Category: 5-Stars

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Book Review: Smoke and Mirrors (City Limits Series #3) by M. Mabie

Smoke and Mirrors
by M. Mabie

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Smoke and Mirrors is LIVE, 99¢, and FREE in KindleUnlimited!

Contemporary Romance| Second Chance Romance

Smoke and Mirrors is the third standalone in the City Limits series. It features a new couple navigating their second-chance romance. Enjoy this love story between a fireman who has returned home from the military and the single mom he left down the street. Welcome to Wynne.

Blurb

My best laid plans had backfired. I’d thought by putting miles between myself and my first love that she’d be free to live whatever life she’d wanted, but when I came back from serving my country and Faith was raising her little girl alone, it was time to make new plans.

In eight years, not a single day had passed when she wasn’t on my mind, and not a night went by when I didn’t miss her. She was fierce and stunning and didn’t need a man in her life, but when the time came—and she wanted one—the line would start behind me.

Like smoke, I’d let her slip through my fingers once, but I’d never forgive the man in the mirror if I let it happen again. She was the fire inside me that would never burn out.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Mrs. Downing, now isn’t a good time to flirt with me. They’re going to think you have a head injury.

 

He licked his fork clean and then stuck the plastic handle in the front pocket of his denim overalls. He patted the disposable silverware and said to me, “I’ll need this for dessert.”

 

I’ve got baggage. Luggage, really. Tons of it.

 

I sent them a pic of you cleaning out Darrell’s gutters… Oh, come on. You took your shirt off twenty feet away from my window. Girl code mandates sending a picture to my best friends.

 

Son, the inside of this house is like its heart, and it’s beautiful. But the front porch is the face and it looks like a divorcee who needs night cream.

 

“I think she’s poopin’. She’s been in the bathroom for a long time.” There was some rustling around on the other end, and then she bellowed. “Mom, are you still poopin’? Aaron’s on the phone… I’ll talk to you until she’s done. Sometimes it takes a while.” Again she shouted at her mother. “Do you need some toilet paper?”

 

It’s funny how a moment can be so big that you worry it won’t fit in your heart, but then you feel your insides swell and it finds a place.

 

My Review:

 

Smoke and Mirrors was a comfortable, pleasant, and easy read populated with adorable, endearing, quirky, and lovable characters. The premise was realistic, easy to follow, and relevant while the characters were common, small-town, everyday working-class people, who were uncommonly good and exceptionally appealing. I relished this sweet couple and Ms. Mabie’s engaging dual POV narrative from start to finish. Add in a precocious, feisty, and precious four-year-old then blend it all together with wit, cunning insights, smirk-inducing levity, a sweet and steamy love story, and clever writing, and you have a delightful and entertaining book to cherish and enjoy.   I didn’t notice how ingenious the title was until I made the connection of Aaron, the male protagonist, being a fireman. A kind, thoughtful, sweet, and sexy fireman. I fell in love with him right away and he just kept getting better and better. I hope Ms. Mabie continues this charming and breezy series in perpetuity; after all, she has an entire town to pick and choose from.

Smoke and Mirrors TEASER SQ

If you haven’t yet started the City Limits series of Standalone, you can find them on KU.

Roots and Wings(City Limits, #1 – Standalone)  bit.ly/CityLimits1

Sunshine and Rain (City Limits, #2 – Standalone) bit.ly/2CityLimits

 

City Lmits Facebook Cover Photo

Roots and Wings FB AD SIZE teaser

M. Mabie is the writer who made thousands of readers hate to love (and love to hate) the angst-filled contemporary romance, Bait.

She lives in Illinois with her husband. She writes unconventional love stories and tries to embody “real-life romance.” She cares about politics, but will not discuss them in public. She uses the same fork at every meal, watches Wayne’s World while cleaning, and lets her dog sleep on her head.

She has always been a writer. In fact, she was born with a pen in her hand, which almost never happens. Almost. M. Mabie usually doesn’t speak in third-person. She promises.

www.MMabie.com

Newsletter: mmabie.com/subscribe

Bookbub: bookbub.com/authors/m-mabie

Facebook: Facebook.com/AuthorMMabie

Take the Bait Reader’s Group: facebook.com/groups/takethebait

Instagram: @m_mabie

Twitter: @AuthorMMabie

Amazon: amazon.com/author/mmabie

 

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Book Review, Giveaway: Mend by Chelle Bliss

Mend 

by Chelle Bliss

 

From USA Today bestselling author Chelle Bliss comes a feel-good, sexy second-chance STANDALONE romance.

Six years ago, the only girl I ever loved moved away.
She said she’d come back to me.
She promised she’d write.
She swore she’d always be mine, but Evie Bailey lied.

Now, Evie’s back, and this time, I’m not letting her go without a fight.

