Format: Hardcover

#BookReview A Very Typical Family by Sierra Godfrey @sierragodfrey @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #AVeryTypicalFamily #SierraGodfrey #bookmarkedbylandmark

categories: 9/10, Book Review, General Fiction
#BookReview A Very Typical Family by Sierra Godfrey @sierragodfrey @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #AVeryTypicalFamily #SierraGodfrey #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: A Very Typical Family

Author: Sierra Godfrey

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Sep. 13, 2022

Genres: General Fiction

Pages: 352

Format: Hardcover

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

For fans of Emma Straub and Jennifer Weiner, comes a heartfelt, darkly funny novel about learning to love (and forgive) your family…even when they accidentally put you behind bars.

All families are messy. Some are disasters.

Natalie Walker is the reason her older brother and sister went to prison more than fifteen years ago. She fled California shortly after that fateful night and hasn’t spoken to anyone in her family since. Ten years later, Natalie receives a letter from a lawyer saying her estranged mother has died and left the family’s historic Santa Cruz house to her–sort of. To inherit it, Natalie and her siblings must claim it together.

Natalie drives cross-country to Santa Cruz with her willful cat in tow expecting to sign some papers, see siblings Lynn and Jake briefly, and get back to sorting out her life in Boston. But Jake, now an award-winning ornithologist, is missing, and Lynn, working as an undertaker in New York City, shows up with a teenage son. While Natalie and her nephew look for Jake–and meeting a very handsome marine biologist along the way–she unpacks the guilt she has held on to for so many years, wondering how, or if, she can salvage a relationship with her siblings after all this time.

Review:

Sincere, immersive, and nuanced!

A Very Typical Family is a tender, compelling tale that delves into the complex bonds and emotional scars that can exist between family members and immerses you in a tale about rediscovering one’s self, confronting the past, accepting the things you cannot change, learning to heal, and moving on.

The prose is smooth and fluid. The characters are hesitant, conflicted, and damaged. And the plot is an exceptionally absorbing tale about life, loss, love, tragedy, resentment, regret, guilt, grief, familial drama, self reflection, friendship, and forgiveness.

Overall, A Very Typical Family is a beautiful mix of heart, hope, and healing that is not only a moving, emotive, lovely debut by Godfrey but a must-read novel for anyone who loves a meaty, well-written family saga.

 

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 Sierra Godfrey

Sierra Godfrey is a technical writer, graphic designer, and a former credentialed sportswriter covering Spanish soccer. When she’s not writing about messy families, she’s taking long walks, reading, and being cozy. Originally from Santa Cruz, California, she has lived all over the world including Santorini, Greece, but now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family, which includes a dog, two cats, and a turtle, all of which seemed like a good idea at the time.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview Forsaken Country by Allen Eskens @aeskens @mulhollandbooks @HBGCanada #ForsakenCountry #AllenEskens #DetectiveMaxRupert #MulhollandBooks

categories: 9/10, Book Review, Mystery/Thriller
#BookReview Forsaken Country by Allen Eskens @aeskens @mulhollandbooks @HBGCanada #ForsakenCountry #AllenEskens #DetectiveMaxRupert #MulhollandBooks Title: Forsaken Country

Author: Allen Eskens

Series: Detective Max Rupert #6

Published by: Mulholland Books on Sep 20, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 352

Format: Hardcover

Source: HBG Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

Max Rupert has left his position as a Minneapolis homicide detective to live in solitude. Mourning the tragic death of his wife, he’s also racked by guilt—he alone knows what happened to her killer. But then the former local sheriff, Lyle Voight, arrives with a desperate plea: Lyle’s daughter Sandy and his six-year-old grandson Pip have disappeared. Lyle’s certain Sandy’s ex-husband Reed is behind it, but the new sheriff is refusing to investigate. 

When Max reluctantly looks into their disappearance, he too becomes convinced something has gone very wrong. But the closer Max and Lyle get to finding proof, the more slippery Reed becomes, until he makes a break for the beautiful but formidable Boundary Waters wilderness with vulnerable Pip in tow.

Racing after the most dangerous kind of criminal—a desperate father—and with the ghosts of their own pasts never far behind, Max and Lyle go on the hunt within a treacherous landscape, determined to bring an evil man to justice, and to bring a terrified child home alive.

