#BookReview Identity by Nora Roberts @smpromance @StMartinsPress #IdentityNovel #NoraRoberts #SMPRomance #StMartinsPress #SMPInfluencers

#BookReview Identity by Nora Roberts @smpromance @StMartinsPress #IdentityNovel #NoraRoberts #SMPRomance #StMartinsPress #SMPInfluencers Title: Identity

Author: Nora Roberts

Published by: St. Martin's Press on May 23, 2023

Genres: Romantic Suspense

Pages: 437

Format: Hardcover

Source: St. Martin's Press

Book Rating: 9/10

A new thriller about one man’s ice-cold malice, and one woman’s fight to reclaim her life.

Former Army brat Morgan Albright has finally planted roots in a friendly neighborhood near Baltimore. Her friend and roommate Nina helps her make the mortgage payments, as does Morgan’s job as a bartender. But after she and Nina host their first dinner party—attended by Luke, the flirtatious IT guy who’d been chatting her up at the bar—her carefully built world is shattered. The back door glass is broken, cash and jewelry are missing, her car is gone, and Nina lies dead on the floor.

Soon, a horrific truth emerges: It was Morgan who let the monster in. “Luke” is actually a cold-hearted con artist named Gavin who targets a particular type of woman, steals her assets and identity, and then commits his ultimate goal: murder.

What the FBI tells Morgan is beyond chilling. Nina wasn’t his type. Morgan is. Nina was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Morgan’s nightmare is just beginning. Soon she has no choice but to flee to her mother’s home in Vermont. While she struggles to build something new, she meets another man, Miles Jameson. He isn’t flashy or flirtatious, and his family business has deep roots in town. But Gavin is still out there hunting new victims, and he hasn’t forgotten the one who got away.


Review:

Tense, twisty, and suspenseful!

Identity is a well-executed, sinister tale that takes you into the life of Morgan Albright, a hardworking, driven young woman who, after her roommate is murdered, her life is in tatters, and her money is all gone, moves home to Vermont to start over once again only to discover that the cold, calculating con artist and serial killer with a penchant for young, slender blondes with androgynous names is still on her trail and determined more than ever to finally capture the only one that’s ever gotten away.

The writing is tight and intense. The characters are vulnerable, secretive, cunning, and tenacious. And the plot is a cat-and-mouse game full of twists, turns, friendship, deception, desire, temptation, attraction, danger, romance, violence, and murder.

Overall, Identity is another adrenaline-pumping, unnerving, highly satisfying page-turner by Roberts that has the perfect amount of suspense and romance to keep you guessing, engaged, invested, and entertained from start to finish while also doing an eerily brilliant job of highlighting just how utterly devastating identity theft can truly be.

 

This book 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 Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 200 novels, including Come Sundown, The Obsession, The Liar, and coming in December 2017, Year One -- the first book in The Chronicles of The One. She is also the author of the futuristic suspense In Death series written under the pen name J.D. Robb. There are more than 500 million copies of her books in print.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

#BookReview The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand @elinhilderbrand @littlebrown @HBGCanada #TheFiveStarWeekend #ElinHilderbrand #HBGCanada

#BookReview The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand @elinhilderbrand @littlebrown @HBGCanada #TheFiveStarWeekend #ElinHilderbrand #HBGCanada Title: The Five-Star Weekend

Author: Elin Hilderbrand

Published by: Little Brown and Company on Jun. 13, 2023

Genres: General Fiction, Women's Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback

Source: HBG Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hotel Nantucket: After tragedy strikes, food blogger Hollis Shaw gathers four friends from different stages in her life to spend an unforgettable weekend on Nantucket.

Hollis Shaw’s life seems picture-perfect. She’s the creator of the popular food blog Hungry with Hollis and is married to Matthew, a dreamy heart surgeon. But after she and Matthew get into a heated argument one snowy morning, he leaves for the airport and is killed in a car accident. The cracks in Hollis’s perfect life—her strained marriage and her complicated relationship with her daughter, Caroline—grow deeper.