Before senior year, I was forced to move away, leaving behind the only boy I ever loved.
He said he’d love me forever.
He promised nothing would tear us apart.
He swore he’d wait for me, but Jack Nelson lied.

Now, Jack wants to make me his again, but he may never be able to forgive my sins.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I loved her from the moment she walked into homeroom on the first day of eighth grade. The fact that she had on a Nirvana T-shirt and a pair of ripped jeans just made me fall even harder.

  

He’s about as exciting as a piece of toast… The man doesn’t even eat dessert. Who doesn’t eat dessert? It’s unnatural…He’s definitely not a keeper… I can’t be with someone who doesn’t appreciate a great cupcake or even a cookie, for shit’s sake.

 

Shave your bits, girl. You may get lucky tonight… I like a great hairy leg, but yours is a bit prickly. I don’t think Jack will approve… You’ll need a machete to get through that jungle, doll…

 

My Review:

 

Mend was a quick and easy read with an engaging, sweet, and somewhat steamy love story occurring over two time periods.   Packaged with endearing characters, an emotive and heart-squeezing yet entertaining narrative of young love, conniving villains, snarky levity, small-town pettiness, and a sweet first and second-chance romance; Chelle Bliss has completely satisfied my wishlist for today. Loves me some Chelle Bliss!

AMAZON – chellebliss.com/mend-amz

IBOOKS – chellebliss.com/mend-ibooks

NOOK – chellebliss.com/mend-nook

KOBO – chellebliss.com/mend-kobo

GOOGLE – chellebliss.com/mend-gp

SIGNED COPY – chellebliss.com/mend-signed

Mend Release Giveaway

Chelle Bliss is the USA Today bestselling author of Misadventures of a City Girl, the Men of Inked series, Enshrine, and the ALFA Investigations series. She hails from the Midwest, but currently lives near the beach even though she hates sand. She’s a full-time writer, time-waster extraordinaire, social media addict, coffee fiend, and ex high school history teacher. She loves spending time with her two cats, alpha boyfriend, and chatting with readers.

Where to follow and connect with Chelle Bliss

WEBSITE – FACEBOOK – NEWSLETTER – TWITTER – INSTAGRAM

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 Book Review: Girl Unknown by Karen Perry 

 Girl Unknown

by Karen Perry 



Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound


 Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (February 6, 2018)

“Explores emotional danger with relentless, surgical accuracy.”—Tana French, New York Times bestselling author of The Trespasser and Into the Woods

David and Caroline Connolly are swimming successfully through their marriage’s middle years—raising two children; overseeing care for David’s ailing mother; leaning into their careers, both at David’s university teaching job, where he’s up for an important promotion, and at the ad agency where Caroline has recently returned to work after years away while the children were little. The recent stresses of home renovation and of a brief romantic betrayal (Caroline’s) are behind them. The Connollys know and care for each other deeply.

Then one early fall afternoon, a student of sublime, waiflike beauty appears in David’s university office and says, “I think you might be my father.” And the fact of a youthful passion that David had tried to forget comes rushing back. In the person of this intriguing young woman, the Connollys may have a chance to expand who they are and how much they can love, or they may be making themselves vulnerable to menace. They face either an opportunity or a threat—but which is which? What happens when their hard-won family happiness meets a hard-luck beautiful girl?

 

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

There is an energy on campus during those first weeks of the new semester that is like nothing else. The air is charged with the frisson of possibility. A cheerful busyness takes hold, giving a new life and sheen to every faded surface, every jaded room… I felt it too— the beat of possibility, the urge to get a head start on the year. After seventeen years working at this university, I was still not immune to the buoyant lift of first-term energy.

 

We never had children because I didn’t want them. Any child I had with you might be born with a dorsal fin and several rows of teeth.

 

Mum had stepped toward the bed and was standing with one hand upon it, quietly contemplating it, when it occurred to me that the previous inhabitant had probably died in this room, in that very bed Mum was touching. And in all likelihood, my mother would die here too. A strange vertiginous thought. I felt like someone had punched me with it. I couldn’t escape the feeling that by moving her into this room I was somehow hastening her doom.

 

That night in the cold darkness at the top of the stairs, overhearing the conversation, that was the moment when things began to unravel for me… A pinched, mean voice inside me whispered: If you are not the love of his life, then what makes you so sure he is yours? … Like a stone dislodged deep inside me, I felt the structure of my being start to crumble.

 

She had the cool beauty of a glassy lake on a cold day— you wanted to stare at it, to take it all in, though you wouldn’t want to touch it. A coldness that seemed biting.

