Tag: fiction

Cross My Heart by Megan Collins

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Cross My Heart is a heart palpitating thriller with surprising twists and turns during the story in Megan Collins style, which will keep you reading until the stunning unexpected ending. Her creative deviousness plays well into the plot about a woman who previously had been jilted by a boyfriend, and she ends up having a heart transplant. But it is so much more. You are going to have the ride of your life!

Rosie Lachlan’s life was changed forever when she discovered she needed a heart transplant. She now must take medications without fail morning and night for the rest of her life, or until she needs another transplant. She works in a bridal salon owned by her parents. Even though she has a new life, she finds herself a bit depressed because prior to the transplant she was dumped by someone she thought she would be spending the rest of her life with (and it became very difficult) and being in the wedding dress industry, she starts to feel like she will never find the one.

Also, Rosie is curious about the person whose heart is keeping her alive. She decides to do a bit of research, and she discovers (or so she thinks) the heart came from Daphne Thorne, wife of the best-selling author and local, Morgan Thorne. According to what she can find, Daphne had an accident in their house and tripped and fell.

She goes against protocol and contacts Morgan through the Donor Connect Service which has been set up. She at first emails Morgan anonymously to find out if she was right. As they begin to correspond, she begins to feel a connection to him. Is this in part because Daphne is inside her? They begin to tell each other more about each other’s lives and Rosie begins to fall for Morgan. She even finds out he lives close to where she lives. Sometimes she even walks by his house.

But as she looks online, she discovers social media does not have the same feelings about Morgan. Many believe he actually killed his wife. Even Rosie’s best friend Nina who works at the hospital in which Daphne died said Morgan had been acting strange the night of her death.

It is then that Rosie begins to research Morgan and Daphne’s relationship. And she begins to wonder…

Until Morgan is found dead in his home and unfortunately for Rosie she suddenly becomes the main suspect in what is now considered a murder! Due to Rosie’s complicated past relationship, well, it does not help with the process of finding her innocent.

Rosie knows it wasn’t her. Which means someone else killed Morgan. But who? Did they know what she was up to by having an online relationship with the author? As Rosie ponders these questions, she discovers her new life is in danger. But what on earth does she know that would make someone want to kill her?

How can Rosie save herself and prove she did not kill Morgan?

Cross My Heart is filled with psychological drama and shocking revelations. Trust me you will never see the ending coming…cross my heart…

Thank you #NetGalley #AtriaBooks #MeganCollins #CrossMyHeart for the advanced copy.

The Night Guest by Hildur Knutsdottir

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The Night Guest is eerie, creepy and delicious! A can’t put down nightmare of a story where nothing makes sense until everything makes sense. The intensity of the book makes for a heart-palpitating quick read which will continue to give you goosebumps for hours after.

Iounn lives in Iceland. She has a great job, good friends (sort of), but unfortunately many horrible health problems which no doctor seems to be able to resolve.

She is tired all the time, her body achy and she has constant unexplained bruising sometimes almost every day. Finally, she sees a female doctor and Iounn feels more comfortable with the results of her blood tests which all come back fine, she feels as if she is now able to relax. Until the next time she wakes up tired, bruised and with what looks like rust under her fingernails.

Her friends believe it is her diet. They tell her to eat more. They tell her to exercise more. They tell her to take sleeping pills to help her sleep. Reluctantly, her doctor does prescribe the sleeping pills and at first they are a miracle! Until one night when she goes to take them and there are none left in the bottle. What happened to the pills?

Her weekly dinner with her parents is another added stress in her life. She’s vegetarian and her mother refuses to change the dinner menu for her. The table talk is always tense and irritating which adds to her anxiety.

Then someone suggests she buy a watch which tracks your daily steps to make sure she’s getting enough exercise to tire herself out. But one morning she discovers she forgot to take the watch off before going to bed and is horrified to see an added 40,000 steps! This can’t be right.

What is happening to her? Now she must try and figure out what is going on at night. She refuses to tell anybody her secret. What could she be doing at night and why?

Well reader, that’s all you are going to get from me. But read The Night Guest you must! It’s a spine-chilling story and the ending? Well, see for yourself!

Thank you #NetGalley #TorNightlife #HildurKnutsdottir #TheNightGuest for the advanced copy.