So when Hollis hears about something called a “Five-Star Weekend”—one woman organizes a trip for her best friend from each phase of her life: her teenage years, her twenties, her thirties, and midlife—she decides to host her own Five-Star Weekend on Nantucket. But the weekend doesn’t turn out to be a joyful Hallmark movie.

The husband of Hollis’s childhood friend Tatum arranges for Hollis’s first love, Jack Finigan, to spend time with them, stirring up old feelings. Meanwhile, Tatum is forced to play nice with abrasive and elitist Dru-Ann, Hollis’s best friend from UNC Chapel Hill. Dru-Ann’s career as a prominent Chicago sports agent is on the line after her comments about a client’s mental health issues are misconstrued online. Brooke, Hollis’s friend from their thirties, has just discovered that her husband is having an inappropriate relationship with a woman at work. Again! And then there’s Gigi, a stranger to everyone (including Hollis) who reached out to Hollis through her blog. Gigi embodies an unusual grace and, as it happens, has many secrets.

The Five-Star Weekend is a surprising and captivating story about friendship, love, and self-discovery set on Nantucket. It will be a weekend like no other.


Review:

Heartwarming, comforting, and nostalgic!

The Five-Star Weekend is a lighthearted, engaging tale that takes you into the life of Hollis Shaw, a middle-aged successful food blogger who, after returning to her hometown of Nantucket, invites four friends, one from each stage of her life, to spend a weekend at her home on the island to help her come to grips with the recent loss of her husband and the strained relationship with her daughter she’s struggling to repair.

The prose is sentimental and tender. The characters are independent, supportive, and layered. And the plot is a compelling, touching tale of life, love, family, honesty, kindness, communication, acceptance, self-discovery, grief, loss, understanding, forgiveness, romance, taking chances, and new beginnings.

Overall, The Five-Star Weekend is another emotive, thoughtful, cosy read by Hilderbrand that does a beautiful job of reminding us just how important, powerful, and meaningful female friendships can truly be.

 

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 for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Elin Hilderbrand

Elin Hilderbrand is a mother of three, an avid runner, reader, and traveler, and the author of twenty-three novels. She grew up outside Philadelphia, and has lived on Nantucket for more than twenty years.

#BlogTour #BookReview The Woman on the Bridge by Sheila O’Flanagan @sheilaoflanagan @Mobius_Books #TheWomanontheBridge #SheilaOFlanagan #MobiusBooksUS

#BlogTour #BookReview The Woman on the Bridge by Sheila O’Flanagan @sheilaoflanagan @Mobius_Books #TheWomanontheBridge #SheilaOFlanagan #MobiusBooksUS Title: The Woman on the Bridge

Author: Sheila O'Flanagan

Published by: Headline Books on Jun. 6, 2023

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 448

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Mobius Books US

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Dublin. The 1920s. As war tears Ireland apart, two young people are caught up in events that will bring love, tragedy – and the hardest of choices.

In a country fighting for freedom, it’s hard to live a normal life. Winnie O’Leary supports the cause, but she doesn’t go looking for trouble. Then rebel Joseph Burke steps into her workplace. Winnie is furious with him about a broken window. She’s not interested in romance. But love comes when you least expect it.

Joseph’s family shelter fugitives and transport weapons. Joseph would never ask Winnie to join the fight; but his mother and sisters demand commitment. Will Winnie choose Joseph, and put her own loved ones in deadly danger? Or wait for a time of peace that may never come?

Ireland’s tumultuous independence struggle is the backdrop for an unforgettable story of courage and heartbreak, in which heroes are made of ordinary people. Inspired by the story of Sheila O’Flanagan’s grandmother, The Woman on the Bridge is the unmissable, compulsive new novel from a bestselling author.


Review:

Tender, nostalgic, and immersive!

The Woman on the Bridge is an intriguing tale that sweeps you away to Dublin during the 1920s when Ireland is full of unrest and upheaval and the sweet, dependable Winnie O’Leary and her rebel husband-to-be, Joseph Burke, have to navigate a world full of simmering anger, violence, imprisonments, and tragic losses of life before finally making it to the altar.