 

My Review:

 

Girl Unknown was a gripping and enthralling read that steadily built and maintained an intriguing and inescapable level of tension and suspense as well as an unmistakable sense of impending doom from the very first word of the bewitching prologue to its devastating conclusion.   I gasped in disbelief, cringed, flinched, held my breath, clenched my fist, and even growled in frustration at the annoyingly dense David, yet I was mesmerized by the storyline, transfixed by the narrative, embedded and engaged with the characters, and physically unable or unwilling to put my Kindle down any longer than necessary. The characters were as hypnotically intriguing as they were repellent and fractured. I loathed/loved/despised/pitied them in equal measure. Adulting did not happen yesterday. The storyline was cleverly well-crafted, alluring, and maddeningly fascinating while the writing was keenly honed, insightfully observant, well detailed, emotive, and infuriatingly well-paced. I must stalk these talented wordsmiths at every opportunity!

  

About Karen Perry

Karen Perry is the pen name of Dublin-based authors Paul Perry and Karen Gillece. Together they wrote Girl Unkown.

 Paul Perry is the author of a number of critically acclaimed books. A recipient of the Hennessy Award for New Irish Writing, he teaches creative writing at University College, Dublin.

Karen Gillece is the author of several critically acclaimed novels. In 2009 she won the European Union Prize for Literature (Ireland).

Connect with them on Facebook.

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Book Review: Dear Dwayne, With Love by Eliza Gordon

Dear Dwayne, With Love

by Eliza Gordon

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Amazon

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Wannabe actress Dani Steele’s résumé resembles a cautionary tale on how not to be famous. She’s pushing thirty and stuck in a dead-end insurance job, and her relationship status is holding at uncommitted. With unbearably perfect sisters and a mother who won’t let her forget it, Dani has two go-tos for consolation: maple scones and a blog in which she pours her heart out to her celebrity idol. He’s the man her father never was, no boyfriend will ever be—and not so impossible a dream as one might think. When Dani learns that he’s planning a fund-raising event where the winning amateur athlete gets a walk-on in his new film, she decides to trade pastries and self-doubt for running shoes and a sexy British trainer with adorable knees.

But when Dani’s plot takes an unexpected twist, she realizes that her happy ending might have to be improvised—and that proving herself to her idol isn’t half as important as proving something to herself.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Imagine the witch who gives Snow White the apple. Make her more than six feet tall. Braid the hairs growing from the mole. Give her the personality of Miss Gulch, the mean lady on the bike who yells at Dorothy’s aunt and uncle about little Toto. Boom. My boss. Joan the Crone.

 

Where are the real gigs, you know? Like tampon or feminine deodorant commercials? The residuals on those can be nuts—I knew a woman in LA who bought a house in the Hollywood Hills just from the residuals she earned on Massengill Douche ads. Sure, she was known as the Douche Lady, but she has an infinity pool and a pool boy named Sven. A clean vagina is no laughing matter.

 

My mother keeps sending me meal plans she finds online, designed specifically for people trying to conceive… I am really, really tired of beans and spinach. And I feel sorry for the other women sitting around me. So much farting.

 

I follow her to the Great Wall of Shoes… Susie talks me into two pairs: a zero-drop shoe for the gym (“ It will help you keep your balance, like being barefoot, when you’re squatting and deadlifting”— I have no idea what either of those things involve, but I’m guessing one might be for pooping and the other might be for carrying a corpse)…

 

I don’t even want kids. Georgette has three, and all she talks about is how her hair is falling out and she can’t poop alone and how her vagina has lost its pep. I don’t want my vagina to lose her pep. I have it on good authority my group health insurance won’t cover fixing that.

 

No time for doubts. Doubts are for cat tattoos and dubious marriages.

 

My Review

 

I giggle-snorted and smirked as I read this delightfully clever and deliciously amusing and quirky story. I was quickly drawn into this vibrantly humorous, entertaining, and engaging tale. The storyline was irreverently witty while also providing those occasional emotive heart-squeezes, and was simply brimming with oddly alluring and intriguing characters with my favorites being the Miraculously Beautiful Marco the personal trainer, and the soft-hearted and somewhat spineless heroine, Danielle Steele with an e, “Dani.”  Dani’s eccentric and conspiracy-prone mother had named all three of her daughters after her favorite romance authors. Tucked into the narrative were frequent and unexpected tricks and treats to keep reeling the reader into this well-crafted and smartly written story.

 

Dani’s family was all kinds of peculiar with her mother belonging to a UFO group named Greys (Alien) Anatomy, and sold magic healing space wands and her own homegrown medicinal herb (unlicensed) to “her friends” and those seeking relief from pain. Despite her unusual childhood, Dani was a sweet and thoughtful friend and co-worker, although she lacked backbone and knew it. She was also unflinchingly snarky in her inner musings and when writing in the private online diary she had kept since middle school using an unpublished blog website with her missives generally consisting of unsent letters and imagined conversations with her childhood idol Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who had been her long-gone father’s favorite wrestler. But secrets often have a way of being revealed, with humorous results and uncomfortable and humiliating consequences.

