Category: 5-Stars

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Book Review: The Night Swim by Megan Goldin

The Night Swim
by Megan Goldin

Amazon / B&N / GP/ Apple / Macmillan / B-A-M

 

In The Night Swim, a new thriller from Megan Goldin, author of the “gripping and unforgettable” (Harlen Coben) The Escape Room, a true-crime podcast host covering a controversial trial finds herself drawn deep into a small town’s dark past and a brutal crime that took place there years before.

Ever since her true-crime podcast became an overnight sensation and set an innocent man free, Rachel Krall has become a household name—and the last hope for people seeking justice. But she’s used to being recognized for her voice, not her face. Which makes it all the more unsettling when she finds a note on her car windshield, addressed to her, begging for help.

The new season of Rachel’s podcast has brought her to a small town being torn apart by a devastating rape trial. A local golden boy, a swimmer destined for Olympic greatness, has been accused of raping the beloved granddaughter of the police chief. Under pressure to make Season 3 a success, Rachel throws herself into her investigation—but the mysterious letters keep coming. Someone is following her, and she won’t stop until Rachel finds out what happened to her sister twenty-five years ago. Officially, Jenny Stills tragically drowned, but the letters insist she was murdered—and when Rachel starts asking questions, nobody in town wants to answer. The past and present start to collide as Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases—and a revelation that will change the course of the trial and the lives of everyone involved.

Electrifying and propulsive, The Night Swim asks: What is the price of a reputation? Can a small town ever right the wrongs of its past? And what really happened to Jenny?

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

“Objectivity is so last century. Didn’t you get the memo?” said Pete. “These days everybody has an opinion. Whether they know what they’re talking about, or not. Usually it’s the latter.

 

My Review:

 

 

This was clever storytelling.   The tension and intrigue were held to a taut and ever ratcheting level throughout this intense and arresting tale.   My curiosity was making me itch, as were the realistic, traumatic, and dramatic storylines of the brutality, pettiness, and corruption of small-town living and family drama.

The writing was profoundly engaging and action-packed with evocative, striking, and poignant depictions that were maddeningly parceled out, well-crafted, and inhabited by deeply flawed yet compelling and true-to-life characters, some of whom were monstrously all too familiar to me having grown up in a similarly inbred small town. My mind spun with theories and while there was no way the little pea in my brain could have solved this shrewdly plotted and cunning paced tale, and I truly didn’t see this ending coming, I did come close with more than a few bits and pieces in my final hypotheses. Megan Goldin has mad skills and lifelong fangirl.

About the Author

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MEGAN GOLDIN worked as a correspondent for Reuters and other media outlets where she covered war, peace, international terrorism, and financial meltdowns in the Middle East and Asia. She is now based in Melbourne, Australia where she raises three sons and is a foster mum to Labrador puppies learning to be guide dogs. The Escape Room was her debut novel.

 

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Book Review: Rules of the Road by Ciara Geraghty 

Rules of the Road
by Ciara Geraghty 

In this emotional, life-affirming novel, two women embark on an extraordinary road trip and discover the transformative power of female friendship.

The simple fact of the matter is that Iris loves life. Maybe she’s forgotten that. Sometimes that happens, doesn’t it? To the best of us? All I have to do is remind her of that one simple fact.

When Iris Armstrong goes missing, her best friend Terry—wife, mother, and all-around worrier—is convinced something bad has happened. And when she finds her glamorous, feisty friend, she’s right: Iris is setting out on a bucket-list journey that she plans to make her last. She tells Terry there’s no changing her mind, but Terry is determined to show her that life is still worth living.

The only way for Terry to stop Iris is to join her—on a road trip that will take them on a life-changing adventure. Along the way, somehow what should be the worst six days of Terry’s life turn into the best. Told in an irresistible voice and bursting with heart, Rules of the Road is a powerful testament to the importance of human connection and a moving celebration of life in all its unexpected twists and turns.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

But she’ll be stressed about it and pretending she’s not stressed at all, which, in my experience, makes the thing you’re stressed about even more stressful.

 

This must be a swanky part of London because the charity shop is like a proper boutique with an accessories section and an immaculately turned-out young woman with terrifying eyebrows behind the counter and a bright, fresh smell that has no bearing on old, discarded clothes and worn-out shoes.

 

Vera rummages through a chest of drawers in the corner, dropping various bras and scarves on the floor until she finds a T-shirt with a picture of Tom Jones’s face on the front and the word “Sexbomb” printed below it.

 

Dementia likes the quiet. I picture the disease like an olden day’s librarian; all tutting and shushing. And usually I oblige.