I Need You To Read This by Jessa Maxwell

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I NEED you to read I Need You To Read This! It’s a flawless example of a perfect thriller! With an outstanding plot, mysterious characters and clues, you will be kept on your toes by this all-consuming story. It truly checkmarks all the ways which make for an amazing read…murder, mystery, secrets, thrill and a gasping ending!

Advice columnist extraordinaire Francis Keen has been murdered. Alex Marks who is a copywriter by day and a hermit by night in New York City is devastated. Alex grew up with Dear Constance and feels like she survived her childhood through reading her column.

Alex tries to stay under the radar. She goes to the same coffee shop every morning, then to her job and then home. Her only friends…the waitress and a customer at the diner and she only sees them for five minutes a day.

But something happens to Alex when she sees the job announcement for a replacement for Keen’s Dear Constance column. She feels something she has never felt before. And so, without thinking she applies for the job. Surprisingly she actually gets it! Ah, but always be careful what you wish for!

After meeting with the editor in chief Howard Dimitri she begins what she considers a new life, with a new purpose…to help those in need. But, unfortunately, someone does not feel the same way as Alex. She begins to get threatening notes. She believes it’s just a reader who is angry that they have replaced Keen and she is now Dear Contance.

As she settles into the office, she discovers the editor in chief has a few secrets and then discovers there are some shady goings on in the office. Her mind starts to wander and she begins to think perhaps someone who worked with Keen could possibly have killer her. But, why?

As Alex tries to discover what exactly is going on in the office, her past which she left behind suddenly begins to collide with her present! Now Alex is frightened! Just as she believes she knows what happened to Dear Constance, well, let’s just say she’s wrong! And now she could be the next dead Dear Constance!

I Need You To Read This is an absolutely enjoyable read with so many layers and hidden secrets it will make your head spin! The twists and turns are impeccable, but scattered within the story are new friendships and trusts and trying to create a new life. But mostly it’s a downright great murder mystery!

Thank you #NetGalley #AtriaBooks #JessaMaxwell #INeedYouToReadThis for the advanced copy.

Till Death Do Us Part by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

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Till Death Do Us Part is an amazingly shocking thriller you never thought you needed and won’t be able to put down. Each chapter draws you deeper into the riveting mystery and every revelation gives you tingles until finally, finally! the crescendo of the jaw dropping ending you do not see coming, slaps you in the face!

June is ready to take the leap and get married again. You see, ten years ago June met and married the love of her life Josh, only to have him taken away a week later when he disappears after going for a swim on their honeymoon. After an intense search he is presumed drowned making June a widow.

Now, after all these years, and with much therapy, she has met someone and is ready to marry again. Owning her own wine bar in New York City now, and having some success at it, June is taking the leap although still to this day she has never fully believed Josh died. Not after reading his final text to her. But she is finally excited for her future.

Until one day when she is in Central Park and turns to see a man who is Josh staring at her. She immediately returns back to the days just after he went missing when she would turn and see him, even though he was not there. But, for some reason this is very different. She absolutely knows what she saw was real!

So, she quietly begins to do a bit of research on where his family ended up, his family owned a winery in Napa Valley, and when she pulls the website up, there before her eyes is a picture of Josh, a woman and two young children. In shock, she decides to lie to her fiancé and go out to the winery to confront Josh.

But what June will discover is that nothing makes sense and the deeper she opens the Pandora’s box, the more confused she becomes. And then, she discovers her fiancé has been hiding a secret from her. Something she is not sure she can forgive him for.

June must begin to wade through Josh, his family and her own past to discover some terrible truths that were hidden from her all those years ago.

The lesson in Till Death Do Us Part is… love can be the death of not only a life, of their love of their trust but open the flood gates to more questions than answers and horrible secrets and perhaps even more unknown tragedy…until it all becomes exposed.

Thank you #NetGalley #Simon&Schuster #LaurieElizabethFlynn #TillDeathDoUsPart for the advanced copy.

House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen

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House of Glass is another thriller by Sarah Pekkanen, author of The Golden Couple. It will grab the reader from the very first page and take them on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, and just when you think you know where the story is going, you realize you had absolutely no idea where the story was going! The main plot is about a little girl who witnesses a terrible accident at her family home and the psychologist who is assigned to her case to determine which parent she should live with. You may ask, why can’t the little girl tell her? Well…since the accident she has not spoken. And our psychologist can not only sympathize with our little girl but empathize as she too was mute after her own mother was discovered dead at their home many years ago. The story, complex in nature, is fascinating and the ending extraordinary!

