Don’t Cross Mo Ellery by Birdie Horne

Be prepared to laugh out loud during the reading of this book. Don’t Cross Mo Ellery is hysterical, honest, absurd and crazy all rolled into a smart, shrewd story! I mean, if the first few pages don’t pique your interest, I don’t know what will! Watch as Mo Ellery’s life goes from pretty ok, then bad to worse, and worse and worse, yet you will ride the comedy into the wonderfully funny ending!

On Mo Ellery’s birthday, she accidently displays her boyfriend’s ahem on a zoom call which not only gets her fired, but at the same time she discovers her boyfriend wants to break up, and she must pack up and leave their apartment. To add insult to injury, no one wants her…not her mother and father or her best friend who is a major social internet influencer.

With no money in her savings, she finds a crappy small apartment and a part-time job as a crossing guard. How low can she go? Well, lower! There is one particular driver who becomes her nemesis. One day as he begins to fly by and she prepares herself, something terrible happens and he crashes into a sink hole (which may or may not have been caused by Mo). He is dead in his car. Along with him in said car are three show poodles.

As Mo and a woman named Claudia try to figure out exactly what happened, somehow Mo gets the job of taking the dogs. All three! But it’s what Claudia thinks that has Mo nervous. She thinks he was murdered. Seriously?

So, Mo does what any normal person would do. She takes the dogs to the funeral of their “dad” to try and not only pawn the dogs off to his brother, but to see if there could be any truth to what Claudia has said. And guess what? She thinks Claudia is right! And guess what else? The brother won’t take the dogs!

So along with Claudia and oh yes, a very techy middle schooler, they begin to try and figure out the who, what, where and how of the murder. Then there is another death.

Mo, exhausted from taking care of three dogs, crossing guard duty, watching videos on how to be a detective and trying to discover clues as to what could possibly have happened and oh yes, dating a woman in an Alderman’s office because you know, for leads, what else could possibly go wrong? Well, so much more and it is such fun!

Don’t Cross Mo Ellery will keep a smile on your face the whole time you’re reading the book. This story is about someone who is down on their luck but takes all the danger in stride and in the end well, it may be luck that she figures it out, but she figures it out! And the ending is perfectly Mo Ellery!

Thank you #NetGalley #WilliamMorrow/HarperCollins #BirdieHorne #Don’tCrossMoEllery for the advanced copy.

Amazon.com: Don’t Cross Mo Ellery: A Novel – A Laugh-Out-Loud Cozy Mystery with a Reluctant Detective and Three Chaotic Poodles: 9780063473089: Horne, Birdie: Books

Edit Review – Don’t Cross Mo Ellery | Goodreads

The Secret of the Three Fates by Jess Armstrong

The Secret of the Three Fates is book two in the Ruby Vaughn romance series. And just as the first, The Curse of Penryth Hall, it is mysterious, romantic and filled with intrigue. The second gives us more back story to our main characters. Not everything, but enough to keep you engrossed as to what else could happen in the series. In this story we learn more about our Ruby who also continues to prove our heroine can do just about anything a man can do!

Mr. Owens, Ruby’s employer takes Ruby on a journey to Manhurst Castle to look at manuscripts for his collection. But he is not telling Ruby why he is really there. She discovers they have been invited to a seance with three mediums. Mr. Owens is delighted, Ruby is not.

While much is learned during the seance, one of the mediums is later found dead by Ruby in water near a bridge. Although the death has been quickly ruled a suicide, Ruby does not believe the story. She sees things which certainly would not add up to suicide. So, she begins to investigate and she is shocked to discover it is possible that her beloved Mr. Owens seems to be the prime suspect! Then, another medium disappears…

Enter Ruan Kivell whom she just left a few weeks earlier. He somehow knew she was in danger. Ruby and Ruan will need all their strength together to fight off the evil that seems to be erupting all around them. No one is safe from dying.

Ruby will need all her brawniness and intelligence to figure out what is happening. She will also need to be creative in how she snoops into the devious lives of some of the others. And this time, the one who is always protected will become the protector.

The Secret of the Three Fates is a great story filled with surprises as well as an ending no one could ever have expected!

Thank you #NetGalley #MinotaurBooks #TheSecretoftheThreeFates #JessArmstrong for the advanced copy.

Amazon.com: The Secret of the Three Fates: A Ruby Vaughn Mystery: 9781250909886: Armstrong, Jess: Books

https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit/203578784-the-secret-of-the-three-fates

Mr. & Mrs. Dixon Hide A Body by Jennifer Holdich

Mr. & Mrs. Dixon Hide A Body is a delightfully dark, funny, wicked story. The plot revolves around a miserable married couple, an accidental murder and the coverup which follows. With a subtle War of the Roses feel, it has mystery, humor and quirky characters who hate deeply, steal openly, and want each other dead. Let the cat and mouse game begin!

Daisy Dixon dreams of her husband, daily. She would like to kill him. Unfortunately, she can’t figure out a way which would not implicate her. But she will wait patiently. He makes her live in a dilapidated estate, keeps her on a very short leash both on where she goes and how much she spends…he gives her a paltry allowance, and watches what she eats. Her husband is a financier and is rich, very rich.

