Format: Paperback

#BookReview Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak @Flatironbooks #HiddenPictures #JasonRekulak #FlatironBooks

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#BookReview Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak @Flatironbooks #HiddenPictures #JasonRekulak #FlatironBooks Title: Hidden Pictures

Author: Jason Rekulak

Published by: Flatiron Books on May 10, 2022

Genres: Horror, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 384

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Flatiron Books

Book Rating: 8/10

Fresh out of rehab, Mallory Quinn takes a job in the affluent suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.

Mallory immediately loves this new job. She lives in the Maxwell’s pool house, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.

As the days pass, Teddy’s artwork becomes more and more sinister, and his stick figures steadily evolve into more detailed, complex, and lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to suspect these are glimpses of an unsolved murder from long ago, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force lingering in the forest behind the Maxwell’s house.

With help from a handsome landscaper and an eccentric neighbor, Mallory sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy—while coming to terms with a tragedy in her own past—before it’s too late.

Review:

Intense, eerie, and dark!

Hidden Pictures is a haunting, character-driven thriller that takes you into the life of recovering addict Mallory Quinn who, after recently being hired to nanny the delightful five-year-old Teddy, whose love for drawing and his imaginative friend Anya become creepier day by day, discovers quickly that something isn’t right in this seemingly perfect home of Ted and Caroline Maxwell, and that someone or something is determined to reveal the secrets they’re desperately trying to hide.

The prose is unsettling and taut. The characters are suspicious, troubled, and wary. And the plot is a simmering, sinister tale of familial drama, class division, tension, deception, violence, and desperation, all interwoven with a sliver of the supernatural.

Overall, Hidden Pictures is a tight, creepy, atmospheric tale by Rekulak that, with its quick pace and disturbing illustrations, kept me unnerved and highly entertained right from the very first page.

 

This book is available now.

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

           

 

 

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

 

About Jason Rekulak

Jason Rekulak is the author of The Impossible Fortress, which was translated into 12 languages and was nominated for the Edgar Award. For many years, he was the publisher of Quirk Books, an independent press, where he acquired and edited multiple New York Times bestsellers. He lives in Philadelphia with his family.

Photo by Jason Varney.

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#BookReview The Beloved Girls by Harriet Evans @HBGCanada @GrandCentralPub #TheBelovedGirls #HarrietEvans #GrandCentralPub #HBGCanada

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#BookReview The Beloved Girls by Harriet Evans @HBGCanada @GrandCentralPub #TheBelovedGirls #HarrietEvans #GrandCentralPub #HBGCanada Title: The Beloved Girls

Author: Harriet Evans

Published by: Grand Central Publishing on May 10, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 464

Format: Paperback

Source: HBG Canada

Book Rating: 7.5/10

Catherine, a successful barrister, vanishes from a train station on the eve of her anniversary. Is it because she saw a figure – someone she believed long dead? Or was it a shadow cast by her troubled, fractured mind?

The answer lies buried in the past. It lies in the events of the hot, seismic summer of 1989, at Vanes – a mysterious West Country manor house – where a young girl, Jane Lestrange, arrives to stay with the gilded, grand Hunter family, and where a devastating tragedy will unfold. Over the summer, as an ancient family ritual looms closer, Janey falls for each member of the family in turn. She and Kitty, the eldest daughter of the house, will forge a bond that decades later, is still shaping the present . . .

Review:

Complex, mysterious, and dark!

The Beloved Girls transports you to England between 1959 and 2018 and immerses you into the ongoing, entangled, multi-generational relationships between the entitled, dysfunctional Hunter family and the sweet, reliable Lestrange family, complete with all the powerful emotions, unnerving traditions, long-buried secrets, abusive behaviours, and unimaginable tragedy that has tied them together for almost sixty years.

The prose is eloquent and expressive. The characters are damaged, eccentric, and conflicted with the setting, Vanes Manor, being a character itself with its history, rituals, abundance of bees, and multitude of secrets. And the plot told in a back-and-forth style is an unsettling tale about life, loss, family, friendship, identity, betrayal, social division, ambition, exploitation, manipulation, and heartbreak.

