Tag: romance

Wade Rouse’s new novel, The Bluff is beautiful, tender, heartbreaking yet filled with humor, but more importantly life lessons. When two families must somehow try and make Christmas work while harboring jealousies, resentments, anger and even secrets, one can only hope there will be a bit of self-refection. For some, the lessons will be learned others can’t see past their egos and greed. But no matter what your age you can choose to change.

When Kat Chapman boldly decides to seize the Chapman annual Christmas celebration from the matriarch of the family, Charli who has been doing the holiday forever at the family’s lakefront home on Mackinac Island in Michigan, a place relished in the summer, but feared in the winter she understands there will be pushback. First, because she has invited her own parents to the Island, a place where they lived all their lives before moving away, and secondly because she has decided to vier from her mothers-in-law’s strict rules and have a more relaxed and enjoyable holiday. What could go wrong?

Immediately Charli is put on notice as to what is to come as she enters the house and lo and behold the Christmas tree in not where it should be! She immediately begins to become a thorn in Kat’s side. Especially when she discovers Kat’s parents are arriving! Why? This is HER holiday! And of course, she sticks her nose up at every change Kat has made.

But unfortunately for Kat and Charli, there are many moving parts to the Chapman family this year and with a massive snowstorm getting ready to bear down on the Island we begin to learn the family dynamics on all sides.

Kat’s husband Chris has just taken over the family business much to the ire of his brother Cormac who feels not only is Chris doing a terrible job, but he should be the one running the company which by the way had been failing. Then there is their father J.C. who is an intolerable ogre who drinks way too much and enjoys torturing his family which includes Kat and Chris’ children…his grandchildren no less Chip and Leah.

When Shirley and Bob, Kat’s parents arrive with their dog no less, well things go from bad to worse. Shirley does not seem to be herself and Bob knows something is wrong but for the life of him can’t figure it out.

Add to this the major snowstorm which traps them all in a house with surprise guests and with nowhere to escape, they begin to literally turn on each other. As their feelings begin to explode no one will ever expect that first, they will come out of this Christmas alive and second there will ever be any resolution to problems which have been buried for so many years which are deeper than the snow outside.

The Bluff will hold you captive as we begin to see the dynamics of these extremely dysfunctional relatives some of whom think greed and jealously are positive attributes, while others begin to see the light and this Christmas may open them up to a whole new world!

Thank you #NetGalley #MiraBooks #TheBluff #WadeRouse for the advanced copy.

Amazon.com: The Bluff: A Novel: 9780778306221: Rouse, Wade: Books

Edit Review: The Bluff | Goodreads

My Darling boy is a riveting thriller/mystery about an accidental death which will tear two close families. During an argument between young best friends, one is killed. This death not only rips the two single parent mothers who are also best friends apart but divides their small English village. Although one was killed and the other put in prison, there are some secrets some hope will never see the light of day. And with the murderer on his way home after doing his time in prison, the two mothers must once again confront the memory of what happened those many years ago.

Chrissy and Alice were best friends as were their children Leo and Robbie. They spent all their time supporting each other and keeping each other’s secrets. Until one New Year’s Eve when the two boys begin to argue and there is a push and one of them dies.

Leo is horrified by what happened. While Chrissy and Alice are confused as to what the two close friends could have been fighting about. And in that one moment of anger needless to say, Chrissy and Alice never spoke again. But now, Leo is on his way home. The villagers anxious for is homecoming. Alice sends Chrissy a warning note, don’t come near us. But when Chrissy goes to pick Leo up from prison, he is not there. He had already been released and now is missing.

Chrissy, now frantic because Leo was supposed to come back to the village is terrified that he is already in violation of his parole. But she is more frightened that something has happened to him; that someone did not want him to come back has hurt him. Why? Who?

At the same time on the same day as Leo’s release, it was decided for some reason to have a memorial service for Robbie. But, with Leo missing, nobody feels safe. Where is Leo?

What we do know is that there are many, many hidden secrets, lies and mysteries and if they are exposed there will be more people who they love hurt. Leo must be found.

