|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
my rating |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1250845963
| 9781250845962
| 1250845963
| 3.96
| 6,316
| May 03, 2022
| May 03, 2022
|
it was amazing
|
It’s the summer of weddings, and Freya Scott is ready. And that’s good, because it’s her wedding to Matthew that’s first on the calendar. It seems tha
It’s the summer of weddings, and Freya Scott is ready. And that’s good, because it’s her wedding to Matthew that’s first on the calendar. It seems that all of her friends have found someone and are settling into married life around the same time, so her summer is packed with weddings. But hers is first, and as she’s finishing the preparations the day before the big day, Matthew shows up, needing desperately to talk to her. When he can’t find a moment’s peace, he pulls her into the cupboard under the stairs to say what he has to say. He can’t marry Freya. It takes a minute for Freya to understand the words he says and then another to believe him. But she finally comprehends that this man she was about to marry has ended their 12-year relationship the day before the wedding. In the cupboard at her father’s house with the vacuum cleaner and broom and who-knows-how-many spiders. Freya sends her friends away, and the caterers and florist and peacocks, and she spends the weekend in bed. She spends another week at her dad’s house, working remotely, before she heads back to London and the flat she had shared with Matthew. It’s her best friends Ruby and Leo, whose upcoming wedding closes out the year’s season, who come up with an idea to help Freya through all those wedding that loom in front of her. They set up a series of challenges that she will have to accomplish, one per wedding, with the final challenge to be decided. She’ll have to relieve someone of his cuff links, get a kiss, run naked down a hotel hallway, make a speech, and for the next wedding in her calendar, she will have to be the last one standing on the dance floor. Freya immediately refuses, not being a great dancer, but Ruby insists. And that night, Freya has to choose whether to try to be the last one on the floor or not, deciding if she wants to be the pitiful woman who got dumped in the closet or if she wants to be someone trying to move forward. She decides to go for it, and as she bows to Ruby and Leo from the dance floor at the end of the night, Freya realizes that she had a good time. Nobody cared about her dancing skills, and her having a task to accomplish distracted her from the heartbreak of being at her friend’s wedding. As the summer goes by, filled with hen dos (bachelorette parties, to Americans) and wedding after wedding, Freya finds herself fulfilling one task after another. She is still grieving, but she is also putting one foot in front of the other. She finds that she likes gardening. She binge watches The Great British Bake-Off. She focuses on work. She gets into a debate about whisky with a fellow wedding guest and dared him to a tasting. If she wins, she gets his cuff links. And despite his working for a brewery and sporting a beard, Freya won the tasting and that wedding’s challenge easily. Freya often finds herself thinking back over her relationship with Matthew. She had been happy and ready to make that lifelong commitment to him, but was he really ready for that himself? Was he truly in love? Had he been happy? Freya keeps moving forward, meeting her wedding challenges with courage and discovering new hobbies herself. She finds herself opening up to the idea of talking to her mother, who had left when she was young. She finds herself opening up, but when Matthew calls her wanting to talk, she finds herself wondering if he was going to try to repair things and get back together. If he does, should she give the relationship another try? Or should she just keep moving forward? The Wedding Season is an utterly charming rom com that brings readers back to the best British romance movies of the ‘90s. These characters are interesting and three-dimensional, smart and motivated. The friendships are genuine, and Freya’s relationships with her father and brother (despite his misstep with the peacocks) is very sweet. While this is billed as a rom com, it’s also the story of a woman finding her way back from devastating heartbreak and learning to live again. Katy Birchall’s new novel is heart-warming and moving, and just everything you want from a book that has eight weddings in it. I adored The Wedding Season. I was worried that the weddings would get repetitive, but they really didn’t. They each have their own venue and their own personality to keep them from getting dull. I loved Freya’s friends for coming up with the challenge ideas for the weddings, and her father and brother are amazing. But Freya herself is the one who steals this story. It’s her courage in light of the weddings and the challenges, her determination to keep moving forward, and her maturity in diving deeply into her emotions and communicating them clearly that gives The Wedding Season its true north. Anyone who has faced heartbreak will find a hero in Freya and find inspiration in her and her winning wedding speech (here’s to feet!). Egalleys for The Wedding Season were provided by St. Martin’s Griffin through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
May 02, 2022
|
May 06, 2022
|
Nov 29, 2021
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1982159243
| 9781982159245
| 1982159243
| 3.58
| 3,909
| Aug 23, 2022
| Aug 23, 2022
|
it was amazing
|
Nicole Mueller is struggling. She had been top of her class at Yale Law School, and she had been given an offer to a prestigious New York law firm. Sh
Nicole Mueller is struggling. She had been top of her class at Yale Law School, and she had been given an offer to a prestigious New York law firm. She had been fast-tracked to partner, but last year one of her clients had folded. She lost an important customer and lots of billable hours. Now her career is fast-tracked to nowhere, and she is put on notice by her mentor that if things don’t change for her, she may be asked to leave the firm. Nicole’s husband Dan is also a lawyer but works as in-house counsel for a bank. He doesn’t have the crazy hours or the need for clients to bill, so while he makes less money, he has less stress. And they live in a large apartment that belongs to his aunt, who gives them a discount on the rent. But when his aunt passes away and his mother and sister let them know that they have designs on the apartment, Dan and Nicole know they need to find a new place to live, quickly. One day, Nicole’s phone buzzes with an email. “Please Join Us,” the header says. It’s an invitation to an exclusive women’s networking group. The invitation was for a week at a dude ranch in Colorado, a chance for her to get out of Manhattan and bond with other successful women for friendship as well as personal and professional enrichment. She decides to go, justifying the time away from the office and the expense by telling herself that it will pay off with its own rewards, and hopefully some wealthy new friends in need of legal counsel. Even before she gets to Colorado, when she’s on the plane remembering how nervous flying makes her, she meets her first fellow member. Congresswoman and former model Athena is sitting nearby and offers Nicole medication (which she refuses) and friendly conversation (which she gratefully accepts) to distract her during the flight. At the ranch, Nicole meets the leaders of the group, former singer Michelle and businesswoman Karma. They had both reached international fame with their careers, and now they want to give back, offering strong women the chance to rise through the ranks of their careers with the kinds of networks and favors that men generally saved for themselves, so they created the group, Panthera Leo. The others at the ranch, besides Nicole and Athena, are another business owner, an actress, and woman whose financial know-how could make or break a company. They bond together through group and personal challenges, and by the end of the week the women are bonded and thinking of themselves as a Pride. After the weeklong retreat, the women all go back to their lives, but the Pride meet together regularly to talk and support each other. And when Nicole finally opens up to them about her challenges at work and needing a new place to live, Connie steps up and offers not only one of the rental apartments she keeps in the city but also a new client who has been looking for new counsel. At the same time, however, there are demands from the others. A donation for a favorite charity, a signature for a petition needed by Athena, even a job for a young lawyer. The lawyer is from Harvard at least, but Nicole rankles at being asked to get involved with her firm’s hiring. As Nicole gets deeper into the new case she was handed, she starts to have more and more questions about the group and its reach. At first, it seemed pretty harmless, just a way to connect to other powerful women. But as more is asked of her, she wonders just how far the Pride will go to get her to do what they want. And when The Test comes, and she’s asked to put her career and maybe even her freedom on the line, how far will Nicole go for the sake of the Pride? And if she does say no, will they use what they know about her to destroy her life? Please Join Us is a twisty thriller from bestselling author Catherine McKenzie. It has a delicious cult flavor to it, with an element of menace that builds throughout the story. The book opens with the The Test, so that sense of imminent danger is strong right at the start, and then we head back to before Nicole knew about the group. Those stories unravel, intertwined, throughout, until after The Test, when Nicole has to decide what she really wants for her future. I was really wanting to like this, but I was a little concerned about the culty idea. There is a lot that could go wrong using a cult-like group as the center of the story, but McKenzie navigates it all with ease and grace. I thought Please Join Us was as close to perfect a thriller as I’ve read recently. I was hooked in right away and never lost focus. I just wanted to keep reading, every single word, all the way to the end. Thriller fans will find a lot to love in this book, and a lot of fun surprises as well. Egalleys for Please Join Us were provided by Atria Books through NetGalley, with many thanks, but I also won a copy of the ARC through a Goodreads giveaway. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Dec 20, 2021
|
Aug 23, 2022
|
Nov 22, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1250219396
| 9781250219398
| 1250219396
| 3.97
| 286,164
| Jul 19, 2022
| Jul 19, 2022
|
it was amazing
|
Hanna Brooks is a bodyguard. She is a trained professional and has worked all over the world as part of an elite team of Executive Protection Agents.
