We're posting some reviews at our Amazon accounts, as either they've been sitting in queue for a while and deserve their time in the sun, fall under our featuring policy, or they're new reads that we couldn't wait to post at the blog. You can check them out at the links below. Hope we can help you find your next favorite book!
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I love travel. But as a writer and a fan of domestic thrillers, I’m always hyper aware of what could go wrong. Getting lost in a city where I don’t speak the language is one of my worst nightmares. I once traveled to Germany with a friend rather than meeting her in Italy just so I wouldn’t get stranded in an Italian airport on my own.
In Lorraine Brown’s debut novel, The Paris Connection (also published as Uncoupling), her heroine Hannah gets caught up in this very specific nightmare of mine. Luckily for Hannah, she’s starring in a romantic comedy, not a thriller, so her stakes are relatively low and fun. But there’s always a message in romance, and this one had me thinking.
British couple Hannah and Si are on their dream trip to Venice before his sister’s wedding in Amsterdam. Hannah thinks she and Si are mismatched; he’s a dreamboat with rich parents, a great job, and the ability to handle everything. Hannah, though, is a mess with daddy issues. On the overnight train to Amsterdam, Hannah can’t get to sleep, and she changes carriages in order to spread out. When she wakes up that morning, she’s in Paris – the trains uncoupled overnight, and Si is in Amsterdam with her passport and money. Hannah is stranded and Catherine’s wedding is that evening! Luckily, there’s one other person in this same predicament – an arrogant Frenchman named Leo. When they both miss the next train to Amsterdam, they have hours to kill in Paris, and decide to spend them together. Naturally, sparks fly.
This book takes readers on a tour through the Paris that only the locals know. There are quaint little shops (so much eating!), a special view of the Eiffel Tower, a motorbike tour. Hannah, a budding photographer stuck in an admin job, has her camera and shares with Leo her dream of taking a real photography class. Si, she confides, thinks it’s an expense that spendthrift Hannah can’t afford. And while Hannah and Leo spill their secrets to each other, Hannah starts to wonder about secrets that Si might be keeping. Why is he texting with one of his sister’s bridesmaids?
The Paris Connection is a sweet, typical romantic comedy. And in a rom-com, readers know who and what to root for. But I had mixed feelings about it, especially about the ending. Maybe it’s because I’m 53, not 30, or maybe because I’ve never followed the rules about which couples I’m supposed to root for. The book brought up big questions for me about forgiveness, about how to handle a situation when a person isn’t who everyone expects them to be. Life is complicated; love is complicated, and even one beautiful day in Paris doesn’t change that.
Thanks to Putnam for the book in exchange for an honest review.
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As a proud card-carrying member of Generation X, I can clearly remember walking to school alone or with classmates as early as the first grade. And this school wasn’t exactly close, either. I had to go all the way down Brett Lane to the walking path, which wound its way through the woods, past the tot lot and up a hill before reaching Steven’s Forest Elementary.
Can you imagine a child doing that today? Of course not. The police would get involved. Child Protective Services would come out. A child alone is a child in danger!
In A Million Things, Australian writer Emily Spurr’s heartbreaking debut, 10-year-old Rae is used to walking to school alone. After all, it’s just Rae, her mom, and her dog Splinter, and sometimes Rae’s mom disappears for a couple of days. Or rages at her. Rae goes to the grocery store on her own; she knows how to use her mother’s debit card and log onto her mother’s online banking. No one really pays any attention to them except the nosy old lady next door, Lettie.
But today is different. Today Rae’s mother is gone and there’s a smell in the shed that Rae has to cover up. And now Rae has to go to school and to the grocery store and back home and pretend like everything is fine, especially to Lettie, who won’t stop asking questions. And then Lettie has a fall in her own home, and Rae realizes she’s not the only one with secrets.
A Million Things is narrated by Rae in first person; the book reminded me of Emma Donoghue’s smash 2011 bestseller Room, which is narrated by a five-year-old boy imprisoned in a shed with his mother. Rae’s voice is incredibly mature, though, and I had trouble believing that this girl was in grade school. The character explains that she reads the dictionary when asked about her sophisticated vocabulary, but that doesn’t account for the complex sentence structure.
Perhaps her upbringing does. A child forced to fend for herself, treated like an equal by a mother who refused to be one, develops a world view and an internal monologue older than her age.
The too-sophisticated voice was the only thing that bothered me about A Million Things. Even though it doesn’t take place in the U.S., it felt like a very American book, a treatise on how we are conditioned not to ask for help, how we hide our secrets and insist that everything is okay even while the shed in the backyard betrays the rot that is really taking place. And part of me wanted Rae and Lettie to succeed; to be able to live their lives the way they wanted, without outsiders coming in and upsetting everything.