Rose Barclay is a mute nine-year-old child who witnessed her nanny plunging from a bedroom window and falling to her death at their home. Now, the parents are in the middle of a terrible divorce as it was discovered that Rose’s father, Ian was having an affair with the nanny. The Barclays, Ian and Beth live in a beautiful house with Ian’s mother who had surgery and has not been able to live on her own.

Now Stella Hudson is approached to figure out who Rose would be better suited to live with as she cannot speak for herself. Stella understands. When Stella was a young girl, her own mother was found dead in their house and Stella fearful, stayed in her closet until help arrived. She too became mute after the trauma, and it took years of therapy to help her understand what had happened. Or so she thought. Because this case has brought up Stella’s horrible memories of year’s past.

Stella begins to try and win Rose over, but Rose seems to not be able to make any kind of connection, no matter how hard she tries. Then Rose discovers all the glass has been removed from the house and replaced with plastic. Why? And Rose seems to have unhealthy fascinations, which disturb Stella. She begins to believe Rose may have a hidden side to her. Could this tragedy have actually been a murder? It seems Rose is keeping many secrets.

Stella soon begins to believe Rose’s parent and grandmother may be covering up for her. And Rose seems to not be so happy with Stella. As Stella delves deeper into Rose’s psyche, she can’t help but remember her own pain. And she takes an unhealthy walk down her own memory lane. But when strange things begin to happen to Stella, she can’t help but feel something else is going on. Something evil. Stella discovers the nanny had been afraid of Rose and wanted to leave.

She understands she must get to the bottom of what really happened in that house the day the nanny died, and she will use any trick she knows to find out. But unfortunately for Stella, that may be her undoing.

House of Glass has so many layers to it and is so fascinating you won’t be able to put the book down. The story is certainly suspenseful, but it’s also a gripping story of a lost child, and an adult who realizes she is still lost.

Thank you #NetGalley #St.Martin’sPress #HouseofGlass #SarahPekkanen for the advanced copy.

The Days I Loved You Most by Amy Neff

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Get your box of tissues out and leave them next to you! The Days I Loved You Most is an unforgettably heartbreaking, heartwarming love story which spans over fifty years. It’s the story of an elderly couple who fell in love as young children and fight hard to keep themselves together even when devastating obstacles stand in their way. They finally marry and think they will get their happily ever after, but of course, no marriage is perfect and the terrible awakening to children, money, regrets and deaths would put a strain on any relationship. But as a testament to their bond, just when they finally think they have figured it all out something horribly despairing and unfair will occur and rather than break them, will make them even stronger. Let me ask you a question…would you end your life if your soulmate and love of your life was diagnosed with a death sentence?

Evelyn and Joseph were childhood friends, turned crushes, turned lovers, turned married. They have always been in each other’s lives. They have raised three children into adults, worked hard at keeping Joseph’s family inn in the family and now are ready to sit back and relax and reap their rewards.

But today, as they gather their children and grandchildren around them, they make an announcement that will shock and stun all those who love then dearly. It has been discovered that Evelyn is very sick and dying. She does not have long to live. So, Evelyn and Joseph have decided to take one more year and enjoy their children and grandchildren and do some bucket list items and after the year they will die together by their own choice.

Of course, the children are angry, devastated and heartbroken, and some will try and make them change their minds, others will have their mind changed for them. During the progression of the last year, the reader is taken on a journey back in time to discover how this endless love came into existence and all the trials and tribulations they have all endured during the years. It will follow the passage of time of all their lives, and we will witness questionable attractions, many regrets, fights and even years long separations which are not understood.

But through all they have remained a family who love each other desperately and will help each other in any way possible. Although the years have sometimes been hard, their foundation may have cracked but it never broke and now as they all try and grab every single second, they can with each other, and grapple with the loss which is sure to come, is it possible to be at peace with this decision which Evelyn and Joseph have made?

The Days I Loved You Most is a powerful tribute to love and life everlasting, as well as the heartbreak of knowing you must let go of all you love in this world but knowing you will be together for eternity.

Thank you #NetGalley #ParkRow #AmyNeff #TheDaysILovedYouMost for the advanced copy.