Hanna Brooks is a bodyguard. She is a trained professional and has worked all over the world as part of an elite team of Executive Protection Agents. She is conscientious and thorough, aware of her surroundings and the potential dangers of protecting a client. She’s not had as much success protecting her heart. After a relationship with a fellow protection agent ends badly, Hannah needs something new to throw herself into. There is a possible promotion in her future, running the new office in London, but unfortunately she’s competing with her ex for the spot. But when a last minute job comes up in their native Houston, Hannah throws herself into it, hoping it will get her that promotion. But when that job turns out to be protecting Hollywood heartthrob Jack Stapleton while he’s in Texas with his family, helping his mother recover from cancer. But there is a catch with this job. Jack doesn’t want to add any extra stress to his mother, so he doesn’t want his parents to know that the studio is insisting he has protection. He’d been taking a break from films for a couple of years, so the team is taking his protection seriously but categorizing the threat as light. Jack does have a stalker who knits him sweaters and breeds corgis. But they still have to protect him at all times, without his family knowing what’s going on, so he agrees to let Hannah be his bodyguard only if she pretends to be his girlfriend. Hannah is a little intimidated by Jack. She’s watched him in movies for years, seeing him bigger than life in action movies and romances. One of her movies has her all-time favorite kiss. Pretending to be his girlfriend isn’t her first choice, but she understands that he doesn’t want to upset his mother. And when she meets Jack’s family, Hannah understands. There is a sweetness there that she never had in her own family, and she too wants to protect that. Jack’s brother is angry with him for reasons he doesn’t explain to Hannah, but she can work with that. After Jack’s mother’s surgery goes well, she suggests that everyone move out to their ranch for the next month, until Thanksgiving. And when Jack’s stalker shows up at his rental house in town, the protection team thinks it’s not a bad idea for him to stay at the ranch. Hannah does what she can to stay the pretend girlfriend, but she struggles with her crush on Jack. And when he acts like they are a couple, her confused feelings grow. But when photos of Hannah and Jack at the hospital together are released online and death threats come in against her, she has to protect more than just her heart. More than just her client. She may have to protect her own life as well. The Bodyguard is a heart-warming romance with genuine laugh-out-loud moments. I’ve heard this called a rom com, and there is romance, and there is comedy, but it’s not as formulaic as a typical beach read rom com. Author Katherine Center has created these characters with depth and secrets, with honesty and flaws. This is a story of healing and hope, with romantic overtones. I listened to the audio book of The Bodyguard, narrated by Patti Murin. She had an intelligent snark to her for Hannah’s voice that I found particularly charming. She really brought Hannah to life for me, especially when Jack was making fun of her and she was being feisty. I wasn’t sure how the story would play out, with the bodyguard and the movie star, but these characters were very real to me, so all of my worries were for nothing. I am a big fan of rom coms, books and movies, and this has a classic story for that formula of storytelling. But Center took that idea and grew it into something deeper and richer and fantastically entertaining. I think romance fans can find something here that they could enjoy, but it has a lot more layers than a typical romance. And while I was laughing out loud whenever Jack called Hannah “Stumpy,” or when she showed him just how capable she was at her job, I was also so moved by the moments of true family they had. This book has it all, from a great story to phenomenal characters to real feelings and a perfect ending. An early copy of the audio book was provided by Macmillan Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jul 15, 2022
|
Jul 21, 2022
|
Nov 18, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 9781250839725
| unknown
| 3.53
| 4,205
| Mar 15, 2022
| Mar 15, 2022
|
really liked it
|
Tempest Raj is back home. Until recently, she was headlining a magic show in Las Vegas, but a near-fatal accident ended her run, and her producers clo
Tempest Raj is back home. Until recently, she was headlining a magic show in Las Vegas, but a near-fatal accident ended her run, and her producers closed down her show. Having to stop early meant that she lost a lot of money, so she had to sell her house to pay everyone. She ended up back in California, moving back in with her father, into her childhood room. Being back at home, nourished by her grandfather’s cooking, Tempest gets to spend time with her grandparents and father again, and to reconnect with old friends. She can recover from the illusion that left her underwater in a locked box for a length of time just short of deadly while a fire burned on the stage. But Tempest is certain that it was no accident. She wasn’t completely sure of who it was who rescued her, but she knows without a doubt that it was sabotage that caused the illusion to go so incredibly wrong. But now that she’s home, she can help her father in a new way. He and Tempest’s mother had opened their own business years ago, and since her mother went missing five years ago, the business has been struggling. Her father is a builder, but it was her mother who brought her special magic to Secret Staircase Construction, a company that brings hidden rooms, secret passageways, and sliding bookcases to life. When Tempest was in Las Vegas, she could send money from her show home to help. Now that’s over, Tempest wants to help by adding some of her magic into the designs and the ideas, like her mother used to. She goes to meet her father on his latest job, an older house that has a strange energy to it. In a small room off the kitchen that could be used as a pantry, they want to change it over to a playroom for the owner’s 6-yera-old son. But there is a coldness in the room that feels unnatural. And when the Secret Staircase team starts to open up one of the walls, they find a body. When they pull it out from the wall, they discover that it’s Tempest assistant from Las Vegas, Cassidy, who worked as Tempest’s body double. Tempest has no idea who Cassidy ended up in the wall. She didn’t even know Cassidy was in California. And when the team went to investigate the house, to see how she had gotten into the wall, they found no way that she could have been placed there. There were no secret passageways, no openings, no way for someone to have hidden her there. Tempest was baffled. As someone who created illusions for a living, she was frustrated to be stumped on such a puzzle. Tempest turned to the one person she knew could help with the mystery, her best friend Ivy. Since they were kids, they watched mystery movies and read books together, sharing their love of solving puzzles. Tempest and Ivy set about to figure out who would kill Cassidy and how they hid her body where Tempest would find it. But at the same time, Tempest has to wonder if she had been the intended target. Tempest had chosen Cassidy for her magic show partly because of her resemblance to Tempest. Is it possible that someone had really wanted to kill Tempest? Or had Cassidy’s death and discovery been a warning for Tempest? Or could it be the Raj curse, the one that had haunted her family for generations? The curse says that the firstborn in the family would die by magic. Is the curse coming for Tempest, or is it someone closer to home that is creating the danger? Under Lock & Skeleton Key is the first in a new mystery series by Agatha Award winning author Gigi Pandian. This complex murder mystery blends magic and old-fashioned shoe leather, the wisdom of the crime novels we all grew up on and the modern tools we have now. With complex family issues and a bonus treasure hunt, this cozy offers up so much more than the typical cozy. The layers of the story is like finding a good book with its own hidden room behind the staircase, and it just keeps getting more interesting. I got to listen to this one audio, with narrator Soneela Nonkani. I’ve listened to her read a couple of other books, and I feel like she is a bit of an acquired taste. At the beginning of the book, I felt like she was extra dramatic and she tamed her enthusiasm over the course of the book. Or I got used to her enthusiasm over the course of the book. That being said, I still really like her as a narrator. I thought she was a good match for Tempest, and she made listening to the book lots of fun. I think this would be a fun book to read, but it was also a lot of fun to listen to. Either way, Under Lock & Skeleton Key is a great addition to the mystery shelves, genuinely unique in its use of magic in solving crimes like this. and I can’t wait to see where Tempest takes us next! An early copy of the audio book for Under Lock & Skeleton Key was provided by Macmillan Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Mar 08, 2022
|
Mar 17, 2022
|
Nov 12, 2021
|
Audiobook
| |||||||||||||||
| 1728247527
| 9781728247526
| 1728247527
| 3.46
| 3,049
| Apr 12, 2022
| Apr 12, 2022
|
really liked it
|
Aidan Marlowe is a broken man. The love of his life, his wife Holly, dropped dead from a brain aneurism while at their kids’ school, and their twins,
