#BookReview Every Precious and Fragile Thing by Barbara Davis @FireflyDist @AmazonPub #EveryPreciousAndFragileThing #BarbaraDavis #LakeUnion #FireflyDist

#BookReview Every Precious and Fragile Thing by Barbara Davis @FireflyDist @AmazonPub #EveryPreciousAndFragileThing #BarbaraDavis #LakeUnion #FireflyDist Title: Every Precious and Fragile Thing

Author: Barbara Davis

Published by: Lake Union Publishing on Feb. 18, 2025

Genres: General Fiction, Historical Fiction

Pages: 431

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Firefly Distributed Lines

Book Rating: 10/10

A mother and daughter try desperately to reconcile just as a decades-old secret threatens to shatter their relationship forever in this powerful story from the bestselling author of The Echo of Old Books.

For social worker Mallory Ward, working with at-risk youth is a calling. But when one of her clients is tragically killed, she finds herself at a crossroads. Despite long-held resentments toward her distant mother, Mallory retreats to her childhood home on the Rhode Island coast to contemplate her future. Instead, she’s confronted by her past, not only in the renewed tensions with her mother but in the unexpected appearance of a familiar face―and the wrenching losses that drove her away a decade ago.

Helen Ward’s home is filled with precious keepsakes from her patients, a testament to decades spent caring for the terminally ill. Her work has always come first, though, leaving little time to connect with her daughter. Over the years, the rift between them has become a chasm, so when Mallory appears unannounced, Helen sees it as an opportunity to repair their broken relationship.

But hidden among Helen’s mementos are the keys to her past…and a terrible secret that threatens to destroy the fragile new trust between them forever.


Review:

Absorbing, optimistic, and tender!

Every Precious and Fragile Thing is a heartfelt, engaging tale that takes you into the lives of two main characters. Mallory, a compassionate social worker who, after one of her clients is brutally murdered, heads home to regroup, repair the strained relationship she has with her mother, and decide what she really wants to do with her life, and Helen, a death doula who after helping numerous people pass peacefully into the next life, decides to take a break to focus on what’s truly important and finally share all her secrets from the past with her daughter.

The prose is sensitive and reflective. The characters are scarred, insecure, and secretive. And the plot is a compelling tale of life, loss, family, grief, friendship, self-discovery, trust, kindness, support, forgiveness, troubled pasts, taking chances, companionship, second-chance love, and the intricacies of mother-daughter relationships.

Overall, Every Precious and Fragile Thing is a moving, uplifting, nostalgic tale by Davis, complete with strong, endearing characters, a touching storyline, and an insightful look into the power of remorse and the unbreakable ties that bind us to those we love.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

          

 

 

Thank you to Firefly Distributed Lines for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Barbara Davis

I’m a Jersey girl raised in the south, now living and writing in New England. Confused? Constantly. Happy? Deliriously! But then, living your dream will do that! After fifteen years of wearing heels and schlepping a briefcase as an executive in the jewelry industry, I traded in my pinstripes for a little peace of mind, and decided to follow my dream of becoming a women’s fiction author. And what a ride it’s been! Six books later, I’m still pinching myself, and I’m still as much in love with writing as I was the day I began this journey. Maybe it’s because I believe in miracles, in happy endings and new beginnings. Heaven knows I’ve had my share.

I’m blessed to be married to my best friend and soul mate, Tom, who I must say, sets the bar pretty high for my on-the-page heroes. We also have a lovely ginger cat named Simon, who is twenty years old, wretchedly spoiled, and doesn’t give a fig if I’m on deadline or not. When I’m not making up stories, you’re likely to find me reading, cooking, watching college football, (Go Gators!) or spreading a little sunshine over on Facebook, on The Sunshine Page.

#BookReview The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley @SimonSchusterCA #TheKingsMessenger #SusannaKearsley #SimonSchusterCA

#BookReview The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley @SimonSchusterCA #TheKingsMessenger #SusannaKearsley #SimonSchusterCA Title: The King's Messenger

Author: Susanna Kearsley

Published by: Simon & Schuster Canada on Mar. 4, 2025

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

For fans of Diana Gabaldon and Philippa Gregory, courtly rivalry and intrigue…
 
1613:  King James – sixth of Scotland, first of England, son of Mary, Queen of Scots – has unified both countries under one crown. But the death of his eldest son, Henry, has plunged the nation into mourning, as the rumours rise the prince was poisoned.
 