 

The awful thing about thoughts is there’s no getting away from them. They’re right there. Going around and around on a track in your head like a toy train.

 

Motorbikes are on my list of terrors. High on the list. I’d prefer the girls to tell me they were, I don’t know, drug addicts, rather than owners of a motorbike. You can always go to rehab. But there’s no coming back from the morgue.

 

There is a collection of words, queueing at the back of my throat. Jostling against the back of my teeth. If I open my mouth, they will tumble out and none of them will be sufficient. None of them will be enough.

 

My Review:

 

This poignant and emotive story held a highly unusual premise and was rather ingeniously plotted and narrated through the highly anxious, introspective, and frustrated lens in the first person POV of the main character of Terry. The writing style was agile, evocative, and cleverly amusing as well as heart squeezing. If you were hoping for a fast-paced adventure and a road trip full of hi-jinx, you need to keep looking. This is a thoughtfully written yet highly engaging character-based tale with real-world issues while generously seasoned with humorous observations and vibrant imagery.

 

Two best friends, Iris and Terry, along with Terry’s elderly dementia patient father, impetuously struck out on a journey from Dublin to Zurich in Terry’s older car, to complete a personal mission for Iris, one that Terry hoped would not conclude as Iris had meticulously planned. Terry had insinuated herself into Iris’s plan at the last minute hoping to change the end result before reaching their destination.

Iris was besieged with the progressive physical deterioration, discomforts, and limitations of a chronic disease and did not relish living the remainder of her life trapped in her body – which is an issue that resonated intensely with me, as this is a personal fear of my own. Terry’s elderly father’s advancing Dementia was a constant concern and bone wearying challenge, which was deftly and sensitively handled with a surprisingly informative and often humorous approach to the complications.

Their odyssey was slow, quite arduous, and fraught with anxieties and a plethora of imagined catastrophes for Terry, a nervous driver who was afraid of the motorway and drove so slowly that even elderly drivers honked and swore at her. The trio experienced numerous detours and escapades as well as eye-opening insights and out of her comfort zone adventures that powered profound changes for Terry. The ending was not one I expected yet was realistic and surprisingly satisfying as I continue to ruminate over Ms. Geraghty’s clever missive. I have a feeling these characters are going to continue to inhabit my headspace for quite some time.

 

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Ciara Geraghty was born and raised in Dublin. She started writing in her thirties and hasn’t looked back. She has three children and one husband and they have recently adopted a dog who, alongside their youngest daughter, is in charge of pretty much everything.
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Book Review: ENGAGEMENT AND ESPIONAGE (Solving for Pie: Cletus and Jenn Mysteries #1)by Penny Reid

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Engagement and Espionage, an all-new quirky and swoon-worthy romantic comedy featuring fan favorites Jenn and Cletus Winston from New York Times bestselling author Penny Reid is available now! 

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Jennifer Sylvester made her deal with the devil . . . and now they’re engaged!

But all is not well in Green Valley. A chicken choker is on the loose, 61 dead birds most “fowl” need plucking, and no time remains for Jennifer and her devilish fiancé. Desperate to find a spare moment together, Jenn and Cletus’s attempts to reconnect are thwarted by one seemingly coincidental disaster after another. It’s not long before Cletus and Jenn see a pattern emerge and the truth becomes clear.

Sabotage!

Will an undercover mission unmask the culprit? Or are these love-birds totally plucked?

‘Engagement and Espionage’ is the first book in the Solving for Pie: Cletus and Jenn Mysteries series is a full-length cozy mystery, and is a spin-off of Penny Reid’s Winston Brothers series. This novel is best read after ‘Beard Science,’ Winston Brothers #3.

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Download your copy today! 

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3auZzqI
Apple Books: https://apple.co/33ONMAK
Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/engagementespionage
Nook: https://bit.ly/3dvV8hf
Kobo: https://bit.ly/2wxWreY
Google Play: https://bit.ly/3aqIT3h

Add  to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/2UoVpea

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Good Lord, now I’d offended his serene layers.

 

Chicken sausage? I didn’t grimace, and that was a miracle. Chicken sausage was akin to turkey bacon, an abomination.

 

That old man is mean as a badger with half a brain.

 

My Review:

 

This was a fun, engaging, and pleasurably engrossing read with healthy servings of mystery, family drama, and romance. Oddly sinister crimes were occurring in Green Valley and surprisingly, it all started with choked chickens and had nothing to do with the criminal elements that typically plagued the community. The mystery was artfully plotted and shrewdly paced with clever lashings of levity, crisp witty banter, and profoundly insightful and amusing inner musings and observations of human nature. I adored this well-matched and quirky couple in a previous series and am gleefully anticipating a continuation of their story with their brainy conundrums and unique and peculiar family complications.

