#BookReview Her Unexpected Match by Lacey Baker @LaceyBakerbook @entangledpub @angelamelamud #HerUnexpectedMatch #LaceyBaker

#BookReview Her Unexpected Match by Lacey Baker @LaceyBakerbook @entangledpub @angelamelamud #HerUnexpectedMatch #LaceyBaker Title: Her Unexpected Match

Author: Lacey Baker

Series: Crescent Island #1

Published by: Entangled Publishing on Feb. 21, 2023

Genres: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 352

Format: Paperback

Source: Angela Melamud, Entangled Publishing

Book Rating: 8/10

Travel writer Allie Sparks has one goal: to find the story that will save her career. So here she is, visiting her bestie on picturesque Crescent Island—with sun-warmed beaches, the briny smell of the ocean, and rumors of a secret astrologer-matchmaker who guarantees love. Of course, Allie doesn’t believe in any of that stuff. If anything, she’ll prove it’s a total scam.

Ryan Parker believes in love—just not right now. He’s focused on expanding his family’s barbeque business, finding investors, and keeping his too-big Great Dane puppy from jumping on everyone, including his sister’s pretty, whiskey-eyed best friend. Besides, falling for a tourist is definitely not in his astrological forecast.

Allie is doing everything she can to resist the charm of the town and its beauty, not to mention her attraction to Ryan. But there’s a lot more happening on Crescent Island than anyone knows…and when her story goes to print, this tiny, close-knit town might never be the same.


Review:

Sweet, hopeful, and engaging!

Her Unexpected Match is an enchanting, tender tale that features the dependable, handsome Ryan who, after meeting his little sister’s best friend, may discover that now is the right time for love, and the driven, hardworking travel writer Allie who may finally learn there’s a lot more to life than just work and that the true meaning of home is somewhere you feel cared for, supported and loved.

The prose is effortless and smooth. The characters are spirited, kindhearted, and amusing. And the plot is a delightful mix of family, friendship, tension, attraction, self-discovery, special moments, happiness, taking chances, and swoon-worthy romance.

Overall, Her Unexpected Match is a heartfelt, romantic, uplifting treat by Baker that’s a wonderful start to the Crescent Island series with its idyllic setting, affable characters, and little sliver of magic.

 

This novel is available now!

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

 

       

 

 

Thank you to Entangled Publishing and Angela Melamud for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Lacey Baker

Lacey Baker, a Maryland native, lives with her husband, three children, two grandchildren and English Bulldog in what most would call Suburban America--a townhouse development where everybody knows each other and each other's kids. Family cook-outs, reunion vacations, and growing up in church have all inspired Lacey to work towards her dreams and to write about the endurance of family and the quest to find everlasting love. To date she has written in several genres including small town romance, YA paranormal (as Artist Arthur), a cozy mystery series titled Rumors and adult paranormal (as A.C. Arthur).

Photo courtesy of Amazon.com.

#BookReview The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson @katethompson380 @HBGCanada @readforeverpub @grandcentralpub #ReadForever #ReadForever2023 #KateThompson #TheLittleWartimeLibrary #HBGCanada

#BookReview The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson @katethompson380 @HBGCanada @readforeverpub @grandcentralpub #ReadForever #ReadForever2023 #KateThompson #TheLittleWartimeLibrary #HBGCanada Title: The Little Wartime Library

Author: Kate Thompson

Published by: Forever on Feb. 21, 2023

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 480

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: HBG Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

An uplifting and inspiring novel based on the true story of a librarian who created an underground shelter during World War II, perfect for readers of The Paris Library or The Last Bookshop in London. 

London, 1944: Clara Button is no ordinary librarian. While war ravages the city above her, Clara has risked everything she holds dear to turn the Bethnal Green tube station into the country’s only underground library. Down here, a secret community thrives with thousands of bunk beds, a nursery, a café, and a theater—offering shelter, solace, and escape from the bombs that fall upon their city.

