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Book Review: A Second-Hand Husband by Claire Calman  @clairecalman @rararesources  @BoldwoodBooks

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A Second-Hand Husband
by Claire Calman

Amazon  / B&N /  GP / BB

Natalie and Carl are newlyweds, but the honeymoon period is over already.

Carl has just announced he has bought their first home at auction without telling Natalie where it is, never mind showing her a picture of it.

Natalie is horrified to discover that the dream home is in Little Wyford, mere minutes away from Carl’s ex-wife Antonia. And to make matters worse, Antonia’s palatial country mansion has a fully-functioning roof (and a heated swimming pool!), unlike the ramshackle cottage Carl has bought for them…

Antonia is Little Wyford’s Queen Bee, mistress of the book club, organizer of the Christmas Fair, and leader of the ladies-who-lunch. No matter how hard she tries, Natalie just doesn’t fit in, and when Antonia insists on referring to Carl as ‘Our Husband’, Natalie’s dreams of happily-ever-after take another nosedive.

Second-hand furniture has much to recommend it, especially when doing up a country cottage, second-hand clothes can be ever-so chic, but second-hand husbands are proving to be a very bad idea indeed… Can Natalie ever escape the label of Wife Number Two or is she destined to share her husband forever?

Hilariously funny, wickedly witty, but with a heart of gold and warmth and wisdom that are all its own, A Second-Hand Husband is Claire Calman’s tour de force.

My Rating:

 Favorite Quotes:

 

‘That’s so old!’ Her face looks completely horrified, as if I have borrowed a frock from Miss Havisham and it’s covered in cobwebs.

 

There aren’t any family heirlooms because our family never owned anything significant to hand down to the next generation, other than a predisposition to bowel cancer and bad colds.

 

And – by the way, it is not OK for you to talk to me like that. You’re not my boss, and if you were my boss and spoke to me like that, I’d be taking you to an industrial tribunal. Be angry if you want to be, but there’s no excuse to talk to me as if I’m a bit of dogshit on your shoe. Do it again and I will be out the door in two seconds and heading for the M20 in my van – and you know I mean it. Do you hear me?

 

 My Review:

 

My first Claire Calman experience and I am enamored with her delightfully clever wit, which was often the delivery system for keenly observant insights as well as a day of pleasant entertainment. Her character development and wordcraft were stellar and kept me invested and engaged as I alternated between smirking, giggle-snorting, and chewing my cuticles. The spiky secondary characters were as actively involved and germane to the various story threads and more amusingly drawn than the featured couple.

I was ever hopeful the main character of Natalie would eventually locate her spine while I gleefully enjoyed her inner dialog along her route to tracking it down. I wasn’t sure I could get on board with her hasty choice of second-hand husband as Carl showed sparks of promise but he was often a thoughtless asshat who deserved a few swift applications of my crocs to his posterior to dislodge his lost cranium.   I had faith the author would get them there and my trust was not ill-placed.

I have a new author to add to my Favorites list and Ms. Calman has a new fangirl as I added her entire Goodreads listing to my TBR shortly after finishing this one.

 

About the Author

 

Claire Calman is a writer and broadcaster known for her novels that combine wit and pathos, including the bestseller Love is a Four-Letter Word. She has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and Loose Ends. Her first book for Boldwood was published in June 2020.

Social Media Links

Twitter: https://twitter.com/clairecalman

Newsletter Sign Up Link: http://bit.ly/ClaireCalmanNewsletter

Bookbub profile: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/claire-calman

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Book Review: The Essence of Nathan Biddle by J. William Lewis   @TLCBookTours

The Essence of Nathan Biddle
by J. William Lewis

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Amazon  / B&N / GP/ BB

 

A subtly wicked, almost Southern Gothic tale of existential angst told by 18-year-old Kit Biddle, an anti-Gumpian southern boy struggling with the complexities of life. The story unfolds against a backdrop of painful chaos: Kit’s revered uncle, Nathaniel Tyler Biddle, Jr., has sacrificed his only son on direct and specific orders, according to Rev. Biddle, from God himself. As Kierkegaard has suggested, the comic and the tragic converge on Kit’s desperate search for meaning in a willy-nilly world of opaque walls and filtered light.