Overall, The Beloved Girls is a menacing, sinuous, somewhat disturbing tale that is beautifully written and incredibly atmospheric but a little too long and perplexing to really keep me engaged and invested from start to finish and thus will unfortunately not, as I highly expected, be taking the spot of one of my favourite reads of all time, to which Evans definitely has one or two.

 

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 & Grand Central Publishing for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Harriet Evans

Harriet Evans is the author of several top ten bestsellers including the Sunday Times bestselling The Garden of Lost and Found and Richard and Judy bookclub selection The Wildflowers. She used to work in publishing and now writes full time, when she is not being distracted by her children, other books, sewing projects, puzzles, gardening, and her much-loved collection of jumpsuits. Last year, she and her family moved from London to Bath.

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#BlogTour #BookReview The Lost Storyteller by Amanda Block @ACBlockAuthor @Mobius_Books @HodderBooks #TheLostStoryteller #AmandaBlock #MobiusBooksUS

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#BlogTour #BookReview The Lost Storyteller by Amanda Block @ACBlockAuthor @Mobius_Books @HodderBooks #TheLostStoryteller #AmandaBlock #MobiusBooksUS Title: The Lost Storyteller

Author: Amanda Block

Published by: Hodder And Stoughton Ltd. on May 10, 2022

Genres: General Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 400

Format: Paperback

Source: Mobius Books US

Book Rating: 9/10

Rebecca hasn’t seen her father Leo since she was six. Her family never talk about him, and she has long since pushed him firmly to the back of her mind. All she knows is that, once upon a time, he was a well-loved children’s TV star.

But when a journalist turns up uninvited at her office, asking questions about her once-famous father, Rebecca starts to wonder whether there is more to Leo’s absence than she realised. Then, looking for answers, she unearths a book of fairy tales written by Leo and dedicated to her – but what use are children’s stories to her now, all these years later?

Tentatively, Rebecca tries to piece together her father’s life, from the people he used to know and her own hazy memories. Yet her mind keeps returning to the magical, melancholic fairy tales, which seem to contain more truth than make-believe. Perhaps they are the key to unlocking the mystery of her father, the lost storyteller; to revealing who he was, what he went through – and even where he might be now…

Review:

Imaginative, mysterious, and moving!

The Lost Storyteller is a captivating, beguiling tale that sweeps you away to the UK and into the life of Rebecca Chase, a young woman who, after being contacted by Ellis Bailey, a journalist hoping to write an article about her father who starred in the successful children’s program, The Stowaway, until the late 1990s when after two seasons he vanished without a trace, decides to join forces with him to finally discover what really happened to her beloved father she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl and who actually left her a book of fairy tales that has been hidden by her maternal grandmother for many years and which may hold all the clues she’ll ever need to find him.

The prose is eloquent and expressive. The characters are multilayered, apprehensive, and determined. And the plot is a tender tale about life, loss, family, friendship, secrets, attraction, self-discovery, mental illness, special moments, forgiveness, contentment, taking chances, and the enchantment of fairy tales.

Overall, The Lost Storyteller is a heart-tugging, absorbing, magical debut by Block that highlights the unconditional, everlasting love that exists between a parent and a child and is a beautiful reminder of the importance and power of stories.

 

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 Amanda Block

Originally from Devon, Amanda moved to Edinburgh in 2007, where she attained a master’s degree in creative writing. Since then, she’s divided her time between ghostwriting, editing and tutoring.

Amanda’s writing is often inspired by myths and fairy tales, which she uses as starting points to tell new stories. Her work has been shortlisted in contests such as the Bridport Prize and the Mslexia Short Story Competition. The Lost Storyteller is her first novel.

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#BookReview Something’s Guava Give by Carrie Doyle @carriedoylek @PPPress #SomethingsGuavaGive #CarrieDoyle #TroubleinParadise #inkedinpoison

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#BookReview Something’s Guava Give by Carrie Doyle @carriedoylek @PPPress #SomethingsGuavaGive #CarrieDoyle #TroubleinParadise #inkedinpoison Title: Something's Guava Give

Author: Carrie Doyle

Series: Trouble in Paradise #2

Published by: Poisoned Pen Press on Feb. 25, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 352

Format: Paperback

Source: Poisoned Pen Press

Book Rating: 8/10

Nothing ruins an ocean view like a body on the beach!