One night, they must go to an event neither of them wants to go to and Daisy, who was driving so her husband James could drink the night away are on their way home when she accidentally hits a man walking a dark road. She immediately wants to call the police, but James insists they would get into too much trouble, and he makes them take the body back to their property and store it.

As they watch the news and listen to the gossip both of them are questioned. But it seems James has a plan he never let Daisy in on. He wants her out of the picture. As she relays to the reader how they met, their courtship and marriage, she realizes something is very amiss.

She begins to fight back in her own way.

Can Daisy beat not only the system, but her husband to the finish line without revealing what she did. All in the hopes of getting the freedom she so rightly deserves.

Mr. & Mrs. Dixon Hide A Body is wonderfully satisfying while being evil to the core, funny as heck and extremely clever. Sometimes karma can bite you!

Thank you #NetGalley #SourcebooksLandmark #JenniferHoldich #Mr.&Mrs.DixonHideABody for the advanced copy.

Amazon.com: Mr. and Mrs. Dixon Hide a Body: A Novel: 9781464229817: Holdich, Jennifer: Books

Edit Review – Mr. and Mrs. Dixon Hide a Body | Goodreads

If Books Could Kill by Kate Eberle

If you enjoy romance, intrigue, mystery and humor well, If Books Could Kill will check off all those boxes! The story is a wonderfully creative romp, as you literally fall into a book! It is clever, the characters funny and adorable…even the villains and the plot are well, magical.

When romance reader Roxie Mitchell meets a crazy man on the street and he asks her to make a wish and throws glitter all over her, well, she just figures it’s just the sign of the times. But she immediately wishes her favorite romance novelist, Anna Matthews who has not written a new romance in quite a while would do just that…right another book.

That same day she meets a tall, dark and handsome stranger in a library no less and hit it off! He asks her on a date, she accepts, and the date is magical, until it is time for the kiss….

Roxie realizes that perhaps Anna Matthews may have decided to change her style of writing and for some reason not only has her wish come true, but Matthews is actually writing a thriller, and she, Roxie is the protagonist and they are trying to kill her!

As Roxie tries to get away from said handsome stranger she jumps into an Uber with a passenger in the back. Another tall, dark handsome hopefully not as crazy stranger named Grant Hoffman. She starts the car and races away with a very frightened college professor in the back!

Now she must not only make Grant believe her crazy story, but she must also make him help her stay alive until she can figure out where Anna Matthews is writing and find her and tell her she has to stop because she is literally trying to kill HER!

That my friends is when the real fun starts!

Travel with Roxie and Grant as they must become superheroes, figure out who the bad guys are and oh yes, maybe fall in love. But wait! They are in a book being written and none of it is real so…

If Books Could Kill is delightfully amusing, suspenseful with so many twists and turns your head will spin!

Thank you #NetGalley #PenguinBooks #IfBooksCouldKill #KateEberle for the advanced copy.

If Books Could Kill: Kate Eberle: 9780241798867: Amazon.com: Books

Edit Review – If Books Could Kill | Goodreads

Heart the Lover by Lily King

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

The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer

The Book Witch is a magical, beautiful trip down a memory lane of books. A wonderful quote from the book is “All stories are love stories if you love stories”. This book is a love story to not only books, but to those who love to read them. It’s as I call her books, Meg Shaffer’s imaginative mind as only she knows how. Embrace the journey, the book and understand the importance of not only characters you will fall in love with, but just how special their authors are as well!

Rainy March, yes that’s her name, is a book witch just as her mother and grandfather. She is able to jump in and out of books whenever there seems to be a problem with a character or plot change. For example, a main character hopping out of the book accidentally or on purpose. Rainy is there to find the person and get them back into the story. Or if something happens to change a plot, she can go in with her trusty magical umbrella and put the story back on track. She loves her job!

Rainy’s grandfather also is able to do this type of work. Her mother who passed away when she was young was from everything she has ever been told the best book witch who ever lived. But the only item she has from her mother is a Nancy Drew book which of course Rainy has read hundreds of times looking for some type of clue her mother might have left for her but to no avail.

Rainy is not a rule breaker. She understands the rules of a book witch. First and foremost, you cannot bring a book character into the real world, and you cannot ever stay in a story. But, unfortunately for her she has fallen madly in love with a character from a detective series she has read and reread. She had to go into one of the detective’s stories and once she met the Duke of Chicago well, let’s just say the rules went out the window.

But when she gets caught, and her umbrella taken away, that seems to be the end of Duke. Until her grandfather disappears while on a secret book assignment and she feels she has no choice but to go in and ask Duke for his detective skills help in locating him.

Thus begins Rainy’s life changing journey which will take her down rabbit holes she never knew existed. Could this perhaps help her understand not only where her grandfather is, but what really happened to her mother all those years ago? And what about Duke? With him in the real world will that change him and their relationship.

The Book Witch is a mystical mystery book tour with some beloved stories we all know and love. The reader will savor every minute to see where the plot will take them and become emotional as we weave through the twists and turns of Rainy’s journey.