The enigmatic Anna appears with all the attributes of Kit’s yearning and imagination and then, just like that, she disappears like a phantom in a fog, only to be replaced by the enigmatic Sarah who reverses the roles and projects onto Kit all her desires and imaginings. Standing on one leg in the darkness, Death beckons to Kit with a promise of light and comfort but instead leaves him lying in his own blood on hot pavement with neither clarity nor relief. Who is Kit Biddle? He may actually be Nathan Biddle but who in the world is that?

When the fog dissipates—if the clarity he seeks finally appears—does Kit really want the answers he finds?

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

Newt is blessed with a mass of unruly blond hair, an engaging smile, and a con man’s gift of schmooze. He has found little difficulty convincing women that he is misunderstood; he has had some difficulty getting them to remain convinced for more than a year, sometimes even less than that.

 

The “general theory of cranial calibration,” as Lichtman and I formulated it, is that the size of a girl’s brain is inversely proportional to the size of her boobs.

 

“He thinks he’s a wit,” I said testily. “He’s only half right.”

 

An exquisite random squib had appeared in the dark of my life, and I was grateful. I can’t remember some things and I’m sure I’m going to forget some more, but I’ll bet I won’t ever forget Cassandra prancing on that log wearing her plain cotton panties and a devilish grin. Maybe the really beautiful things are like that: little glowing sparks in the mundane darkness of everyday existence.

 

He has become my mother’s “special friend” whose specialness I have unfortunately failed to appreciate.

 

He all about booze and self-pity. He caught tragedy and now he spreads it like a virus.

 

Newt says he and Uncle Nat fought a lot, and he stopped shaving and bathing and looked and acted like Bigfoot on a moonshine binge.

 

She’s pretty, but she’s not bright. Lichtman described her perfectly. He said Dayla is built like an Italian sports car but her engine sputters. If you mention something more complicated than shoe size or the weather, she’ll stare at you like you’ve said something in Swahili.

My Review:

 

I am conflicted about how to rate this one.   I struggled with this book, and valiantly I might add. I had even considered a DNF but there were pros and cons to pushing forward and I’m honestly glad I did, but it was an arduous and challenging read. I found it cleverly amusing and wittily insightful for the most part but I also felt oddly annoyed and aggravated and it took considerable effort to push through the various characters’ cerebral postulating as well as the stratospheric level of vocabulary used. I typically read a book a day, yet this one took me three.

The main character of Kit had an odd childhood and bizarre family who obviously had a surfeit of intelligence but didn’t know what to do with it. Kit was floundering and exasperating. He was also unfocused, lazy, obsessive, uncommitted, aimless, and besotted with a girl who clearly and repeatedly told him she wasn’t interested. His teenaged angst and general malaise had me appreciating the fact I no longer have to work with adolescents. Retirement is sweeeeet!

The premise and storylines were oddly compelling while cast with a quirky collection of characters who, other than the lovely Sarah, were disturbingly repellent and truly ghastly creatures. I reveled in the humor of his descriptions and observations of others, but I was often felt bogged down in the prose. The author either has a treasure trove of unusual words circling his cranium or wrote with a thesaurus in his lap. I just know I am thankful I read on a Kindle with a built-in dictionary. I love words and while being far from mentally deficient I felt as such as I wore the battery down on my beloved device while frequently required to halt my perusal to look up the meanings of words like pluperfect, opacity, and lagniappe. Uncommon words I will most likely have to look up again if I ever run across them a second time.

But my main source of discontent was the ending, there wasn’t one. I am still stamping my little foot in pique; I need a semblance of closure and don’t have it. However, when I looked back at my highlighted and favorite passages, which were significantly pared down in this review, I was awed by the author’s craft and am determined to respect his process.

 

About the Author

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Alabama native J. William Lewis is a former lawyer who lives in Shoal Creek, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. Born in Chickasaw, Alabama, Lewis grew up in Mobile. He graduated from Spring Hill College (A.B., magna cum laude, English and Philosophy) where he was a member of Alpha Sigma Nu and recipient of the Merihl Award. While in college, Lewis served as editor-in-chief of the literary magazine The Motley. Lewis received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and served on the Editorial Board of the Virginia Law Review.

After a clerkship for the Honorable Walter P. Gewin on the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Lewis practiced law in Birmingham for over three and a half decades.

Presently, Lewis serves as executive officer of his family’s investment company, Seaman Capital, LLC, and related companies.

He has been married to Lorraine Seaman Lewis for more than half a century.

The Essence of Nathan Biddle is his debut novel.

