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Book Review: Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney @alicewriterland @MacmillanUSA @Flatironbooks

Rock Paper Scissors
by Alice Feeney 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

 

Think you know the person you married? Think again…


Things have been wrong with Mr. and Mrs. Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. A self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter, Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can’t recognize friends or family, or even his own wife.

Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts – paper, cotton, pottery, tin – and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn’t randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn’t want them to live happily ever after.

Ten years of marriage. Ten years of secrets. And an anniversary they will never forget.

Rock Paper Scissors is the latest exciting domestic thriller from the queen of the killer twist, New York Times bestselling author Alice Feeney.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

… sometimes the dust of our memories is best left unswept.

 

I immediately regret saying it, but words don’t come with gift receipts and you can’t take them back.

 

Getting married costs a pretty penny, and pennies are prettiest when you don’t have many of them.

 

It smells as though we are in a chapel now. That musty scent of old Bibles and blind faith.

 

Trust can’t be borrowed, if you take it away you can’t give it back.

 

Don’t housekeepers clean things? From what I saw through the window, she doesn’t look like she knows how to use a feather duster. She may have a broom… for flying around at night—

 

Dreams are like dresses in a shop window; they look pretty, but sometimes don’t fit when you try them on.

 

She had a face like a carp and it was as red as her apron. Her beady eyes glared and she barked the word “what” at him with venomlike spit. She was clearly a woman who was good at making people feel bad. Sam resisted the urge to offer his condolences for Patty’s sister, who he was sure had been murdered by a girl called Dorothy near a yellow brick road.

 

My Review:

 

This was a brilliantly plotted and shrewdly paced and captivating tale that kept me tethered to my Kindle. I didn’t see this ending coming at all. The writing was cleverly observant and witty, wryly humorous while chillingly cunning, easy to fall into yet tense and prickly, and featured multiple POVs of people who intrigued me but weren’t all that likable most of the time. I fell right into the author’s trap and was totally bamboozled. I had several pages of favorite quotes and highlights.

Alice Feeney is a sly minx – her word voodoo is strong. I was sucked right into her characters’ narratives and even though I live in the tropics, I felt the bone-chilling and teeth-rattling temperatures of the unheated stone buildings in the Scottish Highlands.   It was tense and gripping with impending peril right around the corner, yet the observant humor was snarky and smirk-worthy witty on the way there. I’m greedy for all her clever arrangements of words and have just added her entire listing to my TBR.

 

 

About the Author
Alice Feeney is a New York Times bestselling author and journalist. Rock Paper Scissors is her fourth novel and is being made into a TV series for Netflix by the producer of The Crown. It will be published around the world in 2021.

Her debut novel, Sometimes I Lie, was an international bestseller, has been translated into over twenty languages, and is being made into a TV series by Warner Bros. starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. His & Hers is also being adapted for the screen by Jessica Chastain’s Freckle Films.

Alice was a BBC Journalist for fifteen years before becoming an author. She lives in Devon with her family.

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Book Review: Just River by Sara B. Fraser @saraphraser @mindbuckmedia

Just River
by Sara B. Fraser 

Amazon  / B&N  / BB

Sara B. Fraser paints for readers how life in a nothing upstate New York town in the ’90s might look: bleak and gritty. Wattsville was a booming manufacturing town on the Otis River. But now, the mills are closed. The windows boarded up. The same people frequent the same bars every day without fail. What once was a prosperous place is now somewhere riddled with substance abuse, poverty, violence, and hush-hush secrets. But only the river bears witness to all these secrets — and only the river can divulge the truth.

At the heart of these secrets is one family. When Carol’s daughter, Garnet, is caught in the crosshairs of justice and her former boyfriend’s deceit, Carol and her best friend Sam plot to prove Garnet’s innocence. Told with beauty and tenderness against the landscape of forgotten everyday America, Fraser’s JUST RIVER connects the complexity and danger we all contain.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

That woman’s gotten so much Botox, her eyebrows have fused to her skull.

 

It feels odd, smiling at them, like something might escape her mouth if she doesn’t keep her teeth clenched.