 

I adored this amusing and cleverly crafted book from its very beginning to the gleefully satisfying end. Dani had transformed  herself through setting a goal to meet her idol and despite several unforeseen setbacks, she had some major wins and a few tragic losses, with a boatload of humorous scenes, perceptive observations, and comically arched eyebrow lifts occurring in between. I will forever associate kittens on leashes, sports bras, and protein smoothies with this enticing and inventive tale, while I would never consider ever again drinking a kale smoothie as I agree with Dani; kale smoothies most certainly are the devil.

About the Author  

Goodreads/  Amazon / Website /BookBub

Eliza Gordon has excellent taste in books, shoes, movies, and friends, and questionable sanity in the realm of love. Best leave that one alone.

In real life, she’s an editor, mom, wife, and bibliophile and proud parent of one very spoiled tuxedo cat. Eliza writes stories to help you believe in the Happily Ever After; Jennifer Sommersby, her other self, writes YA and is repped by Daniel Lazar at Writers House.

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Book Review: Sisters Like Us by Susan Mallery 

Sisters Like Us

by Susan Mallery

 

 
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Amazon 

 B&N

Paperback: 432 pages

 Publisher: MIRA (January 23, 2018)

The grass is always greener on your sister’s side of the fence…

Divorce left Harper Szymanski with a name no one can spell, a house she can’t afford and a teenage daughter who’s pulling away. With her fledgling virtual-assistant business, she’s scrambling to maintain her overbearing mother’s ridiculous Susie Homemaker standards and still pay the bills, thanks to clients like Lucas, the annoying playboy cop who claims he hangs around for Harper’s fresh-baked cookies.

Spending half her life in school hasn’t prepared Dr. Stacey Bloom for her most daunting challenge—motherhood. She didn’t inherit the nurturing gene like Harper and is in deep denial that a baby is coming. Worse, her mother will be horrified to learn that Stacey’s husband plans to be a stay-at-home dad…assuming Stacey can first find the courage to tell Mom she’s already six months pregnant.

Separately they may be a mess, but together Harper and Stacey can survive anything—their indomitable mother, overwhelming maternity stores and ex’s weddings. Sisters Like Us is a delightful look at sisters, mothers and daughters in today’s fast-paced world, told with Susan Mallery’s trademark warmth and humor.

“Fresh and engaging… There’s a generational subtext that mirrors reality and the complexities of adult relationships…filled with promise of a new serial that’s worth following.” -Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“Mallery enthralls [and] thoroughly involves readers in the lives of her characters as they face realistic, believable problems and search for their own happy endings.” -Publishers Weekly

 

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

It’s like Beetlejuice. If you say her name too many times, she’ll rise up with horrific powers and do unspeakable things. I’m being cautious.

 Stacey met the gaze of the pregnant dog. The animal looked calm and kind of sweet, in a very large, I could eat you in a hot minute kind of way.

 His shirt was barely wrinkled, he was rested and tanned, while she was a hot mess. No, she thought, thinking of her mom jeans and stained T-shirt. Even her messiness wasn’t the least bit hot. She was a cold mess.

 You need a date for your ex’s wedding. Showing up by yourself will make you feel awful… What about Lucas? He’s very handsome and I’m sure he knows how to behave. You could ask him to bring his gun and shoot the groom… Or the bride. Your choice.

My Review:

 

I adored this book start to finish, I’ve read a handful of Susan Mallery books and after each one, I declare it to be my favorite. Deftly written with bold strokes of levity, thoughtful and insightful observations, witty banter, endearing characters, and clever use of animals for the uptight characters to bare their private fears with, this was an easy read that squeezed my heart while it also made me smile. The plot was relevant and realistic, the storyline was well-crafted and entertaining, and the writing was crisp, yet thoughtful and sensitive. The characters were wildly flawed, singularly quirky, and fascinating. I favored Lucas most of all and had a mad crush on him until he pulled a dick move and broke my heart.

 

About Susan Mallery

 

Susan Mallery is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of books about the relationships that define women’s lives—romance, friendship, family. With compassion and humor, Susan keenly observes how people think and feel, in stories that take readers on an emotional journey. Sometimes heartbreaking, often funny, and always uplifting, Susan’s books have spent more than 200 weeks on the USA Today bestsellers list, thanks to her ever-growing legions of fans.

Critics, too, have heaped praise on “the new queen of romantic fiction.” (Walmart) Booklist says, “Romance novels don’t get much better than Mallery’s expert blend of emotional nuance, humor, and superb storytelling,” and RT Book Reviews puts her “in a class by herself!”