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Book Review: Guarded Hart (Cross Creek, #3) by Kelly Collins  @kcollinsauthor

Guarded Hart
(Cross Creek, #3)
by Kelly Collins

 

Amazon  / BB

Welcome to Cross Creek where secrets abound, but love conquers all. Or does it?

I’ve been keeping a secret. One that could change a lot of lives, including my own. I came to Cross Creek to find my father. He’s the difference between life and death for me. During my search, I found love, only sexy builder Ethan Lockhart isn’t having any of it. I’ve done my best to make him mine, but he’s more slippery than a fish in a brook. I built my life here on a lie, but my feelings for this man are true. Will the secrets I keep destroy what Ethan and I creating?

 

I’m not the guy anyone picks first, so when Angie Sutton started flirting with my brother, I wasn’t surprised—that is until I found out she was doing it to get my attention. But this time, I’m determined not to give my heart away—not until I know who she really is. Letting someone get too close too fast is a blueprint for disaster. No matter how deeply I’m drawn to her, I know she’s hiding something, and until she can be honest with me, we don’t have a future.

Find out if the truth can really set you free in Guarded Hart, book three in the Cross Creek Series.

 

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

With careful steps, he made his way down the ladder. His shirt rode up, showing off his powerful body, and I had to stare. Any girl with working ovaries couldn’t look away.

 

I always had that sixth sense about things. I called it intuition. My brothers called it paranoia.

  

My Review:

 

Shucks, only one remaining Hart brother to go but there is still a small community that could continue this small-town contemporary romance series for quite some time. While angstier than I was expecting, the storylines tackled real-life issues and concerns in an insightful, entertaining, and informative manner. I was completely ignorant of the medical condition involved before reading this heart-squeezing installment which featured a cast of realistically flawed and struggling yet still endearing main characters. Thankfully, I trust the author to always deliver that highly desired HEA, as she has never failed me. I adore Kelly Collins and firmly believe she must be in possession of a magical pen.

ABOUT KELLY COLLINS   

 

  Goodreads  / Website  / Amazon / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest / Bookbub

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.

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Book Review: Friends With Benedicts by Staci Hart @imaquirkybird

Friends With Benedicts by Staci Hart

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / BB

Timing is everything. Presley Hale and Sebastian Vargas are no strangers to goodbye. Their high school summers were spent wrapped up in each other until she would inevitably go home to California. One season after college, Sebastian finally escaped the little Texas town to travel the world, and they said goodbye for what they thought might be the last time. Sebastian went one way. Presley went the other. For the first time in five years, they’re both in town, but the timing is no better than ever. So the only thing to do is what they do best. Keep it casual. Friends with benefits. They’ve done it before—doing it again will be easy. But their hearts don’t get the memo. When the lines of their arrangement blur, Presley and Sebastian are faced with decisions they’ve avoided for years. And that’s not even their biggest problem. A small town in danger of failing. A secret that could tear them apart. And two hearts that can’t hide anymore. They’ve shared so many summers, but none compare to what they’ll face. Timing is everything. And their time is almost up.
 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Lightning struck me dead to the spot—shock, I realized distantly. The sensation was followed by the frying of my ovaries like a couple of unsuspecting eggs. Sebastian Vargas had that effect on me and my eggs. I turned, smiling through my surprise. And there he stood, tall, dark and smirking at me in that way that made all the girls fling their panties at him. It’s our curse. Our men either die young or leave. So just make sure he’s healthy and isn’t going anywhere. “I really am a kick ass mom, aren’t I?” “Judging by the small fortune in the swear jar, I’d beg to differ.” No more telling Priscilla her dad was busy fighting crime in Metropolis, or that he was on a moon station collecting rock samples. Don’t worry— she didn’t believe me. It was a running joke in our family. Sometimes he swallowed knives with the circus. Sometimes he was a baseball hall of famer. Just depended on my mood.
  My Review:   This was a delightfully fun read with the steamy treats and witty and irreverent humor that I tend to savor. I am totally enamored with Staci Hart. While I may be a relatively new acolyte I am now a devoted one. I enjoy her breezy and cleverly amusing writing style with edgy insights and keen observations. Her characters are lovable and endearing yet a bit frayed and struggling. The storylines were engaging, relatable, and highly entertaining. In a word, it was delectable.  