Andrew Logan’s heard the rumours, but he’s paid them little heed. As one of the King’s Messengers he has enough secrets to guard, including his own. In these perilous times, when the merest suggestion of witchcraft can see someone tortured and hanged, men like Andrew must hide well the fact they were born with the Sight.
 
He’ll need all his gifts, though, when the king sends Andrew north to find and arrest Sir David Murray, once Prince Henry’s trusted courtier, and bring him a prisoner to London to stand trial before the dreaded Star Chamber.
 
A story of treachery, betrayal and love…


Review:

Rich, enthralling, and atmospheric!

The King’s Messenger is a fascinating, absorbing tale set during 1613 that takes you into the life of Andrew Logan, a King’s Messenger who, after the death of the crown prince, is sent by the King to Scotland, along with a scribe and the scribe’s daughter, Phoebe, to find the late prince’s trusted advisor, Sir David Moray, and return him to England to be tried for his murder.

The prose is eloquent and expressive. The characters are multilayered, sympathetic, and alluring. And the plot is an epic tale filled with duty, danger, hope, fear, sacrifices, struggles, heartbreak, family, friendship, politics, complex relationships, tormented pasts, and unconditional love.

Overall, The King’s Messenger is an enchanting, immersive, heart-tugging tale that transports you to another time and place and immerses you so thoroughly into the lives, feelings, and personalities of the characters you never want it to end. It is undoubtedly one of my favourite novels of the year that once again highlights Kearsley’s extraordinary imagination and talent as a remarkable researcher and masterful storyteller.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

        

 

 

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Susanna Kearsley

New York Times, USA TODAY, and Globe and Mail bestselling author Susanna Kearsley is a former museum curator who loves restoring the lost voices of real people to the page, often in twin-stranded stories that interweave present and past. Her award-winning novels are published in translation in more than twenty-five countries. She lives near Toronto.

Photo by Wendy McAlpine.

 

#BookReview The Favorites by Layne Fargo @PenguinRandomCA #TheFavorites #LayneFargo #PenguinReads

#BookReview The Favorites by Layne Fargo @PenguinRandomCA #TheFavorites #LayneFargo #PenguinReads Title: The Favorites

Author: Layne Fargo

Published by: Random House on Jan. 14, 2025

Genres: Contemporary Romance, General Fiction

Pages: 448

Format: Paperback

Source: Penguin Random House Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship.

Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end.

As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the “real story” through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So, after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.


Review:

Multilayered, dramatic, and gripping!

The Favorites is an absorbing, passionate tale that sweeps you away into the cutthroat world of figure skating and the unauthorized documentary of the tumultuous, intimate relationship and lives of Olympic figure skaters Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha ten years after their final skate.

The prose is intricate and raw. The characters are flawed, genuine, and well-developed. And the plot, using a mix of narration and interviews, intertwines and unravels seamlessly into an immersive tale about life, loss, love, family, manipulation, obsession, desire, dreams, betrayal, competition, gossip, glitz, glamour, fame, and ruthless ambition.

Overall, The Favorites is a seductive, scandalous, intoxicating tale by Fargo that I absolutely devoured. It had just the right amount of intensity, angst, romance, and passion to keep me invested from start to finish and will definitely hold a spot as one of my favourite reads of the year!

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

        

 

 

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Layne Fargo

Layne Fargo has a background in theater, women’s studies, and library science, so it’s only fitting that she now writes deliciously dramatic, unapologetically feminist stories for a living. She’s the author of psychological thrillers They Never Learn and Temper, as well as co-author on the bestselling Young Rich Widows series, and her work has been translated into over a dozen languages. Layne lives in Chicago with her partner, their pets, and an ever-expanding collection of books she’s definitely going to read before she dies.