Review:

Twisty, intricate, and unsettling!

Forsaken Country is an addictive, sinister tale that takes you to Grand Rapids, Minnesota, where Max Rupert has been living a reclusive existence since he exacted revenge on his late wife’s killer and handed in his badge for good, but when the daughter and young grandson of one of the only men to know his name in this sleepy town, former sheriff Lyle Voight needs his help he uses his intuition and skills to help hunt down some ruthless predators while also finding a little bit of lightness within himself.

The prose is crisp and intense. The characters are tormented, vulnerable, and scarred. And the plot is a suspenseful, engrossing tale full of twists, turns, lies, deception, familial drama, obsession, depravity, violence, and murder.

I’ve been a huge fan of Allen Eskens since I read The Life We Bury almost ten years ago, and whether it’s one of his standalone novels or another saga in the Detective Max Rupert series, such as this latest release Forsaken Country, I am always riveted, entertained, satisfied and incredibly impressed by his brilliantly-executed plots and exceptional character depth.

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 for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Allen Eskens

Allen Eskens is the USA Today-bestselling author of The Life We Bury, The Guise of Another, The Heavens May Fall, the Deep Dark Descending and The Shadows We Hide. He is the recipient of the Barry Award, Rosebud Award, Minnesota Book Award, and the Silver Falchion Award and has been a finalist for the Edgar Award, Thriller Award, and Anthony Award. His work had been published in 21 languages and his debut novel, The Life We Bury is being developed for a feature film.

Allen lives with his wife, Joely, in greater Minnesota and is represented by Amy Cloughley of Kimberley Cameron and Associates, and is published by both Seventh Street Books and Mulholland/Little Brown.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

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#BookReview Big Red: A Novel Starring Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles by Jerome Charyn @jeromecharyn @LiverightPub @OverTheRiverPR #BigRed #JeromeCharyn #LiveRightPub #OTRPR

categories: 8/10, Book Review, Historical Fiction
#BookReview Big Red: A Novel Starring Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles by Jerome Charyn @jeromecharyn @LiverightPub @OverTheRiverPR #BigRed #JeromeCharyn #LiveRightPub #OTRPR Title: Big Red: A Novel Starring Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles

Author: Jerome Charyn

Published by: Liveright Publishing on Aug. 23, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Source: OTRPR

Book Rating: 8/10

It’s 1943. The Germans rule Europe, and the moguls rule Hollywood. Attendance is better than ever. Not even radio can compete with the Saturday matinee. The heart of America has become Hollywood Boulevard. And Rusty Redburn, a feisty lesbian visionary who works as a lowly servant to Harry Cohn at Columbia’s publicity department, lives right on the boulevard at the Hollywood Hotel.

Harry is worried about his biggest star, Rita Hayworth, who has moved in with the “Boy Genius” Orson Welles. He’s never had a star before Rita arrived. He schemes to have Rusty pretend to work as Rita’s private secretary while spying on her. Rusty is far more clever than Harry Cohn. She worships Orson and Citizen Kane. And thus the story begins.

Nothing will last, neither the war, nor Harry Cohn, nor the marriage of Rita and Orson. And it’s Rusty who tells their tale.

BIG RED is Jerome Charyn at his very best and promises to consume both Hollywood cinephiles and neophytes alike. 

Review:

Scandalous, nostalgic, and entertaining!

Big Red is the intriguing, dramatic tale of two of the most famous actors of the 20th century, Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles and their on-again, off-again relationship with each other and Hollywood, told from the perspective of Rusty Redburn, a young woman working in Columbia Pictures’ publicity department who is hired by top executive Harry Cohn to take on the role of Rita’s PA in order to spy on the couple and let him know what goes on behind closed doors.

The writing is informative and light. The characters are talented, driven, and unique. And the novel is a compelling tale of one couple’s personal and professional successes and heartaches both on and off the screen, including a past littered with childhood abuse and a tumultuous marriage grounded in love but consistently strained by infidelity, differing visions, and crippling insecurities.

Overall, Big Red is a captivating, descriptive, fascinating tale by Charyn that highlights his considerable knowledge and impressive research into these renowned historical figures whose lives and work have had a tremendous impact on the motion picture industry.

 

This book is available now.