The prose is polished and rich. The characters are passionate, driven, and endearing. And the well-paced, compelling plot is a wonderful mix of familial dynamics, drama, emotion, self-discovery, secrets, revelations, love, loss, heartbreak, courage, duty, grief, passion, and conflict.

Overall, The Woman on the Bridge is an atmospheric, absorbing, heartfelt debut in the historical fiction genre for O’Flanagan that does a beautiful job of highlighting her exceptional ability to portray complex, memorable characters, which in this case are based on real-life family members, and historically troubling times in such a way that is not only insightful but also impactful.

 

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 Sheila O'Flanagan

Sheila O’Flanagan is the author of nearly 30 bestselling novels including Three Weddings and a Proposal, The Women Who Ran Away, Her Husband’s Mistake, The Hideaway and The Missing Wife. She lives in Dublin with her husband.

Photo courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

 

#BookReview A Love Catastrophe by Helena Hunting @HBGCanada @readforeverpub @grandcentralpub #ReadForever #ReadForever2023 #HelenaHunting #ALoveCatastrophe #HBGCanada

#BookReview A Love Catastrophe by Helena Hunting @HBGCanada @readforeverpub @grandcentralpub #ReadForever #ReadForever2023 #HelenaHunting #ALoveCatastrophe #HBGCanada Title: A Love Catastrophe

Author: Helena Hunting

Published by: Forever on Jun. 13, 2023

Genres: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback

Source: HBG Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

The fur is about to fly between a cheerful cat sitter and a grumpy hockey nerd in this hilarious and charming rom-com  by the New York Times bestselling author of Meet Cute .

Kitty Hart has become internet famous as the Kitty Whisperer for her expertise on all things feline, and as a result, her cat-sitting business is booming. But lately, she has a terrible feeling that maybe her life isn’t  quite  going where it’s supposed to—especially after falling face-first into her newest client.  Not exactly the best first impression .

Fortunately, Miles Thorn is just as bad at first impressions. Strike he doesn’t like cats, especially Prince Francis, the haughty and mischievous Sphynx his mom left in his care. Strike tackling Kitty to the floor in a misguided attempt to save the pet he continually calls “the gremlin.”

As awkwardness slides into attraction and things start to turn purr-sonal, will these two complete opposites ever be able to find their furry-tail ending?


Review:

Cute, charming, and comical!

A Love Catastrophe is a spirited, heartwarming, opposites-attract romance that mixes the awkward, dependent Kitty, who lives and breathes cats and enjoys nothing more than running her cat-sitting business, and the intelligent, driven Miles, who feels a little overwhelmed juggling a new career with the NHL, navigating his mother’s declining mental health, keeping his mother’s hairless cat who he really doesn’t like alive, and making sure his own beloved Great Dane, Wilfred is happily entertained.

The prose is witty and light. The characters, including all the supporting characters, are quirky, supportive, and kind. And the plot is a fun-loving, flirty blend of tricky situations, tender moments, humorous mishaps, self-discovery, friendship, family, happiness, romance, and some adorable four-legged friends.

Overall, A Love Catastrophe is an amusing, entertaining, enjoyable treat by Hunting that I thoroughly enjoyed and is the perfect choice for anyone who loves their romcoms with a lot of hope, heart, humour and heat.

 

This book 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 Helena Hunting

Helena Hunting is the author of The USA Today and NYT bestselling PUCKED Series. She lives on the outskirts of Toronto with her incredibly tolerant family and two moderately intolerant cats. She writes everything from romantic sports comedy to new adult angst.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Website.

#BookReview Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding @Rose_Wldng @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #SpeakoftheDevil #RoseWilding #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers

#BookReview Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding @Rose_Wldng @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #SpeakoftheDevil #RoseWilding #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers Title: Speak of the Devil

Author: Rose Wilding

Published by: Minotaur Books on Jun. 13, 2023

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 8/10

All of us knew him. One of us killed him…

Seven women stand in shock in a seedy hotel room; a man’s severed head sits in the centre of the floor. Each of the women – the wife, the teenager, the ex, the journalist, the colleague, the friend, and the woman who raised him – has a very good reason to have done it, yet each swears she did not. In order to protect each other, they must figure out who is responsible, all while staying one step ahead of the police.