Plum Lockhart went out on a limb when she ditched her corporate job in New York City and moved to the Caribbean island of Paraiso. Now the head of her own villa broker agency, Plum spends her days chasing down clients and lounging on white sand beaches.

But the sweet life turns sour when a publishing heiress is found dead at the mansion of an eccentric tycoon, Dieter Friedrich. Even worse, Plum’s old colleague cashes in a favor and asks her to investigate. It looks like she’ll need to fit a murder case into her already jam-packed schedule!
Friedrich is known for his shady dealings, but he’s not the only bad apple on the island—Plum will have to contend with a scheming millionaire, a sleazy rockstar, and devious B-list celebrities. And joining Plum once again is Juan Kevin Munoz, the distractingly gorgeous Director of Security. Despite the sparks between them, they’ll need to stay focused on the case—there’s a murderer hot on their heels!

Review:

Cosy, mysterious, and lush!

In this latest novel in the Trouble in Paradise series, Something’s Guava Give, we head back to the beautiful island of Paraiso and into the life of Plum Lockhart as she once again finds herself unexpectedly tied up in a murder investigation and working with the handsome Director of Security, Juan Kevin Muñoz when a publishing heiress she tried to help out of some legal trouble winds up murdered while staying at the villa of the rich and famous Dieter Friedrich where she had only recently relocated.

The writing style is fluid and fun. The characters are inquisitive, spontaneous, and intelligent. And the plot is a lighthearted, quirky tale brimming with suspicious personalities, island living, misdirection, amateur sleuthing, flirtation, deduction, and murder.

Overall, I found Something’s Guava Give to be another entertaining, humorous, easy tale by Doyle that was certainly a refreshing read between all the dark, gritty, psychological thrillers that seem to be filling up my TBR at the moment.

 

This novel is available now.

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

 

       

 

 

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Carrie Doyle

Carrie Doyle is the best selling author of multiple novels and screenplays that span many genres, ranging from cozy mysteries to chick lit to comedies to Young Adult.

A born and bred New Yorker, Carrie has spent most of her life in Manhattan, with the exception of a six-year stint in Europe (Russia; France; England) and five years in Los Angeles. A former Editor-in-Chief of the Russian edition of Marie Claire, Carrie has written dozens of articles for various magazines, including countless celebrity profiles. She is also a screenwriter, and her movie Intern (co-written with Jill Kargman) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Carrie has three books that will be published in 2021: Death on Bull Path (the fourth book of the Hamptons Murder Mystery Series); The Murder Game; and It Takes Two to Mango (the first book of the Trouble in Paradise Series.)

Carrie currently splits her time between New York and Long Island, with her husband and two teenage sons.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill @PPPress #TheWomanintheLibrary #SulariGentill #inkedinpoison

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#BookReview The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill @PPPress #TheWomanintheLibrary #SulariGentill #inkedinpoison Title: The Woman in the Library

Author: Sulari Gentill

Published by: Poisoned Pen Press on Jun. 7, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 288

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Poisoned Pen Press

Book Rating: 8.5/10

In every person’s story, there is something to hide…

The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquility is shattered by a woman’s terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers sitting at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.

Award-winning author Sulari Gentill delivers a sharply thrilling read with THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY, an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship and shows us that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.

Review:

Devious, intense, and full of surprises!

The Woman in the Library is an intricate, twisty, complex thriller featuring Hannah, a successful writer who is writing her latest mystery about four strangers, Freddie, Cain, Whit, and Marigold, who accidentally meet one day as they all share a table in the Boston Public Library and after they hear a woman scream subsequently work together to not only identify who the slain woman was but who out of the four of them, as impossible as it may seem, actually murdered her.

The prose is complex and tight. The characters are multilayered, secretive, and consumed. And the plot builds nicely to create just the right amount of tension and suspense as it unravels all the different personalities, questionable motivations, duplicitous actions, and relationships within it.

