My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

When giving herself a stern talking-to, Julia tended to employ her dead mother’s voice, and her clipped and direct tone. No doubt a psychologist would have a field day with that, but the fact was that it worked. She felt herself buck up.

The first thing Julia noticed on entering the offices of the William Adamson Property Company, was the receptionist’s false eyelashes. They reminded Julia of Petunia the cow, her grandmother’s prize Jersey. She’d had the longest, thickest lashes, and as a child Julia had loved her slow blink, as if her lashes were too heavy to move. It really was quite unnerving on a human, though. The lashes extended forwards and then swooped upwards and fanned out. Just about as alarming was the orange eyeshadow. Every time the girl blinked, it was as if two tangerine segments descended over her eyeballs.

Julia realised what talking to Nicky reminded her of – a waterfall. That rushing feeling as the freezing water cascaded over your head, overwhelming your senses and rendering you curiously numb.

Sebastian fell to the ground in a full-on tantrum. It was quite astonishing, actually, like a cartoon of a tantrum, little heels drumming on the ground, fists clenched, tears and snot spewing, and a bellow… Good Lord… A bellow that would wake the dead. Which would be handy, come to think of it, given the circumstances.

My Review:

This was my first exposure to the sparkling style and wily wit of Katie Gayle and I am kicking myself for not noticing this gifted duo of wordsmiths sooner. This delightful little missive was a fun, wryly humorous, cleverly paced, and pleasingly engaging read from start to finish. The writing style was easy to fall into and flowed smoothly and pleasantly while it tickled my curiosity and  appealed to my predilection for witty and comedic yet insightful observations. The pace was well-honed with well-crafted storylines and details that pulled sharp visuals to my mind’s eye and kept an amused grin on my face. I enjoyed this odd little village and its authentically quirky inhabitants, although I certainly wouldn’t want to live there.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that faculty and staff meetings are soul destroying. The color in my vision gradually flattened into black and white. I felt the marrow seeping from my very bones, draining away. Soon I would be an empty husk, my insides all withered to the point of blowing away at the slightest puff. The meeting would never end. All of us were destined to die in this conference room. Yes, it’s melodramatic. It’s also 100 percent true.

You always slouch when you eat, but when you have an idea, you sit up straight like you’re afraid the thoughts might fall out of your head if you move the wrong way.

I’d filed it away in the box labeled “Things Not to Think About,” right next to the folder of “Peeing My Pants on Stage During the First-Grade Spelling Bee,” and I’d shoved it in the back of my mental attic, next to the other cobwebby boxes.

Ivy: Remember when the three of us did No-Shave November? Your legs were hairier than Cam’s.
Cameron: I would’ve felt emasculated if I hadn’t been so impressed.
Mel: It wasn’t that bad.
Ivy: Yes, it was. How many razors did you go through to cut it all back?
Cameron: Be honest. You know you didn’t use razors. You used chainsaws and weedwhackers.

You think I feel the same way about your grandpa as I did all those years ago when we first met? Or the way I did on our wedding day? Well, I don’t. Back then, love was like Fourth of July sparklers in my chest. Right now, love is making him hot coffee and breakfast each morning even after we got in a fight the day before and he spent all night snoring in my ear…

My Review:

I initially waffled on how to rate this one as the writing was witty, easy to fall into, and cleverly amusing, although I was finding the pacing and protracted foot-dragging, and immature behavior of the main character more than a bit tedious. However, some people are that tiresomely clueless and self-involved, so all in all the storylines were engaging, humorous, keenly observant, giggle-snort worthy, and wryly entertaining. Perusing all my highlighted favorites removed all doubt, leading me to go all-in with a well-deserved 5-stars.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

It filled them with a perverse kind of terror to know that a man as bloodthirsty, as ruthless, was living in the same house as them and sometimes needed help to get up off the toilet.

Dolly was poring over the breakfast options, salivating. They were hungry like stray dogs.

On balance, she trusted Cain. It wasn’t so much the things he did or the things he said, it was the way he did them and the way he said them. He felt like your best friend’s dad, the one that didn’t leer at you.

They could solve the world’s problems with the resources they commanded, but they had to be given a shindig like tonight just to part with their small change. Maltby had long come to the revelation that the richest are the meanest. They are the only ones whose compassion you have to buy… But they can understand a free buffet, and they’ll give a twenty-thousand-euro donation if you throw in live entertainment.

Standing just a few meters away was a blond guard with a haircut you could use to sharpen a pencil.

My Review:

This was a riveting, well nuanced, and action-packed tale full of violence, an alphabet soup of spy networks, amusing observations, oddly compelling characters, and an uncomfortably realistic storyline of governmental double-dealing and corruption. The original storylines were multi-leveled and well textured with humor, snark, tension, impending peril around every corner, and the cold-blooded killers who brought it. Tom Trott’s writing has never failed to entertain and always contains several stupendous twists I could never have conjured in my wildest imaginings.

The unsolved murder of a young activist leads to the discovery of much darker crimes in New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan’s latest compelling thriller to feature the young, edgy detective Kara Quinn and the loner FBI agent Matt Costa. This time they work to uncover possible ties to a high-stakes cartel in the Southwest desert.

Something mysterious is killing the wildlife in the mountains just south of Tucson. When a college intern turned activist sets out to collect her own evidence, she, too, ends up dead. Local law enforcement is slow to get involved. That’s when the mobile FBI unit goes undercover to infiltrate the town and its copper refinery in search of possible leads.

Quinn and Costa find themselves scouring the desolate landscape, which keeps revealing clues to something much darker—greed, child trafficking, and more death. As the body count adds up, it’s clear they have stumbled onto much more than they bargained for. Now they must figure out who is at the heart of this mayhem and stop them before more innocent lives are lost.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Papa said that the stars were God’s glitter to make the dark not as scary.