 

In Wattsville he is one of a kind, whereas he would find many like-minded people in the city. But he’s afraid. Its size scares him, and furthermore he wouldn’t be particularly special. Here, he explains, he’s a unicorn, a big fish in a small pond. “Puddle,” says Chloe. “It’s not a pond, it’s a puddle, my dear. You want to swim or lie there getting splashed? Heavens, the place is bound to evaporate in warm weather.”

 

Garnet is developing the rigid jaw and tight lips of a person expecting the worst. He is reminded of the way people’s faces look when they’re stuck in traffic, or when they pick the wrong checkout lane in the supermarket.

 

He must be outside his body… The pain is fading. Is there a solar eclipse? Sam sees, through a vague foggy tunnel, like the ending of the Looney Tunes cartoons he used to watch as a child— D-d-d-d-dat’s all folks!

 

My Review:

 

This was a shrewdly paced and cleverly plotted tale of knotted woe and intriguing complexities that boil down to simple thorny social problems.   After I finished I went back and reread the first chapter and found a treasure chest full of tidbits I had not noticed the first time through. Sara B. Fraser has a special brand of magic sprinkled into her wordcraft and I fell right under her spell.

The storylines and writing style were often realistically gritty, flinch-worthy with complex issues, keenly insightful, painfully observant, and yet bewitchingly humorous – all at the same time! Which takes crazy good skills. The characters were well nuanced and oddly compelling while deeply flawed. Most were repressed, oppressed, suppressed, and vulnerable. I was holding my breath while fully invested and rooting for them, even when they annoyed me. Ms. Fraser is a wily minx with a wicked wit and going to the top of my list of ones to watch.

 

Sara B. Fraser is also the author of LONG DIVISION, published by Black Rose Writing in March 2019. Her short fiction has appeared in Carve, Wilderness House Literary Review, Salamander, Stonecrop, the Forge, The Jabberwock Review, and more. She is a high-school Spanish teacher, surfing-obsessed, and the mother of two boys.
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Book Review: The Sweetheart Deal (Blossom Glen #1) by Miranda Liasson   @mirandaliasson

The Sweetheart Deal
(Blossom Glen #1)
by Miranda Liasson

Amazon / B&N / GP  / Apple / BB

From the bestselling author of the Angel Falls series, two enemies say “I do” in the first irresistible book about Blossom Glen.

Pastry chef Tessa Montgomery knows what everyone in the teeny town of Blossom Glen says about her. Spinster. Ice Queen. Such a shame. It’s enough to make a woman bake her troubles away, dreaming of Parisian delicacies while she makes bread at her mother’s struggling boulangerie. That is until Tessa’s mortal enemy—deliciously handsome (if arrogant) chef Leo Castorini, who owns the restaurant next door—proposes a business plan…to get married.

Leo knows that the Castorinis and the Montgomerys hate each other, but a marriage might just force these stubborn families to work together and blend their businesses for success. The deal is simple: Tessa and Leo marry, live together for six months, and then go their separate ways. Easy peasy.

It’s a sweetheart deal where everyone gets what they want—until feelings between the faux newlyweds start seriously complicating the mix. Have they discovered the perfect recipe for success…or is disaster on the way?

Each book in the Blossom Glen series is STANDALONE:
* The Sweetheart Deal
* The Sweetheart Fix

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

… she had to endure a lot of sad headshaking and endless questions about being dumped. Yes, still, even after almost a year. That was the thing about a small town— the first thing you did in your life that was gossip-worthy became the defining trait of your existence.

 

… this garden is protected by Gnomeland Security

 

“It’s three in the morning,” Gram said, tying a knot in her blue silk robe. “All of you are alive and breathing, so who’s pregnant?”

  

My Review:

 

I reveled in this entertaining and discerningly written tale and felt it was the author’s most poignant of those I’ve read. The storylines and writing tapped all the feels with a keen sensitivity and canny insights into the complications and sacrifices required to maintain family business as well as a peaceful existence in a small town. I adored these characters and how could I not? These are my people as they enjoyed Moscato, rainbow flip-flops, and sallying clever quips at each other like missiles. This new series is off to an excellent start and I am hooked and eager to see what and whom this clever wordsmith does with the next installment.