Photo by Katharine Hannah Photography

#BookReview The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse @KateMosse @PGCBooks #TheMapOfBones #KateMosse #TheJoubertFamilyChronicles #PGCBooks

#BookReview The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse @KateMosse @PGCBooks #TheMapOfBones #KateMosse #TheJoubertFamilyChronicles #PGCBooks Title: The Map of Bones

Author: Kate Mosse

Series: The Joubert Family Chronicles #4

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Jan. 7, 2025

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 480

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

Following The Ghost Ship, bestseller Kate Mosse brings readers a sweeping novel of adventure and hardship, injustice and triumph, in the epic conclusion to The Joubert Family Chronicles.

Olifantshoek, 1688. When the violent Cape wind blows from the south-east, they say the voices of the unquiet dead can be heard whispering through the deserted valley. Suzanne Joubert, a Huguenot refugee from war-torn France, is here to walk in her cousin’s footsteps. Louise Reydon-Joubert, the notorious she-captain and pirate commander, landed at the Cape of Good Hope more than sixty years ago, then disappeared from the record as if she had never existed. Suzanne has come to find her—and to lay the stories to rest. But all is not as it seems.

Franschhoek, 1862. Nearly one hundred and eighty years after Suzanne’s perilous journey, another intrepid and courageous woman of the Joubert family, Isabelle Lepard, has journeyed to the small frontier town once known as Oliftantshoek in search of her long-lost relations. A journalist and travel writer, intent on putting the women of her family back into the history books, she quickly discovers that the tragedies and crimes of the past are far from over. Isabelle must face a race against time—to not only discover the truth, but escape with her life as well.

Moving and ambitious in scope, The Map of Bones tells the story of courageous women battling to survive in a hostile land—of revenge, retribution, and ultimately, redemption. Most of all, it is a poignant novel about the importance of women bearing witness and the power of the written word.


Review:

Captivating, immersive, and memorable!

The Map of Bones is an atmospheric, fascinating tale that picks up a few decades after The Ghost Ship left off, sweeping us to the Cape of Good Hope in the late 1600s and into the life of the fierce, independent Suzanne Joubert who, after arriving as a refugee on the shores of South Africa is bound and determined to do whatever it takes, even amongst the hostility and danger that surrounds her, to once and for all discover the fate of her infamous ancestor Louise Reydon-Joubert, the she-captain of the Ghost Ship.

The prose is rich and expressive. The characters are persistent, resilient, and strong. And the plot is a passionate, engrossing quest full of life, loss, love, courage, action, adventure, family, friendship, sacrifice, savagery, injustice, and revelations.

Overall, The Map of Bones is the alluring, insightful, stunning conclusion to The Joubert Family Chronicles by Mosse which spectacularly highlights her incredible knowledge and research into the vivid, tragic history of the Huguenots.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

         

 

 

 

Thank you to PGC Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Kate Mosse

KATE MOSSE is a multiple New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author with sales of more than eight million copies in thirty-eight languages. Her previous novels include Labyrinth, Sepulchre, The Winter Ghosts, Citadel, The Taxidermist’s Daughter, and The Burning Chambers. Kate is the founder director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, a visiting professor at the University of Chichester, and in June 2013, was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature. She divides her time between Chichester in the United Kingdom and Carcassonne in France.

Photo Credit: Ruth Crafer

#BookReview More or Less Maddy by Lisa Genova @ScoutPressBooks @SimonSchusterCA #MoreOrLessMaddy #LisaGenova #SimonSchusterCA

#BookReview More or Less Maddy by Lisa Genova @ScoutPressBooks @SimonSchusterCA #MoreOrLessMaddy #LisaGenova #SimonSchusterCA Title: More or Less Maddy

Author: Lisa Genova

Published by: Scout Press on Jan. 14, 2025

Genres: General Fiction, Women's Fiction

Pages: 368

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

A breathless, riveting novel about a young woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder who rejects the stability and approval found in a traditionally “normal” life for a career in stand-up comedy.

Maddy Banks is just like any other stressed-out freshman at NYU. Between schoolwork, exams, navigating life in the city, and a recent breakup, it’s normal to be feeling overwhelmed. It doesn’t help that she’s always felt like the odd one out in her picture-perfect Connecticut family. But Maddy’s latest low is devastatingly low, and she goes on an antidepressant. She begins to feel good, dazzling in fact, and she soon spirals high into a wild and terrifying mania that culminates in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

As she struggles to find her way in this new reality, navigating the complex effects bipolar has on her identity, her relationships, and her life dreams, Maddy will have to figure out how to manage being both too much and not enough.