Although Susan majored in Accounting, she never worked as an accountant because she was published straight out of college with two books the same month, January of 1992. Sixteen prolific years and seventy-four books later, she hit the New York Times bestsellers list for the first time with Accidentally Yours in 2008. She made many appearances in the Top 10 before (finally) hitting #1 in 2015 with Thrill Me, the twentieth book in her most popular series, the Fool’s Gold romances, and the fourth of five books released that year.

Susan lives in Seattle with her husband, two ragdoll cats, and a tattletale toy poodle. Her heart for animals has led Susan to become an active supporter of the Seattle Humane Society. Animals play a big role in her books, as well, as she believes they’re an integral component to a happy life.

Connect with Susan

 

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Book Review: That Girl by Kate Kerrigan

That Girl

Kate Kerrigan

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Amazon / B&N

Kobo / iTunes

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From the winner of the RoNA Historical Romantic Novel of the Year 2017…

You can escape a place. But you can’t escape yourself.

Hanna flees the scene of a terrible crime in her native Sligo. If she can just vanish, re-invent herself under a new name, perhaps the police won’t catch up with her. London seems the perfect place to disappear.

Lara has always loved Matthew and imagined happy married life in Dublin. Then comes the bombshell – Matthew says he wants to join the priesthood. Humiliated and broken-hearted, Lara heads to the most godless place she can find, King’s Road, Chelsea.

Matthew’s twin sister, Noreen, could not be more different from her brother. She does love fiancé John, but she also craves sex, parties, and fun. Swinging London has it all, but without John, Noreen is about to get way out of her depth.

All three girls find themselves working for Bobby Chevron – one of London’s most feared gangland bosses – and it’s not long before their new lives start to unravel.

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Unlike Italy , with its Popes and volcanos and sunshine and pasta, Ireland had nothing of note. Just nuns, rain and potatoes. It was an unremarkable place to anyone but the Irish themselves. In fact, mostly to them as well.

 

… as if a piece of him had gone missing in her presence. He was afraid that if he gave her what she wanted, then she would leave the room and, if she did that, he might never get it back.

 

You could catch up on a month’s gossip in Lyons’s in less than an hour if you knew who to sit next to.

 

Business took precedence over pleasure, always. The dead don’t book in and they don’t bury themselves, her father used to say.

 

He instinctively understood things about her that he knew were true… Without her saying a word, he could see in her beautiful eyes that she was carrying something that did not belong to her. It was a lifetime in a moment; this was the world standing still.

 

Sure all them miniskirts around here would turn a blind man horny!

 

My Review:

 

Visiting Ireland remains on my Bucket List, I’m sure I have distant ancestral roots of some sort and would just love to see the Old Sod, although these three Irish gals didn’t seem to be enjoying their life there in the turbulent 60’s and fled for “Swinging London.” Although, each of the three had fled for a different reason. Hanna was running from the brutality of her life, Lara was striving toward a different future, and Noreen was desperately seeking adventure. From the cover, you might be expecting a breezy and light-hearted book, well, think again. The well-crafted and engaging storylines were packed with drama, quirky gangsters, betrayal, suspense, angst, tension, heartache, aspirations, anxiety, intrigue, and excellent writing. The 60’s and 70’s were a period of profound and explosive social change worldwide, which was as confusing as it was exciting. I came of age a decade after these gals, but could easily identify with the issues.

 

I quickly slipped into the story and only fell deeper with the addition of each new character. The writing was emotive, observant, and descriptive enough to place me within each scene; I could hear the music, smell the food, feel the tension, and recognize the entire peculiar cast of characters by sight. It was hard to put my Kindle down and even though I had not lived their experiences, I could fully relate and empathize with each of the female characters as well as a few of the men. But I tilted the most toward the couple of Lara and Coleman. Poor Lara, when the love of your life informs you he has decided to be a priest because, “I suppose I love God more than I love you.” Ouch.   I would have hightailed it out faster than Lara had, although I would have torn a pound of flesh off of the weasel first. The suspense and tension were maintained beginning to end and oh, how I reveled at the sweet and well-deserved endings for each one. As if reading a superbly written book wasn’t pleasure enough, I have new additions to my British Isles Vocabulary List, which I’ve realized I needed to rename from My Brit Word List due to the inclusion of Scottish and Irish colloquialisms.   My new collection includes, “clobber” which the Urban Dictionary defined as new clothes or personal items; and “face like a spanner” which means ugly. It’s always a red-letter day when I can boast of expanding my verbosity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  

Kate Kerrigan lives in County Mayo, Ireland, with her husband and children. Her novels include Recipes for a Perfect Marriage, shortlisted for the 2006 Romantic Novel of the Year Award and Ellis Island, which was a TV Book Club Summer Read.

