Month: May 2023

Late Bloomers is a wonderful love story about…divorce and family dysfunction! It’s humorous and touching, filled with rites of passages which can occur at any age. But even though the relationships are tumultuous, the main feeling you get is there is always love.

Suresh and Lata were married over 30 years ag0. It was an arranged marriage. They spent their first day as man and wife at the movies. But, through the years, they have learned to accept each other, even though they both see the flaws in the other. They have raised two children who are now adults, Priya a teacher and Nikesh, a lawyer.

At some point, Lata decides she needs her space form Suresh and wants to live a life she never had. Suresh does not understand Lata’s decision but accepts his wife’s wishes. They divorce and Lata moves into an apartment and Suresh keeps the house.

Lata begins a job at a college library where a professor begins to show her attention. She has never even had a boyfriend, so she is confused and guilty as to what to do. It does not help that the person giving her advice is a young girl she works with. Suresh on the other hand has begun dating at the aga of 60. He is on a dating app and is not very savvy at reading cues the women give him.

Along with these changes, what they have yet to discover, and possibly would freak out about if they do, Priya is in an unorthodox relationship and smokes, both of which they absolutely would not approve, and Nikesh who lives with Denise and their son Alok are not married although his parents think they are. Nikesh can’t seem to make the commitment as he pines for an old girlfriend.

With Alok’s first birthday coming and a party being planned at the house, what should be a happy event inevitably turns into a disaster with secrets coming out of the woodwork. And it is at this time the whole family must choose a new path, both together and separately as they all must make choices which will change futures. They must create a new version of their family, for the sake of all of them. They must find it in their hearts to love each other and those who love them.

Late Bloomers is adorably funny and heartwarming even though it might take this old-fashioned family a bit of time to step into a new wonderful future together.

Thank you #NetGalley #RandomHouse #DeepaVaradarajan #LateBloomers for the advanced copy.

When social media influencers get together for a work trip in Iceland it can be back stabbingly devastating with one of them ending up missing and other’s lives exploding in their faces. These women who seemingly innocently promote wellness and products to those desperately looking for miracle cures unfortunately can eat each other alive! The Perfect Ones is by far perfect and throughout this incredibly thrilling story the discoveries of their imperfections are shocking and juicy. The best type of an exciting plot.

Celeste Reed has a bit of a following, but nothing compared to the rest of the women. She is much more plain and other responsibilities take precedent over posting. She reluctantly decides at the last minute to go on this trip, even though she and her husband have been arguing about whether their young daughter needs some sort of intervention. She has been acting out recently. Celeste’s intuition says yes, her husband is not on board.

Alabama Wood is all about her Instagram number of followers and other influencers. She is Celeste’s best friend and has been for many years. Alabama cannot believe her luck! Not only is she excited about this trip, but she can’t believe icon influencer Hollie Goodwin will be on this trip! In her mind, she knows once she meets Hollie, they will become fast best friends. She knows her life will change after this trip with Hollie in her corner. But what no one knows is Alabama has been having some mental issues and has been on medication. She seemed to settle down, but unbeknownst to her husband and doctor, has stopped taking her medication.

Hollie Goodwin is a very famous fitness influencer. Although this year has been pretty tough on her. She has been through a tremendous amount of turmoil. Hollie’s weight has increased a bit this year. She has been able to hide it so no one can tell, and she is happy at least the weather is cold in Iceland so hopefully she can continue to mask her weight gain. Hollie realizes Alabama is a bit obsessed with her, something at this stage in her life she certainly does not need.

So, when Alabama suddenly goes missing and the police are unable to find any clues as to her disappearance, the women are shocked. Or are they really?

As the story moves from the day of the disappearance to the next day, and three months prior to and three months after the disappearance, we continuously begin to learn the buried secrets of these high profiled women. With one shocking revelation after another, not even the reader can fully decide who was involved. Or why.

The Perfect Ones is a heart pounding story you won’t want to put down until you find out what really happened. It makes you think that the next time you perhaps flip to Instragram and envy someone’s perfect story, know that it perhaps may not be the full truth. No one is truly as flawless as you think. Some perhaps could possibly hold deadly secrets.

Thank you #NetGalley #CrookedLandBooks #NicoleHackett #ThePerfectOnes for the advanced copy.

No Two Persons is a wonderfully imaginative story about a group of people who don’t know each other who are going through a rough patch and read the same book. Each sees a different meaning in the story which changes their life forever.

The story begins with the author, Alice and her life. She had love and loss and had been told she could be a great writer. She begins with writer’s block and then gets this incredible idea, and then she can’t stop writing. With the help of her college professor, she completes the story, and it becomes published.

The book, whose title is Theo, is about a boy who loves to swim. He has had a difficult life. His journey seems to be everyone’s life journey in one way or another.