Against the ticking clock of a murder investigation, each woman’s secret is brought to light as the connections between them converge to reveal a killer.

A dark and nuanced portrait of love, loyalty, and manipulation, Speak of the Devil explores the roles in which women are cast in the lives of terrible men…and the fallout when they refuse to stay silent for one moment longer.


Review:

Dark, intricate, and engrossing!

Speak of the Devil is a layered, unsettling tale that sweeps you away to Newcastle, England and into the life of DI Nova Stokoe, a young police inspector who suddenly finds herself embroiled in a complex murder investigation involving the decapitated head of an esteemed scientist and a suspect list that includes seven local women all who at some time were a victim of his manipulation, deviance, gaslighting, betrayal, violence, or cruelty, and thus all with a motive for his murder.

The writing is brisk and tight. The characters are secretive, cunning, and vulnerable. And the plot, told from multiple perspectives, builds quickly creating intensity and suspense as it unravels all the personalities, motivations, relationships, deception, and devious behaviours within it.

Overall, Speak of the Devil is, ultimately, a story of lies, revelations, secrets, deception, betrayal, manipulation, mayhem, depravity, hatred, vengeance, violence, and murder. It’s a clever, sinister, solid debut by Wilding that certainly kept me thoroughly engrossed from start to finish.

 

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 Rose Wilding

ROSE WILDING is a crime writer from the north of England. She studied at the University of Manchester, University of Sunderland, and Towson University. When not murdering fictional people, she can usually be found drinking coffee, reading feminist sci-fi, or posting more pictures than anyone needs of her two chihuahuas on Instagram. Speak of the Devil is her debut novel.

#BookReview Someday I’ll Find You by C. C. Humphreys @HumphreysCC @doubledayca @PenguinRandomCA #SomedayIllFindYou #CCHumphreys #PenguinReads

#BookReview Someday I’ll Find You by C. C. Humphreys @HumphreysCC @doubledayca @PenguinRandomCA #SomedayIllFindYou #CCHumphreys #PenguinReads Title: Someday I'll Find You

Author: C. C. Humphreys

Published by: Doubleday Canada on Jun. 6, 2023

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 408

Format: Paperback

Source: Penguin Random House

Book Rating: 8.5/10

For readers of The Nightingale and Lilac Girls, a dazzling novel about Ilse, a spy, and Billy, a pilot, who fall in love but are wrenched apart during World War II, and must find their way back to each other–from bestselling author C.C. Humphreys.

When Billy Coke steps onto the streets of London one December evening in 1940, he has no idea he is stepping to his fate. As Hitler’s bombers come close to burning the city down, Billy meets the woman who will change the course of his life: Ilse Magnusson, a musician from Norway, but also something more–a spy in training.

Escaping the Blitz for three days, she and Billy drive, quarrel, conceal, reveal . . . and fall finally, fully, in love.

Now they must part, each to fight the war their own way. Billy, a Canadian Spitfire pilot, to duel with the Luftwaffe over North Africa and the Med. Ilse to return to her conquered country, ingratiate herself with the Nazi elite–which includes her beloved father–and send vital intelligence back to Britain.

They know that the odds of both of them surviving are poor. All they can hope is that the other does survive–and that someday they find each other again.

From decadent pre-war Berlin to the atrocity at Guernica, from dogfights over Sicily to an Oslo ground under the German jackboot, through small victories and bitter losses, this is the story of a man and a woman at war. A tale of causes and compromises, heroism and betrayal. Of choices made, with consequences unforeseen. And finally, how sometimes . . . love can give you a second chance.


Review:

Charged, touching, and intriguing!

Someday I’ll Find You is a rich, captivating tale that sweeps you away to the early 1940s and into the lives of Canadian Spitfire pilot Billy Coke and Norwegian musician turned spy Ilsa Magnusson who, after accidentally meeting during a bombing raid on the streets of London and subsequently spending three blissful days in the English countryside, spend the rest of the war thinking of each other, doing whatever they’re told do, and hoping beyond hope that one day when the guns are silent, and the battle is won that somewhere, somehow they will find their way back to into each other’s arms.