 

Author Bio:

Miranda Liasson loves to write stories about everyday people who find love despite themselves because there’s nothing like a great love story. And if there are a few laughs along the way, even better! She’s a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart winner and an Amazon bestselling author whose heartwarming and humorous small-town romances have won accolades such as the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence and have been Harlequin Junkie and Night Owl Reviews Top Picks.

 

Connect with Miranda: 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | Newsletter | Bookbub | Pinterest | Blog

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Book Review: Coming Home to Seashell Harbor (Seashell Harbor #1) by Miranda Liasson @mirandaliasson @readforeverpub

Coming Home to Seashell Harbor
(Seashell Harbor #1)
by Miranda Liasson

Amazon / B&N / GP / Apple / BB

 

An emotional novel about first love, second chances, and what it means to follow your heart from this award-winning author who “writes with humor and heart” (Jill Shalvis, New York Times bestselling author).

Hadley Wells swapped her dreams of saving the planet for the glamour of Hollywood. But when a very public breakup reveals cracks in her not-so-perfect life, she returns to her hometown to reassess what it is she truly wants. Unfortunately, Seashell Harbor has some trouble of its own–including the first man to ever break her heart.

A serious injury forced footballer Tony Cammareri into early retirement–now he’s determined to reboot his life with a splashy new restaurant venture. He knows better than to expect a happy reunion with Hadley, but he’s determined to make up for the way things ended between them. Yet when Tony and Hadley end up vying for control of the town’s future, they find themselves once again on opposing sides.

As their rivalry intensifies, they must decide what’s worth fighting for–and what it truly means to be happy.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

… he started the car with a little jolt. “Hold on to your sunbonnet, sugar.” “Call me sugar again and you’re going to be wearing it yourself.”

 

My Review:

 

This was a refreshing and enjoyable second chance romance with relatively low angst, adorable animal rescue, endearing characters, and a realistic level of conflict. Just what I needed to unwind and relax my shoulders down from my ears after reading several intense thrillers in a row. The writing style was engaging, insightfully observant, thoughtfully detailed with vibrant and amusing descriptors, and remarkably easy to follow despite being the first in a series and introducing a community of new characters. The pace was pleasantly smooth and steady with an excellent flow into each segue.   Miranda Liasson is an agile and deft storyteller and I effortlessly slip right into her breezy tales of romantic women’s fiction. She holds a steadfast entry on my favorites list.

Author Bio:

Miranda Liasson loves to write stories about everyday people who find love despite themselves because there’s nothing like a great love story. And if there are a few laughs along the way, even better! She’s a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart winner and an Amazon bestselling author whose heartwarming and humorous small-town romances have won accolades such as the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence and have been Harlequin Junkie and Night Owl Reviews Top Picks.

 

Connect with Miranda: 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | Newsletter | Bookbub | Pinterest | Blog

 

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Book Review: The Secretary by Britney King  @britneyking_ @EJBookPromos

 

 

The Secretary
by Britney King

 

Amazon  / B&N  / Apple / BB

 

From the bestselling author of The Social Affair and HER comes a new mind-bending thriller about a young woman whose life takes a wicked turn…

The job comes with a lot of perks. A mysterious new boss is one of them. His deep pockets don’t hurt.

In her first week, Gillian finds a note on her desk with two boxes and a question: Will you have dinner with me?

Check yes or no.

It was easily the best night of her whole young life.

The second note arrived looking very much the same, only different.

Do you have what it takes to be in my world?

Gillian has been asked to handle a lot of tasks in her work.

But covering up a murder might be the strangest one yet.

Check yes or no.

She can check yes and face prison time. Hypothetically.

No, and she finds out why the job was vacant in the first place.

Tautly paced, The Secretary is an unnerving and electrifying psychological thriller about illusion, passion, and the dangerous places ambition can take you. Full of enough tension and twists to make even the most seasoned suspense reader break out in a cold sweat, it keeps you guessing until the very last page.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

What’s the saying? A mistake made more than once is a decision.

 

He speaks nonchalantly but also in a manner that makes me feel like he cares. Like the funeral director, I wonder if this is something they pull aside and drill into a certain segment of the population, a segment that does not contain me or hardly anyone I know.

 

“It can’t wait, Gillian,” she huffs. I feel like this is a different story and I’m one of the three little pigs and I’m not sure which. He huffed, and he puffed, and he blew the house down.

