My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Ronan didn’t date much these days—he’d tried it once or twice, and it always ended up in tears. Never his.

The llama let out the same bleating, hollering sound, which could only be described as Chewbacca on helium crossed with angry cat gurgling. In other words, a sound that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

He loved his grandmother to bits… But her stubborn Irish blood made her tough as nails and twice as sharp.

Maybe it was the worry festering in his brain about his grandmother getting old. But his resentment was hot and angry, and it was so close to the surface he was sure that if he turned his wrist over he would see it bubbling in his veins.

She had dark hair and darker eyes and looked so effortlessly glamorous that Audrey suddenly felt like a cave troll having a bad hair day.

“…their coffee tastes like dishwater.” “That’s putting it mildly,” Audrey quipped. “I would have said it tastes like Satan’s backwash.”

My Review:

I enjoyed this kickoff installment for a new series; it was a fun and cleverly amusing read, yet it hit all the feels with insightful observations, realistic issues, heartbreaking family concerns, delicious sensual steam, and enigmatic personalities.   The characters were appealing and endearing as well as earnest, hard-working, and sincere. I loved that the Rubenesque and uneducated high school dropout Audrey was a trivia genius with a brain bulging with obscure facts on an endless array of topics that could stump a panel of college professors on their best days. I gleaned a considerable amount of UBIs from Audrey that may prove useful someday such as the fact that babies have extra bones, wombats poo in cubical form, and male elephants have highly impressive personal units… all information that was previously unknown to me. I had such a good time with this one I am eager to see what Ms. London does with the rest of the series.

The Perfect Liar
by Beverley Harvey

Throughout Beverley’s many years spent working in advertising and PR, she had always wanted to write fiction. In 2015 a creative writing course inspired her debut novel, Seeking Eden, which was published in 2017. The sequel, Eden Interrupted, soon followed. Beverley’s third novel – her first with Bookouture – fulfills a long-time goal to publish a psychological thriller.

Born in Yorkshire, and raised in Kent, Beverley currently lives in West Sussex with her partner and their adorable terrier. When not writing, you’ll find her reading, walking the dog, or listening to rock music.

The House at Magpie Cove
by Kennedy Kerr

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

He gave the air of considering himself too important for something as fanciful as reading a novel or a play or a poem. Privately, Mara had always thought that anyone who didn’t like books was either boring or an idiot. Turns out, I was right.

Life’s always easier when you’ve got your hair done and a good pair of knickers on, in my experience.

Ugh. I am sick and tired of men, she thought. Maybe I can go and live on some kind of women’s commune where everybody is nice and eats cake and plants lovely vegetable gardens and we have monthly moon rituals and community sing-songs and I could train to be a medicine woman, and no one would ever be mean or unreasonable.

My Review:

This was an engaging, fairly quick, and entertaining read with relevant and relatable issues and knowable characters. There were several periods I wanted to give the main character of Mara a swift kick to dislodge her misplaced noggin from her colon and shake loose a few stagnate brain cells and some self-confidence in the process, but thankfully she saw the light before too much damage was done. The storylines were well constructed and smartly paced. I see this is only the author’s second book and I would never have guessed as the writing style was well developed with a smooth and inviting flow. Well done, Ms. Kerr, I am duly impressed.

The Girl Who Never Came Home 
by Nicole Trope

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I have a bit of a soft spot for Leeanne, for how awkward the poor girl is, with her perpetually hunched shoulders and the glasses that slip to the tip of her nose as soon as she moves her head, for how dreadful her skin is, for how she makes me see myself at sixteen. Leeanne is, as I was, the smartest girl in the year… I have often told her that as long as she sticks with her dream, she will one day be able to look back at her school years and see them as a growth opportunity rather than a trial to be endured.

I was incandescent with rage…

Guilt weighs me down, slows my steps, steals my sleep and my appetite. Guilt is the only emotion I deserve to feel.

My Review:

I argue that justice was not served by the end result as the punishment was too severe and not at all deserved, and I’m referencing the true victim in this piece – and just to be clear – I’m not talking about the dead girl. There were many victims in this tale as the recently deceased teen, Zoe, was quite the heinous little madam. Zoe was vile and vicious and a monster of her mother’s creation by a lifetime of overindulgence. I despised the bratty she-devil while I deeply resented her shortsighted mother, but I had overflowing buckets of empathy for everyone else.

The storylines were taut with tension, well-crafted intrigue, and tantalizingly slow revelations. I thoroughly enjoyed the insights reaped from the multiple points of view and although there appeared to be an unending plethora of fractured and wounded people to keep up with who had been brutalized in some manner by the cruelty or repercussions of Zoe’s selfish schemes and reprehensible behaviors, it was easily done once the characters were semi-established. I found it highly interesting how they all suffered from guilt by their limited knowledge of and inactions leading up to and during the main event. This was my second foray into the sly and artful deception and cunning word-stylings of Nicole Trope and I can only hope for many more such unscrupulous outings.

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The One Before
by Miranda Smith

My husband is everything I ever dreamed of. A handsome, successful doctor who swept me off my feet.

Our new life together is perfect.

He’s perfect.

But am I good enough for him? I never seem to get anything right. And I’m starting to feel a little afraid of the man I married.

He’s taken away my bank card and my phone. I don’t know what to think or what to do. I gave up everything for him and now I’m trapped.

Then a stranger comes to our door. She tells me that I can’t trust my husband.

That I should ask him what happened to his first wife.

Totally gripping, chilling and with a twist you won’t see coming, The Next Wife is a dark, heart-stopping story of what really goes on behind closed doors. Fans of My Lovely Wife, B A Paris, and JP Delaney will be completely enthralled by this addictive read.

Kristie is convinced ghosts don’t exist until food starts disappearing without a trace from the Youth Center storage. There are zero clues as to who’s been inside the building. The security guard hasn’t seen a thing, and the security tapes are mysteriously blank. When the ghost widens his hocus-pocus to include Kristie’s office, the gals of Callie’s Cakes jump in to find the culprit before Kristie can get in a whole mess of spooky trouble.  Will the gals of Callie’s Cakes expose the ghost before Kristie’s facility is destroyed?

Cupcakes not included, although recipes for all the delicious cupcakes Anna bakes are.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

He’s a hot fireman. If I didn’t have Logan, I’d drool all over him. Who am I kidding? I still drool over the man.

My pink hair might have been a dead giveaway. For some reason, gangbangers don’t usually have colorful hair. Their loss.

My Review:

This was a fun and lively read that was shot through with snarky humor and smirk-worthy wit. And clocking in at 110 pages it was a quick and satisfying treat that left me jonesing for sugar and eager to dive into the next installment.