The prose is eloquent and fluid. The characters are resilient, brave, and endearing. And the plot is a tender tale about life, loss, family, secrets, separation, sacrifice, desperation, tragedy, friendship, espionage, romance, new beginnings, and the horrors and hardships of war.

Overall, Someday I’ll Find You is a heartfelt, sentimental, affecting read by Humphreys inspired by real familial events that does a lovely job of interweaving historical facts and compelling fiction into an insightful, heart-tugging tale that is atmospheric and highly absorbing.

 

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 C. C. Humphreys

CHRIS (C.C.) HUMPHREYS is a bestselling author, actor, audiobook narrator and playwright. Born in Toronto, raised in the UK, he has acted on stages all over the world in roles ranging from Hamlet to Jack Absolute to Clive Parnell on Coronation Street. He has an MFA from UBC and has written twenty-two novels of both historical fiction and fantasy including: The French Executioner, Chasing the Wind, The Jack Absolute Trilogy, Vlad, A Place Called Armageddon, Shakespeare’s Rebel, The Hunt of the Unicorn, One London Day and, most recently, Someday I’ll Find You. Plague won the 2015 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel. He is published in more than ten languages. He lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.

Photo by Jeff Vinnick, courtesy of Vancouver Public Library.

#BookReview Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See @Lisa_See @SimonSchusterCA @ScribnerBooks #LadyTansCircleofWomen #LisaSee #SimonSchusterCA

#BookReview Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See @Lisa_See @SimonSchusterCA @ScribnerBooks #LadyTansCircleofWomen #LisaSee #SimonSchusterCA Title: Lady Tan's Circle of Women

Author: Lisa See

Published by: Scribner on Jun. 6, 2023

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 320

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

The latest historical novel from New York Times bestselling author Lisa See, inspired by the true story of a woman physician from 15th-century China—perfect for fans of See’s classic Snowflower and the Secret Fan and The Island of Sea Women.

According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a captivating story of women helping other women. It is also a triumphant reimagining of the life of a woman who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.


Review:

Vivid, captivating, and insightful!

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is an intimate, absorbing, multi-generational story that sweeps you away to fifteenth-century China and into the life of Tan Yunxian, a young woman born into an aristocratic family whose life is destined to only include an arranged marriage, the agony of bound feet, and multiple childbirths to ensure a male heir, that is until she loses her mother and is sent to live with her paternal grandparents, both practising physicians, whose love for medicine leaves her with a desire for more out of life including the ability to help those in need and to practice medicine on women from all walks of life.

The prose is lyrical and expressive. The characters are layered, vulnerable, and resourceful. And the plot is a beautifully written, moving tale about life, love, familial relationships, heartbreak, loss, desperation, courage, hope, expectations, traditions, medicine, and the power of female friendships.

Overall, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a compelling, evocative, illuminating tale by See that I absolutely loved and has just the right amount of intrigue, culture, colourful history, and palpable emotion to be the perfect choice for all fans of the historical fiction genre.

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 See

Lisa See is the New York Times bestselling author of The Island of Sea WomenThe Tea Girl of Hummingbird LaneSnow Flower and the Secret FanPeony in LoveShanghai GirlsChina Dolls, and Dreams of Joy, which debuted at #1. She is also the author of On Gold Mountain, which tells the story of her Chinese American family’s settlement in Los Angeles. See was the recipient of the Golden Spike Award from the Chinese Historical Association of Southern California and the Historymaker’s Award from the Chinese American Museum. She was also named National Woman of the Year by the Organization of Chinese American Women.

Photo by Patricia Williams.

#BookReview The Woman Inside by M. T. Edvardsson @CeladonBooks #MTEdvardsson #TheWomanInside #CeladonBooks #CeladonReads

#BookReview The Woman Inside by M. T. Edvardsson @CeladonBooks #MTEdvardsson #TheWomanInside #CeladonBooks #CeladonReads Title: The Woman Inside

Author: M. T. Edvardsson

Published by: Celadon Books on Jun. 13, 2023

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 384

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Celadon Books

Book Rating: 8/10

A wealthy couple ends up murdered in the nicest part of town in this compulsively readable, page-turning thriller from M. T. Edvardsson, The Woman Inside.

