Lisa's Cubby

The Secret Love Letters of Olivia Moretti is a beautifully written story about three sisters who have lost touch and can barely tolerate each other who are forced to come to grips with the death of their mother and the mystery she left behind. In order to find peace, these women must somehow work together to find out who this woman they loved so dearly could have had a hidden life none of them knew about.

Priscilla is the creative sister. Formerly a professional ballet dancer, her life drastically changed when she met and fell in love with her husband and decided to give up her career for a family. Against her mother’s advice. Now, years later with her son grown and living in London, she begins to feel the pull of something. Just what she doesn’t know, but she feels she may be harboring resentment towards her husband for the decision she made all those years ago.

Devon is task oriented. A college teacher she has no time for any social activities other than preparing for her next class and hoping to someday be the head of the department, something she was just passed over for.

Baily is the free spirit. She loves art and drawing, (as her mother did), and acting. She is a social butterfly. She and Devon had a blow out when they were young that has never been truly resolved and this has affected not only their relationship, but their relationship with Priscilla who feels her place is as referee to their dysfunction. As much as their mother tried, she could never get them to resolve their issues.

Then, of course, there is their mother Olivia who was the true stable force in their lives. But when Olivia dies suddenly leaving the women to not only grieve her loss, but also feel as if they weren’t there for her at the end, there is tension between the siblings.

But when they find a chest hidden in the back of their mother’s closet as they are cleaning out her house, and inside are letters to and from a mysterious R, as well as the title to a house in Positano, Italy, they don’t know what to think. The last letter in the group was received by their mom just before her death. It was from R who told Olivia to come to Positano on her 65th birthday so they could meet up. Olivia unfortunately never made it to her birthday.

The sisters decide they must go to the Amalfi Coast and find this man who was somehow so important in their mother’s life from an early age, someone she chose not to tell anyone about ever. He was someone she clearly loved as a young girl and had some sort of relationship with for all these years. How on earth did they meet?

Unfortunately, the women’s history with each other causes fighting and strain upon their arrival in Italy and they must somehow resolve their problems not only with each other, but each must take a look into their own selves to see why they all seem to be stuck in their lives.

All this must be done without their mother’s help, someone who they all relied on in times of crisis. Will they be able to find this “R” who may hold all the answers to their mother’s past? And could these answers be the final gift their mother Olivia gives to the daughters she loved desperately and left behind so unexpectedly? Will they not only find themselves but each other as they hunt the truth of who loved their mother so much, he let her go.

The Secret Love Letters of Olivia Moretti is a story filled with mystery, beautiful scenery, intrigue, love and loss and most importantly forgiveness.

The Villa is not just one, but two incredible psychological thrillers rolled into separate stories, the first from the 1970’s and the second from present day. Both are filled with mystery, death, puzzles and revenge. And the main character is the house itself because in the end, the house always remembers…

In 1974 Villa Rosato in Italy was rented by a group of musicians. Mara and Lara are stepsisters who tag along because Lara is seeing the host, famous rock star Noel Gordon and Mara is seeing up and coming song-writer Pierce. Mara is in love with Pierce and Lara sort of falls in and out of love easily, including an affair with Pierce which Mara chooses to overlook. This complication along with sex, drugs and making music become the setting for an almost inevitable disaster.

And what happens during their time together at The Villa is just that, a tragedy with one of them being murdered and one of them imprisoned. But for Mara and Lara their time together at the house will push both of them into stardom. Mara with a bestselling novel called Lilith Rising and Lara with an album titled Aestas which still haunts those who listen to it to this day. But even until both their deaths, they refused to ever discuss what happened at the house that summer.

Flash forward to best friends Emily and Chess. They have been friends since childhood. Even though their lives took them in separate directions with Emily marrying and becoming a cozy mystery writer of a series and Chess becoming a famous lifestyle guru, they remained in each other’s lives. Emily is in the midst of a divorce as well as a year of horrible health issues and writer’s block when Chess suggests they go away for a month to Italy. Chess is also supposed to be writing a book. Emily agrees.