I may have walked to school on my own at six years old, but there’s no way at 10 I would have been able to survive on my own for longer than a day or two. But today’s children, helicoptered though many of them are, know their way around the internet and food delivery apps and bank payments. We wouldn’t want our children to have to survive on their own… but it’s nice to know they could if they had to.
Thanks to Berkley for the book in exchange for an honest review.
Chances are, if you’re in your mid-thirties or over and you’re dating, you have a few really good and bad first date stories. In FIRST DATE STORIES: Women’s Romantic and Ridiculous Midlife Adventures (She Writes Press), Jodi Klein shares some of her pre-Mr. Yes stories, along with friend’s triumphs and disasters. Before she begins, Jodi says right up front that being single should be celebrated and this is just some knowledge to have before you go out there. “Jodi writes these stories focus on heterosexual daters and shouldn’t be regarded as purposefully exclusionary of the LGBTQ community. It’s my hope that everyone finds the love they seek.”
FIRST DATE STORIES is broken up into several sections. First are the dating stories and then the takeaways each woman experiences, along with some lessons to be learned. Jodi suggests keeping a journal so you can keep track of what dating sites you use, what you talked about with a date and hopefully it keeps you from not dating Mr. No twice.
Some things to consider while on a first date: does he seem safe, nice, make you laugh or can you imagine kissing him? Remember every no is closer to a yes. Love yourself enough so you can walk away from Mr. Maybe and then find Mr. Yes.
“You’ve got to keep showing up.”
Jodi says you’re not alone on this journey considering how many dating sites, apps and virtual meeting places there are available. She says to grow your network, try activities you’ve never done before, talk to strangers and don’t be afraid to go to social events alone. You never know!
Thanks to SparkPoint Studio for the book in exchange for an honest review.
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Jess Cooper lost her husband on 9/11. Just not in the way she thought.
On September 11, 2001, Brett Cooper checks into a flight to go on an interview for a job he doesn’t want, in a city where he doesn’t want to live. All to make his wife happy. He loves her, but he’s not happy in his marriage. Or in his body, really. As boarding begins, Brett panics and gives his ticket away. When his plane strikes the World Trade Center, he realizes that he's been given a second chance to live the life he always wanted.
Brett disappears into the chaos, hoping to figure out who he’s meant to be. With help from some new friends, Brett begins to transition into Christa. A tragedy sends Christa further north to Canada, where she builds a new life. For eighteen years, Christa’s life is peaceful and easy until she runs into Jess. Jess used her husband's life insurance to go to medical school. When she discovers that she's actually not a widow, it throws her entire future into question. Making matters more complicated is the discovery that all of the love Jess held for her spouse is alive and well. Christa and Jess must figure out what the future holds for them—if Christa has a future at all, with the reemergence of the missing Canadian woman whose identity Christa “borrowed”.
Can love conquer all, or is it sometimes better to let go? (Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads)
Finding Tranquility was yet another unique read by Laura Heffernan. Her characters are often complicated and not one dimensional, as with the primary characters here. At first, I found it hard to relate with Brett and the decision he made in walking away from his wife. But as the story progresses and I learned more about him, I realized that there is a lot of inner struggle going on, and in walking away and starting over, it was a way to live the life he wanted, much like the synopsis suggests.
The path he takes is one riddled with not only self-discovery, but hardship. My heart hurt for him. I felt that Heffernan delved into the journey beautifully, gradually allowing us to see the type of growth and transition Brett goes through in becoming who he has always felt he should be, Christa. While it might have felt a bit easy to put her wife, Jess, back in Christa’s wife coincidentally, stranger things really have happened. And at some point, it stood to reason that Christa would have to come to terms with the decisions she’s made and would have to account for it with the one person she had loved most in her life.
There are a lot of dramatic moments, one being the missing woman whom Christa borrowed her identity from. I loved the stacking of the cards here, that first, Christa runs into her wife and has to figure out where to go from there, and then, the dealings with a woman who sets out to try to elicit some sort of payback for the fact that Christa has lived the life the missing woman never got to live. It’s another unique obstacle that really added to the suspense and drama.
The reactions all of the characters have to one another, the choices made, the secrets that have been kept hidden for years, and surprising revelations made Finding Tranquility an eye-opening read, and one that I feel deserves five stars!
Thanks to Laura Heffernan for the book in exchange for an honest review.
