Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard

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Buyer Beware is a psychological thriller with so many shocking layers to it that you won’t be able to put it down! And if you do, you will still think about the story, which revolves around a mysterious house in Dublin, it’s history and its curious past. But I am here to tell you that when the pieces all come together at the end you won’t be able to catch your breath!

One Delaney Row is where Ellie, fresh out of jail finds herself. Broke, hiding her real identity and somehow now a homeowner.

She immediately is welcomed into the neighborhood group chat, and one particular neighbor who seems to be obsessed with her. But her first night at One Delaney Row becomes a nightmare. First, she discovers some sort of stain on the floor of one of the rooms and then she wakes up to someone trying to break into the house. Thank goodness for her nosy neighbor who suggests she change the locks, which if she could afford them she would.

As the chapters take us back in time, we will discover Ellie is not her real name and there is another woman named Hannah. Of course there is also a man involved. But what could they all have in common? What could One Delaney Row be hiding and why are the neighbors so keen on protecting the house?

Buyer Beware is a superb mystery upon mystery upon mystery. You will be startled by the ending and the story itself.

Thank you #NetGalley #Simon&Schuester #BuyerBeware #CatherineRyanHoward for the advanced copy.

Amazon.com: Buyer Beware: A Thriller: 9781668075111: Howard, Catherine Ryan: Books

https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit/242978224-buyer-beware

The Secret of the Three Fates by Jess Armstrong

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The Secret of the Three Fates is book two in the Ruby Vaughn romance series. And just as the first, The Curse of Penryth Hall, it is mysterious, romantic and filled with intrigue. The second gives us more back story to our main characters. Not everything, but enough to keep you engrossed as to what else could happen in the series. In this story we learn more about our Ruby who also continues to prove our heroine can do just about anything a man can do!

Mr. Owens, Ruby’s employer takes Ruby on a journey to Manhurst Castle to look at manuscripts for his collection. But he is not telling Ruby why he is really there. She discovers they have been invited to a seance with three mediums. Mr. Owens is delighted, Ruby is not.

While much is learned during the seance, one of the mediums is later found dead by Ruby in water near a bridge. Although the death has been quickly ruled a suicide, Ruby does not believe the story. She sees things which certainly would not add up to suicide. So, she begins to investigate and she is shocked to discover it is possible that her beloved Mr. Owens seems to be the prime suspect! Then, another medium disappears…

Enter Ruan Kivell whom she just left a few weeks earlier. He somehow knew she was in danger. Ruby and Ruan will need all their strength together to fight off the evil that seems to be erupting all around them. No one is safe from dying.

Ruby will need all her brawniness and intelligence to figure out what is happening. She will also need to be creative in how she snoops into the devious lives of some of the others. And this time, the one who is always protected will become the protector.

The Secret of the Three Fates is a great story filled with surprises as well as an ending no one could ever have expected!

Thank you #NetGalley #MinotaurBooks #TheSecretoftheThreeFates #JessArmstrong for the advanced copy.

Amazon.com: The Secret of the Three Fates: A Ruby Vaughn Mystery: 9781250909886: Armstrong, Jess: Books

https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit/203578784-the-secret-of-the-three-fates

Massawa by Pam Webber

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Massawa is an incredible espionage story about a strong woman who is plucked from a small government position in America and hurled into a dangerous job of spying in a little country during World War II. Tough, smart but calm she is able to infiltrate a Nazi operation as well as figure out who seems to be stealing the payroll from the hard workers during a military operation. This story is a can’t put down thriller!

Kit Thomas has been assigned to help the United States spy agency to go to a small country called Massawa in Eritrea where the daily temperature reaches well above 100 degrees to help a British agent, Mark Williams figure out who is stealing the payroll money, where it is going and why they are doing it.

What they discover will help change the trajectory of the war, but more importantly show that a woman can be bright and unruffled in dire situations. Picked for the job as a carrier, Kit is able to assess the situations and aid both countries more than anyone could imagine.