Staci has been a lot of things up to this point in her life — a graphic designer, an entrepreneur, a seamstress, a clothing and handbag designer, a waitress. Can’t forget that. She’s also been a mom, with three little girls who are sure to grow up to break a number of hearts. She’s been a wife, though she’s certainly not the cleanest, or the best cook. She’s also super, duper fun at a party, especially if she’s been drinking whiskey. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, sleeping, gaming, or designing graphics.

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Book Review: Murder at the Fair (A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery #6) by Verity Bright @BrightVerity @Bookouture

Murder at the Fair
(A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery #6)
by Verity Bright

Amazon  / B&N

 

Summer flowers, warm sunshine, a maypole dance, and… is that another murder? A tricky case is afoot for Lady Swift!

Summer, 1921. Lady Eleanor Swift, the best amateur sleuth in the country, is delighted to be in charge of the prize-giving at her village summer fair. But the traditional homemade raft race takes a tragic turn when the local undertaker, Solemn Jon, turns up dead amongst the ducks. Jon was the life of any party and loved by the entire village. Surely this was simply an awful accident?

But when a spiteful obituary is printed in the local paper, Eleanor realizes there may be more to Jon’s death than first thought. Despite handsome Detective Seldon giving her strict instructions not to interfere, Eleanor owes it to Jon’s good name to root out the truth. So with her partner in crime, Gladstone the bulldog, Eleanor starts digging for clues…

When another local dies in a riding accident, the police refuse to believe he was murdered. But a second vindictive death notice convinces Eleanor of foul play. Solemn Jon’s assistant, a bullish banker, and a majestic marquess make her suspect list, but it isn’t until she finds a dusty old photograph that she knows the true culprit behind both crimes. Then another obituary appears – her own! Can Eleanor nail the killer before she too turns up dead among the ducks?

An utterly compelling and charming cozy mystery! Pure delight for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey, and Lee Strauss.

My Rating:

 

 Favorite Quotes:

 

She wracked her brain for a more charitable description, but all she could think of was an underfed ferret. With his sharp dark eyes set in hollow sockets, protruding jaw and barely-there upper lip, his face seemed permanently set in a scowl.

 

We have to invite her, old friend of the family and all that. Personally, she constantly reminds me of the native Scottish thistle she is so fiercely proud of. Prickly year-round and thoroughly invasive.

 

Out of the blue he simply hurled the offer of marriage at me like I was a giddy, aged spinster who would bite his arm off to accept.

 

‘Have, er, Polly or Gladstone, met the vacuum cleaner yet?’… He sighed. ‘Polly is still terrified of the machine after Mrs Trotman told her it would suck her eyeballs out if she stared down the hose while it was on.’

 

Folk say she’s about as handsome as a three-legged horse born backwards, which is why she doesn’t have any young gentleman courting her.

 

Guilt’s a bad enough bedfellow without grief stealing in and hogging the quilt.

 

My Review:

 

I continue in my love fest with Verity Bright, as I am evermore enamored with this delightfully amusing cozy mystery series. I have enjoyed every installment, which only improves with each new entry. The books could be read as standalones although a quicker connection and deeper understanding could be had by reading the earlier publications as frequent mentions of her previous exploits were sprinkled throughout. I adore the kind and gentle Lady Eleanor (Ellie), who has a tendency to become embroiled and entangled in various schemes and becomes determined to solve the surrounding mystery and ferret out the culprits. This time, despite being admonished by her would-be suitor and police inspector to keep her nose clean, Ellie has stepped into several oddly mysterious deaths she suspects were murders, which led back to blackmail, family secrets of her own, and a few nefarious scams.

 

Generous helpings of wit, amusing humor, and entertaining side stories occur along the way as she and her ever-attentive butler apply their skills and attention towards unraveling the villainous schemes.   Verity Bright’s engaging writing style was refreshingly breezy and smoothly enticing in addition to being brain and rib-tickling as the cleverly plotted storylines and clues were a curious conundrum. I am already rubbing my hands together with glee contemplating her next adventure.

 

About the Author

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Verity Bright is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing partnership that has spanned a quarter of a century. Starting out writing high-end travel articles and books, they published everything from self-improvement to humor, before embarking on their first historical mystery. They are the authors of the fabulous Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery series, set in the 1920s.
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Book Review: Death on the Lake (DCI Satterthwaite #5) by Jo Allen  @JoAllenAuthor @rararesources 

 

Death on the Lake
(DCI Satterthwaite #5)
by Jo Allen

Amazon

 

Three youngsters, out for a good time. Vodka and the wrong sort of Coke. What could possibly go wrong?