Aidan Marlowe is a broken man. The love of his life, his wife Holly, dropped dead from a brain aneurism while at their kids’ school, and their twins, Maggie and Bo, were there to see it. Marlowe is trying to inch forward, get through the funeral and help his kids manage their grief. When he gets a moment alone at the funeral with the coffin, he tries to tell Holly the one secret he’d not been able to tell her in life, but the ping of a text message distracts him. And that’s when he sees the text about the lottery. He’d been playing the same lottery numbers for years, and they finally hit. In a heartbeat, he learned that he’d won thirty million dollars. He found a city that spoke to him of safety, of prosperity, of security. It’s a place with good schools, where his kids can grow up without fear. It would be a fresh start, this big house in Bury, New Hampshire. Marlowe is working with a lawyer who knows what to do with lots of money, and she’s set up new bank accounts for him and trusts for the twins. He closed on the house and hired an interior designer to fill it with furniture. And then he found the letter. It was printed on plain white paper and left on the front porch. It’s written by someone nearby, or a group. It’s signed We Who Watch, and it talks about the fact that his wife died and he’d won the lottery. It would have been easy enough to figure out that his wife had died, but he stayed anonymous when he won the lottery. No one was supposed to know about that. So who could have written the letter? Then Marlowe finds out that the house has a history. The man who had been living there disappeared suddenly, and no one knew where he was. His two grown daughters had also gone missing, along with a grandson. There had been an investigation, but the local police found nothing. And then Marlowe finds a safe room in the basement. He has to admit that there is a dark feeling in the house. Could it be haunted? Or is it just the secrets that flow through the walls? Marlowe hires a security company to put up cameras, but it doesn’t seem to help. There is still that creepiness in the air. More letters show up, telling him that he can’t move his family away, vaguely threatening, from We Who Watch. Marlowe has his dad come to stay with them for awhile, which is good for the kids. But Marlowe keeps splintering apart. He’s drinking a lot. He loses time. He can feel his anger building, but he doesn’t know what to do about it. He wonders if he can protect his kids against the darkness in the house, against the people watching them, against the darkness growing in himself. He wants to give up. He wants to join his wife in the next life. But he still has two kids who are depending on him. Will Marlowe be able to keep them safe in this house in Bury, New Hampshire, or will the darkness destroy them all? Carter Wilson is back with The New Neighbor, a creepy thriller that will have you questioning your sanity as one man’s life unravels before him. The author of The Dead Husband delivers a story with a little psychology, a helping of supernatural, and more than a little danger in this domestic thriller. Wilson keeps readers guessing what is real and what is insanity while asking just how far one man would go to protect his family from evil. I raced through The New Neighbor, trying to keep track of what I thought was really happening and what it could mean. There is a lot going on in this book, and it’s hard to know what’s real and what is not. As Marlow loses his hold on reality, it gets more challenging to see the truth, but the stakes kept going up, keeping me hooked in to the story, more and more desperate to find out what’s really happening. I thought this was a strong thriller, and I look forward to were Wilson takes us next. Egalleys for The New Neighbor were provided by Poisoned Pen Press through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Apr 22, 2022
|
Apr 25, 2022
|
Oct 22, 2021
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0063084600
| 9780063084605
| 0063084600
| 3.45
| 7,593
| Jan 18, 2022
| Feb 08, 2022
|
really liked it
|
Californians Nora Howell, her husband Keith, and teenage daughters Stacey and Piper are moving to New York for a year. Keith’s job is moving him to Ne
Californians Nora Howell, her husband Keith, and teenage daughters Stacey and Piper are moving to New York for a year. Keith’s job is moving him to New York for a year, and after a lot of discussions, Nora decided it would be easiest for them to all move across the country for a year instead of making him commute, flying back to see them once or twice a month. Nora found an amazing rental in Brooklyn, and they flew across the country for a year of new experiences. It doesn’t take long for Nora to meet one of her neighbors—just one trip to the dog walk in the nearby park, and Nora started talking to Heather. She and her wife Jules and their two teenagers live just down the street, and they immediately invite the Howells over for dinner to welcome them to the neighborhood and to Brooklyn. The dinner starts out well, with Piper getting along well with Courtney and Stacey talking to Lennon, sharing their mutual love of reading. But then someone mentions what happened in the house they had just moved into, and the whole atmosphere changed. Keith, Stacey, and Piper were all shocked and concerned to find out that there had been a triple murder in the house. Nora acted like she was as well. Twenty-five years before, the couple who has lived in that house had been shot, along with their teenaged daughter. No one had ever been prosecuted for the murders. There were never even any suspects. The house hadn’t been lived in for all those years. The owner was a businessman who lived in Europe, so he didn’t use it himself. And then he finally put it up for rent, just before they moving to New York for a year. As if that wasn’t creepy enough for Stacey, the true crime aficionado, she gets the feeling like someone is watching her. She thinks she sees someone one a nearby roof watching her with binoculars. But after taking a second look, there was no one there. But the feeling persisted. Weeks go by, and they all start to settle in. There are more coffees and dinners with Jules and Heather. The girls start at their new school, learning to take the subway around the city. Keith gets settled into the job and tried to be present at home with Nora and the girls. And Nora, a horticulturist by trade, starts cleaning up the yard. She buys new herbs and flowers to plant and pulls up some of the old plants that were in the wrong part of the yard. But when she does that, she finds a small metal box. When she pries open the box, she finds the original papers for the couple who had been murdered, packets of cash, some jewelry, and under all that, a gun. Nora tells no one about her discovery, locking it in the shed that no one else uses. While the Howells look like a perfect family, there are secrets that seep out as the weeks go by. Keith worries that Nora has been cheating on him. Stacey heard her parents talking about how maybe she needs a psychiatrist, and she wonders if she does, even though she’s finally at a school where she’s making friends and she even has a boyfriend. Piper is sneaking out to go to parties and smoking pot. But Nora is the one with the biggest secrets, the ones that could destroy her entire family. And moving back to New York may just be the lit fuse that causes her whole family to blow up. Bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub has crafted a standalone thriller in The Other Family that can stand up to some of the biggest names in thriller writing. This is a powerful story of secrets and how they can affect a family’s well-being. The characters are compelling, and the New York setting adds more texture to the story, from the seasons that the Howells get to experience (some for the first time) to the noise and crowds of the subway to the peace of the park. I have not read a lot of Staub’s books yet, but I thought this one read like butter. It’s smooth in its craft, layering in the hints of the secrets that will come to light eventually, spreading out the tension through the different characters so that no matter where you look, there is something creepy happening. But at the same time, you can’t look away, because you want to know the whole story. You want to know what happens to this family but also to the family that came before. This is a smooth thriller that keeps you guessing all the way to the end. Egalleys for The Other Family were provided by William Morrow through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 03, 2022
|
Feb 08, 2022
|
Oct 18, 2021
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 3.29
| 111,136
| Mar 01, 2022
| Mar 01, 2022
|
really liked it
|
It’s launch weekend for Island Home, the latest in the Home group of ultra-exclusive clubs for the rich and famous, and Ned Groom is finalizing the pl
It’s launch weekend for Island Home, the latest in the Home group of ultra-exclusive clubs for the rich and famous, and Ned Groom is finalizing the plans. Or rather, his staff is finalizing the plans. The guest list for this Halloween weekend party is small, meaning Annie Sparks’s phone is constantly buzzing with celebrities and their PAs trying to finagle a last minute invitation. As Head of Membership, she is expected to be available to their 1500 or so members, but she has no openings to offer for Island Home. Everything has been planned well in advance, and there are no empty rooms available. But for the first night, Thursday, Ned only invited a handful of members, actor Jackson Crane and his wife Georgia, artist Keith Little, film producer Kurt Cox, and talk show host Freddie Hunter. Although Freddie did encourage his friend singer Kyra Highway to come with him, and she brought her 8-year-old daughter Lyra. After dinner, Annie made the announcement that soon they would be receiving new contracts to sign with an updated membership fee. In addition, they’ll all be getting an extra gift delivered to them. What these exclusive guests don’t know yet is that the “gift” they’ll be receiving is a personalized flash drive that Ned has put together for them. What they don’t know yet is that those new membership fees include a hefty spike in what they will owe the Home Group moving forward. What they don’t know yet is that there are cameras all over the Home clubs, from the Manhattan Home to Cannes Home to Shanghai Home and all the other clubs around the world. What Ned doesn’t seem to understand yet is that he is handing each of these individuals a reason for them to want him dead. As the weekend goes on with its celebrations, its meals in the underwater restaurant Poseidon, its easy access to alcohol and drugs, people begin to disappear. Jackson Crane is holed up in his cabin with a Do Not Disturb in the system, so no staff will go near it. Ned Groom himself has gone missing, with his only communication a short email to his PA, “Gone to London.” As secrets get revealed and emotions run high, the people at Island Home grow increasingly paranoid. And the more wound up they get, the more it becomes obvious that not everyone will make it off the island alive. But who will end up a villain, and who will end up a victim? Told through a lengthy Vanity Fair article as well as the viewpoints of several Island insiders, The Club is a look inside the most exclusive and extreme lifestyles of the rich and famous. Filled with delicious secrets revealed and a slow burn story that takes its sweet time before making it clear what all happened that fateful weekend, this thriller is cunning and layered. I listened to the audio book for this one, and I thought narrator Tamaryn Payne had the perfect voice for this novel. I loved her reading, and I thought it elevated this novel, making the slower moments more palatable. I did like The Club, but it’s not perfect. Many of the characters are unlikable, and they get more so as the story goes on and more is revealed of their choices. There are parts of the story that are a little slow, and it took me a while to really understand who was who, but once I was in, I was in. If you’re a reader who loves books about the rooms behind the velvet ropes, you might really love this book. If you love a good thriller, you might like this book. If you’re a picky reader, you might want to skip this book, or at least read (or listen to) a sample before you decide. Like an exclusive club, this book is not for everyone. Egalleys for The Cub were provided by Harper through NetGalley, but I bought the audio book myself through Audible. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jun 12, 2022
|
Jun 17, 2022
|
Oct 17, 2021