Filled with drama, mystery and intrigue the story chronicles the team as Kit is able to put the pieces of the puzzle together and thwart an operation which was almost finished. Not only was she able to discover clues, but when push came to shove, literally, she was able to hold her own, fight and win…just as well as…a man.

Massawa is a wonderful story with a bit of romance thrown in about an underrated woman who took down not only thieves, but also through determination and perseverance assisted two governments working to save the world. What more could you ask for in a story? Well, perhaps a sequel?

Thank you #SheWritesPress #BooksForward #JackieKarneth #Massawa #PamWebber for the advanced copy.

Massawa: A Tale of Illusion, Espionage, and Love: Webber, Pam: 9798896360988: Amazon.com: Books

Edit Review – Massawa: A Tale of Illusion, Espionage, and Love | Goodreads

Mr. & Mrs. Dixon Hide A Body by Jennifer Holdich

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Mr. & Mrs. Dixon Hide A Body is a delightfully dark, funny, wicked story. The plot revolves around a miserable married couple, an accidental murder and the coverup which follows. With a subtle War of the Roses feel, it has mystery, humor and quirky characters who hate deeply, steal openly, and want each other dead. Let the cat and mouse game begin!

Daisy Dixon dreams of her husband, daily. She would like to kill him. Unfortunately, she can’t figure out a way which would not implicate her. But she will wait patiently. He makes her live in a dilapidated estate, keeps her on a very short leash both on where she goes and how much she spends…he gives her a paltry allowance, and watches what she eats. Her husband is a financier and is rich, very rich.

One night, they must go to an event neither of them wants to go to and Daisy, who was driving so her husband James could drink the night away are on their way home when she accidentally hits a man walking a dark road. She immediately wants to call the police, but James insists they would get into too much trouble, and he makes them take the body back to their property and store it.

As they watch the news and listen to the gossip both of them are questioned. But it seems James has a plan he never let Daisy in on. He wants her out of the picture. As she relays to the reader how they met, their courtship and marriage, she realizes something is very amiss.

She begins to fight back in her own way.

Can Daisy beat not only the system, but her husband to the finish line without revealing what she did. All in the hopes of getting the freedom she so rightly deserves.

Mr. & Mrs. Dixon Hide A Body is wonderfully satisfying while being evil to the core, funny as heck and extremely clever. Sometimes karma can bite you!

Thank you #NetGalley #SourcebooksLandmark #JenniferHoldich #Mr.&Mrs.DixonHideABody for the advanced copy.

Amazon.com: Mr. and Mrs. Dixon Hide a Body: A Novel: 9781464229817: Holdich, Jennifer: Books

Edit Review – Mr. and Mrs. Dixon Hide a Body | Goodreads

If Books Could Kill by Kate Eberle

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If you enjoy romance, intrigue, mystery and humor well, If Books Could Kill will check off all those boxes! The story is a wonderfully creative romp, as you literally fall into a book! It is clever, the characters funny and adorable…even the villains and the plot are well, magical.

When romance reader Roxie Mitchell meets a crazy man on the street and he asks her to make a wish and throws glitter all over her, well, she just figures it’s just the sign of the times. But she immediately wishes her favorite romance novelist, Anna Matthews who has not written a new romance in quite a while would do just that…right another book.

That same day she meets a tall, dark and handsome stranger in a library no less and hit it off! He asks her on a date, she accepts, and the date is magical, until it is time for the kiss….

Roxie realizes that perhaps Anna Matthews may have decided to change her style of writing and for some reason not only has her wish come true, but Matthews is actually writing a thriller, and she, Roxie is the protagonist and they are trying to kill her!

As Roxie tries to get away from said handsome stranger she jumps into an Uber with a passenger in the back. Another tall, dark handsome hopefully not as crazy stranger named Grant Hoffman. She starts the car and races away with a very frightened college professor in the back!

