Category: 5-Stars

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Book Review: The Beach House by P.R. Black

The Beach House
by P.R. Black

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Amazon US / UK / AU / CA / 

Kobo / Google Play / iBooks

 

This vacation is about to turn deadly…

Cora’s on the island vacation of her dreams: a private beach in paradise, a romantic proposal, and an eight-figure cheque following the sale of her new fiancé’s business.

When their island turns out to be not so private after all, Cora tries to make the best of a bad situation by inviting their strangely friendly neighbors to celebrate with them.

But it doesn’t take long for her once-in-a-lifetime holiday to take a very sinister turn…

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

‘If that’s your best come-on line, then that’s some weak sauce.’ ‘Trust me,’ Jonathan said – with that particular twinkle in his eye that usually meant she should do the opposite.

 

They had gone to see a conch expert at the conch museum, where a man in bright red ‘CONCH MUSEUM’ T-shirt had held up a live specimen of the shellfish, dripping wet from the pool, and told the rest of the spectators with a straight face: ‘This is a conch. And this is its penis.’ He went on to tell the assembled tourists how the humble conch has the biggest penis-to-body ratio in the animal kingdom, at which point Cora began to suffer from a coughing fit, which meant she had to go outside and laugh properly.

 

Cora hadn’t failed to notice he was absurdly ripped, with one of those fat-free gym-honed physiques that looked as if they shouldn’t exist outside of a comic book – abs she could have played a tune on, straining muscle fibre best suited to a racehorse and a closely shaven chest that might have belonged to Action Man.

 

‘Mixed Martial Arts. I was only thinking about it. I’ve got this health condition that stops me from getting into the ring.’ ‘What’s that?’ ‘I’m allergic to getting punched in the face.’

 

When a man lives with a woman who could disembowel him with a dessert spoon, a man understands when to shut up.

 

I’ll let you in on another secret –I’m great at lying. Hey, I’m a primary school teacher… About eighty percent of my job is bullshitting children so they can sit still, and shut up. It’s a skill. You get good at it.

 

 My Review:

 

This compelling book started off with crisp humor and amusing levity that put a smirk on my face and had me gleefully nestling in my chair for a snug session of relaxed reading. However, the tone soon turned a bit tauter, and steadily more so, until the smirk disappeared and I fell into Mr. Black’s vortex of intriguing doppelgangers, dangerous con artists, and a stupidly rich idiot fiancé and I totally lost track of myself as well as time. Wow, this absorbing read was nonstop action and cunningly well-paced with more twists and turns than a snake’s trail.

 

When I finally stopped to catch my breath and seek a bit of sustenance, I noticed my shoulders were in my ears and I was white-knuckling my Kindle, which was generally my reading posture for the remainder of the tale. I resented any interruption to my perusal and may have been rather snappish when my sweet husband inquired about dinner.   Oops. I seemed to have fallen under what I’m calling The P.R. Black Spell, as this wordsmith is obviously a master of the darker arts of word voodoo.

About the Author

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Author and journalist PR Black lives in Yorkshire, although he was born and brought up in Glasgow. When he’s not driving his wife and two children to distraction with all the typing, he enjoys hillwalking, fresh air, and the natural world, and can often be found asking the way to the nearest pub in the Lake District. His short stories have been published in several books including the Daily Telegraph’s Ghost Stories and the Northern Crime One anthology. His Glasgow detective, Inspector Lomond, is appearing in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. He took the runner-up spot in the 2014 Bloody Scotland crime-writing competition with “Ghostie Men”. His work has also been performed on stage in London by Liars’ League. He has also been shortlisted for the Red Cross International Prize, the William Hazlitt essay prize and the Bridport Prize.

Follow Aria

Website: www.ariafiction.com

Twitter: @aria_fiction

Facebook: @ariafiction

Instagram: @ariafiction

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Book Review: The Look-Alike by Erica Spindler

The Look-Alike
by Erica Spindler

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA / 

B&N / GP / Apple / Kobo

From Erica Spindler, the New York Times bestselling author of The Other Girl and Justice for Sara comes The Look-Alike, a thrilling psychological drama about a woman who believes she escaped a brutal murder years ago—but does anyone else believe her?

Sienna Scott grew up in the dark shadow of her mother’s paranoid delusions. Now, she’s returned home to confront her past and the unsolved murder that altered the course of her life.

In her mother’s shuttered house, an old fear that has haunted Sienna for years rears its ugly head—that it was she who had been the killer’s target that night. And now, with it, a new fear—that the killer not only intended to remedy his past mistake—he’s already begun. But are these fears any different from the ones that torment her mother?