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

            

 

 

Thank you to OTRPR and Liveright Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Jerome Charyn

Jerome Charyn is the award-winning author of more than fifty works, including The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson. A renowned scholar of twentieth-century Hollywood, he lives in Manhattan.

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#BookReview Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen @SarahAddisonAll @StMartinsPress #OtherBirdsNovel #SarahAddisonAllen #StMartinsPress #SMPInfluencer

categories: 10/10, Book Review, General Fiction, Women's Fiction
#BookReview Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen @SarahAddisonAll @StMartinsPress #OtherBirdsNovel #SarahAddisonAllen #StMartinsPress #SMPInfluencer Title: Other Birds

Author: Sarah Addison Allen

Published by: St. Martin's Press on Aug. 30, 2022

Genres: General Fiction, Women's Fiction

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Source: St. Martin's Press

Book Rating: 10/10

From the acclaimed author of Garden Spells comes an enchanting tale of lost souls, lonely strangers, secrets that shape us, and how the right flock can guide you home.

Down a narrow alley in the small coastal town of Mallow Island, South Carolina, lies a stunning cobblestone building comprised of five apartments. It’s called The Dellawisp and it is named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy.

When Zoey Hennessey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment at The Dellawisp, she meets her quirky, enigmatic neighbors including a girl on the run, a grieving chef whose comfort food does not comfort him, two estranged middle-aged sisters, and three ghosts. Each with their own story. Each with their own longings. Each whose ending isn’t yet written.

When one of her new neighbors dies under odd circumstances the night Zoey arrives, she is thrust into the mystery of The Dellawisp, which involves missing pages from a legendary writer whose work might be hidden there. She soon discovers that many unfinished stories permeate the place, and the people around her are in as much need of healing from wrongs of the past as she is. To find their way they have to learn how to trust each other, confront their deepest fears, and let go of what haunts them.

Delightful and atmospheric, Other Birds is filled with magical realism and moments of pure love that won’t let you go. Sarah Addison Allen shows us that between the real and the imaginary, there are stories that take flight in the most extraordinary ways.

Review:

Charming, poignant, and beautifully written!

Other Birds is an emotionally-charged, moving tale that takes you into the lives of a handful of people, including the kind, independent Zoey Hennessey, as their worlds are irrevocably changed when the sudden death of a long-term resident has them finally sharing their time, secrets, and heartbreaking pasts.

The prose is lyrical and expressive. The characters are complex, scarred, and conflicted. And the plot is a compelling, sobering tale of life, loss, family, friendship, grief, guilt, denial, secrets, abuse, neglect, self-preservation, loneliness, and the importance of learning to love and be loved.

Overall, Other Birds made me think, made me cry, and resonated with me long after the final page. It’s an immersive, impactful, hopeful tale by Allen that combines exceptional character development with the magic of the supernatural to weave a heart-tugging, bittersweet story steeped in an abundance of loneliness, optimism, tenderness, and pain.

 

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 Sarah Addison Allen

SARAH ADDISON ALLEN is the New York Times bestselling author of Garden Spells, The Sugar Queen, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, The Peach Keeper, and Lost Lake. She was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina.

Photo Credit: Katie Linsky Shaw

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#BookReview The Darkest Sin by D. V. Bishop @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheDarkestSin #DVBishop #CesareAldoSeries #PGCBooks

categories: 9/10, Book Review, Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller
#BookReview The Darkest Sin by D. V. Bishop @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheDarkestSin #DVBishop #CesareAldoSeries #PGCBooks Title: The Darkest Sin

Author: D. V. Bishop

Series: Cesare Aldo #2

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Sep. 6, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 432

Format: Hardcover

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

Florence. Spring, 1537.

When Cesare Aldo investigates a report of intruders at a convent in the Renaissance city’s northern quarter, he enters a community divided by bitter rivalries and harbouring dark secrets.

His case becomes far more complicated when a naked man’s body is found deep inside the convent, stabbed more than two dozen times. Unthinkable as it seems, all the evidence suggests one of the nuns must be the killer.

Meanwhile, Constable Carlo Strocchi finds human remains pulled from the Arno that belong to an officer of the law missing since winter. The dead man had many enemies, but who would dare kill an official of the city’s most feared criminal court?