|
Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||||
| 1728238323
| 9781728238326
| 1728238323
| 3.95
| 2,507
| Jan 25, 2022
| Jan 25, 2022
|
really liked it
|
Carly Hale is back in her home town following her lifelong dream—opening a grilled cheese restaurant in the small Vermont town she grew up in. She fou
Carly Hale is back in her home town following her lifelong dream—opening a grilled cheese restaurant in the small Vermont town she grew up in. She found a location in the town green, right downtown, where tourists and locals alike could stop in for some delicious comfort food. She opened Carly’s Grilled Cheese Eatery, and she hired single mother Suzanne to help out and chef-in-training Grant to help in the kitchen. Carly is starting over after losing her husband to a car accident. She put all of his life insurance money into this dream of hers, and she is excited for her future. Or she was, until the lawyer for the bank stopped by one afternoon to talk to her. It turns out that the building where her restaurant space is had just been sold and the new owner doesn’t want to renew her lease. He has something else in mind for the space. Carly is devastated, as moving her new restaurant would be an enormous expense, and she may not be able to find another location as good. She’d have to start all over. Again. And then when the new owner comes in and announces himself, and shares his plans for the space, Carly gets even more upset. Lyle Bagley was her high school boyfriend, until he dumped Carly to go out with her best friend Gina. Carly had tried to warn Gina away from Lyle, but Gina thought she was just jealous and stuck with him, even married him. Now they’re divorced, and Lyle wants to give the space to his new girlfriend, Tiffany, so she can open a fashion boutique in the prime location. Carly was upset about this, but Suzanne was downright angry. She yelled at Lyle, telling him that she hopes he gets what’s coming to him. Carly wanted to ask her about that, but she was worried about overstepping, and just let Suzanne leave at the end of her shift. But when Carly comes into work the next day and finds Lyle dead in the building parking lot, Carly wishes she had asked Suzanne about her outburst. Instead, she has to call the police and hope that Suzanne has a good explanation for them. But as the investigation heats up, Carly feels like Suzanne is their prime suspect. She doesn’t believe that Suzanne could kill anyone, and Grant agrees. But that means that someone else killed Lyle, and Carly wants to figure out who that was, so she can get Suzanne off the police’s radar. And then she can focus on her restaurant, and whether the new owner of the building is going to evict her too. Up to No Gouda is the first in a new cozy series by author Linda Reilly. The first in the Grilled Cheese Mystery series sets up strong characters and an interesting story in a charming small town. There’s even a dog named Havarti. And when you’ve gotten to the bottom of the mystery and the end of the book, there are recipes for several of the signature grilled cheese recipes from the restaurant and some cooking tips from Carly. I am a big fan of cheese and murder mysteries, so I was really excited to get started reading about an amateur detective in the grilled cheese restaurant. I thought Up to No Gouda was a lot of fun. I love the concept of the grilled cheese eatery, which I thought was very modern. But I also thought that some of the details were a little dated (like that everyone was wearing slacks). But I think this series has a lot of potential, and I look forward to reading more about the grilled cheese sandwiches (and murders). Egalleys for Up to No Gouda were provided by Poisoned Pen Press through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jan 23, 2022
|
Jan 27, 2022
|
Oct 15, 2021
|
Mass Market Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0062856847
| 9780062856845
| 0062856847
| 3.70
| 27,814
| Mar 30, 2022
| Apr 12, 2022
|
really liked it
|
Emma Averell is about to turn 40. She is a divorce attorney in Leeds, England, working long nights, hoping to make partner soon. She has two children,
Emma Averell is about to turn 40. She is a divorce attorney in Leeds, England, working long nights, hoping to make partner soon. She has two children, Chloe who is 17 and Will who is 5. She can be such a success at work because her husband Robert stays home with the kids. Emma is happy, her life working out beautifully. Until she has trouble sleeping. There are less than two week until her birthday, and she wouldn’t worry about it except for her mother. On her mother’s birthday, her 40th, she had snapped. She’d always had some mental health issues, but that night she had attacked her young daughters and then fell into a sort of coma. She had ended up in a facility and Emma and her older sister Phoebe ended up in two different foster homes. The two sisters had met up again at university, where they lived together briefly. That was where Emma had met Robert, who had been originally dating Phoebe. Emma had gotten pregnant young, and she married Robert and had then gone on to study law. Phoebe had never really found her place in the world, but she’d recently moved back to the UK from Spain. Phoebe hadn’t worried when she’d turned 40. It was Emma that their mother pointed to and said that she’d have the same problems when she got older. It was Emma who had the bad blood. It was Emma who wasn’t sleeping. Emma’s mother had stopped sleeping too, before that night. Emma is determined not to let a little sleeplessness get to her. But as the days go by, with her up night after night, her behavior becomes erratic. She makes mistakes at work. She embarrasses herself at Will’s school. She fights with her husband and her sister. She scares her children. She loses time. She gets into a argument with Chloe in the car and accidentally drives into a tree. She keeps insisting that she’s not losing her sanity, that the sleeplessness isn’t destroying her, but everyone around her thinks that she’s wrong. And sometimes, she wonders too. When her birthday finally does come, will that be the end of her happy, successful life, or will she find a way to overcome the curse of her mother’s bad blood? Sarah Pinborough is back with Insomnia, her latest creepy novel with a touch of the supernatural to that twisty ending. This domestic thriller takes a look at mental illness and how it can cause generational trauma. The countdown to the birthday creates tension, and the secrets that come out chapter after chapter adds layers of questions about what the ultimate truth is in the story. I haven’t read one of Pinborough’s books since Behind Her Eyes, but I am certainly aware of her reputation. She’s knows for exceptional thrillers with unexpected endings. And I thought that Insomnia was an excellent thriller with an ending that had been telegraphed just a little too much. The ending is good, but the surprise of it was disappointing. It’s still worth the trip worth taking, through this family’s twisted past, a fun trip even. Just not the best trip I’ve ever had. Egalleys for Insomnia were provided by William Morrow through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Apr 07, 2022
|
Apr 13, 2022
|
Oct 15, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1668001160
| 9781668001165
| 1668001160
| 2.85
| 2,938
| Jan 11, 2022
| Jan 11, 2022
|
liked it
|
When Emma and Ben get pregnant with their first child, they decide it’s time to move out of New York City to somewhere safer and more peaceful. And wh
When Emma and Ben get pregnant with their first child, they decide it’s time to move out of New York City to somewhere safer and more peaceful. And when Ben, a Broadway producer, finds a big country house that has an actual theater inside it, he knows he’s found the place for them. Emma isn’t quite as sure at first. The house is nice, but it needs a lot of work. It’s pretty remote. And it has a storied history. It used to be owned by a doctor and his wife who ran a home for alcoholic Broadway actors to dry out. They had the theater so that their patients could still put on shows. The heirs to the doctor and his wife let the place fall to disrepair, and now Ben wants to buy it and fix it up. When Emma finally sees the house, she is pleasantly surprised. It does need a lot of work, but it also has a lot of potential. It’s beautiful, it has good bones, and Emma really likes the idea of raising children there. And in the kitchen is a beautiful antique stove like she’s always wanted. They sign the papers and hire a contractor, JD. Ben has to go back to the city to work on a new project, but he promises that he will always have his phone ready to take her call, if she needs anything at all. And JD makes sure that she has several rooms that she can live in, and he’s especially thoughtful towards her pregnancy whenever he’s working with something dangerous or toxic. But the more time Emma spends there, the more she finds things that she’s not entirely comfortable with. She finds a young woman’s journal in the attic and starts reading it. The woman had been pregnant, the lover of a married A-list actor, and she had been sent out there to have the baby. The doctor and his wife were supposed to help her have the baby and find a good couple to adopt it, but the way the journal ends, Emma worries that the woman’s story doesn’t end well. As she looks out at the fields, she sees a young woman with a baby. But with the house as remote as it is, it’s unlikely that there is anyone out in the fields around the house. So what did she see? Was is a ghost? A hallucination? And when Emma walks out back to try to find the place where she saw the woman, she realizes that she’s in a graveyard. What could it all mean? As the weeks go by, Ben spends more time in the city on his new Broadway project, Peter Pan and the Lost Girls, and Emma has more trouble getting ahold of him. But JD is around. He’s handsome and thoughtful, and Emma finds herself attracted to him. But she would never cheat on Ben. Even though she is starting to suspect that he’s cheating on her. At least, it feels like something is off. Maybe Emma is just feeling lonely, but things aren’t the same with Ben. Maybe it will be better when the baby is born. They do have a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at the house, with a few couples they know from the city. And Ben agrees to let the town put on their annual Christmas pageant in their theater. He even agrees to direct it for them. But despite the good memories, Emma can’t help but feel like something strange is going on. She can’t find any friends in this new town. There are odd coincidences all around her. She feels like Ben is gaslighting her, but she doesn’t have any proof. And while the baby seems healthy, Emma wonders if she’s losing her mind. Is there something going on with the house, or is she just slowly losing it? All I Want is the latest thriller from author Darcey Bell, whose A Simple Favor went on to be a popular movie. This novel is a head-spinning tangle of suspicions and confusions, of lies and secrets, that keep the story moving in many directions at once. I wanted to like this book more than I did. I was not a fan of Bell’s writing style, as it seemed to be a little heavy-handed. One of the first piece of writing advice I heard back in the day was to show, not tell, and this has a lot of telling. Maybe she thought that it fit well with the story, but for me, it took me out of the story and kept me at arm’s length from the characters. I could empathize with them some, but I couldn’t get any closer than that. And I won’t say much about the ending except that I was disappointed. There are a lot of good things about All I Want, especially the creepy house where so much of the story takes place, so I won’t say to skip it. But realize that this is a complicated novel with some lows as well as some highs. Egalleys for All I Want were provided by Atria Books through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 09, 2022