As the walls close in, the line between truth and lie, reality and delusion disintegrate. Has Sienna’s worst nightmare come true? Or will she unmask a killer and finally prove she may be her mother’s look-alike, but she’s not her clone?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Her mother released her and held her at arm’s length, studying her. It was like looking in a mirror, Sienna thought. One that bent time — herself thirty years from now.

 

She found each step akin to another crank of a jack-in-the-box, and with each a growing anxiety for what was going to jump out at her.

 

For a long moment, her mother was quiet. When she finally spoke, the words broke Sienna’s heart. “You can’t live in fear. And I can’t seem to live without it.”

  

My Review:

 

This was my first exposure to the devious word-stylings of Erica Spindler and I chose an excellent start point, if I do say so myself ~ well, honestly, how else could anyone recognize my genius if I don’t point it out? I instantly fell into this diabolically and ingeniously crafted, tautly written, and brain itching tale of intrigue, murder, family drama, and card-carrying mental illness. I conjured and cast aside a bevy of questionable and brilliant theories, as everyone was suspect at one time or another.

The writing was stellar and the storylines were maddeningly paced and cunningly crafted while cast with a wide assortment of curiously compelling and brain-tickling characters. Now that I have had a taste of her word voodoo, I am greedy for all of Ms. Spindler’s clever words.  I was provided with a review copy of this wily written book by Macmillan Publishing.

A New York Times and International bestselling author, Erica Spindler’s skill for crafting engrossing plots and compelling characters has earned both critical praise and legions of fans. Her stories have been lauded as “thrill-packed page turners, white- knuckle rides and edge-of-your-seat whodunits.”

Erica loves meeting and interacting with her fans, both in-person and online. She has a wicked sense of humor, an optimistic spirit and loves coffee, chocolate, and red wine, not necessarily in that order.

In 2002 her novel Bone Cold won the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award for excellence. A Romance Writers of America Honor Roll member, she received a Kiss of Death Award for her novels Forbidden Fruit and Dead Run and was a four-time RITA® Award finalist. In 1999 Publishers Weekly awarded the audio version of her novel Shocking Pink a Listen Up Award, naming it one of the best audio mystery books of 1998.

Erica lives just outside New Orleans, Louisiana, with her husband and two sons.

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Book Review: Her Secret Past (Detective Jessie Blake #3) by Kerry Watts

Her Secret Past
(Detective Jessie Blake #3)
by Kerry Watts

Amazon / B&N

Jean Angus pours the last of the lukewarm tea into her chipped cup, shivering as she looks outside into the dark night. Her eyes are drawn to a slow movement not far from her cozy farmhouse. She’s not expecting visitors. And as the back door opens with a bang, she doesn’t even have time to shout for help.

On a dark winter night, the bodies of Malcolm and Jean Angus lie cold and still in a pool of blood in their kitchen. Detective Jessie Blake is called in to find out what happened to the reclusive pair.

Searching the couple’s property, Jessie learns about a vicious dispute with a nearby landowner, Rachel Ferguson, and when Jessie looks into Rachel further, she doesn’t expect what comes up. Rachel isn’t the person everyone thinks she is and a previous murder conviction just made her Jessie’s prime suspect.

The small Perthshire town begins to gossip about the double murder and Jessie’s own past comes back to haunt her, when her abusive ex-husband begins to interfere in her new life. As the town starts a witch hunt against Rachel, Jessie is under pressure to find out what really happened in the farmhouse that night. Because if it isn’t Rachel, then who is the murderer living among them, waiting to kill again?

If you like LJ Ross, Val McDermid, and Helen H. Durrant, you’ll love this addictive new crime thriller from Kerry Watts. Her Secret Past will have you hooked from the start!

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

Benito Capello had the knack of making her feel like a teenager again. It was his brooding Latin looks. The way his big brown eyes twinkled like he was sharing a naughty secret when he smiled.

 

My Review:

 

This tale was jam-packed with itchy twists, oddly peculiar and intriguing characters, compelling storylines, and a full slate of dark secrets and hidden agendas. The storylines seemed unlimited, as were my wild theories, and each was ingeniously complex and cleverly crafted -both mine and the authors 😉 My brain was on fire while attempting to work this one out ahead of the detectives.   I have a new favorite author to add to my list.

About the Author

Kerry Watts was born and grew up in a small town in the East of Scotland where she still lives today. She is always writing and carries a little notebook and pen with her wherever she goes because at her age ideas need to be captured before they disappear.
Kerry specializes in crime fiction because she enjoys pushing the boundaries of what it is to be human. The nature versus nurture debate

 

Author Social Media Links

 FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/KerryWattsAuthor/

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/Denmanisfab

 

 

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Book Review: Dream With Me (With Me in Seattle #13) by Kristen Proby

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Dream With Me by Kristen Proby

Release Date: January 21, 2020

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Dream With Me, an all-new standalone contemporary romance in the beloved With Me In Seattle Series by New York Times Bestselling Author Kristen Proby.