But some of its readers find so much more meaning in the narrative.

The readers are:

Lara who is an assistant at a publishing company who has just had a baby. She is working from home, exhausted and seems to be in the throws of post partum. She is tired of her life and scared for her future. Then she receives a manuscript to read.

Rowan, a movie superstar whose stardom is dimming because of a health issue. He knows he needs to find something, or he will just disappear. Then, his agent gives him a book to read.

Miranda lives a solitary life in the wilderness. She is an artist. She finds a dog and begins to explore. Her mother whom she barely tolerates sends her a care package. In it is a book. Her mother is constantly asking if she has read the story. Finally, Miranda reluctantly picks up the book.

Tyler is a young boy who loves the water even before he knows how to swim which caused his parents embarrassment and anxiety. He understands he is different but doesn’t understand why. When a tragedy occurs, he is given a book to read.

Nola is in high school and wants to go to college. But she has been keeping secrets from the administration because she knows if they find out about her tragic life they will send her on a different path. The book, Theo is on her to be read for class.

Kit is a bookseller in Maine. He loves his life. He loves books, and his lifestyle. He meets an ambitious woman and falls in love, and they marry. They are very different personalities. But one day he picks up a book from an author who has come into the bookstore he works at.

William is an elderly man who has just lost the love of his life, his wife Abigail. He is having a hard time living without her. He decides he needs a change of scenery, so he applies for a job as a caretaker of a town. During a blizzard he notices in a box a book his wife and daughter had been reading together before Abigail’s death.

Juliet spends most of her time on movie sets making sure love scenes are appropriately shot. She travels a great deal and is married. But her marriage is beginning to not fulfill her. On a plane on the way home she opens an e-book a friend had sent her awhile back. She begins to listen to the book.

Madeline is the number one book agent. She has made so many careers she has lost count, including Alice’s. Her work and her books are her life. And she is proud of what she has accomplished.

This inspiring cast of characters will begin new journeys all because of a simple story. In No Two Persons you will fall in love with each individual and feel great pleasure as they begin to see their life change. Amazing read!

Thank you #NetGalley #St.Martin’sPress #NoTwoPersons #EricaBauermeister for the advanced copy.

In this imaginative, funny story, filled with bumbling characters, who all accidentally collide with each other Barry shows he has certainly not lost his touch on the crazy! With good versus evil and not very smart versus wise, his characters morph into different personalities with a feel-good ending.

Jesse Braddock has lost everything to her boyfriend Slater. She’s embarrassed at how he was able to smooth talk her into her money and quitting her job. Now, her parents will not speak to her, she has an infant daughter and is living in a dilapidated cabin in the Everglades no less. All she can think of is how to get away from this situation.

Ken Bortle and his brother Brad of Bortle Brothers Bait & Beer have a once thriving shop. Now they barely get any tourists who are visiting the Everglades. Ken knows if something doesn’t happen quickly they will lose everything.

Phil is a down on his luck guy who left his wife and daughter when he found out his wife had cancer. He can barely make ends meet. He has no job and basically drinks Moscow Mules for a living. So, when a friend of his offers him a job to put a Dora the Explorer costume on for a child’s birthday party for some cash, he says ok. But unfortunately, things go very wrong at the party and Phil is humiliated.

Even more embarrassing, someone took a video of the incident and posted it online which then got reposted to Tik Tok which then made Phil a mortifying celebrity. Not exactly what he wanted!

Enter Ken Bortle who sees the video and gets this terrific idea on how they can drum up business for their store. They can use someone dressed as a monster and post the video and everyone will flock to the business. They can sell t-shirts and other products. And just like that Ken accidentally finds Phil drinking in a bar and strikes up a deal. Now all they have to do is find people to film the video.

In the meantime, Jesse is spending all her time with her daughter and taking care of her alone. Slater is off doing some video. As she takes a walk around the swamp, she sees something gold and shiny in the mud. She pulls it out and lo and behold it is a gold bar. She digs further and finds more, much more! This is her way out. Now all she has to do is make sure she can keep the gold and that her boyfriend never finds out!

But unbeknownst to Jesse, two men did see her. Duck and Billy Campbell. They knew the history of the missing gold bars, folklore, but now they know it was really true. They need this woman to lead them to the motherload! And then get rid of her.

As Jesse turns to a former boyfriend/lawyer for help, the Bortle brothers succeed in making the monster video and everything seems to be going just fine. Until it begins not to. And that’s when all these worlds begin to collide in an incredibly hysterical ending in which a fight between good versus evil begins and then ends.

Swamp Story is the tale of misfits, who find each other and through a lot of accidents find their way to who they really were meant to be and somehow become the luckiest people on earth!

Thank you #NetGalley #Simon&Schuster #DaveBarry #SwampStory for the advanced copy.