Overall, The Woman in the Library is a compelling, sly, creative tale by Gentill that, with its story within a story, is a clever, unique, addictive whodunit that certainly kept me guessing from start to finish.

 

This book is available June 7, 2022.

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

            

 

 

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Sulari Gentill

Once upon a time, Sulari Gentill was a corporate lawyer serving as a director on public boards, with only a vague disquiet that there was something else she was meant to do. That feeling did not go away until she began to write. And so Sulari became the author of the Rowland Sinclair Mysteries: thus far, ten historical crime novels chronicling the life and adventures of her 1930s Australian gentleman artist, the Hero Trilogy, based on the myths and epics of the ancient world, and the Ned Kelly Award winning Crossing the Lines (published in the US as After She Wrote Hime). In 2014 she collaborated with National Gallery of Victoria to write a short story which was produced in audio to feature in the Fashion Detective Exhibition, and thereafter published by the NGV. IN 2019 Sulari was part of a 4-member delegation of Australian crime writers sponsored by the Australia Council to tour the US as ambassadors of Australian Crime Writing.

Sulari lives with her husband, Michael, and their boys, Edmund and Atticus, on a small farm in Batlow where she grows French Black Truffles and refers to her writing as “work” so that no one will suggest she get a real job.

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#BookReview Last Dance on the Starlight Pier by Sarah Bird @sarahbirdwriter @StMartinsPress #LastDanceOnTheStarlightPier #SallyBird #StMarinsPress #SMPInfluencers

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#BookReview Last Dance on the Starlight Pier by Sarah Bird @sarahbirdwriter @StMartinsPress #LastDanceOnTheStarlightPier #SallyBird #StMarinsPress #SMPInfluencers Title: Last Dance on the Starlight Pier

Author: Sarah Bird

Published by: St. Martin's Press on Apr. 12, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 432

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: St. Martin's Press

Book Rating: 8/10

Set during the Great Depression, Sarah Bird’s Last Dance on the Starlight Pier is a novel about one woman—and a nation—struggling to be reborn from the ashes.

July 3. 1932. Shivering and in shock, Evie Grace Devlin watches the Starlite Palace burn into the sea and wonders how she became a person who would cause a man to kill himself. She’d come to Galveston to escape a dark past in vaudeville and become a good person, a nurse. When that dream is cruelly thwarted, Evie is swept into the alien world of dance marathons. All that she has been denied—a family, a purpose, even love—waits for her there in the place she dreads most: the spotlight.

Last Dance on the Starlight Pier is a sweeping novel that brings to spectacular life the enthralling worlds of both dance marathons and the family-run empire of vice that was Galveston in the Thirties. Unforgettable characters tell a story that is still deeply resonant today as America learns what Evie learns, that there truly isn’t anything this country can’t do when we do it together. That indomitable spirit powers a story that is a testament to the deep well of resilience in us all that allows us to not only survive the hardest of hard times, but to find joy, friends, and even family, in them.

Review:

Hopeful, heartwarming, and atmospheric!

Last Dance on the Starlight Pier is an intriguing tale that sweeps you away between Chicago and Texas during the early 1930s and into the life of Evie Grace Devlin, a young woman who yearns to become a registered nurse, but who after her past as a Vaudeville performer comes to light and she is denied graduation, ends up in the world of competitive dance competitions until tragedy strikes, and she must rethink what’s truly important and where, what and who she’d truly like to be.

The prose is smooth and expressive. The main characters are spirited, resilient, and hardworking. And the plot is a compelling, emotional tale about life, loss, self-discovery, familial drama, social injustices, political unrest, poverty, inequality, heartbreak, courage, romance, and friendship.

Overall, Last Dance on the Starlight Pier is a sweet, entertaining, sentimental tale by Bird that was a pleasure to read with a setting I don’t often get a chance to read about and a unique storyline that was informative as well as refreshing.

 

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 Bird

Sarah Bird’s novel, Above the East China Sea, was long-listed for the Dublin International Literary Award. A Dobie-Paisano Fellowship helped in researching Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen. Raised in an Air Force family on bases around the world, Sarah is the child of two warriors, a WWII Army nurse and an Air Corps bombardier, who met at a barn dance in North Africa. She lives in Austin, Texas.