 

Excerpt: 

“Don’t stop.” She reached for my belt again, this time completely undoing it, the button of my pants, and my zipper at world-record speed.

Her phone buzzed. Then it chimed. Then it buzzed and chimed two more times. Then it rang again. Reba.

Cursing, Jenn pulled the phone from her pocket, once again her face illuminated, murderous rage in her eyes. Her finger moved to the power off button. She blinked, hesitating. Her eyes widened, her body stiffened, and she gasped.

“Cletus!”

Something about her tone, like she was horrified, and maybe a little afraid, cut through the heavy haze of lust inertia, and my hands stilled. Shaking myself, it took me a few moments to realize she was showing me the phone screen, and another few to bring the content of the text messages into focus.

 

Momma: Jennifer Anne Sylvester, pick up your phone. If you’re with Cletus, I need his help. Please.

Momma: ALL THE CHICKENS AND ROOSTERS ARE DEAD! PICK UP YOUR DAMN PHONE!

Momma: I’m calling you in a second, pick up the phone. Mr. Badcock’s chickens are dead. All of them. I got here and he’s running around, deranged, yelling about his dead chickens! I called the police and they’re on their way. Please, please, please pick up the phone!

 

At some point, I must’ve taken the phone from Jenn and stepped away, because I glanced up upon reading the messages for the third time, finding the phone in my hand and Jenn fixing her skirt.

“This is nuts.” Her big eyes searched mine imploringly. “Who could have done this?”

I shook my head, having not yet managed to fully shift head gears—you know, from that head to the one on my neck—and my gaze dropped to the wet patch on the front of her dress just visible in the swath of light. My erection throbbed.

So we’re . . . not having sex?

“Why? Why would they do it? And WHO?” She snatched her phone back, her tone bewildered, distracted, and distraught. She was distraught because of the dead chickens, like any normal person would be.

I was distraught also, but my distress had nothing to do with farm animals.

“We have to go.” Jenn grabbed my hand and began walking toward the direction of the hall. Meanwhile, it took me until her hand found the door handle to realize my zipper and belt were still undone.

“This is crazy.” She paused as I zipped up, her tone halting and distracted. “Poor Mr. Badcock. And those poor chickens.” A sound of distress escaped her throat. “This is terrible.”

It was terrible.

And I was going to hell.

Because all I could think was, Talk about a cock block.

 

Meet Penny Reid:
PennyReid
Penny Reid is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Best Selling Author of the Winston Brothers, Knitting in the City, Rugby, and Hypothesis series. She used to spend her days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she just writes books. She’s also a full-time mom to three diminutive adults, wife, daughter, knitter, crocheter, sewer, general crafter, and thought ninja.

Connect with Penny: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PennyReidWriter/
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2lakzsD
Twitter: @ReidRomance
Mailing List: http://pennyreid.ninja/newsletter/
www.pennyreid.ninja

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Book Review: The Switch by Beth O’Leary

The Switch
by Beth O’Leary

Amazon  / B&N / GP/ Apple 

A grandmother and granddaughter swap lives in this charming, romantic novel by Beth O’Leary, hailed as “the new Jojo Moyes” (Cosmopolitan UK)
Eileen Cotton’s husband of sixty years left her four months ago, and good riddance. After all these decades of sleepy village life, Eileen is ready for an adventure. She’d like a chance at real love, too – and she wonders if maybe the right man is up the road in the big city…

 

Eileen’s granddaughter (and namesake) Leena lives in bustling London, where she is overworked, overscheduled, and overcaffeinated. When Leena collapses and her office sends her on a mandatory vacation, she wants to escape to her grandmother’s inviting, picture-postcard little village.

So they decide to switch lives.

Eileen will take Leena’s flat, Leena’s laptop, and Leena’s glitzy twenty-something London lifestyle. She’ll learn all about dating apps and swiping right, the best coffee shops, and paper-thin apartment walls. Leena can have Eileen’s sweet cottage, her idyllic Yorkshire village, her little projects to help her neighbors, and her nice, quiet life. But neither finds that her new life is exactly what she’d imagined.

Will swapping lives help Eileen and Leena become more truly themselves, and can they find true love in the process?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“Well, she better not leave it too long,” Betsy says. “I am eighty!” I smile at that. Betsy’s eighty-five. Even when she’s trying to make the point that she is old, she can’t help lying about her age.