Kane O’Callaghan knows what it is to have his work shown all over the world. His pieces are on display in palaces and museums, including the O’Callaghan Museum of Glass just outside of his beloved hometown of Seattle. Kane is a bit of a recluse, spending time on his farm alone and committed to his art. His life is full.

Until the day he meets her.

Wandering through museums is Anastasia Montgomery’s favorite way to spend her time. Not only does art feed her soul, but it inspires her own art of designing wedding cakes. When her muse seems to be gone, she finds her again among the beauty in the museums of Seattle, and the O’Callaghan Museum of Glass is her favorite. She’s never met the artist, but he must be absolutely brilliant, if he can make such beautiful things out of glass.

Bumping into a grumpy stranger at the museum wasn’t in Anastasia’s plan. And then discovering it was Kane himself was absolutely humiliating.

But when she sees him again at a charity fundraiser, and ends up spending an incredible, unforgettable night with the mysterious glass smith, Anastasia finds herself thinking of Kane and little else, even her precious work. Will this relationship bloom into the romance of a lifetime, or will their dreams of success get in the way of true love?

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Download your copy today!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/32sHox0

Amazon Worldwide: mybook.to/DreamWithMeKP

Apple Books: https://apple.co/2NZlDjc

Nook: http://bit.ly/2NW64bF

Kobo: http://bit.ly/33uRRt1

Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2XgTjwH

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I’m not a fan of people, especially when they’re all in one place. That place being wherever I am. I bought my land away from civilization for a reason.

 

How could I explain to her that the minute my eyes fell upon her in the museum, it was like recognizing a part of me I didn’t know was missing? I knew her, right then and there. It was a kind of knowing that I can’t explain, nothing I’ve ever felt before, but my grandda used to tell me it was the same way for him when he saw my grandmother.

 

“Oh, now you want to act like a doctor. Earlier, you refused to put my shoulder back in place so I could just go out for lunch with you guys.” “I’m a freaking veterinarian,” she says with an exasperated laugh.

 

My Review:

 

Oh, swoon! This lovely couple was adorable, I would trade all the beautiful shoes and purses in my closet to be treated and treasured the way Kane did Stasia. I’ve only recently discovered the delightful storytelling of Kristen Proby but I was a quick convert and remain enamored and besotted with her sweet and sexy style.   The characters were endearing, the storylines were entertaining and engaging, and the writing was cleverly amusing and insightfully observant.   Sigh, to sum it up in one word – perfection.

 

 

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Excerpt:

Okay, so the man has moves. It shouldn’t surprise me that someone who creates such amazing works of art can also lead a girl around the dance floor. With one palm firmly planted on my lower back, and the other clutching my hand, Kane keeps his eyes on mine.

“You’re a good dancer,” I murmur.

“You’re nervous,” he replies softly. “There’s no need to be. It’s just a dance.”

I take a deep breath and offer him a smile. He’s right. It’s just a dance.

The fact that he’s maybe the hottest man I’ve ever seen is a huge bonus.

And if he can move like this, with all of our clothes on, I can only imagine what it could be like if we were naked.

Mercy.

“I never got your name,” he says and guides me closer to him so we can talk into each other’s ears. I glance around the room, seeing my sister and the other girls smiling at us, watching us dance.

“Anastasia,” I say and turn my head, not quite planting my nose against his neck. The smell of this man is going to kill me.

And not because it triggers my asthma.

Because it’s too sexy.

I watch the pulse in his neck and enjoy the feeling of his strong arms holding me.

“That’s a lovely name.” The accent is thicker in his voice now. Irish? I’m not good with accents, but I’d bet he’s Irish.

His last name might be an indicator.

“Thank you.”

The song ends and flows into another ballad. Adele sings about finding another lover, as Kane moves against me, with me.

I wonder if it looks as sexy as it feels.

“You said yesterday,” he whispers against my ear, “that you’d be using your sketch for something else. What will that something be?”

“A cake.”

He pulls back far enough to smile down at me in surprise. “A cake, is it?”

I nod, more comfortable talking about what I do for a living than just dancing in silence.

“I design and build wedding cakes for a living. I can do them for other occasions, as well, but wedding cakes are what I’m known for.”

“Interesting.”

“I have a client who came into my shop about a month ago to hire me. They didn’t give me any direction at all. No colors, no requests. It just has to feed about two hundred guests.” I shake my head in disgust. “Not that I want them to tell me to copy a photo. I won’t do that, but usually, they have colors they like or flowers in mind. Something. Not these two. When I need inspiration, I like to look at what others have created. Or have conversations with people I enjoy.”