|
Feb 14, 2022
|
Oct 11, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0062980076
| 9780062980076
| 0062980076
| 3.56
| 40,775
| Mar 15, 2022
| Mar 15, 2022
|
it was amazing
|
When FBI agent Jessica Winslow first got the list, she didn’t know what it was. It was just a list of nine names that had been sent to her from New Yo
When FBI agent Jessica Winslow first got the list, she didn’t know what it was. It was just a list of nine names that had been sent to her from New York City, nothing else in the envelope. Just a list of nine names. Her name was at the bottom, but they were in alphabetical order. However, as an FBI agent, she had resources to help her. She sent the letter and envelope to the lab to be tested, and she could research the other names. While she didn’t know any of the other people on the list, she did find one name to sound familiar, like it was a friend of her father’s from way back. Or maybe not. She couldn’t remember for sure. When one of the other people on the list is murdered, that’s when she is officially taken off the case. Other agents are put in charge of tracking down the people on the list. Matthew Beaumont, the suburban father in Massachusetts. Ethan Dart, the singer/songwriter in Austin, Texas. Caroline Geddes, the English professor at the University of Michigan. And five others, plus Jessica. The first one on the list to die was Frank Hopkins, who owned a rundown hotel in Maine. It had been his parents’ hotel, the Windwood Resort, and when they died he took it over. When he was a kid, back in the 1950s, families would come for a month in the summer, the adults enjoying the peace and quiet, the kids running around on the beach and playing games with the other kids who were staying there. Now, no one can afford to take off an entire month, and while he’s been able to keep the Wildwood open all those years, it had been a long time since it had been thriving. The local police had found Frank on the beach, drowned in a tide pool. He had his list gripped in his fist, along with the envelope it had come in, but it hadn’t come in the mail. There was no stamp, no postmark. It had been left there for him to discover right before his death. Jessica feels in her gut that it’s not a random list, that there is a reason those people have been chosen. But will she and her fellow FBI agents figure out what that reason is before they all end up dead? Nine Lives is the latest from suspense master Peter Swanson. A reimagining of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, this is a modern retelling of the story of a murder list, with those involved trying to figure out who the people on the list are and why they were included. This compelling story has an interesting variety of characters, a compelling plot, and that twist at the end that makes you want to hit your head and yell, “Of course! I didn’t even think of that!” It was quite the magic trick for me, sucking me in to these characters’ lives while setting me up for the kill (so to speak). I thought Nine Lives was beautifully written, and the perfect read for fans of Dame Christie and her smart, taut mysteries. Egalleys for Nine Lives were provided by William Morrow through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Mar 08, 2022
|
Mar 15, 2022
|
Oct 11, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1982159626
| 9781982159627
| 1982159626
| 3.46
| 703
| Feb 01, 2022
| Feb 01, 2022
|
really liked it
|
Stevie Green has moved back home to La Jolla, California. After what happened in high school, she promised herself she would never come back. But afte
Stevie Green has moved back home to La Jolla, California. After what happened in high school, she promised herself she would never come back. But after what happened in her 20s and early 30s, she didn’t have anywhere else to go, so she went back home. Her mother asked her to help clean out her house, so she could move to a smaller house. And Stevie did such a good job helping her mother declutter that her mother suggested she start a business. So Stevie did. Stevie set up her decluttering business and started posting on Instagram. And she added a profile on an organizing site, and she was getting good reviews from her clients. There was just one organizer ahead of her, Ursula. Stevie made it her goal to crush Ursula on the app. But she wasn’t sure how to reach that goal. And then things start happening for her. She runs into Chris, once her best friend in school, and Stevie thought that she’d done the thing that ruined her life and wanted her to apologize for it. Instead, Chris just said that she hadn’t been the one to do that to her and walked back to her office across the street from the coffee shop. Then Stevie’s sister Bonnie got dumped by her longtime boyfriend and moved back home too. At first, Stevie isn’t interested in living with Bonnie. And when their mother suggested that Bonnie work with Stevie, she isn’t interested in that either. But then Bonnie shows Stevie how to bump up her Instagram game, to create more exciting posts and get more followers, and Stevie starts to see how maybe she could help her in the decluttering business. They meet with some clients, and Bonnie’s outspoken honesty is a good balance to Stevie’s cool, calming presence. They even go meet with Brad Rose, Stevie’s high school boyfriend, to talk about a decluttering project. Outwardly, Stevie is doing well. She’s gotten rid of all the things that were holding her back, choosing clothes in only black or white, creating a clean and streamlined life. She’s running every morning. She’s stopped drinking. She’s working on her project (it’s too soon to call it a book, but maybe someday). And she may go out with Brad again. He’s a good-looking guy, with a successful surfing school. And her rating is going up on the organizing app, so soon she’ll overtake Ursula and be the number one organizer in La Jolla. Everything will be perfect. And that thing that happened in high school won’t matter anymore. And she won’t wake up hungover next to random men or random women anymore. And she won’t obsess over whether or not Chris has texted back yet. At least, that’s what she tells herself. Because when you remove all the things from your life that are a no, then what you are left with is who you really are. Stevie believes that. It’s what she tells her clients, and it’s what she believes. It’s what she wants to believe. It’s what she tries to believe. What will it take to make it come true for Stevie? Getting Clean with Stevie Green is a sly study of one woman’s journey to find herself. After a series of bad decisions, Stevie is back home ready to find out what she’s been running from, and her willingness to show up brings with it an infectious energy. As an unreliable narrator of her own life, Stevie is strong and vulnerable, hopeful and imperfect. She has made mistakes, but she’s trying to be better. She’s trying to live clean. It’s just that she can’t until she fully deals with her past, and doing that will take all her strength. At times clever and irreverent, at times heart-breaking, Getting Clean with Stevie Green is a surprisingly complicated tale of growing up and cleaning up old messes. I know I could empathize with Stevie’s pain, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that. As with the last Swan Huntley book I read (The Goddesses), I can’t say that I liked all the characters, but I think they will stick with me for a long time. So while this book reads quickly and seems pretty straightforward, it’s deceptively complex emotionally and left me with a lot to think about and feel about. Also, I really need to clean out the basement. And my closets. Egalleys for Getting Clean with Stevie Green were provided by Gallery Books through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 02, 2022
|
Feb 07, 2022
|
Sep 27, 2021
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1250809371
| 9781250809377
| 1250809371
| 3.67
| 318
| unknown
| Jan 11, 2022
|
it was amazing
|
I was first introduced to the writing of Julia Cameron decades ago with her ground-breaking The Artist’s Way. I have read several of her other books t
I was first introduced to the writing of Julia Cameron decades ago with her ground-breaking The Artist’s Way. I have read several of her other books through the years, and they always have the same effect on me. They soften me, making me feel vulnerable and strong at the same time. She has a way of wiping away all the things that don’t matter and reminding me of what’s important, what’s possible, what’s meaningful to me. As I read her latest, Seeking Wisdom, I found those old tears welling back up, reminding me of what it is to be human. In this 6-week program, you’ll find all your old friends. There are admonitions to do your Morning Pages, 3 pages of longhand writing first thing in the morning where you can get out all your worries, your hopes, your dreams, you fears. And there is the Artist Date, a weekly date you go on by yourself to find your joy. There are the walks you take by yourself, to seek out insights by communing with nature. And since the original Artist’s Way, she has added going to the page and asking for guidance and writing down what you hear. The weeks themselves are a study in prayer. As Cameron shares her own prayers and answers, some of which are yes and some of which are no or not yet, she also shares a peek into her own life, her own struggles, her own fears, her own vulnerabilities. Most of this book was written during a particularly cold and snowy winter at her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and she talks a lot about what is happening in her backyard. She has a pinyon tree whose branches fill with small birds when the snow starts. It protects them from the weather. And there are ravens and squirrels who gather around the bottom of the tree to feed on the nuts, carefully watched by her dog inside. Repeatedly, Cameron comes back to this vision of her tree, a strong structure that offers protection and sustenance for those who come to it. It stands there, rooted deeply, stretching towards the sun, towards the stars, offering up what is has to those who need it. It’s like the prayers that Cameron talks about, the ones that keep her rooted and allow