With her signature “deep empathy and insight” (Booklist), Harvard-trained neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling authorLisa Genova has crafted another profoundly moving novel that makes complicated mental health issues accessible and human. More or Less Maddy is destined to become another classic like Still Alice.


Review:

Moving, memorable, and compelling!

More or Less Maddy is an intimate, thought-provoking novel that immerses you into the life of Maddy Banks, a bipolar young woman who is struggling to find purpose in her life while being dependent on medication, consistently disappointing those she loves, and feeling like a prisoner to a mind that never wants to rest.

The prose is evocative and sincere. The characters are multi-layered, vulnerable, and eccentric. And the plot is a touching tale of life, love, family, friendship, desires, needs, dreams, mania, suicide ideation, standup comedy, complex relationships, and mental health.

Overall, More or Less Maddy is an immersive, emotional, sensitive tale by Genova that does a remarkable job of reminding us of the lifelong struggles for those suffering from a mental health disorder to perform normal daily activities, forge true friendships, and experience love, while also highlighting just how easily the greatest of highs can quickly transition to devastating, tragic lows.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

         

 

 

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Lisa Genova

Acclaimed as the Oliver Sacks of fiction and the Michael Crichton of brain science, Lisa Genova is the New York Times bestselling author of Still Alice, Left Neglected, Love Anthony, Inside the O’Briens, and Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting. Still Alice was adapted into an Oscar–winning film starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, and Kristen Stewart. Lisa graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in biopsychology and holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. She is featured in the documentary films To Not Fade Away and Have You Heard About Greg. Her TED talks on Alzheimer’s disease and memory have been viewed over eleven million times.

Photo by Greg Mentzer

#BlogTour #BookReview I Blame the Rival by Jade Everhart #IBlametheRival #JadeEverhart #TaberTigerSeries #KindleUnlimited #NewAdultRomance #SportsRomance

#BlogTour #BookReview I Blame the Rival by Jade Everhart #IBlametheRival #JadeEverhart #TaberTigerSeries #KindleUnlimited #NewAdultRomance #SportsRomance Title: I Blame the Rival

Author: Jade Everhart

Series: Taber Tigers #4

Published by: Independently Published on Sep. 23, 2024

Genres: Contemporary Romance, New Adult

Pages: 332

Format: Paperback

Source: Jade Everhart

Book Rating: 10/10

Lacey

All I wanted was a friend. That’s why I responded to the note another therapy patient left behind. To find someone who knows what it’s like to have scars no one else can see. To have secrets no one wants to hear.

I was looking for a friend. I didn’t know he was the rival.

Skylar

I fell in love with someone I’ve never met. A faceless pen pal, I wouldn’t be able to pick this girl out of a crowd and yet she owns every piece of my battered heart. She’s the colour to my darkness and I didn’t know what would happen if we ever met in person. I didn’t know how my life would change once we did.


Review:

Absorbing, intense, and emotional!

I Blame the Rival is an intimate, touching tale that sweeps you away to small-town Alberta and into the life of Lacey, an eighteen-year-old girl who, after experiencing a sexual assault from her first serious boyfriend, struggles to find the light in her life until she accidentally becomes pen pals with another broken soul who may be considered taboo but whose patience and trust may actually be the perfect balm for healing both their shattered hearts.

The writing style is heartfelt and smooth. The characters are tormented, fragile, and endearing. And the plot is a rollercoaster ride of life, love, friendship, family, trust, shame, self-blame, loneliness, sexual assault, childhood trauma, mental health, comfort, support, pain, accepting love, and undeniable attraction.

Overall, I Blame the Rival is a tender, immersive, sensitive conclusion to the Tiger Tabers series by Everhart that packed a real emotional punch and had just the right amount of intensity, angst, romance, and passion to keep me invested from start to finish while also leaving me a little sad to say goodbye to all these characters I’ve come to know and love over the past four novels.

This novel is available now in paperback & KINDLE UNLIMITED.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from the following link.