“That makes sense,” he says and leans in to kiss my forehead, which sends a shiver right down my spine to my lady parts—which had already sat up and taken notice of Kane.

“What was that for?” I ask.

“An apology,” he replies. “For being difficult yesterday.”

“Apology accepted.”

His lips quirk into that half-smile, his green eyes shining. The song is almost over, and I know I should thank him for the dance and find Lia and the others.

“Thanks for the dance.”

The last note plays, and I pull back, immediately wishing I was back in his arms.

He’s a stranger, and it’s crazy, but it’s true.

“Do you belong to a man, Anastasia?” Kane brushes his knuckles down the side of my cheek.

I frown. “I’ll never belong to anyone.”

“You know what I mean. Are you taken?”

“I’m single if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Good.” He kisses the back of my hand.

About Kristen:

Kristen was born and raised in a small resort town in her beloved Montana. In her mid-twenties, she decided to stretch her wings and move to the Pacific Northwest, where she made her home for more than a dozen years.

During that time, Kristen wrote many romance novels and joined organizations such as RWA and other small writing groups. She spent countless hours in workshops and more mornings than she can count up before dawn so she could write before going to work. She submitted many manuscripts to agents and editors alike but was always told no. In the summer of 2012, the self-publishing scene was new and thriving, and Kristen had one goal: to publish just one book. It was something she longed to cross off of her bucket list.

Not only did she publish one book, she’s since published close to thirty titles, many of which have hit the USA Today, New York Times and Wall Street Journal Bestsellers lists. She continues to self publish, best known for her With Me In Seattle and Boudreaux series, and is also proud to work with William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins, with the Fusion Series.

Kristen and her husband, John, make their home in her hometown of Whitefish, Montana with their two pugs and two cats.

Connect with Kristen:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BooksByKristenProby/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Handbagjunkie
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristenproby/
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kristen-proby
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2kBRdpj
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2BD4vfq
Pinterest: @handbagjunkie
Website: https://www.kristenprobyauthor.com/
Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/kristenproby/newsletter-sign-up

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Book Review: Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough

Cross Her Heart
by Sarah Pinborough

AmazonUS / UK / CA / AU /

B&N / HarperCollins

 

 Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (January 14, 2020)

“Sarah Pinborough is about to become your new obsession.”—Harlan Coben

Lisa is living a lie and everyone is about to find out.

Lisa lives for her daughter Ava, her job and her best friend Marilyn.

But when a handsome client shows an interest in her, Lisa starts daydreaming about sharing her life with him, too. Maybe she’s ready now. Maybe she can trust again. Maybe it’s time to let her terrifying secret past go.

But when her daughter rescues a boy from drowning and their pictures are all over the news for everyone to see, Lisa’s world explodes.

As she finds everything she has built threatened, and not knowing who she can trust, it’s up to Lisa to face her past in order to save what she holds dear.

But someone has been pulling all their strings. And that someone is determined that both Lisa and Ava must suffer.

Because long ago Lisa broke a promise. And some promises aren’t meant to be broken.

My Rating:


Favorite Quotes:

 

I said yes because I wanted to. Because I’m lonely… being near him is like peeling back layers of delicate crepe paper wrapped around a treasure you’ve packed away somewhere to keep safe and forgotten about.

His eyes are full of quiet interrogation. Marriage, divorce… other boyfriends – all the information men are interested in. Things that boil down a woman’s relevance in relation to other men, rather than anything in and of themselves. The inside information comes later. Those talks are for the middle of the night, heads on pillows, faces only outlines in the darkness. That’s when people surrender their weapons to each other and hope they don’t end up stabbed in the night by them in the future.

This is the other thing she’s learned over time.   The secret is her own. It’s her burden and sharing it doesn’t lighten the load it simply doubles it… You can’t trust a drunk, she knows that too.

My Review:

This was a darkly intriguing, tragically twisted, and disturbingly realistic tale, which was cast with a full slate of unlikable and contemptible characters. There wasn’t one admirable person in the lot while the vast majority were quite vile and committed heinous acts that had me flinching and cringing and wanting to swear the most wicked expletives I know, and maybe even create a few more for good measure. 

The storylines were cunningly crafted, shrewdly paced, and deftly written from multiple POVs that kept the little pea rattling in my cranium on fire with constantly evolving theories and hypothesis, I fear the little legume will forever bear scorch marks.

Sarah Pinborough is obviously an evil genius, and someone her neighbors should seriously take heed to respectfully and quietly tip-toe around and should never even consider disturbing or knocking on her door without having armloads of tasty treats and posh bribes in hand.

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

About the Author

Sarah Pinborough is the number one Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of the psychological thriller Behind Her Eyes, and more than twenty other novels and novellas, including The Death House and a young adult thriller, 13 Minutes. She has also written for the BBC. She lives in England.