Along with her glamorous best friend and assistant Ruby Munroe, Clara ensures the library is the beating heart of life underground. But as the war drags on, the women’s determination to remain strong in the face of adversity is tested to the limits when it may come at the price of keeping those closest to them alive.


Review:

Captivating, rich, and inspirational!

The Little Wartime Library is a heartwarming, tragic, uplifting tale set in England during 1944 that takes you into the lives of Clara Button, a young, plucky librarian with a kind heart, and Ruby Munroe, a loyal friend and hardworking assistant, who after both suffering unimaginable personal loss work tirelessly to give the people and children of East London a sanctuary and source of escapism by moving the library destroyed by bombs at the start of the Blitz seventy feet underground into the haven and community created on the unused tracks of the Bethnal Green tube station.

The prose is evocative and rich. The characters are genuine, determined, and courageous. And the plot, including all the subplots, unravel and intertwine seamlessly into an alluring tale of life, loss, love, family, devastation, hardship, hope, friendship, adversity, self-discovery, wartime living, survival, and ultimately the power of books.

The Little Wartime Library is an insightful, poignant, engrossing read by Thompson that does a wonderful job of interweaving historical facts and compelling fiction into an absorbing, heart-tugging tale that is exceptionally atmospheric, beautifully entertaining and a true love letter to libraries and librarians everywhere.

This novel is available now.

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

         

 

 

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

 

About Kate Thompson

Kate Thompson was born in London and worked as a journalist for women's magazines and national newspapers before becoming a novelist. Over the past ten years, Kate has written twelve fiction and nonfiction titles, three of which have made the Sunday Times top ten bestseller list. She now lives in Sunbury with her husband, two sons, and two rescued Lurcher dogs, Ted and Saphhie.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

#BookReview Murder at Haven’s Rock by Kelley Armstrong @KelleyArmstrong @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MurderatHavensRock #KelleyArmstrong #HavensRock #HavensRockNovels #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers

#BookReview Murder at Haven’s Rock by Kelley Armstrong @KelleyArmstrong @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MurderatHavensRock #KelleyArmstrong #HavensRock #HavensRockNovels #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers Title: Murder at Haven's Rock

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Series: Haven's Rock #1

Published by: Minotaur Books on Feb. 21, 2023

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 352

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 9/10

New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s Rockton Novels had one of the most unique towns in crime fiction. Murder at Haven’s Rock is a spinoff, a fresh start… with a few new dangers that threaten everything before it even begins.

Haven’s Rock, Yukon. Population: 0

Deep in the Yukon wilderness, a town is being built. A place for people to disappear, a fresh start from a life on the run. Haven’s Rock isn’t the first town of this kind, something detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, know first hand. They met in the original town of Rockton. But greed and deception led the couple to financing a new refuge for those in need. This time around, they get to decide which applicants are approved for residency.

There’s only one rule in Haven’s Rock: stay out of the forest. When two of the town’s construction crew members break it and go missing, Casey and Eric are called in ahead of schedule to track them down. When a body is discovered, well hidden with evidence of foul play, Casey and Eric must find out what happened to the dead woman, and locate the still missing man. The woman stumbled upon something she wasn’t supposed to see, and the longer Casey and Eric don’t know what happened, the more danger everyone is in.


Review:

Menacing, atmospheric, and absorbing!

Murder at Haven’s Rock is a dark, intricate tale that takes us back to the Yukon, where Casey Duncan and Sheriff Eric Dalton have begun building a new community, a hidden refuge surrounded by miles of forest that they’re hoping will escape the pitfalls, deception and danger that began to ravage their last home of Rockton but their not the only ones staking a claim to this rugged wilderness and before the final building is complete workers will start to go missing, bodies will begin to surface, and greed will once again rear its ugly head.

The prose is brisk and tight. The characters are secretive, troubled, and multilayered. And the plot is an intense, gripping tale full of twists, turns, surprises, secrets, suspects, malevolence, deduction, revelations, lies, desperation, avarice, violence, and murder.

