Month: September 2023

Forever Home was such a pleasant surprise! It’s wonderfully funny, yet a bit sad, filled with secrets galore, twists and turns in family dynamics and to what lengths a family will go to protect each other. This cannot put down book has Norton’s incredible sense of humor written all or it!

Declan’s wife left him. He doesn’t want to talk about it. Not to his young children, son Killan and daughter Sally, and not to the gossip mongers in the town in Ireland. No one really understands why she let. But one thing is for sure. Her children can’t forgive her.

Carol, a teacher used to come over to Declan’s to tutor his daughter Sally. Sally began to look up to Carol as a mother-figure. But when Carol and Declan became something more and Carol moves into the house the tension is palpable. The children resented her, understandable because she had taken their mother’s place, someone they both felt would come back. But they live together for years, happily even though they are the talk to the town.

Years pass and the children are grown and out of the house when Carol sees Declan begin to show signs of dementia. She informs the children who seem on their own to decide to put their father in a nurse care facility, then evict Carol from the only home she has known for years so they can sell the house. Carol is devastated as she knows for a fact Declan never wanted to sell the house, but shockingly she finds Killan is the executor of the estate and has made this decision.

So, Carol, must vacate the house and move in with her parents Moira, her judgmental mother and Dave, her quiet seemingly spacy father who only seems to do as he is told. How could this happen to her, especially at her age?

But Moira comes up with a brilliant idea! She and Dave will secretly put a bid on the house and buy it! Carol is horrified but can’t stop the train which Moira seems to be on from going off the rails!

When the sale is done and they go to the house, something just doesn’t smell right. Carol and Moira find themselves in a horrible situation which they can’t tell anyone about, especially Dave and have a mystery they have no idea how to solve.

Since Declan seems to be getting worse, he is unable to help him with this problem, so Moira comes up with a plan which Carol reluctantly must agree with. This house which Carol loved and cared for all those years has turned into The Nightmare on Elm Street and they just hope their plan does not land them both in jail!

What Moira and Carol discover is things are done for reasons beyond anyone’s control. Sometimes to save a family you must lose the family no matter how much you love them.

Forever Home is filled with quirky characters, witty dialogue, heartbreaking realities of life and a powerful storyline of what one will do to protect their family, even when the family does not know they need protection.

Thank you #NetGalley #Hachette #GrahamNorton #ForeverHome for the advanced copy.

Rouge has it all…it’s a psychological mind blower, with a bit of sorcery thrown in. Then add an unstable mother and daughter with serious facial dysmorphia, a treatment center dedicated to everlasting beauty, and you will not be able to look away!

When Belle’s mother dies suddenly, she must go back to Malibu from Canada where she lives now to bury her mother as well as settle her estate. Although they were not very close, they talked on the phone some.

What Belle had not realized was while sometimes speaking with her mother Noelle on the phone, she would not seem to be one hundred percent present in the conversation. She just chalked it up to her age and being lonely or busy with the clothes shop she co-owned. Her mother had always been a bit eccentric and secretive.

One thing her mother did teach her was how to stay young looking. From Belle’s earliest memory her mother was always watching treatment videos and putting layer upon layer of serums on her face. And of course, Belle herself began to follow the routine with her mother making sure she had a daily skin care routine which could last a few hours. Something she has always continued.

But when Belle returns to her mother’s condo, she discovers all the mirrors broken. She also finds out her mother was in serious debt. How could she have not known any of this was going on? As she unpacks some boxes her mother had stored, she finds a pair of her mother’s red shoes. She decides to put them on. But something happens to Belle, something she doesn’t understand. Soon she finds herself at a treatment spa called La Maison de Meduse where she is promised experimental treatments which will keep her face young.

Not really understanding what is truly happening to her, she discovers the secrets behind the mirrors, the looking glass. It is frightening and confusing, but she begins to fall victim to the treatments, it seems, just like her mother. But her mother died. Will she die? But suddenly that doesn’t matter, she is lured away from reality.

Rouge is a very complicated story filled with love and hate of each other and of oneself. It touches upon mother-daughter relationships, the good, the bad and the ugly. It mocks what some will do to keep young no matter what the consequences. One must learn to step away from the mirror because you could truly get sucked in and shatter your life.

Thank you #NetGalley #Simon&Schuster/MarySueRicciBooks #Rouge #MonaAwad for the advanced copy.