 

Just remember, you only get to be young and stupid once… It’s kind of like dimples on your ass. They’re cute when you’re a baby, not so much when you’re an adult.

 

I feel like I’m in one of those movies where the main character knows too much.

  

My Review:

 

I am in awe of Britney King’s deft wordcraft, her fiendishly clever and original stories maintain a compelling and bewitching quality that beckon and beguile yet are also uncomfortably prickly and more than a bit flinch-worthy. She has turned her unique brand of suspense into an art form – and I cannot get enough of them! The Secretary had me biting my lips, gnawing on my cuticles, and holding my breath. I was on edge and itchy with curiosity while also anxious and concerned for the main character. I zipped right through it and yearned for more. The gal has mad skills!

 

Spotify Book Playlist:

Direct Link: https://spoti.fi/3FXg7Hy

 

Goodreads Giveaway

https://bit.ly/thesecretarygrgiveaway

About the Author

.
Britney King lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, children, two dogs, one ridiculous cat, and a partridge in a pear tree.
When she’s not wrangling the things mentioned above, she writes psychological, domestic, and romantic thrillers set in suburbia.
Without a doubt, connecting with readers is the best part of this gig. You can find Britney online here: 
To get more– grab two books for free, by subscribing to her mailing list at  bit.ly/britneykingweb
Happy reading.
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Book Review: A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham @svwillingham @MinotaurBooks

A Flicker in the Dark
by Stacy Willingham 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

 

From debut author, Stacy Willingham comes a masterfully done, lyrical thriller, certain to be the launch of an amazing career. A Flicker in the Dark is eerily compelling to the very last page.

When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, Chloe’s father had been arrested as a serial killer and promptly put in prison. Chloe and the rest of her family were left to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.

Now 20 years later, Chloe is a psychologist in private practice in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. She finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to get. Sometimes, though, she feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. And then a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, and that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, and seeing parallels that aren’t really there, or for the second time in her life, is she about to unmask a killer?

In a debut novel that has already been optioned for a limited series by actress Emma Stone and sold to a dozen countries around the world, Stacy Willingham has created an unforgettable character in a spellbinding thriller that will appeal equally to fans of Gillian Flynn and Karin Slaughter.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

By the end of the summer, six girls had disappeared. One day they were there, and the next—gone. Vanished without a trace… Their goneness was impossible to ignore; it was an evil that had settled over the sky the way an impending storm can make your bones throb.

 

She was quiet, reserved, pale and rail thin, with hair the color of a fiery sunset, something of a walking matchstick.

 

His voice was deep, stern but somehow sweet at the same time, probably from the unmistakable Southern drawl that made every word sound thick and slow like dripping molasses.

 

A steady sheet of rain erupts outside and the house is filled with the sound of millions of fingers tapping on the roof, eager to get in.

  

My Review:

 

This was an intense and brilliantly nuanced tale with an exceptionally evocative style and held a well-crafted and distinctive aura of tautness from the first word to the last period. I fell right into the character’s troubled gray matter and itched, sweat, and hyperventilated right along with her. My cuticles are a ragged mess!

The writing style was lyrical, emotive, and vividly detailed to taunt the senses. The storylines were fiendishly paced and kept me on edge and guessing. The little pea in my brain was shuddering. I was wrecked, then hopeful, then wrecked yet again while spinning and discarding numerous theories only to come back around to them again while working my way through this intricate web.

Everything about this book was extraordinary and I was flabbergasted to note it was the author’s debut. Stacy Willingham’s word voodoo is strong! She is a phenom, definitely one to watch, and is now residing at the top of my favorites list.

Stacy Willingham’s first novel, A Flicker in the Dark, is scheduled to be published in January 2022 by Minotaur Books and HarperCollins UK.

Prior to writing fiction full time, Stacy worked as a copywriter and brand strategist for various marketing agencies. She earned her BA in Magazine Journalism from the University of Georgia and MFA in Writing from the Savannah College of Art & Design.

She currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband, Britt, and her Labradoodle, Mako.