Bill Olsson, recently widowed, is desperate to provide for his daughter, Sally. Struggling to pay rent, he welcomes a lodger into their home: Karla, a law student and aspiring judge, who works as a housekeeper to make ends meet. Her clients are the Rytters, an incredibly wealthy couple who hide behind closed doors. The wife is ill and hasn’t left the house in months. The husband is controlling and obsessive. Is he just a worried husband, concerned for his wife’s health? Or is there something more sinister at play?

As Bill’s situation becomes more dire, Karla is forced to make a difficult choice. And when the Rytters wind up dead, and Karla is pulled in for questioning, she’s made to defend some parts of her past she’d rather not revisit.

Every person in The Woman Inside is hiding something, but could any of them really have been driven to kill?


Review:

Sophisticated, riveting, and suspenseful!

The Woman Inside is an ominous, character-driven thriller that takes you into the life of a handful of people, including Bill Olsson, an unemployed widower who will do whatever it takes to keep the roof over his daughter’s head but has an unfortunate addiction to gambling, and Karla Larsson, a young law student trying to live as frugally as possible while working a part-time job as a maid for some unusual clients and by renting just a single room in a stranger’s apartment.

The writing is tight and intense. The characters are complex, secretive, and distressed. And the plot, told using a mixture of narrative, police interviews, and alternating timelines, before-and-after the murders, is a sinister tale full of twists, turns, loneliness, insecurities, lies, obsession, manipulation, violence, infidelity, troubled pasts, and murder.

Overall, The Woman Inside is a tortuous, addictive, unnerving tale by Edvardsson that kept me guessing from the very first page and was deliciously relentless, surprising, deceptive, and bursting with misdirection.

 

This novel is available June 13, 2023.

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

        

 

 

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

 

About M. T. Edvardsson

M. T. Edvardsson is an author and teacher from Trelleborg, Sweden. He is the author of multiple novels. A Nearly Normal Family is his first published in the United States. He lives with his family in Löddeköpinge, Sweden.

#BookReview The House of Lincoln by Nancy Horan @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheHouseofLincoln #NancyHoran #bookmarkedbylandmark

#BookReview The House of Lincoln by Nancy Horan @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheHouseofLincoln #NancyHoran #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The House of Lincoln

Author: Nancy Horan

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jun. 6, 2023

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 352

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8/10

The House of Lincoln tells the story of Abraham Lincoln’s ascendance from rumpled lawyer to U.S. President to Great Emancipator and presents Lincoln’s Midwestern home as a complex third home front of the Civil War.

Rich with historical detail, The House of Lincoln is an insightful account of Lincoln’s transformative vision for democracy as observed through the eyes of a young immigrant who arrives in Lincoln’s home of Springfield, Illinois from Madeira, Portugal.

Showing intelligence beyond society’s expectations, fourteen-year-old Ana Ferreira is offered a job in the Lincoln household assisting Mary Lincoln with their boys and with the hosting duties borne by the wife of a rising political star. Ana bears witness to the evolution of Lincoln’s views on equality and the Union and observes in full complexity the psyche and pain of his bold, polarizing wife, Mary. Yet, alongside her dearest friend in the Black community, Ana confronts the racial prejudice her friend encounters daily as she watches the inner workings of the Underground Railroad, and directly experiences how slavery contradicts the promise of freedom in her adopted country.

Culminating in an account of the little-known Springfield race riot of 1908, The House of Lincoln takes readers on a journey through the historic changes that reshaped America and continue to reverberate today.


Review:

Engaging, insightful, and rich!

The House of Lincoln is a vivid, captivating tale that sweeps you away to Springfield, Illinois, from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s and into the life of Ana Ferreira, a young Portuguese girl who, after being hired by Mary Lincoln to help her with the children and household chores, has a first-hand view of the unfolding rise of Abraham Lincoln to the president of the United States, his subsequent assassination, the devastating consequences of the civil war, the role of the midwest in the underground railroad, and the horrific, tragic events of the Springfield race riot.