Kelley Armstrong is the author of one of my all-time favourite mystery series, Rockton, so when I heard she was writing a spinoff series, I was super excited, and Murder at Haven’s Rock did not disappoint. It’s a suspenseful, eerie, action-packed read by Armstrong and a fantastic start to what is sure to be another must-read series for me.

 

This novel is available now.

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

         

 

 

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

 

About Kelley Armstrong

Kelley Armstrong has been telling stories since before she could write. Her earliest written efforts were disastrous. If asked for a story about girls and dolls, hers would invariably feature undead girls and evil dolls, much to her teachers' dismay. All efforts to make her produce "normal" stories failed.

Today, she continues to spin tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon. She's the author of the NYT-bestselling "Women of the Otherworld" paranormal suspense series and "Darkest Powers" young adult urban fantasy trilogy, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series. Armstrong lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids and far too many pets.

Photograph by Kathryn Hollinrake.

#BookReview It Ends at Midnight by Harriet Tyce @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #ItEndsatMidnight #HarrietTyce #bookmarkedbylandmark

#BookReview It Ends at Midnight by Harriet Tyce @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #ItEndsatMidnight #HarrietTyce #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: It Ends at Midnight

Author: Harriet Tyce

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Feb. 21, 2023

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 320

Format: Hardcover

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

From the acclaimed, Sunday Times bestselling author of Blood Orange comes a thriller of a party spiraling into murder when one guest’s plan to right old wrongs ends in blood, told with Tyce’s signature dark and propulsive twists.

It’s New Year’s Eve and the stage is set for a lavish party in one of Edinburgh’s best postcodes. It’s a moment for old friends to set the past to rights – and move on.

The night sky is alive with fireworks and the champagne is flowing. But the celebration fails to materialize.

Because someone at this party is going to die tonight.

Midnight approaches and the countdown begins – but it seems one of the guests doesn’t want a resolution.

They want revenge.


Review:

Gripping, suspenseful, and unnerving!

It Ends at Midnight transports you into the life of Sylvie Munro, a successful barrister who, while presiding over a nasty case in Youth Court that has swirled up some conflicting emotions of her own, reaches out at the request of her sick friend Tess to a girl they both wronged as teens, triggering the past to collide with the present, long-buried secrets to come to light, and the truth to finally be revealed.

The prose is tight and edgy. The characters are secretive, consumed, and troubled. And the plot using a past/present, back-and-forth style, builds and unravels quickly into a compelling tale full of drama, deception, lies, guilt, corruption, ambition, manipulation, revenge, and the complex, toxic relationship that can exist between friends.

Overall, It Ends at Midnight is an engrossing, cunning, sinister novel by Tyce that kept me enthralled from the very first page and is the perfect choice for anyone who loves a menacing, highly entertaining, eerily tension-filled read.

 

This book is available now.

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

         

 

 

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Harriet Tyce

Harriet Tyce was born and grew up in Edinburgh. She graduated in 1994 with a degree in English Literature before working as a criminal barrister for nearly a decade.

Having escaped law and early motherhood, she started writing, and completed the MA in Creative Writing – Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia. She has written three novels to date, the Sunday Times bestsellers Blood Orange and The Lies You Told. It Ends At Midnight was published in April 2022 to critical acclaim.

She lives in north London with her husband and children, and two very nice dogs.

Photo by Rory Lewis Photography.

#BookReview Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano @ElleCosimano @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #FinlayDonovanJumpsTheGun #FinlayDonovan #ElleCosimano

#BookReview Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano @ElleCosimano @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #FinlayDonovanJumpsTheGun #FinlayDonovan #ElleCosimano Title: Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun

Author: Elle Cosimano

Series: Finlay Donovan #3

Published by: Minotaur Books on Jan. 31, 2023

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Author and single mom Finlay Donovan has been in messes before―after all, she’s a pro at removing bloodstains for various unexpected reasons―but none quite like this. When Finlay and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero accidentally destroyed a luxury car that they had “borrowed” in the process of saving the life of Finlay’s ex-husband, the Russian mob did her a favor and bought the car for her. And now Finlay owes them.