I look down into the tea leaves. Letitia’s shoulders start shaking before I see what she sees… The tea leaves look like … genitals. Male genitals. It couldn’t be more distinct if I’d tried to arrange it that way on purpose. “I think it means good things are coming your way… That, or it’s telling me the tea-leaves game is a load of cock and balls.”

Leena keeps telling me that there are good men out there, that you have to kiss a few frogs, but I’ve been smooching amphibians for almost a year now and I am losing. The. Will.

It’s quite all right,” I tell her. “I’m seventy-nine. I may seem like an innocent old lady to you but that means I’ve had fifty extra years to see the horrors the world has to offer, and whatever that was, it’s got nothing on my ex-husband’s warty behind.

My Review:

 

This was great fun and my first experience reading Beth O’Leary and I’d gladly enlist for a lifetime of more of the same, she has mad skills! The Switch sparkled with clever levity, snarky observations and insights, sneaky wry humor, and razor-sharp wit. I gleefully indulged in a pleasantly entertaining day of fully engaged reading while giggle-snorting and smirking my way through this delightfully penned tale. Relevant social issues and concerns were laced throughout in a thoughtful and engaging manner while still amazingly maintaining an amusing tone overall.

The characters were fully inhabited, honorable, uniquely peculiar, realistically flawed, and significantly struggling with a variety of rather serious concerns, yet expending their energies creatively and in the intent of the betterment of others. I adored them although I found myself favoring the unpredictable antics and verbal exchanges of the elder contingent quite a bit more than the younger set.

And I hit a bevy of new words for my Brit Words and Phrases List with maungy – sulky or peevish, shambolic – chaotic and disorganized, and sling your hook – telling someone to go away.

About the Author
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Beth O’Leary studied English at university before going into children’s publishing. She lives as close to the countryside as she can get while still being within reach of London, and wrote her first novel, The Flatshare, on her train journey to and from work.
You’ll usually find her curled up with a book, a cup of tea, and several woolly jumpers (whatever the weather).
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Book Review: Paris Never Leaves You by Ellen Feldman

Amazon / B&N / GP/ Apple / BAM

“Masterful. Magnificent. A passionate story of survival and a real page turner. This story will stay with me for a long time.” —Heather Morris, author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’s Journey


Living through World War II working in a Paris bookstore with her young daughter, Vivi, and fighting for her life, Charlotte is no victim, she is a survivor. But can she survive the next chapter of her life?

Alternating between wartime Paris and 1950s New York publishing, Ellen Feldman’s Paris Never Leaves You is an extraordinary story of resilience, love, and impossible choices, exploring how survival never comes without a cost.

The war is over, but the past is never past.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I hope her grandmother rots in that special circle of hell reserved for bigots…

 

She doesn’t know if she blames him or pities him, hates him or loves him. All she knows is there is enough shame to go around.

 

She’s his training analyst. Makes her sound like a pair of wheels on the back of a bike, if you ask me.

 

“I told Mr. Rosenblum I wasn’t Jewish… I thought I ought to tell him. I mean, after the business with the menorah and everything.” “What did he say?” “That nobody’s perfect.”

My Review:

 

This was an intense yet gripping read with storylines steeped in angst, despair, and human and inhuman tragedy (which don’t rank among my favorite things), yet the quality of the writing was phenomenal and kept me engrossed and fully engaged. I was hooked – I was starving, I was tense, I was cold, I felt unwashed, I was THERE!

Ms. Feldman’s uniquely evocative arrangements of words were powerful, emotive, poignant, transportive, and thoughtfully plotted. This epic tale involved multiple storylines that laced together toward an entirely unexpected and somewhat indeterminate ending. Each thread as tautly written, mysteriously secretive, and anxiously risky of perilous discovery as the next. Her characters were enigmatic, deeply flawed, profoundly insightful, and entirely human. I was pulled into their edgy vortex of imminent danger and impending doom, not just from the brutal cruelty of the Nazi invaders, but more disturbingly, from the unrepentant savagery of the French citizenry as they turned on each other amidst the escalating tensions and unrelenting subjugation of their occupation as well as the aftermath.

There were several instances that required I put my Kindle down, walk away, and seek solace in a vat of wine… the most ruinous was near the end when I found myself totally devastated by a particular loss, and of the most unexpected of characters.   Ms. Feldman has strong word voodoo and a new fangirl.