When they get to Villa Aestas, Emily realizes that this is the house where horrible things had happened years ago. They had changed the name when Lara became famous to Villa Aestas after her best-selling album which they believe she wrote after the killing. While browsing the library Emily discovers a copy of Mara’s famous novel, Lilith Rising. As she begins to read the story, she sees a resemblance as to what happened that summer years ago. Fascinated, she develops a theory and begins to explore the house for clues that her thinking might be correct. Emily’s obsession with finding out the truth leads her to decide to start a book about her findings.

Chess realizes what Emily is doing. Their relationship begins to fracture and by the end of their time at Villa Aestas there will be another death and their lives will suddenly change forever. You see, houses really do remember.

The Villa is a well-written, mesmerizing story with a built in who done it and a shell-shocking ending you will not see coming.

Thank You #NetGalley #St.Martin’sPress #TheVilla #RachelHawkins for the advanced copy.

The Secret Society of Salzburg by Renee Ryan is a brilliant story, loosely based on the true story of two women who took it upon themselves to risk their lives saving people during Hitler’s regime. This riveting plot will have you immediately immersed in the lives the two women, Elsa Mayer-Braun, an up-and-coming European opera singer and Hattie Featherstone, an English civil worker who aspires to become a famous painter. A chance meeting between the two will change both their lives forever as well as some Jewish families who were able to escape Hitler and find freedom because of the two.

When Hattie hears a recording of an opera Elsa sang, she is immediately moved. She also begins to find her painting style changing. Then she and her sister are able to go to a concert together to witness that beautiful voice in person, and a friendship is born.

As their friendship progresses, as does Hitler’s hold. Hattie has an experience on a train in which she sees a Jewish couple humiliated and then dragged away. She will never forgive herself for not trying to do something to help them. Elsa (who herself has a hidden Jewish heritage which only her husband is aware) is having a personal reaction to what is going on. Her aunt who is part Jewish is trapped in a country in which she is not welcomed and in danger. Elsa must figure out how to get her aunt to safety. She does this with Hattie’s help and thus begins their secret society.

What ends up happening is this “secret” becomes very popular and as Elsa and Hattie try to help as many as they can, they need a bit of help. That’s when they meet a British gentleman who owns an art gallery, and their plan is secured.

But unfortunately for Elsa, her husband begins to align himself with Hitler and puts her in the position of having to sing for him. She becomes Hitler’s favorite singer. Hating herself for that and for her husband’s alliance she feels she is at her breaking point.

Suddenly something goes terribly wrong. Elsa’s life is in jeopardy and Hattie must try and save her. But Hattie is in England. With all their success in helping people find the safety and security and freedom they needed, Hattie feels helpless to do the same for Elsa.

In the Secret Society of Salzburg, these two courageous women who are strong willed and selfless, take on a nation and a man filled with hate and endanger their own lives to save people they don’t even know. A wonderfully engrossing story with a powerful message.

About the author: Multi-published, award-winning author Renee Ryan grew up in Florida. She’s written nearly thirty books in several genres, including historical fiction, historical romance and contemporary romance. She currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband and a large cat many have mistaken for a small bear. To learn more about Renee, visit her on Facebook, Twitter, or her website, www.ReneeRyan.com.

EARLY REVIEWS:

·       “This story, told from various points in time during the 1930s and ’40s, will not disappoint lovers of Ryan’s previous novel, The Widows of Champagne (2021). The setting of opera and art houses of a bygone era gives this book a special appeal to classical music and art enthusiasts. The novel also contains a chaste romance and hints of spirituality that will appeal to those looking for a clean, historical love story.” –Booklist

·       “…this (story) powerfully blends ruminations on the importance of art with acute depictions of Nazi cruelty. The result is a rousing historical.” –Publishers Weekly

·       A Costco pick!

Thank you #NetGalley #Harlequin #ReneeRyan #TheSecretSocietyofSalzburg for the advanced copy. The book comes out today, so get a copy fast!

We all have secrets. Some secrets eventually are revealed. It is inevitable, no matter how hard you try. Others will be taken to the grave. In Adele Parks’ new psychological thriller, the known, unknown gives the reader intense angst as we devour the story waiting for the last secret.

When Dora, an elite escort is invited by one of her clients to spend a week in the south of France, she hesitates. You see, she has just “retired” and is on a new path in life. But Daniel, one of her most loyal clients needs her desperately to pretend to be his girlfriend to assist him with someone he really wants to impress. So, she agrees to pretend to be with him with a very important caveat…no sex. You see, Dora has found someone she thinks she wants to spend her life with. If he knew what she was doing, he certainly would not approve.