She’d been a con artist before she was a cop, and being an undercover cop was, essentially, being a con artist, but with a badge.

Matt was certainly an alpha male trying his hardest to be a beta, but he didn’t have a sexist bone in his body. Well, maybe a couple— he was a guy, after all…

My Review:

This was a complex, multi-faceted, and intriguing tale with haunting issues and a well-crafted writing style that packed a visceral punch without being gruesome. The gripping storylines were unpredictable and needled and poked at my curiosity throughout. The characters were as interesting and complicated as the case they were working and the clever author textured them well with authentic flaws and quirks. I can’t wait to dive into the next in the series as I’m well primed for more of the same of this wily wordsmith’s work.

When Jennifer goes up to Cambridge University with her head full of the Romantic Poets, she never dreams that she will find her very own Byron. But then she meets gorgeous actor Laurie Lewis, and finds herself living a real-life love poem.

Fifteen years and two children later, Jennifer and Laurie’s relationship is starting to feel more like an epic tragedy. After a series of revelations turn her world upside down, Jennifer will do anything to keep her family together – even if it means moving hundreds of miles away to Laurie’s childhood home in Westenbury, Yorkshire.

As she reluctantly enters into village life – complete with interfering in-laws, new friends and a surprise delivery of alpacas – Jennifer is amazed to find herself feeling happy for the first time in years. But the village holds one last, devastating secret and Jennifer must decide once and for all what she wants her future to hold.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

The last time I was on stage was when I was an angel in the Reception Nativity… I was already so pissed off at not being Mary, I broke my cardboard halo, took a swing at Joseph and got really told off by the old boot in charge. If you look at photos of me on stage, I’m scowling throughout and giving everyone black looks while I refuse to sing.

Net her? I turned to look at Laurie. Had Laurie actually said net her? As if Tod Mayhew had spent hours dipping his rod into a pond of potential marriage partners and had come up with a prize catch?

‘Call him Laurie,’ I suggested. ‘Everyone else does.’ Everyone except me, who now prefers wanker, pillock, bighead…

‘Protection?’ Janice laughed hollowly. ‘Laurie couldn’t protect the skin on a rice pudding.’

My Review:

I enjoy the clever wry humor and amusing yet perceptive observations in Julie Houston’s agile storytelling. She wrangles emotive insights into her narratives that set the perfect pitch and extra oomph to her tale. This story had a unique cast of characters with real-world problems and issues, as well as significant personal foibles and pitfalls. The storylines were engaging and held my interest, even when the characters were annoyingly weak or obtuse, as we all are at times.

About the Author

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Julie Houston lives in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire where her novels are set, and her only claims to fame are that she teaches part-time at ‘Bridget Jones’ author Helen Fielding’s old junior school and her neighbor is ‘Chocolat’ author, Joanne Harris. Julie is married, with two adult children and a ridiculous Cockerpoo called Lincoln. She runs and swims because she’s been told it’s good for her, but would really prefer a glass of wine, a sun lounger, and a jolly good book – preferably with Dev Patel in attendance.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

‘And how old is Stefan?’ she asked. ‘Forty-five,’ said Jackie proudly. ‘Recently divorced. As fit as a butcher’s dog with a bone to match.’

Rogues and charlatans are all I seem to attract these days. And nobody wants a decrepit old woman with the memory of a stunned goldfish. I’m better off alone.

Zara was the last person she expected to see on her doorstep. She was standing there dressed to the nines and inspecting her finger as if by pressing the doorbell she may have picked up a communicable disease.

‘Lad? He’s an adult– that makes him fair game,’ said Jackie, her words a little slurred. ‘You’ve got underwear older than him,’ said Pauline, who had been rather quiet. ‘It’s not my fault that Marks and Spencer’s make them to last.’ Jackie jutted out her chin.

Her hair looked like she’d backcombed it with a hedgehog and she still had a full face of make-up although it was now rather patchy and smudged, giving her a certain Dalí-esque quality.

My Review:

I enjoyed this wryly humorous women’s fiction tale. While the characters weren’t always likable, they were well-nuanced and insightfully layered with realistic complications and foibles. The writing style was delightfully detailed with sardonic observations, sparring and snappy banter, and perceptive inner musings and narratives that tickled and taunted my curiosity as well as my funny bone. I had pages of cleverly written highlighted passages and was greatly pained to narrow the list down to the handful in this review.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

There’s something about shiny things that appeals to Siobhan. Expensive jewelry, luxury lingerie, handsome men with perfect smiles. She knows they’re probably too good to be true, but she just can’t help wanting them all the same.

Is it one of those hangovers where your insides are all burny, like they’re mad at you and inflicting their punishment from the inside out?

“He cheese-grated the whole of the front of his body on the trunk of a sycamore,” AJ tells Miranda, leaning forward. “You should have seen the state of the man’s dick after that, it looked like a half-chewed stick of pepperoni.” “Salami,” Trey says sulkily. “Not pepperoni. Big salami. Girthy salami.”

I’m ninety-six, Colin. When you get to my age you don’t give enough of a shit about anything to have ‘objections.’

It makes her itch to think that she’ll never know the why behind it all. Miranda is just one of those people: she picks the label off her beer bottle, she itches mosquito bites. She can’t leave things alone.

My Review:

This tale was full of surprises. I am now totally enamored with Beth O’Leary as she is a wily minx who led me astray, and now I’m feeling an April fool. Her engaging and cleverly amusing storylines were unpredictable and expertly paced to keep my curiosity primed. I thought I had Joseph pegged, but I was so far off the mark I wasn’t even near the target. I adored these complicated characters, each was uniquely quirky, multi-layered, and well-textured. This agile storyteller has climbed to the top of my favorites list.

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).