About the Author
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ELLEN FELDMAN, a 2009 Guggenheim fellow, is the author of Terrible Virtue, The Unwitting, Next to Love, Scottsboro (shortlisted for the Orange Prize), The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank (translated into nine languages), and Lucy. Her novel Terrible Virtue was optioned by Black Bicycle for a feature film.

 

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 Book Review: My Mother’s Choice By Ali Mercer

 My Mother’s Choice
By Ali Mercer

 

‘A heart-wrenching drama… an emotional rollercoaster with twists along the way… I read this in four hours and I know you’ll be hooked too.’ NetGalley Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Nobody talks about my mother. Absolutely nobody. I have no idea what she was like. I’d always thought they kept quiet about her because they were sad. But what if it was because they were guilty?

I watch them at the school gates, all the mothers with their daughters. I see the hugs and all those thoughtful little adjustments to scarves and ponytails. How their love seems to overflow, they have so much of it to give.

And then I walk home to my aunt’s cold house, where there are a hundred rules for me to follow and only a single photograph of my mother to look at.

She is never spoken about in this house. They tell me that it will be easier if I don’t think about her.

It is strange though, isn’t it? That I know nothing about my own mother?

But they don’t know about the diary I’ve found up in the loft. Maybe they even forgot it was there. It doesn’t matter anymore if they won’t tell me anything. Because within these pages is what I’ve waited fourteen years to find out. And maybe some things I wish I could forget.

All I wanted was to bring our family closer together, but could what I find tear us apart instead?

A heartbreaking and powerful novel about family secrets and how we live with decisions we never thought we would have to make. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Kate Hewitt, and Amanda Prowse.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

It was like carrying round something from an alien planet. The kind of thing a kid in a film would pick up and think was interesting or harmless, and then it would turn out to be a homing device that, once accidentally activated, summoned invading forces from across the universe to attack the Earth.

 

She seemed nice. Really nice. I felt a sudden ache somewhere near my heart, like a cross between hunger pangs and a stitch.

 

She looked like a sultry Sicilian widow, all dark eyes and glossy hair and philosophical gloom, and she had a languid, unhurried way of moving, as if she lived in her own special climate where there was always a heatwave, even if, in Kettlebridge, it was cool and grey.

 

That was when I began to feel properly distant from home, not quite as if I’d escaped, but certainly as if I’d left and wouldn’t be going back – or wouldn’t be the same when I did.

 

She smelt of sadness. A smell like damp tears mixed with fear.

My Review:

 

I fell right into this enthralling book and didn’t willingly resurface for most of the day. Ali Mercer has strong word voodoo and I readily yielded to her powers.   Her characters were uniquely alluring while her storylines were compelling, poignantly written, evocatively detailed, and so very tight with tension. I was sure someone was going to eventually snap, including me, as I was rabid to know Laura’s story.

The timeline and POV shifts were easy to follow and adroitly crafted. This nimble author had me fooled; I was tricked and far afield in my theories. I had it all wrong and was eviscerated by the shocking twists and devastating turn of events, all of which were cunningly plotted and brilliantly paced.   The little pea in my brain was heavily scorched. I worry I may never be the same.

About the Author

 

Ali decided she wanted to be a writer early on and wrote her first novel when she was at primary school. She did an English degree and spent her early twenties working in various jobs in journalism, including as a reporter for the show business newspaper The Stage. She started writing fiction in earnest after getting married, moving out of London to the Oxfordshire market town of Abingdon, and starting a family. She has two children, a daughter and a son who is autistic and was diagnosed when he was four years old.

Ali is fascinated by families, their myths and secrets, and the forces that hold them together, split them up, and (sometimes) bring them back together again. She always travels with tissues and a book and has been known to cry over a good story but is also a big fan of the hopeful ending.

 Author Social Media Links:

For updates and pictures, follow Ali on Twitter (@AlisonLMercer) or Instagram (@alimercerwriter), or on her Facebook page (AliMercerwriter)

 

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Book Review: Hush Little Baby (DC Beth Chamberlain #3) by Jane Isaac

 

Hush Little Baby
(DC Beth Chamberlain #3)
by Jane Isaac 

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU /

Someone stole a baby…

One sunny day in July, someone took three-month-old Alicia Owen from her pram outside a supermarket. Her mother, Marie, was inside. No one saw who took Alicia. And no one could find her.

They silenced her cry…

Fifteen years later, a teenager on a construction site sees a tiny hand in the ground. When the police investigate, they find a baby buried and preserved in concrete. Could it be Alicia?

But the truth will always out.