Beach Read is not only a great beach read, but an adorable story which is meant to be read while on vacation, but also as that bedside table book you will look forward to each night. Although the premise of book is a bit depressing or perhaps a bit sad, it is the enjoyable antics and adventures, witty banter between the two main characters which will have you coming back for more!

January Andrews is a romance writer who just lost her beloved best friend, her father, who died suddenly. Through the initial devastation she unfortunately discovers some disturbing information about him which changes her life forever. Now depressed, she loses her boyfriend, the love of her life, is almost penniless (thank you Manola Blahniks!) and has a romance novel due at the end of the summer which she has not even begun to think about.

Now on top of all that, January must go to the small town her father grew up in North Bear Shores and somehow dismantle a house she never knew existed and learn secrets about the father she trusted and adored.

Augustus Everett is January’s angry next-door neighbor in North Bear Shores. He too is a writer, one of those fancy types who write deep, disturbing fiction. They could not be any different. He too is in the midst of a life crisis and has come here to lick his wounds. He is here writing his next book.

They meet, they don’t like each other and don’t really respect each other’s writing. Oh, and January is aware they were enemies in college always vying for top writing awards. Gus as she knew him then doesn’t seem to realize they know each other.

So, they decide to make a bet. January will try her hand at fiction, with some field trips from Gus to get her in the mood, and Gus will try his hand at romance with some field trips January has up her sleeve. All so they can get the feel of the other’s genre.

And this is where the fun really begins! As they learn more about each other, they discover they have much more in common than either ever could imagine. Their chemistry is palpable. But they still cannot tell each other their issues and they certainly seem to not want to deal with them themselves. How do they let their problems go and find the happiness we all want them to have? Is it even possible?

Beach Read is a charmingly cute, funny, sensitive tale filled with secrets which the reader can’t wait to find out! Oh and of course, the romance…yowzah!

Scenes Of The Crime is an unexpected whirlwind thriller with layers of shocking twists and secrets which will have you reading non-stop until its jaw-dropping conclusion.

A group of friends who met in college years ago meet at the winery where one of them disappeared years ago on the anniversary of the mysterious death (disappearance) of their friend Vanessa Morales who was the bond that kept them together.

Emily Fischer knew Vanessa as her best friend. Her hazy memory of what happened the night she disappeared is the reason she convinces the women to revisit the place where something obviously occurred. But what? That night has haunted her for years.

But she also has another motive. She is a writer on a sitcom, and she knows she has more in her than writing for a silly show. She wants to attempt a screenplay about the weekend Vanessa went missing. She is sure if she can pull this off, she will have a hit on her hands.

The cast of characters at the winery this weekend, as well as the weekend of the disappearance are:

Brittany, Vanessa’s cousin. They both came from a very wealthy family, but when Vanessa’s parents die in a car crash, instead of embracing her the family treats her as an outsider. Britany got everything she wanted, including the winery when her grandparents died. Vanessa had to beg just to get tuition money. Spoiled and narcissistic, she enjoys taunting the others with what she has and looks down on them for what they don’t.

Paige, who is still friends with Brittany to this day is her puppy dog. She follows Brittany around and agrees with everything Brittany says, no matter what. She has no opinions of her own and waits for her friend to lead her.

Finally, there is Lydia who has had a difficult and challenging life. In college she was trying to pay for school and help her sick mother with her medical bills which were adding up due to all her treatments. As she looked for research jobs at school, Brittany somehow was always able to make it, so Lydia lost the job. Now, she barely participates in any conversations they have during this weekend.

Without Vanessa, these women hardly really know each other. Vanessa was truly the glue which held them all together and now without her things don’t seem to be going very smoothly. And then on the first night, items of Vanessa suddenly appear in the rooms of the women. Items she had on or saved before her disappearance.

What is going on?

Fear begins to take over the group. Why? Because they all seem to have secrets from back in the day. As we learn the history of each woman, it becomes clear Vanessa was not really who they thought she was, but neither were the other women.

And Emily’s screenplay which is dispersed throughout the story becomes invaluable to the reader. What is clear is that something terrible happened the night Vanessa disappeared. Was it one of them? Now if Emily could only find out what happened, she would have the ending she knows would be spectacular. Although it could cost her life.

What really happened to Vanessa?

Scenes Of The Crime is filled with suspense, mystery and psychological torture. It immediately grabs you and its ending, a perfect ten.