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Book Review: The Library by Bella Osborne @osborne_bella @Aria_Fiction

The Library
by Bella Osborne

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

Two lonely bookworms. An unexpected friendship. A library that needs their help

‘A touching story of a friendship between a troubled teenager, a yoga-practicing farming woman in her seventies, and a local library. A delight!’ – Sunday Times bestselling author Katie Fforde

Teenager Tom has always blended into the background of life. After a row with his dad and facing an unhappy future at the dog food factory, he escapes to the library.

Pensioner Maggie has been happily alone with her beloved novels for ten years – at least, that’s what she tells herself.

When they meet, they recognize something in each other that will change both their lives forever.

Then the library comes under threat of closure, and they must join forces to prove that it’s not just about books – it’s the heart of their community.

They are determined to save it – because some things are worth fighting for.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I’m more conscious than most that people get twitchy around teenage boys. They think we’re all either on drugs or about to nick stuff.

 

She held my gaze. Usually this made me feel uncomfortable, like seriously uncomfortable, as if I wanted to unzip my own skin and take it off like a onesie, but for some reason this time I was okay.

 

It was great disappearing into a story but the shame of anyone discovering I was reading romance books was nagging away at me like toothache. Just the thought of it made me nauseous but the truth was I loved them. I was probably a bit addicted. Mainly because they were basically self-help guides for useless men. They were exactly what I needed. Simple lessons in how not to behave around females. I was learning way more from them than I did from my schoolbooks.

 

‘I practise jujitsu, judo and some elements of aikido. All to a reasonable level.’… ‘Bloody hell, you’re the geriatric version of Bruce Lee!’

 

They resumed their reading; each delving into other worlds where they could switch off from being themselves and most importantly avoid the things in the real world they could do nothing to alter.

 

 My Review:

 

I adored everything about this brilliantly insightful and thoughtfully written hybrid of women’s fiction, family drama, and coming-of-age genres. The endearing characters were enticingly flawed and their struggles were so compellingly written even those with the coldest of hearts would be drawn to them. The storylines and writing style were easy to follow and I quickly fell into a uniquely absorbing vortex that I was reluctant to leave behind when the pesky tasks of real life intruded. I was fully invested and captivated by the smartly written and perceptive story threads and the cleverness of how the various pieces were melding together while maintaining such evocative, well-honed, and heart-touching scenarios that tapped all the feels with generous helpings of amusing temerity and wry wit.

Along with top-shelf entertainment, Ms. Osborne was also provided me with two new additions to my Brit Words and Phrases list with daft ha’p’orth – a foolish person, and shufti – a quick look around. Believe me when I say only a daft ha’p’orth would pass up an opportunity to read this lovely tale.

 

 

About the Author

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

 

Bella Osborne has been jotting down stories as far back as she can remember but decided that 2013 would be the year that she finished a full-length novel. In 2016, her debut novel, It Started At Sunset Cottage was shortlisted for the Contemporary Romantic Novel of the Year and RNA Joan Hessayon New Writers Award. Bella’s stories are about friendship, love, and coping with what life throws at you. She likes to find humor in the darker moments of life and weaves these into her stories. Bella believes that writing your own story really is the best fun ever, closely followed by talking, eating chocolate, drinking fizz, and planning holidays. She lives in the Midlands, UK with her lovely husband and wonderful daughter, who thankfully, both accept her as she is (with mad morning hair and a penchant for skipping).

 

Follow Aria & Head of Zeus:

Twitter: @Aria_Fiction

Instagram: @headofzeus

Facebook: @ariafiction

Website: https://headofzeus.com/

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Book Review: The Sorority Murder by Allison Brennan  @Allison_Brennan

The Sorority Murder
by Allison Brennan 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

Senior Lucas Vega is obsessed with the death of Candace Swain, who left a sorority party three years ago and never came back. Her body was later found, but the culprit never was. Lucas thinks he has uncovered new evidence, but to prove it he creates a podcast that traces Candace’s last hours. Listeners crowdsource what they remember as college lecturer and former US marshal Regan Merritt adds her expertise.

Then one caller turns up dead. Another hints at Candace’s hidden life that may implicate other sorority sisters. Regan uses her sources to bolster their theory but discovers that Lucas is hiding his own dark secret. The pressure is on to solve the murder, but first Lucas must come clean about his own motives before the killer strikes again.

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

A lie for a good reason is still a lie.

 

When there is no place to go, you go home.