When a young woman, Summer Raine, is found drowned, apparently accidentally, after an afternoon spent drinking on a boat on Ullswater, DCI Jude Satterthwaite is deeply concerned — more so when his boss refuses to let him investigate the matter any further to avoid compromising a fraud case.

But a sinister shadow lingers over the dale and one accidental death is followed by another and then by a violent murder. Jude’s life is complicated enough but the latest series of murders are personal to him as they involve his former partner, Becca Reid, who has family connections in the area. His determination to uncover the killer brings him into direct conflict with his boss — and ultimately places both him and his colleague and girlfriend, Ashleigh O’Halloran, in danger…

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

He’ll have persuaded himself that what he’s doing is somehow okay, just as those kids will have persuaded themselves there’s nothing really wrong with taking drugs. People are very quick to persuade themselves that something illegal really ought not to be and therefore it’s okay to do it. You must see it often. The illusion of victimless crime.

 

Miranda’s nerves tautened, as if they were the strings on a violin and a violinist was pulling then ever tighter, the pitch increasing. Any minute now and they’d start screeching, like the background music in Psycho.

 

No one went upstairs in his cottage. The dust would be as thick as March snow up there, and after he’d gone whoever came to clean up would be able to roll it up like a mat and throw it away.

 

Doing the right thing always did lose you friends. The more Jude saw it happen, the more he wondered why anyone bothered.

 

 My Review:

 

 I am relatively new to this genre so Jo Allen is a recent discovery and new favorite. I have enjoyed this smartly written and complex series and continue to look forward to the next. The characters’ personal lives and personalities are as intriguing as the criminal cases they are laboring to solve.  This case was another cleverly plotted head-scratcher laced with insightful observations and quirky secondary characters, and more of what I’ve come to expect from this crafty scribe.

 

About the Author

Jo Allen was born in Wolverhampton and is a graduate of Edinburgh, Strathclyde, and the Open University. After a career in economic consultancy, she took up writing and was first published under the name Jennifer Young in genres of short stories, romance, and romantic suspense. In 2017 she took the plunge and began writing the genre she most likes to read – crime. Now living in Edinburgh, she spends as much time as possible in the English Lakes. In common with all her favorite characters, she loves football (she’s a season ticket holder with her beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers) and cats.

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Book Review: Murder at Elm House (Miss Underhay #6) by Helena Dixon @NellDixon @Bookouture

Murder at Elm House
(Miss Underhay #6)
by Helena Dixon

Amazon  / B&N 

 

Kitty Underhay feels the touch… of death.

Accidental amateur sleuth Kitty Underhayis being escorted by ex-army captain Matthew Bryant on an errand of mercy, as she takes a basket of grapes to her nemesis Mrs. Craven, who is recuperating from a recent operation. But their arrival at Elm House Nursing Home coincides with the mysterious death of Lady Wellings, a long-term resident.

The woman was known to be ill, so when the police turn a disinterested ear to Mrs. Craven’s suspicion that Lady Wellings was poisoned, Kitty decides to look into the case herself. And when another invalid, the gentle Mrs. Pearson, collapses fatally in the breakfast room, it seems her suspicions are well-founded. For an institution promising health and rejuvenation, there seems to be a very low survival rate amongst the guests!

When the nurse Eloise Hibbert hints at sinister goings-on among the staff, Kitty arranges to meet her away from the home to uncover how deep the treachery lies. However, before she can make the rendezvous, Eloise meets an unfortunate end falling from the top of the building. Was she pushed by the hand of fate, or a cold-blooded killer?

Meanwhile, Matt has been following an entirely different trail of evidence, and what he finds out chills him to the bone. When Kitty fails to return from her unsuccessful meeting, it is clear she has stumbled onto a plot far more devious than they could have imagined, and into a trap laid by an unscrupulous killer…

An utterly sensational and addictive Golden Age murder mystery. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey, and Lee Strauss.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

The general’s bushy brows knitted together like two angry silver beetles.

 

My Review:

 

Helena Dixon is a smooth storyteller and I enjoy her comfortable and engaging writing style. Her scenes are complete and thoroughly set and flicker through my cranium as effortlessly as a movie reel with colorful and vivid details and descriptions of texture, appearance, sound, smell, and the inner musings of the main characters as they interact. The main characters were instantly likable and appealing while her secondary characters were uniquely eccentric.