her to grow tall, the ones that offer her protection from her worries and food for her hunger. Seeking Wisdom is a 6-week course in prayer, in learning to pray in the morning and at night, in learning to ask for help and express gratitude. It’s not about religion or churchiness. She just wants you to believe in and pray to a power that is higher than you are, a benevolent creative source that has your back in this world. She speaks to many of her friends throughout these weeks, from a wide variety of backgrounds and religions, and she finds out how they pray and how praying helps them in the big things and the small things. If you’re wondering how this fits in with the creative recovery that Cameron is known so well for, you will see how her spirituality and her creativity are connected. The more she grounds herself in prayer, the more she goes back to the page to write. She writes this book. She starts a new play. She writes letters to her friends, and she writes about the guidance she finds in her prayers. Her prayers and her creativity are on full display, and her journey leads the way for anyone wanting a refresher on living the artist’s life she talks about in all her books, or for anyone interested in living a prayerful life. Seeking Wisdom is more than a 6-week course in becoming more creative. It’s a course in becoming more human. It’s very personal, but it’s also universal. Working through these six weeks on prayer, questioning all the beliefs you have about prayer and finding yourself reaching out in prayer in new ways, you will find your spirit opening up in response. At least, I did. And I hope you find the same kind of experience when you encounter Seeking Wisdom. Egalleys for Seeking Wisdom were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jan 04, 2022
|
Jan 12, 2022
|
Sep 14, 2021
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1250832837
| 9781250832832
| 1250832837
| 3.67
| 12,033
| Jul 08, 2021
| Apr 05, 2022
|
really liked it
|
When Georgiana Ellers goes to live with her aunt and uncle for the summer, she had no idea of the boredom that awaited her. She was hoping for a summe
When Georgiana Ellers goes to live with her aunt and uncle for the summer, she had no idea of the boredom that awaited her. She was hoping for a summer filled with parties and new friends, maybe even a little romance, or at least some new adventure. All the heroines of the novels she’d read, upon finding themselves in a new situation, immediately fell into a caper or a meet cute, which could only mean that they were in for days or even weeks of fascinating fun. When Georgiana moved in with Mr. and Mrs. Burton, she only found tedium. When they were finally invited to a dinner party, Georgiana could hardly wait to get there, to find the excitement she’d been craving. Instead, she found plenty of party guests the age of her aunt and uncle who wandered through the dark house (the hostess was too cheap to buy enough candles) and talk about the garish color of the new curtain. Is it red? Is it purple? Either way, it’s ghastly, they said. It’s not until Georgiana mutters under her breath about their color choice that she realizes she’s not alone in her dark alcove. There is another young woman, about her age, and she shares those curtain sentiments. And just like that, Georgiana finds a friend. Frances Campbell, daughter of Lord and Lady Campbell, takes Georgiana under her wing. She invites her to more events and introduces her to her group of friends. Georgiana meets Jane and Cecily, Jonathan and Christopher, and she finds out there is far more going on at their parties than what she reads about in her novels. The men and women spend time together unsupervised, alcohol flows quite freely, they smoke from a pipe that gets passed around, and they tell bawdy jokes that Georgiana’s aunt and uncle would definitely disapprove of. Georgiana wants to fit in, so she tries to hide her shock and drinks her wine. But when she gets a little tipsy, she finds herself talking to the one guy who had been sitting alone, quietly. She’d found out that his name is Thomas Hawksley, and she finds out that she enjoys talking to him, even as she worries that she’s making a fool of herself in front of him. His hasty exit from the situation convinces her that he wasn’t interested, and yet she finds that she can’t stop thinking about him. As the weeks of the summer go on, and the parties get even wilder, Georgiana starts to question what it is that she wants. She loves being friends with Frances, who brings the adventure and the excitement always. But there are some choices that she and her friends are making that are starting to make Georgiana uncomfortable, especially when she thinks of what Thomas must think of her. Basically Georgiana has to make a choice of what’s more important to her—her friendship with Frances or her good name? Lex Croucher’s debut novel Reputation is Jane Austen with a modern twist. These characters live in Victorian England, but they could just as easily be transported to today’s London or even New York City. As these young women and men deal with issues such as class differences, binge drinking, LGBTQ+ identities, and social mores, they each have to decide how to live their lives to stay true to themselves. Any modern reader can relate to that. I had a great time with Reputation. I thought it was smart and sassy, funny and thoughtful. It brought me back to reading Jane Austen for the first time, while bringing in lots of contemporary touches. I especially liked the character of Georgiana. She relies on her bookish knowledge but can adapt to changing circumstances with grace and poise. I think any fan of Austen would know what happens between the book’s heroine and the quiet moody boy brooding at the back of the party, but I loved the journey they took throughout the story. There were some lovely surprises that would make Jane herself smile, and I can’t think of a better book recommendation than that. Egalleys for Reputation were provided by St. Martin’s Griffin through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Apr 02, 2022
|
Apr 06, 2022
|
Sep 06, 2021
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1250242185
| 9781250242181
| 1250242185
| 3.98
| 94,497
| Feb 01, 2022
| Feb 01, 2022
|
really liked it
|
Finlay Donovan is back up against it. Her agent made a killing with her last book, and now she wants more. She has a meeting with the publisher, and t
Finlay Donovan is back up against it. Her agent made a killing with her last book, and now she wants more. She has a meeting with the publisher, and they are desperate for another book proposal like the last one Finlay had come up with. The good news is that proposal turned her from a middling romance writer to a potential best-selling thriller author, and they are hungry for more. The bad news? That last book came from an unfortunate misunderstanding that because a series of incidents and accidents that could put Finlay into jail for a long time. And now her agent is going to kill her if she can’t do it again. So Finlay is trying to come up with a second book, even though she still hasn’t finished writing the first one, and this while dealing with the law student she’s not quite dating, the hot cop who wants to date her, her family, her two kids, her ex-husband Steven, and the online post buried deep in a forum for soccer moms that reads very much like someone is putting out a contract to have Steven killed. Finlay and her nanny/accountant/partner-in-crime Vero have been coming up with excuses for why Steven couldn’t have the kids at his new house, not wanting to let on that someone out there wants him dead. Finlay finally agrees to let him take them out one night to go shopping for a Christmas tree, but she and Vero follow them, with new binoculars in their hands and the baby monitor hidden in Delia’s backpack. And when they see the kids wander off and Steven go after them, they get nervous. Then they just hear the kids, 2-year-old Zach and preschooler Delia, and they go flying across the Christmas tree lot to get to them. Vero grabs Zach, and Finlay finds Delia, and Steven shows up with a big knot on the back of his head from where someone hit him. Finlay knows that it wasn’t just someone trying to grab his wallet. Someone online saw the post on the forum and is trying to fulfill the contract. Someone really is trying to kill her ex-husband. Because of her own foray into contract killing, Finlay can’t just tell Steven or her sister the cop about the contract killing, because their investigation could lead to very messy discoveries about Finlay and Vero. So Finlay knows that she will have to keep her ex-husband alive herself. But when she and Vero are in his work trailer when someone throws a firebomb in the window, Finlay wonders just how far she’ll go for Steven. Even if cleaning out the contents of a deep freezer the next state over or dressing up as the attorney of a powerful Russian mob boss to meet with him in prison will make for amazing chapters in her new book. But is she a good enough writer to craft a happy ending in real life, or is she fooling herself? Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead is the continuation of author Elle Cosimano’s last Finlay book. Finlay Donovan Is Killing It introduced these characters, from the novelist mother or two who became an incidental hitwoman to her nanny/accountant, her ex-husband, the two men she’s dating now, and several members of the Russian mob. Cosimano is juggling a lot with these novels, and she does it in a way that’s smart, funny, sassy, and compelling. You don’t have to read the first one to understand the second one, but I do recommend it, just because it’s a really good book. I loved Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead. I think Finlay is such a fun character to spend time with, and her endless creativity in solving life’s problems is an inspiration. No matter what life throws at her, she is game to give it a shot, and while she certainly dances on the lines of legality, she does try to be as moral as she can given her circumstances. And she does it all with wit and confidence and a little attitude. I am absolutely loving this series, and I can’t wait to find out what Finlay will stir up next (please tell me that there will be a next!). Egalleys for Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead were provided by Minotaur Books through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 2022
|
Feb 03, 2022
|
Sep 03, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1250774217
| 9781250774217
| 1250774217
| 3.59
| 819
| Feb 22, 2022
| Feb 22, 2022
|
really liked it
|
Being a comedian is not easy. You’re always trying to find the fastest route to a laugh in your audience. Author and manager of a popular Brooklyn com