Photo by Sarah Wilson.

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#BookReview The Last Summer by Karen Swan @KarenSwan1 @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheLastSummer #TheWildIsleSeries #KarenSwan #PGCBooks

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#BookReview The Last Summer by Karen Swan @KarenSwan1 @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheLastSummer #TheWildIsleSeries #KarenSwan #PGCBooks Title: The Last Summer

Author: Karen Swan

Series: The Wild Isle #1

Published by: Pan Macmillan on May 3, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

Pages: 496

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

When the residents of St Kilda ask to be evacuated from their remote island home in the summer of 1930, it’s in search of a better life on mainland Scotland compared to the scratch existence on their mountain in the sea.

For eighteen-year-old tomboy Effie Gillies, it’s a bittersweet departure. She’s the best young climber on the island, as skilled and brave as any of the men. But it is Effie’s expansive knowledge of local bird life that leads her to take up a position as curator of Dumfries House’s ornithological collection – and back into the arms of Lord Dumfries’ son and heir, Sholto.

During her last summer on St Kilda, Effie had been Sholto’s guide, and their attraction had seemed irresistible. But, in the glamorous polite society of Ayrshire, it is clear they are worlds apart. When a body is discovered on the island, soon after the evacuation, a scandal erupts as Effie is implicated. Sholto knows she’s keeping secrets – but are they even her own?

The Last Summer is the first in an epic, sweeping historical series by Sunday Times bestseller Karen Swan, set in and around the Scottish island of St Kilda.

Review:

Enthralling, mysterious, and romantic!

The Last Summer is an absorbing tale that sweeps you away to 1930 and into the life of Effie Gillies, an eighteen-year-old girl who, along with her family and closest friends, is one of thirty-six inhabitants of the isolated St. Kilda archipelago who is content with her isolated existence, living a simple life amongst the birds and the cliffs, until things start to get a little more complicated and she falls for a man way above her station, the government decides to evacuate the island villagers to the mainland, she takes on a new job curating the ornithological collection of Lord Dumfries, the father of the man who stole her heart, and the deserted island is left with more than just empty dwellings and whispered secrets, but the body of a man who wasn’t all that kind or liked and had more than one person who wished him dead.

The writing is eloquent and vivid. The characters are hardy, resilient, and brave. And the plot is an alluring tale of life, loss, family, friendship, community, intrigue, mystery, drama, expectations, angst, social division, heartbreak, and love.

Overall, The Last Summer is a beautifully written, incredibly atmospheric, brilliant start to a new series by Swan that I absolutely devoured, highly recommend, and is hands down one of my favourite reads of the year.

This book is available now.

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

           

 

 

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

 

About Karen Swan

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

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

Photograph by Alexander James

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#BookReview The Book Woman’s Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheBookWomansDaughter #KimMicheleRichardson #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The Book Woman’s Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheBookWomansDaughter #KimMicheleRichardson #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Book Woman's Daughter

Author: Kim Michele Richardson

Series: Book Woman of Troublesome Creek #2

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on May 3, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

Pages: 352

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek!

Bestselling historical fiction author Kim Michele Richardson is back with the perfect book club read following Honey Mary Angeline Lovett, the daughter of the beloved Troublesome book woman, who must fight for her own independence with the help of the women who guide her and the books that set her free.

In the ruggedness of the beautiful Kentucky mountains, Honey Lovett has always known that the old ways can make a hard life harder. As the daughter of the famed blue-skinned, Troublesome Creek packhorse librarian, Honey and her family have been hiding from the law all her life. But when her mother and father are imprisoned, Honey realizes she must fight to stay free, or risk being sent away for good.

Picking up her mother’s old packhorse library route, Honey begins to deliver books to the remote hollers of Appalachia. Honey is looking to prove that she doesn’t need anyone telling her how to survive. But the route can be treacherous, and some folks aren’t as keen to let a woman pave her own way.

If Honey wants to bring the freedom books provide to the families who need it most, she’s going to have to fight for her place, and along the way, learn that the extraordinary women who run the hills and hollers can make all the difference in the world.