Now she must not only make Grant believe her crazy story, but she must also make him help her stay alive until she can figure out where Anna Matthews is writing and find her and tell her she has to stop because she is literally trying to kill HER!

That my friends is when the real fun starts!

Travel with Roxie and Grant as they must become superheroes, figure out who the bad guys are and oh yes, maybe fall in love. But wait! They are in a book being written and none of it is real so…

If Books Could Kill is delightfully amusing, suspenseful with so many twists and turns your head will spin!

Thank you #NetGalley #PenguinBooks #IfBooksCouldKill #KateEberle for the advanced copy.

If Books Could Kill: Kate Eberle: 9780241798867: Amazon.com: Books

Edit Review – If Books Could Kill | Goodreads

Mystery Guest by Maren Stoffels

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Mystery is in abundance in this exciting, perplexing young adult story. In the book Mystery Guest, we meet a teenager who we discover is dead. Through flashback, we will also be told of the characters involved in the story and possibly the one who is a murderer. But it is up to the reader to decide who the best candidate could be. This is a true thriller!

Who killed Maria? And why?

Maria’s life was miserable. Her brother who continually tortured her at home was sent away after being found guilty of a crime. But for some reason he is coming home for the summer to begin the acclimation back into family life. And to continue his mistreatment of Maria whose parents seem to just ignore his antics.

But her life seems to be quite the yawn. Same old, same old. Until she gets a text from someone known only as Mystery Guest asking if she is bored. She decides to answer yes. They inform her there will be challenges she must perform in order to discover who the mystery person is. She jumps at the chance to add something exciting into her life. Until she discovers what the challenges are. She discovers they all have something to do with her life.

Clearly this is someone who knows her well. But why are they doing this to her?

The cast of characters include:

Her girlfriend Pip who never really wants to do anything exciting. But she’s okay as a girlfriend.

Norah, who is Pip’s ex-girlfriend who hates Maria with a passion for taking Pip away from her.

Cody, a new guy in town who meets Maria and they seem to have great chemistry.

Mike, who was run out of town last year for something he did to Maria and has now come back possibly to torture her again.

And finally, her brother, Ferris who has made it known he hates her.

Whoever the killer they seem to know way too much about Maria and her past. But unfortunately, every time a text comes in from Mystery Guest one of these people are either with her or have just left.

Mystery Guest will hook you from the first page and keep you riveted as the story begins to unfold, but the ending…will have you stunned, shocked and something you will never see coming. I promise!

Thank you #NetGalley #DelacortPress #MarenStoffels #MysteryGuest for the advanced copy.

Mystery Guest: Stoffels, Maren: 9798217122165: Amazon.com: Books

Edit Review – Mystery Guest | Goodreads

The Neighbors Are Watching by Aggie Blum Thompson

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Do you look out your window when you hear a car? or when you smell smoke? Well, in this very juicy, gossipy psychological murder/mystery thriller, The Neighbors Are Watching, everyone in this affluent neighborhood seems to know exactly what everyone is up to. Except some neighbors seem to be kept out of the loop for reasons unknown to the reader. Also, this neighborhood had a murder last year…a robbery gone bad, but again no one wants to talk about that either. Pretending seems to be the first rule of the game…

Caren is at a graduation party of her daughter’s ex friend at the lavish house of neighbors she’s supposed to like in their Eastbrook, Bethesda fancy neighborhood. Why is she there? For appearance’s sake probably. She doesn’t quite like them. They have become unbearable since they have come into more money than they will ever know what to do with. And of course, for what they did to her daughter…

She on the other hand is in the middle of a sort of mid-life crisis. Nearing 50, not really working much at all, and soon to be an empty nester she and her husband Miguel are coming off one of the worst years of their lives. Their daughter Rachel got into some trouble and went to finish high school elsewhere.