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

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Book Review: Kill Sleep Repeat by Britney King

Title: Kill Sleep Repeat
Author: Britney King
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Release Date: January 16, 2020

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𝙁𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝘼𝙛𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙃𝙀𝙍 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙡𝙮 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧, 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝙛𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙨 𝙖 𝙬𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙤, 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙛𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙡, 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙯𝙚𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙟𝙤𝙗, 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙩 𝙥𝙖𝙮𝙨.

 

 
Several times a week, Charlotte Jones leaves suburbia behind and boards a chartered flight to parts unknown, where she wraps her hands around the necks of marks for just as long as she has to.
 
Then she goes back to domestic life with a paycheck, defense wounds, and the sense that she can handle anything.
 
Which is good, because being a wife, mother, and sociopath, with an insatiable taste for murder, gives the term work-life balance new meaning. When one life unexpectedly bleeds into the other, leading to a secret admirer and borderline insta-fame, Charlotte is forced to ask herself if she really can have it all.
 
Slick and unnerving, Kill, Sleep, Repeat is a cunning tale of deception and desire that begs the question: Do we ever really know people the way we think we do?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

There are three rules. More than that, but three main ones: Stay focused. Remain in character. Don’t get murdered.

 

It’s funny how different he looks now that I don’t care about him anymore. Now, I can see how ordinary he is, how it was my love that made him special… that placed him on a pedestal.

 

 My Review:

 

Every single time I have picked up one of Britney King’s brilliantly paced and absorbing tales, I seem to be immediately sucked into her character’s vortex and there I remain, in the eye of her cleverly contrived storm long after the final page. Her word voodoo is strong! But ~ sputter ~ Holy Hell! As if I didn’t already know but this gripping tale confirms it – Britney King is one twisted sister! I gasped, I cringed, I shivered, I flinched, I sucked up wine like a dehydrated camel while white-knuckling my Kindle, but I couldn’t have stopped reading this unsettlingly insightful and well-crafted tale if my hair was on fire. Ms. King excels at seductive sociopaths, and I bow in awe and respect (and no small amount of fear) to her agile skill and word prowess.   Although, I feel in desperate need of brain bleach after this one, due to the heinous nature of the vile villains her clever character was dispatching – uuuggeee.

Britney King lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, children, two dogs, one ridiculous cat, and a partridge in a pear tree.
When she’s not wrangling the things mentioned above, she writes psychological, domestic and romantic thrillers set in suburbia.
 
Currently, she’s writing three series and several standalone novels.
 
The Bedrock Series features an unlikely heroine who should have known better. Turns out, she didn’t. Thus she finds herself tangled in a messy, dangerous, forbidden love story and face-to-face with a madman hell-bent on revenge. The series has been compared to Fatal Attraction, Single White Female, and Basic Instinct.
 
The Water Series follows the shady love story of an unconventional married couple—he’s an assassin—she kills for fun. It has been compared to a crazier book version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Also, Dexter.
 
Around The Bend is a heart-pounding standalone, which traces the journey of a well-to-do suburban housewife, and her life as it unravels, thanks to the secrets she keeps. If she were the only one with things she wanted to keep hidden, then maybe it wouldn’t have turned out so bad. But she wasn’t.
The With You Series at its core is a deep love story about unlikely friends who travel the world; trying to find themselves, together and apart. Packed with drama and adventure along with a heavy dose of suspense, it has been compared to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Love, Rosie.
The Social Affair is an intense standalone about a timeless couple who find themselves with a secret admirer they hadn’t bargained for. For fans of the anti-heroine and stories told in unorthodox ways, the novel explores what can happen when privacy is traded for convenience. It is reminiscent of films such as One Hour Photo and Play Misty For Me. 
 
Without a doubt, connecting with readers is the best part of this gig. You can find Britney online here: 
Web• http://BritneyKing.com
Instagram • https://instagram.com/britneyking_ 
Facebook • https://www.facebook.com/BritneyKingAuthor
Twitter• http://twitter.com/BritneyKing_
Goodreads • http://bit.ly/BritneyKingGoodreads
 
To get more– grab two books for free, by subscribing to her mailing list at britneyking.com or just copy and paste bit.ly/britneykingweb into your browser. 
Happy reading.

 

HOSTED BY:

About the Author

.
Britney King lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, children, two dogs, one ridiculous cat, and a partridge in a pear tree.
When she’s not wrangling the things mentioned above, she writes psychological, domestic and romantic thrillers set in suburbia.
 
Currently, she’s writing three series and several standalone novels.
 
The Bedrock Series features an unlikely heroine who should have known better. Turns out, she didn’t. Thus she finds herself tangled in a messy, dangerous, forbidden love story and face-to-face with a madman hell-bent on revenge. The series has been compared to Fatal Attraction, Single White Female, and Basic Instinct.
 