 

Regan had to really dig down to dredge up sympathy for her. A pathetic, selfish, sociopath. Maybe she didn’t have any sympathy.

 

My Review:

 

I preface my review with the confessions that it has been decades since I stepped on a college campus, I have always had a negative opinion of Greek life, I have never listened to a podcast, and I had to Google what crowdsourcing and capstone projects were. This tense written and slowly developing tale has me convinced that I have become a complete and total goober!

The writing was tensely emotive and highly evocative although I often felt frustrated with the pacing. The story seemed to be progressing at a turtles pace with the main characters going off in all directions while battling to gain ground by inches and thwarted from every side. Yet despite my impatience, I was invested, engaged, and incurably curious and hooked into Allison Brennan’s fiendishly confounding storylines.

My cuticles became increasingly ragged as I worried for the determined and tenacious young podcaster and spun and discarded my own useless theories. The reveals exposed events that were realistic and relatable as well as clever with the final chapters being a maelstrom of peril. Allison Brennan took me down a rabbit hole. I may need to wear gloves for a while…

 

About the Author

 

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Allison Brennan is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of three dozen thrillers and numerous short stories. She was nominated for Best Paperback Original Thriller by International Thriller Writers, has had multiple nominations and two Daphne du Maurier Awards, and is a five-time RITA finalist for Best Romantic Suspense. Allison believes life is too short to be bored, so she had five kids. Allison and her family live in Arizona..

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Book Review: Somebody’s Home by Kaira Rouda @KairaRouda

Somebody’s Home
by Kaira Rouda 

Amazon  / B&N / BB

A quiet neighborhood. A lovely home. A promising new beginning. In a heartbeat, everything can change in this propulsive novel of suspense by USA Today bestselling author Kaira Rouda.

Julie Jones has left her suffocating marriage. With her teenage daughter, Jess, she’s starting over. Their new house in Oceanside is the first step toward a new life. Even if it does come with the unexpected. The previous owners, a pastor, and his wife have left something—or rather someone—behind…

Tom Dean has a bitter hatred for the father who considers him a lost cause, and for the woman who’s moved into their family’s house. The only home he’s ever known. He’s never going to leave. She thinks he’ll be gone in three days, but Tom has the perfect plan.

For a newly single mother and her daughter, a fresh start is the beginning of a nightmare. Before the weekend is over, somebody is going to get exactly what they deserve.

 

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

Fate is funny that way. You find what you think is your dream, and eventually it becomes your nightmare.

 

It’s so satisfying, hanging up on someone. In the olden days, back when we had big thick phones, you could slam those into the cradle and— pow!— make an impact. Now I stab at tiny buttons with my thick fingers, but still, he got the point.

 

I never want my face on TV. I like being powerful, but behind the curtain. Like a real Wizard of Oz.

 

My Review:

 

This was my first-time buddy reading and I had an excellent partner in which to experience this when my blogger gal-pal Joselyn, of rincondejoss.com, suggested we collaborate.  Joselyn is far more adventurous in her reading genres than I am so I most likely cramped her style with my choice for our buddy read.   After perusing the first chapter, I feared her potential wrath with my selection as the book soon had me more than a bit nettled.

I deeply despised this entire cast of obnoxious characters, as they were horrid and ghastly people, types I would never willingly share air with.   While they were all individually detestable and loathsome, the minister was the worst of all – he was abhorrent and oddly enough, the most familiar. Yet as vile as they were and as impatient as I was with their floundering and shallow self-absorbed thinking, I found myself prickling with curiosity and invested in their twitchy story. The little pea in my brain was simmering.

Kaira Rouda is a sly and crafty trickster! She sucked me into this itchy tale that annoyed and captivated me in equal measure. I bow to her adept pacing and exceptional word voodoo that kept me grinding my teeth yet unable to put my Kindle down, even when I wanted to throw it at the back of her characters’ heads to knock some sense loose. This is only my second time perusing Ms. Rouda’s vexing mastery, a slight I plan to rectify ASAP. The gal has skills!

 

 

Joselyn’s Review:

Joselyn’s Rating:

First Impressions

So the beginning was harsh since it was a little slow in a way and really the situations were like totally avoidable in a way, but we humans love complicated.