Thank you #NetGalley #Bantam #ScenesOfTheCrime #JillyGagnon for the advanced copy.

Hold on to your bike helmets! Jennifer Weiner’s newest novel The Breakaway is an exciting, funny, heart-warming read with layers upon layers of twists. It’s a love story, a coming-of-age story with so many women empowering themselves, sub-plots any woman reading will be able to empathize with…truth, trust, body uncomfortableness, keeping secrets and mother-daughter relationships. Am I right?

Abby Stern is in her 30’s. She likes her life, although she is still trying to find her purpose. Always having wrestled with her weight, and her mother’s constant intervention even sending her to Fat Camp when she was younger has always heavily weighed on the way she views herself. But after she met Mark, an old flame from the camp who was able to lose the weight and keep it off, they begin dating. Although he is very strict with his eating regime, he does not mind Abby’s joy of food. She has wonderful friends and is an avid bike rider, something unfortunately Mark cannot enjoy as he has never learned to ride a bike. Abby is still trying to figure out what she wants to do when she grows up. She has a few different jobs which she enjoys, but nothing which really excites her.

But one thing which did excite her for at least one night, was the one-night stand with a gorgeous man named Sebastian. Yes, she sort of cheated on Mark but they had only been back together for a short while. But Abby has never forgot the feelings she had for Sebastian but realizes she could never be his type when he was sober.

Two years later, she is now at a crossroads with Mark who wants her to move in with him, and not only is she unsure of that next step, but she also still floats from job to job still searching for her purpose.

One thing for sure, she loves to bike and when she is given the opportunity by a friend to lead a cycling trip from New York City to Niagra Falls, Abby is up for the challenge. Until her life begins to spiral out of control because on this cycling trip are two guests, she would never imagine being in the same place…Sebastian and her mother!

This trip will change the lives of these bikers forever, in so many ways. They will all bond as they never could imagine. Still, Abby can’t let go of the image she has of herself, no matter what is said and done. And Sebastian is making her decisions very hard, and her mother is still continuing her calories. How will she find peace with them as well as herself? And is she strong enough to handle all the trials and tribulations this journey will take all of them on.

The Breakaway is a terrific title for this extraordinary story. As the important layers of the issues are pealed back perhaps someone reading this tale will find the comfort or answer they have been searching for. What a ride!

Thank you #NetGalley #AtriaBooks #The Breakaway #JenniferWeiner for the advanced copy.

Reese Witherspoon’s September Book Club pick, Mother-Daughter Murder Night is a fun whodunnit in which a grandmother, her daughter and granddaughter become involved in solving a murder, but in doing so, learn so much more about each other and themselves. These women, each with their own style of dress, ideas and thought processes all come to this mystery with a different way of handling things. But this is a family affair and family come first even when dealing with a dead body!

The Rubicon women are Lana (the grandmother) who is going through cancer treatments. With a flourishing career in Los Angeles, she has had to move back to the quiet little town her daughter Beth lives in. Beth (the daughter) is a caregiver at a senior facility. She and her daughter Jack, (Lana’s granddaughter) a teenager who works as a kayaking guide must somehow now all live together under the same roof. Needless to say, it’s way too close for comfort.

But when a body is found in the water by Jack and she becomes the prime suspect in a murder, the mother-daughter duo must begin to investigate the situation much against the advice of two angry detectives. And Jack certainly wants in!

What they begin to discover is as mysterious as the murder itself. Where did the body come from? Could it have been dumped from someplace else and the tide moved it? Is it possible Jack’s boss the owner of the kayak business who himself is acting pretty suspicious had something to do with the murder? And by the way, who is the dead guy?

Then one of Beth’s seniors dies in his sleep at the facility. That’s when the investigation takes a curious turn. The women discover that the murder could be tied to this wealthy patriarch who owns a large amount of land that just happens to be near where they body could have been disposed. Now, the two adult children are fighting with a someone who says they are in possession of a deed to the land that says their father did not want them to have the land. And that’s when everything begins to get interesting and dangerous.

They continue investigating in their own “special” ways, with Lana fighting for her life as well as those she loves. They start to lean on each other and begin to try and sort out past problems which were never resolved, spoken about misunderstood or forgiven.

Mother-Daughter Murder Night is a Murder She Wrote like amateur crime-solving mystery with three smart, snarky, brave women who just happen to be related. It’s clever, it’s funny and it’s sentimental. Just a wonderful old-fashioned cozy with a modern-day twist.