But when she and Daniel arrive, and she meets the other guests and staff she immediately feels something is off. Dora begins to miss time as well as events in which she is told she was there but can’t remember being at. She starts to panic and decides to leave. But they now have some sort of hold on her, and she is unable to escape. Worst of all, no one knows she is there.

She begins to realize her past secrets which she has buried for so many years have become her dangerous present. Someone she knew has come back into her life to kill her. But she does not understand what on earth the motivation could be.

As hidden secrets are exposed, and Dora realizes she has lost control of her life as she knows it, she must face her painful past once again and hopefully survive. And just when she feels she might have control, there is always one last secret.

Thank you #NetGalley #Mira #AdeleParks #OneLastSecret for the advanced copy.

An astonishing psychological thriller in which one death opens the door to a chilling pandora’s box full of hidden secrets and mysteries.

Molly Bradley is content in her life. She has a wonderful husband who she trusts, great friends and a job she loves. But all that changes in just one night. As she falls asleep after the party she has just thrown for her husband’s birthday, she awakes to the worst imaginable nightmare anyone could imagine. She finds her husband Jay, a psychologist, dead in his home office. Murdered savagely.

Enter Boston Detective Rita Meyers who has been on the Boston Police force many years. She’s used to seeing death. Ruling Molly out as a suspect, she dives into who could possibly want the psychologist dead and why. They seemed to have a solid group of friends, although they tell her Jay had seemed distracted a bit the past week. He had been in the process of writing a book about psychopathic killers, even recently going to a prison to interview someone.

Molly knew he was writing a book but had no idea what it was about. When she finds out it shakes her to her core. As she tries to begin life without her best friend, she begins to believe someone tried to break into her house and is stalking her. But unbeknownst to both her friends and the police, Molly has a past in which none of them, but Jay knows about. And she refuses to give up the information because she believes her life will never be the same again.

As Molly and Jay’s friends surround her with love, Detective Meyers’ gut reaction is something is off with them. She thinks one of them knows something. Then Molly begins to get phone calls from an unknown person and receives a letter from prison and her life suddenly explodes once again taking her back to where she had once been.

Is Jay’s death related to her past? How could someone know who she really is? She has been so careful.

Detective Meyers starts to look at this murder very differently. With everyone a suspect, the pieces of this puzzle begin to fall into place. And someone does have their sights on Molly. Can she find the last piece before Molly is gone forever?

With the many twists and turns the story takes, and an amazingly shocking ending, this page turner is well worth the read!

Thank you #Goodreads #KensingtonBooks #AllTheDarkPlaces #TerriParlato for the advanced copy.

The Kiss Curse is an absolutely, adorable, funny, delightful follow up to The Ex Hex by author Erin Sterling who also writes under the pen name Rachel Hawkins.

With her cousin Vivi now happily married to Rhys Penhallow and heading off on their long-awaited honeymoon, and her mother away on vacation, Gwyn Jones is put in charge of their witch shop, Something Wicked which is a tourist favorite just in time for all of Penhallow’s Halloween season. Everything seems to be going well until ANOTHER Penhallow brother show us!

Wells Penhallow, Rhys’ brother has decided he needs a change and comes to his namesake town to open none other than a witchcraft shop! Across the street from Gwyn and Vivi’s! And Gwyn is having none of it! So yes, he is handsome and has incredible hair. Lots of hair! But this is their town now and she is in charge!

Until one day as she visits Well’s store just to snoop around and a box falls on both of them and powder flies out and they unexpectedly kiss! They both believe the box has been cursed and they both are tremendously embarrassed. They decide to stay away from each other, not knowing what else the curse has in store for them, but strange circumstances seem to keep pulling them together.

It seems there is quite a bit of witchery going on in Penhallow, and some of it is not the good kind. So, Gwyn enlists some magic students to help her try and figure out what’s happening to the town. Then Gwyn’s powers begin to go on the fritz. She knows it might take the help of another powerful witch to help her figure out what darkness has been invited into the town. Ugh, Wells…

Is it possible for these two to work together without a.) killing each other or b.) falling in love?