 

Thank you to Jade Everhart for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Jade Everhart

Jade Everhart writes heart-warming romances with flawed characters and laugh-out-loud banter. When she's not using her own terrible meet-cutes as inspiration for her next novel, Jade spends her time listening to loud music and tearing up dance floors from the prairies of Southern Alberta to the glistening beaches of Miami.

#BookReview Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty @doubledayca @PenguinRandomCA #HereOneMoment #LianeMoriarty #PenguinReads

#BookReview Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty @doubledayca @PenguinRandomCA #HereOneMoment #LianeMoriarty #PenguinReads Title: Here One Moment

Author: Liane Moriarty

Published by: Doubleday Canada on Sep. 10, 2024

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 512

Format: Hardcover

Source: Penguin Random House Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.
 
Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their deaths are far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.
 
How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.”
 
Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.
 
A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die—again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.
 
If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?
 
Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.


Review:

Intricate, thought-provoking, and immersive!

Here One Moment is a pensive, moving, emotionally-charged novel that takes you into the lives of a handful of people whose worlds are irrevocably changed and linked by one plane ride and a woman who feels the need to tell every passenger the age and manner in which they will die.

The prose is eloquent and intense. The characters, including all the supporting characters, are complex, conflicted, and genuine. And the plot is a compelling, sobering tale of life, love, loss, family, friendship, grief, guilt, acceptance, fate, consequences, and choices.

Overall, Here One Moment will make you think and will resonate with you long after the final page. It’s an impactful, enthralling, reflective tale by Moriarty that does a remarkable job of highlighting humanities weaknesses and emotional fragility and reminds us just how important it is to appreciate all those little things in life, the moments, the sunsets, and the shared smiles.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

        

 

 

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Liane Moriarty

Liane Moriarty is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Big Little Lies, The Husband’s Secret, and Truly Madly Guilty; the New York Times bestsellers Nine Perfect Strangers, What Alice Forgot, and The Last Anniversary; The Hypnotist’s Love Story; and Three Wishes. She lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband and two children.

Photo by über photography

#BookReview The Lost Lover by Karen Swan @KarenSwan1 @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheLostLover #TheWildIsleSeries #KarenSwan #PGCBooks

#BookReview The Lost Lover by Karen Swan @KarenSwan1 @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheLostLover #TheWildIsleSeries #KarenSwan #PGCBooks Title: The Lost Lover

Author: Karen Swan

Series: The Wild Isle #3

Published by: Pan Macmillan on May 1, 2024

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 400

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

The third epic and spellbinding historical romance in The Wild Isle series from Globe and Mail and Toronto Star bestseller Karen Swan.

Young Flora MacQueen has always dreamed of more than a hard life on the small Scottish island of St Kilda. And when she catches the eye of visiting adventurer and wealthy businessman James Callaghan her future seems brighter.

Only, as the islanders prepare to leave their homes for the final time, Flora finds her dreams shattered. With her beauty her only currency she must step forward in ways that would have been unthinkable back home in order to support her family. Soon Flora is the toast of glamorous Paris. Fame and fortune are hers for the taking but she knows only too well by now that rich men make empty promises.

But then a secret comes to light that will change everything…

Following The Last Summer and The Stolen Hours, The Lost Lover is the third book in Karen Swan’s bestselling Wild Isle series, loosely based upon the dramatic evacuation of Scottish island St Kilda in the summer of 1930.


Review:

Beguiling, atmospheric, and consuming!

The Lost Lover is a dramatic, passionate tale that takes you back to 1929 and into the life of Flora MacQueen, a St. Kilda beauty who, after falling for a visiting explorer and agreeing to marriage, discovers upon the island’s evacuation that things have not unfolded as initially planned and she will have to make some of the hardest decisions of her life in order to secure a future for her family and herself in a world where money talks and fame and fortune can be alluring yet fleeting.

The writing is vivid and sentimental. The characters are determined, dependable, and selfless. And the plot is a captivating tale of life, loss, friendship, family, intrigue, temptation, responsibilities, attraction, community, sacrifice, romance, and enduring love.

Overall, The Lost Lover is an enchanting, heart-tugging, beautiful tale by Swan that I absolutely adored and which has left me counting down the days until the fourth and final novel in this series becomes available so I can discover how this compelling, must-read, historical saga will finally come to an end.