As Aldo and Strocchi close in on the truth, identifying the killers will prove more treacherous than either of them could ever have imagined . . .

Review:

Sinister, evocative, and enthralling!

The Darkest Sin is the complex, thrilling sequel that takes us back to Renaissance Florence in the spring of 1537 and into the life of Cesare Aldo, an officer of the Otto di Guardia e Balia, who now finds himself not only investigating the murder of a naked man found stabbed to death within the walls of the Santa Maria Magdalena convent, but also hoping that Constable Strocchi doesn’t have too much success discovering who actually killed their fellow brutish officer, Cherchi, who’s been missing since winter and whose body has just been recently discovered floating in the river Arno.

The prose is seamless and expressive. The characters are methodical, diligent, and tormented. And the plot is a gripping, twisty tale about life, loss, friendship, secrets, duty, deception, danger, abuse, corruption, politics, violence, and murder.

Overall, The Darkest Sin is another fabulous addition to the Cesare Aldo series by Bishop that does an exceptional job of interweaving historical times and compelling fiction into a gritty, suspenseful mystery that is darkly entertaining and exceptionally atmospheric. 

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 providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About D. V. Bishop

D. V. Bishop is the author of the Cesare Aldo mysteries set in Renaissance Florence, and published by Pan Macmillan.

An award-winning screenwriter and TV dramatist, his love for the city of Florence and the Renaissance period meant there could only be one setting for his crime-fiction debut.

City of Vengeance won the Pitch Perfect competition at the Bloody Scotland crime fiction festival in 2018, and D. V. Bishop was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship by the Scottish Book Trust while writing the novel.

He is currently finishing the second novel in the Cesare Aldo mysteries.

Photo by Paul Reich.

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#BookTour #BookReview A Woman in Time by Bobi Conn @BobiConn @AmazonPub @TLCBookTours #amazonpublishing #BobiConn #AWomaninTime #tlcbooktours

categories: 8/10, Blog Tour, Book Review, Historical Fiction
#BookTour #BookReview A Woman in Time by Bobi Conn @BobiConn @AmazonPub @TLCBookTours #amazonpublishing #BobiConn #AWomaninTime #tlcbooktours Title: A Woman in Time

Author: Bobi Conn

Published by: Little A on Aug. 30, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 334

Format: Hardcover

Source: TLC Book Tours

Book Rating: 8/10

A woman challenges the constraints of life in Prohibition-era Appalachia in this sweeping and richly rewarding novel about endurance, survival, and redemption.

The McKenzie women, empowered with a formidable history rooted in the foothills of Appalachia, have passed down their folk healing wisdom through generations. Rosalee, the last living headstrong daughter in Granny McKenzie’s line, soaked up everything she could about the secrets of the forest before a series of tragedies left her alone, without the protection of the women who came before her.

The close-knit ties of Rosalee’s childhood are long gone. Now, at her eastern Kentucky farm, she bears a marriage with a volatile bootlegger. She struggles with the demands of motherhood. And her independence is relegated to its “proper place”: under the thumb of men. Her optimism dimming, Rosalee finds solace in the Kentucky woods, a place that holds secret powers of protection from a life Rosalee can no longer control. At the graves of her female ancestors, beside the waters of an enchanting spring, Rosalee returns time and again to consider her future—and discovers a mysterious connection to her past.

As Rosalee wrestles with her isolation, being a wife in an increasingly dangerous marriage, and being a woman of her time, she must draw on her strength and resilience to survive—and to protect—on her own terms.

Review:

Atmospheric, sensitive, and sobering!

A Woman in Time is a moving, multi-generational story that transports you to rural Kentucky between 1899 and 1939 and into the lives of the McKenzie family, especially the women, and all the secrets, smiles, tears, misery, abuse, compassion, strength, powerful emotions, and unimaginable tragedy that has tied them together through the years.

The prose is expressive and fluid. The characters are vulnerable, tormented, and resilient. And the plot is a heart-tugging, compelling tale of life, love, loss, family, friendship, poverty, misogyny, courage, desperation, self-preservation, motherhood, violence, and survival.

Overall, A Woman in Time is a gritty, astute, promising fictional debut by Conn that is a wonderful reminder that even after suffering the most unimaginable hardships and cruelty, humanity still has the innate ability to hope for better and still be kind and compassionate to others.