 

Most notably, Ms. Dixon’s clever arrangements of words are of the rare quality that keeps me continually engaged, amused, and ever-curious with a cracking good mystery while still being tame and gentle enough to recommend to my elderly mother’s book club of church ladies; which is admittedly an uncommon occurrence.

 

And score – I have a new addition to my Brit Words and Phrases list with mare’s nest, which Mr. Google tells me is a deliberate hoax or illusion.

About the Author

Nell Dixon was born and continues to live in the Black Country. Married to the same man for over thirty-five years she has three daughters, a cactus called Spike, a crazy cockapoo, and a tank of tropical fish. She is allergic to adhesives, apples, tinsel, and housework. Her addictions of choice are coffee and reality TV. She was the winner of The Romance Prize in 2007 with her book Marrying Max, and the winner of Love Story of the Year 2010 with her book, Animal Instincts. She also writes historical 1930’s set cozy crime as Helena Dixon.

 

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Book Review: The Happy Family by Jackie Kabler @jackiekabler  @rararesources 

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The Happy Family
by Jackie Kabler

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

A mother who disappeared… 
When Beth was 10 years old, her beautiful, wild mother Alice walked out and never came back. Beth’s life since hasn’t always been smooth sailing, but now she is happy and settled, with a successful career, a loving family, and a beautiful home.

An unexpected visitor…
Then one day there’s a knock at the door. Alice has returned. Overjoyed to have the chance to rebuild their relationship, Beth invites her mother to move in.

A life that comes crashing down…
At first, everything seems wonderful. But then Beth’s friends begin to drift away, strange things start to happen at home, and rumors begin to circle about her past. As the mysterious events around Beth become darker and more dangerous, she is forced to question everything. Is somebody in her life trying to destroy her happiness? And how far will they go?

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

There will be more rain, more darkness, of course there will. But there will always be rainbows. You just have to weather the storm, and then lift your face up and look for them.

My Review:

 

This was a slowly unfolding, busy, and multi-layered tale that kept me tethered to my Kindle, although I was conflicted with the main character throughout as I found her to be annoying and rather witless. Maybe because I was a mercilessly bullied youth myself, so I had a heaping helping of antagonism toward her for being such a horrid and vicious little madam as a pubescent young teen, and then a somewhat erratic and anxious adult. Yet this infuriatingly crafty author had me ensnared and I remained edgy and curiously vexed and aggravated as I nibbling on my cuticles while reading. Jackie Kabler is a wily one.  I couldn’t seem to read fast enough.

 

About the Author

Jackie Kabler worked as a newspaper reporter and then in television news for twenty years, including nearly a decade on GMTV. She later appeared on BBC and ITV news, presented a property show for Sky, hosted sports shows on Setanta Sports News, and worked as a media trainer for the Armed Forces. She is now a presenter on the shopping channel QVC. The Happy Family is her sixth book; previous novels include the international bestseller The Perfect Couple. Jackie lives in Gloucestershire with her husband.

Social Media Links –

Twitter @jackiekabler

Instagram @officialjackiekabler

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Book Review: The Forever Home by Sue Watson  @suewatsonwriter @Bookouture

The Forever Home
by Sue Watson 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

 

You thought you’d always be safe there… you were wrong.

Carly had thought they’d always live there. The beautiful Cornish cliffside house they’d taken on as a wreck, that Mark had obsessively re-designed and renovated – a project that had made him famous. It was where they’d raised their children, where they’d sat cozily on the sofa watching storms raging over the sea below. It was where they’d promised to keep each other’s secrets…

Until now. Because Mark has fallen in love. With someone he definitely shouldn’t have. Someone who isn’t Carly. And suddenly their family home doesn’t feel like so much of a safe haven.

Carly thinks forever should mean forever though: it’s her home and she’ll stay there. Even the dark family secrets it contains feel like they belong to her. But someone disagrees. And, as threats start to arrive at her front door, it becomes clear, someone will stop at nothing. Because someone wants to demolish every last thing that makes Carly feel safe. Forever.

An utterly unputdownable psychological thriller about what lies are hidden in the most beautiful homes. Perfect for fans of Date Night, Gone Girl, and The Woman in the Window.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I knew then, as he stood there weak and pitiful, that however deep I dug, I couldn’t find any more love for this man. Like a thief, he’d been stealing it from me for years, piece by piece, crumb by crumb, and now all that was left was a residue of hurt, a tidal wave of anger, and all the wasted years. I was finally done with him.