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

         

 

 

Thank you to PGC Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Karen Swan

Karen Swan began her career in fashion journalism before giving it all up to raise her three children and a puppy, and to pursue her ambition of becoming a writer. She lives in the forest outside Sussex, England, writing her books in a treehouse overlooking the Downs.

An internationally bestselling author, her numerous books include The Rome Affair, The Paris Secret, Christmas Under the Stars, and The Christmas Secret. 

Photograph by Alexander James

#BookReview The Lost Victim by Robert Bryndza @RobertBryndza #TheLostVictim #RobertBryndza #KateMarshall #KateMarshallSeries

#BookReview The Lost Victim by Robert Bryndza @RobertBryndza #TheLostVictim #RobertBryndza #KateMarshall #KateMarshallSeries Title: The Lost Victim

Author: Robert Bryndza

Series: Kate Marshall #5

Published by: Raven Street Publishing on Jul. 9, 2024

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 326

Format: Hardcover

Source: Robert Bryndza

Book Rating: 10/10

When school girl Janey Macklin disappeared from the seedy side of London in 1988, her case went cold, with no body and no witnesses. Now, thirty years later, private detective Kate Marshall has been approached by a true crime podcast producer with an intriguing question they need her help answering: What if Janey was killed by Peter Conway, the notorious Nine Elms Cannibal?

The contract would be the most lucrative of Kate’s career, but it comes with a price of its own, dredging up a sordid, complicated past that she would sooner forget . . . one that the paparazzi are determined to keep in the headlines.

As Kate and her partner, Tristan, scour King’s Cross for clues, no two leads seem to point in the same direction. The last person to see Janey alive has already been tried, convicted, and then acquitted of her murder, Peter Conway is in poor health and fading fast, and the line between their clients and their suspects is blurring with each new revelation about the case.

With little to work from, can Tristan and Kate wade through clandestine phone calls, decades-old secrets, and deteriorating DNA evidence to solve Janey’s murder, or will she remain one of London’s countless missing persons, forever lost to time?

Can be read as a stand-alone.


Review:

Mesmerizing, dark and unpredictable!

The Lost Victim is an eerie, twisty thrill ride that takes us back to the UK, where Private Investigator Kate Marshall and her partner Tristan Harper now find themselves on the thirty-year-old cold case of a missing teen that will not only see them heading to the streets of London but will have Kate confronting the demon from her past one last time.

The writing is insightful and edgy. The characters are multifaceted, diligent, and clever. And the plot is an ominous, compelling mix of twists, turns, red herrings, secrets, deduction, duplicity, mayhem, manipulation, malicious intentions, violence, and murder.

Overall, The Lost Victim is another intricate, engrossing, highly entertaining thriller by Bryndza that once again highlights his exceptional ability to write police procedurals that have well-drawn characters and disturbingly realistic storylines. It is the fifth novel in the Kate Marshall series and definitely one of my new all-time favourites.

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

     

 

 

Thank you to Robert Bryndza for providing me with a copy in exchange for an review.

 

About Robert Bryndza

Robert Bryndza is an international bestselling author, best known for his page-turning crime and thriller novels, which have sold over four million copies in the English language.

His crime debut, The Girl in the Ice was released in February 2016, introducing Detective Chief Inspector Erika Foster. Within five months it sold one million copies, reaching number one in the Amazon UK, USA and Australian charts. To date, The Girl in the Ice has sold over 1.5 million copies in the English language and has been sold into translation in 29 countries. It was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller (2016), the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle in France (2018), and it won two reader voted awards, The Thrillzone Awards best debut thriller in The Netherlands (2018) and The Dead Good Papercut Award for best page turner at the Harrogate Crime Festival (2016).

Robert has released a further five novels in the Erika Foster series, The Night Stalker, Dark Water, Last Breath, Cold Blood and Deadly Secrets, all of which have been global bestsellers, and in 2017 Last Breath was a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Mystery and Thriller.

Most recently, Robert created a new crime thriller series based around the central character Kate Marshall, a police officer turned private detective. The first book, Nine Elms, was an Amazon USA #1 bestseller and an Amazon UK top five bestseller, and the series has been sold into translation in 18 countries. The second book in the series is the global bestselling, Shadow Sands and the third book, Darkness Falls, has just been published.