When Alicia disappeared, the papers accused Marie of detachment and neglect. The Owens never got over the grief of their child’s disappearance and divorced not long after. By reopening the case, DC Beth Chamberlain must reopen old wounds. But the killer may be closer than anyone ever suspected…

The latest crime thriller featuring Family Liaison Officer DC Beth Chamberlain, Hush Little Baby is tightly plotted, fraught with tension and impossible to put down. Perfect for fans of Cara Hunter and K.L. Slater.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Beth ground her teeth. She’d rather hoped she’d be shot of Andrea after she’d left the team to support the chief, and here she was, returning like a bad smell that refused to go away.

My Review:

 

This was my second time reading Ms. Isaac’s work and I am duly impressed. As with her last book, there was a deeply troubling and mammoth mystery which lead to an intensely twisty and shrewdly plotted tale that had me blinking hard, rubbing my eyes, and biting my lips. I enjoy her unique writing style with blended storylines that were unpredictable, tragic, multi-layered, complex, and highly textured with compounded issues and long-held and heartbreaking secrets. The writing was compelling, deftly executed, evocative, and set each scene with thoughtful touches and interesting observations of ancillary movements and actions that kept the visuals scrolling smoothly in my mind’s eye. Jane Isaac is a clever and cunning wordsmith.

About the Author

Jane Isaac is married to a serving detective and they live in rural Northamptonshire, UK with their daughter, and dog, Bollo. Jane loves to hear from readers and writers. You can reach her via her website at www.janeisaac.co.uk Sign up to her book club at http://eepurl.com/1a2uT for book recommendations and details of new releases, events, and giveaways.

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Book Review: He Started It by Samantha Downing

He Started It by
Samantha Downing

 

Beth, Portia, and Eddie Morgan haven’t all been together in years. And for very good reasons—we’ll get to those later. But when their wealthy grandfather dies and leaves a cryptic final message in his wake, the siblings and their respective partners must come together for a cross-country road trip to fulfill his final wish and—more importantly—secure their inheritance.

But time with your family can be tough. It is for everyone.

It’s even harder when you’re all keeping secrets and trying to forget a memory, a missing person, an act of revenge, the man in the black truck who won’t stop following your car—and especially when at least one of you is a killer and there’s a body in the trunk. Just to name a few reasons.

But money is a powerful motivator. It is for everyone.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

That’s my husband, Felix, the pale one with the strong jaw and white-blond hair with matching eyebrows and lashes. In a certain light, he disappears.

 

Krista’s out of the car now, hands on hips and her back arched, which can’t be a good sign. She’s one of those suburban women who have never seen real trouble and think it only happens on the Internet.

 

Portia stands in front of me, her eyes unwavering, and I believe that she believes the truck is following us. In a movie, this would end with hillbilly cannibals, but we aren’t in a movie.

 

My Review:

 

This book was an arduous read and heaving with an appalling and vile cast of annoying characters doing dastardly things. The entire family was exasperating, reprehensible, horrid, and despicable. They had been beastly as children during their first run of this peculiar choice of road trip and were three times as horrific as adults while they retraced their original trek. I reviled and despised them all, yet their witty snark and shrewdly paced, intriguing, and mysteriously twisty tale kept me rapt to my Kindle and unable to stop reading.

I was absolutely furious at the ending, stamping my little foot and turning the air around me blue with invectives. Yet I must give this guileful and wily author her due, as her provocative missive was cunningly crafted, deviously clever, and cannily plotted. I would caution her neighbors to tread lightly, ply her with treats, never ask for favors, and always keep a sharp eye open.

 

About the Author

Samantha Downing is the author of the bestselling My Lovely Wife, nominated for the Edgar, ITW, and Macavity awards for Best Debut Novel. Amazon Studios and Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films have partnered to produce a feature film based on the novel.

Her second novel, He Started It, was released on July 21, 2020.

She currently lives in New Orleans, where she is furiously typing away on her next thriller.

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Book Review: Lies, Lies, Lies by Adele Parks

Lies, Lies, Lies (Kindle Edition)
by Adele Parks 

LIES LIES LIES (MIRA Trade Paperback; August 4, 2020; $17.99) centers on the story of Simon and Daisy Barnes. To the outside world, Simon and Daisy look like they have a perfect life. They have jobs they love, an angelic, talented daughter, a tight group of friends… and they have secrets too. Secrets that will find their way to the light, one way or the other.

Daisy and Simon spent almost a decade hoping for the child that fate cruelly seemed to keep from them. It wasn’t until, with their marriage nearly in shambles and Daisy driven to desperation, little Millie was born. Perfect in every way, healing the Barnes family into a happy unit of three. Ever indulgent Simon hopes for one more miracle, one more baby. But his doctor’s visit shatters the illusion of the family he holds so dear.