Thank you #NetGalley #WilliamMorrow #NinaSimon #Mother-Daughter Murder Night for the advanced copy.

Dark Corners is the follow up to Megan Goldin’s popular thriller Night Swim, although this is easily a stand-alone story. Rachel Krall, our favorite true crime podcaster is once again called upon to try and assist with the disappearance of a social media influencer by a possible serial killer. This novel has it all! A suspenseful story has twists, a bit of romance and an unforeseeable incredible ending!

Rachel Krall is called for reasons unknown to the FBI in Florida. She reluctantly goes. There she discovers Terrence Bailey; an alleged serial killer is days away from being released onto the streets again. They were never able to prove he murdered young women but were able to put him behind bars for something else. But the FBI is concerned he is already plotting his next murder from his prison cell.

Madison Logan, a social media influencer recently went to visit Bailey at the prison. This in itself is puzzling as he has never in all the time he’s been in prison had a visitor. The prison video shows them exchanging something. That is the last time Madison was ever seen. They find her van parked in the woods near the prison and it looks like there had been some sort of struggle.

Unsure if this has anything to do with Bailey or if it has something to do with the social media conference Madison was attending, the FBI ask Rachel to talk to Bailey as he seems to know her name. That conversation just seems to complicate what they know. But she notices he has the same tattoo which Madison had.

So, against the wishes of the handsome FBI agent, Rachel decides to crash the conference and find out what she can about the missing woman. She notices some have the same tattoo Madison (and Bailey) had. What she learns is influencers can be brutal to each other! And then another influencer turns up dead!

They believe Bailey must be getting help from someone on the outside but who? He’s never had a visitor. With time running out and Bailey closer to his release date Rachel and the FBI try to figure out if he is connected to any of the other murders which happened before he went to prison. And he was!

Then, on the day of Bailey’s release, they were supposed to track his every move, but something goes wrong, and they lose him. Now it seems he has his sights set on Rachel!

This fast paced, mind-blowing nail-biter is a complex incredible psychological masterpiece with surprise after surprise. Dark corners can be spooky, but sometimes they can save a life!

Thank you #NetGalley #St.Martin’sPress #MeganGoldin #DarkCorners for the advanced copy.

California Golden is Melanie Bejamin’s homage to the carefree days of the 1960’s where free to be meant sex, drugs and rock and roll, where in California, surfing, sun and sand, beach bums and bonfires were all the rage. But the story is so much deeper than frolicking in the water and winning surfing competitions. It’s about a mother and her two daughters whose lives are changed not so much by what they did, but more because of what was expected of them during that time. Had they been able to pursue their own dreams, rather that fit the societal norms, perhaps their lives would have been different.

Carol Donnelly broke the surfing mold for women back in the 1960’s. When the male surfers told her she couldn’t do it, she proved not only could she, but she could win competition against them. An athlete in college, Carol was on her way to Chicago to try out for the first all-women baseball team. She found out she was pregnant. So, she put her dreams on hold, went back and married, and had two children, both girls, Mindy and Ginger.

But in her heart, she still wanted to follow her passion and unfortunately had a difficult time relating to her two girls. She tried. But when she discovered surfing, she chose one over the other. She began taking them with her daily to the beach, even though that meant they missed school. She would forget to buy food or feed them at all. With her husband traveling she was left to be the adult. But the reality was she had never really grown up.

She decided perhaps her love of surfing could translate to her love for her daughters, so she decided to teach her girls to surf. Mindy caught on right away and became just as good if not better than her mother. Ginger not so much. So, Carol spent more time with Mindy and Mindy spent more time with Ginger. Both dropped out of high school.

And that’s when all three go in radically different directions. The girls leave home. Carol continues to surf, knowing she was not the mother she should have been.

Mindy becomes a champion surfer with an agent, partying every night, popular with the Hollywood in-crowd and waiting for her next break. Until she makes a mistake. Something looked down upon and perhaps career ending. She must make a decision.

Ginger just becomes lost. She hooks up with a beach bum whose only job is to hustle drugs and is into just about everything illegal. But Ginger knows in her heart he loves her and can’t let him go not matter what he does. It’s the first time she’s ever felt valued, and she won’t lose that feeling for fear she will never have it again.