Mob boss Feliks is still running the show from behind bars, and he has a task for Finlay: find and identify a contract killer before the cops do. The problem is, the killer might be an officer themself.

Luckily, hot cop Nick has just been tasked with starting up a citizen’s police academy, and combined pressure from Finlay’s looming book deadline and Feliks is enough to convince Finlay and Vero to get involved. Through firearm training and forensic classes (and some hands-on research with a tempting detective), Finlay and Vero use their time in police academy to sleuth out the real contract killer to free themselves from the mob’s clutches―all the while dodging spies, confronting Vero’s past, and juggling the daily trials of parenthood.

From USA Today bestseller and Edgar-Award nominee Elle Cosimano, comes Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun—the highly anticipated, hilarious, and heart-pounding next installment in the beloved Finlay Donovan series…


Review:

Sassy, amusing, and unpredictable!

Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun is a mysterious, captivating read that transports you back into the lives of romantic suspense author and mother of two Finlay Donovan and her partner in crime Veronica Ruiz as they find themselves once again reluctantly messed up in the world of crime when Russian mobster Feliks Zhirov continues to pressure them to identity the online contractor killer EasyClean before his case goes to trial and their amateur sleuthing leads them to a member of the Fairfax County PD and a placement in the citizen’s police academy run by the delectable Detective Nicholas Anthony.

The prose is light and fun. The characters are stressed, resourceful, and clumsy. And the plot is a spirited, action-packed tale full of life, love, family, friendship, parenthood, lies, secrets, tricky situations, humorous hijinks, danger, and a dab of romance.

Overall, Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun is another cute, comical, outlandish addition to the Finlay Donovan series by Cosimano that had just the right amount of zany antics and entertaining storyline to keep me engaged and laughing from start to finish.

 

This book is available now.

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

           

 

 

Thank you to Minotaur – St. Martin’s Press for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Elle Cosimano

ELLE COSIMANO is an award-winning author. Her YA debut, Nearly Gone, was an Edgar Award finalist and winner of the International Thriller Award. Her novel Holding Smoke was a finalist for the International Thriller Award and the Bram Stoker Award. Her essays have appeared in The Huffington Post and Time. Elle lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with her husband, two sons, and her dog. Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is her adult debut.

Photo by Powell Woulfe Photography.

#BookReview Unnatural History by Jonathan Kellerman @randomhouse #JonathanKellerman #UnnaturalHistory #AlexDelawareSeries #RandomHouse

#BookReview Unnatural History by Jonathan Kellerman @randomhouse #JonathanKellerman #UnnaturalHistory #AlexDelawareSeries #RandomHouse Title: Unnatural History

Author: Jonathan Kellerman

Series: Alex Delaware #38

Published by: Ballantine Books on Feb. 7, 2023

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural

Pages: 320

Format: Hardcover

Source: Random House

Book Rating: 8.5/10

The most enduring detectives in American crime fiction are back in this electrifying thrillerof art and brutalityfrom the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense.

Los Angeles is a city of stark contrast, the palaces of the affluent coexisting uneasily with the hellholes of the mad and the needy. It is that shadow world and the violence it breeds that draw brilliant psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis into an unsettling case of altruism gone wrong.

On a superficially lovely morning a woman shows up for work with her usual enthusiasm. She’s the newly hired personal assistant to a handsome, wealthy photographer and is ready to greet her boss with coffee and good cheer. Instead, she finds him slumped in bed, shot to death.

The victim had recently received rave media attention for his latest project: images of homeless people in their personal “dream” situations, elaborately costumed and enacting unfulfilled fantasies. There are some, however, who view the whole thing as nothing more than crass exploitation, citing token payments and the victim’s avoidance of any long-term relationships with his subjects.

Has disgruntlement blossomed into homicidal rage? Or do the roots of violence reach down to the victim’s family—a clan, sired by an elusive billionaire, that is bizarre in its own right?

Then new murders arise, and Alex and Milo begin peeling back layer after layer of intrigue and complexity, culminating in one of the deadliest threats they’ve ever faced.


Review:

Complex, menacing, and gritty!