My Darling Boy is told between two timelines, the night of the killing as well as the day of Leo’s disappearance. As the timelines begin to merge, the secrets begin to spill out, and the story will grip you until every last secret is exposed…and then some!

Thank you #NetGalley #G.P.Putnam’sSons #HelenCoooper #MyDarlingBoy for the advanced copy.

Hodder Stoughton My Darling Boy A gripping psychological thriller with a heart-stopping twist you wont see coming.: Cooper, Helen: 9781399701082: Amazon.com: Books

Edit Review – My Darling Boy | Goodreads

Heart the Lover is extraordinary, heartbreaking yet hopeful and deserving of any literary prize it is nominated for. The story encapsulates every emotion known to a person… love, hate, regret, heartbreak and optimism. While the reader will experience a few shocking twists, the story’s honesty is its message which is genuine.

It all begins when her senior year in college she meets two males from her 17th Century Lit Class. They both sit up front. She is in the back. Their names are Sam and Yosh. Why they begin to talk to her she will never know. But they end up inviting her to the huge house they are staying at during the semester which actually belongs to a professor on sabbatical. All she has ever wanted to do was become a writer. But she needs all the help she can get.

Thus begins their friendships, beginning with them deciding to call her Jordan…not her name. The three become inseparable although their personalities could not be more different. Jordan enjoys the attention and begins to have a crush on one of them. She starts to stay over at the house which for her is exquisite as her small apartment she shares with too many students has no air conditioning, no heat and sometimes no water.

The year will be a rite of passage for all three. There will be arguments, relationship changes and some decisions which will hurt the others and carry them all into the future.

Until one day years later a visit from one of them will once again change the trajectory of the three of them, change their lives forever as the past and present must come together again.

What Jordan will learn is as some decisions from the past need to be addressed, others should try and stay buried so as not to hurt the others. Decisions will need to be made and lives will change. Friendships are fragile but in certain situations you must have superhuman strength to keep going.

Heart the Lover is just beautiful while showing the imperfections we all have when it comes to our friends. But also, the strength one needs to resolve issues which were hidden years ago before it’s too late. The story is painfully magnificent.

Published by Grove Press

Amazon.com: Heart the Lover: 9781837265589: Lily King: Books

Buckle up! You are in for the ride of your life with Sandie Jones’ new book Killing Me Softly. It’s a love story but also about the perfect couple whose lives come crashing down around them due to a terrible, tragic incident which changes everything and each of them. Still trying to hold on to each other, they seem to begin to make irrational decisions as well as start to mistrust each other. Can unforeseen outside influences hinder or help them stay together or completely tear them apart.

Charlie was an up-and-coming chef, who has just been promoted and Freya, his wife is a social worker. But during a congratulatory dinner for Charlie, Freya hears something she shouldn’t have and an argument breaks out. There had been a lot of drinking, words said which cannot be taken back, then…

An accident

A coverup

They decide to leave London and move to a small town where no one knows them. Charlie decides to try and open his own restaurant, and Freya gets a job trying to find money to help sick children. At first, they try to pretend nothing is different, but then the pressures of this new life and their secrets start to wear on them. They begin to look at each other differently. And seek solace it seems from other places.

Freya’s mother is no help. A narcissist who seems to have it out for her daughter, she begins to interfere with their lives. As much as Freya tries to stop her, she seems to insist and poke her nose into their lives.

Told in their own named chapters they explore Charlie’s perspective and how he is doing and feeling and the next what Freya sees happening and what she feels. Both need someone to talk to, besides the other. But unfortunately, they stop talking to each other.

This is when the cat and mouse game truly begins.

How much can each endure. Both begin to make mistakes. What would YOU do if you loved someone so much you would never be able to let them go?

Would you protect them forever? What if you can’t! What happens them?

Killing Me Softley’s ending will kill you! The adrenaline rush you will feel as you read the story is exhausting! Sandie Jones is a genius! Read this book now!

Thank you #NetGalley #MinotaurBooks #SandieJones #KillingMeSoftly for the advanced copy.

Amazon.com: Killing Me Softly: A Novel: 9781250910073: Jones, Sandie: Books

Lisa Leone-campbell’s review of Killing Me Softly | Goodreads