Review:

Raw, atmospheric, and insightful!

The Book Woman’s Daughter is an incredibly descriptive, moving novel that takes us to small-town Kentucky in 1953 and into the life of sixteen-year-old Honey Lovett, a young girl stricken with methemoglobinemia who, after her parents are arrested for miscegenation, takes up her mother’s old job as Pack Horse Librarian transporting books to the houses located in the hills outside Troublesome Creek in order to keep herself safe and out of the hands of the authorities from Knott County who would like nothing better than to lock her up in the Kentucky House of Reform until she’s twenty-one.

The prose is vivid and expressive. The characters are spirited, vulnerable, independent, and driven. And the plot is a heart-tugging, compelling tale of life, love, loss, family, friendship, poverty, misogyny, prejudice, racism, community, courage, desperation, self-preservation, survival, and emancipation.

Overall, The Book Woman’s Daughter is a rich, gritty, absorbing tale by Richardson that transports you to another time and place and immerses you so thoroughly into the feelings, lives, and personalities of the characters you can’t help but be enthralled and invested from start to finish.

 

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 Kim Michele Richardson

The NEW YORK TIMES, LOS ANGELES TIMES and USA TODAY bestselling author, Kim Michele Richardson has written five works of historical fiction, and a bestselling memoir, The Unbreakable Child.
Her latest critically acclaimed novel, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek was recommended by Dolly Parton in People’s Magazine and has earned a 2020 PBS Readers Choice, 2019 LibraryReads Best Book, Indie Next, SIBA, Forbes Best Historical Novel, Book-A-Million Best Fiction, and is an Oprah's Buzziest Books pick and a Women’s National Book Association Great Group Reads selection. It was inspired by the real life, remarkable "blue people" of Kentucky, and the fierce, brave Packhorse Librarians who used the power of literacy to overcome bigotry and fear during the Great Depression. The novel is taught widely in high schools and college classrooms.
Her forthcoming fifth novel, The Book Woman’s Daughter is both a stand-alone and sequel to The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek and will be published May 3, 2022. Kim Michele lives with her family in Kentucky and is the founder of Shy Rabbit.

Photo by Leigh Photography.

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#BookReview Never a Duke (Rogues to Riches #7) by Grace Burrowes @GraceBurrowes @readforeverpub @grandcentralpub #ReadForever #ReadForeverPub #ReadForever2022 #NeveraDuke #GraceBurrowes #RoguestoRichesSeries

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#BookReview Never a Duke (Rogues to Riches #7) by Grace Burrowes @GraceBurrowes @readforeverpub @grandcentralpub #ReadForever #ReadForeverPub #ReadForever2022 #NeveraDuke #GraceBurrowes #RoguestoRichesSeries Title: Never a Duke

Author: Grace Burrowes

Series: Rogues to Riches #7

Published by: Forever on Apr. 26, 2022

Genres: Historical Romance

Pages: 383

Format: Paperback

Source: Forever

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Despite having humble origins and a criminal past, Ned Wentworth has learned to dress, waltz, and express himself as elegantly as any lordling. When Lady Rosalind Kinwood’s maid goes missing, her ladyship turns to Ned, precisely because he still has friends in low places and skills no titled dandy would ever acquire, much less admit he possesses.

Rosalind is too opinionated and too intelligent, and has frequently suffered judgment at polite society’s hands. In the quietly observant Ned Wentworth, she finds a man who actually listens to her and who respects her for her outspokenness. As the search for the missing maids grow more perilous, Rosalind and Ned will have to risk everything—including their hearts—if they are to share the happily ever after that Mayfair’s matchmakers have begrudged them both.

Review:

Enticing, adventurous, and fun!

Never a Duke is a passionate, compelling tale that sweeps you away to London and into the life of Lady Rosalind Kinwood, an intelligent young woman who embarks on a mission to do whatever it takes to find her missing lady’s maid, even if it means befriending and asking for help from the banker with old friends in low places and a scandalous past of his own, the handsome, dependable Ned Wentworth.

The prose is amusing and light. The characters are protective, independent, and resourceful. And the plot is an arousing combination of family, friendship, secrets, adventure, societal expectations, wicked intentions, devious behaviour, tender moments, and unconditional love.