The Kiss Curse is a fun, charming book with a wonderful mystery and enchanting characters those who read the first installment have grown to love! And with that said, there is one last Penhallow brother! I can’t wait!

Your Table Is Ready by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina is a delicious dive into the underworld of restaurant workers with juicy tales giving all the unbelievable dirt of what the staff is up to (and it is quite a lot)! with the soup to nuts of all their high society and celebrity customers.

This can’t put down book tells intimate details of the goings on before, during and after a day of servicing customers, (in more ways than one). Azzolina explains in honest detail why sometimes customers can never get that window table with the beautiful view, or why that twenty does not seem to get you a table without a reservation. He even gives tips on how to do both!

But, for the most part it’s his stories which both amuse and sometimes shock the reader, at least this one! His accounts are from an era long ago, when there were no Human Resource departments and literally anything could happen and there was no one to complain to. It was also sadly during the beginning of the AIDS epidemic a time in which Azzolina lost many of his close co-workers and friends. In one story he explains how close he came to actually getting the disease and by sheer luck did not.

But it all starts when he was a young boy in Brooklyn looking for something to do. While all his friends were doing drugs and dying, he decided to find something else to do and that was working in a local restaurant. This led him to his amazing career. But he honestly admits he was no angel. He tells of the easy access to drugs, alcohol and the abuse which goes along with each. The drinking for the staff did not exactly start after the restaurant closed for the night but could begin as early as when someone got a bit stressed. He admits to doing many things for and to customers to make a little extra money.

But some of his stories are haunting. One in particular is about how he unknowingly made a person in the Mafia mad by innocently kicking a rude customer out at the request of his boss and being stalked and assaulted by him. It would forever change the way he managed rude customers.

The best stories are of course those in which he talks about the celebrities and people we know. The list is impressive…Dustin Hoffman, Madonna, Jackie Gleason, famous models and designers, and a not so nice Anna Wintour anecdote.

As one can imagine, working sometimes 10-to-15-hour shifts can be not only grueling but exhausting, only to have to get up and do the same thing over and over again. Relationships are difficult to maintain, and the last place a staffer wants to be on their day off is on a date at a restaurant.

Your Table Is Ready is not only an enjoyable read but could also be a bible of sorts and a how to (and not to) for those interested in the restaurant business. It’s terrifically gossipy, funny, heartwarming and sometimes cringy. I for one will never enter a restaurant the same way again!

Thank you #NetGalley #St.Martin’sPress #YourTableIsReady # MichaelCecchi-Azzolina for the advanced copy.

A Hard Day For A Hangover is the third and sadly final installment of the Sherriff Sunshine Vicram series. But it certainly does not disappoint! It still captures Sunshine and the gangs incredibly witty, smart dialogue, with the mystery and intrigue of the other books. The incredibly quirky characters from the past stories are also included with some even having shocking revelations. But the laugh out loud dialogue makes these books hard to put down.

In this installment, Sunshine and her high school aged daughter Auri, who seems to be developing her mother’s talent for solving mysteries, in which Sunshine seriously explains to her daughter who wants to be an FBI agent that one of the requirements of being an agent is that she be a virgin, or they won’t take her, are caught up in some of their own family drama. Just who is Auri’s father, and when and how should Sunshine tell her. How will Auri take the news? In the meantime, she and Levi Ravinder and his nasty family, must navigate what comes next.

The story opens with a girl being found unconscious at the bottom of an embankment. No one seems to know who she is or where she came from. Auri takes it upon herself to investigate without her mother’s knowledge. In the meantime, with a Ravinder family prison break, and one of the towns people getting stabbed with a knitting needle, Sunshine seems to be running in circles.

The police station is still under raccoon attack as they have been unable to capture the unofficial deputy of the department even though he continues to wreak havoc on the place. And with all this going on Sunshine and Levi have finally decided to stop playing games and get serious with each other.

With another girl going missing, work is just not that much fun anymore. Auri gets too close to the truth and danger begins to unravel all around Sunshine. The ending will change the town as well as the lives of Sunshine and her family forever.

The Sunshine Vicram series has been one of the funniest mystery series I have ever read with terrific plot twists, odd characters and although I am devastated the series has ended, the final installment for those Sunshine fans will be the page turner they wished for and the ending they always wanted.