So, as Caren is walking home, thinking about her problems she somehow becomes dizzy and blacks out. A kind stranger named Finn finds her early the next morning. Pretty banged up she has no recollection of what happened. The neighbors, of course all think she drank too much. But she knows she stopped drinking too much a while ago. She thinks someone put something in her drink…but why?

She insists the police are called. They discover a bottle of wine and food in her trash. She knows she did not eat or drink anything at home the night before. What is happening to her? Miguel doesn’t even seem to believe her story.

Then she discovers that a bracelet that has been put up on the website of the annual neighborhood yard sale was an item stolen from one of the neighbors. She also discovers the young man who found her, Finn was friends with the young nanny who was killed in the burglary gone bad last year and he too is looking for answers.

Caren and Finn decide to work together to see if any pieces of this mysterious puzzle fit together. Unfortunately, what they will discover and be shocked at are the sinister secrets and a dark underground that exists with some neighbors.

Can you keep a secret? That’s the starting point for the ride of your life in this stellar story; The Neighbors Are Watching. The ending such a surprise!

Thank you #Net’Galley #MinotaurBooks #AggieBlumThompson #TheNeighborsAreWatching for the advanced copy.

Amazon.com: The Neighbors Are Watching: 9781250412553: Thompson, Aggie Blum: Books

Edit Review – The Neighbors Are Watching | Goodreads

When You Loved Me by Beatriz Williams

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When You Loved Me is not just one, but two amazing love stories about two very strong women. Separated by centuries, yet intertwined by sorrow, death, mystery and most important forgiveness and love the story will grab your heart from the first page.

Lucy Cooper comes home from England with her young daughter Elise to unfortunately bury her father and settle his estate. As she looks over the dilapidated mansion she use to call home, she herself a recent widow can hardly believe her father is gone. She is also shocked at the way he died. By going into the ocean near their home on Winthrop Island and never coming out.

For her whole life, her father had been obsessed with a story passed down about a buried hidden pirate treasure somewhere on the land of their estate. He was so preoccupied he let everything in his life come second. The reason Lucy’s mother left him, and they both moved to England. But she was lucky. She got to spend summers with him and for that she will be forever grateful.

After the funeral, Lucy discovers her father was in debt. So much so there is no way she can pay it off, let alone be able to fix everything in the house which needs to be taken care of before she perhaps must sell. She understands his passion was this absurd pirate treasure and that is what he deemed most important. For years all she kept hearing was he was so close to the discovery.

But Lucy is also out of sorts as she has discovered her first love, Ben Ressler is living on the property of her ex best friend Laura Peabody. She thought he was going into football. The last she saw him was actually the worst heartbreak of her life other than the killing of her daughter’s father.

Then there is her brilliant young daughter who has spunk and speaks her mind. She truly believes the pirate story and has herself fallen in love with their neighbor, Ben Ressler much to Lucy’s chagrin.

But not everything is as it seems. A missing laptop, a fire in the house, and someone impersonating her. Why?

The other story comes in the form of a diary of a woman from 1717 named Hephzibah and how her family are invaded by pirates and one who is very sick comes to stay with them. And then they must fight a terrible winter called Great Snow of the Storm.

As the two stories become linked, Lucy must grapple with her past, her late father’s life and trying to put her love for Ben to bed, so to speak. And when the past and present finally collide well, that’s for you to dig into!

Thank you #NetGalley #BallentineBooks #BeatrizWilliams #WhenYouLovedMe for the advanced copy.

When You Loved Me: A Novel: Williams, Beatriz: 9798217094820: Amazon.com: Books

Edit Review – When You Loved Me | Goodreads

Arrivals and Departures by Amanda Eyre Ward

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Amanda Eyre Ward’s follow up book to the marvelous The Jetsetters is wonderful! Funny, clever, heartbreaking, warm and yet uplifting, the saga of the Perkins family continues. In the Jetsetters we meet the family as they arrive on a cruise ship and basically air all their dysfunctional dirty laundry.