In this thirty-eighth instalment in the Alex Delaware series, Unnatural History, we head back to Los Angeles where LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis and psychologist Alex Delaware now find themselves immersed in a tricky case involving a murdered photographer who happens to be the youngest son of an enigmatic billionaire and whose latest project entitled the Wishers involved photographing homeless people dressed up as the person they always wished they could be.

The writing is tight and crisp. The characters are multilayered, vulnerable, and elusive. And the plot is a sinister tale full of twists, turns, deception, mayhem, suspicious personalities, revelations, homelessness, familial dysfunction, mental illness, and murder.

Overall, Unnatural History is an ominous, sophisticated, entertaining tale by Kellerman that has just the right amount of mystery, intrigue, and intensity to keep you engaged from start to finish and leave fans of this incredibly long-running series more than satisfied.

 

This book is available now.

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

         

 

 

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

 

About Jonathan Kellerman

Jonathan Kellerman is the Number One New York Times bestselling author of more than forty crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher's Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, Twisted, True Detectives, and The Murderer's Daughter.

With his wife, bestselling novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. With his son, bestselling novelist Jesse Kellerman, he co-authored Crime Scene, The Golem of Hollywood, and The Golem of Paris.

He is also the author of two children's books and numerous nonfiction works, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children and With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association, and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California and New Mexico.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

#BookReview Twisted by Emily McIntire @authoremilym @Read_Bloom #ReadBloom #Twisted #NeverAfterSeries #SourcebooksCasa

#BookReview Twisted by Emily McIntire @authoremilym @Read_Bloom #ReadBloom #Twisted #NeverAfterSeries #SourcebooksCasa Title: Twisted

Author: Emily McIntire

Series: Never After #4

Published by: Bloom Books on Feb. 7, 2023

Genres: Contemporary Romance, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 416

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Book Rating: 8.5/10

She’s his diamond in the rough. He’s her worst nightmare.

Yasmin Karam, daughter to one of the richest men in the world, has never known strife. So, when her beloved father falls ill, she’s determined to make his final days his happiest. His last wish? To see her married to a man of his choosing. Except Yasmin’s heart already belongs to someone else. A servant. A street rat. A man her father would never consider worthy. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Yasmin strikes a desperate deal with her father’s right-hand man, Julian, not realizing he has his own twisted agenda.

Julian Faraci has one goal: become the most powerful man in the world. He’s built a future from broken bones and faded bruises, never caring who he hurt along the way. But when his mentor falls ill, he finds himself on the verge of losing everything, and he’ll stop at nothing to inherit what is rightfully his. Even if it means forcing a woman he can’t stand into marriage.

Yasmin is a brat who speaks out of turn, and he’s the villain of her story. But he decides she’ll be his—no matter what it takes to convince her.


Review:

Edgy, addictive, and darkly delicious!

Twisted is a dramatic, spicy tale that takes you on a journey into the life of Yasmin Karam, the intelligent daughter of a successful diamond retailer who, after finding out her father wishes her to marry before he passes away, agrees to fake an engagement to the one man she despises, Julian Faraci, her father’s savage right-hand man who’ll do anything necessary, even marry the one woman he loathes, in order to acquire what he believes he legitimately deserves.

The writing is sultry and smooth. The characters are consumed, brazen, and intense. And the plot is a tantalizing tale full of desire, temptation, chemistry, mystique, danger, deception, violence, secrets, and sizzling romance.

Overall, Twisted is another steamy, alluring, captivating tale by McIntire that has all the elements I’ve come to know and love in her previous novels, including a fierce heroine, a dangerous bad boy, and a fast-paced, seductive storyline that I can happily say I devoured in one sitting.

 

This novel is available now.