Thank you #NetGalley #St.Martin’sPress #DaryndaJones #AHardDayForAHangover for the advanced copy.

The Man I Never Met is an unexpected, wonderfully surprising, engaging story of sight unseen love and the perils which come with it.

Hannah, who lives in England answers her cell phone one day. It’s Davey from America who has a job interview in England and has a question. She tells him he has the wrong number but wishes him good luck before she hangs up.

What she never expected to happen was to get another call from Davey, telling her his good news. He got the job and is moving to England. This starts their sight unseen relationship. They begin texting each other about themselves and their lives. Then the relationship takes a new turn when they send a picture of themselves to each other. As they seem to both like what they see, they spend more time together via FaceTime, watching movies together, falling asleep together, and Hannah showing him England. They finally decide to take this relationship to a new level and with Davey coming in less than thirty days, Hannah begins to apartment hunt for him.

Then the big day arrives, and Hannah is bursting with excitement as she waits at the airport to finally meet the man of her phone dreams. But when everyone has disembarked, there is no Davey. Quite confused, she doesn’t understand what this could mean.

And then she discovers the shocking reason which will change the destiny of both their lives forever.

They try to move on, even though they cannot stop thinking about the other, many times picking their phone up to send a text to the other, but that never happens. Life goes on and yes, they both go on but with a sadness they seem never to be able to let go of.

But sometimes if the love is meant to be, no matter how hard you try to deny it, no matter how long it takes you can possibly one day find a way back to what could have been. Even though Hannah and Davey never fully met, perhaps kismet could possibly intervene, but only if they choose to listen to their feelings.

The Man I Never Met tugs at your heart and with each passing page gives hope to the hopelessness and elation to the despair as they try to find their way back to each other.

Thank you #NetGalley #Dell/RandomHouse #TheManINeverMet #ElleCook/LornaCook for the advanced copy.

Some heartbreaks can keep us so frozen in time that we can never really move on, always wanting to play the what if game, never wanting to let go of the love, good memories, and yes, even the guilt. Some are unable to give themselves the permission to leave it all behind and start anew.

This is the case for Susan Norcross. She lost both her parents in a car accident when she was a young teenager. She blames herself. Not the person who hit them. Everything in her life is based on what they would have done or what she thinks they would have wanted her to do. Now turning forty the same age her mother was when she died, she begins to feel her life start to slip away, just as her mother’s did. Although she was raised by her grandparents and has true friends who know her pain and try to help her, she still can’t help but listen to that internal voice. Her mom’s and dad’s.

Now, she manages her family’s very popular bookstore called Sleigh By the Bay which indeed is an homage to all things Christmas all the time, even with her grandparents dressed as Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus. Both her parents and grandparents met and fell in love while dressed in Santa suits, so the name of the store is totally appropriate! Susan is still waiting for her Santa to arrive. Unfortunately, she thinks her Santa may not be coming down her fireplace anytime soon! She can’t help but feel sad because the thinks she will never experience what her parents and grandparents had.

Her best friend Holly has a different take on the problem. She thinks Susan needs to get out there and mingle with Kringle. Don’t wait for him to come to you, you go and make it happen! And that’s just what Holly convinces Susan to do. She reluctantly agrees to go on a Santa Run where everyone is dressed as Santas for a good cause. And she meets a Santa! But can only see his eyes. They agree to meet after the race. He never shows up. Typical Susan luck. End of story…or is it?

Holly devises a plan in which though mathematics she promises to find Susan’s Santa for her. At this point, Susan just wants to be left alone, but she knows Holly will never let this go. Susan agrees and what she learns is so much for than just finding someone who is wearing a Santa suit. She begins to see with the help of those around her what her life has been like and what it used to be. She learns you can let go of the pain and sorrow and still keep those happy memories alive and treasure them.

You can also begin to create new memories, for yourself and all those around you. Will Susan get her Santa ending? Well, sometimes when you least expect it, miracles happen right under your red reindeer nose!

A Wish for Winter is another Shipman masterpiece. It has all the pieces to make a beautifully made story. Love, sorrow, forgiveness, and friendship intertwined.

Thank you #NetGalley #GraydonHouse #ViolaShipman #AWishforWinter for the advanced copy.