 

For God’s sake, isn’t it bad enough that they make me sound like the woman scorned, bloodied by betrayal, reeking of bitterness – do they really have to keep adding two years to my age?

 

My Review:

 

This was a busy, tense, and compelling tale of family drama and suspense that was shrewdly plotted and fiendishly paced to keep me on edge. It was slippery, full of secrets, and constantly shifting with taunts and snippets of reveals and revelations. No one was as their persona seemed and few were trustworthy or even likable, and even those that were had seemed questionable. The little pea in my brain was bouncing and skidding while attempting to keep up and formulate new theories only to swiftly abandon them a few chapters later. It was cleverly contrived but I was frequently annoyed with the main character of Carly and had to wonder how she could be so naïve and trusting. But the ending was brilliant and the biggest twist of all and left me with a satisfied smirk on my face.

About the Author

Sue Watson was a journalist in national magazines and newspapers before becoming a TV producer with the BBC.

Now a USA Today bestselling author, Sue explores the darker side of life, writing psychological thrillers with big twists.

Originally from Manchester, she now lives with her family in leafy Worcestershire where much of her day is spent writing – and procrastinating. Her hobby is eating cake while watching diet and exercise programs from the sofa, a skill she’s perfected after many years of practice.

http://www.suewatsonbooks.com/

https://www.facebook.com/sue.watson.39501

https://twitter.com/suewatsonwriter

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Book Review: The Street Party by  Claire Seeber @claireseeber @Bookouture

 

The Street Party     
by  Claire Seeber

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The party was supposed to be the highlight of the summer. If only I’d known that night would destroy our lives…

All the neighbors were laughing, drinking out of plastic glasses, and getting along. I almost felt happy. Almost forgot about the terrible argument earlier and the sinister messages I’d been receiving from a strange address all week, threatening to expose the lies behind my perfect life.

As we finished with the red and gold fireworks and welcomed everyone back to our house, I believed that everything would be okay.

But I didn’t know who I was inviting in.

I never could have imagined what would happen here, in our home, after I’d gone up to bed.

Everyone saw something different.

It’s my daughter’s word against the story the boy from down the road is telling. But how can I find out what really happened that night without everyone finding out the truth about me?

An absolutely gripping story of the secrets you would do anything to keep hidden, with a twist you just won’t see coming. Perfect for fans of Gone Girl, Big Little Lies, and The Girl on the Train.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

‘Education is the key to all success, after all.’ ‘I thought that was inherited wealth and liposuction.’

 

I listened to a radio interview with the lead psychiatrist from Broadmoor Prison. ‘I’d rather work with a psychopathic murderer than counsel a couple in crisis,’ she joked. ‘It’s easier.’ But I found I wasn’t laughing. Laughing was getting harder these days for some reason.

 

The realisation hit me between my eyes, like a baton coming down. Like a fist. I had a picture in my mind, then, of all the women who ended up killing their husbands, who took a kitchen knife, who didn’t even know they had made that fatal thrust, who killed through hatred and sorrow, warped by a love laced with fear, a love that knew no other place to go – and then I knew. I knew I was capable of killing him too.

 

… word to the wise: if your small boy comes home boasting of learning about his Balzac, don’t be fooled into thinking he means the French writer, as I was, when in fact he means his own ball-sack. Pride so often comes before a fall.

My Review:

 

This is a unique hybrid of women’s fiction, suspense, and family drama. This was an oddly enticing book that kept my curiosity at the brain itching level with fret-inducing and tangled storylines while cast with obnoxious characters that continually annoyed and disappointed me, yet I had to know how their knotty issues would unravel.   I was hopelessly hooked, ensnared, and unable to resist Ms. Seeber’s fiendishly clever plotting with strategic lashings of caustic wit and cunning insights. This was my first sojourn with Ms. Seeber and I plan to be a frequent flier from now on.

 

About the Author

Claire Seeber is a Londoner who started her professional life as a (bad) actress and became a documentary maker, a journalist, and a writer of, so far, psychological thrillers. The Observer said of her first novel: ‘a disturbing debut’ whilst The Guardian called it ‘powerful’…she keeps writing whilst also studying psychology and (trying to) to manage a home of slightly feral kids and animals. Luckily she’s got a very nice partner to help too.

Author Social Media Links:

 Twitter:  https://twitter.com/claireseeber

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