 

This book is available now.

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

        

 

 

Thank you to TLC Book Tours & Amazon Publishing for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Bobi Conn

Bobi Conn is the author of the memoir In the Shadow of the Valley. Born in Morehead, Kentucky, and raised in a nearby holler, Bobi developed a deep connection with the land and her Appalachian roots. She obtained her bachelor’s degree at Berea College, the first school in the American South to integrate racially and to teach men and women in the same classrooms. She attended graduate school, where she earned a master’s degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing. In addition to writing, Bobi loves playing pool, telling jokes, cooking, being in the woods, attempting to grow a garden, and spending time with her incredible children.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview What Eden Did Next by Sheila O’Flanagan @sheilaoflanagan @Mobius_Books #WhatEdenDidNext #SheilaOFlanagan #MobiusBooksUS

categories: 9/10, Book Review, Contemporary Romance, Women's Fiction
#BookReview What Eden Did Next by Sheila O’Flanagan @sheilaoflanagan @Mobius_Books #WhatEdenDidNext #SheilaOFlanagan #MobiusBooksUS Title: What Eden Did Next

Author: Sheila O'Flanagan

Published by: Headline Books on Jun. 28, 2022

Genres: Contemporary Romance, Women's Fiction

Pages: 432

Format: Hardcover

Source: Mobius Books US

Book Rating: 9/10

Eden found perfect love with Andy. How it ended was shocking. For the five years since, her little daughter Lila – and Eden’s secret letters to Andy – have been all she needed. And Andy’s family like it that way.

Rafe wants nothing more than to start a new life back home in Ireland. It’s time for him to turn the page on his own tragedy. And every woman in the neighbourhood is ready to help a single dad settle in.

When Eden and Rafe meet, it seems that everyone has a good reason for thinking their tentative relationship is bad idea, despite the distant past that links them.

New relationships are rarely easy, especially if you’ve loved deeply before. And when there’s opposition, it can bring you closer – or drive you apart . .

Review:

Uplifting, tender, and romantic!

What Eden Did Next is a heartfelt, beautifully written story set in Dublin that takes us into the life of Eden, a young mother juggling to come to grips with losing the love of her life, raising her daughter alone, and rekindling a friendship with her childhood friend Rafe, a young widower himself who has just returned home from the United States to raise his daughter and hopefully learn how to move on from the all-consuming grief he can’t seem to shake.

The prose is genuine and smooth. The characters are hesitant, scarred, and sympathetic. And the plot is a addictive, alluring mix of friendship, family, forgiveness, support, loss, drama, selflessness, parenthood, introspection, community, new beginnings, and the power of love.

What Eden Did Next was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022, and it did not disappoint. Once again, Sheila O’Flanagan has written a moving, absorbing, charming tale that has an abundance of irresistible characters and a storyline I couldn’t get enough of!

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 providing me with 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.

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#BookReview Diana, William, and Harry by James Patterson & Chris Mooney @JP_Books @cmooneybooks @HBGCanada @littlebrown #DianaWilliamHarry #JamesPatterson #ChrisMooney #HBGCanada #LittleBrown

categories: 8.5/10, Book Review, Nonfiction
#BookReview Diana, William, and Harry by James Patterson & Chris Mooney @JP_Books @cmooneybooks @HBGCanada @littlebrown #DianaWilliamHarry #JamesPatterson #ChrisMooney #HBGCanada #LittleBrown Title: Diana, William, and Harry

Author: James Patterson, Chris Mooney

Published by: Little Brown and Company on Aug. 15, 2022

Genres: Nonfiction

Pages: 448

Format: Hardcover

Source: HBG Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

From the moments William and Harry are born into the House of Windsor, they become their young mother’s whole world. 
 
I’ve got two very healthy, strong boys. I realize how incredibly lucky I am, Diana reminds herself every morning. But even the Princess of Wales questions, Am I a good mother?  
 
Diana’s faced with a seemingly impossible challenge: one son destined to be King of England and another determined to find his own way.  She teaches them to honor royal tradition, even while daring to break it. 
 