 Goodreads   Amazon  Website     Facebook

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Book Review: Garden of Lamentations by Deborah Crombie

 

Garden of Lamentations

by Deborah Crombie

 

HarperCollins 

 Amazon 

 Barnes & Noble 

 Paperback: 448 pages
 Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (November 14, 2017)

Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James are drawn into separate investigations that hold disturbing—and deadly—complications for their own lives in this powerful mystery in the bestselling series.

On a beautiful morning in mid-May, the body of a young woman is found in one of Notting Hill’s private gardens. To passersby, the pretty girl in the white dress looks as if she’s sleeping. But Reagan Keating has been murdered, and the lead detective, DI Kerry Boatman, turns to Gemma James for help. She and Gemma worked together on a previous investigation, and Gemma has a personal connection to the case: Reagan was the nanny of a child who attends the same dance studio as Toby, Gemma and Kincaid’s son.

Gemma soon discovers that Reagan’s death is the second tragedy in this exclusive London park; a few months before, a young boy died in a tragic accident. But when still another of the garden residents meets a violent end, it becomes clear that there are more sinister forces at play. Boatman and Gemma must stop the killer before another innocent life is taken.

While his wife is consumed with her new case, Kincaid finds himself plagued by disturbing questions about several previous—and seemingly unrelated—cases involving members of the force. If his suspicions are correct and the crimes are linked, are his family and friends in mortal danger as well? Kincaid’s hunch turns to certainty when a Metropolitan Police officer close to him is brutally attacked. There’s a traitor in the ranks, and now Kincaid wonders if he can trust anyone.

As Gemma begins to see a solution to her case, she realizes she holds a child’s fate in her hands. Can she do the right thing? And can Kincaid rely on his friends, both inside and outside the Scotland Yard force, to stand beside him as he faces the deadliest challenge of his career?

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

Pathologists are insatiably curious. That’s why we do it, most of us. Although maybe there are some who just like really bad smells and have no people skills.

Don’t say you don’t want to speak ill of the dead. The dead are dead and it won’t hurt them.

 Lisa Su, Gemma decided, might have been pretty if not for what seemed a perpetually angry expression. Her eyes protruded slightly, as if pushed out from the pressure within.

 

My Review:

 

I was stunned when I noticed I was reading an author for the first while picking up book number seventeen in a series. I had not contemplated such a vast amount of books in one series since my Nancy Drew years.   While I am certain I would have had an easier time beginning the tale had I read the previous books, prior experience was not necessary as the story was more than steady on strong dancers legs and quite capable to stand-alone. The plot was complex, ingenious, and brilliantly crafted. Ms. Crombie must be wicked smart and at least a tad twisted to have such a profound facility for evil genius lurking about her headspace. I doubt her neighbors ever fully relax or dare to disturb her peace. Her writing was hypnotic, packed with peculiar and intriguing characters, and densely detailed with a treasure trove of fascinating and multi-faceted story threads knitting themselves into vivid imagery. I covet her mad skills.   I was provided with a review copy of this extraordinary book by HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours.

About Deborah Crombie

Deborah Crombie is a New York Times bestselling author and a native Texan who has lived in both England and Scotland. She now lives in McKinney, Texas, sharing a house that is more than one hundred years old with her husband, three cats, and two German shepherds.

Connect with her through her website, Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.

 
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Book Review: The Promise Between Us by Barbara Claypole White

The Promise Between Us

by Barbara Claypole White

Amazon 

  Barnes & Noble

Paperback Publisher: Lake Union

Publishing (January 16, 2018)


From the bestselling author of The Perfect Son comes a hopeful tale of redemption, renewal, and the promise of love.

Metal artist Katie Mack is living a lie. Nine years ago she ran away from her family in Raleigh, North Carolina, consumed by the irrational fear that she would harm Maisie, her newborn daughter. Over time she’s come to grips with the mental illness that nearly destroyed her, and now funnels her pain into her art. Despite longing for Maisie, Katie honors an agreement with the husband she left behind—to change her name and never return.

But when she and Maisie accidentally reunite, Katie can’t ignore the familiarity of her child’s compulsive behavior. Worse, Maisie worries obsessively about bad things happening to her pregnant stepmom. Katie has the power to help, but can she reconnect with the family she abandoned?

To protect Maisie, Katie must face the fears that drove her from home, accept the possibility of love, and risk exposing her heart-wrenching secret.

 My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

You might have been blinded by love and lust, but Katelyn was always wound tighter than a dollar store watch.

 

How did this happen? Two PhDs between them, and they couldn’t figure out contraception.

 

I’m a welder who works in a helmet decorated with Power Girl stickers.

 

Why were these horrid thoughts taking up a whole room in her brain? No, multiple rooms!

 

Still as predictable as ever. Takes a small pair of balls to intimidate a small woman.

 

‘’Cause I feel as if I’ve been skinny-dipping with snapping turtles. And oh, Lordy’—he tossed out an expression that reminded her of Robin Williams playing Mrs. Doubtfire—‘you know how much I value my body parts.’