Overall, Never a Duke is an entertaining, intriguing, satisfying read by Burrowes that was a pleasant surprise with its exceptional character development, swoon-worthy ending, and twisty, action-packed storyline that’s not always seen in this genre.

 

This novel is available now.

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

                 

 

 

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

 

About Grace Burrowes

Grace Burrowes grew up in central Pennsylvania and is the sixth of seven children. She discovered romance novels in junior high and has been reading them voraciously ever since. Grace has a bachelor's degree in political science, a bachelor of music in music history (both from the Pennsylvania State University), a master's degree in conflict transformation from Eastern Mennonite University, and a juris doctor from the National Law Center at George Washington University. Grace is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who writes Georgian, Regency, Scottish Victorian, and contemporary romances in both novella and novel lengths. She enjoys giving workshops and speaking at writers' conferences.

Photograph courtesy of read-forever.com.

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#BookReview I Know What You’ve Done By Dorothy Koomson @DorothyKoomson @Mobius_Books @headlinepg #IKnowWhatYouveDone #DorothyKoomson #MobiusBooksUS

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#BookReview I Know What You’ve Done By Dorothy Koomson @DorothyKoomson @Mobius_Books @headlinepg #IKnowWhatYouveDone #DorothyKoomson #MobiusBooksUS Title: I Know What You've Done

Author: Dorothy Koomson

Published by: Headline Books on Apr. 26, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 432

Format: Paperback

Source: Mobius Books US

Book Rating: 8/10

Do you have any idea what the people you know are capable of?

Bestselling author of All My Lies Are True, Dorothy Koomson, asks how well you can really know your neighbors. Fans of Lisa Jewell and Louise Candlish will rip through the pages of this addictive new thriller.

What if all your neighbors’ secrets landed in a diary on your doorstep?
 
What if the woman who gave it to you was murdered by one of the people in the diary?

What if the police asked if you knew anything? 

Would you hand over the book of secrets? 

Or … would you try to find out what everyone had done? 

Review:

Brisk, intense, and ominous!

I Know What You’ve Done is a tortuous, simmering thriller that introduces us to Rae, a young mother who, after the recent attempted murder of one of her neighbours, discovers that no one is who they claim to be, everyone has something to hide, and danger lurks around every corner, especially for the one person who has possession of Priscilla’s coveted, tell-all journal.

The writing is edgy and tight. The characters are consumed, troubled, and secretive. And the plot is an unnerving, suspenseful tale of deception, manipulation, suspicions, revelations, nefarious intentions, indiscretions, corruption, mayhem, and violence.

Overall, I Know What You’ve Done is a sinister, atmospheric, twisty whodunit by Koomson that does a wonderful job of highlighting just how easily people can be emotionally and psychologically exploited, and reminds us that even those we think we know so well often have deep, dark secrets they choose to hide.

 

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 Dorothy Koomson

Hello, my name's Dorothy Koomson and I'll try to make this bit that's all about me as interesting as possible.

I wrote my first novel called There's A Thin Line Between Love And Hate when I was 13. I used to write a chapter every night then pass it around to my fellow convent school pupils every morning, and they seemed to love it.

I grew up in London and then grew up again in Leeds when I went to university. I eventually returned to London to study for my master's degree and stayed put for the following years. I took up various temping jobs and eventually got my big break writing, editing and subbing for various women's magazines and national papers.

Fiction and storytelling were still a HUGE passion of mine and I continued to write short stories and novels every spare moment that I got. In 2001 I had the idea for The Cupid Effect and my career as a published novelist began. And it's been fantastic. In 2006, my third novel, My Best Friend's Girl was published. It was incredibly successful - selling nearly 90,000 copies within its first few weeks on sale. Six weeks later, it was selected for the Richard & Judy Summer Reads Book Club and the book went on to sell over 500,000 copies. Oh, there I go again, this is meant to be about me, not my novels.

Okay, back to me. I recently spent two years living in Sydney Australia, and now I'm back in England. But I can't say for how long I'll be in the UK because I've been well and truly bitten by the travel bug.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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