The Water Series follows the shady love story of an unconventional married couple—he’s an assassin—she kills for fun. It has been compared to a crazier book version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Also, Dexter.
 
Around The Bend is a heart-pounding standalone, which traces the journey of a well-to-do suburban housewife, and her life as it unravels, thanks to the secrets she keeps. If she were the only one with things she wanted to keep hidden, then maybe it wouldn’t have turned out so bad. But she wasn’t.
The With You Series at its core is a deep love story about unlikely friends who travel the world; trying to find themselves, together and apart. Packed with drama and adventure along with a heavy dose of suspense, it has been compared to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Love, Rosie.
The Social Affair is an intense standalone about a timeless couple who find themselves with a secret admirer they hadn’t bargained for. For fans of the anti-heroine and stories told in unorthodox ways, the novel explores what can happen when privacy is traded for convenience. It is reminiscent of films such as One Hour Photo and Play Misty For Me. 
 
Without a doubt, connecting with readers is the best part of this gig. You can find Britney online here: 
 
To get more– grab two books for free, by subscribing to her mailing list at britneyking.com or just copy and paste bit.ly/britneykingweb into your browser. 
Happy reading.
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Book Review, Giveaway: When Hope Ends by Freya Barker

Title: When Hope Ends; Life Begins
Author: Freya Barker
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: January 21, 2020
Hosted by: Buoni Amici Press, LLC.

It’s the best day of his life—the worst of hers.
She left her soul behind in the dead silence of a hospital room.
He is bright with hope after being so close to losing faith.
One moment in time leaves their paths unavoidably entwined.
An invisible connection held by one heart beating between them.

*Originally published in the Then There Was You box set.

AMAZON | APPLE BOOKS | NOOK | KOBO |

 

Tweet: When hope Ends; life Begins by @freya_barker is #Live on all platforms #Books2Read https://ctt.ec/eGbUu+ RomanceReads2020 #FreyaBarker #BAPpr @buoniamicipress

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

… he pays attention, and let’s be honest, that’s not always a quality evident in the opposite gender.

I’m so grateful having had this amazing opportunity to learn that when hope ends for one, life begins for another

“I don’t know who this woman is. I’ve never heard so much cursing in my life.” I have to bite my lip to keep from laughing. I remember this part too. Cassie had made me feel about an inch tall with her sharp tongue while she was delivering Kelty. She’d even smacked me because I was breathing too loudly.

My Review:

 

Freya Barker writes stories with all the feels, but this one was pure heart – some parts were heart-warming, others were heart-wrenching, and still more were heart-skipping and heart-stirring, but they were all only the good kinds of heart-related reading that shouldn’t lead a fear of heart-stoppage, possible angina, the need for CPR, or a cardiology referral. The heartfelt storylines were engaging and relevant with writing that was easy to fall into and alternated between steaming up my glasses, raising my heart rate, putting a smile on my face, and squeezing my coronary muscle like a two sizes too small pair of Spanx. It was divine. I’ll gladly ride on Freya Barker’s bus until the wheels fall off.

Freya Barker loves writing about ordinary people with extraordinary stories.
Driven to make her books about ‘real’ people; with characters who are perhaps less than perfect, but just as deserving of romance, thrills and chills, and their own slice of happy.
A recipient of the RomCon “Reader’s Choice” Award for best first book, “Slim To None”, and Finalist for the Kindle Book Award with “From Dust”, Freya has not slowed down.
She continues to add to her rapidly growing collection of published novels as she spins story after story with an endless supply of bruised and dented characters, vying for attention!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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Book Review: St. Francis Society for Wayward Pets by Annie England Noblin

St. Francis Society for Wayward Pets
by Annie England Noblin

 

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU

 HarperCollins / B & N

 Paperback: 384 pages

William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (January 14, 2020)

If you love Susan Mallery and Jill Shalvis, you won’t want to miss this new novel of second chances, dogs, and knitting, from the author of Pupcakes and Sit! Stay! Speak!

Laid off, cheated on, mugged: what else can go wrong in Maeve Stephens’ life? So when she learns her birth mother has left her a house, a vintage VW Beetle, and a marauding cat, in the small town of Timber Creek, Washington, she packs up to discover the truth about her past.

She arrives to the sight of a cheerful bulldog abandoned on her front porch, a reclusive but tempting author living next door, and a set of ready-made friends at the St. Francis Society for Wayward Pets, where women knit colorful sweaters for the dogs and cats in their care. But there’s also an undercurrent of something that doesn’t sit right with Maeve. What’s the secret (besides her!) that her mother had hidden?