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

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The Wedding People is a serious, funny, seriously funny story with enough drama and comedy to keep you hanging on every word. The plot deals with love, death, life, connecting with strangers, happiness and depression and change. It truly is an uplifting tale which will have the reader rooting for all the wedding people as they traverse through their problems and try to discover the importance in their lives.

Phoebe Stone is a teacher, and she has decided to go to the famous Cornwall Inn wearing a beautiful dress to finish off her unbearably sad life. You see, she is divorced from the love of her life, also a teacher who cheated on her and ended up falling in love with someone else. As much as they tried, because of Phoebe, they had been unable to get pregnant something they both wanted desperately. She has not been able to finish writing her dissertation to get her PhD…for years, with everyone continually asking how it’s going. And finally, she comes home to her beloved cat Harry dead. And that is the final straw.

Now, as she stands in the lobby to check into the Inn, she realizes the others are checking in for a wedding that coming weekend. She overhears the conversations of some of the wedding people as to what the weekend will bring (with rolled eyes I might add). She discovers she is the only person at the Inn who is not one of the wedding people. Although dressed as such, no one knows.

When the bride to be Iris discovers she is at the Inn, she takes it upon herself, as Iris is quite the overbearing bridezilla, to go to Phoebe’s room to ask her to leave. When Phoebe explains she will not but will be out of her hair before the wedding, well, Iris basically blows a gasket!

As they sit and talk, something begins to happen. They begin to tell each other their deepest darkest fears and secrets. They start to bond over their similarly different ways of coping. And Phoebe begins to realize Iris and the wedding people may not be in a very good way, just as she too is feeling lost and lonely.

Iris invites Phoebe to one of the many, many wedding activities and Phoebe is introduced to the wedding people, the good, the bad, the drunk and the mother of the bride who is clearly Iris’s antagonist. You see, this wedding was supposed to happen before her father passed away. But he didn’t make it.

The more chaos the wedding people cause, the closer Phoebe and Iris become. But why? They are totally different people…or are they? And the closer Iris gets to her wedding, the closer Phoebe and Iris become to realizing certain things about themselves and each other. Are they now friends?

The Wedding People will break your heart, make you laugh, as you watch individuals learn about each other and grow, as they make life-changing choices and you will ponder the question, how on earth can two total strangers change each other’s lives as well as the wedding peoples for the better in just three days.

Thank you #NetGalley #HenryHoltandCo. #TheWeddingPeople #AlisonEspach for the advanced copy.

One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day

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Jamie Day, author of the wonderful thriller The Block Party has another juicy, can’t put down, dysfunctional family murder mystery. Filled with shocking surprises and secrets and a few dead bodies, it also includes a lovable protagonist whom everyone will root for because she is so deserving.

Charley works as a maid at the Precipice, a larger-than-life hotel in Maine. Her mother dead, her nana in a home for dementia which money wise is draining her dry, Charley has resorted to not so legal activities at the hotel to make ends meet.

Now, the owner of the resort, George Bishop has died, and his family are all invading her sanctuary to sort the will out. Charley is very nervous. She can’t afford to be let go or for them to find out her secrets. Also, as the family travels to the Precipice, they are informed there is a hurricane approaching and with all the guests having to be cancelled, she must now be there alone, with her friend and manager Rodrigo. To say she is nervous is an understatement.

But, when the cast of characters make their grand, and I mean grand entrances, well Charley is a mess. Hopefully these high society snobs won’t figure out what she has been doing.

The big family include: Iris, an ex-con, Vicki, married to Todd (who is kind of creepy), their young son Oliver who only speaks in rhymes, Faith who is married to Hope (you can’t make this up!) but Jamie Day did! and Quinn, the very, very handsome college age son of Vicki. Also arriving is the attorney. Because don’t all rich people travel with their attorney?

The chaos really begins when the will is read, and all the sisters realize they have been left barely anything and Todd who is a nobody seems to be left the bulk of everything! Needless to say, the sisters are in shock as is Charley.

Unfortunately for Todd, he dies that night, of what the police believe was a heart attack. Until the next morning, a discovery will not only change that idea, but pin sister against sister, greed against blackmail, and past secrets which seem to keep coming up and shocking everybody. All the while, this hurricane is in full force and nobody is able to leave, except through murder as it looks like another person bit the icy cold.

As the sisters turn on each other, Charley becomes the voice of reason, Oliver gives them creepy clues in rhymes and Quinn is stunned by the revelations of his mother and aunts. Needless to say, everyone is blaming everyone.