The story chronicles the Donnelly women’s lives and what happens to them until they come together years later. They’ve all lived hard lives. But, perhaps it’s time to move past all the anger and hardship and misunderstandings and try for once to be the family they never knew how to be.

California Golden is the story of society influencing choices rather than following one’s heart, tragedies, hard times and becoming an adult. It’s about forgiveness and how ultimately love wins out.

Thank you #NetGalley #DelacortPress #MelanieBenjamin #CaliforniaGolden for the advanced copy.

Looking Glass Sound is another remarkably different shock/horror/thriller from the creative mind of Catriona Ward. Its creepiness is overshadowed by the disturbing narrative and storyline development, not knowing where the plot is going but then it all come together, for an extraordinary ending.

When Wilder’s uncle passes away, his parents inherit a cottage on Whistler Bay in Maine on the water. They decide to go on a vacation there during the summer before selling the property. Wilder meets Nat a local and Harper who vacations there every summer, both who it seems have known each other forever. As they begin to include him in their outings, Wilder feels there is something they are not telling him.

During the time he is there Wilder learns of Dagger Man, who was all the talk from the past summer who allegedly killed people and left polaroids of them. This topic seems to bond the three teenagers as they try solving who he is and imagine what he did and why. They also tell him about a victim named Rachel, the first to disappear. She had gone to the beach with her family and as they set out lunch she went for her daily swim and never came back. Some say she still haunts the Sound.

At the end of the summer, Wilder’s parents decide not to sell the cottage but rent it out and use it as their own vacation home. But the next summer will be Wilder’s last with both his friends. Dagger man is captured, and it throws the town into a chaos of which Wilder will not only ever be able to forget, but he will never be the same.

He goes to college and begins to write down his thoughts as to what happened during those summers. He can’t particularly function well but then he meets someone who helps him. But they have a terrible falling out which leaves Wilder devastated.

Years pass and Wilder decides to face his demons and goes back the cottage to try and write a story about what happened, what he witnessed and how it impacted his life. To his surprise he finds Harper living on the Bay.

As he tries to write, strange things begin to happen. He finds notes in the cottage he knows were not written by him. He smells things he knows he should not and sees things he knows cannot be there. He discovers he has written chapters of his story which he can’t remember doing.

This is too much for Wilder. His life was never the same after what happened, and he is not sure just how much more of life he can handle. Or even if he wants to anymore.

Looking Glass Sound has continuous suspense, mystery, despair and dysfunctional friendships and family secrets with so much more mixed in with such an incredible ending your only thought will be the need to read this again!

Thank you #NetGalley #TorNightfire #CatrionaWard #LookingGlassSound for the advanced copy.

The Thursday Murder Club is still together in their retirement village in England and fans of the series are thrilled! The Man Who Died Twice is just as exciting, funny and full of surprises as the first installment, but with two additional add-ons. First, we learn more information about the past lives of our senior sleuths and hooray! love seems to be in the air!

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim are still the best of friends and continue to enjoy their murder club. Elizabeth still exhibits her Agatha Christie like intelligence, Joyce her humorous common sense through her journal entries, Ron being Ron and Ibrahim feeling more comfortable and begins to get out of the senior community more.

But that all changes when a man from Elizabeth’s past shows up using the name of a “dead” man no less. She realizes not only has her past come back to haunt her, but the group is in for a bit of excitement.

You see he has come for help and protection from Elizabeth. He has stolen diamonds worth millions from a very important multi-millionaire fencer who wants them back and will not stop until he a) finds Elizabeth’s friend, b) kills Elizabeth’s friend and c) gets back his diamonds.

But before Elizabeth can truly find out what’s going on, even with expert secret service protecting him, he is killed. Or is he? Had he planned this ruse from the start in order to disappear with a hefty retirement fund? It’s up to the club to figure out the who, what, why and where (the diamonds) have been hidden.

Meanwhile, Ibrahim who has begun to come out of his shell and has taken to driving around alone or with Joyce is injured in a robbery gone wrong and seems to now be terrified of everything. All his friends are concerned, but he insists he is fine.

So needless to say, Elizabeth and the crew have their hands full and besides finding killers and diamonds, she calls in every favor she can to find out who hurt Ibrahim.

The Man Who Died Twice is just so smart, skillfully written and quick-witted. The readers can see the clues and try to play along in the story and to solve the mysteries. But the ending still has that I should have seen that feel, and unexpected plot twists and turns.