If Maeve is going to make Timber Creek her home, she must figure out where she fits in and unravel the truth about her past. But is she ready to be adopted again—this time, by an entire town…?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Your kids ought to be on a birth control commercial or something… I’m pretty sure their high-pitched shrieks would be enough for anybody to beg for the pill.

I made a big production of rummaging around in my purse before Holly sighed and handed over her platinum card… “Well, it wasn’t like that dude was going to accept the hairy Tic Tacs in the bottom of that gross purse of yours…”

The man standing before wasn’t ugly or anything-he was just… odd looking. With his curly red hair and smattering of freckles combined with his crisp black suit, he looked a bit like how I imagined Carrot Top would have looked if he’d picked a nine-to-five job instead of steroid use.

Well, her father is about fifteen pounds of crazy in a five-pound bucket.

My Review:

I adore this author and always enjoy and revel in her emotive and heart-squeezing tales, clever wit, engaging storylines, and insightful observations of complex social issues. Annie England Noblin is a master storyteller and St. Francis Society for Wayward Pets deftly tackled a variety of thorny and unfortunately all too common situations and did so with agility, thoughtful awareness, and profound sensitivity for such complicated issues as family violence, addiction, adoption and identify issues, teenage pregnancy, poverty, physical disability, and small-town living. The characters were curiously compelling, quirky, well fleshed out, and highly accessible though not always likable. The well-crafted storylines were easy to follow, thoughtfully written, unpredictable, and squeezed my heart between giggle-snorts and smirks with the various threads miraculously came together to form an uplifting and highly satisfying conclusion. I am already eager to see what Ms. Noblin comes up with next.

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

About the Author

Annie England Noblin lives with her son, husband, and three dogs in the Missouri Ozarks. She graduated with an M.A. in creative writing from Missouri State University and currently teaches English and communications for Arkansas State University in Mountain Home, Arkansas. She spends her free time playing make-believe, feeding stray cats, and working with animal shelters across the country to save homeless dogs.

Find out more about Annie at her website, and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Book Review: FIRST CUT by Judy Melinek & T.J. Mitchell

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FIRST CUT
by Judy Melinek & T.J. Mitchell

ISBN: 9781335008305

Publication Date: January 7, 2020

Publisher: Hanover Square Press

Wife and husband duo Dr. Judy Melinek and T.J. Mitchell first enthralled the book world with their runaway bestselling memoir Working Stiff—a fearless account of a young forensic pathologist’s “rookie season” as a NYC medical examiner. This winter, Dr. Melinek, now a prominent forensic pathologist in the Bay Area, once again joins forces with writer T.J. Mitchell to take their first stab at fiction. 

The result: FIRST CUT (Hanover Square Press; Hardcover; January 7, 2020; $26.99)—a gritty and compelling crime debut about a hard-nosed San Francisco medical examiner who uncovers a dangerous conspiracy connecting the seedy underbelly of the city’s nefarious opioid traffickers and its ever-shifting terrain of tech startups.

Dr. Jessie Teska has made a chilling discovery. A suspected overdose case contains hints of something more sinister: a drug lord’s attempt at a murderous cover up. As more bodies land on her autopsy table, Jessie uncovers a constellation of deaths that point to an elaborate network of powerful criminals—on both sides of the law—that will do anything to keep things buried. But autopsy means “see for yourself,” and Jessie Teska won’t stop until she’s seen it all—even if it means the next corpse on the slab could be her own.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Dr. Stone struck me as an overgrown nerd, brilliant and opinionated and completely unfiltered. I like nerds, and I’ve been told many times— many times— that I could use a stronger filter myself.

 

He speaks Bengali like I speak Polish— fluent in curse words, proverbs, and food.

 

People from happy families can’t comprehend what it’s like to live in a hostage situation with people who tell you they love you.

 

We don’t work in a justice system, Jessie. It’s a legal system. We take what we can get.

  

My Review:

 

This multi-layered tale was cunningly plotted, cleverly complicated, and shrewdly paced.   I suspected everyone, and for good reason, as each had their own hidden agendas and they were all actually up to something. While the storylines and characters were complex, I enjoyed the authors’ surprising wit and engaging and descriptive writing style. Their contributions meshed seamlessly and I never would have guessed it was a team effort.   The book was written in the first person POV of a newly hired medical examiner in San Francisco, a place I’ve never been and a vocation that gives me the willies to contemplate, yet I was as intrigued by the story as much as the oddly compelling characters and I was truly fascinated by her delightfully unusual living accommodations in a cable car house.

About the Authors
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Judy Melinek was an assistant medical examiner in San Francisco for nine years, and today works as a forensic pathologist in Oakland and as CEO of Pathology Expert Inc. She and T.J. Mitchell met as undergraduates at Harvard, after which she studied medicine and practiced pathology at UCLA. Her training in forensics at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner is the subject of their first book, the memoir Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner.