The prose is clear and precise. The characters are passionate, determined, and strong. And the plot is a fascinating tale of life, love, bravery, strength, loss, loyalty, friendship, motivation, politics, and the early battle for equality and justice in the U.S.

Overall, The House of Lincoln is a intricate, compelling, informative tale by Horan that does a wonderful job of highlighting her impressive research and knowledge of this complex, influential figure who strove during his short time in office to abolish slavery and give African Americans the civil and social freedoms they rightly deserved.

 

This novel 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 Nancy Horan

Nancy Horan, a former journalist and longtime resident of Oak Park, Illinois, now lives and writes on an island in Puget Sound.

Photo by Kevin Horan.

#BookReview The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel @kristinharmel @SimonSchusterCA @GalleryBooks #TheParisDaughter #KristinHarmel #SimonSchusterCA

#BookReview The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel @kristinharmel @SimonSchusterCA @GalleryBooks #TheParisDaughter #KristinHarmel #SimonSchusterCA Title: The Paris Daughter

Author: Kristin Harmel

Published by: Gallery Books on Jun. 6, 2023

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

From the bestselling author of The Book of Lost Names comes a gripping historical novel about two mothers who must make unthinkable choices in the face of the Nazi occupation.

Paris, 1939: Young mothers Elise and Juliette become fast friends the day they meet in the beautiful Bois de Boulogne. Though there is a shadow of war creeping across Europe, neither woman suspects that their lives are about to irrevocably change.

When Elise becomes a target of the German occupation, she entrusts Juliette with the most precious thing in her life—her young daughter, playmate to Juliette’s own little girl. But nowhere is safe in war, not even a quiet little bookshop like Juliette’s Librairie des Rêves, and, when a bomb falls on their neighborhood, Juliette’s world is destroyed along with it.

More than a year later, with the war finally ending, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend’s bookstore reduced to rubble—and Juliette nowhere to be found. What happened to her daughter in those last, terrible moments? Juliette has seemingly vanished without a trace, taking all the answers with her. Elise’s desperate search leads her to New York—and to Juliette—one final, fateful time.

The Paris Daughter is a sweeping celebration of resilience, motherhood, and love.


Review:

Enthralling, poignant, and atmospheric!

The Paris Daughter is an alluring, heart-wrenching tale predominantly set in Paris and New York City between 1939 and the early 1960s that takes you into the life of a handful of people whose lives are unimaginably changed when a young woman, Elise LeClair, decides to leave her daughter for the remainder of the war in the safe hands of her best friend Juliette only to learn upon her return that the bookshop where the family of six had presided was accidentally bombed during an afternoon raid leaving behind ash, ruins, devastation, and only two living souls.

The prose is fluid and exquisite. The characters are tormented, brave, and resilient. And the plot, including all the subplots, unravel and intertwine seamlessly into an absorbing tale of life, loss, family, tragedy, desperation, secrets, friendship, motherhood, separation, and war.

Overall, The Paris Daughter is one of those novels that sweeps you away so thoroughly to another time and place that before you know it you’re turning the final page and the afternoon is gone. It’s a charged, moving, impactful tale by Harmel that does a beautiful job of reminding us that a mother’s love is all-encompassing, selfless, powerful, and everlasting.

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 Kristin Harmel

Kristin Harmel is the international bestselling author of THE ROOM ON RUE AMELIE, THE SWEETNESS OF FORGETTING, THE LIFE INTENDED, WHEN WE MEET AGAIN, and several other novels. Her latest, THE WINEMAKER'S WIFE, is coming in August 2019 from Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster. A former reporter for PEOPLE magazine, Kristin has also freelanced for many other publications, including American Baby, Men’s Health, Glamour, Woman’s Day, Travel + Leisure, and more.

Kristin grew up in Peabody, Mass.; Worthington, Ohio; and St. Petersburg, Fla., and she graduated with a degree in journalism (with a minor in Spanish) from the University of Florida. After spending time living in Paris, she now lives in Orlando, Fla., with her husband and young son.

Photograph by Phil Art Studio, Reims, France.

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