“Sometimes I’d like a time machine…” Diana says as William and Harry grow up, never imagining they’d have less than a lifetime together. Even after she’s gone, her sons follow their mother’s lead—and her heart. As the years pass and William and Harry grow into adulthood and form families of their own, they carry on Diana’s name, her likeness, and her incomparable spirit.

Review:

Eye-opening, interesting, and informative!

Diana, William, and Harry is the detailed, perceptive biography of Princess Diana and her two sons, William and Harry, from the time of her introduction to Prince Charles, her fairytale wedding, her delight in being a mother, a divorce that rocked the monarchy, an early tragic death, and the pressures, responsibilities, and sadness for two motherless boys growing up to date, wed, take on careers, and become parents themselves under a bright and never-fading spotlight.

The writing is crisp and clear. The characters are inspiring, hardworking, and driven. And the novel is a compelling tale of the highs and lows involved in being a member of the most popular monarchy in the world.

Overall, Diana, William, and Harry was a nostalgic read for me as I remember both getting up early to see the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana and being consumed by the horrific breaking news of her fatal car accident on the streets of Paris. It is also, ultimately, a well-researched, insightful read about a strong, independent woman and her two sons, beloved by all, and their constant struggles and challenges with the paparazzi, lack of freedom, and life within an institution where image, tradition, and responsibility are valued above all else.

 

This book is available now.

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

                

 

 

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

 

About Chris Mooney

Hailed as “one of the best thriller writers working today” by Lee Child and “a wonderful writer” by Michael Connelly, Chris Mooney is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in My Combat Boots, written with James Patterson. His recent books include ER Nurses and Blood World.

His fourth book, The Missing, the first in the Darby McCormick series, was a main selection of the International Book of the Month Club and an instant bestseller in over thirteen countries. The Mystery Writer’s Association nominated Chris’s third book, Remembering Sarah, for an Edgar Award for Best Novel. Foreign rights to his novels have been sold to twenty-eight territories. He has sold nearly two million copies of his books.

Chris teaches writing courses at Harvard and the Harvard Extension School.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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About James Patterson

JAMES PATTERSON is one of the best-known and biggest-selling writers of all time. His books have sold in excess of 385 million copies worldwide. He is the author of some of the most popular series of the past two decades - the Alex Cross, Women's Murder Club, Detective Michael Bennett and Private novels - and he has written many other number one bestsellers including romance novels and stand- alone thrillers.

Photo courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

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#BookReview Overkill by Sandra Brown @sandrabrown_NYT @GrandCentralPub #SandraBrown #Overkill #GrandCentralPub #GCPInsider

categories: 9/10, Book Review, Mystery/Thriller, Romantic Suspense
#BookReview Overkill by Sandra Brown @sandrabrown_NYT @GrandCentralPub #SandraBrown #Overkill #GrandCentralPub #GCPInsider Title: Overkill

Author: Sandra Brown

Published by: Grand Central Publishing on Aug. 16, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Romantic Suspense

Pages: 416

Format: Hardcover

Source: Grand Central Publishing

Book Rating: 9/10

#1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown delivers a riveting thriller in which a conflict of conscience for a former football star and an ambitious state prosecutor swiftly intensifies into a fight for their lives.
 
Former Super Bowl MVP quarterback Zach Bridger hasn’t seen his ex-wife, Rebecca Pratt, for some time—not since their volatile marriage imploded—so he’s shocked to receive a life-altering call about her. Rebecca has been placed on life support after a violent assault, and he—despite their divorce—has medical power-of-attorney. Zach is asked to make an impossible choice: keep her on life support or take her off of it. Buckling under the weight of the responsibility and the glare of public scrutiny, Zach ultimately walks away, letting Rebecca’s parents have the final say.
 
Four years later, Rebecca’s attacker, Eban—the scion of a wealthy family in Atlanta—gets an early release from prison. The ludicrous miscarriage of justice reeks of favoritism, and Kate Lennon, a brilliant state prosecutor, is determined to put him back behind bars. Rebecca’s parents have kept her alive all these years, but if her condition were to change—if she were to die—Eban could be retried on a new charge: murder.
 
It isn’t lost on Zach that in order for Eban to be charged with Rebecca’s murder, Zach must actually be the one to kill her. He rejects Kate’s legal standpoint but can’t resist their ill-timed attraction to each other. Eban, having realized the jeopardy he’s in, plots to make certain that neither Zach nor Kate lives to see the death of Rebecca—and the end of his freedom.