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

         

 

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

 

About Emily McIntire

Emily McIntire is an international and Amazon top 15 best-selling author known for her Never After Series, where she gives our favorite villains their happily ever afters. With books that range from small town to dark romance, she doesn’t like to box herself into one type of story, but at the core of all her novels is soul deep love. When she’s not writing you can find her waiting on her long lost Hogwarts letter, enjoying her family, or lost between the pages of a good book. The author and her family live near Knoxville, TN.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

#BookReview If a Poem Could Live and Breath by Mary Calvi @MaryCalviTV @StMartinsPress #IfAPoemCouldLiveandBreath #MaryCalvi #StMartinsPress #SMPInfluencers

#BookReview If a Poem Could Live and Breath by Mary Calvi @MaryCalviTV @StMartinsPress #IfAPoemCouldLiveandBreath #MaryCalvi #StMartinsPress #SMPInfluencers Title: If a Poem Could Live and Breathe

Author: Mary Calvi

Published by: St. Martin's Press on Feb. 14, 2023

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 320

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: St. Martin's Press

Book Rating: 8.5/10

A fact-based romantic speculative novel about Teddy Roosevelt’s first love, by Mary Calvi, author of Dear George, Dear Mary.

Studded with the real love letters between a young Theodore Roosevelt and Boston beauty Alice Lee—many of them never before published—If a Poem Could Live and Breathe makes vivid what many historians believe to be the pivotal years that made the future president into the man of action that defined his political life, and cemented his legacy.

Cambridge, 1878. The era of the Gilded Age. Alice Lee sets out to break from the norms of her mother’s generation. Women are fighting for educational opportunities and exploring a new sense of intellectual and personal freedom. Native New Yorker, Harvard student Teddy Roosevelt, is on his own journey of discovery, and when they meet, unrelenting currents of love change the trajectory of his life forever.

If a Poem Could Live and Breathe is an indelible portrait of the authenticity of first love, the heartache of loss, and how overcoming the worst of life’s obstacles can push one to greatness never imagined.


Review:

Sentimental, tender, and intriguing!

If a Poem Could Live and Breathe is a compelling, heart-tugging tale that sweeps you away to the late 1870s and into the lives of Harvard student Theodore Roosevelt and debutante Alice Lee Hathaway who, after meeting on an estate in Chestnut Hill, MA, quickly became friends, confidants, and partners until Valentine’s Day just over three years from the day of their marriage when tragedy strikes and Alice succumbs to an undiagnosed kidney infection while giving birth to their first child.

The prose is evocative and rich. The characters are multilayered, intelligent, and engaging. And the plot, infused with preserved love letters, is a fascinating tale about life, loss, family, friendship, history, emotion, determination, heartbreak, passion, and love.

Overall, If a Poem Could Live and Breathe is a beautifully written, enchanting tale by Calvi that does a remarkable job of highlighting her immense knowledge and research into this complex, historical figure who although lived to have an incredibly successful life, both politically and personally, never fully recovered from the sudden loss of his first true love.

 

This novel is available now.

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

             

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Mary Calvi

MARY CALVI is a 12-time New York Emmy award-winning journalist and national anchor. Her in-depth research for her debut book, DEAR GEORGE, DEAR MARY: A Novel of George Washington's First Love, is the basis of a Smithsonian Channel documentary. Calvi lives in Yonkers, New York.

Photo Credit: Joe Panella.

#BookReview The Devil You Know by P. J. Tracy @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #TheDevilYouKnowBook #PJTracy #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers

#BookReview The Devil You Know by P. J. Tracy @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #TheDevilYouKnowBook #PJTracy #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers Title: The Devil You Know

Author: P. J. Tracy

Series: Detective Margaret Nolan #3

Published by: Minotaur Books on Jan. 17, 2023

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 8/10

LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan returns in The Devil You Know, the next book in the series where P. J. Tracy “seems to have found her literary sweet spot” (New York Times Book Review).

Los Angeles has many faces: the real LA where regular people live and work, the degenerate underbelly of any big city, and the rarified world of wealth, power, and celebrity. LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan’s latest case plunges her into this insular realm of privilege, and gives her a glimpse of the darkness behind the glitter.