Now, Simon has turned to the bottle to deal with his revelation and Daisy is trying to keep both of their secrets from spilling outside of their home. But Daisy’s silence and Simon’s habit begin to build until they set off a catastrophic chain of events that will destroy life as they know it.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

… she’s had bouts of terrible hallucinations and intense paranoia. She threw things at me when I went into her room, she thought I was an undertaker and had come to measure her up.

 

Born in a different era, Connie would most likely have been one of the women knitting by the guillotines during the French revolution, she had the stomach for it. She always put curiosity before sentimentality. She collected experiences.

 

The cell smelt stale. Simon had always had a keen sense of smell. It was one of the least useful… He wore glasses, his hearing was average, and he couldn’t remember anyone ever saying he was a total king in the sack. So, out of smell, taste, sight, hearing and touch, it was his luck to get an A* in smell. Leon had been openly farting all evening… Simon longed for fresh air and a breeze.

 

Not blackouts Daisy, time travel. I’m like Doctor Who. My Tardis is a whisky bottle. I punch through the mundane rules of time and space that you mere mortals must live with.

 

I don’t need to worry about identity theft. No one wants to be me.

My Review:

 

This author is a wily minx! I adored and despised her as I read and adored and despised her tragic and tensely emotive and prickly storylines, which were populated with curiously compelling characters who were rather awful human beings. I thought they were appallingly weak and horrible people until about 80% into the book and it broke my heart when I realized how wrong I had been. The tale was steeped in angst, which is one of my least favorite things in the world, yet my brain was itching to know every little thing. I couldn’t put it down and wanted to hiss at every interruption to my perusal.

I was on edge, tense, nibbling my cuticles, biting my lips, my shoulders up in my ears, the knots in my neck and shoulders had additional knots of their own. I was confounded by my investment and attraction to these devastating storylines full of woe. The writing was haunting, insightfully observant, cunningly evocative, and poignant with oddly alluring intrigue and bewitching word voodoo that kept me tethered to my Kindle as I navigated this maddeningly paced, taut, and complex tale with a level of tension that continued to build exponentially. Even during those unavoidable periods when I was forced to put my Kindle down, also known as adulting and sleep, I found myself ruminating about the characters.   I had five pages of marked quotes.   There were multiple layers to this tale as well as to the complicated cast, in addition to a series of heart-clenching and unexpected twists. It was tragic, heartbreaking, and in the end – rather brilliant.

About the Author

Adele Parks was born in Teesside, North-East England. Her first novel, Playing Away, was published in 2000 and since then she’s had seventeen international bestsellers, translated into twenty-six languages, including I Invited Her In. She’s been an Ambassador for The Reading Agency and a judge for the Costa. She’s lived in Italy, Botswana, and London, and is now settled in Guildford, Surrey, with her husband, teenage son, and cat.

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Book Review, Excerpt: The Friendship List by Susan Mallery

 

THE FRIENDSHIP LIST
by Susan Mallery

 

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

 

[ ] Dance till dawn

[ ] Go skydiving

[ ] Wear a bikini in public

[ ] Start living

Two best friends jump-start their lives in a summer that will change them forever…

Single mom Ellen Fox couldn’t be more content—until she overhears her son saying he can’t go to his dream college because she needs him too much. If she wants him to live his best life, she has to convince him she’s living hers.

So Unity Leandre, her best friend since forever, creates a list of challenges to push Ellen out of her comfort zone. Unity will complete the list, too, but not because she needs to change. What’s wrong with a thirtysomething widow still sleeping in her late husband’s childhood bed?

The Friendship List begins as a way to make others believe they’re just fine. But somewhere between “wear three-inch heels” and “have sex with a gorgeous guy,” Ellen and Unity discover that life is meant to be lived with joy and abandon, in a story filled with humor, heartache, and regrettable tattoos.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

She’s a wizened old cow who hasn’t had sex in over a decade. I’m sure her girl parts are about as interesting as day-old bread.

 

“Are you wearing eyeliner?” “Yes. And it’s not easy to put on. I tried a smoky eye yesterday, but I just looked like I got in a fight.”

 

It’s all I can think about. I’m glowing so much, I’m practically radioactive.