Review:

Tight, ominous, and action-packed!

Overkill is a suspenseful, twisty tale that features the handsome, troubled former NFL quarterback, Jack Bridger who, after learning that the narcissistic predator who left his ex-wife in a vegetative state after a night of dangerous sex play has been released from prison after only four years due to good behaviour, joins together with the feisty state prosecutor Kate Lennon to do whatever it takes, even finally take Rebecca off life support, to put her attacker behind bars for good.

The writing is brisk and intense. The characters are persistent, driven, and multilayered. And the plot is an eerie, riveting tale full of twists, turns, violence, desire, attraction, deception, danger, romance, and murder.

Overall, Overkill is a menacing, alluring, edgy tale by Brown that has all the elements I’ve come to know and love in her romantic suspense novels, including a fierce heroine, a sexy hero, and a fast-paced, highly entertaining storyline that I can happily say I devoured in one sitting.

This book is available now.

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

                

 

 

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Sandra Brown

Sandra Brown is the author of sixty-nine New York Times bestsellers, including the #1 Seeing Red. There are over eighty million copies of her books in print worldwide, and her work has been translated into thirty-four languages. She lives in Texas.

 

Photograph courtesy of grandcentralpublishing.com.

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#BookReview Stay Awake by Megan Goldin @megangoldin @StMartinsPress #StayAwake #MeganGoldin #StMartinsPress #SMPInfluencers

categories: 9/10, Book Review, Mystery/Thriller
#BookReview Stay Awake by Megan Goldin @megangoldin @StMartinsPress #StayAwake #MeganGoldin #StMartinsPress #SMPInfluencers Title: Stay Awake

Author: Megan Goldin

Published by: St. Martin's Press on Aug. 9, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 352

Format: Hardcover

Source: St. Martin's Press

Book Rating: 9/10

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she’s dropped off at the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers―a stranger who now lives in her apartment and forces her out in the cold. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it’s missing, and in its place is a bloodstained knife. That’s when she sees that her hands are covered in black pen, scribbled messages like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE.

Two years ago, Liv was living with her best friend, dating a new man, and thriving as a successful writer for a trendy magazine. Now, she’s lost and disoriented in a New York City that looks nothing like what she remembers. Catching a glimpse of the local news, she’s horrified to see reports of a crime scene where the victim’s blood has been used to scrawl a message across a window, the same message that’s inked on her hands. What did she do last night? And why does she remember nothing from the past two years? Liv finds herself on the run for a crime she doesn’t remember committing as she tries to piece together the fragments of her life. But there’s someone who does know exactly what she did, and they’ll do anything to make her forget―permanently.

In the vein of SJ Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep and Christopher Nolan’s cult classic Memento, Megan Goldin’s Stay Awake is an electrifying novel that plays with memory and murder.

Review:

Tight, sinister, and gripping!

Stay Awake is a propulsive, intense mystery that introduces us to Liv Reese, a disoriented, troubled young woman who, after waking in the back of a cab with a pocket full of cash, a bloodied knife, arms covered in messages to not fall asleep, and no idea how she got there, finds herself visiting old jaunts and doing whatever she can to try and remember and piece together the last two years of her life since the day her life was violently turned upside down and her memories all but disappeared.

The writing is taut and brisk. The characters are resourceful, confused, and persistent. And the plot told using a mixture of flashbacks and alternating POVs unravels quickly into an intricate, action-packed tale full of twists, turns, secrets, surprises, questionable personalities, duplicitous motivations, manipulative actions, parasitic relationships, violence, and ruthless murder.

Overall, Stay Awake is an unpredictable, chilling, entertaining tale by Goldin that was a little nutty in all the best ways while also being engaging, engrossing and impossible to put down.

 

This novel is available now.

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Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Megan Goldin

MEGAN GOLDIN worked as a correspondent for Reuters and other media outlets where she covered war, peace, international terrorism and financial meltdowns in the Middle East and Asia. She is now based in Melbourne, Australia where she raises three sons and is a foster mum to Labrador puppies learning to be guide dogs. THE ESCAPE ROOM was her debut novel.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

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