T.J. Mitchell is a writer with an English degree from Harvard and worked in the film industry before becoming a full-time stay-at-home dad. He is the New York Times bestselling co-author of Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner with his wife, Judy Melinek.

SOCIAL

TWITTER:

Judy: @drjudymelinek

TJ: @TJMitchellWS

FB: @DrWorkingStiff

Insta:

Judy: @drjudymelinek

Goodreads

Judy: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7382113.Judy_Melinek

TJ: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1899585.T_J_Mitchell

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Book Review: The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright by Beth Miller

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The Missing Letters of
Mrs Bright
by Beth Miller

Sometimes it takes losing something to see where you truly belong.

For the past twenty-nine years, Kay Bright’s days have had a familiar rhythm: she works in her husband’s stationery shop hoping to finally sell the legendary gold pen, cooks for her family, tries to remember to practice yoga, and every other month she writes to her best friend, Ursula. Kay could set her calendar by their letters: her heart lifts when the blue airmail envelope, addressed in Ursula’s slanting handwriting, falls gently onto the mat.But now Ursula has stopped writing and everything is a little bit worse.

Ursula is the only one who knows Kay’s deepest secret, something that happened decades ago that could tear Kay’s life apart today. She has always been the person Kay relies on.

Worried, Kay gets out her shoebox of Ursula’s letters and as she reads, her unease starts to grow. And then at ten o’clock in the morning, Kay walks out of her yellow front door with just a rucksack, leaving her wedding ring on the table…

This emotional and heart-warming novel is for anyone who knows it’s never too late to look for happiness. Fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, A Man Called Ove and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry will fall in love with this feel-good and moving story that shows you that the best friendships truly last forever.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

My rational brain pointed out that this was kind of irrational, and my irrational brain said, ‘Yeah, so?’

 

It was a folded piece of yellowing paper, and in my childish writing, with hearts dotting the i’s, I had written at the top: ‘Things to do by the time I am thirty.’ This was underlined twice in red biro. The date: 5 June 1982… Teenage Kay must have assumed she’d better get everything done by thirty; for afterwards, there’d be nothing but senility and the grave.

 

Once again, I’d have to amend my mental list of the top ten things I wished I’d never seen.

 

I looked at him, appraising him with an objective eye. There were always little things one didn’t like about one’s boyfriends. You tended to overlook them, prioritise other things as more important. Leon, for instance, had patches of awful acne on each cheek, and treated any mild suggestion that he speak to a pharmacist as an infringement of his human rights. Now, with Theo standing in front of me, fake-beaming, I realised that with his thin face and shifty eyes, he looked exactly like a weasel.

 

I had a bath and did all the woman -going-on-a-date things I hadn’t done for years… and had a little trim of the old lady-garden, not that I was planning to sleep with him, obviously not, he was clearly a café-lothario, but just in case… In case what? I heard Rose say. In case there was a freak accident that involved your pants coming off in public?

 

My Review:

 

This was my introduction to the stellar stylings of Beth Miller and I was an instant fan.   Forgive my exuberance and probable abuse of exclamation marks but I reveled in this book! The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright was thoughtfully written and gently chronicled and may be best suited for those of us more mature beauties on the other side of fifty, but being on that side of the age stick I found it flawless. The writing was as profoundly insightful and perceptive as it was cleverly entertaining. I was fully engaged from page one and adored Beth Miller’s witty prose, seamless writing style, enticing and quirky characters, and ample servings of clever levity that were skillfully woven in all the way through.   The storylines and writing were easy to follow and continually poked and prickled my curiosity. I was enjoying the tale so much I would have gleefully continued on for several hundred more pages. Beth Miller has a new fangirl and I have a new favorite author at the top of my list.

About the Author

I have been told that I write like a tall blonde, so that’s how I’d like you to picture me.

I’ve published three novels, with one more about to be born, in January 2020. I’ve also published two non-fiction books. I work as a book coach and creative writing tutor.

Before writing books, I did a lot of different jobs. I worked in schools, shops, offices, hospitals, students’ unions, basements, from home, in my car, and up a tree. OK, not up a tree. I’ve been a sexual health trainer, a journalist, a psychology lecturer, a Ph.D. student, a lousy alcohol counselor, and an inept audio-typist. I sold pens, bread, and condoms. Not in the same shop. I taught parents how to tell if their teenagers are taking drugs (clue: they act like teenagers), and taught teenagers how to put on condoms (clue: there won’t really be a cucumber). I taught rabbis how to tell if their teenagers are druggedly putting condoms on cucumbers.

Throughout this, I always wrote, and always drank a lot of tea. I’m now pretty much unbeatable at drinking tea.

Social Media Links:
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