My Review:

 

As with every Susan Mallery book I have been lucky enough to stumble upon, The Friendship List was better than an all-day all-you-can-eat and carryout trip to Willy Wonka’s. It was good fun with several cleverly written, witty, and highly entertaining storylines that held something for everyone. I adore and covet Susan Mallery’s writing style, she is a master storyteller and I quickly fall into her smoothly scrolling tales that seem to be populated with oddly endearing characters who are delightfully easy to know while realistically flawed and endeavoring for improvement. Her dialogues and observant narratives are crisp and lively yet comfortable and a pleasure to navigate.   Of course, my favorite character in this tale was the all-wise and lovely Dagmar, a woman I am sure was crafted by the use of hidden cameras following me!

While I didn’t have one thing in common with the main characters I enjoyed them anyway. Unity was a grieving young widow who was stagnant and unable to move on even after three years, and Ellen was a single mom of a teen who had not been on a date since becoming pregnant as a teen herself. Their friendship and sassy banter sparkled with delightful humor and were a welcome reprieve and absolute joy after a reading a slate of tense thrillers. I have decided I need a regular infusion of Susan Mallery in my life for good balance.

Excerpt

Chapter Two

Keith reached for his beer, not bothering to hide his amusement. “Is that going to be part of the decision-making process? How you look in the college colors? Because you care so much about how you look?”

“Hey!” Ellen balled up her napkin and tossed it at him. “I care. Sort of.”

Keith had been around women enough to know this was not a winning line of conversation. When it came to pretty much everything, women had rules men couldn’t possibly understand. He’d often thought that if Ellen put even five minutes into her appearance, she would be chasing men off with a stick. Yet if he mentioned that, he was the bad guy.

Like her clothes. They were always at least two sizes too big. Even when she wasn’t teaching, she wore baggy jeans and oversize T-shirts or sweatshirts. She never put on makeup. Despite having long, wavy dark hair, she never wore it other than in a ponytail or a braid.

Not his rock, he reminded himself. Ellen was his friend and whatever made her happy made him happy, too.

“I’m sure the Stanford colors will be glorious on you,” he told her.

She rolled her eyes. “Glorious? Is that the best you could come up with?”

“It is.”

“Fine. Tell me about your day.”

He reached for a chicken leg and put it on his plate, then added two more. “I had to deal with another pregnant girl. Why does this keep happening and why do they come to me?”

“In reverse order, they come to you because you’re capable and the odds of the guy involved being an athlete are high. As for why they get pregnant, that’s easy. Men don’t control their sperm.”

He stared at her. “What?”

“Sperm. It’s not the sex that’s the problem.” She waved her beer bottle. “Think about it. Women can have sex all day long and not get pregnant. They can have orgasm after orgasm and nada. It’s all about ejaculation. If the male half of the species made sure that didn’t happen inside women, there would be no unplanned pregnancies. Everyone looks to the girl, but she’s not the one who made it happen. He did.”

Despite the hell that had been his day, Keith chuckled. “You always have a unique perspective.”

“I know. What was it you said? I’m glorious.”

“You are. So if you’re right, then the system is rigged against women, but that doesn’t change the pregnancy outcome.”

Her expression turned sympathetic. “You worry about Lissa too much.”

“Do I? As you just pointed out, she’s one wayward ejaculation away from getting pregnant.”

“She’s on the pill.”

“If she takes them.”

Ellen put her hand on his forearm. “Your daughter doesn’t want to get pregnant, Keith. She’s a smart girl and she’s on birth control. Plus, from what I can tell, she’s not seeing anyone. You know how she gets—once she likes a guy, that’s all she ever talks about. On the boy-girl front, things have been quiet.”

“I hope you’re right. The whole situation makes me crazy.” Lissa was his daughter, his world. He wanted to do everything in his power to make her life perfect.

Ellen reached for the mashed potatoes. “When we’re back from the college bus trip, Lissa and I will be working at the fruit stand for the rest of the summer. I’ll find out what’s going on. Between now and then, she’s busy with school, then she’ll be with you on the bus. She should be perfectly safe. And speaking of the bus trip, I think we’re pretty much done with the details. What do you think?”

“I agree. I’m buying the Disneyland tickets this week,” he said. “The hotel reservations are all made.”

“You’re a good man for doing this.”

He raised one shoulder. “I don’t mind it.”

.

About Susan Mallery

#1 NYT bestselling author Susan Mallery writes heartwarming, humorous novels about the relationships that define our lives-family, friendship, romance. She’s known for putting nuanced characters in emotional situations that surprise readers to laughter. Beloved by millions, her books have been translated into 28 languages. Susan lives in Washington with her husband, two cats, and a small poodle with delusions of grandeur. Visit her at SusanMallery.com.

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