 

Delaney had once complained that it was impossible to make Patrick jealous, but the look he gave Jake was, surely, reserved for muggers of little old ladies.

 My Review:

 

This book should be required reading for all medical and psychological graduate students and interns.   Written from five viewpoints The Promise Between Us was smartly written and endlessly fascinating, yet surprisingly easy to follow. I was quickly mesmerized and completely embedded within the craniums of these peculiar and cringe-worthy characters and have yet to fully resurface. I have a strong suspicion that these singularly unique yet fully formed individuals will be residing with me for quite some time.   The storyline was tragic and heartbreaking while the characters were deeply flawed, fractured, and somewhat repellent, yet oddly compelling and endearing for their efforts. But the writing, oh the writing, it was stellar, superb, well-crafted, tantalizing, heartrending, poignant, painfully insightful, sharply honed, and exquisitely observant with unexpected yet perfectly pitched twists of levity, primarily from the most under-appreciated characters. I adore this author and would worship at an altar laden with her works.  I was provided with a review copy of this engrossing book by  TLC Book Tours.  

  
 
About Barbara Claypole White 

Bestselling author Barbara Claypole White creates hopeful family drama with a healthy dose of mental illness. Originally from England, she writes and gardens in the forests of North Carolina where she lives with her beloved OCD family. Her novels include The Unfinished Garden, The In-Between Hour, The Perfect Son, and Echoes of Family. The Promise Between Us, a story of redemption, sacrifice, and OCD, has a publication date of January 16th, 2018. She is also an OCD Advocate for the A2A Alliance, a nonprofit group that promotes advocacy over adversity.
To connect with Barbara, please visit www.barbaraclaypolewhite.com, or follow her on Facebook. She’s always on Facebook.
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Book Review: JUST BETWEEN US by Rebecca Drake

 JUST BETWEEN US

by Rebecca Drake

 

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Four suburban mothers conspire to cover up a deadly crime in Just Between Us, a heart-stopping novel of suspense by Rebecca Drake.

Alison, Julie, Sarah, Heather. Four friends living the suburban ideal. Their jobs are steady, their kids are healthy. They’re as beautiful as their houses. But each of them has a dirty little secret, and hidden behind the veneer of their perfect lives is a crime and a mystery that will consume them all.

Everything starts to unravel when Alison spots a nasty bruise on Heather’s wrist. She shares her suspicions with Julie and Sarah, compelling all three to investigate what looks like an increasingly violent marriage. As mysterious injuries and erratic behavior mount, Heather can no longer deny the abuse, but she refuses to leave her husband. Desperate to save her, Alison and the others dread the phone call telling them that she’s been killed. But when that call finally comes, it’s not Heather who’s dead. In a moment they’ll come to regret, the women must decide what lengths they’ll go to in order to help a friend.

Just Between Us is a thrilling glimpse into the underbelly of suburbia, where not all neighbors can be trusted, and even the closest friends keep dangerous secrets. You never really know what goes on in another person’s mind, or in their marriage.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

The strange thing about a secret is it longs to be told. Someone can confide personal news —a terminal illness, having lied on a job application, even an indiscretion with a stranger— and you might simply focus on the story itself, the details and the implications, but if they add that caveat—“ don’t tell”— then suddenly that’s all you can think about doing.

 

…her small, probably fixed, ferrety nose sniffing the air while she darted beady-eyed looks about the room. I doubted she’d ever been in Heather’s house before—she was an acquaintance rather than a friend, one of those women who believed that personal power came from the collection, and distribution, of gossip.

 

The coffin was a huge, satin-padded mahogany box, Viktor tucked into its folds like a piece of expensive mail-order fruit that got delayed somewhere in transit, polished and presentable, hiding a rotting core.

 

It was the sort of death he might have appreciated, high-intensity and cinematic, crashing through a guardrail and plunging thirty feet into the river. A swift end to a short life, but people like that seem destined to die young.

 

My Review:

 

I seem to have been a suspense junket lately, and I’ve surprised myself with how much I’ve enjoyed them, but it has also cost me greatly as I am now sleep deprived. My lack of somnolence came not only from being enthralled and unable to put my Kindle down but from also ruminating about the characters and storylines once I finally closed my eyes. Just Between Us presented such a conundrum. It was well plotted, full of creative and unimagined twists and turns, and terribly hard to put down. The primary and as well as many secondary characters were well fleshed out and knowable, but not all at once, as shocking surprises were in store from each household.