Thank You #NetGalley #BallentineBooks #MegShaffer #TheBookWitch for the advanced copy.

Amazon.com: The Book Witch: A Novel: 9780593983584: Shaffer, Meg: Books

Lisa Leone-campbell’s review of The Book Witch | Goodreads

Killing Me Softly by Sandie Jones

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

Remain by Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan

When two famous writers from different artistic arenas come together you are excited to see what blossoms from both of their imaginary minds. Remain is an extraordinary supernatural love story, shocker and mystery all rolled into one exciting read.

Tate Donovan, an architect, has just been released from a psychiatric hospital. Deeply depressed by the passing of his beloved sister, and encouraged by his best friend Oscar, he had checked himself in. Now, finally set free and feeling better he is headed to Cape Cod to repay his friend. He is set to help build the summer house of his friend’s dreams.

As he settles into the bed and breakfast he will be staying at, he meets a beautiful woman named Wren, the owner of the property. As they get to know each other, they discover not only do they have much in common, but they like each other. Tate has never felt this way about any woman he has dated. He is pulled to her in a way he can’t describe. But Wren has a few secrets which Tate needs to figure out. He knows someone hurt her and wants to discover why. And how.

Thus begins a love story for the ages, a haunting mystery and an amazing thriller. It’s a story of insights which needed to be learned, secrets which needed to be exposed, heartbreak and moving on from one’s past.

Remain is a beautiful dark love story, an incredibly imaginative tale which merges genres you can’t imagine ever would be able to come together, but yet when all is said and done is astonishing!

Remain is going to be a motion picture directed of course, by M. Night Shyamalan!

Published by Random House

The Matchmaker by Aisha Saeed

The Matchmaker is an incredibly creative thriller with of course a love story sprinkled into this startling story. It’s imaginative plot, with a strong woman at the helm will keep you invested as we begin to learn (as she does) some dark secrets which were hidden from her. But this matchmaker will meet her own match when she discovers someone for some reason wants her dead!

Nura Khan is a third-generation matchmaker just as her grandmother and mother had been. She runs the business with her sister but make no mistake Nura has been the one who made it successful. She runs a very tight ship and has no problem telling a potential client they are not a fit for her agency.

But when one of the matches ends up falling apart on the day of the wedding, Nura can’t believe it was the agency’s fault. She’s not only confused but embarrassed. At the same time her best friend Azur who is her pretend fiancé at these weddings finds a real girlfriend much to her dismay.

Then another couple they matched has an even worse situation on their wedding day and now the agency begins to fall apart. And Nura starts to receive threats. Someone was able to break into her house. Someone is clearly watching her. Who’s trying to take her down and why?

But unfortunately for Nura this is only the beginning of what might be the end of her career when she learns some devastating family secrets. Then this stalker decides it’s time to kill her. Who has it out for Nura? A former client? A journalist who seems to know where she is at all times?

The Matchmaker is an enjoyable journey into mystery and suspense with a bit of romance and a great deal of danger. The race to the end is heart-stopping! You’ll never guess who Nura’s deadly match turns out to be!

Thank you #NetGalley #Bantam #AishaSaeed #TheMatchmaker for the advanced copy.

The Last Session by Julia Bartz

The Last Session is quite a compelling psychological thriller with an incredible mystery which will have you compulsively reading! Not knowing who the good guys are and not trusting anyone, the story scans the past and present and then intertwines them leading to a jaw-dropping ending.

Thea is a social worker in a psychiatric unit. Her choice of career, twofold as she herself grew up with insecurity, bullying and intimacy issues.

But when a young woman shows up in a catatonic state Thea believes she may know but can’t place her Thea’s life as she knows it will change forever.

Through investigation Thea realizes the woman is an actress from a movie from years ago which had a cult-like following, including by herself. Thea wants to talk to her about her life and try and figure out how she got to the unit, but unfortunately the minute the woman wakes up her parents come to discharge her and whisk her away.

But Thea believes the woman left her clues before she left…was it to help her out of a bad situation? As she follows the pieces of the puzzle, she comes across a podcast which then changes her perspective on everything. She now feels the woman could be in danger and needs her help.

Thea decides to go to a retreat in New Mexico which is being run by a very strange couple. The retreat is for people who have intimacy issues. She can’t understand what the woman’s connection could possibly be to this couple or this sanctuary?

Forced to pretend, she soon discovers there is more going on than trying to help those with personal problems. It seems there are missing people, including the woman from the movie, and many dark secrets amongst the staff.

What will soon be discovered is the couple running the retreat are not who they say they are and Thea will become the next victim of their obsession. She realizes they will do anything to keep her there. She knows too much. And time is running out. And she’s learned she can’t trust anyone. Will she make it out alive?

The Last Session is a juicy exciting story in which you will not be able to tell who is helping or who wants Thea dead. Nor will you understand the incredible reason why until the last session!

Thank you #NetGalley #Atria/EmilyBestlerBooks #JuliaBartz #TheLastSession for the advance copy.





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