Being a comedian is not easy. You’re always trying to find the fastest route to a laugh in your audience. Author and manager of a popular Brooklyn comedy venue Gabe Henry realized that an easy way to distill the funniness into one short bite is to use the form of a haiku poem. We are taught to think of haikus as serious poems, about nature and emotions and humanity. But the truth is that a lot of the early haikus were funny. And Henry is bringing the poetry form back to that 17-syllable joke with the help of some of the funniest people in the business. The topics include relationships, screens, nature, food, friends, family, self-love and self-loathing, and wisdom, to name a few. And these gems come from a range comedy names, from Jerry Seinfeld to Mike Birbiglia, from Margaret Cho to Maria Bamford. You may know these names from prime time television (Greg Proops, Colin Mochrie, Ray Romano), from movies (Kevin Smith, Michael Ian Black, Janeane Garofalo), from NPR’s comedy shows (Ophira Eisenberg, Joel Kim Booster, Josh Gondelman, Alonzo Bodden), or from local comedy stages. Some of these comedians you may know well already, and for some this may be an introduction, but it’s the variety of voices that make this collection so special. Now, some of these haiku may not follow the strictest of the haiku rules, but comedians aren’t really known for their ability to color inside the lines. It’s their invention and ingenuity, their ability to build bridges between ideas, that creates the comedy we love. These short poems are packed with punches, twisty with truths, and laughably enlightening. They take something you thought you knew and turn it upside down, bringing you a new perspective in just a few lines. I enjoyed Eating Salad Drunk so much. In truth, I read it several times, sometimes going from the beginning to the end, other times jumping around, looking for my favorite topics or comedians. There are so many contributors to this that there is something in it for everyone, no matter what kind of comedy you like. It would make an amazing gift for anyone needing a pick-me-up, or for anyone wanting to be a comedian themselves (although I’m not sure if it would encourage them towards comedy or away from it). Seriously though, this is just a fun little book filled with nuggets of humor, and comedy fans will love it. As a bonus, Gabe Henry is donating all the proceeds of the sale of the books to a nonprofit organization helping comedians with mental illness or addiction issues as well as those needing help because of the recent pandemic. So basically, it’s a good cause, a good gift, and a good laugh. Egalleys for Eating Salad Drunk were provided by St. Martin’s Griffin through NetGalley, but between requesting the book and getting the approval, I also won a copy on Goodreads, and I’m so thankful for both. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Oct 31, 2021
|
Feb 22, 2022
|
Aug 30, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 198218745X
| 9781982187453
| 198218745X
| 3.85
| 62,281
| Jan 14, 2021
| Jan 25, 2022
|
it was amazing
|
When Martin Hayward, director of The Fairway Players, sets about to put on Arthur Miller’s All My Sons after a winning run of Blithe Spirits, he has n
When Martin Hayward, director of The Fairway Players, sets about to put on Arthur Miller’s All My Sons after a winning run of Blithe Spirits, he has no idea of the drama that will ensue. In between auditions and the final rehearsals, there is fraud, deception, secrets, lies, an affair, and maybe even a murder. Now someone is in jail, and it’s up to two young lawyers to figure out exactly what happened by reading between the lines of hundreds of emails, messages, and newspaper articles. Shortly after the cast is announced, Martin tells that them that he is not going to be able to direct it after all. Their granddaughter, 2-year-old Poppy, has been diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer, and he is handing over the reins to All My Son to his son James to direct while he and his wife Helen (who will still star in the show) and their daughter Paige and son-in-law Glen are focusing on Poppy’s well-being. Even though James’s wife Olivia is quite pregnant with twins, he is willing to take over directing the play. Meanwhile, Poppy’s oncologist has told the family that there is an experimental treatment in America that has worked against Poppy’s type of cancer, but a single treatment will cost the family $350,000. Not daunted by that, Martin begins a fundraising appeal to raise the money. Family friend and fundraising professional Sarah-Jane MacDonald takes over the appeal for money and immediately starts setting up a charity ball, a website where people can contribute, and looking at other avenues where friends and family could help. People start contributing almost as soon as she sends out the email with the website information, and the ball is a huge success. Isabel is a nurse at St. Ann’s and an avid member of the Fairway Players. Blithe Spirit was her first time on stage, and though she had a small part, she was very enthusiastic about it and looking forward to All My Sons. In fact, she’s also brought into the cast Sam and Kel, also nurses at St. Ann’s, but new to the area. After spending many years working in Africa. Samantha is working in geriatrics with Isabel, and Isabel befriended her right away. Kel, Sam’s husband, works in the psychiatric unit. As soon as these nurses learn about Poppy’s cancer, they want to help. In fact, Sam runs a half-marathon, taking donations for Poppy’s medical fund. But when Sam finds out the name of their oncologist, she becomes suspicious and begins to have doubts about this experimental treatment and its exorbitant cost. As the weeks go by with more intense fundraising efforts aimed at the community, she begins to investigate the doctor and the funding. Meanwhile, the Hayward family finds themselves facing more challenges. The workers for the new pool at their golf and country club haven’t been paid and take over the parking lot with all their equipment, blocking everyone else, until they get a payment from Martin. Glen gets fired from his jab and struggles to find another one. In an attempt to raise more money quickly, Martin hands over $100,000 to a woman who promises big returns on his investment, and then disappears with the money. James’s wife Olivia has to stay in the hospital for the end of her pregnancy. And Paige and Glen’s dog Woof needs abdominal surgery after eating, well, everything. As the Haywards do everything they can think of to raise more funds, Sam does everything she can think of to bring down the oncologist that had something to do with her having to leave Africa. And when another friend from Africa comes to stay with Sam and Kel, even more secrets are brought to light, and fists start flying. But when someone ends up dead, and someone else ends up in jail, it’s up to two young lawyers to figure out exactly what happened to who, by who, when, why, and who knew about it when. The Appeal is a story told in bits and pieces, emails and messages, and the reader is asked to work hard to figure out what is being said and what isn’t. Author Janice Hallett’s debut thriller weaves a murder mystery with a tale of community drama, and the result is explosive. At first, The Appeal is a challenge to read, as you’re thrown into these people lives knowing nothing and having to build a picture with only the broad strokes of emails and personal messages. But as you get drawn into the story, figuring out the layers of secrets and lies, the crises and crimes, it becomes impossible to stop thinking about these characters and what they are up to. Unraveling the lies and digging up the secrets make this book so much fun to read. If you’re a fan of logic problems, then you will love this book. It’s one long logic problem, and it’s up to you to make sense of all the clues. Egalleys for The Appeal were provided by Atria Books through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jan 19, 2022
|
Jan 26, 2022
|
Aug 19, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1982177152
| 9781982177157
| 1982177152
| 3.55
| 4,529
| Feb 22, 2022
| Feb 22, 2022
|
it was amazing
|
When Clare was a kid in Sumner’s Mills, New York, she and her friends came across the story of the Octagon House. Lori was the one who knew the story,
When Clare was a kid in Sumner’s Mills, New York, she and her friends came across the story of the Octagon House. Lori was the one who knew the story, since the house was on land that abutted her family’s land. There was a house in the woods, in the shape of an octagon, where a man killed his wife and two kids. He shot them in the basement, and no one has lived in the house since. Clare wasn’t sure if she believed the story. But she was 14, not really a child anymore but not an adult either, mere months away from starting high school, and still easily moved by the silly ideas of her friends. They were four friends, Clare and Abby and Lori and Monica. Monica was the most sophisticated, ready to take on the adult world and unafraid of what others thought of her. Lori was also strong and self-assured, so she and Monica naturally took the lead. Abby was the youngest, having skipped a grade of elementary school, and Clare was that mix of mature and vulnerable that comes from losing your mother early on in life. They set off through the woods to the house, no one wanting to be the one to chicken out, so they all head in when they get there. The lower floor is two big rooms, a kitchen and a drawing room, with the bedrooms upstairs. The house was built of wood, all except the door to the basement. It was a big metal door that looked and felt out of place. While Lori and Monica ran off upstairs to look through the bedrooms, Clare tried to open that strange basement door, but she couldn’t get it to budge. And then, as if on its own, the door slid open. That door opening changed everything. Abby went downstairs, and Clare closed the door behind her, and when Clare was able to get that door back open again, Abby was not the same. Clare is no longer a kid. Now she’s an adult, and she’s lost her teaching job. Her marriage has just ended. And the nightmares of that creepy Octagon House are back. And after many years without hearing from Abby, she started getting emails. Out of the blue, Abby starting contacting Clare again, and before Clare could figure out how to respond, she gets an email from Abby’s mother. Abby tried to end her life, taking an overdose of pills. She had been found in the basement of the Octagon House. After years of living in Chicago, Clare packs up her car and drives back to Sumner’s Mills, because Abby told her that she would have to go back to the beginning in order to finish it. And after blowing up her life in Chicago, Clare doesn’t have any chance except to go back to that house and finish it. But is Clare strong enough to face whatever it is that’s in that basement, or will the house try to take her too? Beneath the Stairs is an extraordinary ghost story, about the things that haunt us and the ways we punish ourselves for the bad choices we made back before we even understood that we were making choices. Author Jennifer Fawcett takes her mastery of playwriting and converts it to this debut novel with deft language, taut plotting, and a deep understanding of human nature. There are layers to this story, some reaching into the past of the house, and some that focus on the consequences that individuals are facing in the present day, and those layers come together for an extraordinary novel. Beneath the Stairs is exactly the twisty, creepy thriller that I wanted it to be. It’s smart, filled with secrets and lies and ghosts and twists that all come together to make a beautiful, composed story. For me, there was just enough of that supernatural goose-pimple feeling without that taking over, and the relationships added the perfect balance of reality to bring me back to earth. If you like a good ghost story, then you’re not going to want to let this one pass you by! Egalleys for Beneath the Stairs were provided by Atria Books through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 18, 2022