 

The four women were uniquely unsuited to be friends. This wily author presented them in a cunning and intriguing manner, tantalizing me with unpredictable and questionable behaviors and thoughts, as well as making them annoyingly realistic and significantly flawed once the layers of civility were removed. Not a one of them were as I had expected or as they had presented themselves, to anyone.   Each had dark and shameful secrets hidden in their histories, which were compounded by the new clandestine activities they had been caught up with. They had pulled together with the united purpose of assisting one of their own then became ensnared and saw no choice but to press forward with riskier and outright illicit behaviors. It is so true to form that when in the midst of a crisis options appear limited or nonexistent, but a day or so later all the alternatives of should have and could have, will flood the mind. The storylines heated up and boiled over as the four ladies began to unravel from the guilt and stress with panic attacks, paranoia, resentments, distrust, and destructive bad habits that frayed and fractures their ties. But I never saw this ending coming, it was cleverly devised and craftily enacted, yet oddly disquieting as well.

 

 

About the Author

Rebecca Drake is the author of the novels Don’t Be Afraid, The Next Killing, The Dead Place, which was an IMBA bestseller, and Only Ever You, as well as the short story “Loaded,” which was featured in Pittsburgh Noir. A graduate of Penn State University and former journalist, she is currently an instructor in Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction M.F.A. program. Rebecca lives in Pittsburgh, PA, with her husband and two children.

 

Website: https://www.rebeccadrake.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.drake.writer/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorRDrake

 

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Book Review: The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor


The Chalk Man

by C. J. Tudor

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

Hardcover: 288 pages

Publisher: Crown (January 9, 2018)

The must-read thriller of 2018, this riveting and relentlessly compelling psychological suspense debut weaves a mystery about a childhood game gone dangerously awry that will keep readers guessing right up to the shocking ending

In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking around their sleepy little English village and looking for any taste of excitement they can get. The chalk men are their secret code; little chalk stick figures they leave for one another as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and nothing is ever the same.

In 2016, Eddie is fully grown and thinks he’s put his past behind him. But then he gets a letter in the mail, containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out that his friends got the same message, they think it could be a prank . . . until one of them turns up dead.

That’s when Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago.

Expertly alternating between flashbacks and the present day, The Chalk Man is the very best kind of suspense novel, one where every character is wonderfully fleshed out and compelling, where every mystery has a satisfying payoff, and where the twists will shock even the savviest reader.

“Readers will undoubtedly be reminded of the kids of Stand by Me and even IT…[the] first-person narration alternates between past and present, taking full advantage of chapter-ending cliffhangers. A swift, cleverly plotted debut novel that ably captures the insular, slightly sinister feel of a small village. Children of the 1980s will enjoy the nostalgia.”—Kirkus

“I haven’t had a sleepless night due to a book for a long time. The Chalk Man changed that.” —Fiona Barton, New York Times bestselling author of The Widow

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

My hair is still thick and mostly dark, but my laughter lines lost their sense of humour some time ago.

 

Many of the kids I teach at Anderbury Academy are what we call “challenging.” In my day, they would have been called “a bunch of little shits.”   Some days, I need to mentally prepare myself to deal with them. Other days, the only preparation that helps is a shot of vodka in my morning coffee.

 

I knew she didn’t really like Fat Gav’s mum and dad. I heard her once tell Dad that they were “often-contagious.” When I got older, I realized she’d actually said “ostentatious,” but for years I thought she meant that they harboured some strange disease.

 

None of it was true, but rumors are like germs. They spread and multiply almost in a breath and, before you know it, everyone is contaminated.

 

BEING AN ADULT is only an illusion. When it comes down to it I’m not sure any of us ever really grow up. We simply grow taller and hairier. Sometimes, I still feel amazed that I am allowed to drive a car, or that I have not been found out for drinking in the pub.

 

No one ever found any answers at the bottom of a bottle. Not the point, of course. The point of reaching the bottom of the bottle is generally to forget the questions.

 

My Review:

 

The Chalk Man was a brilliantly paced and multi-layered tale with gripping storylines dripping with intrigue, and a riveting plot packed with odd and compelling characters. What more could you ask for? Not a damn thing says my stunned and addled brain. I was quickly sucked into the vortex of this enthralling story and had an extremely difficult time putting my Kindle down. Peculiar and distressing incidents, gruesome nightmares, and mysterious events were observed and cataloged by a sticky-fingered pre-teen which continued to haunt the forty-two-year-old man thirty years later. I devised theories I hoped would be incorrect as it would have hurt my heart, but I never saw this ending coming. I am awestruck with the knowledge this ingeniously crafted and insightfully written book was the author’s first. She must be an evil genius and her family should be advised to count the empties, sleep with one eye open, and always remain in her good graces.

 

About C. J. Tudor

C. J. TUDOR lives in Nottingham, England, with her partner and three-year-old daughter. Over the years she has worked as a copywriter, television presenter, voice-over, and dog walker. She is now thrilled to be able to write full-time and doesn’t miss chasing wet dogs through muddy fields all that much. The Chalk Man is her first novel.

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