The big question for this big family is who is doing the killing? With so many reasons to dislike each other, it becomes hard to figure out who had the better motive. One Big Happy Family is one tumultuous murdering mystery. The story is very funny, yes even with murders happening, but also moving as more of their pasts are exposed, but don’t let any of that fool you…this story is deliriously deadly!

Thank you #St.Martin’sPress #JamieDay #OneBigHappyFamily for the advanced copy.

A Novel Summer by Jamie Brenner

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A Novel Summer is a wonderful beach read, about…a beach town! Set in Provincetown, MA, it tells the story of three strong women who have known each other since childhood. Growing up in a small, close nit town, they promised no matter what to return to P-
Town every summer to be together. But, what always seems to happen, life and lives change and sadly friends go their separate ways.

So, when they finally do reunite you would hope the reunion would be special. But unfortunately, that is not the case with these three beloved friends. What does happen is they air their differences which include jealousy, heartbreak and tension. But this is also a very moving book about how friends who have become lost to each other can somehow, not easily, resolve their differences, move past obstacles and come together during crisis and even apologize and admit to past mistakes. And of course, there is romance!

When Shelby’s best friend Colleen, whose parents own the only bookstore in town, which she manages, called Land’s End implores Shelby to come home to help her, Shelby, an author with her first book out, living in New York City goes to her friend’s aid. You see Colleen is pregnant with twins and has been told she must take it easy.

Shelby has not been back to Provincetown for a few years and is hesitantly excited to go back. She realizes she has left some unfinished business behind. But, Colleen is more important. Unfortunately their friend Hunter, who herself is in publishing and is living in town is not very pleased with her return. Hunter is embarrassed as she feels Shelby used her life and secrets in her new book and everyone in town knows it. She wants nothing to do with her.

On top of all this, Shelby has a second book coming due and she has a bit of writer’s block. Oh and she now has to face her high school boyfriend, Justin whom she left to go to the Big City to become a writer. She realizes she has a great deal to make up for. but will they all be able to fix what is obviously broken, and also help keep Colleen calm?

But, there seems to be many obstacles at work which will keep them from obtaining their goals. With each, their lives begin to fall apart rather than come together. A Novel Summer is a sweet, second chance story, in so many ways, with romance, deceit, forgiveness and love.

Thank you #NetGalley #ParkRow #ANovelSummer #JamieBrenner for the advanced copy.

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer

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The Lost Story is a beautiful fairy tale for most ages which will not only tug at your heart and bring tears to your eyes, but also will have you falling in love with the most wonderful, strong, funny characters as they attempt to go to battle for each other against some very unlikeable enemies.

Where to begin…Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell disappeared in a West Virginia forest as teenagers. After many massive searches and attempts to find the lost boys, hope was lost. No clues were ever discovered. As mysteriously as they disappeared, six months later Jeremy and Rafe walk back out of the woods to the shock of the not only their parents, but the whole town. Rafe does not remember anything about his time in the forest, and Jeremy chooses to keep it that way.

Now, years later, the boys are men and have gone their separate ways. Rafe lives alone in a cabin and loves art, still with no memory of what occurred all those years ago. Jeremy is now a missing person’s advocate who seems to have a gift for finding lost or missing people.

One day, a girl named Emilie Wendell walks up to Jeremy and begins pleading with him to find her sister Shannon, a sister up until recently she didn’t know she had, who seems to have disappeared into the same forest as Jeremy and Rafe. A teenager, she for all accounts was a budding writer. She had been abducted. Her abductor had been found dead, but Shannon was gone.

Jeremy and a reluctant Rafe agree to take Emilie’s case and thus begins a magical, fantastical journey as the three begin their quest to find Emilie’s sister in the forest in which they too had disappeared. What happens to them all is for the most part, pure joy, and love and excitement. Yes, there are those who hate them and want them dead, but there are also those who want to make amends and protect them.

I will not say much about their journey, as I don’t want to spoil the wonderous discoveries, funny situations and of course the danger they are in. What I will tell you is at the end of the story; I had tears in my eyes.

The Lost Story is a lovely, wonderous, imaginative tale with extremely lovable, quirky characters but is also filled with heart and soul. I am truly glad I was able to find this lost story! And hopefully it will go on for a long time!

Thank you #NetGalley #BallentineBooks #MegShaffer #TheLostStory for the advanced copy.