|
Feb 23, 2022
|
Aug 19, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 125027320X
| 9781250273208
| 125027320X
| 3.98
| 215,147
| Mar 03, 2022
| Mar 08, 2022
|
it was amazing
|
When therapist agreed to take on her newest clients, Marissa and Matthew Bishop, she knew exactly what she was getting into. They came to her office i
When therapist agreed to take on her newest clients, Marissa and Matthew Bishop, she knew exactly what she was getting into. They came to her office in the evening, the best time for Matthew, who worked long hours as a partner in a D.C. law firm. Marissa had told him that it was about their son Bennett, but she really wanted to confess her infidelity and see if her marriage can be saved. Avery knows how this will go. She has perfected her 10-session counseling system. No longer bound by the American Psychological Association’s rules for their licensed therapists, Avery has become popular for going rogue and creating results for her clients however she needs to. She only meets her clients 10 times, and walks them through her steps without them even realizing what’s happening to them. She starts with Confession (Marissa’s confession in their first session about her infidelity gets the ball rolling), and Avery proceeds to move them through Disruption, Escalation, Revelation, and Devastation, heading towards eventual Reconciliation and Promises. But as she’s working with Marissa and Mathew, something starts to seem off. Avery does some digging into their lives, and she finds the lies that Marissa had told her (and Matthew) about her affair. She finds out about Marissa’s shop assistant with boundary issues. She finds Matthew’s ex-girlfriend who is still hanging around, making Marissa uncomfortable. She finds the guy from Marissa’s past who is obsessively watching her. And while these things are unusual and are certainly adding some tension to the marriage, Avery can’t figure out why her foolproof steps aren’t working for them. But when Avery realizes that there was an overlap between Marissa’s life and her own, she thinks that maybe she is in more danger than she realized. Avery is usually the puppet master when it comes to her clients, but is it possible that in this situation, someone else is pulling the strings? And if so, how far will they go to manipulate them? The Golden Couple is a compelling dance of a thriller, with layers of secrets and lies, and lots of surprises throughout. Powerhouse author duo Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen have sculpted another flawless novel of suspense and intrigue, filled with realistic details of the ups and downs of a privileged couple. These women have the ability to create characters and stories that take the usual tropes and turn them on their heads, weaving novels that keep you up at night, until you get to the end, and can finally try to recover for the novel that you hope is coming from them the next year. I have been a fan of this writing due since I first met them, back with their first novel. I love good thrillers, and Hendricks and Pekkanen have consistently written some of the finest ones on my shelves. The Golden Couple is no exception. With the twist of the unlicensed therapist, this novel takes the domestic thriller to a new level, and you will find yourself questioning everything you think you know about every character you meet in this book, except for Romeo, who is always exactly who you think he is (he’s the dog). Make sure to set aside some time for this one, because once you start reading it, you won’t want to stop until you get to that very last page, that very last secret. Egalleys for The Golden Couple were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Mar 05, 2022
|
Mar 13, 2022
|
Jul 19, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1250791596
| 9781250791597
| 1250791596
| 3.43
| 2,865
| Jan 11, 2022
| Jan 11, 2022
|
really liked it
|
Zoey Marks is a free spirit. She realized young that she was not like those around her. She didn’t care about making people uncomfortable, as long as
Zoey Marks is a free spirit. She realized young that she was not like those around her. She didn’t care about making people uncomfortable, as long as she was true to herself. She wasn’t willing to compromise her own happiness for someone else. And she didn’t want to be tied down. The first time a friend asked Zoey to be a bridesmaid, the fact that the bride didn’t make it down the aisle wasn’t entirely her fault. Anyone could have opened the door to the closet where the groom was hooking up with someone else. The second time, it wasn’t Zoey’s fault that the bride was reminded right before the wedding of the woman she fell in love with during college and left her groom alone at the altar. But when the third time happened, and Zoey had been torn between talking to the bride about her cold feet or following the instructions of the wedding planner and heading down the aisle herself, Zoey worried during her whole trip down the aisle. And when she got down there, and the bride did not, she felt like she was cursed. And when it came to her own relationships? She was honest with her boyfriends from the start. She wasn’t looking for forever. And as soon as they got too serious, she would remind them that she had been honest and left them behind. It wasn’t her fault that they didn’t believe her. And then she met Rylan. Rylan was the cousin of her lifelong best friend Hannah, and as soon as Zoey saw him, she was done for. He was gorgeous and perfect, and he was as crazy about her as she was about him. Zoey didn’t know that love like that existed, and she lost herself in it. They dated, and then they moved in together, and then Rylan proposed. And Zoey, try as hard as she might, just couldn’t say yes. They slit up, and Zoey’s heartbreak was devastating. Three months later, when Hannah is preparing to get married to Graham, a man she’d met just six months earlier, Zoey is once again asked to be a bridesmaid. Zoey is worried that her curse will cause Hannah’s wedding to be ruined too, but she still has to be there for her best friend. And when Zoey finds out that Rylan will be there too, with his new girlfriend, Zoey is convinced that she has to change. If she can just get Hannah down the aisle, than she can believe in marriage. She can believe that she isn’t cursed. And she can finally say yes to Rylan, if it isn’t too late. But getting Hannah down the aisle won’t be so easy. It turns out that she has a big secret that she’s keeping from Graham. And he has a brother, Ezra, recently divorced, who is desperate to keep him from getting to the altar with a woman he’s only known for six months. But Rylan is there, and seeing him again keeps Zoey looking toward the prize. If she can get Hannah married, then she can believe in marriage and say yes to Rylan. It’s all on her shoulders. And it all goes wrong. Bad News Bridesmaid is the debut novel of Hollywood writer Alison Rose Greenberg, and it is packed with great scenes. The story is complex, and the dialogue zings, just like you’d expect from an experienced screenwriter, but the true power of this novel is the characters. Zoey especially is a complicated woman, successful in business and incredibly confident but still struggling to find her place in a society that gives women such specific rules to live by. Her struggles are real and honest, and I think all women can find themselves somewhere in her doubts and strengths. I loved this novel, but I’m not sure the cover does it many favors. I saw the cover and title and immediately thought that this would be a fun romantic comedy. It is, but the heart of this novel is so much more. This is the story of one woman’s self-realizations, of her journey to find her forever person and all the pain and heartache that comes into her life and the lives of those around her because of it. There is a genuine depth to this story, and to the character of Zoey, that makes Bad Luck Bridesmaid a powerful story that is so much more than a simple romance. It’s definitely worth your time, but keep your tissues handy. And cue up your favorite female power ballads to dance it out with Zoey and Hannah. Egalleys for Bad Luck Bridesmaid were provided by St. Martin’s Griffin through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jan 06, 2022
|
Jan 11, 2022
|
Jul 12, 2021
|
Paperback
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
my rating |
|
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| 3.96
|
it was amazing
|
May 06, 2022
|
Nov 29, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.58
|
it was amazing
|
Aug 23, 2022
|
Nov 22, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.97
|
it was amazing
|
Jul 21, 2022
|
Nov 18, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.53
|
really liked it
|
Mar 17, 2022
|
Nov 12, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.46
|
really liked it
|
Apr 25, 2022
|
Oct 22, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.45
|
really liked it
|
Feb 08, 2022
|
Oct 18, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.29
|
really liked it
|
Jun 17, 2022
|
Oct 17, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.95
|
really liked it
|
Jan 27, 2022
|
Oct 15, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.70
|
really liked it
|
Apr 13, 2022
|
Oct 15, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 2.85
|
liked it
|
Feb 14, 2022
|
Oct 11, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.56
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 15, 2022
|
Oct 11, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.46
|
really liked it
|
Feb 07, 2022
|
Sep 27, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.67
|
it was amazing
|
Jan 12, 2022
|
Sep 14, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.67
|
really liked it
|
Apr 06, 2022
|
Sep 06, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.98
|
really liked it
|
Feb 03, 2022
|
Sep 03, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.59
|
really liked it
|
Feb 22, 2022
|
Aug 30, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.85
|
it was amazing
|
Jan 26, 2022
|
Aug 19, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.55
|
it was amazing
|
Feb 23, 2022
|
Aug 19, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.98
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 13, 2022
|
Jul 19, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.43
|
really liked it
|
Jan 11, 2022
|
Jul 12, 2021
|
Loading...