In Arrivals and Departures, we discover the family once again broken. Daughter Regan is now divorced and living in Greece with her two teenage daughters. Charlotte, their mother is living in a closed community eating cheese and Triscuits while babysitting her infamous daughter Lee who must be watched because she is so depressed she wants to find a way to end her life. And their brother Cord has begun hitting the bottle again much to the chagrin of his boyfriend. Cord now owns a company and is in the process of taking it public and has no time for anything expect perhaps wine. We find them all separated from each other in miles, as well as with each other all dealing with their own lives.

So now you are all caught up except you’re not. Regan has an on-line boyfriend who she has never seen or met who is bleeding her dry. Her children know it’s a scam and keep trying to tell her. She refuses to believe them. So, when they come home and find a note that she has gone to an artsy thing leaving them not only alone but untraceable by her phone they begin to panic. Worse, she doesn’t come back on the day she was supposed to.

They call their grandmother Charlotte, and she sends Lee to Greece. But Lee has decided she will never return to America after they find Regan. Meanwhile Cord’s boyfriend has taken him to a retreat to make him relax and taken his phone. Cord needs to drink so he decides to bust out and go visit his mother Charlotte who is not there as she has now gone to Greece to keep an eye on Lee but also find a lost love.

What could go wrong? Everything!

But as they all try and cope with their problems they all begin to realize just how important they all are to each other. What they truly want for each other is to be happy and content. They each need to learn life lessons in order to all come together as a family who can take care of not only each other, but they have to learn to take care of themselves and their own needs.

Arrivals and Departures is a true family love story as they all finally have the courage to address their pasts, make peace with their faults and become each other’s champions!

Thank you #NetGalley #BallentineBooks #AmandaEyreWard #ArrivalsandDepartures for the advanced copy.

Arrivals and Departures: A Novel: Ward, Amanda Eyre: 9780593500323: Amazon.com: Books

Amazon.com: The Jetsetters: A Novel: 9780399181894: Eyre Ward, Amanda: Books

Edit Review – Arrivals and Departures: A Novel | Goodreads

Come Undone by Eddie Huang

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I’m beginning to believe Eddie Huang can do it all! He wrote a book years ago called Fresh Off the Boat which chronicled his crazy family life growing up. This became a hit TV series. He also had a show on Vice TV called Huang’s World in which he traveled all over the world looking at countries people and food. If that wasn’t enough, he also owns and is the chef in a restaurant called Bao Haus in New York City and get this…he’s only in his forties!

Come Undone is an extraordinary satirical look into the life of someone who you think must have it all, but in reality, his childhood and adulthood have begun to merge, and he realizes his fear of commitment just might be his downfall.

Ready to settle down, Hubie is rich, loves his freedom and loves to get laid. The problem seems to be that when the relationship begins to progress, Hubie panics, finds reasons to let go and then regrets his decisions no matter how hard he tries. Of course, his friends are always there to pick him up!

Until he meets Anastasia, a woman who seems to have quite the laze faire attitude, just as he does. She loves to enjoy life, travel and sex. And she has never been able to commit to a life of monogamy. Sound familiar?

But as they get to know each other and delve deeper into the reasons for their fear of “commitment” in their own ways, and suddenly when a crisis occurs, Hubie seems to begin to discover what he has been holding him back for all these years. Now he must somehow find the courage to face his past and recognize that the future he wants is right in front of him.

Come Undone is funny, heartbreaking yet heartwarmingly beautiful. Is this part memoir/part fiction? I really don’t know. I am happy he wrote it as Huang certainly poured his own heart and soul into this sharp and clever story!

Thank you #NetGalley #OneWorld #EddieHuang #ComeUndone for the advanced copy.

Come Undone: A Novel: Huang, Eddie: 9780399591907: Amazon.com: Books

https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit/241715934-come-undone

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