Robert was born in Lowestoft, on the east coast of England. He studied at Aberystwyth University, and the Guildford School of Acting, and was an actor for several years, but didn’t find success until he took a play he’d written to the Edinburgh Festival. This led to the decision to change career and start writing. He self-published a bestselling series of romantic comedy novels, before switching to writing crime. Robert lives with his husband in Slovakia, and is lucky enough to write full-time.

#BookReview A Happier Life by Kristy Woodson Harvey @kristywharvey @uplitreads #AHappierLife #kristywoodsonharvey #gifted #uplitreads

#BookReview A Happier Life by Kristy Woodson Harvey @kristywharvey @uplitreads #AHappierLife #kristywoodsonharvey #gifted #uplitreads Title: A Happier Life

Author: Kristy Woodson Harvey

Published by: Gallery Books on Jun. 25, 2024

Genres: Contemporary Romance, Women's Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: Hardcover

Source: Uplit Reads

Book Rating: 10/10

A tender and touching novel about a young woman who discovers the family she has always longed for when she spends a life-changing summer in North Carolina.

Present Keaton Smith is desperate for a fresh start. So when her mother needs someone to put her childhood home in Beaufort, North Carolina, on the market—the home that Keaton didn’t know existed until now—she jumps at the chance to head south. Keaton’s grandparents died in a tragic car accident before she was born, so she’s eager to learn more about the family she never met. But even though she has help from her charming next-door-neighbor, his precocious ten-year-old son, and a flock of endearingly feisty town busybodies, Keaton soon finds that she has more questions than answers.

1976: After meeting her adoring husband Townsend, Rebecca “Becks” Saint James abandoned the life she knew and never looked back. Forty years later, she’s made a name for herself as the best hostess North Carolina has ever seen. Her annual summer suppers have become the stuff of legend, and locals and out-of-towners alike clamor for an invitation to her stunning historic home. But she’s struggling behind the façade. Becks strives to make the lives of those around her as easy as possible, but this summer she is facing a dilemma that even she can’t solve. And as the end of the season looms, she is brought to a decision she never wanted to make.

As both Keaton and Becks face new challenges and chapters, they are connected through time by the house on Sunset Lane, which has protected the secrets, hopes, and dreams of the women in their family for generations. For fans of Summer of ‘69 and The Notebook , Last Summer on Sunset Lane explores the power of family, the bonds of friendship, and the boundless nature of love.


Review:

Touching, sentimental, and bittersweet!

A Happier Life is a beautiful, heartwarming, affecting story that sweeps you away to Beaufort, North Carolina, and into a tale where friendships are developed, mysteries are solved, memories are cherished, secrets are unearthed, tears are shed, lives are remembered, and love is forged and savoured.

The writing is smooth and heartfelt. The characters are sincere, genuine, and lovable. And the plot is a delightful blend of heart, hope, humour, nostalgia, drama, and emotion.

Overall, A Happier Life is, ultimately, a story about life, love, loss, dreams, heartbreak, friendship, family, ageing, and finding happiness, and I absolutely loved it. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and in the end, it reminded me once again why Kristy Woodson Harvey is one of my all-time favourite authors.

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

         

 

 

 

Thank you to Uplit Reads for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Kristy Woodson Harvey

Kristy Woodson Harvey is the USA TODAY bestselling author of six novels, including Feels Like Falling, The Peachtree Bluff series, and Under the Southern Sky. A Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s school of journalism, her writing has appeared in numerous online and print publications including Southern Living, Traditional Home, USA TODAY, Domino, and O. Henry. Kristy is the winner of the Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award for Excellence in Creative Writing and a finalist for the Southern Book Prize. Her work has been optioned for film and television, and her books have received numerous accolades including Southern Living’s Most Anticipated Beach Reads, Parade’s Big Fiction Reads, and Entertainment Weekly’s Spring Reading Picks. Kristy is the co-creator and co-host of the weekly web show and podcast Friends & Fiction. She blogs with her mom Beth Woodson on Design Chic, and loves connecting with fans on KristyWoodsonHarvey.com. She lives on the North Carolina coast with her husband and son where she is (always!) working on her next novel.

Photo by Jay Ackerman.