had always thought that anyone who didn’t like books was either boring or an idiot. Turns out, I was right.

Life’s always easier when you’ve got your hair done and a good pair of knickers on, in my experience.

Ugh. I am sick and tired of men, she thought. Maybe I can go and live on some kind of women’s commune where everybody is nice and eats cake and plants lovely vegetable gardens and we have monthly moon rituals and community sing-songs and I could train to be a medicine woman, and no one would ever be mean or unreasonable.

My Review:

This was an engaging, fairly quick, and entertaining read with relevant and relatable issues and knowable characters. There were several periods I wanted to give the main character of Mara a swift kick to dislodge her misplaced noggin from her colon and shake loose a few stagnate brain cells and some self-confidence in the process, but thankfully she saw the light before too much damage was done. The storylines were well constructed and smartly paced. I see this is only the author’s second book and I would never have guessed as the writing style was well developed with a smooth and inviting flow. Well done, Ms. Kerr, I am duly impressed.

My husband is everything I ever dreamed of. A handsome, successful doctor who swept me off my feet.

Our new life together is perfect.

He’s perfect.

But am I good enough for him? I never seem to get anything right. And I’m starting to feel a little afraid of the man I married.

He’s taken away my bank card and my phone. I don’t know what to think or what to do. I gave up everything for him and now I’m trapped.

Then a stranger comes to our door. She tells me that I can’t trust my husband.

That I should ask him what happened to his first wife.

Totally gripping, chilling and with a twist you won’t see coming, The Next Wife is a dark, heart-stopping story of what really goes on behind closed doors. Fans of My Lovely Wife, B A Paris, and JP Delaney will be completely enthralled by this addictive read.

My Husband’s Daughter
by Emma Robinson 

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From interior designer to author, when Linn B. Halton’s not writing or spending time with the family, she’s either upcycling furniture or working in the garden. Linn won the 2013 UK Festival of Romance: Innovation in Romantic Fiction award; her novels have been shortlisted in the UK’s Festival of Romance and the eFestival of Words Book Awards. Living in Coed Duon in the Welsh Valleys with her ‘rock’, Lawrence, and gorgeous Bengal cat Ziggy, she freely admits she’s an eternal romantic. Linn is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Society of Authors. Linn writes feel-good, uplifting novels about life, love, and relationships.

Sometimes it takes a stranger to find a killer…

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I’m the one who sells Mick his beer. Every night when he leaves the Tavern he’s like a puppet with the strings cut.

Fletcher knew it was uncharitable to understand why Walt had found comfort in the arms of another woman, but the pernicious Mrs. Renard had stripped him of his desire to see her in a positive light… he couldn’t see her as the killer. He figured that would be too quick, too painless for a woman like her. That she’d be the type who’d gladly cut her own nose off to spite someone else’s face. She’d want to make her husband suffer, to have him regret his dalliance every time she gave him a look or chastising word. She would prefer to execute him with a thousand verbal cuts than a knife to the heart or a slash to the throat.

Dressed as he was in a black suit with white shirt and black tie, the caller was either an FBI Special Agent, or an out-of-work actor who was about to attend an audition for a remake of Reservoir Dogs.

Like so many other librarians he’d met, she had a pair of reading glasses hanging against her chest on what Wendy referred to as a “granny chain.”

She was late forties to early fifties and had the look of someone who’d ambushed more than one bottle of wine.

My Review:

I relish Mr. Ryder’s descriptions and character development, I found myself looking forward to the introduction of each new character to delight in the witty and pithy manner in which he would describe them. His humor went a long way in easing the unrelenting tension facing the tightly coiled main protagonists.

This was a complicated and gritty tale that I would never have unraveled under my own steam. I struggled some with the number and length of the violent physical conflicts poor Fletcher had to endure. This installment would undoubtedly be more popular and exciting for bloodthirsty readers as it was heavy with pages and pages of brutal physical altercations, and combative knife fights in minute blow-by-blow detail.   And while I understand that may be thrilling to some, it grew tiresome for me. I wanted my clever hero to get back to the snarky observations and amusing and slick displays of one-upmanship.   Not that I have ever behaved in such a manner 😉

John Ryder is a former farmworker and joiner. He’s turned his hand to many skills to put food on the table and clothes on his back. A life-long bibliophile, he eventually summoned the courage to try writing himself, and his Grant Fletcher novels have drawn inspiration from authors such as Lee Child, Tom Cain, Zoe Sharp, and Matt Hilton. When it comes to future novels, he says he has more ideas than time to write them.

When not writing, John enjoys spending time with his son, reading, and socializing with friends. A fanatic supporter of his local football team, he can often be found shouting encouragement to men much younger and fitter than he is.

Author Social Media Links:

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnRyder101

Her Final Prayer
(Detective Clara Jefferies #2)
by Kathryn Casey

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I thought of those I knew who used religion to control the lives of others and the unfairness of a world where so many have no power and no voice.

On the day my parents delivered me to him I was seventeen, and my husband was sixty-four. He could have been my grandfather.

My Review:

The first book in the series, The Fallen Girls, left a mark on my memory and I have been curious ever since to know more of Clara’s history. The storylines were tense and prickly, much like the main protagonist, as well as a bit gruesome and cast with adult characters I wanted to take a sharp switch to while hissing like a serpent. I know there are weird secular cults in every culture and that they are basically everywhere, but these extreme religious sects that are basically abusing children and women with the women’s consent are just horrific and inexcusable. The mystery wasn’t as unpredictable as the first installment but it was still twisted and disconcerting and kept me on edge.