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| Photo by Eric Kieu |
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GEORGIA, 1968 - Margaret Rose McCutcheon has just buried her husband and must now name a beneficiary for their estate in case of her demise. She is hard-pressed to do so because there is no one. No children. No family. At least none to speak of. At one time, she had two sisters and six brothers, but the lot of them were scattered to the four winds, with no one knowing where the others went. In the hope of finding at least one of her siblings, Margaret hires a detective and sets off on a journey to uncover the truth of why the family broke apart as it did.
WEST VIRGINIA, 1901 – When Eliza Hobbs gives birth to her sixth child, her husband is not there to welcome his daughter into the world. No surprise, because Martin is seldom there. He works in Charleston and returns to Coal Creek only when he has a mind to. Yes, he sends money on occasion, but seldom enough to make ends meet. Although Eliza believes each new child a blessing, he sees them as yet another responsibility on his already overloaded shoulders. When he discovers another child is on the way, he demands she get rid of it. he stops returning home and there is no more money.
Left with the children, a mountainside patch of land, and a house in sorry need of repair, Eliza seeks help and turns to someone powerful enough to hold sway over Martin and force him into providing for his family. Pushed to the brink, Martin does something unforgivable and the family is forever torn apart.
Now, after all these years, will Margaret be the one to find the pieces of her broken family? (Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads)
Somehow, I missed the fact that When I Last Saw You was based on a true story. That only adds to the depth and sincerity I found while reading about Margaret Rose and Eliza’s experiences.
Most of the books I read focus on the younger generations, but Margaret Rose is a sexagenarian who has recently lost her husband. Her perspective on life was refreshing, particularly when she recounts the past. Coming from a large family that had lived a small-town life in Coal Creek, it’s hard for her to reconcile one tough existence with the other. When she hires a detective to find her missing family members, I was anxious to uncover truths and hidden secrets right along with her, and I loved hearing about her adventurous spirit in an age where the older generation is made to feel like their wild days are behind them. She goes against the grain of stereotypes, even when there are moments of fear--what will people say?
Eliza was the quintessential mother. My heart broke for her. Despite the hand that she had been given, she could find the beauty in what she does have-her children. Certain scenes with Eliza could be tough to read, particularly when she is trying desperately to find a way to provide for her children in a time when women were not encouraged to work outside the home. She is very dependent on Martin, but he has detached himself from his Coal Creek family and it seems they’re all better off without him.
Both women share the same struggle in trying to go against their own societal standards, all in the name of family. Even in my own moments of having other things I needed to do, I kept coming back to When I Last Saw You, eager to discover where it was headed and ultimately, how it would end. Would Margaret Rose find her siblings? Would Eliza find a way to break free from Martin? It was another great experience by Bette Lee Crosby, a well-deserved five-star read!
Thanks to Bette Lee Crosby for the book in exchange for an honest review.
It’s the most common plot in a domestic thriller: The husband disappears or dies, and the wife discovers that he isn’t the man she thought he was. So how about this plot, times two? That’s what author Jeff Abbott decides to do in his latest psychological thriller, An Ambush of Widows. The result, while sometimes uneven, is a good ride.
When Kirsten North gets an anonymous call that her husband Henry has died in Austin, she’s terrified and confused – Henry was supposed to be in New York! Learning that an unidentified man was killed in a warehouse along with Austin venture capitalist Adam Zhang, Kirsten flies to Texas to learn the truth.
She has no idea that the hitman who killed Henry and Adam is after her.
Meanwhile, Adam’s widow Flora is just as confused and terrified. She knew Adam was keeping secrets—but she thought it was an affair. She doesn’t know who Henry was or what Adam was doing with him—and now the police are asking questions about her marriage. Then Kirsten shows up, and Flora wonders if this woman is her ally, or the real killer.
Abbott bites off a lot with this setup, and the reader does a lot of chewing. The first big surprise was the inclusion of the hit man’s point-of-view. Right away this lets us know that the deaths are professionally criminal in nature. At the same time, the hit man has a job to do before returning home to his very pregnant fiancée. It’s hard not to feel something for him.
Kirsten and Flora are in the same boat, but Kirsten has the much more well-developed back story, with chapters in the past devoted to how she first met Henry and her foster brother, Zach, and the foster parents she and Zach lived with. Now an enforcer for the mob, Zach comes to Austin to protect Kirsten. Flora is suspicious of Kirsten and Zach, as well as Adam’s business partner, his cousin, and the woman who claims to be Adam’s lover. There are twice as many people to keep track of, making the story twice as hard to follow.