It was interesting since usually, books tend to go happy till the end of time, but this one was as dark as it gets, real business here.

She is very compelling in her writing, I mean I kept reading even when a lot of things were so wrong for me in this one.

And even when I thought like this is not going that way or that, she went right through and it was like OMG really.

Characters

I hated them all, I think Julie and Sandi semi-redeem themselves and just barely really.

Identified more with Sandi since my dad’s a priest, but thank god he wasn’t that strict and let me take my decisions in life.

But OMG, they were all so mostly brainwashed in this book I swear I was having headaches like how can they think like that so badly of themselves and other people, and sadly I realized it’s just how normal brains operates and made sad.

Final Thoughts

In all, it was curious how I went to go ahead and just keep coming back and keep reading since it was so cringing for me, but I have to say you’re in for a very interesting read with this one.

This one I read with my Friend Honolulubelle and she hated it as much, it came to an interesting debate about how life is built in these things and how people it’s so super destructive, and how to try and avoid it.

 

Joselyn

More of Joselyn’s unique book reviews can be found on her blog here:   https://rincondejoss.com/category/book-reviews/

 

 

Kaira Rouda is a USA TODAY and Amazon Charts bestselling author of contemporary fiction exploring beneath the surface of seemingly perfect lives. Her suspense novels include BEST DAY EVER, THE FAVORITE DAUGHTER, ALL THE DIFFERENCE, and THE NEXT WIFE. Her latest novel, SOMEBODY’S HOME, is out January 18, 2022, and THE WIDOW releases November 15, 2022.

 

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Book Review: A Layer of Love (A Recipe for Love Novel Book 6) by Kelly Collins  @kcollinsauthor

 

A Layer of Love
(A Recipe for Love Novel Book 6)
by Kelly Collins

 

Amazon  / BB

 

She’s broke and bored. He’s busy and burdened. Can they create something delicious together or are they a recipe for disaster?

Single mother Chelsea Sweet craves more than cartoons and T-ball practice. She needs adult companionship. Looking to meet someone she can have a grownup conversation with, she joins an early morning exercise group, only to find that the women aren’t interested in adding a new friend, and the sole man in attendance is so rude she nicknames him Mr. Mean. When her son’s school summons her for an emergency, she happily abandons her quest and falls back into her role as parent, peacemaker, and protector.

After the death of his wife, Brett Bayless is buried under the weight of singlehandedly raising a daughter, retaining his job, and finding a way to move on alone. One crisis seems to follow another, so when the school calls and says his daughter has been involved in an incident, it’s not a surprise. However, seeing her with no front teeth is. When the parent of the perpetrator turns out to be the awful woman from his exercise class, he’s happy to make her pay … for his daughter’s dental work and the hit to his ego.

The two find themselves thrown together by circumstances, only to discover the line between love and hate is as thin as spun sugar. Will the stresses that brought them together cause their relationship to fall flat, or can the layers of their lives blend to create something sweet?

Find out in A Layer of Love …

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I prefer them human with a smidge of decency, an ounce of kindness, and a spoonful of humility. What you are is a pound of pain in my ass.

 

Love is like chocolate: you never really have enough to quench the cravings.

 

At the end, we were a marriage of convenience. Only we were married, and it wasn’t convenient for her.

 

He looked around his new house and shook his head. Everything there needed to go. Moving all his modern furniture into a cabin was like putting fur on a fish and calling it a dog. It didn’t make sense, but then, nothing made sense lately.

  

My Review:

 

I have said it before and I know I’ll say it again, as I’m fickle like that, but this is my favorite Kelly Collins book of all time. This was a quick, easy-to-follow, enjoyable, satisfying, and refreshing read and exactly what I needed. I adored these lovable characters and their sweet burgeoning romance. They were lovely people, although it took a few beats for them to see each other that way.   Their struggles were real and relatable yet never over the top. I am a bit behind with this series and need to backtrack and read the earlier installments, but I am reveling in the premise and am eager for more.

ABOUT KELLY COLLINS   

 

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International bestselling author of over 30 novels, Kelly Collins writes with the intention of keeping the love alive. Always a romantic, she blends real-life events with her vivid imagination to create characters and stories that lovers of contemporary romance, new adult, and romantic suspense will return to again and again.