The body of beloved actor Evan Hobbes is found in the rubble of a Malibu rockslide a day after a fake video ruins his career. It’s not clear to Nolan if it’s an accident, a suicide, or a murder, and things get murkier as the investigation expands to his luminary friends and colleagues. Meanwhile, Hobbes’ agent is dealing with damage control, his psychotic boss, and a woman he’s scorned. But when his powerful brother-in-law is murdered, he and Nolan both find themselves entangled in a scandalous deception of deadly proportion that shakes the very foundation of Hollywood’s untouchables.


Review:

Tense, captivating, and mysterious!

The Devil You Know is a scheming, twisty tale that sweeps you away to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, where deception is rife, tensions are running high, everyone has a hidden agenda, and despicable behaviour, backstabbing, partying, sex and murder seem to always be on the table.

The writing is crisp and tight. The characters are ambitious, self-obsessed, and ruthless. And the plot is an enticing mix of lies, secrets, duplicity, infidelity, manipulation, mayhem, vengeance, and murder.

Overall, The Devil You Know is another entertaining, enjoyable, satisfying addition to the LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan series by Tracy that does a wonderful job of reminding us that revenge is best served cold.

 

This novel is available now.

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

            

 

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About P. J. Tracy

P. J. Tracy is the pseudonym of Traci Lambrecht, bestselling and award winning author of the Monkeewrench series. Lambrecht and her mother, P. J., wrote eight novels together as P. J. Tracy before P. J. passed away in 2016. Lambrecht has since continued the Monkeewrench series solo. She spent most of her childhood painting and showing Arabian horses, and graduated with a Russian Studies major from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she also studied voice. She now lives outside Minneapolis.

Photo by Pamela Stege.

#BlogTour #BookReview In Little Stars by Linda Green @LindaGreenisms @Mobius_Books #InLittleStars #LindaGreen #MobiusBooksUS

#BlogTour #BookReview In Little Stars by Linda Green @LindaGreenisms @Mobius_Books #InLittleStars #LindaGreen #MobiusBooksUS Title: In Little Stars

Author: Linda Green

Published by: Mobius on Feb. 7, 2023

Genres: General Fiction

Pages: 400

Format: Hardcover

Source: Mobius Books US

Book Rating: 10/10

In a divided northern England, love and hate are about to collide . . .

Sylvie and Donna travel on the same train to work each day but have never spoken. Their families are on different sides of the bitter Brexit divide, although the tensions and arguments at home give them much in common.

What they don’t know is that their eldest children, Rachid and Jodie, are about to meet for the first time and fall in love. Aware that neither family will approve, the teenagers vow to keep their romance a secret.

But as Sylvie’s family feel increasingly unwelcome in England, a desire for a better life threatens Rachid and Jodie’s relationship. Can their love unite their families – or will it end in tragedy?


Review:

Tragic, beautiful, and incredibly heart-wrenching!

In Little Stars is a poignant, pensive, emotionally-charged novel that takes you into the lives of a handful of people, including the families of eighteen-year-old Jodi and seventeen-year-old Rachid, as their worlds become irrevocably changed and shattered one fall day when a violent, fatal attack driven by ignorance leaves some devastated by loss, some overwhelmingly consumed with guilt, and some haunted and struggling to understand how to prevent these horrifying seeds of hatred from being able to blossom.

The prose is sobering and expressive. The characters, including all the supporting characters, are complex, consumed, and authentic. And the plot is an exceptionally absorbing tale of life, loss, family, friendship, grief, guilt, denial, secrets, heartache, parenthood, prejudice, violence, and interracial teenage love.

Overall, In Little Stars made me think, made me cry, and resonated with me long after I turned the final page. It’s an enthralling, impactful, hopeful story by Green that interwove exceptional character development with a bittersweet, immersive, heartbreaking love story, all steeped in an abundance of pain and tragedy.

This novel is available now.

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

            

 

 

 

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

 

About Linda Green

Linda Green is the bestselling author of ten novels, which have sold more than a million copies between them. Her latest novel, One Moment, was a Radio 2 Book Club selection, and her previous novel, The Last Thing She Told Me, was a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and a Top 20 Sunday Times bestseller. She lives in West Yorkshire with her husband and son.