I rooted hard for Kirsten; I didn’t feel I knew Flora as well. But the introduction of all the mob elements was a turn-off for me. I hate mob stories, and I’m not sure they fit well into traditional domestic thrillers. With so many characters and with the back stories being so important, the ending felt convoluted and overly complicated to me. But Abbott did leave enough unresolved to give himself material for a sequel.
An Ambush of Widows has a great concept, and Abbott delivers in many places. But readers might need a spreadsheet to keep track of all the characters and twists.
Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for the book in exchange for an honest review.
More by Jeff Abbott:
Until one morning, when they wake up to find their porch has been pelted with eggs. It’s a prank, Thomas insists; the work of a few out-of-control kids. But when a smoke bomb is tossed on their front lawn, and their car’s tires are punctured, the family begins to worry. Surveillance cameras show nothing but grainy images of shadowy figures in hoodies. And the police dismiss the attacks, insisting they’re just the work of bored teenagers. Unable to identify the perpetrators, the Adlers are helpless as the assaults escalate into violence, and worse. And each new violation brings with it a growing fear. Because everyone in the Adler family is keeping a secret—not just from the outside world, but from each other. And secrets can be very dangerous….
This twisty, addictively page-turning suspense novel about a perfect family’s perfect façade will keep you turning pages until its explosive ending. (Courtesy of Amazon.)
We've been running a column series to get more personal with our readers. This month, with it being back-to-school season, we're talking about our own experiences with going to school.
I think author Lexie Elliott must have had much better friends in college than I did. While Facebook is the only way I've stayed in touch with friends from my University of Maryland days, Elliott has now written two books about a group of college friends who stayed tight after graduation, reuniting after someone’s death. Her debut in 2018, The French Girl (reviewed here), put her on the map; now How to Kill Your Best Friend presents a swimming-centered tale just in time for the end of summer. As usual, Elliott’s keen description and atmospherics create a compelling, although sometimes convoluted, tale.
Lissa, Georgie and Bronwyn were best friends in college in London, drawn together through their love of swimming. Lissa was the strongest swimmer among them, so how is it that she died in a mysterious drowning, her body lost to the waters of Kanu Cove? Georgie and Bronwyn, along with their old friends Duncan and Adam, attend Lissa’s memorial service at the secluded island resort hotel owned by Lissa and her second husband, Jem. But old emails from Lissa to Georgie, and hateful messages to Bronwyn, cast doubt on the official story of Lissa’s death. Was it an accidental drowning, suicide, or did the mysterious creature of Kanu Cove get her? Or could it have been murder? And if it was murder, then who’s next?
The story is told in alternating first person by Georgie, Bronwyn (Bron), and an unknown narrator who muses about how to kill her best friend. While the narrative voice is incredibly similar for all three, the characters themselves are very different. Career-girl Georgie, now living in New York, feels incredibly guilty for missing the get-together where Lissa died. Bron, who gave up her accounting career to take care of her two children, feels incredibly guilty for sleeping with Lissa’s first husband, Graeme, who died after eating a cookie with nuts and misplacing his Epi-pen. And Lissa, as the best friends describe her, had a taste for vengeance. In fact, Georgie, who kept Bron’s secret about her affair, suspects Lissa might have found out anyway and killed Graeme in retaliation.
As the locals who work there quit the hotel and the guests cancel their reservations, the four friends are stranded at the resort with Jem and Steve, Jem’s right-hand man. The pace quickens as Georgie is attacked and the threats toward Bron continue. Everything comes together in a masterful, visual climax that would work wonderfully on film.
Mystery writers from Agatha Christie to contemporary authors often use an isolated setting to narrow their potential suspects and trap the possible victims. How to Kill Your Best Friend reminded me less of Elliott’s earlier works and more of Allie Reynolds’s January 2021 debut, Shiver, about former Olympic snowboarders stranded together in the French Alps years after one of their group died mysteriously (reviewed here). Unlike Shiver and many other “old friends” mysteries, author Elliott chooses not to move between past and present. Best Friend is firmly in the here-and-now, and while I usually prefer the past to stay there, in this case, scenes from college or Bron’s affair or anything that showed us Lissa rather than told us about her would have been helpful in keeping all the threads of the story straight.
One area where Best Friend beats Shiver hands-down is the ending. I thought Shiver’s was a bit campy; Best Friend literally had me jump out of my seat. In a book filled with twists, Elliott really does save the best for last.
Thanks to Berkley for the book in exchange for an honest review.
Also by Lexie Elliott:
